Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Cadee pulled her truck into the parking lot of Honky Tonk Heaven and cut the engine.
Her hand shook as she drew it away from the ignition button and her stomach felt like it had the time Huck had talked her into jumping from the community center’s roof into the deep end of the swimming pool—clenched tight with fear.
She’d been more than a little surprised when she’d gotten the letter in the mail. She’d recognized Huck’s pretty, looping handwriting immediately. She’d always teased him about writing like a prissy beauty queen. Inside was a note.
Meet me at Honky Tonk Heaven Sunday night.
No time. No explanation. No signature. Just one sentence.
She’d thought about ignoring it. She’d even wadded it up and tossed it in the trash .
. . where it sat for exactly two seconds before she retrieved it, smoothed out the wrinkles, and reread it.
She’d reread it numerous times for the next few days.
Or not reread it exactly. More like just stared at each looping letter as if they might tell her what the man had been thinking when he’d written them.
Although she knew enough to know why he wanted to meet with her. And why he’d come back to town.
It wasn’t for Camden. Or her.
He’d come back for the money.
Huck had always dreamed about being rich.
When they were kids, he’d come up with one plan right after the other for making that dream come true.
In third grade, he’d made a divining rod out of a tree root, and they’d spent most of the summer wandering around her ranch looking for a good spot to start digging for oil.
They’d done a lot of digging that summer .
. . until her daddy’s horse had stepped into one of their holes and broken its leg.
That put a stop to that moneymaking scheme.
In seventh grade, Huck decided developing video games was the way to strike it rich.
They’d spent all their study time in the computer lab working on a ninja warrior game .
. . until a teacher discovered the graphic Huck had electronically fabricated for the female ninja.
Catia looked suspiciously like Cadee. Except with huge boobs that were barely covered by her leather ninja sports bra.
Their freshman year, he’d been convinced Bitcoin was the way to strike it rich.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have any money to buy it.
Which was probably a good thing. Soon after that scheme, he seemed to lose interest in getting rich quick.
Probably because he’d gotten big enough, if not old enough, to help at Honky Tonk Heaven.
The long hours he spent at the bar seemed to suck the dream of striking it rich right out of him.
And now, just when all the hard work he’d done for his mama had paid off, Cadee was taking his inheritance.
It wasn’t fair.
But life wasn’t fair.
Opening the door, she hopped down from her truck and headed to the white clapboard building with its tall church steeple.
The steeple had been added to the dancehall in the early nineteen hundreds when the town church had burned down, forcing the townsfolk to worship at the same place they partied.
While the fire had destroyed most of the dancehall, the steeple had remained unharmed.
Something the townsfolk viewed as a divine miracle.
This was the first time Cadee been to Honky Tonk Heaven since Huck had left town.
Before that, she’d spent almost all her time at the dancehall.
Usually during the day when it wasn’t open.
But when Huck started working nights, he’d occasionally sneak her in the back door and let her hide in the storage room where they kept the boxes of liquor and bottled beer.
She’d peek out the cracked door and watch folks two-step across the solid oak dance floor, cowboys down shots at the long mahogany bar, and Huck and his brothers haul out one belligerent drunk after another.
That’s when she’d started seeing Huck differently.
At night at the dancehall, her fun-loving friend with the easy smile turned into a hot bouncer with tummy-dropping biceps that flexed beneath the sleeves of his T-shirts.
While he always tried to talk hotheads and drunks into leaving without a fight, he didn’t hesitate to get physical if they didn’t listen.
The sight of him strong-arming cowboys out of the bar had set her hormonal teenage body on fire.
She fantasized about him using those muscular arms to carry her away to a happily ever after.
But that was just a young girl’s fanciful dream.
Reality didn’t work like that.
Taking a deep breath, Cadee pulled open the front door.
As soon as she stepped inside, memories assailed her.
She and Huck sitting at the long, highly polished bar on a hot summer day, drinking ice-cold bottles of Coke through a straw.
Standing at the glowing jukebox fighting over what country song to play.
Sliding across the slick oak dance floor in their stocking feet .
. . and when they were older, Huck teaching her how to two-step and getting after her every time she stepped on his toes.
“You never could stay off my toes.”
The low, husky voice pulled her gaze from the dance floor to the man who sat at a table in the corner.
Since the only light came from the jukebox and the lights above the bar, she couldn’t see his face.
But the wayward sprig of hair sticking up gave him away.
He was slouched back against the wall with his boots up on the table and his arms crossed over his chest. She started to ask him how long he’d been waiting but then remembered that she wasn’t there for meaningless conversation.
“I’m not going to stop contesting the will, Huck. There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. So if that’s—”
His boots hitting the floor cut her off and the chair legs scraped against the floor as he came to his feet. It was a struggle to keep from taking a step back when he strode toward her and stopped only inches away, his eyes a dark golden pissed off.
“I didn’t invite you here to talk about a fucking will, Cadee! Jesus! What kind of person do you think I am?”
Her own anger snapped. “The kind that runs like a scalded cat when he learns he’s a father—the kind that did the same thing to his best friend!”
She watched the anger fade to something that looked a lot like hurt before he turned abruptly and headed for the bar.
She should have left. Instead, she followed and sat down on a barstool, watching as Huck retrieved something from the cooler behind the bar.
She expected him to pull out a bottle of beer.
Lord knows she could have used one . . .
or something much stronger. Instead, he pulled out two bottles of Coke and effortlessly flipped off the caps with the opener on the side—something she’d seen him do a thousand times before.
He left out the straws and set one on the bar in front of her before leaning against the back counter and taking a long pull of the other.
It was impossible to look away from his mustached lip pressing against the rim of the bottle or his Adam’s apple sliding up and down in his tanned throat as he swallowed. She was still staring when he lowered the bottle and looked at her.
“Does he know I’m his father?”
Guilt rose to her throat and she lifted the Coke and took two deep swallows.
It didn’t help. Her voice still sounded choked when she spoke.
“I didn’t think you were ever coming back, and I couldn’t see the point in telling him.
Or the townsfolk. After all the trouble y’all got into as kids, the Hennessy Hooligans aren’t exactly high on their list.”
Not that she had ever cared about the town’s approval, but her daddy had. Which is why she’d hidden her friendship with Huck from her family until she’d gotten pregnant and confided in Cooper, her oldest brother.
She hadn’t been mad at him for telling her mama and Callum—her daddy had been gone by then.
She’d needed their support, not only emotionally but also financially.
They’d given it to her with no strings attached .
. . except one: that she would keep Camden’s father’s identity a secret.
Since she’d been pissed at Huck for deserting her so easily, she’d gone along with their request.
Now it felt like a worse betrayal than Huck’s.
“So who did you tell?” he asked. “Only my mama?”
“And my family. And I didn’t tell your mama. She figured it out the first time she saw him.”
Even in the dim lighting, she could see his face lose all color.
He looked away and ran a hand through his hair, tugging on the wayward piece of hair in the back and making it stand up even more.
When he looked back at her, her fingers twitched with the need to smooth it down like she had done so many times before.
Like she did with Camden who had the same cowlick.
“Then why didn’t anyone else in town figure it out?” he asked.
She shrugged. “You know the townsfolk. They only see what they want to see.”
He snorted. “And they never could see a Stockton getting with a Hennessy. So who do they think the father is?”
“Someone I dated my freshman year of college. That’s what I told Camden as well.”
His gaze was intense. “And was there someone in college?”
A part of her wanted to lie. But she had never been good at lying. Especially to Huck.
“I didn’t have time for dating. I was too busy working a part-time job, going to classes, and throwing up.
” While she was sure he’d spent his time charming his way into every bed in Texas.
She couldn’t help the jealousy that sprang up inside her every time she thought of him and other women, but she’d become an expert at ignoring it.
“So you were all alone?” The question had her glancing at Huck . . . who looked like he wanted to throw up. She should have let him believe she’d been alone, but again she told the truth.
“No. I went to Arkansas State in Jonesboro where my aunt and uncle live. I lived with them and my cousins. Plus, Mama came every month for moral support and to help with Camden once he was born. She dotes on him.”
“And does the rest of your family?”
“Cooper and Callum think the sun sets on him.” She set down her Coke. “Why did you want to meet, Huck?”
He pushed away from the back counter and stepped closer. So close she could see the green fleck in his right iris. None of the other Hennessys had one. Just Huck. “Did you really think I could just walk away after finding out?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you did?”
“Because I freaked out. It’s not every day you find out you have a kid. I needed time to absorb everything.”
“Two weeks?”
He took a deep breath and released it. “Yeah, well, you know I’ve always been a slow learner.”
It wasn’t the truth. Huck had always been smart. He’d just never believed it. Beneath the charming smile and cocky attitude was an insecure boy who had always thought he was less than. She tried so hard to make him realize his worth . . . until he’d broken her heart.
Now she didn’t care if he berated himself.
“And now that you’ve absorbed it, what do you want from me?” she asked.
He hesitated for only a moment before he spoke. “I want to meet my son.”
If the steeple had crashed through the ceiling, she wouldn’t have felt more stunned.
She wasn’t blindsided by the fact that he wanted to meet Camden.
She was completely blindsided by his wording.
She was the only one who had ever referred to Camden as my son.
Because she was the only one who had earned the right.
“Your son?” Her voice shook with suppressed anger.
“Excuse me, but I don’t remember you changing one diaper, bandaging one scraped knee, or spending one sleepless night when Camden was a colicky baby or a fevered toddler or a puking grade schooler.
You weren’t there when he choked on a piece of carrot and couldn’t breathe or when he took a tumble off the porch steps and got a concussion. ”
He slammed his fist on the bar, causing the bottles of Coke to jump. “Because I didn’t know!”
She slammed her fist down even harder. “Because you ran off and didn’t care!”
“Because my best friend fucked me over!”
All the anger drained out of her to be replaced with disbelief. “I fucked you over? Just how did I fuck you over? We both made the choice to have unprotected sex, Huck. But I was the only one who had to deal with the repercussions of that bad decision.”
Something flared in his eyes that she couldn’t define before he glanced away.
“Yeah, well, I’m dealing with it now.” He looked back at her, his features unyielding. “I want to meet Camden. I won’t tell him I’m his daddy. I understand what a shock that would be. And I don’t want to disrupt his life. I just . . .” He swallowed hard. “I just need to meet him. Just once.”
She wanted to deny him. But if she did, she didn’t doubt for a second that he’d meet Camden on his own. When Huck wanted something, he figured out a way to get it. If she orchestrated the meeting, she’d at least have some control.
“Fine. You can meet him. But it needs to be set up so it seems accidental. Camden is too smart for his own good.”
The look that passed over Huck’s face made her heart feel like it was being squeezed into the skinny neck of the Coke bottle she’d just picked up.
“He’s smart? So he gets good grades in school?”
“Yes, even though doing schoolwork is not his thing. He’d rather be working the ranch with his uncles.”
“They make him work the ranch?”
“Of course not. He wants to work the ranch. He loves it.”
“So he rides?”
“Better than I do.”
“I doubt that. You ride better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Her cheeks heated at the compliment. “Well, Cam is better. And you should see him rope a—” She cut off when she realized what she was saying.
Huck would never see Camden rope a steer and she didn’t want him to.
She didn’t want him getting too close to her son and then leaving.
She knew how much that hurt. The memory of how badly she’d been hurt had her setting down her Coke and slipping off the barstool.
“We’ll be at Time To Read on Tuesday around three-thirty. He has soccer practice at four so we can’t stay long.” She turned and headed for the door but then turned back when a thought struck her. “How do you want me to introduce you?”
An impish smile flashed beneath his mustache. An impish smile she’d never been able to forget.
“As your best childhood friend, of course.”