16. Hux
16
HUX
“You’re not going to lose trees. Stop being dramatic.”
A cold whip of wind slashes against the bare skin on the back of my neck, as if to bitch-slap me on behalf of my brother. I flinch, grumbling to myself, but I stand by my statement.
“You don’t know that,” Anton snaps back, pushing out of the tree he’s been perched in and landing on the hard, frozen ground. Yeah, frozen. In April. “While you were off playing at the beach, we were getting an unseasonable hard fucking freeze. Killing my blooms! And some of these trees are already old!”
He kicks the ground, the solid earth not giving way despite his effort. In charge of the blessed three Ps—peaches, pecans, and peanuts—Anton takes his crops seriously. Maybe a little too seriously sometimes. Then again, each one of us Hayes has been accused of that a time or two.
In this case, he’s not wrong. Those blooms aren’t looking good. A hard freeze like this, with a little more than a month until picking season starts, he’s going to be lucky to get any fruit at all.
As for the trees…I sigh, doing some math in my head. The average peach tree lasts about fifteen years before it dies. The grove we’re in, some of these trees might be getting close to that. The trees themselves are strong and hardy—when they’re healthy. But once they get up there in age, there is no telling what can make them go.
I look over at Gus and Milo who are standing to my left, as if somehow the oldest two of the clan are going to be able to save this moment. Their expressions tell me they’re waiting on me to do the same. Fuck.
“You have the best damn horticulturist around with Cary,” I say, buying some time.
Anton’s best friend’s head perks up from the bloom he’s inspecting under his eye loop, his serious expression morphing into a smile for a split second. “Thanks, man.”
I nod, having meant every word. No one is better than Cary Adler when it comes to this stuff. If anyone can salvage this crop, it’s him. And I know Anton knows this.
“Cary and I will make sure we get another season out of these trees.”
Cary more than me—fruit trees are his deal—but I’ll help. Trees are trees, and when it comes to Hayes, I’m the tree guy.
“At least my nuts are gonna be okay,” he mutters.
“That’s what she said,” Jace snarks from my other side.
I toss him a look, but he simply shrugs, not giving a damn, clearly annoyed he’s even been dragged on this field trip.
“Did she though?” Ewan pipes up. “That would imply there’s a she to say it and ehhhhh…” He grits his teeth, making a face like he’s skeptical that such a “she” exists.
As he should be, because we all know she doesn’t.
Baby brother comin’ in hot…
Anton flips them both the bird, making them laugh. As the family instigator, he should know better than to think that we’re not going to take any chance we get to poke at him. He’d do the exact same thing if the roles were reversed.
Hell, he has done the exact same thing every chance he’s been given.
“So how was the beach?” Jace asks, completely ignoring the single finger salute he’s being given. “Romantic?”
“It was better than expected,” I reply.
“What does that mean?”
What doesn’t he understand? Thought that answer was pretty straightforward.
“It means it was better than expected,” I answer, trying to leave it at that.
Except, that is apparently not that.
All of my bothers—with the exception of Anton who has turned back to his blooms—are staring at me, waiting for me to elaborate. But I don’t.Because I can’t or I don’t want to.
I’m not really sure which one it is—both maybe.
What I do know is that Dolly said she didn’t want to tell anyone, and I want to respect that. I also don’t exactly know what I’d be telling them.
“So, it went well then?” Gus prompts.
“Yeah.”
“Did you expect it to not go well?” Ewan counters.
“No, I did.”
Fuck, this is an odd line of questioning. I squirm, feeling like a worm on a hook, hating being under the microscope like this. How do I change the subject?
“Well, then, how did it go better than expected?” Jace pushes.
“It just did,” I snap, my voice harsher than I intend. Why can they not take a hint?
“Okay, okay…” Jace holds his hands up in surrender, rocking backward.
They all continue to look at me confused, my outburst not helping my half answers. Well, everyone except Milo. He gives me a different look entirely. A knowing look.
Because if there’s any one of the group who understands, it’s him.
“It’s a little weird at first when things change, isn’t it?” he asks, one corner of his mouth ticking upward, that stupid older brother smirk of his shining through. Right now, I want to both smack it right off and hug him for understanding.
There’s no denying it now—I’m busted.
I nod, trying to keep it subtle so that maybe only he’ll see. Except I’m not that lucky.
“Wow,” Gus comments.
“No way,” Jace tacks on, his words almost drowning out Gus’s.
Anton flips around. “What? What?”
“We’re not actually having this fucking conversation in the middle of a peach grove, are we?” I grumble.
“Good a place as any,” Ewan points out. For being the youngest and quietest of the bunch, he tends to speak up with all the damn good points exactly when needed. “And you lucked out in a moment that Willa isn’t here to gloat about it.”
Again, baby brother comin’ in hot…
“What?” Anton asks again.
“So, how?” Milo asks, that knowing smirk still sitting pretty.
Yeah, I definitely want to smack it off his face.
“We really have to go into this?”
“What?” Anton asks again, his frustration rising.
I glare at him. At least he’s forgotten about the trees. Still, of all of them, he’s the one who has given me the most shit about how I needed to go back on that pinky promise and see what was in front of me.
I do believe his exact words were “wife her up.” The black eye he got for that one was well worth how bad my hand hurt and the dressing down I got from Miss Belle.
“Good for you,” Jace says. “It’s about fucking time.”
“Are you for serious?” Anton exclaims. “You’re not fucking with us?”
Heaven help me…
I look upward, blinking hard as I inhale deeply, the blue, clear sky filling my vision as I try to tap dance out of talking about this. Can we go back to the hard freeze and it killing the peaches? That was a much more enjoyable line of conversation now that I think about it.
“No, I am not fucking with you. And Milo, to answer your question…it…it just did. It’s hard to explain, but…” I sigh, throwing my arms out wide. “Look…I don’t know exactly what it is, or where it’s going, and we’re not putting a label on it. And for that matter, Dolly doesn’t want it talked about or anything like that. Okay? So all of this stays in this peach grove.”
I let out a long, hard breath, my lungs screaming from holding on to it for so long. Letting these jokers in on my secret is a relief, and yet…I’m still tied in knots. Because now they all know that I maybe haven’t been completely honest about things where Dolly is concerned.
None of this changes the fact that I’m still not good enough for her.
Wordlessly, Milo walks over to me and wraps his arms around me, squeezing tight. He holds me against him for a long moment, same as he used to when we were little kids and he was letting me know everything was going to be alright. Just like it did then, that same warmth runs through me.
“There’s no need to know what it is or where it’s going or even what it’s called. As long as you and she are on the same page and are happy with where you are, that’s what matters,” he tells me as he lets go. “If being with Brenna has taught me anything, it’s that sometimes you simply have to let it happen.”
I laugh, pushing him away. It’s damn good advice, I’ll give him that. I’m just not sure when he became our father.
“You’re the last person I thought would be giving me relationship advice.”
“Last?” he questions. “I would have thought I’d at least outrank Gus.”
“Eh, someone was always bound to marry him for the money,” Anton quips.
We all burst into laughter, the wind rustling the leaves of the trees enough to make it sound like they’re joining in. Even Gus cracks a smile at the joke. There’s no question that Margeaux isn’t with him because of the Hayes name—being a smart and successful businesswoman in her own right before getting her law degree and joining our company—making it that much easier to tease him about it.
But just as quickly as he cracks a smile, Gus’s face falls.
“So, if you’ve got all this going with Dolly, I take it this would be a bad time to tell you that Project: Second Star has been rejected?”
Excuse me?
There’s an audible record scratch screeching through my brain, the world slamming to a halt. Rejected? Did he just say Project: Second Star was rejected?
“What?”
“Yeah, town council won’t approve it.”
No. No, that’s not possible. I think back to the text I got from Willa while we were at the spa. She had shown Auggie the plans and said that he and Jack were going to push it through. Jack. As in Jack Keller, who has been my father’s best friend since they were kids. Thick as thieves doesn’t even begin to cover it when it comes to those two.They’re even closer now that Willa is engaged to one of his twins.
Jack who sits on the town council.
“Wait.” I shake my head, trying to make this all make sense. “How do you even know about that?”
Did Willa show Gus the plans as well?
“Auggie brought it to me while you were away on Saturday, filling me in, wondering if I could help him come up with a way to convince them. He had assumed it would be pretty straightforward, and turned out it wasn’t.”
“What do you mean, rejected?” I ask again. I know it’s a dumb question, but I cannot wrap my brain around this.
“The town council won’t approve it.”
“Thanks for that, August,” Milo snarks, in a way only he can. He’s the only one of us who can get away with calling Gus by his full name and not get backhanded. “We had been left wondering the definition of that term.”
“What did they reject?” Ewan injects.
“Why? What could possibly be their reason?” I demand, swinging an arm out wide, almost hitting Anton in the process. He catches it, shoving me out of the way, going into defensive mode of the tree we’re in front of.
“Hurt what’s left of the peaches and so help me…”
We move away, giving the precious peaches a wide berth, waiting for Gus’s explanation.
“They don’t think it’s a good use of town funding.”
“What do you mean good use of town funding? Hayes is paying for it. I’m paying for it!”
This makes no sense.
“In order to do it at Newton Field, a certain percentage of town funding has to be used, and they don’t feel that it’s a good use of funding to do so.”
“Fine, I’ll cover that myself.It’ll all come out of my pocket then.”
“Then we can’t use Newton. We have to find another spot,” Gus counters.
For fuck’s sake…
It shouldn’t be this hard to update the playground at the town recreational field.
“Hold on.” Jace throws up his arms. “Someone needs to catch the rest of us up. You two can only speak in code for so long. What exactly is project second star anyway?”
I swallow hard, turning on my heel and starting to pace. There’s too much energy flowing through me right now to think straight, and I need to work some of it off. Need to get my head clear. I also need to explain this in a way that doesn’t make me look…weird.
“It’s…it was…my wedding present to Dolly,” I answer, owning up to it. My heart squeezes, the idea of this project falling through gutting me. “And now it’s just something I want to do to…”
I trail off, not knowing how to finish that sentence. To what?
Show her what she means to me? To tell her how I feel? To show her that I’m good enough? What? I don’t…I don’t actually know.
All I know is that making sure that I complete this project—for her—seems like the most important thing in the world right now.
“Exactly what is it?” Ewan asks.
“I redesigned the playground at Newton Field. All new setup, new equipment. Composite materials, so it’s more sustainable and environmentally friendly. There’s a whole theme to it, as a reference to Peter and Wendy, because of our history.”
I wait for the comments. The jokes. The jeers. I’m ready for them. But there’s nothing but the rustling of the branches and birds chirping. If there were crickets, you could literally here them right now.
“Dude, that’s actually really romantic,” Jace comments. “Like romance novel romantic.”
I huff out a laugh. He would know. Our coffee table is littered with them since they’re his reading material of choice.
“Especially considering that you weren’t the one marrying her,” Ewan says.
I nod, looking down at the ground. Ewan’s muffled ow makes me laugh again, and I’m left to guess which one of them hit him for making the comment. He’s not wrong though. I also know he knows what it’s like to watch the girl he loves from afar, so he gets a pass in my book.
“I have to find a way to build that playground, y’all.” I mean it. I do.
I don’t know why I’m so hell-bent on it, but I am.
“We will,” Gus says.
“It’s the only way that…”
“What?” Milo asks, calling me on it. “Only way what?”
“Nothing.”
He narrows his eyes, not believing me. But that’s not a conversation for a peach grove. Besides, we all have jobs to get back to.
“I have a paper mill that needs me.”
“Booby Trap has a delivery in twenty,” Ewan comments, glancing at his phone.
“If y’all want peaches this summer…”
“You’re the one who dragged us out here!” Jace exclaims.
“I was going to tell you to pray,” Anton finishes.
“You better pray I don’t kick your ass…”
I walk away, leaving my brothers behind me, Jace and Anton still bickering. I half expect Milo to try to run up and catch me alone, but he doesn’t, giving me enough time to make a clean escape. Once I’m in my truck, I pull out my phone, noticing a text from Dolly containing a photo of a chicken pot pie, my favorite.
My mouth waters, although I’m not sure if it’s because of the food or the thought of a kiss from her. I really do need to get back to the paper mill. But when your girl makes your favorite lunch, it’s rude not to stop by, right?
Right.
Detour it is.