Chapter Thirteen
I watch my deflated husband trudge his body up the stairs. He’s filthy, disheveled, and sounds so despondent with his quiet flat tone.
I did that to him.
The thought alone brings a fresh wave of tears to my eyes.
Shuffling into the kitchen I find a fresh chocolate muffin with a note. I check the refrigerator and find a bowl of white chocolate raspberry overnight oats.
What the hell was he doing last night? An animal must have gotten out or had an emergency based on how he looks. Did he eat too?
I scoop out a spoonful of the oats and savor the taste. Ms. Patti does damn good.
No way he ate this. He’s more of an eggs and steak kind of guy. I dig out the leftover steak he has in here from the other night and the eggs along with it. Combining all the ingredients in a bowl quickly, I then pour the mixture in a muffin pan, making him his own healthy breakfast of egg bites.
I might be mad at him, but I still love the man. And right now, he looks like he needs some love.
While I wait for the eggs to finish cooking I head upstairs to get ready to head over to the bar. I want to open tonight, but I had so much left to do yesterday I don’t know if it’ll happen.
Movement in our bedroom catches my eye. It’s Cal. Ass naked.
I’m stopped in my tracks by the sight of all his hard muscles. Stay. Fucking. Strong.
“Sorry. I didn’t have any more sweatpants in the guest room.
” He digs around in a drawer, finding what he was looking for.
Slipping the tight gray sweatpants that don’t leave anything to the imagination and really are no better than him naked, he turns to look at me. “I’ll just get out of your way.”
He quietly slips past me, careful not to touch any part of his body to mine. The door to his bedroom clicks shut and it’s the loudest damn thing I’ve ever heard.
Swallowing hard, I need to get back to my life. I have adult responsibilities to get to today and throwing all my boundaries to the wind because I saw my husband naked isn’t one of them.
Rummaging in the laundry basket I pull out a pair of leggings and an old tee to get dirty in. Throwing them on, I run downstairs to grab the eggs before they burn.
I burn my fingers pulling the eggs out to get them put up in the refrigerator before I leave. I don’t know when he’ll come back down to eat next.
Me: There’s egg and steak bites in the fridge for you. Xo
I stare at my phone, waiting for anything, even those dreaded three dots. But I get nothing.
Get your shit straight, Jules. Figure it out.
Sighing I grab my purse and head out to the bar. I’m on my own today since Dakota needs to relax with Jaycob feeling better.
Luckily most of the cowboys have already started their day hours ago so I don’t encounter anyone downtown when I park and head to The Hidden Hollow. My second home, my baby, and now my headache.
The door is locked, but when I pull my security system up on my phone, the system isn’t armed. I know damn well I armed it yesterday.
I hesitantly turn the lock with my key, pushing the door open slowly. “Hello?”
Oh right, Jules. Good. Whoever is here to kill you will absolutely respond with a polite greeting.
I reach into my bag, pulling out my concealed carry weapon. You can’t live in Montana and be married to a cowboy without one.
Holding it out with shaky hands, I walk into the dining room.
But instead of being greeted by someone lying in wait to kill me, I’m met with a dining room that looks like nothing ever happened.
All the chairs are put together. All the tables are righted.
All the blood is cleaned up. And every inch of wood gleams as if it’d been polished.
What the fuck?
Pulling up the security feed I go to the video from last night when the system was disarmed.
My breath hitches when I see Cal. He enters the bar at eleven. And doesn’t leave again until six this morning.
Another fucking wave of tears hits me. That man spent all night long cleaning up so I could open today. And brought me breakfast. And most important, he swept up his dirt pile in the middle of the kitchen.
Goddamn it.
Me: > Thank you for cleaning the bar last night. And cleaning up this morning. I’m sorry I’m such a mess lately.
Hubs: I can’t lose you, Jules. I need you. I’ll do whatever you need. I even left the fire squad.
Me: What? Why?
Hubs: You.
Me: Cal.
Hubs: I’ll do anything. I know I keep saying it, and I know I keep fucking up. God, I’m fucking it up so bad left and right. But I want to do whatever it takes. I promise I do.
A lump forms in my throat. I don’t want him to think he’s fucking up. I just… God, it’s me. I did that. I made him feel that way. My chest tightens and it feels like my heart is going to beat out of my chest. I grip the edge of the bar to hold steady.
“Uh hey, you okay in here? You look really pale.” Dakota. “Jules.” She spins me to face her fully. “Jules. Shit. Are you having a seizure? I don’t know what’s going on and you’re freaking me out.”
I shake my head, causing the brimming tears to fall down my cheeks. “Cal,” is all I manage to choke out. So instead of speaking I spread my arms out around us and the bar.
“He cleaned the bar?” She’s catching up. “When?”
With the videos pulled up, I hand her my phone to watch what I did.
“Oh my God. Jules. Why is this bad?” She pushes my phone back toward me.
I drop my head into my hands, sobbing. “It’s not bad, it’s perfect. And he even swept up the dirt from his shoes this morning!” The sobs have turned into full on wailing at this point.
“Okay, listen. I am definitely going to need more context.” She walks behind the bar pulling out two shot glasses and a bottle of tequila.
“What are you doing? It’s barely nine in the morning!”
“Tell me you don’t need a shot right now.” She levels me with a stare and she’s not wrong.
“Don’t forget the lime.” I toss one to her.
“When I left him, when I couldn’t stand it anymore, it was over his boots and a pile of dirt in the middle of the kitchen floor, for what felt like the millionth time after I asked him not to do that.
So this morning he put his shoes away and cleaned up his mess. ”
“That’s great!” A shot glass is slammed in front of me.
Shooting it back, I slam it back to her. “Is it? Because he still bailed last night and never even told me!”
A sad smile takes over her face. “Murray told me about last night. He said the call came in the afternoon and it was supposed to be quick.”
Great. He was in a dangerous situation and I was just at home pissed off he wasn’t texting me back.
“Hit me with another. Then I’ve got to do opening chores. Can you text everyone that we’ll be open tonight? Limited menu.”
Another shot appears in front of me magically. “You got it. I’ll post on socials too.”
I swipe at my face before starting the opening checklist. This is what I need, something to focus on.
For a Monday night with a limited menu we are slammed. Usually we aren’t open today, but with the loss yesterday I wanted to try to recoup some cost and use up the food that should have been sold with Sunday’s specials.
“Hey, Lisa. Hey, Jake. Good to see you tonight.”
“Hey, Juliette! We’re so glad you opened tonight.” Lisa greets me. “I was not wanting to cook a thing and my Momma offered to keep Pennie.”
“Me too. That fight really took the wind out of our sails for a minute. But we’re happy to be back.”
“Well, you got steak tonight, so you were bound to draw a crowd.” Jake jokes looking at the small paper menu we printed for tonight.
“That’s all we need right? Steak on steak with a side of country fried.” I laugh at him, and really all the cowboys who’d be happy if I only served beef and potatoes.
“Steak, baked potatoes, no vegetables, and more steak. You’ll always win the cowboys over with that meal,” Jake confirms.
“Hey, is Cal comin’ tonight?” Lisa interrupts the conversation. “We really want to thank him for yesterday. I can’t even imagine what would have happened to Pennie if they weren’t there.”
“What happened yesterday?” I sink into the seat across from her, suddenly fully invested in this conversation.
“You didn’t hear?” I shake my head, wanting her to continue.
“The fire yesterday was at the rec center. It jumped from ground fire to the porch, Cal and Murray found a safe path for the kids to evacuate. Except when Pennie and her two friends stepped off the stairs a flame shot through the ground and caught the dried brush on fire. He didn’t even hesitate, he ran right toward them and rescued her.
He’s the reason she’s home safe in her bed tonight. ”
Tears spring to her eyes as she recounts the story.
“That husband of yours is a hero.” Jake says quietly with emotion clogging his throat.
“He sure is.” Lisa agrees.
I stand here, staring at them. My mouth must be on the floor. That’s what he was trying to tell me. That there were kids involved and he couldn’t just leave. It wasn’t just any fire. But instead of caring about him, I only cared about myself. Again.
God, I’m a selfish son-of-a-bitch. My husband could have been seriously injured, kids could have been seriously injured and I was only concerned about wasting a sexy outfit and not getting to go to a steakhouse.
I don’t listen to him as much as he hasn’t been listening to me.
My attention is drawn to the front door.
Cal.