Chapter 2
Tex
I patted down earth with the flat side of my shovel and raised my shirt to wipe a film of sweat from my face. It came away with a layer of dirt. Ugh. I needed a shower like yesterday.
“You almost done over there, Jed?” my dad called from his spot on the other side of the front porch.
I inwardly cringed at the use of my given name. The kids at school had given me Tex as a nickname when our family moved from Texas to Nebraska when I was fourteen, and it was the best gift I’d ever received. Because it meant I didn’t have to be Jedediah.
Only my father still used the name. Mom did too, before she’d died from breast cancer when I was sixteen. Somehow, it’d sounded less awful in her soft, loving tones.
“Jed! Are you listening?” my father bellowed. Yeah, the man wasn’t soft. He wouldn’t know the meaning of the word.
“Yep.” I smoothed the dirt and ensured it was packed down nicely. “I’m all good here.”
Finally.
We’d spent hours burying gutter extensions underground to improve the drainage around a two-story stucco monstrosity in the Belvedere neighborhood near Hayworth College. One of the college deans lived here, and Dad was excited to get the landscaping job with such a prestigious family.
Personally, I thought money made most people bigger assholes. I’d make an exception for Hollywood, since he lost everything and went to prison, but the rest of them could go to hell.
Dad came over to look at my handiwork, such as it was. He nodded. “That’ll do.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’m ready to crack a cold one. How about we head over to Keg Haus and I buy you a beer?”
I hesitated. “I need a shower.”
Even in September, it was too damn hot to work all afternoon, but Dad had taken the job on a tight timeline. We’d had no choice but to sweat our asses off and risk heat stroke to get it done.
“Come on,” he cajoled, giving me a little shake. “One beer with your old man first. I want to talk to you about the business.”
“The business?” I said blankly.
Dad picked up odd jobs here and there. I wouldn’t call it a business. I’d helped him out because parole required me to be employed, and it had been easier than submitting applications all over town.
“Yeah! This job is a big deal,” Dad said. “With a good word from a college dean, we could really expand. Larsen Landscape Architects. It has a nice ring, doesn’t it?”
“Except we’re not landscape architects,” I pointed out.
Dad huffed. “You’ve got no vision.”
I had a vision of that shower. And I had twenty-twenty hindsight about what running a business with my father meant. Been there, done that. Had the prison conviction to show for it.
Not that it was Dad’s fault I’d gone to prison.
That’d been my stupid attempt to save a failing business.
Dad was a dreamer, though. He got big ideas and he ran with them, whether or not they were realistic.
He overpromised and under-delivered; did favors for his buddies; and generally had no clue how to keep a business in the black.
I shouldered my shovel and tossed a stray hand tiller into the wheelbarrow, hoping to move him along. He walked alongside me while I gathered tools.
“You never could see the big picture.” He tugged off his gloves and tucked them in his back pocket.
“Back when we had Larsen’s Greenhouse & Nursery, you never understood where it was going.
You didn’t believe, Jed. That’s what got you into trouble.
It was the downfall of us both. If you want to be part of this business, you have to bring a different attitude. ”
I threw the shovel into the back of the pickup with more force than necessary. Who said I wanted to be part of his business? This was temporary. It had to be temporary. I couldn’t go through the cycle of Dad’s excitement, followed by his recklessness, and then the inevitable failure again.
The pressure had gotten to me last time. I’d tried so damn hard to be the son he deserved. To make up for hurting my knee and losing my college scholarship. Of being nothing but a fuckup and disappointment.
For a while it had worked, too. I’d started growing marijuana in the greenhouse.
Dad was so oblivious he didn’t even notice.
He liked to leave a lot of the day-to-day plant-handling to me while he chatted up customers.
I’d quietly sold weed out our back door to those who knew to inquire—and it had given us the financial buffer we’d needed.
Until I got busted.
Then Dad lost the business, anyway.
And his reputation, as he liked to remind me.
Because as usual, my brilliant idea had made everything worse. I went to prison for three years, and the greenhouse went bankrupt.
Dad’s blue eyes were bright as he looked at me. “This is your chance to make it up to me, Jed. Be a good business partner this time, and we can really do something special.”
My chest tightened. “I’m on parole, Dad. I don’t think making me a business partner is going to help you.”
He frowned. “Maybe you’re right. Especially if I want more jobs like this one. College deans don’t want to hire criminals.”
My jaw clenched. I was no longer a criminal, but it wasn’t the type of label that was easy to shake. Even with my father. “Guess not.”
“Oh, son, don’t look so down. When the parole is up, you can be my partner.” He patted my back. “There are consequences to your actions. You’ve got to pay them, that’s all.”
Hadn’t I paid them with the three years in prison? Where did it end?
I lifted the wheelbarrow into the truck, enjoying the strain on my body because it meant I didn’t have to answer. I grunted an affirmative, which was all Dad needed.
“It sure is good you came back when you did,” he mused.
I closed the tailgate. “Why’s that? Is Luke giving Chastity trouble again?”
My sister’s toxic ex-husband had backed off, but there was no guarantee he wouldn’t resurface.
“That pissant?” Dad laughed. “Nah, he crosses the street whenever he sees any of us. Fucking lost his balls and turned into one of them pansies.”
“Oh.” I could do without Dad’s latent homophobia, and it would probably blow his mind to know a gay man—a badass former biker, no less—had put that scare into Luke.
Still, I was glad the scare tactic had worked. Knight might have intimidated the asshole, but he wouldn’t risk his parole by beating the shit out of him.
If anyone did that, it would be me.
“So why is it good I came back then?” I asked Dad as I rounded to the driver’s side of the truck.
He opened the passenger door and slid in. “Because we get to work together again! I missed that, Jed.”
“Oh.” He’d never asked me back here out of concern for Chastity, had he? But I’d taken the bait, anyway, and nearly threw away my parole to beat up that shithead Luke. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose after I fucked up the best friendship I’d ever had.
More than a friendship, if Hollywood had gotten his way.
My lips prickled at the thought of Hollywood’s mouth against mine.
I shifted the truck into reverse and focused on backing out of the long driveway.
There was no point to thinking about any of that or what it might mean.
Because I’d walked away from him, and he didn’t show any sign he was going to ever forgive me for that.
“Christ, it’s hot,” Dad said, fanning his face. “Start the AC.”
Dad was a tall, powerfully built man. I took after him.
But he’d added some weight around his middle in the past few years.
His face was bright red and sweat ran in rivulets down his temples.
His hairline was receding too. Good thing I liked to wear baseball caps.
If I thinned out like him, I was hiding that shit where nobody could see it.
I turned the ignition and flipped on the blowers, grimacing at the burst of hot air. “It’ll take a while to cool down.”
“Better than nothing,” Dad grumbled. “Let’s get that beer. We’ll cool off and I’ll tell you about the job I’ve got lined up for next weekend.”
Resigned, I gave up arguing. When Dad made up his mind, there was no dissuading him.
I drove along quiet residential streets, making my way toward Hayworth’s little downtown. Keg Haus had a parking lot behind it, so I turned into the alley and found a space to park.
Frigid air-conditioning swept over us as we entered, deliciously cool but making me even more aware of my grimy, sweat-sticky skin.
The pub was a wide-open space with stained concrete floors that gave it a warehouse vibe.
Wooden booths lined one wall, along with a collection of tables scattered throughout the room.
Dad bypassed the hostess stand and made a beeline for the bar, which curved along the back wall. I followed with less enthusiasm. I recognized Pete Casepear. He was one of Dad’s drinking buddies and I’d be lucky to get out of here in two hours, much less the twenty minutes I’d prefer.
“Petey, how’s it hanging?” Dad asked, a big grin creasing his face as he eased into a chair. “We worked a big one today. Gotta spend some of this money I’m raking in.”
Petey grinned. “Well, shit man, you’re doing better than me. I just got my hours cut over at the college. Assholes have all that money and it kills ’em to fuckin’ share it with us townies.”
I was no great fan of living in a college town. There was a massive class gap between students flush with their parents’ cash, professors and deans making upper-middle-class income, and the townies who mostly worked blue-collar jobs.
“Fuck ’em,” Dad said. “Right, Jed?”
“Yup.” Wasn’t like I had any love for any of them. “Fuck ’em.”
Petey laughed and raised his beer in salute. “Hell yeah!”
My phone vibrated in my pocket, saving me from the rest of their conversation. I pulled it out and checked the screen. Knight flashed up, and my stomach dipped. He was a good guy. A good friend. But he wasn’t the one I wanted to call me.
“I gotta take this,” I said, standing up.
Dad waved his hand, no longer concerned with me being here, even though he’d dragged me along. He had a better audience now.
I walked a few steps away to a vacant pub table and leaned against it as I took the call. “Hey, Knight. You’re not tangled up in another fight, are ya?”
“Fuck no. Never again.”
“Good. You only got so much karma. Even though you had some really good karma in that back seat.” I chuckled at the memory of him and Aiden going at each other in the car after Knight won the fight that got him out of the Sons of Serpents outlaw biker gang.
Knight was silent.
“Sorry, man. I didn’t see details. I just—”
“It’s not that,” he said, his tone grim. “I’m not calling with good news.”
I straightened, muscles going tense. “What is it?”
“It’s Hollywood.”
No, no, no. I sat down heavily. I’d walked away from him. Ruined everything. He had to be okay. He had to be. My breathing went haywire. Enough that Knight must have heard me panicking through the phone.
“He’s okay, Tex!” Knight exclaimed. “Hollywood isn’t hurt, man. It’s his ex-girlfriend.”
“Coulda led with that, you fucker.”
“Sorry, man. You’re right. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Is Carrie okay?” I knew Hollywood’s ex’s name. Just like I knew his daughter’s name. “What about Ruby?”
“Carrie’s in surgery. We just got to the hospital, so we don’t know anything yet. Ruby is okay, but obviously Carrie isn’t in any shape to take care of her right now.”
Oh, shit. Hollywood was finally going to get his daughter—and under the worst circumstances. He was going to be a fucking wreck.
“I’ll be right there.”