Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Huck was sitting at the kitchen island, trying to recover from another sleepless night when Poppy stumbled into the kitchen with Dawson and Magnolia’s dog, Wilbur, hobbling behind her on his three legs.
Poppy was babysitting the dog while Dawson and Magnolia were in California.
She doted on the shepherd-mixed brute, allowing him to sleep with her and feeding him bacon every morning.
When someone remembered to go to the grocery store.
“Dang it!” she grumbled when she opened the deli drawer in the refrigerator. She glanced over her shoulder, her bed-mussed light brown hair making her look like Medusa. If Medusa wore Disney princess pajamas. “I thought it was your turn to go to the grocery store, Huck.”
It probably had been. Huck didn’t have a clue what day it was, let alone if he was supposed to get groceries.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
Poppy sighed and pulled out a package of bologna of questionable age.
“I never thought I would say this, but I miss Dawson and Jaxon. They might be a control freak and a grumpy bumpkin, but at least Dawson kept the cupboards full and Jaxon cooked meals and kept my gut full.” She threw a slice of bologna to Wilbur. “Sorry, Willy, you’ll have to make do.”
She checked to make sure Wilbur had food and water in his bowls before she flopped down at the island next to Huck.
She looked as bad as he felt. Her eyes were puffy like she hadn’t slept—and possibly cried all night—and her purple pajama short set covered in the Rapunzel princess was wrinkled and buttoned wrong.
She hooked her huge slippers with the head of “The Beast” on the bottom rung of her barstool.
“Well, at least you made coffee.” She swiped the cup of coffee sitting in front of him.
Since he really didn’t like coffee and had only made it in hopes that it would settle his knotted stomach, he didn’t get after her like he usually did when she took his food.
Poppy took a sip of coffee and wrinkled her nose. “Damn, Huck, it’s cold. How early did you wake up?”
Since he hadn’t ever gone to sleep, he only shrugged.
She sighed. “We sure make a depressed pair of sad sacks, don’t we?
I can’t seem to get over the fact that my prince charming turned out to be a cheating asshole, and you can’t come to terms with knocking up your best friend.
Although I would’ve thought giving Cadee your inheritance would make you feel better. ”
He’d thought so too. But it hadn’t. There was still this twisted gnarled tree growing in his gut and he couldn’t figure out how to get rid of it.
Poppy leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, making Wilbur whine because she was giving someone else attention.
“Do you think Grounds For Divorce would deliver if we offered the A-Sisters a hundred dollar delivery fee? If we’re going to spend the day wallowing, I’m going to need some mini donuts. ”
He leaned his head against her, needing her sisterly love more than ever. “I’m sure they would, but do you have a hundred dollars?”
“No, but we could charge it.”
“You could charge it. I reached my credit card limit when we renovated Honky Tonk Heaven.”
“And yet, you still gave your share of our inheritance away.”
“Yeah, well, I never was the smartest Hennessy.”
“Nope.” She lifted her head and looked at him. “Just the kindest.”
“There’s nothing kind about it. I owe Cadee that much for leaving her to raise Camden alone.”
“She made that choice, Huck. You can’t tell me she couldn’t have located you if she’d tried hard enough.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But I didn’t make it easy, Pops. None of us did. We changed our numbers, made sure we didn’t have social media accounts, and didn’t contact anyone in Promise Springs. We were all too worried about Mama finding us and pulling us back into Honky Tonk Hell.”
She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “And she succeeded anyway.” She glanced up at the ceiling. “Way to control your kids from the grave, Mama!”
It was true. Their mama had gotten exactly what she’d wanted. All her kids back in Promise Springs working their asses off at Honky Tonk Heaven . . . and someone to carry on the family legacy.
Except she hadn’t gotten that.
Even if the townsfolk discovered the truth, Camden carried the Stockton name . . . would be raised as a Stockton. Which was for the best. He didn’t need the stigma of the Hennessy name.
But if that was the case why did Huck feel like he was standing on a log in a bottomless lake running forward and then backward trying to keep from falling in and drowning?
Why couldn’t he eat? Or sleep? Or think about anything but Camden’s hazel eyes and wayward cowlick .
. . and the way Cadee had clutched his hair when he’d kissed her like she never wanted to let him go?
The sound of the front door opening pulled him from his thoughts. Since Dawson was out of town, there was only one other person who would walk in without knocking.
“Shit!” Poppy jumped up from the barstool and started grabbing the takeout containers that littered the island. “We got to get this place cleaned up!”
Huck followed her lead, grabbing the empty and half-full soda cans while Wilbur hopped around their feet and barked with excitement as if this was a new game. They had just made it to the trashcan with arms filled when their big brother appeared in the doorway.
Of all the Hennessys, Jaxon was the most formidable. At six three with broad shoulders and a perpetual scowl, he was quite intimidating. Or maybe the intimidation came from how much Huck idolized him.
Huck might not remember his daddy, but his brain was filled with memories of Jaxon.
Coming into his room every night to ask how his day had gone and making sure he’d done his homework.
Sticking up for him when a teacher had accused him of stealing another kid’s lunch money.
Buying him the sneakers he wanted, even though Mama had said he didn’t need them.
Jaxon had been more of a parent than his parents.
Which explained why Huck so badly wanted his approval.
Unfortunately, everything Huck did, he seemed to fuck up. He hadn’t been a good student because he talked too much in class. He hadn’t been a good athlete because he was a quitter. He’d never helped around the house because he was too busy coming up with get rich schemes that never panned out.
And one such scheme had almost sent Jaxon to jail.
Huck would never forgive himself for that.
Even now, as he met his brother’s hazel eyes, guilt washed over him as the memory of his worst fuck-up played out in his mind.
After quitting the freshman football team, he hadn’t wanted to go home and see the disappointment in Jaxon’s eyes, so he’d gone down to the river where he’d stripped down to his underwear and floated around on his football shoulder pads until long after the sun went down.
It was his grumbling stomach that forced him to go home. On the way, he passed behind Mickey’s Gas Station and noticed that the back door was cracked open. Since Mickey usually hung out in the garage after hours playing poker or dominos with his buddies, he didn’t think much of it.
Until he noticed that there were no cars in the back lot.
When he opened the door and looked inside, no one was around . . . and a cash bag like his mama used to carry money to the bank sat on the counter next to the cash register.
If Huck hadn’t just been reading up on how people had made a fortune in Bitcoin, he would have pulled the door closed and gone about his business. But he had just read those articles and visions of owning a ranch like the Stocktons’ and a brand new half-ton pickup danced through his head.
He never planned to steal the money. Just borrow it until he struck it rich and could pay Mickey back with plenty of interest.
Unfortunately, before he could make his fortune in Bitcoin, Jaxon had been arrested for the crime when the sheriff saw his truck leaving the gas station.
As fate would have it, Dawson had borrowed Jaxon’s truck, gotten drunk, and set fire to the tires behind Mickey’s only minutes after Huck had been there.
Of course, Jaxon had taken the blame. He’d always taken the blame for his siblings.
Huck had been fast asleep when the sheriff took him away.
In the morning, when he’d found out, he’d taken the money back, leaving it in a duffel by the back door.
But Jaxon had still spent a night in jail for something Huck had done.
He’d still had to deal with the townsfolk believing he was the one who had robbed the gas station.
Huck planned on confessing, but then Jaxon had left town. And now, that Jaxon was finally so happy, Huck figured it was best to let sleeping dogs lie.
Or lying brothers continue to lie.
“Mornin’, Jax,” he said with a smile he didn’t feel. “What brings you to the Hennessy mansion?”
Jaxon glanced at the pile of dirty dishes in the sink and then at the empty takeout containers and cans Huck and Poppy still clutched in their arms. “What the hell has been going on here?”
As always Poppy took the offensive. “And just what do you expect when you have me and Huck working like slaves at Honky Tonk Heaven? We barely have enough time to take a pee, let alone clean house.” She tried to shove the takeout containers into the overfilled trashcan but then gave up with an annoyed huff and just left them leaning precariously on the top.
“So don’t you come over here acting all holier than thou when we’re working our butts off for you.
If you don’t like the way we keep house, maybe Huck and I will just be on our way. ”
Huck wasn’t surprised Jaxon backed off. He’d made it clear he wanted all his siblings to stay in Promise Springs. At one time, Huck had considered it. But that was before he found out about Camden. Now he couldn’t stay. Not if he wanted to ever eat and sleep again.