Chapter 18 #2
If he stayed, he’d always be the Hennessy Hooligan who had robbed the gas station.
While he could deal with the town judging him, he couldn’t deal with them judging Tully for being with him.
She couldn’t deal with it either. She cared too much about what people thought of her.
Cared too much what her daddy thought of her.
And her daddy would never like her dating someone he saw as a criminal.
“I can’t stay,” he said.
A deep sadness entered her eyes. “I know.” She turned away and headed for the ladder.
“Tully, wait! Let me go first.”
But she didn’t wait. And maybe it was for the best if he let her go and they ended things now. Honky Tonk Heaven was almost finished and Poppy had already started hiring servers and bartenders so they could open before the deadline.
But as he watched Tully disappear over the side of the main deck, his heart felt like it had been cleaved in two at just the thought of never again waking with her naked body pressed against him.
Never again feeling her soft hands cradle his jaw as she rained kisses all over his face.
Never again hear her sweet moans when he was so deep inside her they felt like one.
And he couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t let her go.
“Tallulah!”
By the time he reached the bottom of the ladder, she was already heading toward the river.
He ran faster than he had ever run in his life.
But before he caught up with her, Huck came charging up the bank of the river.
It was dusk now and he couldn’t see his brother’s face, but he could hear the panic in his voice.
“Honky Tonk Heaven is on fire!”
Tully started running and so did Jaxon. He easily caught up with her and Huck, throwing an order over his shoulder. “Stay at the house, Tully. Let us handle this.” He should have known she wouldn’t listen.
“Like hell I will.”
He and Huck arrived at the house first, but Tully was close behind them. He didn’t try to stop her when she hopped into his truck with Huck.
“What happened?” he asked as soon as they were headed to Honky Tonk Heaven.
“I don’t know. Poppy went into town for a chocolate-dipped cone. Five minutes later, she called and told me that the dancehall was on fire.”
“Where’s Dawson?”
“He wasn’t at the treeboat with y’all? His truck is still here. Maybe he just went for a walk to cool off after losing the vote on the bar.”
Jaxon hated the thought that popped into his head. “Did you call 911?”
“Poppy did.”
When they got to the dancehall, they found Poppy’s truck parked in front. But there was no sign of her.
“Shit!” Jaxon parked around back and jumped out. “Tully stay here! I mean it!” he yelled as he raced for the open back door where smoke was billowing out. He pulled the collar of his T-shirt up over his face and prepared to run inside when Tully yelled his name.
“Jaxon!”
He turned and saw Poppy and Dawson coming around from the front. They were both coughing and Dawson held one of the new fire extinguishers they’d just purchased.
“Are y’all okay?” he asked.
Poppy got her coughing under control first. “Yeah . . . we’re fine.” She looked back at the building. “But the dancehall isn’t.”
All five looked at the door the smoke was pouring out of as a siren sounded in the distance and grew closer. As soon as the firefighters were out of the trucks, they ordered Jaxon and the rest of them to get back from the building as they pulled out hoses and cranked valves.
They moved back, but no one seemed to want to leave.
They all just stood there as the realization sank in.
All their hard work was for nothing. There was no way they were going to be able to get the dancehall finished on time now.
And what made matters worse, Jaxon wasn’t even sure if they had insurance to cover the fire .
. . or if he wanted the insurance investigators snooping around.
He turned to Dawson. “What happened?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“You know why.”
Dawson’s eyes widened. “You think I started the fire?”
“Did you?”
“This is fuckin’ bullshit!” Dawson turned to leave, but then turned back.
“Yes, I started the fire at Mickey’s, but I was a drunk, stupid kid.
I wouldn’t do something that stupid now.
But you’ve never trusted me, have you, Jax?
You said you believed me when I told you I didn’t take the money from the register, but it was a lie.
You always thought I was the one who robbed Mickey’s. Well, fuck you, big brother! Fuck you!”
He flipped him off and walked away.
“Dawson!” Poppy raced after him.
Huck stared at him as if he was the biggest dumbass in the world before he followed them.
And maybe Jaxon was, but he’d been here before.
He’d been nineteen and working two jobs, Honky Tonk Heaven and cowboying on the Stockton Ranch, in order to save enough money to move his family somewhere else once Poppy got out of high school.
Somewhere far away from Mama and Honky Tonk Heaven.
Then Dawson borrowed his truck and came home drunk.
Jaxon had thought his only crime had been driving drunk . . . until Sheriff Gentry had shown up.
Jaxon had done what he’d always done.
Taken the blame.
But while he’d been sitting in jail, he’d decided he was done taking the blame. Done being a parent to his wild-assed siblings when he was just a kid himself.
Dawson was right. He had never believed in his brother’s innocence.
How could he when Dawson had been at the gas station that night?
If he was drunk enough to start a tire fire, why wouldn’t he be drunk enough to rob the gas station?
It made even more sense when the money was found the following morning in a bag outside the gas station door.
And still, he couldn’t help feeling like shit that he couldn’t believe his brother.
He looked at the smoke billowing out the back door. But how could he when Dawson was always around when his dreams went up in smoke?
His dream?
When had Honky Tonk Heaven become his dream?
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He turned to find Tully staring at him with the same look of disappointment Dawson had given him.
“Why didn’t you tell me that it was your truck my daddy saw leaving Mickey’s that night?” she asked in a low voice he could barely hear over the shouts of firemen and firewomen rushing around. “Why didn’t you tell me it was Dawson driving?”
He was too numbed by the night’s events to lie.
“Because I didn’t want you running to your daddy.
And that’s what you’re going to do, isn’t it, Tully?
You can’t help yourself.” He knew he was being an asshole, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
His emotions had been all over the place tonight and there was no way to corral them now.
“Because when it comes right down to it, neither one of us has really changed. I’m still a Hennessy Hooligan—shit follows me wherever I go.
And you’re still the town do-gooder—who can’t help but tattle.
So run to daddy, little girl. I’m tired of being your dirty little secret. ”
She stared at him for a long moment before she spoke. “I think Dawson had the right idea.” She flipped him the bird. “Fuck you, Jaxon!”
Like Dawson, she walked off and never looked back.