Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Magnolia Hastings had been to plenty of bars in her life.
Cocktail bars, wine bars, sports bars, karaoke bars, piano bars, and nightclub bars.
At those bars, she’d had some wild times.
She’d gotten drunk and danced on tables, sung karaoke until the MC had to forcibly take the mic from her, and had sex in a few bathrooms.
But she’d never once been in a bar brawl.
She had to say, of all the things she’d done in a bar, this was the most exciting. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, leaving her feeling lightheaded . . . and powerful.
Feeling powerful wasn’t something Magnolia felt often.
In fact, the majority of her life, she’d felt powerless.
Powerless when her mama left to get more potting soil at the hardware store and had a brain hemorrhage on the way and never came home.
Powerless when her daddy took her on a “little trip” to Disneyland, and then after she’d seen Mickey and eaten her weight in churros, he’d driven her to a house in Santa Barbara and said it was their new home.
Powerless when the kids at her new school made fun of her because she had a country twang and said y’all and didn’t dress in designer clothes.
And powerless to make her daddy happy after her mama died.
The only power she’d ever had was her beauty.
Something she’d discovered her freshman year of high school.
After she’d gotten her braces off and her acne under control, cute boys suddenly wanted to sit next to her in class and popular girls wanted to be her friends.
Her newfound popularity had been like a drug she easily became addicted to.
She spent more time at the hairstylist, manicurist, and online shopping, than she spent on her studies.
And since her daddy felt badly about her being motherless, he let her.
But after dropping out of college because she couldn’t figure out a major, her beauty seemed to hold less and less power.
Now, people were more interested in what was inside her rather than what was outside.
She’d started to realize that physical beauty wasn’t a power at all.
It was all just an illusion. Which was terrifying when that’s all you had going for you.
Still, she’d just saved a man’s life and that had to count for something.
She lowered the broken beer bottle and sent the man whose life she’d just saved a smug look.
“Ditzy Barbie, my butt!”
A sparkle of humor entered his brown eyes.
No, not brown.
She had always thought the Hennessys had ordinary brown eyes. But since coming back to Promise Springs, she’d realized Dawson’s eyes weren’t ordinary at all. Their base color was a rich dark mink with a sunburst of 24k gold blooming out from the onyx pupils.
Looking into them was like looking into the sun. You knew you should probably look away or have your retinas fried, but it was hard to look away from something so breathtakingly beautiful.
Of course, Dawson’s beauty was an illusion too.
Beneath his golden good looks was a mean boy who had terrorized the entire town. Now that she thought about it, she should have let the giant cowboy squeeze the life out of him. The townsfolk would have thanked her for it.
Speaking of the townsfolk . . . the lights suddenly came on and the band that had been playing Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar” cut off. The fighting stopped and everyone squinted around like they didn’t know what had just happened as the sheriff arrived.
Or not arrived since it was his daughter’s wedding reception and Sheriff Gentry had been playing pool in the back room. Rather than his uniform, he wore a nice western dress shirt and pants. But it didn’t make him any less intimidating.
“What the hell is going on here?” he bellowed. “Who started this fight?”
Not one person responded. Everyone just looked at each other and shrugged like a bunch of guilty teens caught smoking in the bathroom.
Magnolia included. This wasn’t the first time she’d had a run in with the sheriff.
The last time, she’d been holding a stolen Nutty Buddy.
This time, she was holding a busted beer bottle.
She started to hide the bottle behind her back when Dawson’s warm fingers encircled her wrist. She startled and got lost in the electric sparks arching between her skin and his as he took the broken bottle from her hand.
He released her wrist and turned to the sheriff. “I started it.”
The sheriff didn’t look at all surprised by his confession. Probably because Dawson had started lots of fights in his lifetime. But Magnolia was surprised. Dawson might have tackled the cowboy, but he hadn’t started the fight. And he sure as hell hadn’t ended it.
She had.
As scared as she was of getting tossed into jail, she wasn’t about to let Dawson take credit for something that had finally made her feel capable and powerful.
But before she could speak up, Poppy Hennessy stepped between the sheriff and her brother. It looked like she had been shooting shots with the caterers. She swayed on her cute red cowboy boots as she spoke in a slurred, overloud voice.
“No, he didn’t! That ash-h-hole hit Huck first!” She pointed to the cowboy who was just starting to revive. As soon as he sat up, Poppy’s eyes filled with fire and she went for him. “You sonofa—”
Dawson grabbed Poppy around the waist and lifted her off her boots just as the groom pushed through the crowd, followed by the bride.
Jaxon’s shirt wasn’t snapped correctly and his hair looked like someone had been trying to rip it out of his head. Tully’s hair looked just as messy. The updo Magnolia had spent hours on fell around her shoulders in tangled curls and her lips looked thoroughly kissed.
Obviously, the newlywed couple had snuck off to start their honeymoon early.
Jaxon didn’t look happy they’d been interrupted.
Not that Jaxon had ever looked anything but pissed off. He was the oldest Hennessy and the scariest. As a kid, Magnolia had been scared to death of him. When he glanced around and his handsome face tightened, she realized she still was.
“Who started this?” He directed the question to Dawson, but it was Poppy who answered.
Or tried to.
She pointed at Big Cowboy but only got “That ash-h-hole” out before her eyes widened and she bent over Dawson’s arm and threw up.
The entire crowd groaned and stepped back to get out of the splash zone.
Everyone but Dawson. He held back her hair while she finished puking. Then he directed her over to a chair while the sheriff turned to the cowboy.
“So, you started this fight, Wyatt?”
Wyatt pointed at Huck. “Only because he kissed my wife!”
Huck looked a little punch drunk as he stared at Wyatt. “Your wife?”
A petite brunette stepped out of from the crowd. “I am not your wife, Wyatt Fleming! We broke things off months ago.”
Wyatt staggered to his feet, fragments of glass raining from his hair as he pressed a hand to the back of his head. “We ain’t divorced yet, Dahlia. Until we are, you’re still mine to protect. I won’t have you messing with a Hennessy Hooligan!”
Dahlia slapped her hands on her hips. “Which is exactly why I’m divorcing your ass. You can’t own a person, Wyatt. I can’t seem to get that through your thick sku—” She cut off when Wyatt lowered his hand. Her eyes widened. “Is that blood?”
Magnolia was as horrified as Dahlia. Not only because she hadn’t wanted to seriously hurt him, but also because she had a thing about blood.
Not a good thing.
Her world started to spin and suddenly everything went dark.
When she came to, she expected to be lying on the floor amid the broken glass. Instead, she was upside down, the hairpins holding her updo tugging at her scalp. Her eyes had just focused on an extremely nice butt in Wrangler jeans when she was gently lowered into the chair next to Poppy.
Dawson crouched in front of her, concern in his whiskey-splashed eyes. “You okay, Maggie May?”
It had been a long time since she’d heard the nickname. Only her mama had used it. Which meant her daddy didn’t. He wanted no reminders of his wife. Dawson using the nickname brought up an image of her mama smoothing back her hair as she sang Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May.”
Tears threatened, but Magnolia was a pro at hiding her sadness. “I’m just fine. And my middle name isn’t May. It’s Margaret.”
Before Dawson could reply, Dahlia screeched. “Well, Wyatt’s not okay!” She shot Dawson a mean glare before she rushed over to her husband and put an arm around him. “Come on, baby. Let’s get you to the emergency room.”
Wyatt looked as happy as a pig in mud as he followed Dahlia to the door. “Whatever you say, sugar.”
Once they were gone, Sheriff Gentry glanced at Jaxon. “Since it looks like Wyatt started it, you could press charges against him for the damages.”
Jaxon shook his head. “No need for that.” His gaze took in Huck and Dawson. “He wasn’t the only one responsible.”
Sheriff Gentry sighed as he looked around. “Then I’d suggest sending everyone home so y’all can get this mess cleaned up. I’m gonna run by the hospital to make sure Wyatt’s okay.” He looked at Dawson. “Next time, call me and let me take care of it. Understood?”
When Dawson didn’t seem to be in any hurry to answer, Jaxon jumped in.
“Dawson won’t be getting into any more fights, sir.”
Somehow Magnolia doubted it.
Once the sheriff left, Jaxon and Tully thanked everyone for coming and people started moving to the exits. Regardless of the split lips and swelling faces, everyone seemed to be happy with how the night had gone. Magnolia heard more than one person say, “Best weddin’ reception ever!”
Unfortunately, Jaxon didn’t seem to feel the same way.
As soon as the last townsfolk walked out, he turned to his siblings. His angry gaze moved to Poppy passed out in the chair next to Magnolia, then to Huck standing there holding a cold beer against his jaw, before it landed on Dawson who had a swollen eye and a bloody lip.