Legacy (RiffRaff Records Book 2)

by L. P. Maxa

  “Of course she’s not mad at you.” And she wasn’t. That wasn’t who my girl was; she’d never let her own hurt get in the way of her concern for someone else. Just like when I’d lost my shit at the dinner table and she’d wanted to comfort me.

  “I’ll talk to her about it soon. I’m just not quite ready yet, you know? I still haven’t seen a doctor.”

  I chuckled. “You are a doctor.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I do.” I took a deep breath. “You want to see it with your own eyes, hear its tiny little heart beating. You want to know it’s truly real before you let your heart flood with love.” I made sure there wasn’t a trace of sadness on my face. I didn’t want her to feel bad or feel guilty. I wanted her to know I understood and that I was here for her. I’d never get over the hurt of losing our first child—I’d never forget. But now that I had Halen back by my side, everything seemed different. Seemed survivable.

  “You’re a good man, Beau.”

  “That’s what the girls keep telling me.” I winked. “Hey, would you mind telling Uncle Dash too?”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Halen

  I wasn’t scared to go home. I wasn’t nervous. You’d think I would’ve been though, right? I’d told my parents that not only had I hidden a relationship from them, I’d also lied about being pregnant. And losing our baby. That was a lot of big truth bombs my parents had to absorb. But I couldn’t feel bad about it. Not when I felt like I could breathe easier.

  “Halen, is that you?”

  I shut the front door behind me and headed into the kitchen. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of whatever baked good my mom had attempted in the oven. “It’s me.”

  “Where have you been?” Case in point right there. My car was still in the driveway, and Beau’s bike was still in his. If she truly wondered, why didn’t she come looking?

  “Studio. Beau wanted to get back to work. The opening is only two days away.” I sat down at a barstool, my hands clasped in front of me.

  “Would you like a glass of wine? I was just about to open a bottle.” My mom seemed almost anxious.

  “If I have to try whatever you baked then I’ll certainly need one.” I smiled, trying to ease some of the tension in the room.

  She shook her head, her eyes narrowed playfully. “You just wait and see. These cookies are going to be the best you’ve ever tasted.”

  I highly doubted that. But I’d do just about anything to keep her humor in place. I didn’t want to see sadness in her eyes, or disappointment. I took a small sip of the chilled glass she’d sat in front of me. “I know you have questions.”

  “Just one.” She leaned her hip against the white and gray granite. “Are you okay?”

  I was shocked. After everything she’d learned today, she simply wanted to know if her daughter was okay. Her words broke me and I started to cry. When she came toward me I held my hand up, stopping her. “I’m okay. I am, Mom. I’m okay.” I laughed at the shakiness in my voice. “It was hard losing the baby. It was crushing. I didn’t know I could feel hurt like that, you know? I was only eleven weeks along, but wow, did I love that kid. Beau did too. He couldn’t stop touching my stomach. I know he was scared, but more than anything else he was excited.” I met her eyes. She was crying now too. Large tears rolled down her beautiful face. “Losing Beau? Losing the boy I’d been in love with my whole life, the one person I thought I’d never be without? That was harder in some ways. When I had the miscarriage Beau was there, by my side. He held me. He cleaned me up. He cried with me. At least going through that, I had him with me. When he left, I felt utterly alone. Like gut-wrenchingly alone.”

  She wiped away her tears. “Why did you forgive him?”

  “Because I was still in love with him. Because I still woke up every day, missing him like crazy. And because when he came home, I could finally wrap my head around why he left.”

  “Is he good to you? Was he—was he always good to you?”

  I smiled. “Always.”

  She nodded. “Your father will come around, Hales. He will. Right now all he can think about is all the hurt his little girl has been through. He wants to place blame, and Beau is the closest target.”

  “I don’t want to choose between Dad and Beau. But if I need to leave the compound, I will.” There was no question about it. If Beau and I couldn’t be together here, then we wouldn’t live here. I’d spent the last two years without him. I wasn’t going to spend another day.

  “You won’t have to.”

  I bit at my bottom lip. “How can you be so sure?”

  My mom reached across the island and took my hand. “Your uncles, your father, they aren’t perfect. They’ve all made mistakes. They’ve all spent some time dwelling in thoughts that they weren’t good enough for the women who loved them.” She smiled. “Your dad will calm down and realize that what you and Beau are going through isn’t much different.”

  “How so?”

  “Because that boy stood up today and vowed to spend the rest of his life earning your love. To spend the rest of his life making sure he deserves you.”

  ***

  “Please tell me that’s not a plate of whatever the hell is causing your house to stink like burnt sugar and chicken teriyaki.”

  I jumped about a foot in the air. “Cash, you scared the hell out of me. I didn’t know you were coming over.” I sat the plate of still-warm ginger cookies on my desk. They tasted as bad as they smelled, but I didn’t want to hurt my mom’s feelings.

  “I wanted to come check on you, after everything today. And last night.” He shrugged when I narrowed my eyes. “When I was coming home I saw you sneaking back into your window.”

  “Cash. That was at like five o’clock this morning—why were you just getting home?”

  “Duty called.” He lay back on my pillows, throwing his hands behind his head like he didn’t have a care in the world. “But I came here to talk about you, not me.”

  I shook my head sadly, joining him on my bed. “Beau and I are back together.”

  He smirked. “I assumed that was the case when you climbed out of the tree house wearing a see-through slip.”

  I backhanded him. “Creeper.”

  “You saved Landry’s ass this morning.”

  “Yeah. Well. It was time for us to come clean, stop sneaking around and lying about our past. Those lies, they were just weighing us down, you know?” I rolled on my side, looking at my younger cousin who acted more like my older brother.

  “Believe me, Hales. I know.” We were both silent for a few minutes, content to be in each other’s presence. “He asked me to take care of you before he left.”

  I pursed my lips and felt my eyebrows draw together. “Beau?”

  “He woke me up at the ass-crack of dawn, took me out on the four-wheelers.” He stared up at the ceiling and moved his hands to rest on his toned stomach. “He told me he was leaving and that I needed to look out for you. He told me to make sure that you laughed and that you lived. That you didn’t cry over him.”

  “He shouldn’t have asked that of you. That wasn’t fair.”

  Cash turned, meeting my gaze. “I’d have done it anyway. I’ll always be here if you need me, Hales. You’re my big sister and I love you. ’Til the end?”

  ’Til the end—it was something he and Crue had said since they were young, but up until tonight I’d only heard them say it to each other. It was special; it was a twin thing.

  I smiled, placing a loving kiss on his shoulder. “’Til the end.”

  I was worried about him and his brother, worried that their lies were coming between them. They’d always been so close, so bonded.

  But I could see it starting to unravel, and it was breaking my heart.

  Chapter Thirty

  Beau

  Three days later

  Saturday—the night of my gallery opening in downtown Austin. Things at the compound were tense, to say the least. Halen had even
tually gone home on Thursday, but she hadn’t talked to her father. She said her mom was acting semi-normal, but her dad was simply ignoring her. Which, in my book, was a little better than him spending day in and day out pleading with her to dump me. I didn’t stay the night at her house, although sleeping without her next to me felt like a form of cruelty, but I didn’t want Uncle Dash to walk in and find us. This time it wasn’t about fear; it was about respect. I wanted to do things the right way. I wanted him to accept us. I wanted his support. And him opening his daughter’s bedroom door to find her naked in my arms didn’t seem like it would help matters.

  That’s not to say that we stayed away from each other. Halen helped me finish getting all my shots for the juxtaposition part of my show. She was my muse. She was my everything. We spent some time alone in the tree house. We’d watch the sun set and we’d get tangled up in each other until the moon was high in the sky. Then I’d walk her home, to her front door, not her window.

  And through it all, I figured out a way to finally explain my love for her to her father. To my Uncle Dash. In a way that he would be able to understand, in a way that would hopefully make him forgive me. And give us his blessing.

  “You nervous?” Halen walked up behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist. Her heels made her tall enough to put her chin on my shoulder.

  I turned in her embrace, kissing her lips. “Not now.” I put my hands on her hips, holding her at arm’s length so I could rake my eyes down her sexy body. “You look edible, Sweets.” She was wearing tall black heels with a super-short black dress made out of soft silk. Her hair was full and wavy, her makeup heavy. She looked like she just stepped off a runway. I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and take her home. “Keeping my hands off of you for the next three hours is going to be difficult.”

  Her grin was wicked, and it held all kinds of dirty promises. “Why are you always assuming I want you to keep your hands to yourself?” She pressed her body against mine; my hard-on lay against her lower stomach. “No more secrets, right?”

  I dipped down and kissed her lips, because I could. Because she was right and we no longer had to hide. I could touch her. I could hold her hand. And it made me feel dizzy. “Mm. Kiss me again.”

  She laughed, but complied. “This show is really amazing, Beau.” She looked around the cavernous space, taking in the large prints filling the smooth white walls. “How you managed to pull all this together in three days, I’ll never know.”

  I had no choice. This was the only way that I could make her dad see, literally see what his daughter meant to me. Instead of only New Orleans, I used images from my whole two years on the road. Images I’d never used, most of which Aunt Lexi hadn’t seen before either. They were in black and white, and they were all things I saw firsthand. Things I’d been part of. Things that gave truth to how completely hollow I’d felt. Empty liquor bottles turned sideways on a coffee table; a shattered mirror with my blood dripping down its fractured length; my head in my hands, my fingers pulling at my hair. I didn’t chronicle the darkness of the world; I chronicled the darkness inside me. And I was letting everyone experience it.

  “These shots are all really great, man.” Cash came up and slung his arm around Halen’s neck. “You’re gorgeous, Hales.”

  She kissed his cheek loudly. “Thanks, Crue. Oh wait, you’re Cash, right?” She shrugged. “It’s just so darn hard to tell these days.”

  He rolled his eyes and let his arm fall to his side. “It’s complicated.”

  “It’s really not.” If he thought I’d ever be on his side in this, he was wrong. “You’re trading your happiness for Crue and Avory’s.”

  “And getting caught would be catastrophic for all of you.” Halen added, taking him by the shoulders and shaking him.

  “I won’t do it forever.” Cash looked across the gallery to where Crue was standing with Jett and Avory. “They just need a little more time.” He met Halen’s eyes. “I told them they had ’til the end of this school year. The switch-ups stop on the last day of school. I promise.” He pulled the silver flask from his pocket and took a long pull as he strode away.

  The large glass entrance door swung open and my Uncle Dash walked in, Uncle Smith and Aunt Dilly beside him. I watched as his eyes scanned the walls. I watched as they went from narrowed to wide open. I watched his jaw as it unclenched and then dropped.

  “He’s here.” Halen put her hand in mind, squeezing it tightly.

  “I know.” I didn’t take my gaze off of him. I wanted to see his reaction. I wanted to see if I could change his mind.

  Beside every dark sordid image, there was another. Its opposite. An image filled with light, color, and love. And every one of them was Halen. Her giggling, and her smiling. Her looking at me over an obviously bare shoulder with that wicked little gleam in her eye. There were pictures of us from before, pictures of us when we were still sneaking around. Things we’d never shared with our parents. Pictures of us laying on the pallet in the treehouse, laughing into the lens; pictures of us sitting on that fallen oak tree, our back to the camera and the sun setting in front of us.

  Pictures on Halen’s hands forming a heart over her stomach.

  I waited with Halen’s palm securely in mine as her father made his way around the gallery. He looked at every picture. Every single one. And then he came to the back of the room, to where we were standing.

  “I love her. I have always and will always love Halen with every fiber of my being. I will never hurt her again. I swear to you. I’ll never hurt her again.”

  He took a deep, shaky breath, his eyes moving from mine to hers. “You look so beautiful in love, sweet girl.” Halen let go of my hand and threw her arms around her father. He hugged her back, his gaze still on me. “We all make mistakes when we’re young.” I nodded and he held his arm out. “Come here, bud.”

  I chuckled and let my girlfriend’s father, the man I’d always thought of as my uncle, hug me.

  ***

  Halen and I were lying in the tree house. Not because we had to, but because we wanted to. Our shoes were in the corner and I’d thrown her dress out the window. We hadn’t had sex yet; I’d just wanted to feel her skin. I wanted to touch her and know that she was mine.

  “I can’t believe every piece sold tonight.” I’d been lucky. I’d always had successful opening nights. But not like this one. Of course not all the images had been for sale. I’d sold the black and whites. I’d sold the darkness. The light, I’d kept for myself. No one else would get to own Halen like that.

  “I believe it. You’re so talented, Beau.” Halen’s head was resting on my chest and her fingers were tracing lazily up and down my stomach.

  “Your mom asked if I would come home and work full time for the art department at the label.” I kissed the top of her head, taking a moment to breathe in her sweet scent.

  “Really? What did you say?”

  “I told her that I would, at least until you finished school.” I grinned when she sat up and met my eyes, a smile on her gorgeous face.

  “And then what are you going to do?”

  “Then we are going to do whatever we want. If you want to move, we’ll move. Travel? Explore? Whatever you want, we’ll do it.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “As long as I get you, nothing else matters.”

  “We’re going to have to move into the tree house then. My dad is being supportive, but I think the two of sharing a bed in his house is pushing it.”

  Uncle Dash had given us his blessing. But Halen was right; we couldn’t live at her house. I knew we could probably live at mine, but I wanted more than that. I wanted to have Halen all to myself. I wanted to kiss her and hold her. I wanted rainy days on the couch and nights sitting on our own patio sipping wine by candlelight. I wanted a life with her. I knew she was still young, and I’d meant what I’d said. If she wanted to see the world, I’d show it to her. Anything her big heart desired was hers for the asking. But right now she needed to finish school.
“I was thinking about building us a house here on the compound.”

  Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. We could build on the other side of the tank.” I sat up, looking out the window. “Even if we don’t live here forever, this place will always be where our family is. It wouldn’t be bad to have a house here regardless.” Like a home base.

  She nodded. “I think that is a great idea. You could build your own studio and turn my mom’s into a bigger space for the art department.”

  “We should keep that desk though.” I winked as I lowered my body back down on top of hers. “We marked it—it’s ours.”

  She snorted. “I’m pretty sure my mom had that desk custom built.”

  “I doubt she’d still want it if she knew.”

  “She wouldn’t. But we’re never going to tell her, right?”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Beau

  “Halen and I are going to build a house on the other side of the compound.” I hadn’t planned on announcing that over dinner the following night. But Halen was sitting next to me and she’d put her hand in my lap under the table, her palm dangerously close to my dick. The words had come out in a strangled yell.

  She snorted and I sent her a desperate look. She removed her hand.

  I turned my attention to Uncle Dash. “Is that okay with you guys? Can we use some of the land to build our own place?”

  “Of course you can.” It was my mom who answered. “In fact, we’re hoping that eventually all of you will want a place here. I know that not everyone will live here forever, but we had all hoped this would always feel like home to you guys.”

  That morning I’d started doing research, calling around to different builders. I wanted to see several designs, meet with a few architects. I wanted the house to be perfect. “Thanks. Halen still has a few years of school and—”

  “You two aren’t getting married, are you?” My dad looked between us, his nose scrunched like he didn’t really love the idea.