I stood up. “With that said, I have to get going. Julia is waiting for me.”
“Okay,” Cherry said, jumping up too. “I’m sorry she wasn’t here.”
“Next time,” I said.
“Hopefully,” Carolyn said.
I looked down at her and curled my lip.
She only acted that way with me. Older than me yet acting like a pain in the ass little sister.
“Love you, Cherry,” I said.
She met me around the table and hugged and kissed me.
I shook hands with Gary again.
And then for good measure, I waved my middle finger at Carolyn and then got the hell out of there before Cherry could hit me or make me eat more pepper.
I left the house with a smile on my face.
But it quickly faded when I got into my truck.
It was time to get an answer out of Julia…
* * *
I walked up on the deck and Julia was on her perch. Which I kept to myself, calling it that, loving the way she looked as she leaned against the railing, smoking, staring at the ocean. It was her little dream and it came to life. And the best part about that little dream was that she did it herself. On her own terms. Her own way. Which meant she didn’t owe anyone a thing.
That made her strong, crazy in a beautiful way, and it made me love her.
I stood at the middle of the deck and crossed my arms.
“You know I’m here, right, sweetheart?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. She looked back at me and smiled. “Not scaring me this time.”
“Not trying to scare you. Cherry sends her love. She made me eat black pepper. But when Gary cursed, she let him slide. Probably because she’s sleeping with him. Never thought I’d see the day…”
“You sound jealous,” Julia said.
“Maybe I am,” I said. “Protective of the woman who was like a mother to me. A grandmother to me. I don’t know. You missed one hell of a dinner and dessert though. How was the bakery?”
Julia turned all the way around and reached for her cigarettes.
She had a cigarette in her mouth as she started to take another one out.
That’s when I walked closer to her.
“Is that one for me or are you flustered?” I asked.
She realized what she was doing and said, “Shit.”
I reached and took the cigarette from between her lips. “What’s going on, sweetheart?”
“Jett…”
“My guess is you weren’t at the bakery,” I said. “And that’s fine. I won’t tell Cherry you bailed on her. But things feel off right now. And I need to know what’s happening here. If we’re moving too fast. Or you’re getting worried about things…”
“No,” she said.
“I meant everything I said to you. And I’m not going to keep that inside, sweetheart. And that doesn’t mean you have to say anything back to me. I’m in an all or nothing position here.”
“Jett, please stop talking,” she said.
I shut my mouth.
She looked at me and the sadness in her eyes was so incredible.
The last time her eyes looked like that…
My gaze moved down to her left hip. Where she had a tattoo.
The story about that tattoo…
“I’m a little stuck here, Jett,” Julia said.
“With what?” I asked.
“Everything. Every time I stand up or take a step… it’s like… a curse. What if I’m cursed? What if you’re cursed? What if us together is a curse?”
“A curse? What are you, a witch? What the hell are you talking about?”
Julia blinked fast. I knew those blinks too.
I got close to her mouth and realized it wasn’t just cigarette smoke on her breath.
Fuck.
She’s home alone, drinking…
“What happened before? Huh? Do I need to rattle off the names of those who died?”
My heart felt like a thousand spikes were driven into it at once.
“You’re sitting home, alone, drinking… thinking about this again?” I whispered. “Without me? Drawing your own conclusions on things? If you feel that way…”
“It’s not a feeling,” she said. “It’s the truth, Jett. They all died.”
“Not all of them,” I said.
She knew who I was referring too.
We weren’t together when Azel…
I turned away and ran a hand through my hair.
“Kinney’s in town, Jett.”
My heart went ice cold.
“What?” I asked, turning to face Julia again.
“He sent me a text,” she said. “The night… at your pool… and then he showed up. He said he’s passing through town. To help Aira’s mother with something. Typical bullshit with that family.”
“So your ex comes to town and you’re all torn up?” I asked.
“Jett…”
“Just curious about that, sweetheart. And you planned on hiding that from me for how long?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” she said. “I’m thinking. About everything. Okay?”
“What’s there to think about?” I asked. “And you are hiding. You didn’t want me to come over the other night. And then you disappeared early in the morning. Now you’re lying to me about staying at the bakery. I had to sit there and pretend like everything was okay. Is it okay?”
“You just said you were pretending… so you pretend with me?”
“Do you? With me? What are you doing with him? Playing the bouncing game again?”
Julia nodded. “There it is, Jett. That’s why I didn’t say anything. So I’m instantly a whore, right?”
“I never said that.”
“You just asked if I was fucking him.”
The pain in my heart and the ice through my veins collided together to create anger.
“What do you think I’m going to ask, Julia?”
“I don’t know what you’re going to do. That’s the problem.”
“So you’re just assuming my actions and punishing me for them in advance,” I said. “That’s fantastic. Just what I needed to hear and go through right now.”
“And I need this?” Julia yelled. She took a step and swayed to the right.
She’s drunk, brother. Remember that. There is no conversation here. She needs to go sleep it off and you two can talk tomorrow.
I heard the voice in my head.
I ignored it.
“What do you need? Or not need? That guy shows up for a cup of coffee and you’re drunk, falling apart?”
“Fuck you, Jett,” she said. “Don’t tell me how to think or feel.”
“Think or feel?” I said. “First off, I never told you how to think or feel. But since you have things to think and feel about… enjoy it. You can call me tomorrow when you’re fucking sobered up.”
I walked to the steps and paused.
My teeth were gritted together so hard I thought they were going to shatter.
I looked over my shoulder at Julia and watched her try to take two steps.
Her legs crossed for some damn reason and down she went.
The sound of her right knee smacking the wood of the deck echoed.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
I hurried to be by her side.
“Sweetheart…”
She swung her arms. “Get away from me! You don’t understand anything, Jett.”
I grabbed her right hand. “Then make me understand.”
“You can’t understand anything. It’ll make you mad. It’ll hurt you.”
“I already am hurt and mad, sweetheart,” I said.
Julia lifted her head. Tears slid down her cheeks.
I managed to wrap my other arm around her.
Fuck, I was so irritated. But I had to hold her. I needed to hold her. I wanted to hold her.
“I married him, Jett,” she said in a broken, choked up voice. “I married him. And it was all a blur. My heart aching for you. Lying to my
self and everyone in my life. But that’s all I ever did, right? I lied to him about you. I lied to myself when he cheated. I lost you. I lied to myself when he showed up again. All I do is lie… and lie… and lie…”
I sucked in a deep breath. “So stop lying, Julia. Say what you want and go get it.”
She melted into me a little more. Her drunks sobs gone. Her eyes shut.
I sat there.
The tough guy asshole who loved to fight for fun.
The prick who (with Scotty, of course) would find a way to start something just to be able to say I kicked someone’s ass.
And now I was holding Julia as she was a mess.
Over her ex showing up.
“It’s just…,” she whispered. “It’s… things… unfinished… that’s all… just unfinished…”
My instinct told me to let her go and walk away.
She had unfinished things with Kinney?
Then go finish them…
I fought the urge to leave.
I knew what happened the last time I left her.
Chapter 9
THEN
Julia
I walked through the front door of the house and started biting my nails. Sneaking through the foyer, almost wishing nobody would see me.
But it was impossible.
Kinney was in the kitchen, laughing thanks to a couple martinis. I knew his martini laugh.
Weird. But whatever.
I slowly approached the kitchen and when Kinney saw me, he put his glass down and pointed to me.
“There she is,” he said. “The beautiful bride!”
A few people looked at me.
My face turned red.
I didn’t know who the people were.
“Come here, Pretty J,” Kinney said. “I want you to meet some old friends of mine.”
I walked behind the bar in the middle of the kitchen.
Kinney put his arm around me and kissed my head.
“You smell like the bakery,” he said.
“That’s where I’m coming from,” I said. “I didn’t know we were having company. I apologize for my appearance.”
“Nothing we can’t forget,” Kinney said. “This is Darryl, Plumpy Pete, and Stan.”
“Plumpy Pete?” I asked.
“Great story,” Kinney said. “I was in Oregon. And I met Plumpy Pete at a retreat.”
“It was a yoga retreat,” Plumpy Pete said. “But in reality it was an I’m-too-fat-to-get-laid-and-I-need-help retreat for me.”
They all laughed.
I smiled.
“I held the retreat,” Darryl said.
He looked like the kind of guy that would do yoga.
“And I was just a rich bastard trying to prove a point that yoga was stupid,” Stan said.
“And we all bonded,” Kinney said. “Obviously, Plumpy over here did a hell of a job on himself, huh?”
I nodded. “Looks great.”
“Not just yoga,” Plumpy Pete said as he patted his flat stomach over his shirt.
“I orchestrated this mess,” Kinney said. “Made us all friends.”
“You were annoying,” Darryl said.
“I respected it though,” Stan said. “He knew everyone’s names and knew how to work everyone over. That’s why I gave him the time of day.”
“And that time of day allowed all of you to make a fuck ton of money too,” Kinney said.
“Namaste,” Darryl said with a wink.
They all laughed again.
I didn’t bother to smile.
They were… dorks.
I hated myself for judging them.
But this was what it had become.
Day after day of more people showing up for the wedding.
The douchebags from the baseball team had shown up but only for the bachelor party. Kinney came home drunk, covered in glitter, and smelled like body odor and cheap body spray. He apologized and said they took him to a strip club and made him get lap dances all night. Then he paid for some big ass trip for me and my girlfriends to go on for my bachelorette party.
I didn’t go.
I worked.
There was no need for that kind of thing.
I didn’t need some buff dude wiggling his wanker in a hot dog thong, telling me he was going to arrest me for being a bad girl.
“Did you hear me, Pretty J?” Kinney asked.
“Oh, shit. Sorry. I was dazed there. I’m… tired…”
“I said Darryl owns several resorts throughout the PNW,” Kinney said.
“What’s that?”
“Pacific Northwest,” Darryl said with a half grin.
“Oh. Right.”
“He’s always looking for help with food, right?” Kinney asked.
“Of course,” Darryl said.
I opened my mouth but nothing came out.
“You’re getting married,” Darryl said. He waved a hand. “We can talk about that some other time.”
“Then come talk to me,” Stan said. “So I can offer you something real. This clown over here will convince you to work for free for the good of Mother Earth. All the while he’s rolling in cash.”
“And don’t look at me,” Plumpy Pete said. “I have to stay gluten free, sugar free, no dairy…”
“Boring,” Darryl said and he stuck out his tongue.
I looked up at Kinney and he winked at me.
“I’m going to go take a shower,” I whispered. “I feel gross.”
“You look it,” Kinney said with a grin.
“You should have told me they were coming.”
“Whispers all around,” Plumpy Pete said. “She must be pissed we’re here.”
“I’m not pissed,” I said.
“Whoa, take it easy over there, tiger,” Stan said.
Kinney laughed.
I broke away from him and took the really high road.
“It was nice to meet you all. Try not to get Kinney into too much trouble.”
“Are you kidding me?” Darryl said. “He’s the troublemaker.”
“Not even close,” Kinney said.
They all started laughing again.
It was like nails on a chalkboard to me.
I got out of the kitchen and paused to catch my breath.
I heard Stan say, “She’s a little… a… you know…”
He made a cat’s meow sound.
“Nah,” Kinney said. “Pre-wedding jitters. That’s all. I’ll have it all locked down soon enough. Then I can start traveling again.”
“She’s going with you?” Plumpy Pete asked.
“Once I get the bakery shut down,” Kinney said. “That won’t be hard. No more hobby stuff, you know?”
I walked away for good.
Kinney was always a dick when he got around his friends.
All hot air.
But the traveling thing…
I really hadn’t thought about it.
What was he going to do? Marry me and then take off?
I sighed as I walked up the steps.
I just wanted a hot shower.
And to rewind time a few years for obvious reasons.
* * *
“You know, I really liked that first wedding dress,” Kinney said.
We were in bed, in the dark, the glow of the TV with the volume turned way down.
“Oh?” I asked.
“Just that tattoo…”
I turned my head. “I don’t get that. You’re a hippy kind of guy, right? You travel. You went to a yoga retreat. Why the hate for tattoos?”
“It’s so forever,” he said. “I mean, you’re ruining your body. I know it sounds weird coming from me. I look the part to be a dude with fifty tattoos. I wear a lot of bracelets but they all have meaning.”
“So do tattoos,” I said.
“And that faded, smiling moon at the middle of your back has a meaning?” Kinney asked.
I didn’t answer.
Yes it has meaning, you fuck head. It was my first tattoo. A
nd maybe it’s not perfect but oh well. I remember being scared to get it done. And the only way I got it done was by looking at Jett. He kept making silly faces at me just to piss me off enough that I forgot about the pain from the tattoo.
“I think it’s stupid,” I said. “You’re worried about a tattoo. And it’s my wedding dress.”
“And it’s our wedding. And those pictures are forever. You want our grandkids to see that?”
I laughed. “That’s what you’re thinking about?”
“The future is everything,” Kinney said. “But I love the dress you have.”
“I always thought it was bad luck to see the dress.”
“If I’m paying for a dress, I’m going to look at it,” Kinney said. “Plus, it’s bad luck to see the bride in the dress before the wedding.”
“Oh. Right. Of course.”
Kinney went silent and then changed the subject. “So how about Darryl and Stan?”
“What about them?” I asked.
“Their offers to you.”
“Offers?”
Kinney looked at me. “Were you not listening?”
“I didn’t know I was getting offers.”
“Julia… this is a big move for you. And us. You can run all of Darryl’s resorts. And then you can work with Stan…”
“On what?” I asked.
“You really want to just run that bakery? That’s it? That’s your life?”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I yelled.
“I’m sorry,” Kinney said. “Not the time and place.”
I threw the covers off of my body. “I’m going for a walk. I can’t believe this.”
“I’m just looking out for us,” Kinney said. “We can travel, work, enjoy life. I feel like you’re stuck here. I know what the place means to you. I know all of it, Julia. Please don’t be that mad at me. I’m sorry if I came off aggressive.”
“I just want to go for a walk,” I said.
“You’re going to smoke a cigarette.”
My face filled with heat. “What?”
“I know you’re smoking again,” Kinney said. “I’m chalking it up to the wedding. But once we’re married…”
He shook his head.
I swallowed hard.
Oh, of course. Yes, Master. Want me to make you fucking dinner and rub your feet too?
I walked through the large house Kinney insisted that we rent.
HIDDEN CREEK NOW: a hidden creek high novel Page 7
