Huck and I once had something special between us. Something I could have sworn would stand the test of time and last forever.
I’d been naive back then. Now I knew there was no such thing as the true love they talked about in books and movies. And if Mustang Mountain wasn’t big enough to handle both of us, I was going to make damn sure I wouldn’t be the one leaving.
Convinced I could hold my own against him, I made my way over to the community center. Wrangling cats might be easier than trying to keep the Founders Festival vendors in check, but people were counting on me. My dad always said that no matter what was happening behind closed doors, you smile for the neighbors and wave from the porch.
So I did what I’d been taught. Straightened my spine. Pasted on a smile. And pretended Huck Barrett hadn’t just ripped open a wound I thought had healed a long time ago.
CHAPTER 5
HUCK
I should have stayed away,especially after clashing with Peyton yesterday afternoon, but I couldn’t. Guilt gnawed at me all night long and I finally gave up trying to sleep. As the sun started rising over the mountains, I pulled onto the festival grounds. If Franklin had been so casual about doing a shitty patch job on the house Peyton was trying to sell, I wondered if he’d cut corners on the festival job as well.
I didn’t have an excuse to stop by during the day, so I’d decided to sneak in and take a look before anyone showed up on the job site. For my own peace of mind, I told myself. Didn’t have anything to do with wanting to prove that Peyton had made the wrong call.
Hell, she wasn’t calling the shots anyway. I had no doubt her dad was behind her decision to give Franklin the job. He was probably getting a kickback.
Fuck it. The only thing I cared about was that the job was done right. Based on what Levi had been telling me, Mustang Mountain had experienced enough tragedy over the past two years. The last thing this town needed was to have something bad happen at the Founders Festival.
I could tell as soon as I got out of my truck that whoever had been working on the stage had been doing a crappy job. The concrete footings weren’t big enough around, and I suspected they hadn’t been poured deep enough either. No telling how they got that past inspection, but the work must have passed since someone had already started rebuilding the stage.
The more I looked around, the worse it got. The site was an accident waiting to happen. I’d wanted to make myself feel better by confirming that Franklin’s work wasn’t up to my standards, but what I saw violated almost every safety code. I couldn’t let it go. If I didn’t say anything and someone got hurt, I’d be just as liable as the assholes doing the shitty work.
I didn’t have any intention of getting involved, but it was too late. Someone needed to report what was happening, and it looked like that someone was me. Annoyed that I even gave a damn, I started snapping photos to document everything. I was almost done when someone else drove onto the site.
Crouching behind a stack of lumber, I waited to see who would get out of the truck that had just arrived. Finally, Ruby climbed down. She went around to the back and lowered the tailgate. I wasn’t going to be able to take off without her seeing me, so I didn’t even try.
“Hey, Ruby,” I called out as I came up behind her.
She startled. Her hand flew to her chest as she turned around. “Huck. Oh my gosh, you gave me quite a scare.”
“Didn’t mean to scare you. What are you doing out here so early?” A quick look at my watch showed it was a quarter to eight. I must have lost track of time while I wandered around because I had no intention of being there that long.
She patted her chest like she was trying to get her pulse to go back to normal. “I ended up with some extra banana bread at the Merc and figured I’d bring it out to the crew. I’m surprised no one’s here yet.”
“Yeah.” I rubbed at the back of my neck, wishing I’d taken off before she arrived. “I haven’t seen anyone out here this morning.”
“And what are you doing here?” Glasses tipped down, she peered at me over the top of her frames.
“Just checking in. I had a bad feeling about the job going to that Franklin guy. I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble, but I was looking around and the work isn’t up to code. Any suggestions on what I should do about that?”
“Not up to code? What do you mean?” She put her hand above her eyes to shield them from the sun and looked out over the site.
I pulled up the pictures I’d taken and went through them with Ruby, stopping to point out what should have been done versus how Franklin had done it.
When I finished, Ruby clamped her hands on her hips. “We’ve got to do something about this. Someone’s liable to get hurt if we don’t.”
“I couldn’t agree more. So you’ll report it?”
“Me? Oh heavens no. I wouldn’t know where to start. You need to tell someone, Huck.” She nodded, her head bouncing up and down like one of those bobble head dolls my dad used to have on the dash of his old pickup.
I’d thought about it, but if I reported Franklin, I’d look like I was just poking around, trying to find something to hold against him. “It can’t be me. Peyton will think I just came out here to find a reason to tell her she was doing everything wrong.”
“That woman’s been under a ton of pressure,” Ruby said. “She’s been trying to keep the vendors in line, squelching rumors that the festival’s in trouble, and worrying that we’re not going to make enough to break even. Everyone thinks they have a right to say how they think it should go, but Peyton’s the only one who’s been willing to roll up her sleeves and make it happen.”
That was just like her. She’d always been the first one to volunteer for something and often the only one who’d start a project and actually see it through. “She’s not a quitter.”
“No, she isn’t,” Ruby agreed.
