Had she lost her mind? Her mama would throw a fit if she knew Tully was getting a second mortgage on her house. Mama was so proud of her for saving up for the down payment. So was Daddy. If they knew she was throwing away all that hard work on a bar—along with the money her daddy had chipped in—they’d be livid.
And they had every right to be.
It was crazy.
And yet, she couldn’t stop herself from doing it.
Honky Tonk Heaven had to be resurrected. Whether it was because of the stories she’d grown up listening to or, like Jaxon had pointed out, her repressed wild side, she didn’t know. All she knew was that it had to reopen.
It just had to.
But that didn’t explain what she was doing traipsing along the river with a half-naked Hennessy in her Sunday clothes. It was obvious by the sour expression on Jaxon’s face he wasn’t happy about her tagging along.
“Who built this treeboat?” she asked, then promptly tripped over a tree root.
Jaxon took her arm and righted her. “It was Huck’s idea to build the raft, but we all worked on it. When it didn’t float, Daddy came up with the idea to put it in a tree.”
She didn’t remember much about the Hennessys’ father. But she did remember seeing him one time at a county fair with his kids. He’d had Poppy on his shoulders and was holding Huck’s hand, while Dawson and Jaxon walked along beside him. He’d said something that made all the kids laugh and as they’d walked past, he’d grinned and winked at Tully. He’d looked like Jaxon did now.
Except happier.
She followed a scowling Jaxon up the riverbank to a clearing with a pecan tree right in the center. The biggest tree she’d ever seen in her life. Its trunk was massive as were the branches that reached up to the sky. In the thick foliage, she could just make out dilapidated-looking structures on almost every branch. When she got closer, she realized just how high up the Hennessys had built their tree boat . . . terrifyingly high.
“Hey!” Jaxon yelled and three Hennessy heads appeared over the edge of the lower level.
“Ahoy, Tully!” Huck yelled down. “You coming aboard?”
Before she could decline, Poppy spoke. “Are you kidding? The sheriff’s little princess isn’t coming up here. She’s too prissy for a cool treeboat.”
Tully pushed down her fear, grabbed onto the rope ladder, and started to climb. She might have been just fine if her sandal hadn’t slipped off. She watched as it fell all the way to the ground and bounced next to Jaxon’s bare feet.
He looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow. “Trying to kill me again, Officer Gentry?”
She couldn’t answer. Not when every muscle in her body was frozen with fear. All she could do was hang there, clutching the unstable rope in a death grip and staring down at the ground . . . imagining her body lying at Jaxon’s feet like her shoe.
“Tully?” Jaxon said. “You okay?”
“I think that would be a no, Jax.” Dawson’s voice came from above her. “If her white-knuckled grip on the rope ladder is any indication, I’d say she has a fear of heights.”
“Yep,” Poppy said. “I have to agree. And unless you want to see your girlfriend’s bones crack like an eggshell, Jax, you need to quit looking up her dress and get your ass up the ladder and save her.”
“Shit!” Jaxon stepped onto the ladder, causing it to sway and Tully to release a squeak of fear as she closed her eyes and waited to fall to her death. Instead, only seconds later, she was surrounded by tattooed arms and a warm, hard body.
“I got you, Tallulah.” His warm breath fell against her ear. “All you need to do is take one step at a time up the ladder.”
She shook her head. “Up? I’d rather go back down.”
“It’s closer to the top. Now slip off your other sandal so you’ll be more stable, then just take one rung at a time.”
With her body trembling, she did what he said and slipped off her sandal and let it drop before she stepped up to the next rung. Jaxon followed, his bare chest brushing her bare back and causing her to feel even more lightheaded than she already was.
“Good girl. You’re doing great.”
“Good girl?” Poppy said. “If you don’t punch him for that condescending misogynistic name, Tully, I will.”
“Shut up, Poppy.” Jaxon rested his hand over Tully’s and squeezed. “You got this, Tallulah. You’re just a few rungs away from the top.”
“All she needs is one, Jax,” Dawson said. “Then I got her.”
