Tully stared at her. “That’s all you’ve got for me?”
“What did you expect? You expect me to wave a magic wand and fix everything? Make Jaxon love you. Make your daddy be happy with you quitting your job. Make the fire never happen and you get your beloved Honky Tonk Heaven.” She grunted. “That’s not how life works, Tully, and you know it. There’s no magic potion for getting through life without trials and tribulations and hard decisions. It’s how you face those trials and hard decisions that count. How are you going to face yours? Are you going to hide out at your grandma’s and cry in your sweet tea? Or are you going to face them head on and hurdle all obstacles to get what you want out of life?”
“And what if I can’t get what I want?”
Birdie shrugged. “Then you accept it and move on to the next dream. There’s a whole big world out there, filled with enough dreams for everyone to have plenty more if their first dreams don’t work out quite like they thought they would.” She headed down the porch steps. “Tell your daddy when you see him that he needs to come look at my air conditioner. I about fried my butt off last night.”
Tully sat there and watched her grandmother head back to the tractor. Birdie had once told her that she’d never dreamed about owning a cotton farm. That had been Granddaddy’s dream. After a turbulent childhood, Granny’s dream had been to find peace. She had just been lucky that her dream and Granddaddy’s had coincided.
Tully couldn’t see her and Jaxon’s dreams ever coinciding. He didn’t love Honky Tonk Heaven like she did. She wasn’t even sure he loved her. If he did, he would have trusted her enough to tell her about Dawson driving his truck that night. Although how could she blame him for that when she had been keeping her own secrets? When she’d been hiding their relationship from everyone? She had only meant to keep their relationship a secret so as not to have to deal with the fallout when he left. But now she knew how that had made Jaxon feel.
Like a dirty little secret.
Why would he want to tell someone who wasn’t strong enough to admit to the townsfolk who she loved that he loved her?
The epiphany made her want to sob all over again.
But Birdie was right. She couldn’t solve anything by sitting there crying in her tea.
It was time to stiffen her shoulders and fight for what she wanted.
When Tully stepped into her daddy’s office, she felt like she’d felt the time she’d gotten caught stealing the Nutty Buddy. Her stomach was nothing but a knot of nerves and her heart ached at just the thought of the disappointment she was about to see in her daddy’s eyes. It was a good thing she hadn’t been able to eat that morning or it would have come right back up when he looked up from the report he was reading.
“I thought you went out to the farm to eat lunch with your grandmother.”
“I did, but I didn’t stay for lunch.” She paused. “There’s something I need to talk to you about, Daddy. In fact, there are a lot of things I need to talk to you about.”
His brow crinkled before he took off his reading glasses and nodded at the chair in front of his desk. “Okay. I’m listening.”
She took a seat and pulled off her hat, fidgeting with the brim. “The thing is . . . I don’t want to be a law officer.” She thought she’d see shock, or disappoint, or hurt in his eyes.
Instead, she only saw relief.
“Thank God.” He tipped his head back and closed his eyes while she stared at him.
“You’re happy I want to quit?”
He opened his eyes and sighed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Tully, but . . . yes.”
“But I thought you wanted me to follow in your footsteps.”
“I thought I did too until you became my deputy. Then I realized how nerve wrecking it is to have to send your daughter into possibly dangerous situations. I don’t sleep a wink when you’re on night patrol.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I thought it was what you wanted. And I’ve always wanted you to be happy. So if you don’t want to work in law enforcement, what do you want to do?”
“Well, that depends on how much damage was done in the fire.”
His brow knitted. “The fire at Honky Tonk Heaven? I don’t understand. What does that have to do with your career choice?”
She swallowed hard. “I took out a second mortgage on my house and gave the money to the Hennessys to renovate the dancehall in the hopes they’d give me a share of Honky Tonk Heaven. Or sell it to me.”
This time his reaction wasn’t as calm. He came out of his chair and bellowed over his desk. “You did what!”
“Calm down, Daddy. I realize you’re upset, but as you taught me, yelling doesn’t solve anything.”
He stared at her in disbelief and she knew he wanted to holler at her again. Instead, he sat back down and closed his eyes. After a few deep breaths, he opened them and spoke in a low, even voice that was even scarier.
