Huck stared at him. “You know I always thought you were so damn smart, but you’re sure dumb where women are concerned. Tully wasn’t upset over the dancehall catching fire. She’s upset over you, Jax. Upset that you haven’t even tried to talk to her since the night of the fire. And why is that? With the way you look at her, I thought for sure you’d fallen for her.”
He had. He’d fallen hard. But that wasn’t enough.
“Sometimes you need more than love to make things work, Huck.”
“Like what?”
“Like your families’ approval. Her daddy is never going to accept me. Hell, she couldn’t even tell him we were seeing each other.”
“Well, she has now.”
He stared at Huck. “She told her daddy about us?”
“Yep. She also told him she wanted to quit the sheriff’s office and buy Honky Tonk Heaven. Although how she’s going to run it when she has absolutely no experience running a bar is beyond me.” Huck looked at Dawson. “What you think, Dawg? Should we stay on after she buys it and help her out?” He looked at Jaxon. “Seeing as how our big brother is too stupid to know a good opportunity when he sees it.”
Jaxon shook his head. “It’s not about me knowing a good thing. It’s about Tully refusing to know a bad one.”
“Ahh, now we’re getting to the nitty gritty. You think you’re not good enough for Tully.”
“I’m not. She needs someone who can love her the way she deserves to be loved. And I’m not sure I know how to love. Y’all should understand that.”
“Oh, I understand perfectly how fucked up our parents made us. But dammit, Jax. Why do you always have to be so negative? Can’t you for once just grab some happiness for yourself without thinking it to death?” Huck glanced at Dawson. “Can you help me out here, Dawg? Do you always have to just sit there like a bump on a log and let everyone else do all the talking?”
Dawson’s features darkened. “What the fuck do you want me to say, Huck? You want me to say that I know for sure Jaxon can make Tully happy? How would I know that? I’m not a fuckin’ crystal ball. What I do know is that Mama and Daddy did a great job of screwing us all up as far as love and relationships go. Daddy thought love was something you showed whenever it suited you and Mama . . . Mama was too scared to show love at all. Too scared that she’d give more than she got. The lucky bastard that I am, I got the same gene.”
Dawson turned to Jaxon. “But you didn’t, Jax. You’ve never been too scared to love. Which is why you were such a damn good parent to us. You wiped our snotty noses and took the blame for all our ornery stunts and never once stopped loving us. So I don’t understand why you think you can’t do the same with Tully. In fact, I was kind of counting on it. Just like I counted on you to teach me how to ride a bike and . . .” A smirk tipped his lips. “And start a good fire, I was counting on you to teach me how to be in a healthy relationship. Counting on you to be the first Hennessy to prove we could be a loving partner.”
He sat down and shrugged. “But if you can’t do that, you can’t do it. And unlike our overzealous brother, I’m certainly not going to try and talk you into it.” He picked up the book and opened it. “Now get the fuck off my deck, I’m trying to finish this shitty book.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“What do you want to do today?” Magnolia cut the last mini donut in half. She popped one half into her mouth before pushing the plate with the other half across the table to Tully. “We could go shopping in Dallas. We could give each other facials. We could go skinny-dipping in the river. Or we could just hang out in the bookstore and read smutty romance. I read that book with the tattooed bad boy, and let me tell you what, it was well worth the five hundred and twenty-six pages. That hockey player knew how to use his . . . stick.”
Before Tully could ask exactly how he used his stick, Arlene, one of the A-Sisters who ran Grounds For Divorce, showed up at the table to refill Tully’s coffee cup. “I dated a hockey player once.”
Adele yelled from behind the coffee counter. “Field hockey!”
“Field or ice, he still knew how to use his stick!” Arlene yelled back.
Maggie’s eyes twinkled with interest. “Was he one of your husbands, Arlene?” Maggie loved to hear the A-Sisters stories about their many husbands.
“No. He never proposed. And with good reason. I heard he married one of his teammates and they’re living happily ever after in Alabama.” Arlene stared out the front window. “Which explains so many things.” She snapped out of her thoughts and smiled at Tully and Magnolia. “You girls let me know if I can get you anything else.”
Once she was gone, Magnolia looked at Tully. “I wish the A-Sisters would write their memoirs. Now those would be good reads.” When Tully didn’t say anything, she sighed. “This was a bad idea, wasn’t it? I shouldn’t have forced you out of your house when it’s obvious you’re still in the mopey stage of your break up with Jaxon.”
Tully couldn’t argue the point. She was in the mopey stage. And even more so after going to the Hennessy’s house and offering the money she’d borrowed from Birdie to finish the renovations. She thought for sure Jaxon would contact her. If not to take her up on her offer, to at least thank her. But she hadn’t heard one word. Not a house call. Not a phone call. Not even a text.
Even after she deposited the money in Jaxon’s damn account!
Now she wasn’t just in the mopey stage. She was in the pissed-off stage.
Maybe she had acted like a little girl who couldn’t own up to what she wanted, but he was acting like an immature asshole who thought it was perfectly okay to ghost women he’d given multiple orgasms to. And not just orgasms, but cuddles and kisses and sweet words that had made her melt.
“He acted like he cared.” She popped the other half of the donut in her mouth and viciously chewed. “Really cared. But it was all a lie. And I should have seen it coming. Why would Jaxon Hennessy be interested in me when he could get any woman he wanted?”
Magnolia placed a hand on hers. “Maybe because you’re beautiful and smart and kind and have the best hair I’ve ever seen in my life. I’d sell my soul for your curls.”
“Thank you, but my point is that he just used me for the money to renovate Honky Tonk Heaven.”
