Page 8 of Promise Me a Forever Texas Love

He’d come back for the money.

Huck had always dreamed about being rich. When they were kids, he’d come up with one plan right after the other for making that dream come true. In third grade, he’d made a divining rod out of a tree root, and they’d spent most of the summer wandering around her ranch looking for a good spot to start digging for oil. They’d done a lot of digging that summer . . . until her daddy’s horse had stepped into one of their holes and broken its leg.

That put a stop to that moneymaking scheme.

In seventh grade, Huck decided developing video games was the way to strike it rich. They’d spent all their study time in the computer lab working on a ninja warrior game . . . until a teacher discovered the graphic Huck had electronically fabricated for the female ninja. Catia looked suspiciously like Cadee. Except with huge boobs that were barely covered by her leather ninja sports bra.

Their freshman year, he’d been convinced Bitcoin was the way to strike it rich. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any money to buy it. Which was probably a good thing. Soon after that scheme, he seemed to lose interest in getting rich quick. Probably because he’d gotten big enough, if not old enough, to help at Honky Tonk Heaven. The long hours he spent at the bar seemed to suck the dream of striking it rich right out of him.

And now, just when all the hard work he’d done for his mama had paid off, Cadee was taking his inheritance.

It wasn’t fair.

But life wasn’t fair.

Opening the door, she hopped down from her truck and headed to the white clapboard building with its tall church steeple. The steeple had been added to the dancehall in the early nineteen hundreds when the town church had burned down, forcing the townsfolk to worship at the same place they partied. While the fire had destroyed most of the dancehall, the steeple had remained unharmed. Something the townsfolk viewed as a divine miracle.

This was the first time Cadee been to Honky Tonk Heaven since Huck had left town. Before that, she’d spent almost all her time at the dancehall. Usually during the day when it wasn’t open. But when Huck started working nights, he’d occasionally sneak her in the back door and let her hide in the storage room where they kept the boxes of liquor and bottled beer.

She’d peek out the cracked door and watch folks two-step across the solid oak dance floor, cowboys down shots at the long mahogany bar, and Huck and his brothers haul out one belligerent drunk after another.

That’s when she’d started seeing Huck differently.

At night at the dancehall, her fun-loving friend with the easy smile turned into a hot bouncer with tummy-dropping biceps that flexed beneath the sleeves of his T-shirts. While he always tried to talk hotheads and drunks into leaving without a fight, he didn’t hesitate to get physical if they didn’t listen. The sight of him strong-arming cowboys out of the bar had set her hormonal teenage body on fire.

She fantasized about him using those muscular arms to carry her away to a happily ever after.

But that was just a young girl’s fanciful dream.

Reality didn’t work like that.

Taking a deep breath, Cadee pulled open the front door.

As soon as she stepped inside, memories assailed her. She and Huck sitting at the long, highly polished bar on a hot summer day, drinking ice-cold bottles of Coke through a straw. Standing at the glowing jukebox fighting over what country song to play. Sliding across the slick oak dance floor in their stocking feet . . . and when they were older, Huck teaching her how to two-step and getting after her every time she stepped on his toes.

“You never could stay off my toes.”

The low, husky voice pulled her gaze from the dance floor to the man who sat at a table in the corner. Since the only light came from the jukebox and the lights above the bar, she couldn’t see his face. But the wayward sprig of hair sticking up gave him away. He was slouched back against the wall with his boots up on the table and his arms crossed over his chest. She started to ask him how long he’d been waiting but then remembered that she wasn’t there for meaningless conversation.

“I’m not going to stop contesting the will, Huck. There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. So if that’s⁠—”

His boots hitting the floor cut her off and the chair legs scraped against the floor as he came to his feet. It was a struggle to keep from taking a step back when he strode toward her and stopped only inches away, his eyes a dark golden pissed off.

“I didn’t invite you here to talk about a fucking will, Cadee! Jesus! What kind of person do you think I am?”

Her own anger snapped. “The kind that runs like a scalded cat when he learns he’s a father—the kind that did the same thing to his best friend!”

She watched the anger fade to something that looked a lot like hurt before he turned abruptly and headed for the bar. She should have left. Instead, she followed and sat down on a barstool, watching as Huck retrieved something from the cooler behind the bar. She expected him to pull out a bottle of beer. Lord knows she could have used one . . . or something much stronger. Instead, he pulled out two bottles of Coke and effortlessly flipped off the caps with the opener on the side—something she’d seen him do a thousand times before. He left out the straws and set one on the bar in front of her before leaning against the back counter and taking a long pull of the other.

It was impossible to look away from his mustached lip pressing against the rim of the bottle or his Adam’s apple sliding up and down in his tanned throat as he swallowed. She was still staring when he lowered the bottle and looked at her.

“Does he know I’m his father?”

Guilt rose to her throat and she lifted the Coke and took two deep swallows. It didn’t help. Her voice still sounded choked when she spoke. “I didn’t think you were ever coming back, and I couldn’t see the point in telling him. Or the townsfolk. After all the trouble y’all got into as kids, the Hennessy Hooligans aren’t exactly high on their list.”

Not that she had ever cared about the town’s approval, but her daddy had. Which is why she’d hidden her friendship with Huck from her family until she’d gotten pregnant and confided in Cooper, her oldest brother.

She hadn’t been mad at him for telling her mama and Callum—her daddy had been gone by then. She’d needed their support, not only emotionally but also financially. They’d given it to her with no strings attached . . . except one: that she would keep Camden’s father’s identity a secret. Since she’d been pissed at Huck for deserting her so easily, she’d gone along with their request.