The Crown Jewels (50 page)

The woman he was yelling at was dressed in a black sequined dress, tall black heels and her blonde hair danced in wild curls around her face. She took off a shoe, throwing it at the man, hitting him in the shoulder.

“Fuck you, you abusive prick!” she yelled at him, her voice dripping with a thick, southern drawl. His eyes narrowed in anger and he took a menacing step towards her, his hand raised high over his head in a fist.

“Hey!” I yelled. He froze. His gaze traveled down the hall, and I felt his eyes rake over my tall frame, sizing me up before he turned and retreated back into his room.

“Fucking cheap whore!” he seethed, before slamming the door. The sound of the lock sliding into place followed, and the woman ran over to the door, picked up her shoe, slid it back on and walked over to me. I was still standing in front of the elevator, and it opened just as she joined me.

“After you, ma’am,” I said, tipping my hat.
What a piece of shit that guy was
, I thought. The woman lifted her chin, walked into the elevator, and I followed. Awkward silence filled the air after the doors slid shut, until I couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” I asked. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

She looked over at me, smiling through the tears that had formed in her eyes.

“I’m okay, thank you,” she replied. She turned away, lifting her chin higher, and I stopped myself from pressing. I knew that look in her eyes. It said,
no, I’m not alright, but I’m really good at pretending to be
.

The elevator doors opened and I gestured for her to go first. She flashed a crooked smile at me once more, before walking out of the hotel doors.

I made a mental note to give that asshole a piece of my mind if I ever saw him again. People like that are what’s wrong with this world. Not only do they think they own the world, they think they own all the people in it, too.

If that’s what money turns a person into, maybe I didn’t want that much of it anyway.

CRIT

“Did you hear anything from Hank Haggard?” Seth asked. Seth, Jesse and I were sitting around the dining room table, drinking beer for lunch, and trying to figure out some solution to our problem. I had spent last night with Ruby on my mind, and trying to come up with some solution to this mess.

“Nope, not yet,” I replied.

“Do we have any savings at all?” Jesse asked.

“Nope. What savings we did have was used up repairing the barn and for the repairs at Evan’s bar,” I replied. Jesse hung his head, and I felt a pang of sadness wash over me. None of us had asked for this. To be left alone, so suddenly, drowning in a sea of debt that our parents had left. To be left without their constant guidance and support. It had hit Jesse the hardest, and I knew he felt terrible about setting those fires. He was just lashing out, and I understood.

I guess that’s what I was doing when I busted Lincoln LaCroix’s face. Lashing out.

But this wasn’t a time for anger. This wasn’t the time to be a goddamned hot head and let the pressure get the best of me. I needed to stay cool, calm, and collected, and find some way out of this mess.

I patted Jesse on the back reassuringly.

“That doesn’t matter, brother, don’t look so glum. We’re all dealing with this as best as we can. This isn’t the first problem to come up, and it won’t be the last. We’ll get through this. Together. Because that’s what the Hopes do.”

“We’re not together,” Seth said. “Mom and Dad are gone. Georgia’s all wrapped up with Beau. It’s just the three of us.”

“That may be so, Seth, but the three of us is better than nothing. We’ll figure it out,” I insisted. “Hope’s our very name. We can’t abandon it.”

“If you say so, Crit,” Seth said, sighing as he grabbed three fresh beers out of the fridge.

“We just have to think,” I said, as I opened the one he handed me. I took a big gulp off the bottle, and then another. “We can figure this out.”

“What would Dad do?” Jesse asked.

“We know what Dad did. Nothing. So we have to do something different,” I replied. “A thing like this requires being faced head-on.”

“Then that’s what we do,” Seth said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We go face this guy together. The three of us. Man to man.”

“I tried that,” I replied.

“Yeah, by yourself. And you ended up with your boots all tangled up with his fancy loafers on the barn floor.”

“He had it coming,” I replied.

“Did he?” Seth asked, his eyebrow raised. “You never did say what set you off.”

“It doesn’t matter. The guy is a snake, and I don't see him reasoning with us anytime soon.”

“Well, it’s worth another try. It’s all we’ve got, Crit,” Jesse said, his sad eyes imploring me.

“Fuck,” I replied, knowing he was completely right.

Jesse

“I can’t believe it’s finally over,” I said to Danny. Danny and I had been doing community service now together for almost a year. He had stolen a car, taken it for a joyride and destroying the car in the process. He received a sentence of probation and a year of community service, just like me. We had done our best to stay close to each other the whole time, staying away from the rougher kids that seemed so much more comfortable with being in trouble with the law than we were.

The early afternoon Texas sun was beating down on us as we worked together.

“I know, man, it’s been a long ass year. At least this part is finished,” he said, as he picked up a piece of discarded trash off the ground. Most of our time had been spent cleaning trash out of Sugar Hill park, when we weren’t enduring insults from some random punk kid who was just one mistake away from being in our shoes.

“What are you going to do now? Just work on your family’s farm for the rest of your life?” he asked.

I groaned. As much remorse that I felt for what I had done, for all the damage I had done to our family and the farm, I still didn’t want to be tied to it. I wanted the freedom to live my life as I had seen it unfolding before my parents death. I had dreams of going to art school, becoming a portrait artist in New York, or London, or maybe even Australia. I had always wanted to visit another country, but with the problems we were having now, I knew there was no way that was going to be happening anytime soon.

I’d be a complete ass to ditch my family now.

“For a while, I guess,” I replied to Danny. He shook his head sadly, having listened to many stories about my family during our hours together.

“Look man, I know you feel bad,” he said, turning towards me. His brown eyes stared into mine purposefully. “But listen, Jesse. You need to cut yourself a break. Don’t stay around the farm too long. You don’t owe your life to that place. You don’t have to — holy shit!” he said under his breath, as his gaze traveled over my shoulder.

I turned to see what he was looking at, and my heart skipped a beat. The most beautiful girl I had ever seen was standing behind us, holding a dog leash. Her long dirty-blonde hair fell past her shoulders, framing her pretty face. Her sharp blue eyes looked into mine, and I felt a sharp stab in my gut.

“Excuse me?” she asked, holding up a dog’s leash. “Have you seen a black lab running around? I lost my dog.”

“Oh,” I replied. “No, I haven’t.” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her, and time seemed to stop as we stood gazing at each other.

“Do I know you?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.

“I-I don’t think so,” I stammered. Danny hit me with his elbow, and I jumped.

“Oh. You look familiar,” she said, her smile lighting up her face. “Nevermind,” she shrugged, turning to walk away. Danny nudged me again, whispering under his breath this time.

“Dude, she likes you, go ask her out,” he said.

“Huh?” I asked. “She does?”

“Trust me, you idiot. Go ask for her number. Do it! Now!” he said, taking my garbage bag from me.

I wasn’t so certain. Why would a girl like her be interested in a guy like me? I was just some poor asshole picking up garbage in a park. Danny’s hand pushed me hard in her direction, and she looked over her shoulder at me.

“Hey,” I called. She stopped walking and turned to face me.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Want some help looking for your dog?” I asked.

“Yes, that would be wonderful! Thank you,” she said with a grateful smile. The stab in my gut returned, and I looked away, tearing my gaze from hers before I doubled in pain, or puked, whichever came first.

“What’s your dogs name?” I asked.

“Lucky,” she replied. “He slipped off his leash and ran into the trees, and I lost sight of him.”

“We’ll find him,” I said. She began calling his name as we began circling the park.

“What’s your name?” I asked. “I haven’t seen you around.”

“Hannah,” she said. “I’m just visiting my grandmother for the summer.”

“Oh, I see. I’m Jesse,” I said, holding out my hand. She took my hand and electric sparks ran along my arm. What the hell was going on? Was I really so inexperienced with girls that I turned into complete mush when a girl smiled at me? Or was it this girl? Her smile could have lit up the darkest room, and her eyes were so open and full of life, full of happiness and joy like I had never seen before.

Or, maybe it was just such a stark contrast to how I was feeling that I responded to it so strongly. I don’t know, but by the time we had circled back to where we started, I knew that I couldn’t just say goodbye to her.

“I can’t believe he ran off like that! My grandma is going to kill me,” she said, as she scanned the park again. “Lucky!! LUCKY!” she yelled at the top of her lungs once last time.

I heard a crashing sound from the trees behind me, and we turned just in time to see a black lab burst through the tree line, and run right towards Hannah.

“Lucky! There you are!” she cried. I smiled, and for a brief moment, as I watched her embrace the panting dog, something inside of me lifted and a little light broke through my relentless sadness.

“Thank you so much,” she said, after clipping Lucky’s leash back onto his collar.

“I didn’t really do anything,” I murmured. I looked past her and saw Danny behind her, mimicking the dialing of an old rotary phone, as if anyone used them anymore.

I smiled again at his ridiculousness and gazed into her eyes once again.

“Well, whatever. You helped. That’s more than anyone else did,” she said. She smiled up at me, pausing as she stared at me silently, expectantly.

“Can I - um - would you like to go out to dinner sometime?” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I ignored Danny’s fist pumping action behind her as best as I could.

“I would love to! I’m so bored around here! I thought everyone was supposed to be friendly in small towns? Nobody talks to me!” she replied.

“Well, the folks in Sugar Hill tend to keep to themselves.”

“Do you have a cell phone?” she asked.

“Of course,” I said, pulling out my phone.

“Let me give you my number,” she said, grabbing the phone out of my hands and programming her number into it before giving it back. “Now you can call me.”

“Okay, great,” I replied.

“Tomorrow?” she said, as Lucky danced around her legs.

“Um, sure, sounds good,” I replied, trying not to bust out into fits of laughter at the dance Danny was doing behind her.

“Awesome!” she replied, turning away and bouncing down the sidewalk. I watched her walk away, my heart skipping wildly with excitement.

I had a date. A real date with a real girl.

Maybe life in Sugar Hill wasn’t so bad after all.

RUBY

“Dinner is ready, Dad,” I whispered, shaking his shoulder gently to wake him up. He had spent all day on the couch, just like every day. He stirred finally, and gave me a crooked smile.

“You’re a good daughter, Ruby. You take great care of me,” he said.

“I love you, Daddy,” I said, gently kissing him on the cheek before heading back to the kitchen. “Come and eat.”

To my surprise, he actually got up, and didn’t refuse the food. His usual routine of grabbing for a beer as soon as his eyes opened was nothing new to me, so I watched unfazed as he brought it back from the fridge and settled himself at the table to eat the meatloaf I had made for him.

“Did you eat already?” he asked.

“No, not yet.”

“What are you up to tonight? Seeing Crit again?”

“What?” I asked, my cheeks heating up at his question. Crit had been over a few times, but since we had been in each other’s life for years it was easy to pass his visits off as the friendly variety to my father. He had never questioned me before.

“No,” I continued. “I have dinner plans with Georgia. I’m meeting her at Norma’s in a little while.”

“I like little George. She was the apple of her Daddy’s eye.”