Rough Country (Tannen Boys 3)

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Chapter 15

Willow

I steel my nerves, which are jangling even more than they were that first time I walked into the bar. I hold my head high and my shoulders back, making it appear that everything’s fine. Just fine.

It’s so not.

I know that as soon as I walk in the door. Unc is behind the bar, wiping down the already shining surface. His blue eyes, cold and hard as ice, cut to me with the creak of the door.

I crumble instantly. Bellying up to the bar opposite him, my apologies gush off my tongue in one big rush of words. “Unc, I am so sorry if I overstepped yesterday. I was trying to help, thought it’d be nice for you to drive up and see everything spic and span and safe. But I should’ve asked. I’m sorry. How’s your hand?”

Without a word, he holds his hand up. He’s wearing fingerless leather gloves, like something you’d use to work out, that block me from seeing a darned thing.

“How many stitches? What did the doctor say? Do you have an antibiotic prescription? I can pick that up for you.”

Unc’s eyes narrow, but he answers aloud this time. “Ten stitches. Doc said to keep it covered in ointment and bandaged.” He wiggles his fingers around, and I can tell they’re restricted, hopefully by the bandage beneath the glove. “Figured I’d keep the bandage covered so nothing got in it and people didn’t come around asking nosy questions.” One of his bushy eyebrows lifts pointedly at the questions I’ve been asking.

“Sure, good idea,” I agree. My head bounces up and down as though I’m a bobblehead, reassuring him that everything’s fine. Just fine.

Maybe if I say it enough, to myself and to him, it’ll be true.

He sighs and goes to run his fingers through his hair but stops short as he remembers the injury. “Come in here a minute so we can talk. I don’t need the whole town knowing my business.”

There’s literally no one but us in the bar right now. No customers yet, and Olivia is nowhere to be seen. But I hear clanging in the kitchen, so Ilene must be here getting prepped for the day.

Unc opens the door to his office and steps inside, indicating that I should sit on the bench. I do, watching closely as he goes around the desk and sits down. He lays his hands over one another, bad one on bottom. He’s not a man who willingly shows a weakness, and an injury is definitely something he’d consider a weakness.

This feels ominous.

I think I’m about to get fired by my own uncle. I’ve never been fired from a job in my life, but that it’s Unc doing it makes it sting that much more. Especially when I was only trying to help.

“I’m so sorry, Unc.” Hopefully, another apology will soften his heart into giving me another chance?

“Willow.” He pauses dramatically, and my heart climbs another inch up my throat. “I asked you this before and didn’t push when you lied straight to my face, but I think it’s high time you tell me the truth. What brings you to Great Falls?”

Huh? He knows I lied?

Oh, shit, he knows I lied.

I’m in deeper trouble than I thought.

He pins me in place with a glare, and I can’t help but fidget, my knee bouncing rapidly. “A change. I told you.” I swallow down the bile threatening to come up. It’s not a lie, it’s just not the whole truth.

“Tell me more. After all these years, why now?” A thread of anger weaves through the question, and while I’d like to tell myself it’s a leftover emotion from Grandpa or Mom, I know it’s because he can read me like a book. And he knows I’m still lying to him right now.

If the only way out of this is with the truth, then so be it.

Sorry, Mom.

“I remember you from when I was younger. You know I always thought you were my cool uncle. You’d take me for rides in your truck, letting me bounce around in the front seat when Mom made me sit in the back, and you’d tell stories and cuss with zero care that Oakley and I were in the room, and you . . .” I fall back into the past, into memories around the dinner table with Mom, Dad, Oakley, Unc, and me. “You talked to me like I had thoughts and opinions worth hearing. Other than Mom and Dad, you were the only adult who did that. It made me feel . . . not invisible at a time when all I felt was invisible.”

He starts to say something, but I need to get this out while I have a chance. If he sends me out of here today and I go home to the city with my tail between my legs, I need him to know how much he means to me.