Southern Secrets (Southern 7)

“Thanks for your help,” he says, reaching in his back pocket and taking something out. He holds out his hand with a white business card between two fingers. “If you’re ever looking for work.”

My hand comes out and grabs the card and I look down at it. His name is in bold black letters, and I want to laugh. "I believe I owe you a thank-you." I flip the card. "Oh," I say, putting the card in my pocket and then coming back, swinging a punch. I hit him square in the jaw, and he stumbles back. "That’s for Amelia." His eyes go big. "Get the fuck out of here before I tell Billy why you really left."

He stands, the corner of his lip bleeding. "And just so we’re clear. Don’t come back here because we aren’t into helping assholes." I turn back and walk back to the barn, stopping midway when I see Billy leaning against the door of the barn.

The sound of a truck door slamming and then the sound of the crushing of rocks makes my body relax. "Um," I say, and I don’t even know what I’m going to say or how I can explain this. "He’s not coming back." I look down at my hand, squeezing it into a fist. "I’ll cover the cost of those two."

Billy looks at me and laughs. "I believe I owe you," Billy says. "One for that scene." He points to the place where I decked Tex. "And two for what you’ve done for Amelia."

"I haven’t done anything," I say, the guilt working its way through me. I can’t even look at him in the eye.

"I’m glad." He walks to me and slaps my shoulder. "I don’t know what happened between her and Tex," he says. "And from the way she was after he left, I don’t want to know or else that punch that he just got will be the least of his injuries. Now go get some ice on that hand." He walks away laughing and shaking his head.

I go back to the barn to see Amelia, first stopping by the freezer to get some ice in a bag and wrap it around my knuckles. I walk into her office, and she is on the phone, her head coming up as she sees me. Her eyes go from mine to my hand, then back up again to look at my face. "I’m going to get back to you." She hangs up the phone and gets up. Her face fills with worry. "What happened?"

"I met Tex," I say, and her face goes white. "Yeah, so …"

"Where?" she asks, walking around the desk.

"The barn. He was there to borrow some hay, and well, I put two and two together,” I say. “When he left, he handed me his business card, and I decked him."

"You hit him?" she asks, shocked.

"I did thank him first," I say, and she picks up my hand. "Then I hit him."

She drops my hand and walks out of her office, calling Willow. "Can you take my place in the office for the rest of the day?" she asks, and Willow comes out of a stall.

"Of course," Willow says. Looking at her and then me, she drops her eyes to my hand. "Is everything okay?"

"Yup," Amelia says. "Just going to go home and make sure his hand is okay, and then I’m going to eat lunch." Willow nods at her and tries to hide a smile. "I’ll drive,” Amelia says, walking out to the truck, and I just nod awkwardly at Willow.

"Have a good lunch," she says, laughing and turning to walk into the office.

I get into the truck and look over at Amelia. "What did I miss?" I ask, and she smiles at me.

"I’m going to thank you." She puts the truck in drive. "One for hitting the asshole and two for being you," she says, making her way over to her house, and thank me she does.

When I drop her off at the bar, it’s almost four o’clock, and I make my way over to Jacob’s house. I park the car, seeing Ethan sitting outside with him as the two of them talk. I get out of the truck, and my whole body starts to shake. Shakes with news, shakes with anticipation, shakes with the fear that they might not accept me. "Hey," I say, walking up the driveway toward them.

"There he is," Ethan says. "Rocky." I look at him. "Word on the street is you laced good old Tex."

"Yeah." I put my hands in my back pockets. "Guy rubbed me the wrong way."

"Is that so?" Jacob says, looking at me.

"I was wondering if I could speak to the two of you," I say, my mouth getting so dry I don’t even attempt to swallow.

"I think we know what you want to tell us," Ethan says, laughing, and I look at him. "You have a thing for Amelia."