“I’m on my way.” I end the call and push away from the bar, tucking the stool back under the bar with my booted foot.
Denny and Ham stare at me, quiet judgment plain on their faces.
“Stop,” I bark, peeling off a couple twenties and stuffing them in the rocks glass that holds my tab.
“You can’t save her for the rest of time.” Denny’s brave enough to say what he knows I don’t want to hear. Around the longneck bottle poised at his lips, he adds, “Or him.”
The muscles in my face flex. I know the truth as well as they do, but I’m not ready to face it. Sometimes a person needs to see something through, needs to bleed the situation dry before they can admit defeat.
I owe Mickey. Without him, I don’t know where I’d be. He saved me once upon a time. Now I’m saving him. From himself, of all things.
I nod my head at my friends. “See you back the ranch.” Denny and Ham are cowboys at the Hayden Cattle Company, but they’ve been my friends for as long as I can remember. They’re also Mickey’s friends, but they’ve washed their hands of him. Or maybe they’re showing him tough love. I don’t know which it is, I just know I’m not doing either.
The Chute is busy tonight, hosting both a live band right now and bull riding later. I weave through bodies, stopping for a quick second to say hi to Jackson and his younger brother, Colin. Colin sips from a bottle of root beer and smiles wide at me, his arms opening for a hug. I lean in, patting his back. He holds on, like I knew he would. Colin has Down syndrome, and oftentimes doesn’t know when it’s time to stop hugging. It doesn’t bother me, but tonight I happen to be in a hurry.
“That’s enough, Colin,” Jackson says calmly. Colin steps back, his frame bulky in this tight space full of bodies, and bumps into someone’s back. The guy turns around, pissed. The front of his shirt is wet with what I assume is the other half of the beer he’s holding.
“What the fuck,” he growls.
His eyes never get the chance to land on Colin because I’m there, stepping in front of him. It’s possible the guy would’ve seen Colin’s disability and chilled the fuck out, but now we’ll never know.
“I’m waiting for your apology,” the prick says, assuming it was me who bumped into him. He wears black jeans, leather lace-up tennis shoes that I know are expensive as fuck because I own boots by that brand, and a shirt with a hole near the neck. The hole looks too on purpose, like the shirt was sold that way instead of earning a tear with hard work.
“You should hold your breath and wait to see if that happens,” I tell him, pulling myself to full height, expanding my chest and lengthening my shoulders. Along with giving me a good life and emotional wounds, my dad showed me how to be physically intimidating. The first two are woven into the fabric of my life; the latter I call upon every now and again.
I don’t have time for this shit with whoever this newcomer is, but I also don’t have it in me to back down. Behind me I hear Jackson tell Colin it’s time to sit down, and that makes me feel better. I push past the guy, giving him a good shoulder shove, and continue on through the crowd and out the door.
The truth is, I have no business driving right now. Laws are arbitrary to me, but there are a few I always abide by, and drinking and driving is one of them. Despite this, I keep hearing Sara’s voice. The fear. The dread.
I get in my truck. Turn it on. Sit back. Grab the bottle of water from the center console and down it. Sara’s house isn’t far from here. It’s later on a Friday night. There won’t be very many people out right now. Also, I’m not drunk. I’m just not exactly sober.
Just as I go to shift into drive, a tap on my window stops me. The lighting in the parking is dim, so I can’t tell who it is very easily. I roll down my window.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“What are you doing, Wyatt?” Shelby Trask crosses her arms in front of herself. Her stiff uniform doesn’t ripple, which is an accurate metaphor for her personality. She has very definitive beliefs about right versus wrong. Let’s just say Shelby and I have never really seen eye to eye.
“I’m just sitting in my truck, Officer Trask.” I smile at her. It gets me nowhere.
“Wyatt, are you aware that it’s against the law to sit behind the wheel of your vehicle when you are intoxicated?”
“Who says I’m intoxicated?”
She sighs. She knows I’ve got her there.
“It’s not a huge leap to assume that when Wyatt Hayden emerges from the Chute, he’s put back a few.” She eyes me knowingly.
She’s not wrong. But, of course, there’s no way for her confirm she’s right. I’d pass any field sobriety test administered. I don’t have the time to continue this with Shelby though. I need to get to Sara’s before Mickey arrives.
“Officer Trask, it was great catching up, but I should be going.”
“Not so fast, Wyatt. You see, I happen to have this handy little tool back at the station called a breathalyzer, and—”
Shit. This can’t happen. If I’m waylaid, I don’t know what will happen to Sara. Or Mickey. “Shelby, how long have we been friends? Since seventh grade?” Calling us friends is probably pushing it a bit.
She frowns. “Save your words, Wyatt. Nothing you say will work. I am bound by law to bring you into the station.”
Time for some serious cajoling. “We’re the only two people in this parking lot, Shelby. Nobody will know if you let me off. I’ll walk to where I need to go.”
Her head is shaking before I finish my sentence. She points to something attached to her uniform. “See that? It’s a body cam. It’s recording, which means even though it’s only you and I here right now, it’s not only you and I who know you’re intoxicated and behind the wheel of a vehicle.”
Fuck. There’s nothing more I can do, short of taking off and leading her straight to Sara’s house. Which will create a whole host of problems, far greater than the one I was trying to prevent. Sara vehemently refuses to involve law enforcement.
I unbuckle. Get out. Walk beside Shelby to her cruiser. She spares me the hassle of cuffing me. Small town, and all.
We pass the turn off for Mickey and Sara’s house on the way to the station, and I wonder if Mickey has already made it home.
Also by Jennifer Millikin
Hayden Family Series
The Patriot
The Outlaw - Coming September 2021
The Calamity - Coming October 2021
Standalone
Return To You
One Good Thing
Beyond The Pale
Good On Paper
The Day He Went Away
Full of Fire
The Time Series
Our Finest Hour
Magic Minutes
The Lifetime of A Second
Acknowledgments
Readers. Thank you! Where would I be without you? I truly appreciate all the love and attention you give my stories. There are so many ways you could spend your time, and knowing you’ve used your precious time on my work means everything to me.
My beta readers. Thank you for accepting the misshapen story I hand you, and helping me mold it into what is eventually its best version.