He gnawed on a cigar like it was a candy bar and took it out of his mouth when he was close enough to talk and have me hear him.
His lip curled and he stepped away from my car.
“Giving it a shine for me, Buddy?” I asked.
In case I forgot to mention, Buddy hated me. Almost as much as West did.
Buddy and Pop went back more than a few years and from the day Pop brought me in, Buddy wanted nothing to do with me. Buddy was fine with being sluggish and making it hard for Pop to keep the shop open. I worked hard, a ton of hours, and helped grow the business and keep it stable.
That wasn’t part of Buddy’s plan in life.
He expected to be lazy and die.
“Little business meeting, huh, jerky?” Buddy asked.
Instead of calling me Jett he called me jerky.
“I was helping Pop wipe his ass,” I said. “That’s all.”
“You stay out of the family’s business. You hear me?”
“You waddled your ass all the way down to my car for that?” I asked.
Buddy lifted his left hand and twirled a set of keys around his fat finger.
He grinned. “Just headed out. Picking up a car. Easy junker for parts. Quick cash.”
“Good for you, Buddy,” I said.
“Remember what I told you. Stay the fuck out of that office.”
“You’re just jealous you can’t fit through the doorway anymore,” I said.
Buddy stepped toward me and I stepped back.
He curled his lip again, knowing I could outrun him. And that I could also drop his whale of an ass to the ground in a second.
“Can’t take a good joke?” I asked.
“Move along, jerky,” Buddy said.
Buddy waddled away, grabbing at his pants. The back of his t-shirt was stained with sweat when it wasn’t even sweating weather.
It took him a good minute to climb into the tow truck and start driving.
As he drove by, he threw me the middle finger.
I turned to face my car and saw the scratches in the door.
The navy blue paint was cut all over the place.
About the same height as Buddy standing there with a key in hand.
What a piece of shit.
I got into my car, debating on following Buddy and stabbing him in the face with one of my keys.
That’s when Julia called me.
Like she had some extra sense, knowing when I was getting ready to go over the edge.
“Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea how bad I need to hear your voice right now,” I said into the phone.
Julia giggled. “How about you come see me instead of just hearing me?”
* * *
I pulled around to the back of the bakery and saw Julia sitting on a small table, her elbows on her knees, her right hand flicking a cigarette.
She smiled when she saw me.
She bit her lip and pointed where she wanted me to park.
I crept along the back of the building and parked where a dumpster hid my car enough.
It was still kind of fun to sneak around to see Julia.
Kind of stupid too.
Aunt Bea wasn’t exactly Julia’s aunt. And considering we were both nineteen, what the hell did it matter?
Even still, there was nothing quite like watching Julia drop her cigarette, step on it, and then come running toward me.
When I picked her up and hugged her, she smelled like flour, cinnamon, and coffee.
It was the kind of work smell that I knew would cling to my memory for a long time.
I was probably the same to her with the smell of sweat and grease.
We kissed for a good minute and then I put her on her feet.
“How’s your day?” she asked me.
“Hectic. Yours?”
“Boring. Aunt Bea said she’s giving me the bakery again. But I know she’s just playing. I think she’s in trouble. I think it might close.”
“What? Are you kidding me, sweetheart?”
Julia cringed. “I have to show you something. But you have to sneak in the back with me.”
“You want me to sneak in through your back door?” I asked with a grin.
Julia made a fist and punched my shoulder. “Don’t be gross. Don’t be…”
Julia swallowed hard and cleared her throat.
I faked a quick smile and pointed to the back of the building. “What do you have to show me?”
“Just follow me and be fucking quiet,” Julia said.
I loved the way the word fucking came off her lips when she was worried.
I wasn’t worried though.
Aunt Bea was tough but she was no Cherry. I’d eaten about three hundred pounds of black pepper from Cherry so far because you did not talk the wrong way at her dinner table. She had smacked me with towels, rolling pins, and even threw a glass or two at me if the situation warranted it.
Compared to that, Aunt Bea was… a bee.
She was tall, skinny, fierce, but under it all, she was a kind soul.
I couldn’t blame her for not exactly liking me.
I was the reason Julia decided to take a crazy right hand turn in life.
But I swore nothing would happen to her. And I was going to keep that promise to anyone who had a second to hear it.
Julia looked around the back of the bakery and grabbed my hand.
I wasn’t exactly a coffee and cake kind of guy but the smell of the bakery made my mouth water. Then again, so did the sight of Julia. Pulling me into the office, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red. Knowing she would be in serious trouble if we got caught together like this.
“Shut the door,” she said. “Wait. Not all the way. Aunt Bea never fully closes it unless she’s in here.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do we need the temperature to be an even seventy-two degrees too?”
“What?” Julia asked.
“Nothing,” I said with a grin. “It was a joke. Show me what you’ve got. I actually had plans to do something else when you called.”
“Oh, then don’t let me bother you,” Julia said.
“Sweetheart.”
“Don’t sweetheart me,” she said. “This is a big deal for me.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t. I was just…” I gritted my teeth.
She could be wild and mad and mean and she was still somehow beautiful through it all.
“Here, look at this,” Julia said.
She pointed to the desk.
There was an envelope that read FINAL NOTICE in big red letters.
“I thought it was junk at first,” she said. “But it’s not. It’s real.”
“What’s it for?”
Julia sighed. “What isn’t it for?”
“Meaning?”
“There’s more than one of these, Jett. It’s… it’s for everything. Aunt Bea is behind on everything.”
I touched the envelope. I knew what those notices were like. The warnings. The shutoff notice. The final notice. And then… nothing. No electricity. Or police showing up to remove you from the place you were told to call home.
“Shit,” I said. “Behind… how?”
Julia shook her head. “It’s not what it used to be, I think. She’s made comments and stuff before. I just think she’s behind. She obsesses about being clean and organized, but when it comes to paying this stuff and keeping track of it…”
“The business itself though. It does okay? I mean, she’s got the money for all of this, right?”
“I don’t know. I doubt it. We have regulars here, Jett. They aren’t spending a lot. And I know Aunt Bea has complained about the cost of things. I think she’s really in trouble. And this is all she has. I mean, without this place…”
Julia’s eyes filled with tears almost instantly.
“Whoa, sweetheart,” I whispered. I hurried toward her. “Don’t get upset.”
“Too late,” she said.
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her.
>
She grabbed the back of my shirt tight.
This stuff had been weighing on her for a little bit.
That was damn obvious.
I looked back at the envelopes.
“You know you’re smart, Julia,” I said.
“What does that have to do with anything?” she asked, looking up at me.
“You can turn this around,” I said. “You can come up with some ideas.”
“Seriously? In what world can I do that?”
“In this world,” I said.
“This isn’t my bakery.”
“Sweetheart, you run the place. You’ve been living with Aunt Bea for how long? Maybe she’s just…”
Julia reached up and touched my face.
She gave me her shut up look and I brought my mouth down to hers.
The moment our lips touched, every single problem in life disappeared.
My hands gently slid along her hips and I picked her up and sat her on the desk.
“Right here would be fun,” I whispered.
“Stop it,” she said, punching at my chest.
“Maybe you should buy the place. Own it. And then you won’t have to sneak me around like this.”
“Sounds good,” Julia said. “I’ll go find that pile of money I have hidden.”
“Sweetheart…”
I let my voice trail off as ideas started to run through my head.
“I just wanted to show you this,” she said. “It’s driving me crazy. I don’t know if I should talk to Aunt Bea or what.”
“You probably should talk to her,” I said. “Even if it’s just to be there for her. She’s probably scared.”
“Hey. Sorry about being a bitch before. Where did you have to go before I bothered you?”
“First off,” I said, stealing another kiss, “you never bother me, Julia. I was about ready to knock someone out when you called.” I kissed her again. I loved the kinds of kisses that were loud and obnoxious and echoing. “But… to answer your question…” I snuck in one last kiss. Then I pulled away. “I have to go check on Wes and his mother.”
“Why? What’s wrong? Is he okay?”
Julia jumped off the desk.
“West caused a problem with Pop,” I said. “Pop thinks West is going to take off. Like he always does. It’ll crush Wes. And Carolyn.”
“Oh, no,” Julia said. “Why didn’t you say something sooner? I’m over here whining and this is serious.”
“This is serious too, Julia,” I said. “This is the bakery.”
“But…” She swallowed hard. “Why is everything so hard for us? How are we supposed to keep going?”
I touched her face. “Listen to me carefully…”
“Jett, get the hell out of here before I throw you into my giant mixer!”
* * *
Busted.
I turned and reached into my pocket to get a cigarette.
I mean, if I was going to get a tongue lashing from Aunt Bea… why not fulfill her vision of me as this corrupt bad boy?
After I stuck an unlit cigarette between my lips, I grinned. “Hey, Aunt Bea.”
“Get out of here!” she yelled.
“Was looking for a scone,” I said. “I think I’m in the wrong spot.”
She squinted her eyes at me. “You think it’s a game? Julia is supposed to be out front helping me. Not sneaking into the office… necking…”
“Necking?” I asked.
“That means kissing in old people language,” Julia whispered.
“Julia!” Aunt Bea yelled. She stomped her foot. “Go!”
Julia walked out of the office and turned her head at the last second and bit her lip.
Now, there was a fifty-fifty chance I wouldn’t leave the office alive.
I knew that.
Aunt Bea knew that too.
“You are not allowed here,” she said to me. “Not in the back area of the bakery. And certainly not in the office.”
“I apologize,” I said. “Julia said she needed to talk and-”
“And I’m sure you two were talking.”
“Well, after all the necking comes the talking,” I said.
Aunt Bea squinted even harder.
When she did that, with her height and skinny frame, she looked like a witch.
She stepped back and pointed to the back door of the bakery.
I walked out of the bakery with my hands up like I had committed a crime.
I lit my cigarette and walked to my car.
There was one thing Julia was definitely right about.
Everything for us had been hard.
Getting harder too.
And I wondered when it was all going to stop so I could just steal Julia away and marry her and make her mine for forever.
Chapter 8
THEN
Julia
I hurried by the office door and saw Aunt Bea.
I froze in place and stepped back.
She stood at the desk, rubbing her chin, staring down at the desk.
As I gently knocked on the open door, she looked at me.
“Leaving?” she asked.
“Not unless you need me.”
“I could make something up,” she said. “I know where you’re going.”
“And…?”
Aunt Bea just blinked. “It doesn’t matter what I say.”
“Jett isn’t a bad guy, Aunt Bea. He’s actually kind of amazing.”
“You’re nineteen,” Aunt Bea said. “Of course he’s amazing. Why wouldn’t he be? He drives a fast car. And he smokes cigarettes. He’s got big arms. And he’s… so tough and rude…”
“You forgot about the motorcycle,” I said. “Oh, and he can surf.”
Aunt Bea’s eyes went wide. “I was proving a point, not painting a picture.”
“Hey. I saw the letters on the desk…”
“Those aren’t yours.”
“Is everything okay here?” I asked.
“Fine.”
“It said-”
“Julia. I’ve had this bakery for a long time. It was the only thing that got me through my husband being on the road. You realize it’s named See B’s because of the CB radio, right? Clive came up with it. And it worked. And after he…” Aunt Bea cleared her throat. “This place kept me going. I’ve had good times and bad times. And both never last. The good end too soon and the bad linger too long.”
“In other words I should just mind my own damn business,” I said.
“Yes.”
“You know, if you let me help you… it would distract me from Jett.”
Aunt Bea threw her head back and laughed. “I don’t believe that for a second.”
“I offered,” I said. “Remember that.”
“Go,” Aunt Bea said. “I can’t believe I’m telling you to go to him. But go…”
I hesitated for a second and then hurried into the office.
I hugged Aunt Bea.
She gasped when I hugged her.
“I love you, Aunt Bea,” I whispered. “You’re my family. I never really thank you enough for everything you do for me. If you ever need anything from me…”
Aunt Bea didn’t respond.
That was her style.
She had a hard time showing emotion.
Her actions always spoke loud though.
And the fact that she took me in, raised me, gave me a job, and hated Jett… that made her pretty special in my book.
I ran out of the bakery and to my car.
I needed to see Jett.
* * *
“I stink,” I whispered to Jett and he picked me up off the sand.
“What? You smell amazing.”
“I smell like old coffee and sweat.”
“I’m turned on by that, sweetheart.”
“Hey, come on guys!” Wes yelled from the water.
Jett put me down and stuck his fingers into his mouth and whistled. “Don’t go in there without me!”
“Then get down he
re, Jett!” Wes said.
“He’s a pain in the ass,” Jett said to me.
“Takes after you,” I said.
We walked down to the water.
Jett was barefoot with board shorts and a sleeveless black shirt that gave my eyes plenty to look at.
“Hey, Wes,” Jett said, putting his hand over Wes’s head and messing with his hair. “Julia thinks she smells bad. What do you think?”
“I think all girls smell bad,” Wes said.
“Good answer,” I said.
“He thinks you’re pretty,” Jett said.
“Shut up, Jett,” Wes said. “Jerk.”
“Come on, kid, I’m just messing with you,” Jett said.
“To be fair, I worked and I need a shower,” I said. “That’s why I said I stink.”
“Oh, she doesn’t want you to think she’s gross and smelly,” Jett said to Wes.
“Can I just swim and surf now?” Wes asked.
“Julia needs a shower first,” Jett said.
“Hey, don’t upset him,” I said to Jett.
“Come on,” Wes groaned. “You two are stupid together.”
“Stupid?” Jett asked. “I have an idea on how to make everyone happy.”
“How?” I asked.
Jett grabbed me and picked me up.
He stepped into the water and I gasped. “You…”
“Yes!” Wes yelled. “Dunk her! Dunk her! Throw her into a wave!”
I looked at Wes. “Hey. You little punk. I’ll dunk you.”
“Catch me first!” Wes yelled.
He jumped into a wave and started to swim.
Jett hurried into the ocean with me in his arms.
I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth as the waves smacked against my back. Soaking my clothes. I did not come to the beach prepared to swim. But Jett took me for a swim anyway.
He dipped down into the water and my shirt got soaked next.
He smiled big.
That kind of smile…
“You just want to see my shirt wet,” I whispered.
“Guilty,” he said.
“Stupid.”
“You still love me. Hey, sweetheart, mind if I surf with the kid?”
“Not at all,” I said. “I didn’t come here to swim.”
“See? You’re as gross as me.”
HIDDEN CREEK THEN: a hidden creek high novel Page 5