“It’s mom’s will,” Lane told her.
“This says she bequeaths me a five-thousand acre parcel of uncultivated pasture, and a gas and mineral deed. What the heck does that mean? Do I have to farm minerals for the rest of my life?”
“I thought you were supposed to be bright,” Gabe said as he played with the end of my ponytail. “It means we get her land and minerals. Oil and gas royalties if we sign a lease to explore the land.”
Deliah jumped up and stubbed her boot on the table leg. “Oh my god! I own an oil well? I have to call Shelly!”
“Settle down,” Lane said. “You don’t get anything yet. Don’t get all crazy. I had a long time to talk to Tessa about this.”
Deliah bounced on her heels and then fell into the armchair across from me. “Wait, I don’t get it. Doesn’t Joel own all of the oil wells?”
“So we don’t get her shares of Halden-Remington?” Caleb interrupted with a hint of disappointment. “I’ve been planning on firing the lieutenant’s ass back to Texas.”
“Tessa says mom and dad had a verbal agreement about the company. The lieutenant secured mom’s shares when she died, but she was sitting on Remington land southwest of Williston all these years. I’ve heard dad obsess about developing that area. I didn’t realize our family already had claim. It’s incredible.”
Gabe leaned back and set his feet on the table. I slid off his lap and took Caleb’s spot.
“I thought your father bought up all of the good land around here.”
“She held back thousands of acres for us,” Lane replied. “I thought he was moving HalRem up here because he was afraid he was losing control of his shares. Turns out we’re getting the choice piece of Bakken he’s been eyeing since the beginning.”
“Maybe Meggie and Emmie really do have something to do with his move,” I said.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Deliah waved the papers in the air. “I’m only in the eighth grade.”
Gabe crossed his arms on his chest and dropped his chin. I ran my gaze over his features. I wanted to know where his head was at.
“We hold out for a lease with a whopping big signing bonus and top dollar per acre. Five thousand acres is as big as hell and half of Texas,” Caleb drawled. “We’ll have an outright bidding war. Dad’s gonna bleed dry trying to get this from us. I knew I was on the right track laying low. Unemployment agrees with me.”
“But what about me and Gabe? Who gets our land until we’re old enough?”
Lane set a boot on the coffee table and stretched his arms behind his neck. “Who do you think she named as your keeper?”
Deliah eyed Gabe’s pose on the couch and waited for him to say something.
“Jud is their guardian?” I asked.
Caleb leaned over the couch. He cupped his hands and made a heavy breathing sound beside Gabe’s head. “Gabe, I am your father,” he said in a deep voice. Then he laughed at himself while Lane’s snicker came out in a snort.
Gabe hauled up and tossed the papers on the floor.
“You gotta stop acting like somebody died,” Deliah scolded him.
The dirty look Gabe flashed at his sister worried me.
“You’re so sensitive,” she said in a lighter tone. “You’re mad that your dad’s got a ponytail and not a bank account. Get over it. I have.”
“He can’t help it,” said Caleb. “He’s the champion grudge titleholder.”
Gabe flew over the side of the couch and shoved his brother’s shoulder into the wall. Caleb ducked when he went to grab his neck. I knew money had absolutely nothing to do with Gabe’s unhappiness. Deliah hadn’t known any of them long enough to understand.
“Cut it out!” Lane hollered.
“I don’t need another Halden bossing me. I’ll wait until my birthday comes and sell my land. Unless my birth certificate’s bogus too.”
Gabe stomped into the bedroom and slammed the door.
“Hell no you won’t sell off, little brother,” Lane yelled into the door. “That’s your future. Quit HalRem, but don’t quit a life of royalties and financial security.”
“He’s not serious,” I said. I was pretty sure he’d come to his senses.
“I’ll buy him a paternity test if it’ll help him relax,” Caleb joked. “Hell, we all need one just to be sure.”
Lane shook a fist at Caleb. “Don’t go putting that in his head.”
“Anywho—this calls for a joyride,” said Caleb. He strung his arm through Deliah’s arm to be funny. “Grab the coordinates, Madame Remington. Let’s pick me up a real six-pack, and we’ll go explore our land.”
Lane helped himself to a glass of water after they left. I tossed what was left of my sandwich in the garbage.
“Listen, Avery, Gabe’s absolutes hold him back. He’ll come around. Dad’s his dad no matter what a piece of paper says. We should all go out tonight and celebrate. This is monumental,” he said as he gathered up the papers. “It hasn’t sunk in yet. I can hardly believe she left all this.”
* * *
“Molly’s inside. I can see her,” Gabe told me as he cupped his hands against the front window of the club to look in. He was sucking on a sour apple Blow Pop while we stood in the snow, waiting in line to get into the new building. I recognized the outline of a book in his waistband.
“There’s no way they’re going to let me in there.” The entire line was made up of men wearing HalRem caps. I shivered every time the wind gusted. I knew I should have grabbed an extra cap from the truck.
“You’ll get in if they let her in. Your kind is scarce around here.”
Gabe set an open palm on the roof of a green Prius that was sandwiched between two monster trucks. The car was plastered with anti-fracking bumper stickers. Somebody wrote in the word HalRem on a sticker and then crossed it out with a black X.
“No, you’ll get in with your fake ID and leave me out here in the snow while you huddle in the corner with candy and your book.”
He pulled away and turned around when I tried to grab the book under his clothing. He wore his HalRem hat backward along with an irritated expression. “I didn’t even want to come out. Let’s go home.”
Someone jabbed my lower back with a finger. Gabe’s eyes narrowed. I spun around to discover Caleb standing in the cold in a T-shirt. Gabe grabbed my hand and pulled me to his side.
“Get lost,” he told his brother.
“Legs, follow me. I’m friendly with the new owner,” Caleb said.
“We’ve been freezing our asses off, and you’ve been inside there all this time?” Gabe grumbled as we tailed Caleb down an alley to a utility door. There were two bouncers guarding the exit. They stepped aside for Caleb, nodded at Gabe, and didn’t question me.
The bar was dark and crowded. Music rattled my teeth and pulsed through my organs when Gabe stopped to stand beside the club speakers. I covered my ears.
“If I gotta be here, I need a drink,” he shouted at my face.
“Not me, but you do what you need to,” I yelled back. I supported anything that would help loosen him up, even if it was illegal. “I didn’t know there was a bar like this in town.”
Two girls were sitting on stools at the counter. A handful of guys swarmed them like ants on peanut butter; however, they both ogled Gabe as he flipped his cap around and pulled out his wallet.
“I got this. You flash my picture here, and you won’t get served anything,” Lane drawled. He handed Gabe a bottle and shook his hand. “Congrats to the landowner. It’s all gonna work out.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Gabe. Then he chugged the beer and smiled. “To getting rich quick.”
“That’s the spirit!” Lane said loudly. “Have another, brother. What can I get you, Avery?” He lifted a fresh bottle off the counter and showed it to me before passing it to Gabe.
“I’m good, thanks. Where’s Molly? Gabe thought he saw her in here.”
Lane gestured to the back wall and leaned in. “She’s in the bathroom.�
�� Apparently, we were late to the party. His breath smelled as if he emptied a few bottles himself. “She’s got the hots for my brother. But she says she’s not going anywhere.”
I released my breath into a hard sigh. “This story is eerily familiar,” I said loud enough for him to hear.
Lane gently brushed my cheek with his thumb. “The night’s still young,” he said. “Glad y’all got out of the house.”
I glanced at Gabe. He was staring across the room at the stage, imitating a brooding statue that would make any girl drool. The music started up. People shouldered past him and flooded the center of the room to dance. Party lights swiped through the bouncing bodies like light sabers. Caleb grabbed my elbow and pulled me into the crowd.
“He don’t dance, Av’ry,” he said into my ear as his hands traveled up and down my hips with the music. He made sure to graze my neck with his lips.
“I’m not dancing with you,” I shouted.
“I hear you’ve been asking about my tattoo,” he said as he pulled me close. “Only one way to find out.”
“Get your hands off of her,” Gabe yelled as I was about to push Caleb out of my space. “I mean it.”
“You’re welcome,” Caleb said smugly. He backed up and bowed to me while flipping his hat upside down like a gentleman. “Lemme know when you’re ready for a private showing.”
Gabe slid his hands around my waist.
“He was trying to get you out here to dance. Why does it always require a challenge to make you do anything fun?” I asked.
“Fun?” he countered.
“You’re not fun lately.”
“I can be as spontaneous as the next guy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Spontaneously breaking out the shovel and beating cars, strangling your brother, bolting out of town, shouting at your father.”
I could see in his gaze he was about to correct my gaffe, so I kissed him.
Gabe pulled back and smirked. Then he said loudly, “You forgot I showed up in Chicago to surprise you. Don’t I get credit for that? How about the Mustang I have stored in Memphis and the plane tickets you refused?”
We rocked with the thumping music. His hands slid into my back pockets. My hands found their way into his jacket and tried to do the same. He grabbed my hands as I was about to touch his waist.
“Halden!” An arm waved a set of drumsticks over the crowd. “Halden! You in tonight?”
Gabe lifted his cap and scratched his head as if he wasn’t sure what the guy was asking.
“Gimme a minute,” he told me as he returned his hands to my jeans.
“Gabe, wait!” I called after him. He didn’t look back. I watched the crowd swallow him. Caleb snuck up behind me as if he had been waiting for his brother to leave.
“Moll’s at the bar.” He ran his finger down his cheek from his eye to his chin and then repeated the motion on the other side.
I shook my head in disgust. “She just had a baby. Do you know what that’s like?”
“No. Do you?” He grabbed each of my wrists and pulled them out to the sides so he could stare at my stomach. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“Why are you upsetting her?”
He released my arms and raised his hands in the air. “I didn’t do a damn thing, legs. Not a damn thing.”
A woman tested the microphone as I located the back of Molly’s blonde head at the bar. I left Caleb and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Avery, you made it,” she said as she turned around and dried her eyes. “Where’s Gabe?”
I drew my gaze around the bar. “Some guy just yelled to him and he took off. I’m having a hard time helping him out of this eternally bad mood.”
Molly made an exaggerated nod and tried not to sniffle. “I don’t know what I would do if I found out I wasn’t who I thought I was.” Then she glanced at the door behind the bar and bit her lips. She was doing the same thing to her son.
“Should I be worried? Is something bad going on back there?”
An older guy bumped my shoulder and reached between us to set a beer bottle on the counter. He touched Molly’s leg and she told him to get lost. She shook her curls, set her head in her hand, and turned to stare at me. “Did you see who’s back there?”
It wasn’t hard to guess who the decorated Prius on the street belonged to. “I have a hunch.”
“I miss the baby. I wonder if he’d notice if I called a cab and snuck out.”
I wasn’t sure who she was referring to. “Who did you come here with?”
Molly sighed. “Lane.”
I lifted my chin and studied the door behind the bar while I tried to give her my attention. “That’s good, right?”
“I told him I kissed Caleb. He’s so forgiving. It makes me miserable that I love them both. How can I choose? How did this happen? Honestly, Avery, I don’t know what I’m doing.”
I didn’t know what she was doing either. If Gabe looked at a girl’s elbow for all of two seconds, I’d want to twist off her arm.
“Gabe’s not really speaking to Caleb,” I said. “I hope he won’t want to leave North Dakota now that he has land. I miss my sister, but I’ll never move back in with my parents.”
Caleb stood on a chair at the end of the bar and whistled for everyone to stare at him. “Let’s get this party started! Man, y’all clean up really nice!”
The crowd hollered back.
Molly and I exchanged a look and laughed when he fell off the chair and a bouncer pulled him to his feet. Then she returned her attention to him. I watched her eyes drink him in. The pink in her cheeks answered my question.
She loved him more. She couldn’t help it.
“I’m going to look for Gabe,” I told her as I turned away.
Molly tugged on my sleeve and yanked me back. She pointed to the stage. The lights dimmed and I watched a guy in a black T-shirt carry an electric guitar into the shadows. A spotlight turned on as three more people walked out. One of them waved at guests standing close to the stage. He was Gabe’s friend Troy, whom I met at Rachel’s party. My gaze wandered to the person balancing the guitar on his cowboy boot. With his other hand, he lifted his hat and returned it to his head backward.
My jaw unhinged. I shot a glance at Molly. When a woman introduced the band, I returned my gaze to the stage.
Troy took the microphone from her hand. “Rachel’s under the weather. I’ve got a special guest for you. Give it up for Mr. Spontaneous on guitar!”
I felt myself tremble and grabbed the counter. The clapping and cheering was drowned by the sound of my heart thudding in my ears. Gabe lifted the electric guitar over his head and fixed the strap on his shoulder. He took a seat on top of an amplifier when Troy pulled it to the edge of the stage.
A third guy picked up an acoustic guitar, took a seat on the stage, and dangled his feet off the edge. Troy started on drums. The dance floor stilled, feet stopped moving. The energy in the room was under pressure. Molly grabbed my sleeve and dug her nails into my arm when Gabe began to play. Within minutes, he was standing in the center of the stage strumming magic. The concentration on his face as he watched his left hand form the chords gave me goose bumps. His upstrokes were effortless. Everything from his flexing arms to his tight jaw to his self-confident stance made me swoon. I was drawn to him in a way I had never experienced. There was something entrancing about watching him hog the spotlight.
“I’m taking him home!” yelled one of the girls at the bar. “He looks like a Halden.”
“Damn, you’re right,” said another. “You’ll have to fight me for him. Man, he’s hot.”
Molly bumped my shoulder and chuckled.
“Who is he?” I laughed into Molly’s ear. “I had to bribe him to come here.”
“He’s really good, eh?”
The electric guitar transformed my boyfriend into an altered creature. His gloom and doom persona was renewed by his own music.
“He could be making a living as a musician. This is off the wall!”
“He’s a rockstar,” she yelled with a touch of envy. “He’s nailing Nirvana.”
I tried to ignore the girls screaming at the bar. Most of them looked ten years older than me. They wanted my Gabe, but they weren’t getting him.
After he finished a hypnotic rendition of punk revival, he set the guitar on top of the amplifier and jumped off the stage. He walked straight at me, ignoring the catcalls and shouts for his attention. Hands flew out of the crowd and patted his shoulders.
A smile broke out on my face. I couldn’t keep it in. Gabe grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd. I hollered goodbye to Molly.
“Where are we going?” I raised my voice as he pulled me by the sleeve to the back of the bar. I couldn’t keep up with his long strides. I shrieked above the speakers that pulsed through my bones. “Gabe! I don’t want to see her!”
He spun around and made me bump into his chest. His neck and forehead were perspiring. “Who?” he asked during a lull in the deafening music.
“You know who.”
The music was muffled by brick walls and traffic when we stepped out into the alley. There were no bouncers guarding the exit. Biting air chilled my clammy skin. “She left. She has chickenpox and a raging fever,” he said as he lifted the corner of his lip. “It’s been spreading through town thanks to you.”
Gabe took two fingers and lifted my jaw. The buzzing in my ears hadn’t stopped. My lungs constricted with every breath as I stared at my boyfriend, the electric guitar prodigy.
“That’s funny, but I know you’re lying.”
Gabe raised his hand like a Boy Scout. Then he made the Vulcan salute. “Swear on my brother’s grave.”
I pulled down his hand. “Okay, I believe you—but you shouldn’t joke about graves.”
His eyes darkened and he faced the wall to set his forehead against the bricks. “He wasn’t even my full brother, Av’ry. It’s crazy. He never knew.”
I leaned on the wall and let the cold bricks chill my backside.
“Does it really matter? You grew up together. Try seeing what you had as opposed to what you didn’t have. You had brothers. You had Meggie. Now you have even more family than ever. It continues to grow.”
Stubborn Truth (The Stubborn Series Book 3) Page 24