HIDDEN CREEK NOW: a hidden creek high novel

by Kidman, Jaxson

  Chapter 22

  THEN

  Julia

  (epilogue)

  I walked through the front door like nobody was home.

  Because… nobody was home.

  Or at least that’s what it was supposed to be.

  If I knew Kinney was going to be home early from his adventure I would have snuck in.

  And even that… sneaking into my own house?

  Hearing him laughing from the kitchen made me shiver.

  I knew I looked like shit.

  Like I had slept in a cheap motel after too many cheap drinks.

  But nothing happened.

  Nothing fucking happened.

  We hung out.

  We talked.

  We laughed.

  We just… enjoyed our night together. And together wasn’t the same together as what together used to be.

  So what did it matter?

  The sane side of my brain challenged the other side, asking if I was going to tell Kinney everything.

  I approached the kitchen and heard Kinney on the phone.

  “Ah, man, don’t chew on my balls too hard,” he said. “I had to come back. She was at a funeral, man. For a kid. Nobody you’d know. Or me. But still… kind of like a friend of a friend thing. Kid got smacked in the face with a wave. Hit the ground and… that was it. Four years old too. I had to come back, man. She’d give me hell for the rest of my life.”

  Kinney turned and saw me.

  He said a quick goodbye and ended the call.

  He tossed his phone to the counter and walked toward me, his hands out.

  Bracelets dangling off his wrists. Rings on his fingers.

  His hands touching my face.

  “Oh, Pretty J,” he whispered. “Was it bad?”

  I nodded.

  “Couldn’t sleep, huh?”

  “What?”

  “You weren’t home,” Kinney said. “I got home two hours ago. Was going to surprise you. You weren’t here.”

  “I wasn’t home,” I said.

  “Where were you?”

  “Just had to get out of here. I found this little town. Kind of cool actually. Maybe I can tell you everything about it later. I just couldn’t be here. In this… place.”

  “I know the feeling,” Kinney said. “You did the right thing. You can’t pace the house, trapped in your own thoughts. Just wish you weren’t alone.”

  I opened my mouth…

  Kinney took his hands from my face.

  He touched my hips.

  I wiggled at the pressure of his fingers to my tattoo.

  My face burned red hot.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I… did something. Something you don’t like.”

  “Meaning?” Kinney asked.

  I moved his hands and slowly inched my jeans down my hip.

  I showed him the fresh tattoo.

  He let out a growling sigh of disgust.

  “A tattoo.”

  “I just…”

  “What’s it mean?”

  “Well, it’s a spade,” I said. “There’s a lot of meanings behind it. Kind of cool. Such a small tattoo and it means so much.”

  Kinney shook his head. “And you’re sure that doesn’t wash off?”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said. “I guess there’s nothing I can say. Other than fuck me for not being home sooner. I grabbed the earliest flight I could. You can’t imagine how much I paid to get back here to you. To see this.” He sighed. “But it’s okay. Things happen. Why don’t you go grab a hot shower and we’ll forget about the tattoo and figure out something to do.”

  I nodded.

  I walked away. Ashamed.

  Which wasn’t right.

  My shame turned to anger by the time I got to the bathroom.

  I took off last night’s clothes and stared at the pile.

  They smell like him.

  Even though nothing happened.

  Nothing. Happened.

  The shower ran.

  The steam filled the bathroom.

  The mirror started to fog but not before I looked at myself.

  I looked at my hip.

  At the tattoo.

  I shut my eyes.

  My fingers touched that spot.

  I bit my lip.

  I started to breathe heavily.

  Part of me wanted me to move my hand. Down. Toward… myself. Go through all the thoughts of what could have happened…

  Instead of that, I stood there and silently cried.

  Chapter 23

  NOW

  Julia

  (epilogue)

  “Here you go,” Whitney said, dropping a notebook in front of me.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “Handwritten numbers,” she said.

  I looked at her. “What?”

  “Well, I invested in this amazing computer system. State of the art. Runs data from your phone to the tablets to the registers to the computers. Everywhere. With a full inventory system. And it tracks what we sell, how often, blah, blah, blah. I sold both kidneys to afford it. But… you like your damn notebooks. So there’s your data to look at. That’s everything the truck did for the last three days.”

  I smiled. “You get me, Whitney.”

  “Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing here anymore.”

  “You don’t mean that. We’re like best friends now.”

  “More like mother and daughter friends.”

  I pointed a pen at her. “Bitch, I will stab you with this pen. I’m not that much older than you. Got it?”

  “Whatever you say, Ma.”

  I threw the pen at her.

  I looked at the notebook. “Whoa.”

  “Whoa is right," she said. “This is working. And, oh by the way, it’s driving business here too. If you'd look at the computer data you'd understand it.”

  “I don't need a computer to tell me we’ve been busier,” I said. “You kids and your technology.”

  Whitney snorted. “Okay. Whatever. Just enjoy getting rich because of me.”

  “Excuse me, are you not half of this with me?” I asked.

  Whitney rolled her eyes and walked away.

  I was probably crazy for giving away half my business to someone I didn’t know all that well. But it felt right to do. Kind of like what Aunt Bea did to me. Except I was no Whitney. Even still, Aunt Bea could have just left the bakery to fade away like some small town business that couldn’t change. She saw something in me and trusted me.

  Just like how I felt about Whitney.

  So we both owned the bakery equally. And that included the crazy food truck idea of hers, which was kicking some serious ass.

  And whether Whitney knew it or not, I knew how to use the computers and track data and see what was happening. But just the gesture of the notebook told me I was doing the right thing.

  I left the notebook on the counter and went out back to find Whitney smoking her last cigarette of the workday.

  “Having one with me?” she asked.

  “All out.”

  “Have one of mine.”

  “I’m good,” I said. “I’m heading home.”

  “To see Jett,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “When I have long days like these, he makes me take a hot bath. Listen to music. Pours me a drink…”

  “Touches you,” Whitney said.

  “Maybe.”

  “Damn you,” Whitney said. “I should have swooped in on Jett.”

  “That’s not funny at all. Make sure the back door’s locked. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Have a good night, Julia,” Whitney said. “Hey. Are you okay?”

  “I’m perfect. Why?”

  “You’ve got that dazed look a little. Like you’re hiding something.”

  “I’m good,” I said. “Believe me.”

  I drove away from the bakery and had to make a quick stop at the store.

  I chose
one far enough away… just in case.

  I opened the middle console to get money and I saw the engagement ring box and laughed. I opened the box and looked at the ring for the millionth time.

  It was a beautiful ring.

  And it wasn’t on my finger.

  Which was another chapter to the saga of Julia and Jett.

  He put the ring in the middle console and waited for me to find it. Along with a note explaining that he had a perfect ring for me. And that he kept it in his glovebox for years. Waiting to give it to me. Waiting to get me back. Waiting for the right moment. Waiting for a sign. But that ring ended up in a sewer drain. So now I had a new ring that I was supposed to keep in the middle console of my car until I found my sign.

  I didn’t need any more signs.

  Everything always pointed back to Jett.

  But I left the ring there for fun.

  To fuck with him.

  Because each time he saw me, he would casually look at my left hand, waiting to see me wearing the ring.

  Nothing like a game of torn up hearts trying to make sense of their love.

  I grabbed my credit card and shut the console.

  My eyes scanned left to right as I went into the store.

  I was pretty sure nobody would recognize me.

  Not that it was a big deal.

  Like I told Whitney, I was out of cigarettes.

  That was it.

  Chapter 24

  NOW

  Jett

  (epilogue)

  The goddamn place was smaller than I remembered.

  And Johnny’s kid was as crooked as his old man.

  I figured since Julia and I were both homeless, it made sense to share a place together. But I didn’t want any place. Not some big ass mansion. Or decent size house. And I didn’t want Julia picking out some place that was all for her.

  There was only one place in mind.

  That beach house I rented for us.

  Johnny Jr. - JJ, as everyone called him - played hard when I called him about the place. If I ever admitted how much I paid to have the place for a year Julia would hate me.

  But I had to have the place.

  And when I showed it to her and explained it was paid for an entire year, she cried her eyes out. She collapsed into my arms and I sat my ass down on the front steps to the place and hugged her, laughing because if I didn’t laugh I would have cried too.

  After a long day dealing with Pop and the shop, the best feeling was coming home to that little place and feeling like it was home. The best part about it was that we did only have it for a year. Having that kind of timeframe on our backs made us enjoy it more. We agreed that was stupid to think and act in life, but it’s what we had.

  No rules. No limits. No thinking too far ahead. No going too far back.

  I craved the taste of her lips in the morning and the desire of her body at night.

  Days of the week collided together in that they had no purpose. Hell, the only reason I knew what day it was was because of the shop. Other than that, being with Julia was like time stood still. Like it didn’t exist.

  I finished my cigarette and gave a head nod to the ocean.

  I’d never fully make my peace with it, but I could at least stare and appreciate it.

  When I went inside, Julia was waiting.

  “When did you get home, sweetheart?” I asked.

  “A few minutes ago.”

  “You didn’t come outside to kiss me? Have a smoke with me?”

  “Had to go pee,” she said. “Want all the details?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m good.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  I walked to the fridge and grabbed a beer. “What are you thinking for tonight? Grab a quick bite? Walk the beach? Go find somewhere to stir up trouble? Hey, I was thinking we should do that fake name thing again at a bar. It’s been a while since I got into-”

  I stopped talking when I saw Julia’s face.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Just wondering… how long do we have to live here for?”

  “What?” I asked. “Here? You don’t want to live here anymore? Seriously?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, Jett…”

  “I paid for the year,” I said. “We can leave. We can find something else. Use this as a little vacation spot for the year. Maybe I can work on JJ to sell it to me.”

  Julia looked around. “I like the place. But…”

  “What’s going on?” I asked. I put my beer down and walked around the counter to Julia. I touched her face and kissed her. “Are you getting sick of me already?”

  “I’ll always be sick of you, Jett,” Julia said. “That’ll never change.”

  “Wow. Love you too, sweetheart.”

  Julia touched her lips with her left hand.

  There was a diamond ring on her finger.

  I stepped back and laughed. “Oh… so today is a good day to be engaged?”

  “Just want to make sure I lock you down before it gets crazy again.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Julia reached back with her right hand and handed me something.

  A pregnancy test.

  A positive pregnancy test.

  I felt all the air leave my body.

  I looked at the pregnancy test and Julia back and forth so many times I started to get dizzy.

  Julia patted my chest. “Nice job pulling out, Jett.”

  I tossed the pregnancy test to the floor and grabbed her by her perfect hips and pulled her toward me.

  She looked up at me, smiling, her eyes glossy.

  I smiled back at her.

  “Well?” she whispered to me.

  “You’re right about this place,” I said.

  “Yeah?”

  I brushed my lips against hers. “This place is not going to be big enough for our kind of crazy, sweetheart.”

  Want more #hch?

  HIDDEN CREEK HIGH has been an amazing ride… SO FAR! I hope you’re ready for MORE of your favorite #hch stories to come out soon. If you have a quick second, email me and tell me who you want to see have their book/series… are you wondering about Emma and her baseball bat? Or how about the mysterious yet cool Leo? Or maybe the readers favorite badass… Cherry.

  What do you think darlin’? Who would you love to see in a #hch book/series?

  Want even more #hch?

  Darlin’ … DO NOT STOP READING YET!

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  Look for more heart wrenching, emotional upcoming novels including:

  A LETTER TO DELILAH

  THE WRONG SIDE

  * * *

  Other bestselling novels by Jaxson include:

  5 Years Later

  Somebody Else (& Nobody Else)

 
Dear Everly,

  Imagine Us

  Anna’s Dress

  Let You Go

  When I’m Gone

  What You Don’t Know

  Every Other Weekend

  Check out the books here:

  Jaxson’s Amazon Page

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (This also includes the cover image and/or cover model(s) appearing on the cover. The context of this book does not in any way depict the personal life of said cover model(s). Image is licensed and used purely for fictional purpose only.)

  First electronic edition December 2019

  Copyright © 2019 by Jaxson Kidman

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.

  Copyright image iStock/DepositPhotos

  Copyright cover Cosmic Letters

  Created with Vellum