Page 76 of Sundown Somewhere

It is…

20

HUX

“Sneaking around is apparently a theme in this family.”

Milo stops, beer midway to Jace, giving him a look only an older brother can. One that is asking the question that all of us are wondering.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I voice it, but only because I was quickest to the draw. Dude has lost his mind.

Jace shrugs, confident in his wild theory, leaning back in his stool at the Pour Decisions bar. The warehouse-like space that acts as a taproom for Southern Brothers Brewing is already starting to fill up. Small groups of people are making their way up to the rough-cut bar on one side of the room to grab a drink before heading to one of the tables set up inside or to the picnic-style ones outside under the new shelter that Milo and Brandt installed last summer. Tonight’s food truck—Lord of the Fries—arrived about fifteen minutes ago, and I can already smell the deep fried goodness.

“Well, Milo was sneaking around with Brenna. Gus was sneaking around with Margeaux…”

“Don’t forget Willa and Nash,” Ewan adds.

Jace snaps his fingers, pointing at baby brother. “And she kept that a secret for like ten years.”

“Eh…” Ewan shrugs. “You don’t share a building with her. He was in and out of the bank all the time. Plus, it needs better soundproofing.”

Jace wobbles his head, giving Ewan that point. The old bank building that Ewan and Willa call home sits in the middle of town, a reminder of when Hickory Hills was even smaller than it is now. Despite the fact that Pitman Dean National Bank closed the Hickory Hills branch after they bought out Middle Georgia Bank and Trust years ago, everyone in town still refers to this building as “the bank.” Even after Auggie bought it, renovated it creating two apartments—on the second and third floors, now occupied by Ewan and Willa and her boyfriend, Nash, respectively—and attempted to change it to the Llewellyn building, named for the ancestor who died in the Civil War. It’s simply “the bank.”

“And now, we add Hux and Dolly to the list,” Jace continues, ignoring Ewan’s laments about how quiet our sister isn’t in the heat of the moment.

“Brenna and I didn’t sneak around,” Milo says, glaring at Jace, his voice stern. Like he’s doing his grumpy Gus impression. “I was perfectly open about my intentions.”

Now it’s my turn to give him the what the fuck look. Because that’s not how it went down at all.

“Seriously? Because I distinctly remember breaking up a fight before you got your ass kicked.”

Milo turns his glare at me. It’s the truth though—if it weren’t for Gus and me, he would have had his ass handed to him thanks to⁠—

“Fine, I was mostly upfront about my intentions,” he admits, picking up an empty pint glass and filling it with beer. “Either way, we weren’t sneaking around.”

He makes a damn good point. I wouldn’t qualify what he and Brenna did as sneaking around. The two of them were seen all over town together last summer. Were they careful about their behavior? Sure. A move I understand and respect. Brenna is twelve years younger than Milo and the baby sister of his best friend and business partner. That’s not something one flaunts until you’re sure.

Same as Milo and Brenna, I wouldn’t classify what Dolly and I are doing that way either. Not the same way I would what Willa and Gus did. Both of them went to great lengths to keep their relationships secret. In some moments, to even make people believe the opposite was true. Dolly and I are simply choosing not to make our status public.

“There’s no sneaking here,” I declare. “Not a Hayes family trend.”

“Oh, so we can talk about it?” Anton asks, appearing out of nowhere. Fuck me…where did he come from? “I could stand up on this bar and sing Hux and Dolly sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g and it’d be totally cool?”

Fucker…

“Only if you want to be fertilizer for your peach trees.”

Anton’s shit-eating grin doubles in size, clueing me in that my threat didn’t land as I hoped. Or at all for that matter. I shoot Milo a look, and he nods, silently confirming that he’ll cut Anton off before he gets drunk enough to get to that point. Although given his instigator tendencies, it’s anyone’s guess if that’s after one beer or four.

“What’s the holdup?” Dolly asks, bouncing into the group. She barely looks at me, slipping her arm around my waist, reaching for the beer on the bar and taking a long sip. “I’m thirsty!”

That’s my girl…

“Jace,” I answer without thinking. “He’s the holdup.”

“Oh, that was a Sob Story…” Dolly scrunches her nose, the ale’s taste clearly not doing it for her.

Shaking my head, I push the rejected beer out of the way, sliding hers forward so it sits at the edge of the bar in front of her. “That’s your Blue Jeans in Low Beams.”