I grabbed my keys and headed out, pulling on a jacket at the last second when the cool wind hit me the second the front door opened. The last thing I wanted to do was drive into town during a storm and deal with my jackass of a brother. No, scratch that. The actual last thing I wanted was Chief Waldo, Amelia’s dad, to have to deal with my jackass of a brother. He’d already arrested him more times that I could count, which didn’t exactly ingratiate me with Amelia’s dad. He begrudgingly let us be friends, mostly because he knew making me off-limits would only be like waving the red flag in front of the bull named Amelia.
I drove right past Hell Hotel, my neck craning for any sight of the dark-haired vixen who’d stolen my heart in junior high. Thankfully, I didn’t see her, which meant she was inside and safe. Probably running around that place keeping all her residents happy and calm. She was damn good at what she did, which was why I always supported her in her dream to own her own bed-and-breakfast instead of working for the absentee owner of Hell Hotel. Her dreams hadn’t happened yet, but I knew they would.
It was quiet inside Hell’s Tavern, most of the patrons having gone home like levelheaded citizens who wanted to ride out the storm at home. Then a crash from the far side of the bar broke the quiet. I looked over to see Dom in a pile of barstools, looking around in a daze.
I strode over and pulled him up. “Come on, brother. Let’s get you home.”
Dom fell into me and then pushed back hard. Damn drunks were always stronger than they looked. “I don need you. I got wh-whiskey comin’. Huh, Nugget?” He whipped his head left and right, looking for the bartender cleaning glasses and watching us carefully from behind the bar.
“The bar’s closing, Dom. Time to go home.” I shuffled him across the floor and almost made it to the door when he reared back and cracked the back of his head against my nose.
“Fuck!” I let him go to grab my nose. He slid to the floor and rested against my leg, unaware he’d just hit me. My hand came away wet.
Nugget appeared at my side with a stack of square white napkins. I took them gratefully and tried to stop the blood while picking up Dom again. We made it to my truck, the cold wind whipping his face rousing him enough to get the job done.
He fell asleep on the way to the tiny one-room cabin he kept in the woods north of town. I’d helped him buy it and the postage stamp of land surrounding it. I couldn’t keep my brother from drinking, but I felt better knowing he’d always have a roof over his head. Mom and Dad had washed their hands of him when they caught him stealing their hard-earned retirement money. While I wished they’d stayed in town, I understood they needed a fresh start in Florida. Mom’s joints felt better in the heat and Dad couldn’t stop going off about the lack of taxes. Part of me wondered if they’d left mostly just to get away from the disappointment of Dom. And if that was the case, why couldn’t they have stayed for me?
By the time I got Dom in his house and made it back home, the storm was in full swing, rain pelting my face as I raced into the house. I shook off the drops and made myself a quick protein shake before heading to bed. I was done with today.
As I lay in bed trying to get to sleep while a storm did its best to rip the trees out of the ground, I wondered if maybe Chief was right. Maybe I wasn’t good enough for Amelia and she knew it deep down too, which was why she never saw me as dating potential. The thought was disturbing and so were the dreams that came after. The ones where Amelia was walking down the aisle with Daire and all I could do was scream silently. Never heard, never seen, as I watched the love of my life give her life to someone else.
“Titus,” Chief’s gruff voice had the hairs on the back of my neck rising. Had he heard about my brother last night?
“Hey, Chief Waldo, how are you today?” I pasted on a smile and held the door for the man as he exited Coffee with a steamy cup and a bag of something that smelled delicious. His uniform didn’t have a stain yet, so I could assume his work day was just getting started. The morning had dawned bright, the storm moving on as quickly as it had come.
“Doin’ fine. Just came from the hotel. Had a tree situation there last night.”
My smile froze. Tree situations were never good. Especially right after an intense storm. “Is Amelia all right?”
“She’s fine. All the excitement has put her in fine form this morning. You have been warned.” He lifted a bushy eyebrow and walked to his cruiser parked at the curb.
My stomach lurched as I got in line. I knew Chief said Amelia was fine, but I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. The tall pine trees around here made Auburn Hill beautiful, but they became hazards when big storms ripped through and downed a tree near a structure. We’d had a few run-ins with houses being completely demolished in a storm in my lifetime.
“Hey, Lukas. Can I have a black coffee, a mocha with extra whip, and a dozen assorted donuts?” The kid behind the counter, Lenora’s brother, rang me up quickly.
“Got a job this morning?” he asked as I handed him a twenty.
I quirked a smile despite the anxiousness churning in
