The Crown Jewels (22 page)

“Okay, honey,” she said, looking around the kitchen and biting her lip nervously. “I guess we’ll go now. The Haggards are already in their car waiting to follow us home.”

I walked around the room, collecting the strings of the balloons and gathering them together.

“I’ll walk you out,” I said. Crit stood up and followed us.

We reached their car, and Dad was already behind the wheel. Seth and Jesse were standing at the side of the car, talking to him. Beau and Finn were at their parent’s car behind us. I opened the back door, shoved the balloons in, and closed the door before they could escape.

I leaned into the front of the car as Mom loaded up the back. “Sorry, Dad, I just can’t handle Crit popping these things all night,” I said.

“That’s okay, babe. Have a wonderful night, George,” he said, winking at me. His eyes crinkled, and smiled. “Stay out of trouble tonight!”

“Of course, Daddy. See you tomorrow.” I stood up and kissed my Mom. “Bye, Mom. Thanks for everything today. Love you.”

“I love you, too, honey. Bye, boys! Call us if you need us! Don’t burn the cabin down!” she warned, climbing in and closing the door. We stood back from the car and waved as they pulled away. The Haggard’s car followed behind, with Hank and Lora waving at us as they passed.

Beau and Finn walked over and joined us, just as Ruby walked out of the front of the house.

“Time to party!” she said, throwing her hands in the air over her head.

“Hell, yeah!” I said.

“Easy does it, George,” Crit threw a warning over his shoulder as he walked back into the house.

The sound of tires crunching on the gravel road sounded behind us. Lee’s black Ford pick-up truck rambled up the driveway, taking the curve a little too fast as usual and kicking up dust along the way.

“It’s about time,” Finn muttered under his breath.

“Don’t start,” Beau replied. When the truck came to a stop, we were all waving our hands in front of us to clear the dust from the air.

Right away, we knew Lee was drunk.

“Well, look at you, Georgie!” Lee slurred as he slammed the door of the Ford. He walked over and grabbed my hands, spinning me around in front of him. “Twenty-one!”

Lee Haggard was a disaster. A tall, ripped, rugged playboy of a disaster. He had probably slept with all of the single girls in the county, and half of the married ones too. He had a reputation for making a woman want to sleep with him again at the same time she was regretting doing it in the first place. I had heard all the stories. Hell, I had grown up around him. I saw how women treated him.

He was the most handsome of all the Haggard boys, that was for sure. But in an obvious way, a way that no matter how much you tried not to, you still caught yourself staring at him. He was hypnotizing.

It was too bad his outsides didn’t match his insides, though.

As much as he was known as the sexiest man in town by all the women, he was also known as the biggest prick by all the men. Even the ones that didn’t have something to lose with the flash of one of Lee’s panty-dropping crooked grins towards their wife. He just did not get along with men at all.

All I know is, if I was a man, I’d probably feel a whole lot less attractive with Lee in the room.

He kept his hair long, the dark tendrils curling over the collar of the pearl-buttoned western shirts he always wore. His tight Wranglers only served to accentuate everything they were supposed to cover up - his muscular thighs, his round, tight ass, and the bulge that left nothing to the imagination, proudly on display through the tight stretch of denim, just in case anyone needed proof of the rumors being true.

But like I said, whatever was going on inside Lee Haggard was not reflected on the outside. He was a hot mess. Always wasted, always in some sort of trouble with the law, too. Either he got in a fight at a bar over a woman, or got stopped while driving after a few too many beers and then didn’t show up for his court date, it seemed as if there was always something going on with him. So, I wasn’t surprised he was late for my party.

I was surprised he showed up at all, actually.

I pulled my hands away, dizzy from his attention, as well as the spinning.

“Yeah, twenty-one,” I answered him. “Big deal.” I grabbed Ruby’s hand and we turned to go back inside.

“Hey, it is a big deal!” he slurred to my back. “Happy Birthday!”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said over my shoulder, as eager to get back to my friends as I was to get away from Lee’s intense gaze.

GEORGE

“It’s as big as a house!” Ruby said, standing in front of the bonfire the boys had built. They threw another pallet of wood on the pile, and I stared up at the sputtering orange flames that stretched up to the sky.

I poured the last of the beer from my bottle into my mouth, and then tugged on Ruby’s shirt. She ignored me, her eyes glued to Crit, as usual.

“Gotta pee,” I said to her, before stumbling away from the lake towards the lights of the cabin.

The cabin was situated on the edge of the lake, separated from the shore by a line of tall pine trees. Hiking up the well-worn trail, the memories of summers and vacations spent here flooded my mind. Being here had a way of settling me. No matter what was going on in my life, every time I arrived here, a sense of peace fell over me like a warm blanket. My brothers annoyed me less, my parents felt less controlling, and all the little things that seemed to be so important when I was back at home or at school, just melted away into blissful oblivion. Here, I could just be myself. It didn’t matter if I washed my hair, or if I laid in the hammock all day reading a book.

Thousands of stars shimmered overhead, the moon hung full and bright in the black sky. The sounds of the party faded with each step, and the lush fullness of the trees surrounded me on all sides. I inhaled deeply, thinking that I would drink in the sweet pine scent if I could. There was nothing in the world like it.

Blissfully, I made my way into the cabin and headed straight for the bathroom. The two beers I had consumed had gone straight through me, just like they always did. Every time I drank, I seemed to spend more time in the bathroom peeing than I did drinking with my friends. After four years of college, I was still trying to figure out what the fun of it all was.

The cabin was quiet, since everyone was out at the bonfire. I could hear the faint sounds of one of my brothers, or, most likely all of them, howling into the sky. It was a good thing they had each other, because not many people could put up with them. They were kind and loving, sure, but they could be protective assholes a lot of the time, as well.

Jesse was the only one I didn’t really have any issues with. He was the youngest of the three, and even though he had just turned twenty-three, he was still keeping to himself in his room most of the time. He was the quiet one of all four of us, and the easiest to take, because he wasn’t always on my ass about who I was dating or where I was going.

Why Crit and Seth had decided it was their job to watch over me, I had no idea. But Mom and Dad had seemed to sign off on it, and I had learned to accept it. I didn’t like it, but I accepted it.

But, still, like I said, this cabin had a way of making everything tolerable. Even my crazy, protective, howling brothers.

I peed with a smile on my face, thankful for my big family. I knew other people who weren’t so lucky. I washed my hands, looked in the mirror, and took a mental picture of myself. Twenty-one. I still looked sixteen. Great. Only now, it was really time to grow up.

I was ready for it, though. And I had a wonderful family to support me as I did.

I stepped out of the bathroom and ran smack dab into Lee Haggard - a very handsome, yet very drunk, Lee.

“Heyyyyy,” he slurred, towering over me.

“Hey, Lee,” I replied warily, as I stepped to the side to move past him. He blocked my way and smiled.

“So,” he said, “how does it feel?”

“How does what feel?” I asked. He was standing so close to me, I could see the vein in his neck throbbing with his heartbeat. His brown eyes peered down at me, his gaze a little sleepy, and the faint scents of beer and marijuana wafted off of him.

His eyes were hazy, but they were still smolderingly sexy. You’d have to be dead not to be affected by the way Lee looked at you. His lashes were thick and long enough to make any woman feel a twinge of envy.

“Being twenty-one,” he slurred.

“It feels just the same,” I said. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Oh, come on now, kid, you are hardly a disappointment,” he murmured quietly, his gaze locked on mine. I tried to look away, but this was the first time he had ever looked at me like that. I’d seen him give other girls that look, but never me. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

“Men will look at you differently now,”
Lora’s words echoed in my mind.

I swallowed hard, and took a deep breath. Lee reached up and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Well, you look a little different to me,” he stepped back and trailed those sexy smoldering eyes up and down my body. I wasn’t dressed up at all, in fact, I had just thrown on a t-shirt and jeans, but I was suddenly wishing I had put more thought into my appearance. “You look good, George. Real good.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, confusion beginning to set in. This was Lee. Lee Haggard. Someone I had known all my life, and now he was looking at me like this? Like…like I was a woman?

My heart sped up, and I bit my lip and tore my gaze away from his, thankful that I had managed to find the strength to do that.
I was just being ridiculous
, I thought. It was the beers. I was seeing something that wasn’t there.

My head was swimming with confusion when I looked back up at him. His lips landed on mine and I froze. He tasted like beer, but I guess I did, too. He began moving his mouth, kissing me hard, and instead of kissing back, I was motionless while my mind was spinning, trying to process what was happening, and how I was supposed to react.

This was Lee!

And that was Lee’s mouth. On mine!

What harm would one kiss do? It’s not like I hadn’t been kissed before.

I softened and began kissing him back, his warm, wet lips so strange against mine. He put his arms around me, pulling me in closer to his hard, muscular body. But he was kissing me too hard, so hard it hurt. When I felt his hand squeeze my breast roughly, I opened my eyes in shock.

What was he doing?
I wondered.

“No, Lee,” I said, pulling away and grabbing his hand with mine and pulling it away from my chest.

“What do you mean, no?” he snarled, pushing me against the wall and smashing his lips into mine again. I struggled against him, trying to push him off but he was twice my size, and he didn’t budge.

“Stop!” I said, tearing my lips away from his. “Please! Lee!”

His hand snaked under my shirt, grabbed hold of my bra and pulled hard until I heard the cloth rip and tear away from my body. His hand fell over my right breast again, squeezing hard.

I cried out as he began kissing my neck, his body pressing me against the wall so hard I couldn’t move.

“Lee, please, stop,” I cried. “You’re drunk, please…”

“No, Georgie,” he slurred, “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

“Lee, no!” I pushed up against him, but the weight of his body had me pinned securely to the wall. When he pushed my shirt up and engulfed my nipple with his mouth, hot, wet tears began falling down my face.

GOLDIE AND WARD

“I can’t see the Haggard’s car behind us with all these balloons,” Ward said, as he maneuvered the car down the winding back roads that led back to the farm.

“Well, they really helped make everything festive, Ward,” Goldie said. “I wanted things to be special for George. You only turn twenty-one once.”

“I know, sweetie,” Ward said, squeezing his wife’s knee. “It’s not a big deal.”

Goldie put her hand over her husband’s, feeling a wave of gratitude wash over her. Her life was perfect. She had never dreamed she would be so blessed. Life as a child had been rough for her, stricken with poverty and the abuse that seemed to almost always come with it. But now, she had Ward and all the kids, and they had made a wonderful life for themselves. Now, the kids were all grown up and everything they had taught them over the years would pay off.

“I’m so excited for our trip to Hawaii,” Goldie said. The sky had fallen dark now and she stared up at the stars. “I bet you can see millions of stars there.”

“It’s going to be great, babe. As soon as the preliminaries are over, I’m all yours,” Ward replied. They had been planning this trip for months. “Even if you are making me go to Hawaii. I would have much preferred Montana, something a little more…country.” Ward and Crit had been bull riders for years, and Crit and Beau were competing in the Sugar Hill Round-up that was coming up next week. If they won, as was predicted, then they would advance to the finals, to the Texas State Championships in Houston in a few months.