Betting on Beaumont: A Brooklyn Novel #3 (The Brooklyn Series) (13 page)

Nothing can put into words how badly my heart hurts knowing that Dixon easily went for the worst option there is. Without even thinking it over first. Would a man really love a woman and do that?

In my eyes the answer would be no.

Savannah shakes her head slowly as her eyes soften and she stares at my sympathetically. “I really don’t know. I can tell he cares about you; hell, half the time he’s the one texting you for a damn booty call. He has tons of women at his disposal, but he calls you. I think he is just scared. He’s used to living his life a certain way. For him, maybe the idea of only one woman for the rest of his life seriously terrifies the crap out him?”

I’m done discussing this. It’s only pissing me off more. Listening to Savannah say all of my insecurities about Dixon out loud. It’s too much.

Spinning on my heels, I stomp toward the living room.

“Where are you going?” Savannah shouts at me as I hear her following on my heels.

Stopping, I whip my head around. “To pack my bags and get the fuck outta here.” With that being said, I storm through the living room and up the stairs to my suite.

Shoving my door open, I head straight to the closet where I have my suitcases and yank them out, laying them onto the floor. Dropping to my knees, I get to work unzipping them before climbing back to my feet. I start double fisting my outfits that are hung up all nicely in the closet and chuck them into the suitcase. Normally I’m anal about my clothes, keeping them organized and neatly folded when traveling, but right now I couldn’t give two fucks.

I stomp across the room when I finish on the clothes in the closet and begin yanking open the dresser drawers. In record time I have every dresser empty and my suitcases overflowing with clothes. I’m crawling across the floor organizing my shoes when I hear a knock at the door. For a split second I hope it’s Dixon finally coming to see if I’m okay. But instead I hear Savannah’s voice as her head pops inside the doorway.

What guy devastates the girl he claims to love and then ignores her? Doesn’t even try to make her feel better? Each moment he doesn’t come groveling, begging for me to forgive him for suggesting such a thing, the angrier I become.

“Hey, need any help?” she asks stepping inside the room and shutting the door softly behind her.

I don’t answer her, instead I continue stacking my shoes into my last suitcase. Treading cautiously across the room, Savannah approaches me and kneels down beside me. She doesn’t say a word. Instead she begins helping me finish packing up my shoes.

Chucking another pair of heels into my suitcase, I lift my eyes up to Savannah’s. “I don’t know if I can take riding on a plane with that jackass. I think I might book a flight back to L.A.”

The entire time I’ve spent up here packing by myself and Dixon not showing up to try and talk to me, the more I find myself coming to the conclusion that I should just go back to L.A. instead of heading back to Texas.

Savannah sets my last pair of shoes in and zips up my suitcase for me. Climbing to her feet, she brushes her hair out of her face and lets out a loud sigh, flopping onto the edge of my bed.

Resting her hands on her knees, she watches me pack up my makeup into my cosmetic bag. “I think running to L.A. is the worse plan ever. Dixon wouldn’t have eloped last night if a part of him didn’t love you back. I say you show him the stubborn Brooklyn…The Brooklyn who doesn’t give up until she has exactly what she wants.”

“Well I have the car ride over to the airport to make up my mind.” Throwing my makeup into my purse, I sling it onto my shoulder and grab the handles of my suitcases, wheeling them out of the room.

“Ugh. You can be so stubborn,” I hear Savannah mumble under her breath, following me out.

-Dixon

As I drive my truck down my parents’ long, winding driveway and watch as the house comes into view, the more nervous I feel myself becoming. The last thing I want to do right now is face my parents’. I’ve never been more torn on a decision in my life. I had multiple text messages from my parents’ demanding I come straight to their house the minute our plane touched down.

I was torn between coming here and facing them or trying to fix things with Brooklyn. She wouldn’t even look at me let alone speak to me the entire plane ride from Vegas to Houston. Her and Savannah kept themselves barricaded inside the bedroom of the plane watching a movie. While I spent the entire flight being ragged on by Kayden. Jax and Braxton kept to themselves choosing to stay away from the subject. Which I don’t blame Jax, because only forty-eight hours ago he thought Brooklyn and him had a real chance at something together.

Little did he know that while she was with him, she was unsuccessful at forgetting about me. But as I sit here putting my truck into park and jump out, making my way up to my parents’ door to discuss possibly annulling our marriage, I find myself wondering if Brooklyn would be better off with Jax. Maybe I’m a selfish asshole and should’ve left her alone.

Inhaling a shaky breath, I grip the door handle and let myself inside. Stepping into the foyer, I’m immediately hit the familiar scent of home. No matter where I travel to or where I live, nothing compares to that feeling of being home. I walk around the house, checking the family room, my dad’s office, and the kitchen, but find no one. I notice the back patio lit up and the sound of Darius Rucker coming from the backyard. 

Pushing open one of the French doors leading out to the back patio, I spot my parents’ sitting in the handmade patio chairs I built for them a few years back, in front of the large stone fireplace. My sister and her husband are sitting opposite them sipping on glasses of sweet tea. The sun is hanging low in the sky casting shades of orange across the horizon and making a dark shadow fill the covered patio. The overhead ceiling fans are on low making the heat from the fire comfortable.

Lanterns resting on each end table beside the patio furniture is the only lighting outside giving the patio a relaxed atmosphere, but the second I stepped outside, I could feel the air shift around us.

My sister lifts her eyes up to mine when she spots me entering the back yard and attempts to cover the smile on her face with her glass, as my father and mother both shift in their seats toward me.

Lifting my hat off of my head, I run my fingers nervously through my hair before placing my ball cap back onto my head. I nod at everyone before walking straight for the cooler beside my dad and digging a Budweiser out of it. Twisting the cap off, I flick the cap into the fire and plop down onto the lounger beside my sister. “So…” I say trying to break the tension filling the air around us. My father’s eyes burn with anger as he takes a long pull from his beer. I follow suit, gulping down half my bottle with one long swig.

At this rate, we may just have a good ‘ol staring contest as we drink every goddamn beer in the cooler before finally one of us chooses to speak.

My mother shakes her head slowly as her fingers fidget nervously in her lap. She must notice that my father is too pissed off to say anything, so she finally asks the question weighing on everyone’s minds.

“What the hell were you thinkin’, Dixon? Eloping?!” Her voice starts out calm, but by the time she says my name, the volume of her voice has increased ten notches and the hysteria in her words is impossible to miss.

Sliding my hand over my face, I drop my eyes to the stones beneath my feet, watching an ant as it runs around in circles by my boot. “I wasn’t thinkin’, Ma. I’m sorry. It’s not like I was fixin’ to get hitched while there. It just kinda happened, is all.”

I hear a slight giggle escape my sister as my father finally chimes in, “It just happened? Losing a few grand while in Vegas just happens, son. Getting married and risking billions doesn’t just happen! Have you lost your fuckin’ mind? You married some wannabe actress who you’ve been dating a total of five minutes? Do you have any idea the kind of damage you have done? For once I would love for you to think with your head instead of your dick!”

Lifting my eyes back up to my father, I clench my teeth and try to keep my anger at bay. “It’s not like that, Dad. If you’d take the time to listen to me you’d understand that I’m in love with her. I thought you guys would be happy for me. I finally met someone and instead of congratulating me, all you care about is your precious bank accounts.”

Standing abruptly, I tip my head back and take a long pull from my beer, draining every drop, before tossing it into the recycling bin beside the door. “You know what, Dad? You can forget about the annulment. I fucked up big time today telling Brooklyn I wanted one, all because I allowed myself to listen to you. Now, I have to go groveling back to her, begging her to forgive me for acting like the world’s biggest asshole.”

My sister’s mouth falls open, and her husband keeps his eyes fixed on the dancing flames of the fire. My mother lets out a small gasp as my father jumps to his feet and gets only inches from my face. With his fists clenched at his sides, he furrows his brows and tells me with a threatening tone, “You will dissolve this marriage. There is no yes or no option on the table. I’ve let you get away with enough reckless bullshit over the years. But this…you’ve gone too far, Dixon. I will not allow you to put everything this family has in danger. You won’t only hurt yourself but your mother, your sister…” he says, whipping his hand from my mother to my sister. “You are going to fix this now while you can. You are meeting with our family attorney tomorrow at Beaumont Energy at one sharp. So I suggest you make an effort to be at your office and have Brooklyn with you. We’ll need both of your signatures so we can get the annulment filed immediately.”

I let out a ragged breath as I feel a weight pressing on my chest making it hard to catch my breath. I’ve fucked everything up. I have no idea how to fix this so that I don’t lose Brooklyn and don’t piss off my entire family.

“I can’t do this right now. I’m hung over and fuckin’ exhausted. This is too much for me to deal with tonight. I’ll call you in the morning. I can’t make you any promises about tomorrow. You don’t know Brooklyn. There’s no making her do anything she doesn’t want to do. If she refuses to come meet with the attorney tomorrow, there’s nothing I can do to make her come.” Turning my back to my father, I stomp across the stone patio, the clicking of my boots is the only sound filling the now quiet patio. I can hear soft chatter coming from my sister as I reach the door. I contemplate saying the words lingering on my tongue before I leave them all sitting out here by themselves.

Pulling the door open, I glance back at everyone as they all watch in shock as I leave my father standing by the fireplace. He looks like he’s biting back unspoken words too, but unlike him, I decide to speak mine.

“You guys are the last people on this earth that I thought would care more about contracts and agreements, rather than the fact that I finally found someone I want to spend the rest of my life with. Did you guys treat Lila this way when Mike proposed? No, y’all were popping bottles of champagne, not speed dialing your fuckin’ attorney to go over pre-nups! That’s all I wanted from y’all…just to be happy for me. All I’ve heard is I need to grow up, I need to settle down. Now that I’ve found a girl worth giving my life to, y’all want me to throw it all away. I can’t fuckin’ win no matter what the hell I do.”

I don’t wait for them to respond to my spew of honesty. Instead, I slam the door shut behind me and storm through the house toward the front door. As I yank open the front door and step out onto the brick steps that lead down to the carport where my truck’s parked, I hear the sound of Lila shouting to me.

“Dixon! Wait up! I’m too pregnant to chase your damn ass down!” she yells, wobbling toward me. She’s seven months along now and really showing. It’s hard to believe in two months my baby niece will enter the world.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, I lean against my passenger side door. “There’s nothing you can say, Lila, that will…”

Holding her hand up between us she rolls her eyes in annoyance. “Dixon, shut up for five seconds, please!”

“Sorry!” I laugh, holding my hands out in surrender.  “Miss hormonal. But I’m kind of having a bad day, alright?”

“I’ll let the hormonal comment slide,
this one time
, asshole, because I know you’re pissed off. But I just want you to know I’m on your side. I’m sorry Mom and Dad are putting you through this. I’m going back to Dallas in a few days. Mom and Dad wanted me here to help dismantle this situation you’ve gotten yourself in, so Mike put in some personal time. Talk to Brooklyn, do what you feel in your heart is what you want to do. Not what anyone else wants you to do. Then if she’s feeling up to it, we can get together for dinner before we head home. I’m intrigued and really excited to meet this woman who has my little brother seeing hearts and actually speaking the ‘L’ word voluntarily, without any unspoken agenda.”

Raising my brow, I bring my hands to my pockets and relax against the truck. “Hey, I will have you know I’ve never used the ‘L’ word to get into girls’ pants. All I have to do is smile their way and the panties magically disappear…ouch!” I scream as I cup my left pectoral that my sister just smacked.

She gives me a devilish grin and orders, “Stop acting like a pig, and get your ass inside your truck and go tell that poor girl how much you love her.”

“Alright, alright. I’m going. Let’s just hope she doesn’t slam the door in my face the second she sees it’s me on her door step.”

As I round the truck and step up onto the step bar, my sister shouts over the truck at me, “You better stop by the store and grab a bottle of wine, a big bouquet of flowers, and lots of chocolate because I have a feeling you’re going to need to pull out all of the stops with this one.”