out of the house. He wouldn’t care where we are as long as he’s not at home listening to his mother remind him he’s got to go to work in the morning.”
Cain looked a bit skeptical. “Does he actually work or is this one of those things where he’s got a title and an office and no real power?”
“He’s learning the business.” Slowly, from what Harry could tell. Cal didn’t talk much about work, and in the time he’d been here, Cal seemed to take Fridays off. “No one expected his father to pass as early as he did. Cal was barely out of college.”
And from what he could tell, Cal wasn’t handling the stress of suddenly inheriting a company well.
“Yeah, and I remember when he lost his brother. That couldn’t have been easy. I grew up in these parts. I left for a couple of years, went into the military, and when I came out, I worked in Atlanta,” Cain explained as he poured the three beers Harry had ordered.
“What made you come home?” From what he could tell, most young folks who left didn’t come back.
“What always makes us come home? I had a family member who needed me,” he replied in a gravelly tone. “Is that why you’re in town? I hear you’re Cal’s cousin but you’ve never been here before. I thought the Beaumonts were all tight.”
He wouldn’t call the family tight in an emotional way. There was a careful distance between them all, and he worried it was more about grief than anything else. They seemed to be stuck in a cycle. “Celeste Beaumont was my mother’s sister. I’m not from the wealthy side of the family. I grew up in Texas. We didn’t get down here a lot. Did you know them as kids? My cousins, that is.”
A single shoulder shrugged as he placed the final beer in front of Harry. “I’m a bit older than Cal, but sure, I knew them. It’s a small town. Everyone knows everyone else. And Cal has always been a little wild. Wes was quieter. It was obvious he was the favorite. He was smarter. Everyone thought he would take over the company one day. It was a shock when he up and joined the Army. And Angie was just kind of there. She was a shy girl. She kind of blended in wherever she went. But they seemed like solid kids. Cal wouldn’t let anyone bully his brother or sister. He was a pretty good guy. And then he started drinking.”
He stared pointedly at the beers.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to stop anytime soon.” His cousin partied pretty hard, and it was obvious it was starting to be a problem. Harry picked up two beers in one hand and one in the other. It was not his first rodeo. “I’ll see if I can keep him under control tonight.”
“Try, because I do not need the sheriff up my ass if Cal causes trouble. He might not come out here often, but if a Beaumont gets hurt in a bar fight, I assure you I’ll get a visit,” Cain said with a frown.
“I’ll make sure he’s cool.” It was the only reason he’d agreed to come out this evening. He hadn’t wanted Cal driving. He turned to the table his cousin was sitting at and caught sight of the third person in their party this evening. Zep Guidry. Yeah, maybe making sure Cal got home all right wasn’t the only reason he’d done it.
How many times did that sweet-faced blonde have to turn him down before he got the message? He started for the table. He wasn’t going to pursue her. Not romantically. He’d received that message, but he got the feeling there was something more to the feud between his aunt and Seraphina. He also worried it was a battle Sera wasn’t going to win.
He set the beer in front of Cal and Zep and slid into his chair.
“So you met Cain,” Cal said, taking a sip. “Watch yourself around him. He’s on the dangerous side, if you know what I mean.”
“I do not.” He’d seemed pretty cool.
Zep leaned in. “There’s a rumor he works for a drug dealer. Now, I stay away from all that stuff because beer works fine, and no one ever lost their teeth from drinking beer.”
Cal shook his head. “I don’t know about that. Herve lost his front two teeth in that fight and it was all because he’d been drinking