Chestnut Ridge
Boot Scootin’ Dance Hall
Rolling my eyes at my sister and Jasper, who were competing to come up with the worst descriptions for the place we were currently at, I realized it was an indescribable mix of a bar, dancehall, comedy club, live singing stage, party area, and karaoke venue. Jackson summed it up succinctly: “Why don’t we head on down to the Honkytonk they got some fandango goin’ on tonight?”
I still don’t know what a Honkytonk really was, nor was I clear on the meaning of fandango, apparently it was a place where all the things described above happened.
Tonight was supposed to be a dance night, someone’s birthday—though not anyone I knew. The whole town evidently had come to dance the night away in celebration.
The fact that Iris and Jas had decided to come with me for a four-day-holiday-weekend visit at Jackson’s ranch was a shock to both Jackson and me, but he had an extra bedroom available, so they’d get the full experience. It would be their first vacation in the ‘wilderness’, according to my sister when we got them settled in the bedroom they would be using earlier today, to which Jackson had dryly added “Well now, Iris hun, reckon the wilderness ain’t got itself no fancy doors or walls. Nope, it’s wide open, stretchin’ out as far as the eye can see, darn hot at daylight and freezin’ cold at night. And when them coyotes start yippin’ and howlin’, well, that’s when you tip your hat and say, ‘Thank ya, Jackson for them walls and doors.’ And for the indoor latrine, once the need arises. Ain’t fun outside at night, lemme tell ya…”
My smirking while thinking about the aforementioned moment of slight glee turned into groaning, I cringed in my seat when Taylor took the stage. I hadn’t even noticed her yet, of course she would be here, but the minute she got up there, her eyes were on my little group. Ugh! That girl always knew how to ruin my mood with little effort on her part required. Just her existing within my field of vision usually did the trick for me.
She drawled something I couldn’t understand into the microphone; half the place cheered. Then music started playing from a speaker, and she began singing—not even sounding half-bad, as I had to begrudgingly admit. I went back to my own business, laughing with my sister, her boyfriend, and mine over beer and wine that tasted differently. Jasper deduced they were from microbreweries. ‘you can taste the damp basement and the tears of their ancestors in each sip…‘ he had said.
Taylor’s song echoed out, and she said something into the microphone that I ignored until I heard the relevant part.
“…and since we’re lucky and blessed enough to have a music student from the fancy Britchester university here among us tonight, none other than a daughter sprung from a famous musician family, the Camerons—we’ve all heard of Blaine Cameron, some here know his son Chase, or better know him as one half of 2Dark2C. That’s her daddy. So, let’s demand to see her talent on this here stage. Briar Rose, where ya at, hun? Bet we’re in for the show of our lives.”
I could literally feel my heart stop, then beat so fast it made me breathless. Instinctively, I ducked down.
“Oh, come on, you got this. You’ve got the best voice out of mom and dad’s three loin fruits. And you’re literally planning to make performing music your career, so get up on that stage and show the bitch who’s boss.” my sister encouraged me.
“Uh, hold up there, Iris,” Jackson interrupted. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. They’ve only got country and western loaded up on that machine right there, and I don’t reckon Bri knows many songs top to bottom—if any.”
“Just country? That’s it?! I don’t know any of those. Only maybe a few lines here and there, I picked up staying here so often, but I definitely do not know any full songs!” I exclaimed, now in a full-on panic.
“Briar Rooooose, come out, come out, wherever you are,” Taylor taunted on stage as the music to ‘Jolene’ started playing. I knew that was aimed at me. She’d called me Jolene before, back when Jackson and I first started dating. When I corrected her, she told me to look up the lines to this song. I had. Yikes! That girl would be on her deathbed one day still convinced I stole Jackson from her, which wasn’t true. At least not completely.
“Let’s just leave…” Jasper suggested, even he was uncomfortable, and he never got nervous. That boy was self-confidence personified.
“I’ll just kick that arrogant…” Iris started getting up, fuming, but Jackson grabbed her arm and kept her in the chair, shaking his head at her.
He reached over, grabbed his beer, emptied what was left in the bottle in one big gulp, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and got up, heading to the stage.
Seeing him walk up next to Taylor, who was beaming, angered me so much.
“Oh, well well, hello there, Mister Kershaw, the man himself. But I think I remember callin’ for Briar Rose, and ya ain’t Bri…” she taunted but smiling coquettishly at MY Jackson! Grrrrrr, oh that little …
Some folks booed and laughed, someone tossed an empty beer can at the stage, which Jackson oh so casually caught and crumpled up as he took the mic.
“Now now, there, that ain’t nice. Turns out that mah Briar Rose got a bit of a frog in her throat tonight, and seeing how I am her man, I reckon it’s A-Ok for me to take over for my lady. And not to argue with our very own freshly baked Mrs. Walker here, since she’s expectin’ and my daddy raised a gentleman, but let’s spice things up a little and get rid of that bitter tune, huh. This ain’t the club of broken hearts; this is a dance, ain’t I right? So, I am gonna wanna see all y’all up on that dancefloor! Dontcha make me come down there now!” Jackson sure knew how to redirect the emotions as loud cheering ensued as he pushed around on some buttons of some ancient-looking contraption, which was evidently their karaoke machine. By the looks of it, Neanderthals knew how to party too.
Suddenly, some upbeat, clearly country-sounding music started, and people cheered as he grabbed a guitar from somewhere, tested it for a moment, then began playing and singing lines from a tongue-in-cheek type upbeat country song.
Yet, it wasn’t the song he picked, even though some clever lines had all of us laughing every now and then. For the rest of the time, my sister, Jasper, and I sat there, staring at Jackson on stage. He played the guitar like he was being paid for it.
“Why did you never tell me he could sing?!” Iris nudged me hard.
“…and play the guitar like my dad! Maybe even better, since my old man is…well .. getting old. Duuuude!” Jasper added, nudging me too.
“Cos I was today years old when I found out about it. Dudes, we are finding this out together here, I had no idea. I only ever heard him hum along to the radio.” I looked back and forth between Jasper and Iris, nudging them both back.
“Duuuuuuuuuuuude, how can you have dated that brother for years and not known about this! What do you do all that time?! Actually, scratch that, I can imagine what and really don’t want details. But, Briar Rose, your man is good. You need to take him back to campus with you and sign that bitch up for a degree too, then you finally have something in common.” Jasper decided.
“How can this be? I’m dreaming this—no way this is really going down,” I mused, still completely shocked. My sister pinched my arm so hard it made me jump; her facial expression told me she was following the old cliché of pinching someone who thinks they’re dreaming when they find themselves in the most unrealistic situation. Rubbing my arm I was at least now certain I wasn’t tripping here.
I’m not even joking—Jackson looked natural up on that stage, sounded great, and I wished my dad were here. And my grandpa, since he still owned a music production company. Actually, pretty much everyone I know should see this. What the actual …?!
The twangy final notes hummed out on the music, and Jackson set the guitar back against the wall where he had found it. The audience called for an encore, and so did we when he finally joined us. He grabbed my half-full glass of wine, winked at me, and downed it in one gulp. My sister pushed her half-full glass over to him, which met an equal fate.
“Thank ya much, ladies; throat got a little dehydrated up there. Sorry, no encores, I am done with the strummin’, I wanna spend my time with you guys,” Jackson drawled, his Southern charm as smooth as molasses.
“How? Why have you never told me you could sing? You’ve heard me sing and play at my parents’ place many times. And at Connor’s, I think you have heard ALL my family play instruments and/or sing at some point, why didn’t you say you can sing and play too?! I remember that one time when I wanted to do karaoke with you and you bucked worse than your stallion Blaze when he’s supposed to go into a trailer!” I pressed, still reeling from his impromptu performance.
Smiling, he leaned back in his chair, shrugging. “Didn’t come up. I ain’t gonna steal someone else’s thunder and I don’t really know ya’ll’s music any better than all y’all know this. Ev’ryone ya see here can play at least a tune or two on the guitar, a few even the piano, and we all here know the lines of the country and bluegrass classics forwards and backwards and then some. Most of us here have been out on horse or cattle drives with some big rancher’s herds, takes days, sleep outside and there ain’t no other entertainment. Either ya get good in a hurry or ya get cans tossed at ya.” he laughed at what I hope was supposed to be a joke, cos please don’t tell me that people around here turned into stage-worthy artist running after someone’s horses or cattle, while I am doing 8-10 semesters in college for the same dang thing!
“Bruh, that was impressive,” Jasper chimed in, his eyes wide.
“Yeah, Jackson, what else can you do this well that we don’t know about?” Iris leaned forward, curiosity dancing in her eyes.
Grinning, he leaned in to my sister and told her, “That would be a conversation ya needa have with yer sister, I reckon,” turning to me for the last part and winking.
Smiling, I swatted at him playfully. He grabbed my hand, pulled me closer, and kissed me. My heart fluttered like a spooked hummingbird.
“Thank you for saving me up there,” I told him sincerely.
“Yeah. I recently had a smart little lady tell me I needed to up my game protectin’ ya from Taylor and her shenanigans. Didn’t occur to me before how much that might upset ya, but got me thinkin’. She said if I don’t find a way to do better, I ain’t the prince ya deserve. I always felt I wasn’t whatcha deserve, but that made me realize it wasn’t for the right reasons. Cos I can’t blink and be rich and think myself a fancy mansion into existence, but I sure as heck can protect my girl from anything and everything or I’ll die tryin’.”
“A smart lady? What lady?” I raised an eyebrow. More ladies drooling over MY man? More Taylors? Oh, come on, give me a million breaks now! One was plenty!
Jasper chimed up.
“Haven’t you guys heard? Princess Victoria snuck into his dad’s luggage and flew all the way over here in the cargo hold, because she wanted to see Chestnut Ridge. Naturally, bad weather happened, and she got stuck with him and Jackson.”
“How do YOU know about that?”
Jasper shrugged “Cos first of all do I not just indulge in idle gossip about celebrities like certain Cis females here at this table, I leave that gossip girl crap to my mom, seeing how she runs a women’s mag catering to that, secondly do I still share a room with Jake, whose parents practically live next door to the palace so he gets all the HOB gossip. Including when princesses suddenly go missing and turn up in the cargo hold of planes.” The words hung in the air, and I wondered what other surprises this small town held.
“So, you had a teenage princess tell you to cut loose the bitch? Seriously, Jackson? It wasn’t obvious enough already? I mean, this is literally Jasper and my second time here now, and WE knew …” Iris’s eyes narrowed, her protective twin sister instincts flaring, which fazed Jackson little, if at all, as he grinned at her when he shrugged and told her
“Nah, we all here bicker, some more than others,” Jackson drawled leaning back, his grin as wide as a Chestnut Ridge sunset. “Should hear my dad with Ahanu, who used to be his best friend before Connor. For a long time, they wouldn’t speak at all. Now they talk again all right, though it’s nothin’ but bickering non-stop. Annoying, ‘cos Ahanu helped me a lot when Dad first moved to Henfordshire, leaving me with the ranch at 18. I’d lived on horse ranches all my life, but I didn’t know how to run one. Ahanu was patient with me. His boy is my best friend, and even he and I bicker, so…”
“His best friend who hates my guts. Always has,” I interrupted, sighing.
“Chayton don’t hate ya, I told ya that many times. He just didn’t think we fit together, but he’s coming around. He better, cos he knows it ain’t up for discussin’.”
“Yeah, he better. He married a white girl. A Cameron at that.” I added, my tone pouty.
“What? Who? Anyone we know?” Jasper was always ready for some tea to be spilled.
“Niece of Sophie’s, as in the lady who always caters my parents’ parties. By her brother Ewan. They live here, but obviously we don’t really know them. Maybe if Sophie came to visit I’d go see them, but not just like ‘hey guys, I know you don’t really know me, but my last name is Cameron too and while we’re not really related, here I am!’. How come they haven’t visited you again, Jackson? Stryker lived with you forever; you saved his life when he was recovering from all that was wrong with him. Everyone thought he was practically dead and you managed to nurse him back to health. You’d think they’d drop by.” I wondered.
“They’ve been by, once. But they’ve got five kids, Bri. Sophie’s got her restaurant, and Stryker’s still a bit iffy with travelin’ far. I ain’t takin’ that personal, plus we go see ’em every time I go home with ya, which isn’t rare. And Chayton’s problem with ya had nothing to do with you bein’ white and all, heck, I am white, and he don’t care. Never has.” Jackson said.
And just when we thought the evening couldn’t get any more interesting, Taylor suddenly ‘materialized’ between Iris and me.
“He saved ya tonight, but he won’t always be there. You don’t belong here; you need to stick to your own crowd and leave us be.” she hissed, her breath smelling like beer and toxicity. Maybe the latter was just her natural scent.
“LISTEN HERE, cowgirl, you GOTTA stop with this bullshit!” Iris exploded, but it was Jackson who demanded attention, slamming his empty beer bottle onto the table.
“Taylor, I agree with Iris. I am done with this now. Ya needa stop, or I am gonna get involved in a big way and it won’t be pretty. I don’t wanna have to tell ya again; joke’s over, get over all ya seem to be hung up on, time to move on. Don’t try me on this, girl. I mean it. It is ’nuff now!” His anger radiated, and I’d never seen him like that before.
Judging by Taylor’s quiet exit without even arguing, neither had she.
“’Nother beer, Jas? More wine, ladies? Feelin’ obligated to replenish seein’ how I relieved ya both of yers.” Jackson’s smile returned.
“Whoa, brother, that was some serious Stephen King moment there. Who are you, my man? Are you like a gremlin and can’t get wet or eat after dark or you explode into a billion tiny, angry cowboys?!” Jasper voiced what my sister and I were thinking. Well, kinda, in his very own Jasper-way.
“What’s that expression, ‘don’t mistake my patience for weakness’? Yeah, that. So, all y’all want ‘nother round or no?”
“Why not? I could drink another whatever that cough syrup is they sell for wine here,” Iris said.
I was still staring at Jackson, his blue eyes now focused on me. When I didn’t say anything, he attempted to get up, but I pulled him back into his seat, slid over into his lap, and started kissing him, hard.
“Okaaayyy, come on, Iris, let’s get some fresh air. I don’t think we’re getting another round here. Thinking this is gonna go straight back to his cabin.” Jasper sighed, rising up, pulling Iris up with him.
With a deafening ‘Yee-Haw‘, Jackson got up, me in his arms, all eyes on us, while Jasper and Iris scurried outside.
“Well, ladies and gents, in case anyone here was waitin’ for an encore or a duet, I just got myself a better offer from my little lady here. Ya’ll know love can’t wait and mah daddy didn’t raise no fool.” He said, then headed out the large wide open barn door that was also entry and exit to this—erm—‘honkytonk”, carrying me, crimson red, as we exited. Jasper and Iris doubled over for laughter, waiting by his truck.
“Bro knows how to make an exit.” Jasper huffed.
Carefully setting me down next to the passenger side of his truck, Jackson smiled that certain smile at Jasper.
“Nah, I just know how to make an announcement the folks here will understand and remember, and which will help keepin’ Taylor from thinkin’ funny thoughts ever again. Let’s go home.”
“What announcement? That Taylor’s a bitch? I get things, and people, are slower around here, but pretty sure they already figured that out, Jackson, considering they had however many years old she is to pick up on it.” Iris Marie told him in her typical ‘charm.’
Jackson leaned into her, winking, grinning.
“Naw, I just done gone announcin’ to this here whole town that I’m gonna marry yer sister one fine day-maybe not too soon jus’ yet, but that day will come and now they all know it.”
And so, the Honkytonk’s neon lights flickered, casting their glow on the dusty road outside. Jackson’s old truck rumbled to life, its engine a steady heartbeat. Iris and Jasper leaned against each other in the backseat, still shocked into silence by Jackson’s implied ‘announcement’. As was I. How’s that for a one-of-a-kind declaration of love?
I settled into the passenger seat, staring at my very own cowboy, his hand found mine—I felt it fold around mine, dwarfing it, his calloused and warm. His blue eyes shone, the night air smelled of promise and dust, and the moon winked like an old accomplice.
The truck rumbled down the winding road, gravel crunching under its tires. I glanced at the stars above, wondering if they knew that love had a way of sidling up when you least expected it—like a stray dog wanderin’ into your heart, whether that love made any sense or not.
As Jackson’s thumb traced circles on my hand, I realized this wasn’t just an ending to a night out; it was the start of something wild and true. Chestnut Ridge had etched its mark on my heart, and I realized that I didn’t even have a choice anymore, my cowboy had already roped me in, hook, line and sinker, heart and all. All this time I thought I had to choose him, then I thought my dad helped me know which boy the right one was, when I now realized that choice was made long ago.
All I had any say left in at this point was how our future together would look, so that both of us could be happy and neither would have to lose themselves. And that was still gonna be a tough riddle to crack. For all of us. For now, I was still gonna be stuck in college for several more semesters, and after, I had to find a way to make my degree useful for a career, and I don’t think there are many job opportunities here in this sleepy old horse town–literally— for a future career musician.
EchoesOfLegacy 