Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Madison
My eyes were crusty when I woke. Teller had let me sleep for the last couple of days. My nights had been fitful. I hadn’t slept well the night after my blowup with Mom. Then, like the obedient daughter I was, I’d worried about her instead of the business I had to open.
I rubbed my eyes and rolled up. My phone buzzed, but I didn’t answer right away. The hospital hadn’t called since Mom’s accident. All I could do was sit and worry about her.
I’d focus on Flatlanders, then.
The windows were in. Same with the booths. The taps and soda fountains would be installed this week. Then I’d be ready for a soft opening. I was aiming for a couple of weeks after Tenor and Ruby’s wedding. I wanted to attend and there was no way I would risk working through it.
Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I blew out a hard breath. What could I bake?
That wasn’t the question. I’d loaded Teller’s kitchen up with flour, sugar, and butter. I could bake anything I wanted. I had no one to give it to, and I’d already filled the freezer of his beer fridge with sweets. If I made something, who would I give it to?
Ugh. I hated being in a perpetual pity party. I could make a sweets drop at the senior center.
My phone buzzed again. I yawned and grabbed it off the table.
Ruby: Call me when you’re awake.
What would Ruby want? We didn’t have a social relationship. We had a social media one.
I squinted at the time. Ten. Teller had probably been working for hours already. It hadn’t mattered how much he’d worn me out last night, I’d tossed and turned. All in all, ten wasn’t bad. I’d have my hours switched around by the wedding. I’d taken the weekend off. I even had a dress. One I hadn’t shown anyone. I might change my mind one or three times by then.
I called Ruby.
“How are you?” she asked instead of saying hello.
“Good.” I was, mostly. If I admitted I was bored, I’d feel like I wasn’t doing enough at the bar. I’d also have to confess that I wanted my own space. That had been the benefit of staying at Flatlanders. It’d been mine. “I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do all day to be productive.”
“Do you have posts scheduled?”
I smiled. “Yes, ma’am. Tenor got photos of guys’ night for me.” Instead of getting everyone’s faces, he’d gotten a lot of denim-clad ass. My likes were going to blow up.
“Nice. I can’t wait to see them. So—can we come over?”
“Over where?”
“Wherever you want. Teller said we could all go to his place. We’ll bring food and drinks, and we have rides if we get too tipsy.”
I risked sounding dense. “Who’s we?”
“The sisters and me.” It was how Ruby and I had started referring to Summer, Autumn, Junie, and Wynter. We also included Scarlett, since she was so close with them all. “He said you had a crappy week, and we wanted to cheer you up.”
I blinked. Confusion mingled with astonishment to rob all the words from my brain.
“But it’s okay if you have other plans,” she rushed on. “We don’t want to bother you.”
“No.” Panic welled, threatening to spill over. I couldn’t ruin this. But also, I didn’t know what else to do. “Sorry, I’m not used to getting invited anywhere.”
“Technically, we’re inviting ourselves over.”
“If Teller doesn’t mind, it’d be fun to have you all over.” Excitement simmered. The sisters—Ruby included—likely wouldn’t bail or make the night miserable for me, but I would stay in a holding pattern. I’d wait and see. My caution had been trained too well.
“Great! I’ll let them know. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got it all handled—food and drinks.”
When we disconnected, I flew out of bed. I might not want to get excited and be let down, but I also didn’t want to risk greeting all the sisters with bedhead and morning breath. I tossed on a pair of jean shorts and a loose, plain pink shirt, then zipped through the bathroom. After my hair was brushed, I sat to braid it but my nerves got the best of me.
Instead, I secured it in a loose bun on the top of my head and rushed downstairs. Like a kid waiting for Santa in the middle of July, I peered out the window. The green trees that dotted the foothills stood stark against the blue sky and white puffy clouds.
I sent Teller a text. I hear I’m going to get swarmed by women.
Teller: I’m surrounded by ass.
He sent a picture of a donkey in a pasture. A horse’s ears punctuated the bottom of the picture. He’d mentioned that Tate had started using donkeys as cattle guardians. They were hell on predators.
Me: It’s been ages since I’ve ridden.
Teller: I’ll take you anytime.
Me: Not sure my PTSD will make it fun.
Teller: Any time you want to make new memories, I’m your guy.
My heart grew three times its size. Any more of that and the damn thing wouldn’t fit in my chest.
Me: Maybe someday.
Teller: Have fun with my sisters. Junie just came and raided Mama’s bourbon supply.
The corner of my mouth tipped up.
Me: I’m day drinking with a famous country singer?
Teller: She might come up with a new song.
I giggled. When I looked up, three pickups were ambling up the long driveway.
Me: They’re here.
Teller: Relax and have fun.
My stomach flipped. There were no kids to go play with to avoid making awkward small talk. It’d be me, quiet in a corner, while they all talked and laughed about inside jokes.
“It’ll be fine,” I muttered and rushed to open the garage door so they could come through the house.
“Mad-i-son!” Junie sang as she jumped out of a dusty ranch pickup. “We have croissants and bourbon!”
Did those two things go together? “Brunch and bourbon?”
Autumn climbed out the other side of the pickup. Another truck parked next to them on the cement pad. Wynter and Ruby. Summer and Scarlett were in the third pickup parking behind them.
Junie grabbed a bag out of the back seat. She paused with the back door half open. “ And in the end it was nothing but brunch and bourbon... ” Her lovely voice carried over the lawn. The tune sounded like love gone wrong. She tapped the toe of her strappy sandal. “What about... Brunch and bourbon and a broken heart. ” She added twang and it was a party song.
“I like the one that sounds like there’ll be a line dance for it.” Wynter flounced past her. “But it’s not your style.”
Junie closed the door. “I can write it and sell it.”
Had I just witnessed the magic behind June Bee’s music? She made decisions that could make her millions on a random Saturday morning?
Everyone rushed toward me. Each one was carrying a bag. I stepped aside and lingered as they chatted and unloaded their goods. Fruit trays, veggie platters, charcuterie arrangements on a board with a shovel for a handle.
“Jonah started offering smaller-scale woodworking,” Summer explained when she caught me looking at it, pride filling her expression. She feathered a lock of strawberry-blond hair behind her ear. The rest was secured in a low ponytail. “He knows he won’t be able to flip tables around forever, so he’s starting to make cutting boards and charcuterie boards. You won’t believe what someone will pay for a cutting board.”
“Does he etch his picture into the back side?” Wynter asked. “You could tack on thirty more bucks for each product.”
Summer grinned. “He would give out cutting boards for free to keep from having to do that.” She leaned against the island and opened a bottle of orange juice. “We also brought mimosa supplies—except we had to buy ginger ale instead of champagne for the nursing ladies. Virgin mimosa, anyone?”
“Ginger beer would’ve made it a virgin mule,” Wynter said, “and I thought that fit this crowd. But I forgot to grab some from home before we went to the store.”
“Want one?” Summer asked, holding up the OJ bottle.
I’d drink whatever they put in front of me. “Yes, please.”
“Don’t let me forget to add ginger beer versus ale to my content lineup.” Ruby grinned and nudged me. “You and I can take ours with a splash of bourbon.”
“Which would make it a Kentucky mimosa,” Wynter said, then frowned. “Or an orange mule?”
Autumn pursed her lips. “Hmm... still no ginger beer. I’d go with Kentucky mimosa.”
“Ooh, I’m tracking that discussion in my posts too,” Ruby added.
Scarlett grinned. “Whatever you call it, make mine one too.” She thumped a bottle of half-empty bourbon on the counter. “I brought Original.”
“How much are we drinking?” My stomach rumbled. The food intrigued me more than the booze.
“Depends how much telling off your mama bothered you.” Summer handed me a flute.
“How did you—” I’d been rooted in one spot and they already had a feast laid out and a drink in my hand.
Three drinks. Ruby had a line of filled glasses in front of her. “These are all virgin. Unlike every one of us.”
Junie whooped and grabbed one. She held it in the air. “Load your plates up, ladies.”
“Mind if we go to the deck?” Wynter asked, handing me a plate.
“I . . .” I didn’t, but would Teller?
Wynter smirked as if she’d read my mind. “You could host a rager and tear the literal roof off and I think that man would just ask if you felt better.”
I took a nervous drink of my mimosa. “Not so sure about that.”
“Oh, we are,” Autumn said. “You know how we know?”
Summer lifted her arms to encompass the whole kitchen. “We’re here. He hardly has company over—not even family. I call dibs on the hammock chair.” She wrestled the sliding door open.
I filled my plate and drank half my juice. Ruby topped it off before I went outside. Heat wrapped around me, along with the fresh smell of pine trees and sunshine.
The umbrella on the patio table was up and the plexiglass surface was dust-free. Same with the chairs. Teller had gotten it all ready.
That man.
My man.
I sat and stuffed a chunk of croissant in my mouth. Rich and savory, and that was just the croissant. I hadn’t made these in a while.
The others found seats. One for each of us. Teller had made sure of it.
I’d been planning my future in regard to how I’d take care of myself. What about my personal life? I’d given it no thought. I was divorced and I was single. But then Teller had called me his girlfriend and it’d turned my insides warm and gooey. Still, I hadn’t pondered us as a long-term thing. I’d been so focused on opening Flatlanders.
Now that hurdle was almost crossed. Almost. What would life after that look like?
“Penny for your thoughts,” Wynter said softly.
I finished my mouthful. “Thinking about what happens when Flatlanders is open. I never thought I’d get here.”
“You were worried?” Summer asked. “I mean, I know you had the brick incident. But before that?”
I’d been worried for an eternity. “I had no idea what I was doing or how I was going to do it.”
Junie lifted her flute in the air. “Here’s to buying our brother as a good business decision.”
“Hear, hear,” everyone else said.
“It was embarrassing,” I muttered.
“No.” Wynter’s white-blond hair flew when she shook her head. “It was a delight. Let me tell you, watching him squirm all week before the auction was fun, but then the bidding war? Oh my god. Tate said Teller wanted you to win so bad.”
“So bad,” Summer echoed. “Now it’s been fun to watch him rush away from the distillery to you.”
“ Rush to you ,” Junie sang, then she pulled a face. “Sorry. All this time off has made my muse go wild.” She waved a hand. “Enough about me. How are you doing? Really?” She poked her fork in the air. “If you’re not okay with sharing, then I can keep talking about me and the girls’ riding lessons.”
I had never had anyone to talk to about my parents before. I’d tried to talk to Damien, but he’d told me to cut them off if I was so unhappy. “I guess it’s my fault for continuing to care about Mom when she never seemed to care about me.”
Summer’s eyes went wide. “Madison, no. It’s never your fault for caring about someone.”
Ruby shook her head. “Listen, my dad can be... a lot. But even if he didn’t try to change himself and I had to cut him off for how he was to Tenor when they were younger, I wouldn’t quit caring. And if he had a medical emergency, I’d probably be there.”
But her dad had changed. He had tried for her. “It wasn’t just medical emergencies. I kept checking on her and she resented me for it. I should’ve walked away a long time ago.”
“Walked away to who?” Wynter said gently. “Would I be wrong to guess that your ex probably wasn’t a sympathetic ear for you?”
“You mean the man who ran off with my brother’s wife?” My mimosa could use more bourbon. It’d need a different name with the amount I wanted to add right now. “My ex didn’t understand. Scott got some of it, and I could at least talk to him.”
“People are complicated,” Autumn said. “And families even more so. Gideon did cut off his dad, and while it was the right decision for him at the time, he regrets it.”
I didn’t know Gideon or his dad well, but I’d seen them around town, chatting and laughing. Hank James didn’t strike me as a mean or menacing man, but I’d seen him coming out of the church that held Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Gideon’s father and Ruby’s dad had each worked on themselves, and their loved ones had likely been a big reason. “Mom never changed from when I was little to now.” If anything, she was more callous.
“That has to be hard,” Scarlett said. “Autumn and I see dysfunction all the time at the school, but we never fault the kids for loving their moms and dads.”
I wasn’t a kid anymore. “I don’t know if I ever loved Mom.” The OJ churned in my stomach and boiled upward. Again, I felt like I should be wearing a Bad Daughter label across the front of my shirt. “I felt responsible for her, and I wanted to care for her in a way she’d never cared for me.”
“Just saying that means you’re not like her,” Junie said. “We’ve always seen it.”
“You don’t know me.” Curiosity filled my response. How could they? I’d made it impossible for anyone to get close. They were the ones who’d hurt me the most.
Summer tapped her chin. “Remember that one school assembly when you told the old sheriff that if he had to actually obey the law, he’d despise his job?”
I flashed into that moment like it’d happened this morning. “I was minding my own business when he came to give the ‘say no to drugs’ spiel, and then he singled me out about my dad.”
Dad had liked to smoke the occasional joint, but he had otherwise steered clear of harder drugs, preferring beer and spirits—as long as they weren’t Copper Summit. I’d just repeated what Dad had ranted about the sheriff at home.
My parents weren’t always wrong about people. Unfortunately, they were often correct and that was another facet of the issue. “If he could’ve arrested me on the spot, he would’ve.”
“I was appalled by how he acted that day.” Autumn downed her mimosa like it was a shot. “How did Daddy describe him?”
Junie hummed. “He said . . . God, what was it? ‘If that man ever cracked open a law book . . .’ ”
“‘If the sheriff has ever cracked open a law book,’” Summer said in a low voice, mimicking her dad, “‘then I’m a rocket scientist.’”
Junie nodded so enthusiastically the pink ends of her hair bounced. “Yes! ‘He’s like the yeast in our mash, Junie. Gassy under the right conditions.’ ” She’d used the same gruff tone as Summer and dissolved into giggles.
Everyone started laughing, and I joined them. For a girl who’d felt like the whole town was against her, it was nice to see that I hadn’t been the only one not wearing rose-colored glasses. The main difference between me and the rest of Bourbon Canyon was that they knew when to keep their mouth shut—or they hadn’t needed to open it in the first place.
A phone started to buzz and everyone looked at theirs.
“Oh, it’s mine.” Ruby stood, phone in hand. “It’s for the wedding. I’ll be right back.”
She rushed into the house.
“I cannot wait for the wedding.” Autumn sighed. “I’m giddy at the thought of seeing Tenor stand in front of everyone with her.”
“He’s so happy,” Summer said. “We’ve wanted that for him for so long.”
Ruby opened the door and stumbled out, her face pale.
“Oh my god.” Wynter jumped up and crossed to her.
“It’s nothing.” Ruby let out a maniacal laugh. “It’s so nothing.” She fanned herself with her hand. The knuckles of the one clutching the phone were white. “It’s just the cake. So why do I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack?”
“What happened to the cake?” Summer asked.
“Nothing. And nothing will because it’s not happening.” More disbelieving giggles shot out of her rapid fire. “The bakery in Bozeman double-booked and they have people out on vacation, so guess whose cake order they dropped?” Ruby’s big blue eyes filled with tears. “I guess we don’t need a cake. It’s not, like, critical or anything.” She sniffled.
“You want one though,” Wynter said, “and the one you picked was gorgeous.”
“How can we help?” Scarlett asked. “I can make cupcakes, but I can’t decorate that well.”
“I’ll do it,” I said, startling myself. What was I thinking? I’d made cakes for potlucks, but I’d only played around with piping bags at home, and it’d been a while since then.
Ruby turned to me and nothing but hope surged in her wide eyes. “You will?”
I sat straighter. I didn’t want to let her down, but dammit. Could I do this? “Making the cake is not the issue, but I don’t have a lot of experience decorating. What look were you going for? How many tiers?” Please no more than three. I’d made exactly one of those before.
“Three tiers and then three dozen cupcakes,” Ruby said, swiping through her phone. She pointed the screen toward me. “It’s a really simple design. Wildflowers twisting down the sides, and then one different type of wildflower on one dozen of the cupcakes. So they’re mixed around, like the pastures.”
Oh, shit. The cake Ruby showed me was an art piece. Smooth cake with off-white frosting had a hint of crumb layer, giving the cake a less formal feel. Wildflowers that were either real or fake, but definitely not frosting, twined along the side.
I squinted at the photo. “Are those pressed wildflowers? I don’t know if I can do that,” I confessed. “I don’t want to show up at your reception with a Pinterest fail.”
“I’ll take anything.” Ruby waved the phone around. “You don’t have to do the real wildflowers. I’ll take fake. I’ll take anything. I don’t want to be a bridezilla, but I really want cake. Isn’t that a thing? To have a cake?”
“It’s a thing if you want it,” Wynter reassured her. She dipped into the house and came back with the bottle of Original. “I think you need to have a drink.”
Wynter added a splash of bourbon to Ruby’s almost empty glass.
“I don’t want you working the wedding.” Ruby’s earnest gaze was on me. “I want you there as a friend. I don’t have many.” She clamped her lips shut and pink tinted her cheeks. “You guys are all I have.” She clasped her hands on her lap.
The sisters surrounded her, murmuring to her, saying the kindest things.
You’re one of us, Ruby.
We’re more than friends. We’re all sisters, and we don’t need a wedding for that.
You’ll always have us.
Tears singed the backs of my eyes. My nose twitched. I scrunched it up to keep the tears from spilling. The women surrounded Ruby, oozing support and affection. I’d never seen anything like it.
The emptiness I kept covering up yawned open so wide it was going to swallow me whole. My chest ached. Only four of these ladies were related by blood, yet it didn’t matter. They were there for Ruby. They would be there for each other. I didn’t have to witness it to know.
Autumn lifted her head from the huddle. “Madison, bring it in. You’re with us now.”
Was I still dreaming? Or had I just woken up to six friends? Zero to six. Just like that. And I’d be going to the wedding as Teller’s plus-one even though I had an invite of my own. From my friend.
I joined them, and Scarlett and Summer yanked me into the fold. “I’m going to make your cake, Ruby. As a friend. It’ll be my wedding gift to you.”
I was with them now.