Chapter 15 #2
They emerged into the kitchen. Lily snapped off the stairway light and closed the basement door. “It might come off like…like I’m trying to keep him here. Like, ‘what’s your excuse now?’ you know?”
Willow listened, nodded, and picked up her beer from where she’d left it on the counter.
After a long pull, she said, “I don’t think he’ll see it that way.
I think he’ll see it for what it is. A gift from someone who cares.
I kinda want you to have your upstairs bathroom, too, though.
That’s what you gave up for it, isn’t it? ”
Lily didn’t confirm or deny. But that was exactly what she’d done.
They went outside and Lily locked up behind them just as a box truck pulled onto the strip of pavement they’d left alongside the building. By the end of tomorrow, it would extend around back to the bigger parking lot. The flagstone patio was taking shape in the front.
“What’s this now?” Lily asked.
The guy did not get out of his truck. Just backed in and sat there, so she went over and tapped his door. It opened, and the driver held up one finger as he tapped his phone. “One second, ma’am, I have to notify the sender before I deliver the package. It’s in my notes.”
“Ooookay.” She frowned at Willow, but then her phone rang.
“Ethan?”
“Is it there? Delivery guy just texted he was in the driveway.”
“Well, yes, I guess it’s here then. What is it?”
“The sign. I got the sign.”
“You got the?—”
“I’d’ve consulted you but I wanted it to be a surprise. And then I thought you might hate it, and I’ve been second-guessing myself ever since I put in the order.”
“Oh, for cryin’ out loud,” Willow said, rolling her eyes.
The driver opened the back, lowered a ramp, and rolled out a dolly holding a well-wrapped rectangle as tall he was. “Where you want it?”
“Inside, for now,” Lily said.
He rolled it right up to the big double doors. Lily handed her phone to Willow so she could unlock it. The driver rolled the package inside. She signed for it, then turned. “Will?”
Willow had walked a few steps away with her phone, but she came back and helped her tear off the brown paper.
The sign was a large, old fashioned-looking metal one, with two perfect lilies painted on it. They stood back-to-back, one white with a thin red stripe, and the other red, with a thin white stripe.
“Lily Ellen?” Ethan said from the phone.
Willow handed it to her and she brought it to her ear, as it was no longer on speaker. Willow must’ve been speaking to him when she’d walked away. “I’m here.”
“Look close,” he said.
She did, noticing in the contrasting-colored swirls of the petals, there were initials. LM in red, on the white rose. Her mother’s initials. Her own initials, LE were in white on the red lily.
“Two different lilies,” Ethan said. “But they both have some of the other inside ‘em.”
She had tears in her eyes, so she turned away from Willow, who took the hint, and went back outside to wait for her. “It’s beautiful, Ethan. Thank you.”
“You’re not mad? Soon as I ordered it, I knew I should’ve consulted you on the design.”
“I’m not mad. I love it.”
“Good. How are things?”
“Busy and stressful and sometimes frustrating.”
He waited a moment, then added, “But good?”
“Ask me on opening night.”
“I’m sorry I’m not there helpin’ you.”
“And I’m sorry I haven’t been in the crowd supporting you,” she said. “Everyone’s been to a show but me.”
“Like you’ve had a free minute, much less a whole night.”
“We watched your interview on Nashville Today. You were perfect.”
“I felt like my voice was shakin’ the whole time.”
“It must’ve been shaking on the inside, because you came across steady and clear.”
“I hope so.”
“When are you…” Coming home danced on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back as it would’ve sounded needy. “…heading back?”
“The final interview is Friday afternoon.”
“That’s opening night!” She said it too fast and knew it.
“I know. I know, I’m sorry. But I’ll be there on time, promise. I’m performing. How can I not be there?”
She nodded, then said, “Okay.”
“I gotta run, I’m on in a minute.”
“Stay on pitch,” she said. “See you soon.” Not soon enough, though. She missed him like she’d miss a limb. And she was tired as hell of waiting for a real conversation with him.
“It’s perfect,” Lily whispered.
Tomorrow was opening night. Tomorrow Ethan would be home. “I hope Ethan thinks so, too.”
“How could he not?” Drew asked. “It’s amazin’. And that letterin’ over the doorway!” She pointed at it, singin’ the line from “Home.” “My treasure’s at the rainbow’s bend, where I began and where I’ll end.’”
“She stenciled it herself, you know,” Willow said. “I helped.”
Maria widened her eyes. “I didn’t know you were so artistic, Lil.”
“I’m not. Willow’s help was mostly going behind me, touching up my goofs.”
They all laughed. They were in the original section and had come in from the new main entrance around the right side, so they’d already walked through the addition, seen the stage and dance floor, and the lighting.
The front was lined with glass, portions of which could slide open wide.
They’d also added retracting wooden walls to the outside.
They could be locked in place from inside or outside in case of bad weather.
They were closed as girls moved past them and into the original part of the cantina.
Lily was keenly aware that her sister-in-law had still not said whether she liked the changes. Of them all, Maria had loved Manny’s Cantina most—the place and its tacos. She was looking around, nodding, noticing every little thing, and her opinion meant more than she probably knew.
“Well?” Lily asked. And she realized Drew and Willow were also watching Maria, awaiting her verdict.
Maria nodded slow and said, “It still feels like the cantina—if it had spent a weekend at a makeover spa, and maybe had a little work done.” She moved closer to the bar, same bar-top as always, same stools, newly covered. Maria slid her palm over the surface. “You had it refinished.”
“It was getting a little sticky,” Lily replied and the others nodded.
“The tables are different.” They were square, red and green. She pulled out one of the chairs—diner style, round padded seats on a shiny chrome frame—and sat down, then lifted her butt, then lowered it again, testing. “Mmm. Definite improvement.”
Lily went behind the bar, pushed a button underneath, then nodded toward the front as the outer walls retracted, revealing the glass they’d covered and what used to be the parking lot beyond.
Now it was a flagstone patio as wide as the entire building, with a long counter down its center.
She pushed the button again, and part of the glass retracted, as well.
“That is so cool!” Drew said, clapping her hands and running outside onto the patio to check things out.
Maria smiled and Lily’s heart lifted. She hurried outside to where Drew had discovered the fire-and-water feature, right in the middle of the long strip that was half outdoor taco bar and half the regular kind of bar.
The near half was lined with lidded stainless-steel containers, some heated, some cooled.
The farther half included an under-counter cooler for drinks and mixers, a set of taps, and rows of glasses.
The counter had its own mini-awning, peaked in the middle, that ran the length of it.
“Lily,” Maria said. “You freakin’ killed it.”
“Really?” Lily knew she had. But she was thrilled that Maria thought so, too.
Drew said, “Reverend Wheeler’s gonna be so teed off when nobody wants to have their weddin’s in the church anymore.”
Lily hadn’t thought of that and felt immediately worried. “Maybe we should stick to just doing receptions.”
“I was kiddin’.” Drew put a hand on her arm. “You’re a nervous wreck, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“I don’t think you need to be. It sure looks ready to me.”
“It better be ready,” Maria said. “Grand opening is tomorrow night.”
“We’ll know for sure after Friends and Family tonight,” Lily said. “If anything’s gonna go wrong, we’ll find out then. You’re all coming, right?”
“Of course we’re all comin’,” Maria said. “Your dad’s makin’ tacos without Rosa’s supervision. That’s his final exam.”
Lily laughed with the others, but inside she wished Ethan could be there tonight, too.
Friends and Family Night was a dress rehearsal.
Her dad and his two young helpers—could you call them sous chefs in a taco place?
—would get a real-world trial run. So would the kitchen equipment, the wait staff, and the stage.
She’d hired Dirt River, the local band she and Ethan had danced to that night at The Waterin’ Hole, right before they’d had sex on the riverbank and she’d fallen even harder.
Manny was coming, family and all. Lord, she hoped he didn’t hate it.
Willow, who stood on her right, put a hand on her shoulder and she realized she’d fallen quiet and probably looked on the verge of panic. “You need a spa day, woman.”
“After the grand opening, I might need a spa week . But not today. Too much to do to get ready.”
Maria put an arm around her from her left, and Drew hugged her from behind and said, “We got you, girl. What can we do to help?”
“I hate not bein’ there tonight,” Ethan said. He was sitting in the too-small easy chair in his otherwise nice trailer, waiting to go on stage for the final show of this run, but his heart wasn’t in it. It was a county fair in New Mexico, and the crowd was the biggest yet.
He was closer to home than he’d been in weeks. Maybe that was why he was feeling Quinn’s pull on his heart so powerfully. But it was odd. He never felt homesick.
Ang was in the hard chair with his back to a mirrored dressing table. He held up the newspaper he’d brought in a minute ago. It was folded open to a page showing the familiar Billboard chart. “Again, ’cause you don’t look like you heard me, you’re sitting at number five this week.”
“I know. It’s…great.”
Angelo gave a long, low whistle. “You get a call from home, did’ja? Your dog die or something?”
He shook his head. “I should be there tonight. At Two Lilies.”
The manager rubbed his salt-and-pepper-stubble chin. “Grand opening’s tomorrow night, isn’t it?”
“Tonight’s Friends and Family,” Ethan said. “Like a test run.”
“Ah, right. I forgot places do that before they open.”
“I don’t think I ever knew. But Hyram—our cook—said it’d be courtin’ trouble to open without it.”
He was tired. He’d done three interviews on country music podcasts, two on local network affiliates, and one had been on the nationally syndicated show Nashville Today.
And that was huge. In between he’d done two dozen shows in venues ranging farther from home than he had yet, and bigger than he’d ever filled, pulling in capacity crowds at every one of them.
He’d slept in more hotel rooms than he could count with every piece of his flesh, blood, and bones aching to be home. It was an entirely foreign emotion.
He’d even done some songwriting. Heartbreak songs. They seemed to be his vibe these days.
There was a tap on the door. “Two minutes,” came through in a muffled voice, then footsteps retreated.
“You look like you lost your best friend, son,” Ang said. “You can’t go out there like that. You need something to pick you up.”
Ethan rose from his chair. “You ever suggest that again and I’ll be lookin’ for a new manager.”
Ang held up a hand, “Whoa, come on, I didn’t mean drugs.
I meant—” He rubbed his chin again, then nodded.
“This is an early show, right?” He’d pulled out his phone, was tapping and scrolling, and talking more to it than to Ethan.
“And whaddya got, like a podcast tonight, that interview tomorrow, and then—that’s not so bad. ”
“Yeah, I’ll get through it.”
“Not what I meant.” He got up and paced back and forth while tapping. There were whoosh sounds every twenty taps or so. “Done. You’re free.”
Ethan blinked at him. “What do you mean, I’m free?”
“I mean, you do this show and you’re done. Go home. I just postponed everything else. They want their interviews, we can set ‘em up remotely. Maybe do one from the honky-tonk later in the week. They’ll eat it up.”
Ethan blinked at his manager, who’d always been a decent guy, but had never treated him like this before. “Normally, you’d tell me to buck up and do the work,” he said.
“Yeah, and you bucked up and did the work. Now my job’s changed. I’m not beatin’ the bushes to get you decent gigs. We’re just sorting through for the best offers now. My new job is seeing to it that you, Ethan Brand, stay happy and healthy and well-adjusted. You want to go home, then home you go.”
The smile that split Ethan’s face then was so big it almost hurt. His throat even tightened up. He was going home. Tonight!
“I’m not even fixin’ to text her,” he said. “It’ll be a surprise.”
“Her?”
“Them,” he corrected. But it had been Lily’s face in his mind, her shining blue eyes full of delight. She was always so happy to see him. She made him ten feet tall.
Ang was scanning his face and nodding in a self-satisfied way. “ There’s the guy this crowd’s waiting to see. C’mon, Ethan, I’ll walk you out to the stage.”