Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Magnolia
For nearly twenty-four hours, I’d tried to brainwash myself that this was a business meeting with Luke, not a date.
The memory of that kiss last night was louder in my head though.
That and I could admit he cleaned up well.
I mean, I found him appealing in his work clothes and a day’s worth of dirt and dust, but showered?
Wearing black jeans, black boots, and a black, plum, and white buffalo plaid flannel open over a tee?
I’d spent the evening so far waffling between reminding myself my goal was Presley’s wedding and getting wrapped up in our nonbusiness conversation.
The bar at the Marks Hotel, The Harbor, was calm and classy, with country music playing quietly. I was surprised to find Josh Mulligan, a guy we’d gone to school with, behind the bar, and Sarah Valdez, who was a few years younger, waiting tables.
Luke was fascinated by the feature wall we’d come here to see.
He’d taken several photos of it, and we’d discussed ideas for options.
The plank design was simple but versatile.
Even though it would be a permanent fixture, it could easily look different for every single event, thanks to the modular elements.
Once we’d checked it out, Luke had convinced me to stay for a drink and a snack. Truth? It hadn’t been tough to persuade me. It was just a drink and some mozzarella sticks.
We sat at a high-top table close to the wood-slab wall. Several other tables were occupied, keeping Josh and Sarah, the only server, busy.
The weeks when Luke and I had gotten close back in high school had been in the late spring, when Luke’s family’s farm was in the midst of strawberry season.
Back then I’d made him tell me all about that operation, loving the stories about all the facets of a working berry farm.
Tonight I questioned him about the Christmas tree business.
He’d explained how they first harvested several acres of trees to be sold in retail outlets around the region.
On Thanksgiving, their focus switched to the cut-your-own segment.
“Then things really get chaotic,” he said.
“And this year you’re opening a new event-venue business at the same time. Your dad might have a point, you know,” I teased him. “You’ve bitten off a lot.”
“I’ll sleep in January.” He smiled as I fought off an image of him sleeping all alone in a big bed…naked. “But not too much because that’s when we get serious about pruning the apple trees.”
“I don’t know how you juggle it all,” I told him.
“We have a good crew, some who’ve been with us for years, so they know the drill almost as well as I do.”
“And your dad is retired?”
“Not by choice. His back forced the issue a few years ago.”
“Do you ever consider cutting back to just two crops?” I asked.
Luke shook his head. “The three work out well, laborwise. There was a period a few years ago when we had two terrible strawberry seasons in a row. I considered throwing in the towel on them, but I decided to keep them for two reasons. One, everything cycles in farming. You go through bad seasons, but they always swing around to good ones. Two, strawberries were my mom’s pet project. ”
“That’s sweet.”
“It started out as a personal garden when she was a little girl. She loved strawberries and wanted to grow her own, so my grandfather helped her plant a small strawberry garden. Each year she took care of it, expanded it a little bit, until my grandfather recognized it would be a good expansion businesswise and made it official. We have a family tradition now that she’s gone.
The first strawberries of the season, we eat with homemade whipped cream in remembrance of her. ”
Emotion flashed over his features. Something deep, sadness tinged.
I remembered his affection for his mom from the days when he drove her home from work.
I instinctively reached out and touched his hand before realizing what I was doing.
I kept the touch brief and pulled my hand back to where it belonged.
“I love that you do that,” I said. His family closeness was almost unfathomable to me, and yet when he talked about it, I could imagine.
It opened up a longing in me for those kinds of close family ties.
There was no chance for that with my parents.
My only hope was to someday create that with a husband and kids.
I realized someone was approaching our table from the lobby instead of the bar kitchen, so I sat back on my stool, looked up, and nearly messed my pants at the sight of Felix James.
“Magnolia,” he said in a falsely magnanimous baritone.
My only response was to raise my brows. I refused to fake politeness with the jackass who’d kept me under his thumb until I finally rebelled, years later than I should have.
“Isn’t this cozy,” he continued.
Luke turned to see who it was. He must have recognized him, because then he stiffened and focused back on me. I met his gaze, and he seemed to be gauging whether I was okay. I gave a subtle nod.
“What do you want?” I asked my not-father quietly but succinctly. I glanced out to the lobby and noticed a woman waiting for him, watching us. She was quite possibly younger than me and dressed for a date. Gross.
Felix shook his head slowly. “After everything I did to steer you toward suitable men, away from this particular person, and here you are.”
“Maybe your first mistake was trying to steer me at all,” I said. “I can make up my own mind.”
Then his words sank in.
“What do you mean you steered me away from Luke?” I asked.
The smarmy asshole grinned, glanced at Luke with an air of superiority, and said, “I fired his mother from her housekeeping job to stop you two from sneaking around together.”
As much as I wish I would’ve controlled my reaction, my mouth fell open. “Why would you do that?” Other than because he was a complete, tyrannical piece of crap.
Felix chuckled diabolically. “I was doing my best to prevent you from ending up with a farm boy.” He said farm boy as if it was the worst insult. “And yet here you are, slumming anyway.”
I pressed my lips together and glanced at Luke. His hands were on the table as if he was about to stand and possibly take a swing. I’d love to see someone knock Felix out, but…
“He’s not worth the trouble,” I told Luke quietly.
“Isn’t that sweet? You trying to save your lowly lover boy.”
That did it.
I sat up straighter and bit out, “Luke is one hundred times a better human being than you could ever hope to be. Back then and now. He’s honorable, hardworking, and honest. You’re evil, selfish, and the most pathetic excuse for a man I’ve ever had the misfortune to know.”
His chuckle was like fingernails on a chalkboard. I clenched my fists under the table. Maybe I’d be the one to punch him.
“Now, now,” he said with a patronizing calmness to his voice, “is that any way to speak to your father?”
And that was all it took for me to cause the first scene of my life.
“Isn’t it lucky that you’re not actually my biological father?” I said, my voice strong and sure. I didn’t care who heard me. I hoped someone got video and put it on the Tattler.
There was the quickest flicker of something on his face, something like alarm. That was enough to make me keep going.
“It must make a tough guy like you feel completely emasculated to know you’re sterile. Completely incapable of producing that all-important heir. And then it must have killed you to find out your wife’s baby with another man was a girl.”
I sensed that I was drawing the attention of the others in the bar. I didn’t care. In fact, it motivated me.
“You know what that tells me?” I continued. “It tells me God knows what he’s doing to cut off the James name with you. The end of a despicable, worthless bloodline. When you die, there’ll be no one left in your family because you’re a worthless, weak, small-minded man.”
Anger slanted his brows as he stepped toward me. Luke stood and crowded him on that side.
“Not worth it,” I reminded Luke.
Felix pretended not to notice. “I’d advise you to watch it, young lady.”
“I’d advise you to fuck yourself, old man. You’re not my father. You have no say in my life. The day you disowned me was the best day of my life. You better run back to your little girlfriend. Is she even legal?”
Felix looked down his nose at me, his lips in an ugly snarl as if he was a badass instead of just an ass. I hadn’t missed that he’d gone pale, telling me I’d hit him where it hurt, just as I’d hoped.
“A word of advice to you both,” Felix spit out acidly. “Watch yourselves.”
“Is that a threat?” Luke asked.
“If it is, I have it on video for law enforcement to have a look-see,” Josh said as he came up to our table. “Security’s on the way to escort you out, Mr. James. You okay, Magnolia?”
I slowly nodded, feeling…exhilarated. Free like I’d never felt before. I wasn’t scared of Felix’s threats. He didn’t have thugs under hire, nor did he have the balls to do physical harm. With him it was all blowing smoke and throwing his power around, but he had none over me anymore. Not a drop.
Trying to act as if he wasn’t humiliated—and failing, as the little tic in his cheek told me—Felix raised his chin, pivoted, and stalked out of the bar area to his unfortunate date.
I exhaled heavily and made eye contact with Luke.
“That…was fucking incredible, Magnolia,” he said quietly.
“Brilliant in my opinion,” Josh said. “That heartless bastard evicted my ex-girlfriend for being two days late with her rent—when she had the flu so badly that she couldn’t sit up. He deserves to rot in hell.”
“Thanks for getting video,” I told him. “His threats are empty, but could you send it to me just in case?”
“You bet,” Josh said. “And don’t worry. I won’t share it.”
“You know what?” I paused and took a sip of my martini, thinking before I said more.
“I would actually love it if word got out. You know, if that ‘leaked’ somehow or someone spread the word on the Tattler.” I shrugged.
“I mean…I’m not going to post it myself, but if someone else were to accidentally put it out there… Oops.”
Josh grinned and shook his head. “It’d serve him right. I’m only going to send it to you though. You can do what you want with it.”
“Thanks, Josh.” We exchanged numbers so he could forward it.
After he walked back behind the bar, Luke reached across the table and put his big, work-roughened hand over mine. “Are you really doing okay, Mags? That was intense.”
“It was. But I’m relieved.” I sat back, breathed deeply again, and confirmed that was true. “It felt good to unleash.”
Still holding my hand, Luke chuckled. “I bet it did. It would’ve felt good to punch him too, but you’re right. He’s not worth the legal trouble.”
Sarah, the server, walked by our table, leaned in, and said, “He so had that coming. Well done, girl.”
“Did he evict you too?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “He comes in here plenty. He thinks anyone who serves him a drink is beneath him.”
That sounded about right. “He’s the lowest of the low,” I said before she hurried off to the kitchen.
“Sadly for her he’ll probably be back,” Luke muttered. “Like a cockroach.”
“Like a cockroach,” I agreed. “But I doubt he’ll be back in my life.”
Luke held up his pilsner. “Cheers.”
I picked up my glass and clinked it to his. Then we both finished our drinks.
“Do you want another, or are you ready to get out of here?” he asked quietly.
“Do you mind if we go? Everyone keeps looking at us.” I was fine with the attention while I aired Felix’s shame, but now I just wanted to be alone…with Luke.
“Let me go take care of the tab. Then I’ll take you home.”
With my eye on the lobby in case Felix came back, I nodded. Once alone, I played over the scene with him, for once not wishing I’d had a better comeback. I’d said the things I wanted to say. My words wouldn’t do anything to change that hateful, pathetic man, but he was no longer part of my life.
Luke returned and held out his hand. I took it as I slid off the stool. When he slipped his arm around me as we exited the bar and walked through the lobby toward the hotel door, I didn’t object. I liked it. I liked him. I wasn’t ready to say good night yet.
As we made our way toward his truck, I belatedly said, “I owe you for half the bar bill.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do,” I said, grinning. “That was a business meeting.”
“Ah, Mags. That”—he squeezed me closer to his side—“was a date.”
I laughed. “That? A run-in with Felix that nearly turned into a brawl? Luke, we need to work on your dating game.”
He laughed too. “The night’s not over. I’m still angling for a good-night kiss.”
With my emotions all over the board from the evening, chances were decent I was going to give him that good-night kiss.
When he helped me up into his truck, his hands trailed over my body, drawing a reaction from deep in my core, and I thought, Maybe even more.