Chapter 46
Magnolia
I wrung my hands together and bit my lip, casting a quick glance over at Sloan as he drove us to dinner. You better believe I tried to get out of it, but once Lexie sent me the address and time, she promptly stopped replying to my text messages. She didn’t even give me the chance to bail.
I’d shown Sloan the text message, and he shrugged, saying he knew where that was. He told me it was a cute little Mexican restaurant that wasn’t big but had awesome margaritas. I tried to be sly and mention something about our first date being with a group of people, but that only caused Sloan to laugh at me and inform me that he knew what I was doing.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go out with Sloan, because I did. But this was a small town; was it so wrong that I wanted us to stay wrapped up in our little bubble where no one could interfere? Maybe . As if he could sense my internal turmoil, he placed one hand on my thigh and gave it a tight squeeze.
I couldn’t help the way one touch from him set me on fire, and I had to hold back a moan thinking about what we got up to in the kitchen once Lexie was gone. My face involuntarily blushed at the thought.
“What are you thinking about over there, Magnolia?” The gravel in his throat let me know he hadn’t missed the way my face heated up and the tensing of my thighs, trying to ease some of the ache that was starting.
“The kitchen.”
The fruit he ate off my stomach, the whipped cream…the chocolate sauce he poured…
“Magnolia, behave please, or I won’t make it through tonight.”
“That’s okay.” I snuggled closer to him and started to kiss my way up his neck. “We can always go home.”
Instead of his agreement, I was met with a laugh. “I know what you’re trying to do, you little minx. Get back into your seat.”
I huffed at his rejection, a little bit annoyed he caught on so easily.
“Don’t worry, I’ll punish you for that later.” He smacked my thigh lightly but enough that it still stung. He lightly rubbed the tender spot, causing my body to react in an almost sinful way.
“ Not fair,” I ground out.
“Payback, baby, payback.” He grinned at me while he pulled the car into our destination.
He turned the car off and quickly rounded to my side, opening the door for me and offering me a hand to help me out. I couldn’t help the rightness that washed over me at what was happening, and I gave him a smile. He pulled me close to him. “I feel the same.”
Without words, he knew everything I was feeling.
“Let’s go inside.”
He grabbed my hand and walked a little bit in front of me, grabbing both doors that led into the place, and I found myself looking for Lexie once inside. I caught her sitting at a table with Jace, Dexter, and unfortunately, a somewhat disgruntled-looking Lydia.
I looked over and Dexter gave me an apologetic shrug while we greeted everyone, and they greeted us back—minus Lydia, that is. Her eyes kept darting over to the door. That’s odd.
I shook the thought and Lydia off, and let the conversation wash over me.
“So, what did you think of the office?” Sloan asked Lexie, clearly trying to make peace.
“It’s actually a pretty cool space. I liked the open concept, especially the team break room where everyone can unwind. You put a lot of thought into it,” she answered him, popping a chip with salsa into her mouth.
“Don’t sound so shocked.” Jace feigned being offended.
“She probably can’t understand how the two of you came up with such a good concept. You’re basically both Neanderthals.”
“You wound me.” Jace grinned at Sloan, but Lexie wasn’t falling for it.
“You aren’t fooling me, roomie . Don’t try and butter me up so I don’t accidentally mix one of my red socks with your white laundry.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me, roomie.”
“Why do you keep calling him roomie?” Lydia asked. It was the first thing she had said to us all night, and she said it with such an attitude that even Dexter looked at her sideways.
“Because he,” Lexie pointed at Sloan, “carried my best friend off to bed last night, kept me up all night , woke me up with the dogs this morning, and then brought his stuff to move in. Roomie.”
Lydia made a sound like she was choking on her tongue, then excused herself to the bathroom.
“That was weird,” Jace said while looking questioningly at Dexter, who could only shrug, half open-mouthed, letting us know he had no idea what that was.
“Dexter, I know we don’t know each other well, but believe me when I tell you, she has to go.” Lexie laid it all out there, and the silence that followed was deafening while he absorbed her words.
The server finally came by and took our drink and food orders, and after that, small talk started to fill the table and the tension of what happened started to seep away. Lydia returned from the bathroom looking a bit more at ease, and once her margarita had been delivered, she sucked in down in two full gulps.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Dexter ground out as his eyes faced the entrance, and I looked behind me to see what made him upset. I caught none other than Cassie walking in. Dexter’s gaze moved from Cassie to Lydia, and she at least had the decency to look guilty under his intense glare.
“Did you do this?” he asked her low enough that only Sloan and I could hear because we were right next to them. Her silence was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Cassie, being as classy as ever, pulled up a chair without asking. “Hey, guys! Thanks for the invite, Lydia.”
Lexie’s eyes had turned into slits, almost as if she were daring Cassie to say something about me, but Cassie didn’t pay her any mind. She immediately locked in on Sloan’s arm over my shoulder and the fact that his fingers were caressing the exposed skin over my shoulder. Rage clouded her features.
“Fancy seeing you both here, and together ,” she fumed, not tearing her eyes away from us.
Sloan just shrugged, barely paying her any attention, while he kept his attention firmly on me. Despite how awkward this was, I found myself smiling up at him.
“Well, isn’t this just perfect? Sloan and Magnolia, finally together! ”
“Cassie,” Jace said in a warning tone, “don’t do this.”
“Do what, Jace?” she snapped at him. “Congratulate the happy couple?”
“Make an ass out of yourself,” he mumbled back at her, and that’s when she really lost it.
“If he wants to be with Maggie Moo, that’s not a problem, but we all know who had him first, who he will come crawling back to when she slithers off to wherever it is she came from.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her, at this grown woman standing in front of a guy, knowing what she did to him, and still behaving this way.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me like you’re better than me!” she screamed and moved to get in my face. I immediately saw Lexie get up from her chair, and I shook my head at her, which had her grimacing her displeasure but she sat back down.
“I am better than you.” I shot her a knowing look, and she immediately knew what it meant—that I knew the truth, her truth . Her body started to shake in rage, and she turned and pointed that rage at Sloan.
Her voice reached levels of crazy I wasn’t aware even existed while everyone else in the place was looking at her in horror as she continued her rampage. “You signed an agreement! An NDA about the money I stole! You weren’t allowed to tell anyone!” she screamed while pointing at him.
Sloan barely spared her a glance, and when he did, he looked bored. It was a hard thing to witness, his disinterest . “The agreement said I couldn’t inform anyone who was a resident of Rockland, Maine; anyone you considered a friend or a future employer. It said nothing about a past resident, and I doubt Magnolia considers you a friend, nor would she hire you.”
“Definitely not.” I backed him up and he smiled a lazy smile at me, only adding fuel to her fire.
“I thought you said you didn’t take it?” Lydia whispered from across the table. “That’s why you wanted to talk to Sloan, to make him see reason.”
“Oh, don’t be so na?ve, Lydia!” She turned to face her, and it was as if in that moment she realized where she was. Out in public , with many of our small-town residents looking at her with their mouths agape.
“I…uh…” Her features turned to a mask of horror as she realized how many sets of eyes were on her and where she was. The fact that she dropped her facade in her fit of rage and how she ousted herself. There wasn’t a single resident in our small town who wouldn’t know the gossip by morning. Without a single word, she turned on her heel and stormed out.
“You knew about this?” Dexter ground out. He kept his face forward.
“Dex…please, it isn’t what you’re thinking,” Lydia whined. “She lied to me.”
“I’ve made a lot of excuses for you over the years, Lydia. We’ve been together a long time, but this…this—”
“This what?” The tears she was trying to squeeze out immediately dried when she realized that Dexter wasn’t even bothering to look at her.
“This is just the icing on the cake. I’m done. Find your own way home.” He threw a few twenties and his napkin on the table before he addressed us, “Talk to you guys later.”
It took Lydia a few seconds of silence after Dexter left before she got up to run after him.
“I wasn’t expecting dinner and a show,” Jace said, somewhat in a state of shock.
Lexie just shrugged. “I did.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and it was quickly joined by Sloan, while Lexie and Jace just looked at us like we were crazy.
It felt good, it felt normal. It felt like the beginning of forever.