Chapter 38
Mae
“Okay, my vote is drinks at the bar, and then we can shop. We have to pregame before we spend money so it won’t hurt so bad,” June says as we drive to Whipping Rivers, the next town over.
“Is this town bigger than Paxton?” I ask her.
Grace snorts. “Yeah, it’s like triple the size. They have better shopping, and more than two bars.” She tugs her hat down over her head and adjusts her sunglasses.
“Is that so no one recognizes you?” I ask her.
Her jaw ticks, and she looks out the window. “When I’m home, I’m home,” she says.
“I wonder if that one bar we went to a while ago is still doing the bottomless mimosas,” June says.
“June, it’s two in the afternoon,” I say.
Grace snorts.
“It’s five o’clock somewhere!” June sings.
I shake my head with a smile and look out the window. My mind replays earlier today and the day before on a loop.
“Are you doing okay over there?” Grace asks.
“Fine.”
She hums. “That doesn’t sound fine to me.”
I shrug. “I didn’t think I’d ever be here. I guess I’m still processing.”
“My cousin?” June asks.
“Yes, your cousin.”
She meets my eyes in the rearview mirror. Not wanting to talk about myself, I direct attention back to her.
“Did you ever figure out what you wanted to do with your situation?” I ask June.
Grace jerks back and whips her sunglasses off. “Did you tell her?”
June glances at both of us and puts her focus back on the road. “Do we really need to talk about me?” she asks.
“She’s lived here for five minutes and you’re … no offense, Mae. I’m just surprised, is all,” Grace says quickly.
June groans. “No, I didn’t tell her everything, but we talked about life situations.”
“We did, but you seemed like you were still trying to figure things out,” I offer, realizing I opened a can of worms and didn’t know it.
She sighs. “No, I didn’t.”
Grace settles back in her seat as we come into town, and June looks for a parking spot. “You’re going to have to decide one day. Put each other out of your own misery or give in. You know my thoughts,” Grace mutters.
June hits the brakes hard as she parks her truck.
“Yes, Gracie, I’m well aware of your thoughts, but it’s way more complicated than that.”
She huffs. “Is it?”
June growls. “I need a drink. Do you want a drink, Mae? Let’s get drinks, Gracie’s paying.”
“Whatever,” Grace says, shoving out of the truck.
Grace leads the way into a bar and grill, and I catch June’s elbow. “I’m sorry I didn’t know things were … I’m sorry you don’t have to tell me anything.”
June smiles and pulls me into a hug. “No worries, you didn’t know about the landmines in our lives. But I have a feeling you’ll learn them soon enough.”
I frown, not sure what that’s supposed to mean.
Grace gets us a table all the way in the back corner, and the drinks start flowing.
Looks like I’ll be the one driving us home.
After we sit down, one of the waiters brings us a large pitcher and places three champagne flutes in front of us. He starts to pour for each of us, and June waves him off, taking the pitcher and doing it herself.
She takes a long drag and sets her glass down.
The air turns awkward, and I wonder if it was my fault.
I take a drink and glance at my phone. I know I shouldn’t have taken the time from the shop, but when June and Grace invited me to go out with them, I couldn’t say no. I like hanging out with them.
“So, Grace, are you working on something new?” I ask her, trying to break the odd tension between them.
She hums and leans back, throwing her whole glass back.
June snorts.
“I think the darling of country is stuck,” June says.
I frown and glance at Grace slumped in her seat, glaring at June. “Let me put it this way, the pressure can be a lot to handle.”
I nod, waiting for her to continue, but she remains tight-lipped.
“So how’s it going with Cooper? And please, no details,” June says.
I smile and take a sip. “It’s great, too great.”
“How can it be too great?” June asks.
Grace snorts. “June bug, for as smart and perceptive as you are sometimes, you are a dunce. She feels like it’s too good to be true.”
I lift a shoulder and glance at her.
“No way,” she says.
“I wasn’t going to admit it,” I mutter, as the waiter places the appetizer on our table.
“Coop is always so optimistic. He acts as if something is meant to happen, it automatically will, and I don’t … it doesn’t work that way,” I mumble and toss the rest of my mimosa back.
“You know, when I first started singing on stage, I was hopeful, but the longer I played, no one seemed to care. I was at a crossroads. I had to choose to dig in and go for it, or I had to figure out what else to do. Singing is all I’ve ever wanted to do.
When I was finally signed, it’s like the lights came on.
Dreams were coming true, but …” Grace trails off and takes another drink, almost as if she’s nervous to tell me what she thinks.
“Dreams can change. It’s okay that they change.
So maybe while you keep things real, Cooper can keep things optimistic.
We don’t know what the future holds, and if I’ve learned anything, Mae, it’s that if we spend too much time thinking about how things won’t work, or all the reasons we shouldn’t — we miss it.
There’s clearly something between you and Cooper, so lean in.
And I have to say, you seem to agree with Paxton, which is special in itself because you either love or hate Paxton,” Grace says.
“I really do like it here.”
“What’s keeping you from staying?” June asks.
I explain my situation and my mom. Understanding falls over both of their faces.
“Rock and a hard place, girlfriend,” June says.
“Is it, though? I mean, I don’t know how that feels, but you’re here now. You know you will be for a handful of months. Doing the thing scared is when it matters the most. Be brave. I think you have it in you,” Grace says.
I blink a few times, a little shocked. No one has ever called me brave before. I’ve never thought of myself that way.
“But what if it backfires?” I ask Grace.
She shrugs. “Then it does.”
“So you’re saying I should throw caution to the wind and let myself fall completely in love with Cooper?”
“Yep. Falling in love takes courage. It takes being brave enough to accept that you’ll be completely vulnerable with someone, and let them have all of you, knowing they might hurt you in the end. But there’s always the chance they’ll take it and love you,” Grace says.
“My protective instincts tell me to warn you, but I also can’t disagree with Grace. My cousin is a big boy. He wouldn’t have let things get as intense as they already have if he wasn’t serious about you,” June says.
“The day that storm rolled through, he told me he’d marry me right now.”
Grace chokes on her mimosa, and June barks out a laugh.
“Oh man, you’re both done for,” June says.
“Sometimes we just need someone to remind us that we’re capable of being brave,” Grace says and glances at June.