Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
L ily drove into Mad Bull’s Bend the back way, so she had to cross the bridge.
She looked down over, wondering if she could pick out the spot downstream where she and Ethan had been all tangled up in each other and in bliss.
A knot of longing formed in the pit of her stomach, and a delicious shiver danced up her spine.
Minutes later, she was pulling into the cantina’s parking lot, surprised to see multiple vehicles already there.
“Samwell Beckett General Contracting” was painted on the sides of three of them.
She got out and made her way among the workers, who noticed her—some more than others—some with big, friendly smiles and hardhats coming off.
She smiled back and looked around until she spotted Ethan.
He saw her at the same time and came her way, grabbing her arms when he reached her. “I took that presentation with me to the bank. They approved the financing in like ten minutes.”
“They would have anyway, Ethan. You’re a Brand.”
He barely paused in his enthusiasm. “Then I called Burdick and told him he had the job. I also hired the electrician, and the plumber-slash-water-feature guy and told them they could start today.
“You seem so excited!” She was surprised. He hadn’t been this into the honky-tonk until now.
“Seeing it all done in that presentation…” He shook his head. “Lit a fire under me, Lily.”
When he said “fire” it sounded like “fahr” and made her want to kiss the accent right off his lips.
His phone signaled. He reached into his pocket and silenced it without even looking.
“Dang thing’s been goin’ off all mornin’,” he said.
“Listen, I have an idea for the name.” A power tool started growling, then.
Lily took Ethan’s arm and pulled him into the kitchen, where it was quieter.
“You should probably check your phone,” she said.
“In a minute,” he said. “I want to call the place Two Lilies.”
She blinked and repeated the words back to him. “Two Lilies?”
“Yep. I been thinkin’ and thinkin’ on this, hear me out, okay?”
“Okaaaay.” She really had hoped he’d want to talk about something else, but…he was wound up, wasn’t he?
“First, because I can see your heart is really in this place. And I don’t have the kind of vision you do, and it’s…
it’s you. Second, to bring a little bit more of your mom down here to Texas.
And third, it’s a nod to the fact that there are two unique Lilies, not two versions of one.
And even if we’re the only two people who read it that way, I figured…
” He trailed off with a shrug, watching her face.
She lowered her head because tears sprang into her eyes and she didn’t want him to see them. “I love it,” she said. “But it seems like your name oughtta be in there somewhere too.”
“Two Lilies can be Two Lilies forever. I mean, if you’re okay with it. On the other hand, Ethan Brand’s would have to be changed, you know, if I decide to sell the place.”
The sentence was a gut punch. Wow. Okay, so she was right when she’d said that nothing had changed. Not for him, anyway. Good to know.
He met her eyes quickly, reminding her he was pretty good at reading her. “Is somethin’ wrong?”
She pasted on a smile and wondered why it hurt so much. She’d been very clear with herself, hadn’t she? She’d decided that having sex with him wouldn’t change anything, that she wouldn’t let it change anything. But it had. At least for her, and she hadn’t meant it to, but it had.
“Lily Ellen?”
Spine straightening, chin rising, she said, “You should really check your phone.”
“Why? You know somethin’ I don’t?”
She raised her eyebrows and nodded hard. He pulled out his phone and its screen was a solid column of notifications. He started with the text messages, she noted, leaning up to look. His manager, all caps, lots of exclamation points.
Ethan looked up, his eyes round.
“Don’t look so surprised,” she said, burying hurt under her happiness for him. “It’s a great song. You’re a great artist.”
“I’ve just been stuck for so long…”
“Maybe now you’ll be unstuck.”
“Maybe I already am,” he said. “I’ve had to stop to jot down lyrics three times this mornin’.”
She smiled and it was genuine. If his block was gone…then being with her must’ve helped, right? Or maybe just the excitement of the work on his honky-tonk finally getting underway.
“My mom used to say that sometimes getting away from a job for a little while is important. You’ll either realize you miss it and go back with more passion, or you’ll realize you’re happier without it and find a new path.”
“Which of those has happened to you, Lil? With your job at the hospital?”
She looked around. She loved working with Ethan, but she was in love with him. She loved being with him, regardless of what they were doing. But she also loved working on this project and she was good at it. It was hard to tell which was influencing her feelings about it more.
“You’re taking too long to answer,” he said. “Do you miss your job as a nurse?”
“I don’t miss my old job, no. I still feel bad that I failed at it, you know?”
“You didn’t fail, you chose to leave.”
“No, I couldn’t hack it. I’d like to think if the chips were down, I could, but I’m not gonna risk a patient’s life to find out for sure.
As for this job…I love it, so far, but I think it’s too soon to tell if this is what I’m supposed to be doing.
Depends on how it goes, I guess. But never mind me, this is about you. What else does your manager say?”
He frowned at her for a moment, but she nodded at his phone, so he resumed scrolling messages.
Then his smile returned and darn near blinded her.
“We’re debuting on Billboard at number nine next week!
” He grabbed her and hugged her right up off her feet, turning her around in a circle.
When he stopped, they went silent, as she gazed down into his eyes and tried to remind herself she was done chasing him, and that making love with her had not made him want to stay.
She needed to toughen up her heart.
“Downloads, sales, and plays are all up,” he said, as he set her down again, returning his attention to the phone. “Ang is getting a lot of interview requests. Holy…three of them are network shows.”
She raised her brows. “That’s fantastic, Ethan.”
For some reason he touched her again, sliding his hands down her arms to clasp hers and bring them to his lips. He kissed them and said, “You did this. All of it.”
“You did it,” she said.
She wanted his arms around her, and the only way she could stop gazing into his eyes with her heart pouring out was to look somewhere else.
At the floor, at the workers she could see through the porthole windows in the kitchen doors.
They were out there milling around the place like the world wasn’t reversing polarity every couple of minutes.
Fortunately, the sound of a vehicle skidding into the parking lot and a door slamming provided the perfect distraction. Frowning, Ethan headed through the double doors into the main room of the cantina. Lily followed.
Willow was heading for the entrance. She was in uniform.
“Well, this can’t be good,” Ethan said. “She looks serious as a toothache.”
Lily said, “Let’s talk to her outside, okay? You’ve got all these people busy. They don’t need distractions. Much less, gossip.”
Ethan grabbed his hat and they stepped out just as Willow reached the door, so she backed off a few steps. She wore her hair pulled back. It hung in a long braid down her back that was probably against regulations.
She didn’t bother with preamble. She said, “We found Gringo Sombrero,” she said, “Out past the onramp in an old brown Buick with front end damage. He was in the pull-off by the river there, where folks park to go fishin’…unconscious behind the wheel.”
“Oh no,” Lily whispered. “I knew he was hurt. I feel awful.”
“ You feel awful?” Willow asked. “I’m the one who hit him. I hope he didn’t wait too long to get help, you know?”
“How bad’s he hurt?” Ethan’s only reaction to the news had been a quick lowering of his head. It was still lowered, but he didn’t have his hat on to cover his eyes.
“Busted ribs. Concussion. Been unconscious since we found him. No ID on him, and the car’s registered to an Olive Dennison, New Mexico, deceased. Natural causes. I’m running his DNA.”
“I want to see him,” Ethan said. “I need to talk to him.” His gaze shifted to Lily’s. And she knew why he wanted to see the stranger—to ask whether he’d had anything to do with Angus Silver’s accident .
“Once he wakes up, you can head over,” Willow said. “Doc says other than the accident, Gringo’s the healthiest un-homed person he’s ever seen.”
“I never pegged him as un-homed,” Lily said. “Why would he sleep in the shed, when he had a car?”
Lily had always figured Manny knew who he was, but Manny said he had no idea. The guy had just started showing up one day. Never said much. Helped break up a couple of fights, stepped in when help was needed, and then just went back to his perch. Always paid in cash. Tipped well.
He wasn’t in the cantina every day. But he’d been there a lot of days, right up until they’d closed for the re-boot.
“I want to see him now,” Ethan said.
“Give me a half hour and the DNA will be—” Her phone pinged.
It was already in her hand. She looked at it and said, “It’s in now,” before tapping a button, and walking away, out into the parking lot.
Her brown boots tapped and she spoke low to someone on the phone, then suddenly louder.
“Are you serious right now? Holy…” And then she turned slowly, staring at Ethan, and Lily knew something was up.