Chapter 10 #2
I rolled my eyes. Here we go. “Please do not start with me. You have to realize how thrown off I was running into you this morning. I didn’t expect that you’d actually show up.”
He looked hurt by that. He should have been. While I was the one who told him to go, I never once asked him to stop coming home to see his family. Or to not keep in touch.
“I get that you’re a great success, but Eunice and Vance miss you terribly. Dane, too.” I tripped over Dane’s name, hoping it didn’t betray what I had hoped he already knew, so I didn’t have to be the one to tell him.
He snickered. “Great success, that’s pretty humorous. Maybe at one time. I guess you haven’t heard that my third album was a total flop.”
I hadn’t discounted his talent—he was still great.
Winning a Grammy for best breakthrough songwriter with his first album was proof of that.
It took him almost eight years to put out the follow-up, and while the critics had been harsh about this latest one, I wouldn’t have written him off just yet.
It wasn’t half bad. But then, what did I know?
Maybe I just couldn’t separate the music from what was woven into those lyrics—maybe because deep down, I knew they were about me, even if I didn’t want to admit it.
Of course, I couldn’t let him know I knew these types of things.
“What’s humorous is you thinking I actually listen to any of your music,” I lied, very poorly.
“Right. Well, I can’t say I blame you, really.
” He was quiet for a moment, looking around the bathroom as if searching for something to say.
“I saw Charlie at his studio this morning,” he muttered softly.
“I had bought a few pieces off him a couple of years ago when we met up in Atlanta, but some of his new stuff is really neat. Did you see the one he created out of the old dining room table and the washing machine parts? He’s a genius. ”
“He never told me that. I just thought you ordered something from him off his website?” I could feel my face growing redder by the second.
“What? About the dining room table piece? It really is something… I actually might buy it.”
“No,” I laughed angrily. “That you guys met up in Atlanta. He should have told me that!” I was yelling at Lee when I should have been yelling at Charlie, but he wasn’t the one hovering over the Wilder guest bathtub.
He let out a wild guffaw. “Well, you react so rationally all the time, Magnolia. It’s no wonder he didn’t mention it.”
I had been feeling sorry for Charlie all these years. He lost his best friend, and a huge part of that was my fault. And all this time, I thought they hadn’t kept in touch. Turns out, my brother is just a rat-faced liar.
“I need to go home,” I announced rather theatrically.
“Oh stop, Momma would kill you.” He stood up and crossed the room toward the door, turning back but not meeting my eye. “Besides, your new boyfriend might be wondering where you’ve run off to.”
I slid further into the tub as fast as I could, careful not to hit my already bruised head—or ego—on the way down.
Once the door was shut, and I was sure Lee had made his way back downstairs, I crawled out of the tub and leaned against the bathroom counter, face flushed with embarrassment as I stared at my reflection.
Seeing him twice in one day after all these years was more than I’d bargained for.
The memories I thought I’d buried down deep were creeping up on me, tightening in my chest. The nostalgia was making it hard to breathe, the weight of it all was overwhelming.
And I had to go downstairs, hook myself through Dane’s arm, and pretend like everything was just fine.
About a half hour later, I ambled through the party, now on its way to full swing. Guests were still pouring in, and people were lining up at the bar for libations, grabbing the appetizers Sutton had prepared, and huddling up in small groups to pass on the gossip of the day.
I weaved my way through a small cluster of Eunice’s friends, catching snippets of their conversation about Lee’s return.
The mere mention of his name sent a shiver down my spine, and I couldn’t ignore the sideways glances and whispers that trailed after me as I passed.
It felt like every eye in the room was watching me, waiting for a reaction I wasn’t ready to give.
I needed to get away from the buzz, so I slipped out of the grand foyer and toward the back of the house, craving a quiet corner to gather my thoughts. Or to drink said thoughts away.
I passed by Sutton in the kitchen, giving her a quick look and nod before snagging a bottle of wine off the counter. Without a word, I retreated to the back veranda. I didn’t bother with a glass—I didn’t need it.
I made it to a plush chair tucked toward the back of the oversized porch where a large potted azalea bush offered just enough cover to give me a bit of privacy.
The veranda stretched out, overlooking the lush backyard, but from where I sat, I was mostly out of sight—just a hint of the party visible through the gaps in the blooms. I sank into the cushion, pulling back on the bottle, grateful for the small slice of solitude.
“There you are!” Charlie shouted, rounding the corner and instantly drawing attention to me. Heads turned, and suddenly, all eyes were on the woman in the corner, drinking wine straight from the bottle. I shrank into myself, shooting my brother a dirty look.
“I am not speaking to you right now, Charles Abner Pruitt. In fact, I may never speak to you again,” I hissed.
He squished himself next to me on the chair, yanking the bottle out of my hands and taking a swig. “Ah, you’ve run into Lee, apparently. I’m sorry, it felt like a betrayal that we were still friends.”
We both aggressively wiggled around in the chair, trying to get comfortable.
“I was mad at him because he had given up on your friendship, Charlie. I was pissed at him for not calling you, yet he’s your best customer!
And you’ve just been casually hanging out with him from time-to-time.
You probably knew he was coming this weekend, and you acted like you had no idea!
” I grumbled, pushing against his shoulder to make room for myself on the chair he was trying to hijack.
“Hey, by the way, are you calling a piece of furniture you painted metallic orange ‘art’ now? What am I missing?”
He rolled his eyes, handing the bottle back to me.
“That’s not the reason you’ve been mad at him, Magnolia.
You’ve been stewing all these years because you told him to leave, and you didn’t believe he actually would.
” My brother stood up, watching over me sadly.
“And honestly? It’s burnt sienna with a copper overlay and reclaimed copper piping from discarded washer and dryer parts.
It reflects the state of the industrial society we’re living in. Don’t you ever listen to me?”
Sutton found me about an hour later when I had, over the course of that short time, become borderline drunk and irrationally sad.
“I have a concussion and a broken heart,” I proclaimed, as she handed me a small plate of all of the things the caterers had carried past me, but that I had rejected, hesitant to lose my buzz.
“Eat something before Eunice sees you like this. What are you doing, Magnolia? This is pathetic.” She was right.
I shoveled the food into my face quickly and shot her a spinach-toothed smile. “Why am I like this?” I laughed with a mouth full of quiche.
She laughed right along with me. “I don’t know, but Lord, have I spent the better part of my life trying to figure it out.”
I put my head on her shoulder and let her rub my arm.
“Dane’s been looking for you. I told him you’ve been mingling and that pleased him, of course. Once you let that food sop up all that sav blanc you’ve been guzzling, you might want to get up and do just that.”
She scurried back to the kitchen, and I took a few minutes to gather myself, trying to shake off the weight of the day’s emotions.
The wine had hit me harder than I’d realized, and I burped twice, the taste of grapes and spinach quiche rolling over my tongue.
Feeling a bit wobbly, I gave myself a quick pep talk, determined to embrace the role of Dane Wilder’s social and definitely not super drunk girlfriend.
With a deep breath and a final glance down at myself, I squared my shoulders and set off to rejoin the party, hoping to blend in despite the swirl of emotions and booze still tugging at me.
“There you are!” Dane crossed the room, politely pushing through the crowd to meet me as I pretended to listen, attentively of course, to a very numbing Daughters of Savannah Civic Society conversation about lemon meringue.
“Yes, here I am.” I leaned into the kiss he planted on my cheek. “Ms. Hattie Beckett has been telling us all about her secret for the perfect whipped topping.”
“Cream of tartar,” Hattie Beckett leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.
“Gross,” I mumbled under my breath, letting out another small belch.
“How delightful, ladies,” Dane said a little too enthusiastically, guiding me away from the gaggle of women with a gentle hand on the small of my back.
“It’s so lovely to see you all here. My momma is so happy to have all your smiling faces celebrating her today.
” He beamed his perfectly straight teeth at the crowd, and they ate it up like pie.
“She sure does know how to throw a party, that’s a fact. We’re all hoping the next one will be in honor of you and Magnolia!” Hattie Beckett was beaming, and Dane went white as a sheet. “Eunice tells us we should have the happy news any day now!”
I politely excused myself before rushing toward the back door in search of freedom, fresh air, and a quiet place to vomit.