Chapter 12 #2
Lee watched us all with a faint, melancholic smile, and I couldn’t help but wonder how tough it must be for him to return to our lives and feel like an outsider.
I sent him a sympathetic glance from my end of the table, and he responded with a casual shrug.
It was another one of those unspoken exchanges we often shared.
Jordan, catching the silent interaction, broke the quiet. “So, where’s Dane Wilder, Esquire, this morning?”
Everyone shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
“Probably sleeping it off,” Sutton huffed, giving me the side eye.
“Everyone had a rough night last night, huh?” Doyle said, jutting his chin at Ryan, whose eyes began closing slowly now that he was in a food coma.
“You gonna tell them? Or am I?” Sutton grumbled, nudging me under the table. I shook my head and fired her a warning-shot look. “Dane sent Magnolia a bunch of nasty texts last night and told her if she didn’t move in and marry him, he would break up with her.”
I whacked Sutton on the arm and glanced around the table. Everyone had turned to stare at me, their mouths hanging open, Lee’s face burning with rage.
“He was drunk. He didn’t mean it.” I looked at my brother for some help, but he shook his head and turned his attention to the bacon in front of him.
“What is it?” Lee said through gritted teeth, staring Charlie down.
“Charlie, don’t,” I warned, but Charlie had an audience now.
“That’s not the first time he’s said something shitty to her.”
I scooted my chair away from the table, and Sutton grabbed it, pushing me back in.
“Is this an intervention?” I laughed nervously.
“No, but…” my brother started, leaning across the table. “I think we can all agree that you don’t deserve to be talked to like you’re garbage. It gets worse when he’s drunk.” Charlie sat back in his chair, and Lee looked like he was going to pounce.
“That’s not true,” I whispered. But it was true, and almost everyone at the table knew it.
The beginning of our relationship was wonderful, and Dane was always so doting, showering me with attention, affection, and praise. As time went on, though, he became hot and cold. I never knew what to expect.
Right on cue, my phone buzzed from the charging dock where it rested.
“We’re all here, so that has to be him,” Sutton mused, as I pushed back from the table and reached over the bar for my phone. I rushed toward my office and shut the door behind me before answering.
“Hey,” I said, slightly out of breath.
“Magnolia, I am so sorry—why do you sound like you’ve been jogging?”
I plopped down in my office chair and ran my hands through my bedhead. “I’m downstairs. We sort of all assembled for an impromptu brunch, and I ran into my office to talk to you.”
“I suppose I’m not welcome after what I said last night, am I?” He sounded almost upset with himself, but I could tell he was more upset with me. Or maybe I just felt that way after the conversation at the brunch table.
“It’s not that, Dane. I’m not that petty,” I lied.
“Is my brother there?”
I paused, covering the phone to muffle the deep sigh that escaped. “He’s here. Ryan had to crash in Cole’s room last night—he was too drunk to function. Lee showed up to take him home.”
“Aha, and then the rest of our friends just happened to show up? And no one called me?” His voice grew slightly louder, tinged with agitation.
“Well, frankly, Dane, I didn’t expect you to be awake so early after last night. We should have sent a message, so I apologize.”
“That’s a good girl,” he cooed like I was a Goldendoodle who had learned how to sit pretty. “I’d like to take you to lunch this afternoon. Can you be ready by 1:00? I’ll send a car. I want to talk to you about what happened last night.”
“Which part?” I laughed.
“All of it. If you don’t want to get engaged now, that’s fine, Magnolia, but I do think we should move in together. Living above that dirty old bar has got to be getting old, and besides, if you decide to sell it, you’ll need a place to live when it’s all said and done.”
I leaned back and ran a hand over my face. “I can’t do lunch today, but I’ll call you later. I’ll think about it, alright?”
Dane cleared his throat, the sound sharp with agitation. “Fine. I’ll talk to you later.”
I slipped back into the bar, the buzz of conversation and clinking glasses filling the air around me.
I set my phone down with a soft click, the sound sharp in the quiet of the moment.
As I sank back into my seat, my gaze drifted over the room—Lee was gone.
Ryan’s head had fallen onto the table, his slow, steady breathing the only sign of life.
“Where did he go?” I turned to Sutton, whispering.
“He didn’t say, but I bet we can both guess.”
After finishing up our brunch and throwing Ryan in a cab with Sutton so he could go nap it off in his hotel room, Charlie and I took the leftover pitchers of mimosas into my office to look over some more paperwork.
It was coming up on crunch time, and I had a decision to make, and soon. Dane and Vance had me all but convinced I should sell the bar and the property, and it was probably the best decision, but my heart wouldn’t—couldn’t—put a for sale sign on something that had been in my family for so long.
“I think we talked about this before, but what about knocking down the back half of the bar and putting a kitchen in? You could open it up to a lunch crowd, or even brunch. Our little shindig went just fine today.” Charlie was absentmindedly scrolling through social media, not paying attention at all to the stack of papers in front of him.
“You should be posting more on the bar’s Instagram. I told you, use hashtags.”
I whirled around in a circle in my chair and then sunk my forehead into my palms. Still in my brunch outfit, sans bra, I looked and smelled like a dumpster.
“Where am I going to get the money for that kind of renovation? My trust fund from when Cole sold Mom and Dad’s store went to part of your tuition, and I’ve had to drain the rest to keep this place open. You used your share for the part of the studio. I don’t know…”
“The Wilders will loan you the money, but it would be more like a dowry for marrying Dane, I suppose.”
I growled at my brother. “I brought it up to Eunice and Vance over dinner a few weeks ago. Just to put out some feelers. Dane brought up that the building itself would give me enough money to sit pretty for a while until I figured out my next move. Eunice and Vance agreed. They don’t want to help me, Charlie.
They want me to cash in what I have, move into that high-rise of Dane’s, and plan my wedding over tea with the rest of Savannah society.
Eunice invited me to bridge. Me. To bridge. ”
Charlie let out a small chuckle and leaned over my desk, locking eyes with me. “Don’t do anything you don’t want to do, Magnolia. You’re not shackled to this place or to the Wilder family. You don’t owe anyone anything.”
My brother meant well, but he was flat out wrong. I owed everything to the Wilders. When I tossed my application for UGA in favor of going to community college and letting Charlie have part of my trust fund, they offered to pay my tuition, no questions asked.
When I left community college and started working at the bar full time, Eunice filled up my social calendar quickly so that I could network and make connections with other local business owners to help me bring the bar to the next level, instead of remaining a divey, hole in the wall.
And when Uncle Cole died, and I was short on funds for the funeral, they hopped right in and helped me and Charlie pay for everything.
Not to mention the fact that, over the last eighteen years, they’d made us feel like family.
I owed a lot to them. I owed them everything.
“I just wish things weren’t so damn complicated,” I finally blurted out.
“Like with the bar or the fact that your ex-boyfriend just waltzed back into our lives and it’s throwing quite the wrench into everything.”
“Both,” I admitted.
“For what it’s worth, baby sister, I’m glad he’s home. I can see the chains that lead to that big old house on Jones Street starting to strip. It’s a good thing.”
“Oh, shut up. I like being with Dane. Lee showing up now after all this time changes absolutely nothing.”
“Right, let’s all keep telling ourselves that.” My brother stood and walked behind my desk, planting a kiss on the top of my head. “Don’t make any rash decisions just yet, love. We will figure it out. We always do.”
***
After showering the remnants of last night's chaos off my skin and making a half-hearted attempt to look human again, I straightened up my apartment, tossing clothes into the laundry basket and pushing scattered papers aside. Once I’d gotten things in order, I trudged downstairs, the quiet of the early afternoon wrapping around me.
I was sorting through the beer bottles when a knock at the bar door pulled me out of my rhythm.
“Peace offering. It’s tacos from Lizzie’s.
I remembered that you used to eat about forty-five of these in one sitting.
My hotel is right down the street from there, so I figured I’d just, well.
Okay, I’m sorry. I wanted to talk to you.
But also, tacos.” Lee was standing in front of me, holding out a takeout container of delicious-smelling tacos with a stupid, panty-dropping grin strapped on his face.
“Come on in. I figured I would be bailing you out of jail today for beating up your brother, the way you stormed out of here.” I walked back behind the bar, and Lee took a high top seat across from me.
“I had to talk myself out of that. I went for a run and hit the gym at the hotel instead.”
My eyes shot down to his white t-shirt, clinging to his chest and showing off his seriously impressive muscles.
I scanned over a tattoo that sprawled across his arm and peeked out from under his shirt, winding across his pecs.
I caught myself staring and went back to counting beer bottles.
“Well, I’m proud of you, then. That’s more of an effort than I put in today. So what brings you by?”
He leaned over the bar, snagging one of the bottles I’d been counting.
With a swift motion, he popped the cap off against his forearm, his muscles flexing as he did, giving me a brief but undeniable reminder of how much time he’d put into working on his body.
“Well, I’ve been thinking it over since I got back.
Honestly, I was already considering it before I came home.
But now? I’m leaning toward sticking around. ”
I snapped my head up, catching myself on the ice chest in front of me before I toppled over. “What? Why? Wait, what?”
Lee laughed and knocked back his beer. “Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for, but I’ll take that shocked bewilderment as a compliment. Anyway, I’ll be honest, there’s not much for me in Nashville anymore. I can write music anywhere, and I always wrote the best music here.”
“What about your label? What about Ryan?” I tried not to sound like I was in the middle of a massive panic attack, but I could feel my heart trying to escape from my chest and run down the street as if it had been set on fire.
“It will all work out. I talked to my manager about it some this morning after I left. This is my home, Magnolia. I belong in this city, with you… you guys. My friends.” He leaned over a bit on his elbows and locked eyes with me.
“This morning was exactly what I needed—being with you and your brother, with Sutton. And Jordan and Doyle are a great fit in your friend group. Our friend group.”
“And Ryan?” I finally asked again, bile rising in my throat.
“I think Ryan wants to stick around, too. We could get a condo together and rent a small studio space. I really think it will work out. I’m even thinking about coming in as a partner for a local business.”
“Oh, well, that all sounds nice, I suppose. Which business?” I took in a deep breath and held it.
He leaned back in his chair and looked around the bar. His broad, glistening smile reached his eyes, and I knew that mischievous look from a mile away. “This one.”