Chapter 25
Chapter twenty-five
LEE
I woke up the next morning and treated Janelle to a brunch at Clary’s. Her plane was leaving in the afternoon, and I wanted some alone time with her before she jetted off.
Mostly, I wanted her to dish on what she thought of last night and my friends. Plus, I needed a distraction from the constant replay of what almost went down with Maggie.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it—the sound of her soft moans, those needy gasps as I ran my hands over her voluptuous body. How every bend, every curve still felt like a road only I was meant to travel, with my hands, lips, teeth.
I coughed and adjusted myself as we waited outside for a table, shoving my hands in my pockets to stop the nervous twitching—and to keep myself from reaching out and touching Janelle.
After nearly tearing Magnolia’s clothes off in the middle of the bar and getting promptly shut down, it just didn’t feel right to cozy up to someone I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be with in the first place—even if it was all for show.
Despite the phony circumstances, Janelle and I did have some sort of connection. Whether it was just a connection to Nashville or something more, I wasn’t sure if it was worth exploring further. My heart just wasn’t in it.
Instead, someone else had my heart, and they wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
“This place is so Instagramable,” she said, handing me her phone with the camera app open. “Here, get a shot of me by the front sign.”
I obliged, handing the phone back over to her after shooting several angles. She thanked me by placing a kiss on my cheek. “I really like Savannah, Lee, but I heard something a little funny last night… Are you buying Magnolia’s bar?”
My head snapped up. “Who told you that?”
“Overheard it from one of your friends. I’m just kinda tired of the secrets, Leland.
I know we’re together under false pretenses, but I thought we had something, a friendship at the very least. I thought you could tell me things.
” She didn’t look up when she said it. Instead, she scrolled through her phone, chewing her bottom lip contemplatively—probably thinking up the perfect hashtags and filters for her photo.
“My writing career is so important to me, Janelle. I’ve always been a better writer here in Savannah than I ever was in Nash. And Maggie’s my oldest and dearest friend. I want to help her out. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It’s just all really, really complicated.”
She shrugged, still not looking up from her phone. “I mean, like, that’s fine, but I’m your girlfriend for all intents and purposes. And if our story continues, I’m moving here, too. I think moving in together would be really good content and would shake up the algorithm, don’t you think?”
I rolled my eyes, and thankfully, because she was so self-involved, she didn’t see it.
“You can move here, but we’re not moving in together, at least not yet. It’s only been a few months.”
“Weird, your brother and Magnolia are moving in together, and they’ve been dating just about the same amount of time as we have.
You don’t seem to have any issues with that, do you?
” The hostess called my name, and we moved toward the inside of Clary’s.
As usual, the place was packed. “Whatever, I’m emailing my manager to talk about apartments.
Anyway, Magnolia might need, or I guess, y’all might need a social media manager. ”
I cringed, thinking about Magnolia and Dane living together, sharing a bed, sharing moments like we almost did last night.
She shoved her phone back into her Birkan. “I think this will be good for all of us.”
After a breakfast spent mindlessly scrolling through social media, I dropped Janelle at her hotel and headed down to the river, hoping to clear my head.
I popped in my headphones, queued up a playlist of rising country artists, and pulled out my notebook, jotting down a few scattered thoughts and lyrics.
Since coming home, I’d felt a spark of inspiration I hadn’t in years.
Maybe it was being near my friends or being back where I first started writing music, but I knew being close to my muse had everything to do with it.
A gorgeous, funny redhead who’d always kept me on my toes—how could she not inspire me?
I scribbled down a few verses, my eyes wandering over the crowds gathering for Sunday morning pop-up booths along the river. Tourists shuffled around with to-go cups of booze, day drinking their way through Savannah’s charm, trying to squeeze out the last bits of their weekend.
That was when I saw her—perched on a picnic bench, staring out at the river. After everything that went down last night, of course she’d be here, lost in thought.
I debated walking over, sitting down next to her, being the one she could lean on, listen to whatever was swirling through her mind. But before I could decide, she must’ve felt my eyes on
her. She turned, shook her head like she couldn’t believe I was there, and then hopped off the bench, heading straight toward me.
“Hey, stranger,” she drawled. She looked incredible, and not at all like she had probably been up until the wee hours of the morning putting the bar back together and calculating her earnings over and over, calling it a win.
Which I knew, for the first time in a long time, it was.
She handed me her cup, and I took a swig. Her signature coffee with a little bit of Bailey’s mixed in. “Thanks again for doing the gig last night. It was such a hit. And, you know, for everything else. I’m sorry you left so abruptly before I could really tell you that.”
The moment she got close, the scent of stale beer and the bar hit me. She hadn’t slept. I took a long look at her face—last night’s makeup still smudged around her eyes and the exhaustion written in every line.
“It was my pleasure. Hopefully, we can make this something semi-regular, and with all the changes we’re planning on, make you some money.”
“Mmhmm. That sounds nice.” She kept her eyes on the river, and I handed her back her cup, watching her take a generous sip.
“She didn’t know you were moving here,” she said after we sat in a quiet stillness for a few moments. “In fact, she looked downright shocked.”
“We talked a bit about it today. She’s going to move here, too.”
She looked at me, her eyes searching mine. “I know you, Lee Wilder. I know you don’t want this slow, unmoving life again. You can’t just walk away from your dreams.”
I took a deep breath, my gaze drifting for a moment. “Sometimes dreams can change when you figure out what it is that you really want. Sometimes it’s not the things you thought you wanted, but the things you already had.”
She let out a soft laugh, but there was a hint of tension behind it as she handed me back her drink. Her forehead crinkled slightly, worry flickering across her face. “Did you mean what you said last night? About us?”
I looked down at my feet resting on the bench. I meant what I said, and so much more. But I had to know where her heart was. I felt it last night, how she wanted me—just like I still wanted her. Like I always would. “Did you mean what you said about moving in with my brother? And marrying him?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, Lee. Yes. And sometimes, no.
I was up all night thinking on it, and I’m exhausted.
So much has changed since you came home.
Some of it good, some of it not. And hearing you call it the biggest mistake of my life kind of struck a nerve.
Is there something you’re not telling me? ”
Really wanting to avoid a fight, or watch her heart shatter into a million pieces, I plastered on a fake smile and said, “What about it isn’t so good? Frankly, I’ve been having a good time since I came home, Maggie.”
She sighed, took her drink from my hand, and then turned to face me.
Her stare was intense as she licked her lips and looked straight into my eyes, as if she could see into my very soul.
Putting the cup down, she grabbed my face, watching for a reaction.
I didn’t move. I’d stay in this spot my whole life if it meant she kept looking at me like she was.
Finally, she leaned in and pressed her lips against mine, gently pushing my lips open with her tongue as her warmth spilled into my mouth and through my whole body.
The kiss lasted for all of fifteen seconds, but when she pulled away, her touch was still humming through my veins. It was the kind of kiss that leaves a mark, one I knew I’d feel for the rest of my life.
I fought back the carnal urge to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her down the street to my hotel. I imagined throwing her on the bed, ripping off her clothes, and running my tongue up and down her body, listening to that perfect, sexy moan of hers as I made her mine once again.
Instead, she gently cupped my face and caught my gaze once again. “That’s the last time we ever share a kiss, Leland Wilder. From here on out, we’re business partners. We’re just friends. We both needed to get that out of our system, and now we can move on.”
She climbed off the picnic bench and wiped the crumbs from the table off of her behind, squinting in the warm, bright Savannah sun. “I’ll see you around, Lee.” She smiled playfully before darting off up the cobblestone ramp and away from all the dirty, filthy things I wanted to do to her.