Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
MAGNOLIA
“You can’t just go around kissing your ex-boyfriend to get it ‘out of your system,’ you idiot,” Sutton said, a platter of fried chicken between us.
As usual, we were nursing some hangovers and watching shitty TV. Pickle jumped up on the coffee table and swatted at Sutton as she grabbed a piece of cornbread.
“Get this cat away from me. Seriously. I dry-heaved over this meal all afternoon, and here she is, trying to muck shit up, per usual.”
“Down, Satan,” I laughed, and the cat hissed and leaped off the table, perching herself on the back of my loveseat to glare at the two of us.
I grabbed a drumstick and contemplated for a moment as I chewed.
“No, it had to be done. Now, I can accept Dane’s proposal, become an actual Wilder, and we can move on from this drama.
All of us can move on from it. And I’ll have full reign over my bar. Easy peasy.”
Sutton looked uneasy. “Magnolia, what kind of wild, twisted logic is that? Come on now. You can’t marry someone just for a business deal.”
I snorted. “If Eunice can do it, I can do it, too.”
Sutton spit pieces of chicken across the room, and Pickle went diving down like a seagull to hunt them. She caught one midair and hissed at Sutton. “What did you just say?”
I slapped my hand over my mouth and mumbled, “Nothing. I said nothing.”
That was what I got for shutting down the bar at 5:00 a.m., chasing the night with a spiked coffee, kissing my ex, feeling invincible, and then skipping sleep. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Holy frickin’ shit.” Sutton scrambled to her feet, scaring Pickle to the point where she started howling like a wolf. “I knew it!”
“You knew nothing, Sutton. Sit down. I didn’t mean it. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Yes, you do! The day you told us about Cole and Eunice, you conveniently left out the part about Vance and Eunice having some sort of deal between them. But I knew it! There’s no way she would have willingly married that snake.
She’s kind, loving, and smart. And Vance is…
” Sutton shuddered. “Ugh, what the hell, Magnolia?”
She was hovering over me, waving a fried chicken breast around in her hand like a baton, letting the shreds of chicken fry fly all over my apartment that I had vacuumed at about 5:30 in the morning during a whiskey-induced sugar fit.
I put my hands up in a defensive stance. “Hi, Captain Crumbs, can you calm down?”
“I will not calm down. I don’t feel good.
I’m stressed out! I got up early to make you stupid chicken, and now you’re kissing Lee and dropping bombs.
Do you know how hard it is to be your friend sometimes?
” She chucked her chicken at me, and Pickle wasted no time jumping up and snacking on it.
Sutton took a seat across from me and glared.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you. I just… it wasn’t my story to tell.”
“Right, but it’s your story to live?”
We stared each other down for a moment before she kneeled in front of me, putting her hands on my knees.
“We’ve been friends for a long, long time.
I have been with you through everything.
Through puberty, through Lee round one, all the bad dates, your uncle dying, the Wilders basically taking control of your life.
I love you, Magnolia. More than a sister.
But I can’t watch you throw away your life for a fucking bar. ”
I kept my steely gaze trained on Sutton. I wanted to hug her and tell her that I love her, too. Instead, I spit out, “The bar is my life, Sutton, and I’ll do anything and everything to keep it in my family.”
She rose, shook her head, grabbed her purse, and slammed the door behind her.
***
I took a long, hot shower, followed by an even longer nap.
It was a restless sleep, though. I had a feeling the decisions I was making were affecting everyone and everything, including my relationship with Sutton, who, aside from Charlie, was all I had left for family these days.
When I finally felt myself falling into a deep slumber, my phone buzzed.
I picked it up, not even looking at the name on the screen.
“What,” I growled.
“It’s me. Can you let me in? The master lock is on.” My brother sounded breathless and a little wary. I had a feeling I knew why he was on my doorstep.
“If you’re here to lecture me, save it. I’m tired, and the bar opens up in two hours. Let me sleep.”
He chortled. “What if I promised you half lecture and half brotherly advice? Would you take it?”
I groaned and crawled out of bed, padding through my apartment to unlock the hardly used front door, kicking aside boxes Lee had stored out of the way.
“Yikes, you look rough,” he said when I flung open the door. Pickle stood in front of me, sitting on her haunches. She let out a long, vibrating hiss.
“Oh, shut up, Pickle!’ We both hollered in unison, and Charlie pushed his way through the door and into my bedroom.
“Come on, lay back down. We can talk while you snuggle.”
I nestled back in my bed, the blanket curled up around me, and Charlie sat at the foot, resting his head up against the wall. We sat quietly for a few minutes, and just before I felt the comfort of my brother wrap me up like an old quilt and drift off to sleep, he started running his mouth.
“You and Sutton need to work this out, Magnolia. We all know you’re strong minded, but forcing yourself into an engagement and then ripping your best friend’s head off when she’s just trying to protect you is so unlike you. I mean, it’s kind of like you, but come on now.”
I rolled away from him and wrapped myself up like a burrito in my blankets.
Charlie jumped up off of the bed, and I could hear him pacing the room.
“And Sutton is up to something. I don’t know if she’s squirrelly because you and Lee are freaking everyone out with your stupid will-they-won’t-they drama, or if something else is bothering her.
And you’re way too self-involved to even see that she’s hurting. ”
“You know what would be great?” I mumbled into my pillows. “If you would go away. Don’t you have your own life to deal with?”
“Okay, so you want me to take you seriously, but then you want to hide when I talk to you about something super heavy? Come on now.”
“Charlie, what I do with my time and my life is none of your business. You didn’t inherit the bar. I did,” I said, still not facing my brother. “You moved on, and you started a life elsewhere. The bar is mine, and however I can protect it, I will.”
“It’s funny that you say that because, honestly, I’ve been working overtime to help bail you out.
But then Lee came back, and of course, he’s going to save the day yet again.
The bar might be yours, but our momma’s name is on the front and her heart is buried somewhere in the walls.
So, of course I care what happens. Stop being so goddamn stubborn. ”
I ripped the blankets off and sprang upright in bed. “You stop being stubborn. You and Sutton and Lee and everyone else! It’s almost like no one wants to see me happy or to see me do something—finally—on my own!”
Charlie scrubbed his fingers through his hair wildly.
I thought he was going to start ripping chunks out, he was so frustrated with me.
“Marrying someone who texts you shitty things in the middle of the night so that you can keep pouring beers for the rest of your life isn’t doing it on your own, Magnolia. ”
If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have jumped up and whacked him so hard across his giant, stupid head he would have seen stars. “It’s a chess move, Charles,” I spat. “Maybe you just want me miserable, so it gives you an excuse not to get your own life together.”
My brother threw his hands up in frustration.
“Don’t you get it? We all want to see you happy!
That’s why we all walk on eggshells. It’s why we all coddle you, why we all enable you.
” He crossed the room and towered over me, his face turning red.
“It’s why we all stood outside the Wilder house and told Dane to leave you alone because we know he’s a snake in the damned grass!
Why, when Lee left, I sat up here every single night and held you while you fucking cried!
Because you’re my sister, and I love you.
I’m doing my best here, but I won’t stand by you if you marry him. ”
I let out a harsh, derisive laugh, pulling my knees up to my chest. Charlie had only gotten truly mad at me a handful of times in my life, and this was one of them.
“What do you mean?” My voice cracked, betraying the fear I was trying to hide.
The thought of him walking out, leaving me behind, twisted my gut.
He was all I had left, the only family I had, and the idea of losing him too was more than I could bear.
“What I mean, Magnolia, is maybe I’m tired of cleaning up your messes, and I don’t want to have to say ‘I told you so’ when shit hits the fan with Dane.” He stomped out of my room, making him the third person in twenty-four long hours to slam the door in my face and walk out fuming at me.
I spent the rest of the afternoon tossing and turning, my pillow damp from tears I hadn’t meant to cry.
The silence of my room felt oppressive, each passing minute a reminder of the fights I couldn’t take back.
Lee’s words still echoed in my ears, raw and jagged, and I couldn’t shake the way Sutton’s and Charlie’s disappointment had settled into my chest like a weight I couldn’t lift.
Eventually, I sat up, staring at the phone on my nightstand as if it might somehow make the decision for me. My stomach churned as I reached for it, my hands trembling slightly. This was the call I’d been avoiding for weeks—the one I knew could unravel everything, or set it all in motion.
Taking a deep breath, I dialed the number, the sound of each ring amplifying the pounding in my head.
“What’s up, baby?” Dane sounded just as tired as I did, but I didn’t care. I had some things to say.
“When you come home, I’m moving in, and I hope you didn’t give your momma back that ring because I want it.”