Chapter 30
Chapter thirty
MAGNOLIA
After what felt like a completely useless meeting, I left Charlie’s and stopped in to Treylor Park to pick up an order of fried chicken and waffle tacos—Lee’s favorite—to bring back to the bar as some sort of peace offering.
On my walk to Charlie’s studio, my mind kept circling back to what Sutton had confessed.
Each word felt like it had carved out a new wound.
The closer I got to Charlie’s, the more I wondered if I could really go through with this marriage.
Every step I took felt heavier, like the weight of Sutton’s revelation was pressing down on me, making me question everything.
But where I should have felt grief, a weight seemed to lift off my shoulders. I didn’t have to pretend anymore. I didn’t have to put on a show because what I had wanted, this arrangement with Dane, was becoming just that. A business deal.
It also opened up a wound I didn’t know was festering. I was more hurt that everyone had lied to me and covered up Dane’s dealings instead of telling me the truth.
Was that my fault? Were they protecting me because I wouldn’t stop beating them down with a stick, insisting this is what I wanted with Dane?
Lee had been in this bar almost every day for months, holding this in.
He knew about Dane going after Sutton. He knew about his father threatening her.
He had to know about the business deal Dane was cooking up with investors to sell this place from underneath me, and he had held on to all of that for months without telling me.
I felt hurt, but more than that, I was terrified.
The thing that scared me the most was that Lee didn’t believe in our friendship enough to trust me with the truth.
How could I get us back to a place where he was the friend who could tell me anything, even if it hurt?
I pushed open the bar door, and there he was, sitting on the stool by the to-go window, guitar in hand, playing a soft, mellow tune.
His fingers moved across the strings with such ease, the music flowing effortlessly, as if the world outside didn’t exist. I hadn’t realized how much I missed hearing him play so freely, how much I missed the way he got lost in the chords, his eyes closed, lost to everything except the music.
For a moment, he looked so damn handsome, so him, it hurt to breathe.
I had to remind myself that nothing was the same anymore.
But still, the pull was there, undeniable and strong.
“Hey, I brought dinner,” I said cheerily, dropping the bag on the bar and making my way around the back, dragging a stool behind me so I could join him.
“I’d know that smell a mile away. Thank you, doll.”
“Not a problem. I have to say, that meeting was bullshit and felt a little like a setup. What are you up to?”
Lee raised an eyebrow, swallowing a bite of his taco.
“Nothing. I’m serious. I was over there, and they said they had some changes to the trolley schedule and asked if you could stop by and talk it through with them.
Don’t shoot the messenger.” He was clearly lying, but if we were going to be friends again, maybe I needed to prove to him that he could still talk to me about anything.
“So, how’s Janelle? Are you guys doing okay?” I didn’t really want to know the answer, but I was trying. And if it meant hearing about his love life, then so be it.
“She didn’t tell you? She’s back in Nashville for the holidays.
Her family participates in these hugely festive things leading up to Christmas with her mom’s sorority sisters, who are also weirdly her sorority sisters, however that works.
They have all these brunches and shopping trips and cookie-baking parties that they go to. ”
I chewed my food and smirked. “Sounds fun. You didn’t want to go?”
He motioned around the empty room. “I have a business to run, clearly. Besides, Momma would murder me if I wasn’t around for my first Christmas back in Savannah.”
“That’s true. Besides, I’ll need your help tomorrow night when the trolleys pull through. Kasey had to go out of town. I guess her cousin’s brother’s someone or another is having a baby? I don’t know.”
Lee smiled and pushed the chips and salsa toward me so I could grab some before he ate it all, like he was prone to do. “As you wish, boss.”
I rolled my eyes.
“So, what are your plans for Christmas now that Dane’s out of town?”
“Well, I thought Charlie and I were going to do our cookie baking, Santa waiting thing, which these days equates to getting drunk on spiked eggnog and passing out. But he said he might have plans with someone. You wouldn’t happen to be kidnapping my only living relative on Christmas Eve, would you? ”
Lee held up his hands, feigning innocence. “No, ma’am, I know better than to come between a twenty-eight-year-old Pruitt tradition. Besides, if Charlie had a choice to hang out with me or get beat up by you, I bet you he would choose the latter.”
“Mmhmm, well. Who knows.” Once again, I was feeling mighty suspicious at what was coming out of his mouth. “And Eunice, I assume, will be holding court after midnight mass as usual?”
“And she’ll be up at the crack of dawn, baking, cooking, cleaning, and making the house look pristine for her Christmas Day open house, as if no one had ever lived there before.”
“She’s a trooper, that one. Hopefully, I can put an end to that craziness when I’m the Wilder matriarch.” I could tell, without even looking at him, that what fell out of my mouth had the same effect on both of us. I could almost feel our hearts sinking in unison.
“Did you decide to put a tree up, at least?” Lee asked quietly when we had both recovered.
“No tree for me this year,” I sighed, picking at my food. “Who would see it but me?”
“What’s Pickle going to use as a recon station now? Surely, this is her favorite time of year to plan stealth attacks.”
I worked my face to hide how upset I was.
Christmas was always my favorite holiday, and it meant the world to me.
Charlie and I would spend hours picking out the best tree we could afford, real of course, and we decorated it with the same painted shells my momma always put on her tree year after year.
Keeping our Christmas tradition going was one of the last things that connected Charlie and me to our old life on Tybee Island. To our parents. But we were older, both moving on. Maybe it was time to start something new on my own.
“Customer,” I said, nodding toward the window. I cleaned up our plates, wiped the salsa off the bar, and made us another drink. After checking my phone, I settled back down, waiting for Lee to wrap up with the to-go orders and send everyone off to something, presumably, more fun.
Savannah was a huge tourist hot-spot in the summer and fall months, but around the holidays, we didn’t see many folks around town that weren’t local.
Not like O’Malley’s saw many people anyway.
Since Lee was gracing the small, intimate stage at O’Malley’s on a regular basis, business had picked up a bit, but not like I wanted.
Not like I needed.
I started to panic. I needed to plan this damn wedding, walk down the aisle, and somehow get my soon-to-be-husband to realize he shouldn’t sell this place to the highest bidder and just hand it over to me.
With a shaky hand, I passed Lee his drink and got my stuff together.
If he could handle the bar, maybe I could finish picking out my flowers and table settings.
Two things Eunice wanted a decision made on by the first of the year.
Once they were finally checked off the list, I could get her off my back.
Until we shopped for the dress, of course.
“I’m going to head upstairs for a while. Will you text me if you need help?”
He looked nervous and defeated. I knew he wanted to tell me something, but kept his mouth shut, as usual. Maybe buying him his favorite meal to try and butter him up wasn’t going to work after all. There’d still be that unbreakable wall between us.
“I’m good, go ahead,” he finally said, and I shot him a half-hearted smile before making my way up the back staircase.
The second I entered the apartment, I could tell something was different.
The rooms were darkened, and a faint, shimmering light bounced off the walls.
I heard the low hum of Pickle purring somewhere in the distance, and I called out for her.
Usually, she met me by the door, ready to attack should it finally be the intruder she’d been waiting on for years.
I followed the sound of her rumbling into the living room and sank onto the couch.
I buried my face in my hands and let out a deep, raw sob.
A Christmas tree—a real, fresh off the lot balsam fir stood proudly in the corner of the room. I stood up to get a closer look and fought back another wave of tears when I realized the ornaments were all my momma’s. I’d never seen anything so gorgeous in my entire life.
On top of the tree, resting ever so gently, was the sea-star covered with shells that crowned our family tree for my whole young life. I struggled to catch my breath.
Did Charlie do this? I briefly thought it could have been Dane, but Christmas was never his thing. And, truth be told, only one person knew how important this tree, these ornaments, were to me.
“Merry Christmas, Magnolia,” Lee said, his voice catching slightly as he leaned on the doorframe, watching me take in what was in front of me. “You should always celebrate the holiday in the way you love. I hope you’re not mad.”
I shook my head and dabbed at my eyes a bit. “I’m not mad, Lee. These are joyful tears.” I turned to look at him, fighting the urge to rush across the room and into his arms. “Thank you. It looks just like Momma’s did.”
“I hope so. Charlie drummed up an old picture from when y’all were kids so I could see what it looked like. It’s not exact, but it’s—”
“It’s perfect. It’s absolutely perfect,” I interrupted.
A wide, toothy smile spread across his face and reached his eyes. It was the kind of smile I was used to seeing when we were together. The kind that only happened when he did something that made my heart melt.
When he made one of those grand gestures to prove how much he loved me.
“You should get back downstairs,” I said, snapping us both out of the moment. “Wouldn’t want to miss that one, random customer that could stop by.”
“You got it, boss,” he gruffed, scratching the back of his head and looking down at the floor. “See you later.” He walked down the stairs, and Pickle hurled herself out of the tree and on to my lap.
“What are we going to do about him?”
She licked her lips and twirled twice before falling asleep on my thighs.
“Believe me, girl, I wish I could kiss him again. But we’re just going to have to keep dreaming.”
I sat in the quiet for a while, just watching the room move with the quiet twinkle of the lights. I wondered briefly what would make someone do something so extravagant, so out of this world? Why would someone do something so crazy for someone?
Love. Loyalty. Friendship.
And I knew, deep down, those were the reasons why I was doing the crazy, extraordinary thing that I was doing, too.
Later that night, I had Sutton on speakerphone while I flipped through bridal magazines, my stomach a circus of butterflies and nervous energy.
“Did you get the picture I sent of the tree?” I asked.
“I did. It really is beautiful,” she sighed wistfully. “I hope you weren’t an asshole and thanked him properly.”
“Of course I did. I was very kind once I stopped sobbing.” I added a sticky note to the top of the page I was perusing, scribbling a quick “maybe.” “What do you think about dusty-rose for your maid of honor dress? Is that too springy? February’s so hard because technically it’s still winter, but it’s the South, so it could be ninety degrees that day. ”
Sutton grumbled. “Throw me in a garbage bag. This whole thing is trash anyway.”
“Sutton, stop. Besides, you know I would do that to you just to spite you, so don’t test me.”
“I’m bringing Ryan as a date, I think. I don’t know. We’ve been running on the river together. He’s kind of cute but like so, so goofy.”
“Sounds like a match to me.” I faked a laugh, trying not to get upset. On one hand, I was happy for Sutton. On the other hand, I wished things were simple for me like they were for her.
How nice it would have been to date Dane, figure out he was a jerk on my own, kick his ass to the curb, and free up my heart for the person who would treat it right.
Thinking like that could get me in trouble, though. I had to save the bar. There was no other way around it.
My throat tightened a bit, and I threw the magazine down on the coffee table.
I felt trapped.
“I’ll be there in the morning. I got a super cute dress off that looks like a decorated tree. It has a star on one wrist with tinsel and ornaments up and down the sleeves. When I hold my hands above my head, I’m a goddamn balsam fir. It’s magical.”
“I can’t wait to see.” I could practically see my friend prancing around the bar, throwing her arms up like she was auditioning for America’s Next Top Tree.
The mental image was so ridiculous, I couldn’t help but snort-laugh.
“Thanks for helping out during the trolley stops. It really means a lot to me. I’m glad we’re on better terms. I really don’t know what I’d do without you or your questionable fashion choices. ”
I could hear her grinning on the other end of the line. “My hope is, by New Year’s Eve, we’ll all be exactly where we’re supposed to be.”