Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
One year later…
Mae pushed back from her chair, the laptop finally logging her off five minutes after she asked it to.
She loved working in her parents’ shop. Honestly, the peaceful pace of everything kept life feeling magical, but the slow technology was going to be the death of her.
Gage would never have made her work on a laptop that was nearly as old as she was.
Shit. She hadn’t meant to think of the team.
Of course, Mae kept in touch with Sloane, Lily, Emma, and Lacy.
There was never a single moment that she thought her friends would let her leave Silver Springs without the promise of keeping in touch.
She’d even been chatting here and there with Jessie.
Nothing like surviving a kidnapping together to make you lifelong friends!
And, of course, she still talked to Hawk.
Her dumb ass brother hadn’t stopped trying to get her to move back to Texas.
But Stone… he respected her decision. She hadn’t reached out to him, and he hadn’t reached out to her.
As much as she tried not to think about it, she missed him with every fiber of her being.
And it was becoming harder and harder to ignore.
Mae’s stomach growled as she stacked a handful of new books she’d bought on the shelves.
Their store was quaint. Small town and laid back vibes to the max.
But Mae knew if they wanted to keep the doors open, they needed to offer something else.
And so, for the last year, she’d set to work converting one tiny corner of the store into the smuttiest, raunchiest, filthiest romance book-nook the state of Louisiana had ever seen. And it was a thing of beauty.
It had helped her make so many new friends, connected her with so many incredible women, and put a bandage over the hole in her heart that was there from missing her friends back in Silver Springs.
“Knock knock!” Oh, thank God! Mae’s stomach growled again, even more angry than before.
“Paisley, my lifesaver! How is it possible that you pop up every day with a little treat right when I need it most? I completely forgot to eat and my stomach was about to cave in on itself.” Mae laughed as she took the paper bag and iced coffee from her friend before Paisley could even sit down in the chair beside the bookshelf.
“Oh, honey. I wish it was me, but honestly, if you weren’t sending in that mobile order every day, I would absolutely forget.”
Mae’s heart rolled as she bit down into the powdered doughnut. “Sorry,” she mumbled, crumbs and powdered sugar flying out of her mouth at an alarming rate. “I haven’t ever done a mobile order from your shop. I thought you were just bringing me treats when you came in.”
“Hm. Maybe it’s from your parents?”
“Yeah, maybe.” There was no way in hell her parents knew what a mobile order was, let alone how to use their cell phone to make one happen. A spark of hope lit in the back of her mind. “I’ll have to ask them later.”
“So, when are you leaving?” Paisley asked, grabbing a book out of the box and turning to stack it on the shelf for Mae.
“You know, I’m not going to pay you for stocking my shelves.” Mae laughed.
“What’s that saying about idle hands?”
“I don’t know, but if you want to learn new things to do with your fingers, you shouldn’t put that book on the shelf, you should bring it up to the register and let me wrap it up for you to take home.”
The women dissolved into a fit of laughter.
“You didn’t answer me,” Paisley said, rubbing her side when the laughter subsided.
“Next week.” Mae sighed.
“And what is it you're going back for? A wedding and a baby shower?”
“Vow renewal, and a baby shower.”
“Lucky couple.” A smile warmed Paisley’s face.
“Two different ones, actually.”
“But all in the same friend group, right? The one your ex is still a part of.”
God, she didn’t regret drinking often, because she knew how to have enough to let loose and still be in control, but one two many glasses of wine with Paisley down on her family’s dock one night at sunset had Mae spilling every damn thing she’d meant to keep bottled up forever.
“Yeah. Those are the ones.”
“Are you going to be okay going back?”
There was genuine concern in her friend’s voice, and Mae was grateful for that. To know she’d gained a true friend in a time when she’d felt so broken was a gift.
“I think I will be. I mean, I won’t know until I see him.”
The door chimed and Mae groaned. Everyone in town knew the shop closed at three. Was it insanely early? Yes. Did Mae look forward to locking the door and going upstairs to her tiny apartment every day after she shooed off the last customers or Paisley if she came in with some treats? Of course.
But then again, she’d been so distracted by her friend, she hadn’t locked the door. Damn smutty books and Paisley with her delicious doughnuts.
“I forgot about locking the damn door,” she groaned as Paisley waved her off, returning to stacking with a smile on her face.
“Sorry,” Mae called out, her back still turned to the front door. “We’re closed.”
“Nah. It’s only two fifty-five. Mom and Dad would be pissed to know you’re trying to kick a customer out five minutes early.”
Hawk. Mae whipped around, her eyes landing on her brother for the first time in almost twelve months. It took every ounce of restraint she had in her body to not look around him for who she hoped might be there, too.
“What are you doing here?” She smiled as she walked into the entry and wrapped him in a big hug.
“I was in the neighborhood,” he laughed as his arms tightened around her.
“Bullshit. And you’re not a paying customer, so don’t even try to run and tattle to Mom and Dad.”
Hawk rolled his eyes. “I’ll just store it away for ammunition later.”
“Typical.” Mae walked back around the counter, opening the cash drawer to start her closing routine. “Flip that sign to close and lock the door, would ya?”
Hawk nodded, taking his sweet time looking through the shop after he locked the door.
Up and down the aisles, Mae tracked her brother while she wrote down the cash box final number in the daily report she’d send off to her parents.
They had become surprisingly hands off in the months since she’d taken on the shop, which was a blessing because her dad would have an absolute coronary if he saw her book orders…
Paisley came scurrying up to the register, her eyes as wide as saucers.
“I take it you met my brother?” Mae chuckled.
“Oh, god. Do NOT tell him who I am. He’s so handsome! I’m a doughy mess.”
“Ew. Please don’t ever talk about his looks again. All I see is a doofus when I look at him, and I can’t for the life of me understand what anyone else sees as attractive.”
And part of her was holding out hope for some news of something going on between her brother and Jessie. After everything she and Jessie went through together, after seeing the way Jessie looked at Hawk when they were found…
“Sis. What the actual fuck is this? Do Mom and Dad know you’re out here peddling erotica?”
Mae couldn’t hold in her laughter. “That book is romance, you idiot. Sex isn’t driving the plot line in that series. You’ve got to look on the top shelf if you want the erotica.”
“Noted.” Hawk tossed the book to Mae and walked back to the bookshelf, whistling the entire time.
“I’m out of here,” Paisley hissed. “But I’ll see you tomorrow… text me if Hawk’s staying in town for a while.”
“Would. You. Get. Out. Of. Here.” Mae smiled as she swatted at her friend.
Paisley’s words played over and over in her head. How long was her brother planning on staying? And why had he decided to take such an impromptu trip home?
She felt the pang of worry growing with every passing minute. Because no way in Hell did she think her brother just randomly showed back up in their hometown. Nope. He was there to execute some sort of scheme… she was sure of it.
“He’s working his ass off to get you back, you know?” Hawk leaned against the corner of the wall, his voice making her jump.
He.
Hawk didn’t even have to say his name, and a million emotions came rushing to the surface. Stone. The love of her life. The man she hadn’t spent a single day in the last year not thinking of. Wondering if he was thinking about her. About what they had. About what could have been…
“I don’t know. We haven’t talked since I left.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“It’s mine.” Mae shrugged. “One-thousand percent. I’m not holding that against him. I’m thankful he’s given me this time… I just—”
“Well, I’m team Stone,” Hawk declared, shocking the hell out of her.
“And I am also team ‘get your ass back to Texas because what the actual fuck are you doing here?’ You’re not going to find what you’re looking for in Grandpa’s old shop.
I mean, who stuck around this damn town that’s our age?
Sean Lovitt? That douche peaked in high school. ”
One nice thing about a small town… she knew all the gossip.
But hadn’t that been the same way in Silver Springs?
Mae missed stopping into Dolly’s, where every slice of pie was served up with a heaping scoop of ice cold, refreshing, and oftentimes very salacious, gossip.
“He’s also married to Stephanie Davis now. They have three kids together.”
Hawk rolled his eyes. “Exactly. You belong in Texas. With Stone.”
Mae laughed. “Why the hell did he and I ever think we needed to sneak around behind your back? You’ve become the biggest cheerleader for our relationship… one that doesn’t even exist right now.”
“Rah, Rah…” Hawk lifted his hands up and shook them around.
“Very funny.”
“You know… if you’re really done with Stone, I like the Ford brothers. But god, I’d hate for you to break one of their hearts and then I’m stuck without pie because Dolly bans our family from the diner.”
Mae laughed. “You really think that I’m the one in this family we need to worry over getting us all banned from Dolly’s? I feel like if you were that worried about it, you wouldn’t have stuck your—”
“It was one time, Mae. One. Things just boiled over between the two of us. It’s been a year. She’s moved on.”
“And have you?”
Hawk groaned. “We’re not here to talk about me. I’m here to bring you back. Whether it’s for you to reconcile with Stone or not. We have to go.”
“You know I’m flying into Dallas next week. The wedding—”
“Exactly. The vow renewal. You think you get to get out of the bachelorette party? Lily specifically told me she needs her maid of honor with her this week. I can’t go back there without you. Gunner will beat my ass. And then Lily will. I’m not sure who I’m more afraid of.”
Mae laughed. “Gia is already there. I’m in the group chat and taking my co-maid of honor duties very seriously. I can’t leave on a dime. What are Mom and Dad going to do? What is my ballet class going to do?”
She’d started teaching dance again. The second month she was back in Louisiana, Miss Evangeline had a catastrophic ankle accident on the sidewalk outside of the dance studio.
She’d been rehabbing it since, but the news went out that a new teacher was needed…
and Mae stepped up. She taught kiddos from two all the way to eighteen, and it was incredible.
Hawk didn’t need to know that the Autumn Showcase had happened the week before.
Let him sweat for thinking she didn’t have a life anymore.
“I already stopped by the house. They told me to take you, even if I had to throw you over my shoulder to do it. And I know the recital was last week.”
“Those traitors! I’ve been a better kid to them this past year than you have been your whole life.”
“And yet… I’m still the favorite.”
“You absolutely are not.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
“We don’t have time to fight about this. Let’s go.”
Mae folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not packed.”
“Good thing the pilot of our plane is sitting out in my truck, probably staring all gooey eyed at that pregnancy tacking app he has. Do you know how many times I had to hear about the progression of garden vegetables that kid has been the size of on the flight over here. You’re sitting up in the cockpit with him on the way back. I can’t handle it.”
Nash was there. Mae closed her fist and punched Hawk in the arm. “Do not make fun of Nash for supporting his wife. They’re so excited for that baby, you should be too, Uncle Hawk.”
“Yeah, well, I’d be more excited if Auntie Mae would get her ass in gear so we could get back to Silver Springs in a timely manner. I know Lacy is still a few weeks out from her due date, but he’ll kill us both if he misses anything.”
“Shit. Fine. Let me run upstairs. I need twenty minutes.”
“Don’t hate me—” Hawk said as they walked up to their apartment door.
“I already do.”
“Funny. Look, you have fifteen minutes to change and then we have to go down to Gage and Sloane’s apartment.”
“What? Why? I’m tired and I’ve missed the soaking tub in my bathroom more than anything else!”
“I’ll be sure to tell our friends they rank below a cast iron monstrosity.”
“The girls would back me on that ranking.”
“Even so… they’re throwing a little impromptu party to celebrate Lily and Gunner…” The sheepish way he said it set Mae’s nerves on edge.
“An impromptu party to celebrate them the night I just happened to come back into town?”
“It was Sloane and Lily’s idea. I don’t know what to tell you. I just follow orders. But it might be nice to say hi to the girls. I mean, I’m sure you were planning on seeing them all anyway.”
“Yeah. I was.” She sighed, grabbing her bag from Hawk’s hand. “It’s fine. I’ll go. Now please, unlock this door and let me in so I can pee. I’ve been holding it since we left Louisiana!”