Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Magnolia
At the risk of sounding like a mushy greeting card, sometimes a person came into your life and changed everything—including you.
Dotty Jaworski was that person for me.
She’d been my first lesson in gratitude after my father cut me off and kicked me out.
We were the unlikeliest of friends. She was in her sixties, had come from a humble upbringing, been married twice, and was well-known and loved throughout town. I was the opposite in every way. And yet I trusted her like I trusted no one else.
“Whatever you’ve got cooking, it smells delicious, Maggie May,” she said as she entered my apartment bearing a bottle of wine.
I took it from her, and we hugged.
I said, “I hope you like a simple bowl of chili mac and cheese.”
“You know me. I’ll eat whatever you cook.”
“The bravest guinea pig known to mankind.”
“I’m still standing, my dear. I even survived buffalo chicken and pasta night.”
“Stop,” I said, grinning. “I told you that you didn’t have to eat it. You’re the stubborn woman who insisted on trying in spite of the hot sauce bobble.”
“You mean the great hot sauce spillage of the decade?”
“I can’t help it if I didn’t understand the tiny little hole in the lid was intentional.” Frustrated with how slowly the sauce had come out, I’d taken the whole lid off—and managed to spill way too much in the bowl.
“You’ve never made that mistake again,” Dotty said as she sat at the petite round table in my petite kitchen area.
I’d been hosting Dotty for dinner weekly for nearly two years.
I’d first extended an invitation for two reasons—one, I wanted to pay her back for rescuing me the morning after my dad had cut ties, and two, I needed to learn to cook, and having a guest was motivation.
Now it was our ritual, and it was all about our friendship.
I didn’t entertain anyone but Dotty in my tiny studio apartment. It was awkward, what with the bed in one corner and a love seat and two chairs squeezed into a tiny sitting area butting up against the kitchen table.
Dotty, bless her soul, ate everything I made for her without complaint. Except for the buffalo chicken. The dish had ended up so spicy that both of us had eyes and noses running by halfway through the meal as we laughed and laughed.
“Thanks for this,” I said, checking out the wine label. “You don’t know how much I need it tonight.”
“Rough day at the office?”
I opened the wine and poured. “I’m starting to think I made a mistake. I’m not sure about this whole business-owning thing.” My eyes filled as I said it, and I kept my back to her an extra few seconds as I reined in control of my emotions.
“What happened?”
I breathed in deeply and blew it out, picked up one of the glasses, closed the three feet to the table, and offered it to her.
“I’m not getting any younger,” she quipped.
I sat in the other chair. “I lost a client before they could sign.”
“Well, damn. But that’s going to happen sometimes.”
I swallowed, knowing I was going to spill the whole story but trying to gird my loins beforehand. Not because of any reaction Dotty would have, but because it meant digging up the old Magnolia.
“This was for a large wedding in June,” I told her.
“You probably know the groom. Joel Hightower. His fiancée, a sweet girl from Birmingham, met with me last week, and it went really well. They have money to spend and wanted me to help. Or she did. Then Joel found out, and he basically said over his dead body.”
“I’d say we need to off him, but then there wouldn’t be a wedding at all.”
That made me grin in spite of my angsty mood. “No use killing off the groom.”
“What was his reasoning?” Dotty asked carefully.
“He didn’t spell it out, but I’m sure it was because he believes I hurt his little sister years ago.
Back in high school, she was dating a particular guy.
They broke up, and I went out with the guy.
Let’s just say we got caught kissing after a football game, and everybody found out.
She accused us of having a thing before they broke up, which was false unless you counted some low-key flirting that he started. ”
“So you were made to look like the jerk in the situation.”
“Yes, ma’am. Honestly, I didn’t know how recent their breakup had been, and I’m not sure it would’ve changed anything if I had, but somehow I was the one who hurt Joel’s sister. Not the guy she’d been dating.”
When you were the girl who didn’t quite fit in, it was easy for others to put the blame on you.
“That’s been how many years?” she asked.
I thought back. “I was a senior, so like seventeen?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, my dear. The more events you put on, the more people in this town will see who you are today. They’ll forget all about their petty ideas from the past.”
I shot her a skeptical look. “This small town has a long memory.”
“Perhaps, and there will always be those who flake. That’s a them issue, not a you issue.”
I nodded, knowing she was right but also finding it hard to let it roll off, particularly in light of…
“I didn’t tell you about yesterday.” I hopped up, unsettled just thinking about the meeting at Luke’s barn and also realizing I needed to check dinner.
“What happened yesterday? Does it have anything to do with Presley and West getting engaged?”
“They’re hiring me as their planner,” I said.
“Naturally. They’d be stupid not to.”
“They’ve already picked out their venue.”
“That was fast.”
“Luke Durham is renovating his barn to host events like weddings and parties.”
“That big, pretty, red barn?”
“That’s the one.”
She sat back in her chair, watching me. “You and Luke aren’t buddies.”
I laughed at that innocent understatement. “Luke hates me with a passion.”
“Does Luke even really know you?”
My brows shot up as I pondered the irony of that question.
There was a time when I’d thought he knew me better than anyone.
That wasn’t saying much, really, because to this day, I wouldn’t say many really knew me.
According to Dotty and Jolene, my therapist, I didn’t make it easy for people to know me because I didn’t like being vulnerable.
I couldn’t argue with that. I absolutely had trust issues, but I was trying to learn how to open up so I could make meaningful connections.
I took the pan off the burner, determining the chili mac was done, then added grated cheese as I considered how much of my Luke history to share with Dotty.
I’d never told a soul about it, with the exception of Jolene, and she didn’t really count.
I’d intentionally chosen a therapist in Nashville to ensure she wouldn’t be familiar with any of the people involved.
Being in the same room with Luke, talking to him, finding myself in the position where I had to work with him… I was aching to spill it. It felt like a weight I carried around, a part of my past that I couldn’t let go of as long as I kept it secret.
It was just like Dotty to sit there quietly, patiently, letting me wade through my thoughts.
I emptied the pan into a serving bowl, grabbed two smaller bowls and forks, and carried them all to the table.
“When I was in high school, Luke’s mom cleaned our house every week,” I said once I’d sat and we’d both filled our bowls.
“Spring of our junior year, Luke started picking her up each week when she was done. One of those nights, I found him in his car in the driveway, waiting for his mom, who wasn’t quite finished working.
We started talking, just the two of us out in the driveway in the dark. ”
I shoveled a bite into my mouth, allowing myself to remember in a way I hadn’t for years.
My curiosity upon seeing him idling there in the partial glow of our security light, watching me with unhidden interest. His slow, handsome, unsure smile as I walked closer.
The way my name rolled off his lips when he said, Hey, Magnolia.
“I’d known Luke since grade school, but I didn’t really know him. Just that he was on the football team, he lived on a farm, and his family wasn’t well-off. The two-dimensional ideas you have about most of the kids in your grade, you know?”
Dotty nodded, her mouth full of food, her expression telling me she was engrossed in my story.
“Talking to him had felt exciting and a little forbidden that first night. If anyone from school had seen us, they would’ve thought what an odd pairing.
The rich girl and the farm boy. But there was nobody around.
We could let our guard down and maybe be ourselves a little more easily.
We just…talked. For maybe thirty minutes, until his mom came out. ”
“Ahhh,” Dotty said, as if everything was falling into place in her head. But there was more.
“It sort of became a thing,” I continued.
“Every Wednesday night, Luke would show up a little earlier. I’d watch for him and sneak outside.
There was a part of our driveway that couldn’t be seen from the house, not that my parents were looking.
They were too wrapped up in their own drama to worry about what I had going on. ”
Dotty watched me intently as she ate. I took a bite, giving myself time to remember.
“He wasn’t like the other guys who just wanted, well, you know what high school boys want,” I said.
“He seemed to see me as a real person, not a conquest and not just a spoiled rich girl. Anyway, we had a secret thing going for a few months. He was there for me when my mom took off. I listened to him as he debated whether to apply to colleges or dedicate himself to the farm. Our conversations were real, you know?”
“Indeed,” she said. “But something must have happened to make it end badly?”