My man.
I sat and stuffed a chunk of croissant in my mouth. Rich and savory, and that was just the croissant. I hadn’t made these in a while.
The others found seats. One for each of us. Teller had made sure of it.
I’d been planning my future in regard to how I’d take care of myself. What about my personal life? I’d given it no thought. I was divorced and I was single. But then Teller had called me his girlfriend and it’d turned my insides warm and gooey. Still, I hadn’t pondered us as a long-term thing. I’d been so focused on opening Flatlanders.
Now that hurdle was almost crossed. Almost. What would life after that look like?
“Penny for your thoughts,” Wynter said softly.
I finished my mouthful. “Thinking about what happens when Flatlanders is open. I never thought I’d get here.”
“You were worried?” Summer asked. “I mean, I know you had the brick incident. But before that?”
I’d been worried for an eternity. “I had no idea what I was doing orhowI was going to do it.”
Junie lifted her flute in the air. “Here’s to buying our brother as a good business decision.”
“Hear, hear,” everyone else said.
“It was embarrassing,” I muttered.
“No.” Wynter’s white-blond hair flew when she shook her head. “It was a delight. Let me tell you, watching him squirm all week before the auction was fun, but then the bidding war? Oh my god. Tate said Teller wanted you to win so bad.”
“So bad,” Summer echoed. “Now it’s been fun to watch him rush away from the distillery to you.”
“Rush to you,” Junie sang, then she pulled a face. “Sorry. All this time off has made my muse go wild.” She waved a hand. “Enough about me. How are you doing? Really?” She poked her fork in the air. “If you’re not okay with sharing, then I can keep talking about me and the girls’ riding lessons.”
I had never had anyone to talk to about my parents before. I’d tried to talk to Damien, but he’d told me to cut them off if I was so unhappy. “I guess it’s my fault for continuing to care about Mom when she never seemed to care about me.”
Summer’s eyes went wide. “Madison, no. It’s never your fault for caring about someone.”
Ruby shook her head. “Listen, my dad can be... a lot. But even if he didn’t try to change himself and I had to cut him off for how he was to Tenor when they were younger, I wouldn’t quit caring. And if he had a medical emergency, I’d probably be there.”
But her dad had changed. He had tried for her. “It wasn’t just medical emergencies. I kept checking on her and she resented me for it. I should’ve walked away a long time ago.”
“Walked away to who?” Wynter said gently. “Would I be wrong to guess that your ex probably wasn’t a sympathetic ear for you?”
“You mean the man who ran off with my brother’s wife?” My mimosa could use more bourbon. It’d need a different name with the amount I wanted to add right now. “My ex didn’t understand. Scott got some of it, and I could at least talk to him.”
“People are complicated,” Autumn said. “And families even more so. Gideon did cut off his dad, and while it was the right decision for him at the time, he regrets it.”
I didn’t know Gideon or his dad well, but I’d seen them around town, chatting and laughing. Hank James didn’t strike me as a mean or menacing man, but I’d seen him coming out of the church that held Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Gideon’s father and Ruby’s dad had each worked on themselves, and their loved ones had likely been a big reason. “Mom never changed from when I was little to now.” If anything, she was more callous.
“That has to be hard,” Scarlett said. “Autumn and I see dysfunction all the time at the school, but we never fault the kids for loving their moms and dads.”
I wasn’t a kid anymore. “I don’t know if I ever loved Mom.” The OJ churned in my stomach and boiled upward. Again, I felt like I should be wearing aBad Daughterlabel across the front of my shirt. “I felt responsible for her, and I wanted to care for her in a way she’d never cared for me.”
“Just saying that means you’re not like her,” Junie said. “We’ve always seen it.”
“You don’t know me.” Curiosity filled my response. How could they? I’d made it impossible for anyone to get close. They were the ones who’d hurt me the most.
Summer tapped her chin. “Remember that one school assembly when you told the old sheriff that if he had to actually obey the law, he’d despise his job?”
I flashed into that moment like it’d happened this morning. “I was minding my own business when he came to give the ‘say no to drugs’ spiel, and then he singled me out about my dad.”
