“Don’t mention it.” We pumped our legs together in unison, letting the chair swing back and forth, our eyes having a conversation we were both too anxious to have ourselves.?
“Let me walk you home,” he finally said, breaking the silence but notour eye contact. “You have someone up in that apartment of yours I am just dying to see.”?
When we got to my place, Pickle greeted Lee with a full symphony of howls, screeches, and hisses, showing him more affection in twenty minutes than she’d ever shown anyone before. Then, she plopped down by the window for a nap, clearly exhausted from her marathon of love.
“Look at her all cuddled up cozy. She’s still the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.” He was trying to make me believe he was talking about the cat, but he was staring straight at me.?
I had kept a good distance between us in the kitchen. When we had climbed up the back staircase up to my apartment, the air felt charged, buzzing with the echoes of old memories. I could almost feel the ghosts of our younger selves, sneaking up those stairs together, whispering secrets in the dark, cool hallway, trying not to wake up Charlie or Uncle Cole or hint at what we were planning to do behind my bedroom door.
“This place hasn’t changed a bit.” Keeping his eyes trained on me, he took a sip of the tall, cold Jack and Coke I had poured for him. It pained me how much I liked to see him smiling at my kitchen table, eyes locked on mine and talking to me so effortlessly.?
A small smile escaped my lips. “I’d like to paint it someday and brighten it up. The walls are all yellow from folks smoking in the bar—it comes up through the vents. Everything needs to be replaced, but since you and Charlie are best friends forever still, I’m sure you’ve heard the bar is in the red.”
He nodded knowingly, taking another sip. His mind was racing, I could tell.?
“How long will you be in town?” I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to ask. But I had to.?
“Few days, maybe a week. I don’t have much worth running back to Nashville for, at least. Charlie and I are making some plans, and I think Momma wants me to sing for her bridge club. Better than any gig I’m getting back there.” He sounded sad and defeated, like he was giving up on something. I wanted to cross the room and pull him into my arms, kiss his forehead, and let his blond wisps tickle the top of my nose.?
I let out an annoyed sigh instead.?
“You are clearly done with me, so I should go. Thanks for the drink. And the reunion with my two favorite girls.”?
I rolled my eyes. “Leland Wilder, don’t you dare start putting on the charm. I’ve had enough Wilder man drama today to last me a damn lifetime.”?
“You have no idea how much I regret that we’re standing so far apart in this kitchen. That you had a day like today that would lead you to say something like that. Every single move you and I have made these past few years has led us to this moment, and it’s nothing like I thought it would be.” He crossed the room in three quick steps and grabbed both of my hands in his, lacing our fingers together. I hadn’t felt an electric charge like that in a long, long time, and my body reacted the way it always did when Lee Wilder touched me. “Standing here with you, feeling this distance between us, it just feels… sad. Like everything’s left unfinished and there’s a million things still hanging in the air.”
My heart was pounding in my chest. I was staring at his lips knowing, remembering, how sweet and salty they tasted. How soft they felt. How they fit mine so, so perfectly. Unlike anyone else.?
An image of his brother popped into my head. One of my best friends. My fiancé, if things had gone his way this afternoon. I broke our linked hands and turned away from Lee’s sad, knowing eyes. “I’m sure I’ll see you around sometime, Lee.”?
“I sure hope so, Maggie. I really do.”
Chapter eleven
LEE
Ileft Maggie’s and took a walk down by the river, not ready to go back to the hotel. Not ready to face whatever I was avoiding. Ryan, who’d given my mother’s party the slip in favor of a historical trolley ride through the city, texted to say he was stopping by a bar before heading back. Typical.
I paused at one of the old picnic benches by the water, the kind Maggie and I would hang out on as kids, and sank into it like it could somehow offer me answers. The sun had just dipped below the horizon, casting the city in shadows that stretched long over the river. I stared out at the dark water, watching as the city flicked on its lights, like Savannah was starting to wake up as the night crept in.
My phone buzzed again, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Hey, baby,” Janelle’s voice was smooth, cool, but there was something else underneath it. Something familiar I wasn’t sure I was ready to deal with. “How was your momma’s party? I was waiting to hear from you.”
I let the words hang there, like a reminder of everything I was trying not to think about. There was an ache in my chest, something I couldn’t ignore anymore, even though I was pretty damn good at it.
I pressed the phone to my ear, but all I could hear was the city, the rush of the river, and the whisper of my own thoughts.
Thoughts ofher.
In all the excitement that came with the day, I had forgotten to call Janelle before the party started. Instead, I was creeping around my parents’ house, stalking my ex-girlfriend until I found her in a bathtub, then watching with amusement when my idiot brother tried to pull a fast one on her and she wasn’t having it.?
My whole day had been centered around Magnolia, but that was nothing new when I was on my home turf.?
“I’m sorry, doll. Today just got the best of me, I guess. How’s Nash?”?
Janelle yammered on about her trip to the gym, brunch with the girls, and the four hours she spent shooting some outfits for an upcoming Instagram promotion. The more she talked, the more my mind drifted back to Maggie.?
