Magnolia snorted and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. “Sometimes I wonder if you ever really did.”?
The words stung, but she was being honest, and it had been a long time since the veil lifted between us and she could speak freely. The fall when we got together changed our communication style. She was no longer my best friend who could say anything. She’d turned into a girlfriend, for the first time ever, and had begun to choose her words wisely. It was one of the greatest downfalls of our relationship. It was what ended everything.?
I went to open my mouth to tell her that Ididbelong to her when the office door flew open.?
“What are y’all doing back here?” My brother, drunk as a skunk, teetered in the doorframe, casting both of us a suspicious look through slitted, half-open eyes.?
“Talking, clearly. With a desk between us. Not quite sure that warrants the dirty look you’ve got plastered on your face right now.” Maggie’s tone was calm, yet firm, and I knew she was trying to shut down an argument before it began. A situation I was very familiar with.?
“You really couldn’t help yourself, could you?” my brother slurred, shooting daggers at me. He went to take a step forward and tumbled to the side, knocking over some photos Maggie had lined up on a bookshelf.?
“Dane, get out of my office. Now. Get in an ride share, go home, and you can talk to us tomorrow when you’ve slept it off.” Still in her chair, Maggie spun around to face the back wall, effectively turning away from her drunk boyfriend looming in the doorway.?
“It doesn’t surprise me in the least that you’d go slumming the second you had the chance,” Dane spat before slamming the door and stomping off. I heard him crash into a table, and Sutton’s gentle voice as she led him away fromMaggie’s office.?
“Maggie, please tell me you do not allow that man to talk to you like that ever?” She’d swiveled back around and topped off both of our drinks.?
Her eyes were glazed over with a thin film of tears. “Every single one of us has been acting a little out of character since your plane landed in Georgia, Lee Wilder. I know we’re all glad you’re here, believe me, but I think you need to remember that when you left, you left different versions of the people you’ve seen today.”?
“That’s not true. Dane’s still an asshole,” I laughed, but that laughter didn’t reach across the desk whatsoever.?
“I like your brother, Lee. I’ve been having a great time getting to know him on a relationship level. He treats me kindly, he supports me, believes in me, and he gives me the space and freedom to be myself.”?
She said the words, alright, but I knew Magnolia Pruitt better than anyone.?
She didn’t believe a damn word of what came out of her mouth.?
Chapter twelve
MAGNOLIA
Iscooted everyone out of the bar and locked up behind them, closing earlier than I normally would on a Saturday night. But with no patrons aside from my friends, and coming off of one of the longest days I’d had in a long time, I was pretty much toast by midnight.?
I had Lee shoot Ryan a text, so when he woke up in the morning with a raging hangover and no clue where he was, he wouldn’t think he’d been kidnapped and stashed in the back room of a bar. Which, technically, he kind of was, but no need for him to panic about it.
After trudging up the back staircase, washing the day off my face, and slipping into some sweats, I laid on the couch and mindlessly scrolled through my phone while watching some bogus reality show on Netflix.?
Pickle jumped up and curled herself into a ball in the crook of my legs, making mashed potatoes on my calves and purring loudly. I scratched her little calico head. “I missed you, too, my little Pickle Pie. Did you have an exciting day, too?” She yawned and dramatically plunked her head on my legs, letting her little beady, green eyes close—probably drifting off to a dreamland starring Lee Wilder himself.?
I had seventeen text messages from Dane, and none of them were kind. Most of them accused me of cheating on him with his brother, and one went so far as to call me a washed up bartender who was using him to further my status in Savannah society.?
I might have been washed up, but being a part of the Savannah elite was never on my radar. It was on everyone else’sbutmine.
The last text message, before he passed out I had to guess, was a garbled hodgepodge of letters and numbers, but peppered in there was an ultimatum. Itook a screenshot of the messages and sent them to Sutton.
SUTTON: So, he called you trash, accused you of cheating on him with his brother, and then said if you don’t move in with him, he’s breaking up with you? Am I deciphering this right?
MAGNOLIA: All translations of these drunken hieroglyphics seem to point to that conclusion, correct.?
SUTTON: He was shit-faced. I know that’s not an excuse, but his behavior when he’s drinking has been really off the wall lately.
MAGNOLIA: Right. I’m off to watch shitty reality TV and forget about this day. Love you.?
SUTTON: Love you more.?
***
I was ripped from a deep sleep by the sound of my phone ringing obnoxiously, and a loud banging coming from downstairs in the bar.?
