“What’s going on, girlfriend?” Sutton started, a soft, somber tone coloring her voice. “I’m your best friend. You can tell me anything, you know that. Ever since Lee’s been back, I feel like there’s some weird wall up between us. I hate it.”?
“Me too. I can feel it myself. I’m sorry, Sutton. I just… I think I need to be with Dane. I think I need to do what I should have done a long time ago.”?
“What’s that?”?
I let out a long exhale. “Just be friends with Lee. Enjoy my life as Dane’s wife, go to tea with Eunice, and keep the bar. And that’s all.”?
Chapter twenty-three
LEE
Sutton came crashing through the back entrance of the bar and into Cole’s old bedroom. Charlie and I had turned it into a temporary green room, but we weren’t quite done, and she struggled as she tripped over boxes and empty kegs. Her face was flushed as she slammed the door and locked it behind her.
“What the heck happened with you and Magnolia?” she asked, throwing her arms up in the air.?
I put my guitar down and stared at her. Did Maggie tell her I had almost run across the room and ripped that sexy, body-hugging outfit off her with my teeth, and we both knew it? That I had her pinned against the wall and was two seconds away from lifting her leg and wrapping it around my waist before I…
I decided to do what I did best. Play dumb.?
“Nothing, Sutton.” I shrugged innocently but noticed the crazed look in my friend’s eyes. “Seriously. Why?”?
“She’s up there talking about moving in with Dane. And this girl, she’s my best friend, but she’s so bull-headed sometimes there’s no telling her left from right when she has her wires crossed. She can’t move in with Dane. I’m telling you, Lee. She can’t.”?
Tears formed in the corners of Sutton’s eyes, and she sank down onto the couch, nervously rubbing her palms on her legs. It was only when I looked at her hard that I realized she was in just a pair of jeans and a bra.
“Where’s your shirt?”?
“Oh shit, I left it upstairs. I was so shocked… Lee, Magnolia cannotdo this. I know I’ve been playing the part of the dutiful best friend and reminding her that, you know, she has a boyfriend, and it doesn’t matter that her ex is back in town, and we all know she wants to jump his bones every time they’re in thesame room. I’ve done my job, but I think I’ve done it a littletoowell. And I had to, because, you know, your dad can be awfully scary sometimes…”?
Something was wrong, and I had to bypass what she just said and the stirring in my jeans at the mention of Maggie and my bones.?“Tell me what happened. Now, Sutton.”?
She hopped up off the couch and crossed the room, grabbing the bottle of bourbon from the small bar, wiping the tears off her face as she swallowed the warm, honey-colored liquid.?“Dane… tried something. Once. One time,” she hiccuped and came back over to the couch, handing me the bottle and resting her head on my shoulder. “We were at a wine tasting at Jordan and Doyle’s, and, well, Magnolia got super drunk, and Charlie brought her home. Dane, the gentleman, suggested he should walk me back to my place, so I didn’t have to walk home alone.”?She took a break to sniffle back some tears. “He asked if he could come upstairs to go to the bathroom, and I didn’t think anything of it, of course. We got to chatting and poured a drink. He was asking about Magnolia, and, I don’t know, the next thing I knew, he was trying to shove his hand up my shirt and kiss me.”?
I could feel the heat rising in my chest, my hands almost trembling with the rush of anger. Sutton shifted beside me, turning to face me fully, her eyes searching mine as she took my hands gently in hers. I reached up, brushing away a tear from her cheek with my thumb, and she smiled—a soft, reassuring curve that made the tension in my shoulders ease just a little.
She took a deep, calming breath and continued. “I pushed him off me, and Dane just… freaked out. He was swearing and pacing back and forth, mumbling about how this was going to ruin everything and how he was so stupid. I had to agree with him on that, but then he said your daddy was going to kill him.”?
Pausing for a minute, she looked toward the window, rolling her lips together as if trying to stifle a sob. “An hour after we both decided he should leave and it would be smart of us to tell Magnolia, to tell her the truth, Vance showed up banging on my door.”?
I knew by the way Sutton flinched next to me I had anger graffitied all over my face.?
“Magnolia’s my best friend. I don’t ever want to hurt her. But when your dad and I sat at my kitchen table that night and I told him everything, he didn’t even seem surprised. He didn’t show me any empathy. He just nodded. And… I don’t know. He said some things that didn’t make sense at the time, but I guess now they do. Did you know the Wilder Trust partially owns LaMonte’s? That I could lose my job, or worse, get black balled from the catering community?”?
I took a hard swig of the bottle between us and handed it back to her, burying down the urge not to snap at her. Did she cover this up to protect herself and her job? “My mother would never let that happen, Sutton.”?
Sutton chewed on a piece of skin on her lip, looking off into a corner. “I can’t be involved. I need this job. I need Eunice’s connections. Vance told me not to say anything to anyone, especially Maggie, but I don’t know if I can let her go through with this because…”?
I watched Sutton try to make sense of everything going on, the wheels turning in her head. Trying to save the career that she worked so hard for and her best friend all at the same time. Didn’t make any of this right, though.?
“It’s more than just the Trust, and her getting enveloped into a life we both know—hell, we all know—she doesn’t want,” she sighed.
My patience was thinning. “What, Sutton? Just fucking say it.”?
“I overheard at work that the Wilder Trust wants to sell the property for ten million dollars to an investor from Atlanta. The investor wants to build a high-rise on this property, some mixed-use type of thing. Shopping at the bottom and condos on top. This building takes up an entire city block, and it’s not registered on the national landmark protection. It’s one of the few buildings in the city that has this much space and that’s not protected. And Vance is hell-bent on pushing the deal through, so I’ve heard.”?
She thought about saying more and locked eyes with me for a minute, then exhaled deeply, the weight of it evident.
“If I’m the one that spills all of this, I lose everything. My career, my best friend,everything, Lee. But if I don’t speak up… she’ll lose this place forever.”?
