Instead, someone else had my heart, and they wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
“This place issoInstagramable,” she said, handing me her phone with the camera app open. “Here, get a shot of me by the front sign.”?
I obliged, handing the phone back over to her after shooting several angles. She thanked me by placing a kiss on my cheek. “I really like Savannah, Lee, but I heard something a little funny last night… Are you buying Magnolia’s bar?”?
My head snapped up. “Who told you that?”?
“Overheard it from one of your friends. I’m just kinda tired of the secrets, Leland. I know we’re together under false pretenses, but I thought we had something, a friendship at the very least. I thought you could tell me things.”?She didn’t look up when she said it. Instead, she scrolled through her phone, chewing her bottom lip contemplatively—probably thinking up the perfect hashtags and filters for her photo.?
“My writing career is so important to me, Janelle. I’ve always been a better writer here in Savannah than I ever was in Nash. And Maggie’s my oldest and dearest friend. I want to help her out. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It’s just all really, really complicated.”?
She shrugged, still not looking up from her phone. “I mean, like, that’s fine, but I’m your girlfriend for all intents and purposes. And if our story continues, I’m moving here, too. I think moving in together would be really good content and would shake up the algorithm, don’t you think?”?
I rolled my eyes, and thankfully, because she was so self-involved, she didn’t see it.?
“You can move here, but we’re not moving in together, at least not yet. It’s only been a few months.”?
“Weird, your brother and Magnolia are moving in together, and they’ve been dating just about the same amount of time as we have. You don’t seem to have any issues with that, do you?” The hostess called my name, and we moved toward the inside of Clary’s. As usual, the place was packed. “Whatever, I’m emailing my manager to talk about apartments. Anyway, Magnolia might need, or I guess, y’all might need a social media manager.”?
I cringed, thinking about Magnolia and Dane living together, sharing a bed, sharing moments like we almost did last night.?
She shoved her phone back into her Birkan. “I think this will be good forallof us.”?
After a breakfast spent mindlessly scrolling through social media, I dropped Janelle at her hotel and headed down to the river, hoping to clear my head. I popped in my headphones, queued up a playlist of rising country artists, and pulled out my notebook, jotting down a few scattered thoughts and lyrics.?
Since coming home, I’d felt a spark of inspiration I hadn’t in years. Maybeit was being near my friends or being back where I first started writing music, but I knew being close to my muse had everything to do with it. A gorgeous, funny redhead who’d always kept me on my toes—how could she not inspire me?
I scribbled down a few verses, my eyes wandering over the crowds gathering for Sunday morning pop-up booths along the river. Tourists shuffled around with to-go cups of booze, day drinking their way through Savannah’s charm, trying to squeeze out the last bits of their weekend.
That was when I saw her—perched on a picnic bench, staring out at the river. After everything that went down last night, of course she’d be here, lost in thought.
I debated walking over, sitting down next to her, being the one she could lean on, listen to whatever was swirling through her mind. But before I could decide, she must’ve felt my eyes on
her. She turned, shook her head like she couldn’t believe I was there, and then hopped off the bench, heading straight toward me.
“Hey, stranger,” she drawled. She looked incredible, and not at all like she had probably been up until the wee hours of the morning putting the bar back together and calculating her earnings over and over, calling it a win.?
Which I knew, for the first time in a long time, it was.?
She handed me her cup, and I took a swig. Her signature coffee with a little bit of Bailey’s mixed in.?“Thanks again for doing the gig last night. It was such a hit. And, you know, for everything else. I’m sorry you left so abruptly before I could really tell you that.”?
The moment she got close, the scent of stale beer and the bar hit me. She hadn’t slept. I took a long look at her face—last night’s makeup still smudged around her eyes and the exhaustion written in every line.
“It was my pleasure. Hopefully, we can make this something semi-regular, and with all the changes we’re planning on, make you some money.”?
“Mmhmm. That sounds nice.” She kept her eyes on the river, and I handed her back her cup, watching her take a generous sip.
“She didn’t know you were moving here,” she said after we sat in a quiet stillness for a few moments. “In fact, she looked downright shocked.”
“We talked a bit about it today. She’s going to move here, too.”
She looked at me, her eyes searching mine. “I know you, Lee Wilder.I know you don’t want this slow, unmoving life again. You can’t just walk away from your dreams.”
I took a deep breath, my gaze drifting for a moment. “Sometimes dreams can change when you figure out what it is that you really want. Sometimes it’s not the things you thought you wanted, but the things you already had.”
She let out a soft laugh, but there was a hint of tension behind it as she handed me back her drink. Her forehead crinkled slightly, worry flickering across her face. “Did you mean what you said last night? About us?”?
I looked down at my feet resting on the bench. I meant what I said, and so much more. But I had to know where her heart was. I felt it last night, how she wanted me—just like I still wanted her. Like I always would. “Did you mean what you said about moving in with my brother? And marrying him?”?
