Autumn Night Whiskey (Tequila Rose 2) - Page 50
“I wouldn’t do anything to keep them from you.”
“You say that, but …” Again, I don’t trust him.
“I don’t think Magnolia would like it if I did.” He says the statement without judgment and I peer at him as he stands up, brushing the dirt from his pants.
“I’m not perfect, and she’s not mine the way she is yours. But I’m not going to let you come in and erase me.” As I stand, I check my phone and find it dead. Dammit. Nothing can go right this week.
“I don’t intend to. I’m asking you, though, for Magnolia’s sake, I need you to give her time.”
“For Magnolia’s sake,” I echo his words and sneer.
“I mean it. And I think you know she needs it.”
Staring at this man from his work boots, up his jeans to the dark gray Henley, I look him right in the eye. As I’m about to question him on what he could possibly know about what Magnolia needs, he says, “It’s not a fight. It’s not a game of tug-of-war. You’re her friend, and I want to be her husband. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that. Don’t make it something it’s not.”
Brody
Robert is wrecked.
I feel bad for him. He seems like a good guy. That makes sense, since Magnolia loved him.
I have to remind myself that it’s in the past. Past tense. Loved.
Although the messages Renee sent Griffin are less than ideal.
She’s wrecked too.
I knew Bridget was mine. Getting that email and then a text from Magnolia only confirmed what I already knew was true. She’s my baby girl and I’ve missed so much. How I wound up here rather than at Magnolia’s is simple.
Renee told Griffin I needed to give Magnolia time. Because of Robert. It’s far easier to confront him than it is to wrap my head around the fact that I have a little girl in my life forever now. It would be damn easier, though, if it’d gone like I expected it to. Which is not at all like this.
“You need a ride home?” I offer him as he chucks the bottle into a trash bin on the sidewalk by the shore. His back is to me, but he stops. He’s not holding his liquor well and judging by the direction he was heading, it wasn’t to the parking lot.
“Can I just use your phone?” he asks me and braces himself on the wood of the pier. “I’ll call my friend for a ride.”
“I can drive you,” I say and he shakes his head. “You really want to walk home like that?” I gesture to his tie that’s undone. “Your face is red, especially your …” I take a deep breath, debating on whether or not I should point it out. His eyes are red rimmed. If he makes a right at the end of the block where other people are, they’re going to know he was crying at the very least. There’s nothing worse than a grown man crying … other than one who’s also drunk before 2:00 p.m.
“I need to learn the layout anyway,” I comment and pull out my keys, letting them jingle in my hand.
“You really aren’t going to let me use your phone?”
“No. Tell me where to take you. I insist.” Robert stares at me as he undoes the rest of his tie and pulls it off entirely. “Let me do something nice, for fuck’s sake.”
“If you just take me up a few blocks,” he says, relenting slightly.
I didn’t anticipate it going down like this. In my mind, he’d punch me, he’d threaten me. I thought he’d tell me that the moment I screwed up, he’d be there for her.
Instead, all I see is a man afraid to lose the people he loves.
Which is exactly what Renee told Griffin. Magnolia loves Robert, but it’s as a friend.
It’s hard to swallow, but it’s not like either of us is going anywhere any time soon.
The chill in the air is worse now than it was when I got here an hour ago. I spent a good twenty minutes just watching Robert.
I glance at him as he closes the passenger door, the somber expression still present. “You said a couple blocks up?” I ask as I slip the key into the ignition and turn the engine over. The sight in front of me is beautiful, the sunset over the water by the dock.
Something stirs inside of me, imagining Magnolia and I walking down the pier, each holding Bridget’s hand and swinging her as we make our way to the water. It feels like home. Like it was supposed to be.
“Yeah, to, uh, I think you met Asher?”
My brow pinches as I try to remember. “Yeah.”
“If you could take me to his shop, that’s far enough.”
A number of questions hit me and they must be written on my face, because he explains, leaning his head back against the headrest, “I just want to crash there is all.”
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