“Oh, really?” More sarcasm. “So you didn’t go down to The Mystic Magnolia today and tell my grandfather, Tommy Flynn, that you were now the owner of the place and he was through?”
“It wasn’t quite like that…”
“Do you realize he’s poured his entire life into that place? How he has literally put every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears he has into making it a success?” she demanded loudly.
“Scarlett, it’s not…”
“What do you think he’s going to be able to do now? He’s sixty-five years old, Mason! It’s not like he can just go out and get another job!”
“I realize that,” he began nervously. “But it isn’t as if…”
“And you brought your lawyer with you like…like a bully! You embarrassed him in front of his customers and his family! I mean, what were you thinking?” she yelled, pacing his living room, her whole body trembling at this point. “Do you have any idea how mortified he was that his grandsons had to witness that?”
He let out a long breath and scrubbed a hand over his face before looking at her again. “Scarlett, let me just say…”
“No,” she interrupted, adamant that she was not going to let him talk his way out of this. “I thought you were a good guy, Mason. A decent guy. I didn’t think you would be cruel. My poor grandfather has nothing now and it’s all because of you.” Leaning down, she picked up her purse. “And I can’t forgive you for that.”
“If you would just…”
“No!” she repeated. “There’s nothing you can say.” She huffed with annoyance as she turned to walk away. But…she had one more thing to say. Turning back to him, she said, “This is why I should have never gotten involved with someone like you. People like you–the rich, the privileged–you get what you want by stepping all over other people. You’re awful. I wish I had just walked away from you the night of the concert. This entire relationship was a mistake.” She saw the anger on his face–the way he was clearly holding in whatever it was that he wanted to say.
With a sense of accomplishment, Scarlett turned and walked to the door. With her hand on the knob, she looked back at him one last time. “We’re through. I never want to see you again.”
What came next had her nearly jumping out of her skin. Mason’s hand slammed against the door the second she turned her back on him. He towered over her and as much as she yanked on the doorknob, it wouldn’t budge.
“Dammit, Mason, let me out!” she cried, still trying to pull the door open.
“You know, you’ve had an awful lot to say here and you haven’t even tried to hear my side of things.” His voice was oddly calm and that’s what made her stop trying to open the door and turn to face him. He was staring down at her, his expression hard, but she wasn’t intimidated.
Nope.
His jaw ticked and she straightened and met his glare. “Fine. Say what you have to say–not that it will matter–and then I can leave.”
“Can you please just sit down?” he asked, but she held her ground. They stood there, close enough to touch in a battle of wills. Mason broke first and took a step away. And then another until he was on the other side of the room.
“Well?” she asked, doing her best to sound bored even though her heart was beating like mad.
“First, I had no idea Tommy Flynn was your grandfather,” he began slowly.
“Right,” she snorted with disbelief. “We’re done here.”
“No!” he yelled, surprising them both with how loud his voice was. Once Scarlett agreed not to leave, he started talking again. “I’m serious, Scarlett. When my great-grandfather died and he left me The Mystic Magnolia, I was pissed. I heard your grandfather’s name but how could I possibly put two and two together? It’s not like you have the same last name!”
Okay, he had a point, but still…
“I kept putting off dealing with the whole thing because my attorney assured me the business was running and all the bills were being paid and there wasn’t any rush for me to make a decision on what I wanted to do.”
“I think your great-grandfather was a thief,” she interrupted. “There’s no reason why my grandfather would have needed a loan. He’s a great businessman. If you ask me, your great-grandfather probably conned my grandfather because he wanted to be part of another successful Magnolia Sound business!”
She felt proud of her little speech, but the look of pity on Mason’s face had a tiny bit of doubt starting to creep into all of her bravado.
“Scarlett,” he said solemnly, “I know that’s what you want to believe, but it’s simply not true. Your grandfather was struggling and he needed help. Pops helped him out and they had an agreement. He was also given a business plan to help him. But in the end…” his words trailed off.
“So…so…” she began nervously, her brain scrambling to make sense of the whole situation. “So your great-grandfather gave him a crappy business plan in hopes of making the business fail so he could get his hands on it!”
“He never used the plan!” he countered. “That’s why the business failed! Maybe if he had listened, things would’ve been different!”
“Or maybe you could just leave him alone and let him keep his bar! What do you even need it for?” And dammit, she wasn’t going to cry. “Don’t you have enough? Your whole family…gah! When is it going to be enough? Do you all need to own the entire town before you’ll be satisfied?”
At that point, Mason sighed and looked down, shaking his head. When his gaze met hers, all she saw was defeat. “There’s nothing I’m going to be able to say, is there?” But he didn’t wait for a response. “You’ve already made up your mind and you’re not even willing to consider that maybe I’m telling the truth. Hell, you won’t even listen to most of what I’m trying to tell you.”
While she knew he had a point, she was too emotional–too overwhelmed–to stay and hear any more.
And he knew it too.
Turning, she reached for the doorknob again and once she pulled the door open, she paused.
“I’m sorry, Scarlett,” he said quietly. “If you want to talk about this–if you change your mind and want to hear me out–I’ll be here.”
As much as it hurt, she looked over her shoulder at him. “I won’t.”
Walking out the door, unshed tears stung her eyes. She held it together until she was home, but once she was through her own front door, she cried like she hadn’t cried in years.
How could she have been so wrong about him? Why didn’t she stick to her guns and walk away from Mason before they ever crossed that line? Now not only was she heartbroken, but she felt like a complete fool. Luckily she never told her family about being involved with him–not that it would have changed anything. People like the Bishops didn’t care about anyone but themselves. Although…maybe if her brothers had known she could have sent them over to Mason’s to kick his ass.
As soon as she thought it, she knew she was wrong. She didn’t want to see him physically hurt.
Much.
And the worst part of this whole thing was…she almost believed him. The little bit of his side of the story she had let him share had her wondering if her grandfather maybe wasn’t being completely honest with her and the rest of the family. He was a proud man who never admitted to having any kind of weakness and there was a very real possibility that if he was struggling with the business, he wouldn’t share it with anyone.
But then why would he share it with Ezekiel Coleman?
Granted, she didn’t know much about the man, but…why him? And now that she was a little calmer, she realized no one would deliberately go after The Mystic Magnolia. It was a hole in the wall bar and had been for years. The location sucked and it was in desperate need of renovations–also for years. Scarlett had always wondered why he didn’t do more to fix up the place, but…maybe he couldn’t. Maybe the money really wasn’t there.
He was also given a business plan to help him. But in the end…
Okay, then there
was that. If someone had been willing to give him not only the money to save his business but also a plan to help him succeed, why was he still in this position? How did it even get to this point?
Her head was pounding and there were more unanswered questions than anything else. Tomorrow she was going to demand a family meeting and get to the bottom of things. It had been a while since they’d all gotten together for a meal and she knew if she was the one to put it out there, everyone would come.
It was the one blessing to being the only female in the family–everyone had a soft spot for her, especially her grandfather.
Of course there was always the possibility of her going and talking to him one-on-one, but she’d go the family meeting route first and see where that got her. For now, however, she was alone with her thoughts and she didn’t want to be.
Curled up on her couch, she let herself cry–for ending a relationship she really wanted, for realizing the man she was falling in love with wasn’t who she thought he was, and for her family. But more than any of it, Scarlett cried because she was so tired of making the wrong decisions and ending up alone.
An hour later, she forced herself to get up. It was still light out and even though the animal shelter was closed, Happy Tails wasn’t and she often heard Christine talking about how hard the evenings were when all the dogs needed to be fed while she and Ed tried to sit down with their kids for dinner.
After quickly washing her face, Scarlett grabbed her purse and keys and walked out to her car. It was a short drive–less than ten minutes–but tonight it felt like it took forever. It wasn’t until she was walking through the gate and surrounded by a pack of excited dogs that she felt herself relax.
“Scarlett!” Christine called out from her kitchen window. “We weren’t expecting you tonight!”
Making her way toward the house, she shrugged. “I had a rough afternoon and thought a little dog therapy might help.”
Christine gave her a sad smile. “Give me a minute, I just need to drain this pasta…”
Scarlett immediately shook her head. “You go and enjoy dinner with your family. Have these guys eaten yet?”
With a chuckle, she said, “Not yet. The day got away from me and I’m still trying to catch up.”
“Then you go have a nice dinner. I’ve got this crew under control.” And with a wave, she led the dogs over to the barn and began filling bowls with food and then turned to do another row of bowls with water. Once everyone was eating, Scarlett walked around and straightened up the doggie toys before grabbing a tote that was filled with tennis balls. Within minutes, she was playing an energetic game of fetch with twelve different dogs.
It was the perfect distraction and she felt lighter than she had all day.
But as the sun started to go down, she led everyone back to the barn and secured the gate so no one would escape before calling out a goodnight to Christine. She didn’t want to engage in any kind of conversation and was relieved when her friend didn’t push for it.
Once she was home, however, Scarlett really wished she had someone to talk to and weighed her options. Courtney would listen to her and undoubtedly tell her she overreacted. She could call one of her brothers. They had all been at the bar today while Mason was there. Although…it was her brother Dean who told her what happened so she didn’t think she’d get anything new out of him and there was the possibility she’d have to share about her conversation with Mason.
And why she even had a conversation with Mason.
“Ugh…why can’t life be simple?” she groaned, going into her kitchen and making herself a salad for dinner. Honestly, she loathed salads just on principle, but she just didn’t have it in her to make anything more.
Maybe Courtney would bring something over…
Tossing the leafy greens in the trash, Scarlett grabbed her phone and sent an S.O.S. text to her friend.
Help! Crappy day alert and need a girls’ night. Bring food.
And wine.
It was something they did for each other and while she had a good idea as to what Courtney’s response was going to be to the whole thing, she still just needed a friend tonight. And there was no one better than Courtney.
I have two bottles and I just called in the pizza to be delivered to your place. I’ll pay you when I get there. Do we need ice cream too?
Laughing, Scarlett studied the message and realized how lucky she was–even if the rest of her life was a mess, she still had the best best friend in the world.
We always need ice cream. My freezer is stocked with it so we’re good. Just drive over and maybe bring your jammies. It’s going to be a long night.
Thirty seconds later her phone dinged with an incoming text.
Hang on, baby girl. I am on my way!!
Feeling relieved, Scarlett put the phone down on the kitchen counter and walked into her room to put on her own jammies–which were basically a pair of boxers and an oversized t-shirt. Barefoot, she padded back into the kitchen and took out a couple of wine glasses, some paper plates, and a handful of napkins, then carried them into the living room. They would set up camp on the couch and take it from there.
And when Courtney walked in the door ten minutes later and hugged her, she let the rest of her tears fall.
Eight
Maybe it was counterproductive, but for the better part of a week Mason spent way more time than he should have researching Tommy Flynn and his business. It didn’t make sense. If he was continually getting behind on the bills and struggling, why not just admit defeat? Why was he putting the blame on Mason rather than accepting responsibility? And why wouldn’t he be honest with his own family?
Although, if he pushed aside his own feelings of anger toward the situation, he could admit that pride probably had a lot to do with this. No man wants to admit to being a failure.
But “failure” really didn’t fit Tommy either. It wasn’t a title Mason would pin on him. After Hurricane Amelia hit Magnolia Sound, there were a lot of businesses that couldn’t recover. There was no shame in it. And even if Mason didn’t personally see any storm damage on the building, he also didn’t see any new construction or repairs either.
Over and over and over he had played back the visit to The Mystic Magnolia and tried to think if he missed anything. Was there something more he should have said? Something more he should have done? Had it been a mistake to go there with Richard? Should he have called and set up an appointment with Flynn rather than just showing up there?
It was enough to give him a damn headache. Hell, he’d had one ever since Scarlett had walked out the door. Even now as he rubbed his head and willed the pain away, he knew it was futile.
It was late on Sunday night and he was sitting alone on his back deck drinking a beer and missing Scarlett. He wanted to pick up the phone and talk to her, but he knew she needed time and, to be honest, so did he. The things she said to him hurt more than they should. Going into this relationship, he knew she was prejudiced toward him and his family, but he thought she’d moved on from it–thought he’d proved to her that she had been wrong about him. Just goes to show he didn’t know her as well as he thought and maybe all of this was for the best. After all, if she thought so little of him, what was the point in trying to move forward with her?
Because you really do care about her…
Oh, yeah. That.
Not that it was doing him a whole hell of a lot of good right now. After a week of looking at business reports and sales reports from The Mystic Magnolia, he was no closer to figuring out where all the money went that his great-grandfather had loaned to Flynn and why the old guy was so hell-bent on holding on to a place that clearly wasn’t making money. Sure there was always the sentimentality of it–he’d built the place and owned it for close to thirty years. But, as a businessman, couldn’t he see it was time to throw in the towel? There was no shame in it, not really. Wouldn’t it be better to walk away and not have to deal with all the stress and aggravation a floundering busi
ness was bound to cause him?
And the other thought that ran through his mind more than it should, why didn’t he just close the business and sell the property? Surely Mason wasn’t the only one to realize that was where the real money was. He was sure that any commercial developer–or a residential one–would love to have property here in Magnolia. It was a thriving beach community. Or…it would be again. Hopefully sooner rather than later. With so many homes and businesses that sustained damage after the storm, it might not seem like a good investment to buy property here just yet, but once everything was back on track it would be. And at that end of town there were endless possibilities of places that were needed to make it more desirable–more homes, more family-friendly businesses, a park…
Groaning, he took a pull of his beer, stared out at the ocean and wished Scarlett was there with him. He looked forward to their weekends and sitting out on the deck talking late into the night. What he wouldn’t give to be able to talk to her about this. Not only because she was intelligent, but because she would challenge him and suggest things he might never think of. And if she weren’t Tommy Flynn’s granddaughter, she might even come up with something better than Mason ever could have imagined. He missed talking to her and hearing her laugh. He missed seeing her smile and hearing about her day. He missed sleeping beside her and holding her all night long.
Letting out a long breath, he forced himself to accept the fact that it didn’t matter how much he missed her. They were through. The only positive thing he could find in the whole damn situation is that they had gone for years without running into each other before and hopefully that’s the way it would be now.
Only…he wanted to see her–wanted to make sure she was okay. If her grandfather came clean and told the family why he had to let the business go, maybe…
Shaking his head, he stood and walked back into the house. It didn’t matter. Even if Tommy explained everything to his family it wouldn’t change anything. If Scarlett knew the truth and came to him to apologize, he’d accept it, but they couldn’t go back. It wouldn’t be right and in the back of his mind he knew he’d always be wondering if she were being honest with him about her feelings or if she were still holding onto her resentment.
In Case You Didn’t Know Page 11
