Since Last Time

by Danes, Ellie

  “Would you just look at him? Worth more money than the town, married the Homecoming Queen, and he sits in a bar playing on his phone.”

  “He’s always been kind of a dick.”

  “The way she seems to be running around on him makes me wonder if he has one.”

  I didn’t know if George was okay with that, but I did know that he didn’t seem overly bothered by her actions, so he was either dense or stupid.

  Behind us, we heard the clackety-clack of Courtney’s stilettos making their way angrily down the hallway. She was not looking very happy. Her cheeks were a bright pink, and she bullied her way through us standing in the hallway without even an excuse me.

  She walked over to George and started talking very forcefully to him. He showed her his phone, and she pushed it away. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in very close to him and said something unkind to her. I knew because her reddened face slightly paled. She nodded.

  The door cracked open behind me, and Eric took a step out. He looked at me, annoyed, and shook his head. He went back into the office and closed the door.

  I turned my attention back to the train wreck of George and Courtney. I had never seen that side of George before. Not sure what to think about that. George finished up whatever he was working out on and left, swinging the door shut behind him.

  Courtney pulled out her phone and texted someone. Usually, that was followed by a half dozen of her friends in about ten. I tapped Kris on the shoulder and walked over to Courtney.

  “Excuse me, Courtney, but what the fuck do you think you are doing?”

  Courtney casually pulled out a compact and started patting down the shine on her nose. “What are you talking about?”

  “I saw you with Dalton, and Kris saw you with Eric. So, what the hell are you trying to do?”

  She paused in putting her face back together. “Two gorgeous men find me attractive. What do you care? Unless you are interested in Dalton, Taylor. That would mean Kris is into Eric. It could be the other way around. This is the Appalachians, you know.”

  “Eww,” I said.

  “Besides, I heard it is only a matter of time before this old eyesore will be torn down. Taxes and all.”

  Kris stopped me from wanting to ram my fist in her face. “Where did you hear that, Courtney?”

  She smiled like the cat that ate the canary. “I have my ways.”

  “I’m not having it, Courtney. Stay out of our business,” I said.

  “Your business is the town’s business. Our family, that is, George’s family, is interested in this town and everything that happens here. You’d be wise to understand that.”

  At that moment, she squeed as the bar door opened and her “friends” began piling in. She stood up and they did the girly huggy thing that I never understood.

  Kris and I took our leave, but I was left with more questions than answers. Why was George’s family interested in our bar, and what did it have to do with the town?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dalton

  I decided to take the week and deal with business. I traveled around through the North Carolina mountains, flatlands, and coast lines visiting all the different farms. Hops were my passion. It was something I started to understand when I tried all the beers once with Eric on a dare. Every beer has a special flavor. Now, I wasn’t a farmer, by any means, but I learned by attending all those industry events that Eric had talked about attending and never went. Brewing craft beers, vats, yeast… the list went on and on.

  Each and every hops farm produced a product that tasted different and distinctive. The reason was the hops took on the flavor of the soil in which it is grown. I had missed home so much. Since there was no reason to return, I hadn’t inspected the farms in my own home state. When I knew I was coming out here, Mabel did her magic thing and arranged meetings with hops producers in the state. Maybe I was feeling a bit nostalgic as I got older, but I wanted to see if I could make a limited craft beer that would be sold only in our night clubs. Something to make us unique in the industry. Like Apothic Inferno for wines, our craft beer varieties would only be sold during specific seasons for limited times.

  It was one of the many ideas I’d had over the years to make my brand different. Eric and I had talked about it at school, and Pops was being egged on by both Eric and me to step out and try something new. I was into not only the science but the business. Real estate was big business. As I toured the state and saw the different productions going on, it became more and more clear to me that I wanted to stay here. I could operate the clubs from anywhere with technology.

  However, I could develop a craft beer brand made from Carolina hops, and it seemed right to me. The next step in forming the brand D&E. Pops had shown interest as well and wanted more information.

  By the end of the week, I was really missing the feel of Taylor in my arms. Before I knew it, the miles had flown by, and the farmland was in my rear-view mirror as I thought about her and the time we had shared together. Shortly, I found myself parked at Taylor’s house. It didn’t look too different from the years I had been there previously. The downstairs now had French doors instead of being a solid stone wall, but it showed no age from the weather and had stayed the same in my mind as it appeared now.

  As I sat in my car, I wondered how she had handled the past week while I had been gone. Had she truly forgiven me? The woman she had grown into was so far from the young adult I had left behind. She had a mind and ideas that were awe inspiring. Taylor saw the world through a creative lens.

  I did business deals that felt right. Real estate, franchises, buying up small businesses. I wondered if I was going to be bringing her more hurt or happiness. My mind started to swim through the years. The years after prison when I was finally free. I wanted nothing more than to come home and take care of Taylor. I had kept that a secret in my heart and from Pops. It had burned brightly, and I wanted to see if that kiss meant as much to her as it did to me. The thought of her lips kept me warm over the two years in jail.

  My mind flew back over the years to the last secret I held, and I wondered if it would have changed anything. I had lied. To Pops, Eric, and Taylor. I had returned to claim Taylor as mine and to take my place within the family again.

  I had shown up at the bar on a Friday night shortly before college would start in the fall. I knew the day because it was always when Taylor and Eric worked the bar together while Pops took a night off. I was full of myself. I had just left prison with my bright and shiny master’s degree. I was off with good behavior and time served. I was on my way. Bigger and brighter things.

  I grimaced to myself. Right. I remembered how I felt that day. I was about to go into business for myself with help from Pops, and I had thought of Taylor every day while I was away behind a set of barred doors. I was back. I wanted her with me, and with what I felt we had for each other, I knew she would come running to me. I had imagined it for years. I would be welcomed back with opened arms. This was what I dreamed of and by God, she would be mine and all would be forgiven.

  I had the cab drop me off near the bar. It was raining, so I got my umbrella out and my flowers in hand, and I headed to the back door. To come in through the back door, I needed to walk by the front windows that looked onto the main street. I didn’t tell anyone I was coming. Not that it would matter to them. I was coming to be the hero. Yeah, right.

  As I walked by the front window, I looked in. Rain poured down, but you could tell everyone was smiling and laughing. Eric was tossing drinks around, and Taylor had a short bob going on. I smiled because she looked so beautiful. She was as bouncy as Kris, who was sitting at the bar laughing with Eric. I couldn’t wait to see them both. I was about to turn into the alley to the back door when a motion caught my eye. Joey Brennan. Overbite Joey Brennan. He walked over behind Taylor and picked her up and spun her around. She laughed, smiled down at him, smacking at him to put her down, and kissed him. He kissed her back and was ragged on by his friends playing darts
. He gave her one more kiss and headed over to his game. I watched all this from the outside looking in.

  My heart dropped. She didn’t wait for me. Numbskull. You never contacted her. You thought you would sweep in like a knight and rescue her from what… her happy life?

  I smelled the cigars before I heard her. “What did you think was going to happen?” Peggy asked.

  “I thought she’d have waited.”

  “Time goes on, boyo.” Peggy walked out of the shadows with her cigar smoking in her hand. My flowers were drooping as much as me. “Going to give her flowers, were you?”

  I nodded. “Are they happy?”

  “Happier than when you left,” she said.

  “I’ll ruin it if I head in there,” I replied.

  “Is that what you believe?”

  “I ruined everything when I left, but they look so happy now.”

  “They are. It was hard the way things happened. Hard for all of us.”

  “They are happier without me.”

  “What are you going to do, Dalton?”

  What I didn’t do was go into the bar. I gave Peggy the flowers, daisies and wildflowers, the ones I knew Taylor liked, and left. My dreams were in ashes.

  Once I realized that I did not have the girl, the family, just Pops’ mentorship, I tore into being a business owner. I slept it, ate it, lived it, for the last five years. I was laser focused and because of it, I had grown a little empire in five years. I met with investors, negotiated deals, barely slept, rarely ate, just focused on my work and worked out nonstop.

  Finding out how sick Pops was had literally stopped me in my tracks. My only family would be dead before I could get there. The week before I arrived back to Asheville had been eye opening. I’d found out that I only had one person I cared about and his voice would never be heard by me again. All our late-night talks and ideas about what the future would hold. The fear he felt when the bar started to go under and after fifty years of ownership, he couldn’t find the cause.

  The week that had passed made me reassess once again. I knew what I wanted, what I craved, and business would no longer fuel that need in me. It was no longer that part of me that I desired. It was the whole package. But did I deserve it?

  I was still missing home so much, and I missed Pops and his wisdom. I turned the car off and walked to the door. Knocked. No answer. I knocked again and was rewarded with the sound of feet running up the cellar stairs.

  A head appeared in the window to the side of the door. Taylor looked out, stared at me, shook her head, and opened the door. She didn’t invite me in but instead leaned against the doorway.

  “What are you doing here, Dalton?” she asked, mirroring my memory of my discussion with Peggy in the alley.

  “I came to see you.”

  She nodded. “I guess a phone call was out. You know we also have things like Facetime and Messenger. I would bring up text, but you know that, as you have contacted me with that before. You just left again. No contact.”

  “I told you I was here on business as well. I told you I would come back. I wanted to take some time to think about us. I just want to see you.”

  “Listen, Dalton.” She shook her head. “While you have been away, I’ve had time to think, too. What we had the other night was fantastic.”

  I smiled at her, but she didn’t smile back. I opened my mouth to say something, and she shook her head.

  “I’m not looking for some bump in the night, with me and you only when you are in town or if it is convenient for you. I'm looking for something more.”

  I opened my mouth, but she stepped forward and put a finger on my lips. I drowned in those eyes as they looked up at me.

  “I know men do a lot of talking, but they don't do a lot of showing. I don't know if you're all messed up inside or what's going on, but I do know I want a man who can show me and show everybody that he cares.” She sighed and stepped back into the house. “Dalton, I’m a grown woman and if you want this to go forward, you need to talk to Eric about us. You need to show me that I matter.”

  I moved toward the door, and she raised her hand.

  “Once again, if you want me in your life, you talk to my brother. Who is right now feeling sorry for himself at the bar. Until you do that, we have nothing more to say.”

  She gently closed the door, locked it, and walked back down to the basement.

  I stood there for a full minute before I walked back to my Viper and drove downtown.

  I parked in the alley and walked in the back door. I was greeted by the ever-present Peggy. She looked me over and pointed to the bar where Eric stood looking dejected.

  “Took your own sweet time, didn't you? Could've used you here a long time ago. Look at them. They’re miserable.” Peggy slapped me on the shoulder. “People don’t come to a bar to see a miserable bartender. Go talk to him, boyo, and set it straight. He’s bad for business.”

  I walked over to Eric. He didn't seem very happy to see me but took down two shot glasses and filled them with Crown Royal. “I see you're here. Want to drive another knife into me or just drink our liquor?”

  I sat in the bar stool and waited. It didn’t take long.

  “My dad paid for your master’s degree, started businesses with you, kept it from me. His own flesh and blood. Even though you were in prison. All the things I wanted to do with him myself. You never came back, and I had to be satisfied with the little scraps from the Patrick Price table. Then I hear Courtney is trying to hook up with you while you are in town. I mean, seriously? Can’t you keep it in your pants?”

  “Eric, I would not hook up with Courtney if she was the last woman alive. Pops told me he would help me get my master’s if I didn’t come home! That was the bargain. And how dare you defame your father’s name. He loved you! You received the love and affection I didn’t have in all my life. You have the family. You have everything I wanted, Eric. I did come back!”

  I slammed my fists on the bar. “I came back five years ago to find everyone happy and doing well. I was going to come through that back door there and rejoin the family. What did I see? I came back to find everybody happy. Happy without me in their lives. You're over there upset because I got the business end of things. You got the family.”

  I took the shot. “I have my success. I have my businesses. But that is the only thing I have. And in the grand scope of life, it ain’t shit.”

  Eric shot his whiskey. “You could've told me these things. Could have picked up the god damn phone anytime, Dalton, and called me and told me.”

  “I told you what an ass hat I was. How immature. I’m not that man anymore. Once I saw how every single one of the people I loved were getting on without me, I didn’t feel welcome anymore.”

  He poured another shot for us both. He put his hands on the bar and shook his head. “I don't… I don't want this, Dalton. I really do want you back in our lives. There is all this with Courtney again. and it’s bringing up some raw feelings.”

  “Eric, there is nothing going on with Courtney. She came onto me outside of the bar right after the will was read. I did not do anything. Told her I wasn’t interested.”

  He looked at me oddly. “What night?”

  “The night the will was read.”

  “She hit on me that night, too. What the hell is going on?”

  We sat there for a minute and picked up our shot at the same time.

  “You think she is playing us against each other?”

  Eric gave me a sad look. “Courtney’s never been that smart. Something else is happening, and we aren’t invited to that party.”

  I took a deep breath and went for it. “Eric, Taylor…”

  “Taylor. What a great idea! She’ll know where to look. She finds all that information about people on the web. Peggy!” Eric yelled to the back of the house.

  Peggy poked her head in from the back door. “What are you yelling about?”

  “I need you to watch the bar while I run over and talk to Ta
ylor.”

  “Ever heard of the phone?”

  “No, I’ll need to be there with her, so we can talk things out. I’ll be back.”

  With that, he ran to the office, came back out with his leather jacket, and headed out the back door. “Be back soon!”

  Peggy walked behind the bar. “Need another?”

  “With the Price siblings, I’ll need a double.”

  She poured it out, getting one for herself, too.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Taylor

  I finished my day off in relative silence after Dalton left. I typed up ideas about different people, the lives of the rich and famous I was not personally a part of but reported on. I talked about the Vanderbilt house. Lives of those who seemed like they had it all together, but deep down, the secrets of the South bubbled long and hard.

  People have preconceived notion about what women in the South are like. Fainting flowers, passive aggressive, great cooks. But secrets are what do families in. They snake through the very pores and veins and sinew of a family and do unrepairable damage.

  Typing furiously, I wanted to escape how I felt about telling Dalton I no longer wanted secrets. I wanted to be honest about our relationship. We had years of history before he left. He grew up in the bar. When I was a teenager, I noticed him. He had just finished up his bachelor’s degree with Eric. We had always been friends. But then it was like a pow, right in the chest. I was at the bar wiping down glasses, and he was swinging bottles around, and he looked at me and smiled. And winked. It did me in. That’s when I first developed my crush for Dalton.

  If my heart needed to be put away for a while, I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I would do it. My heart wanted, no needed, more. I would wrap it up in linen and store it all away. I wanted to go forward in the relationship. I had been happy to settle with Joe, but it wasn’t in me to settle. Now, after we had been sampling the forbidden fruit, I wanted it all. I wanted Dalton, and I wanted a true relationship.