The Bartender's Daughter

by Isabelle Flynn

  “We need to talk.” Michelle stomped in, her high heels clicking on the wood floor.

  She dropped down onto the frayed couch. Fine lines flared out from her eyes and mouth. Her look was direct, never wavering from Sam’s face. Any concealer applied that morning had long been wiped away with tears. Sam drove away any lingering empathy for her sister. There wasn’t any room for it

  “What about?”

  “The bar. Lee’s taking it over.”

  “What?” She pushed off the chair to stand up. A sharp pain twisted in her heart. Not Lee. She knew Michelle wouldn’t run it along with her own business. Still she wasn’t about to let him take over her father’s legacy.

  “I don’t know why you’re surprised. Dad always respected him and Lee has always had his eye on the bar.”

  “I’m sure that’s not the only thing he’s had his eye on.” The words were out before they had ever processed through her brain. How long had she held them back? How long had they burned their way through her heart and her mind? She pulled her father’s hat off the desk and played with the frayed edges.

  “Samantha, I have no idea what that means but you have to stop acting like such a child. We have more to discuss. I have too much to do at the salon and now cleaning out the house, I don’t need to hold your hand through this, too. Do I?”

  The door swung open. The man himself, here, she was sure, to tell her to get the hell out of his office. He must have been planning this for a long time, getting in good with her father. Anger and hate vibrated through her body. She fisted her hands by her side to keep from striking out. Nothing should hurt this much. She had trusted him with so much more than friendship. And there her sister sat, looking innocent in front of her. It was hard enough seeing them all day, watching the interaction between them, sitting in the small office was torture.

  Her sister had always been a flirt but the blame didn’t rest solely on her shoulders. She was four years older and was once more of a surrogate mother than a sister. She might have guessed but Sam had never really told her how far her relationship with Lee had gone. No, her anger was mostly for Lee, and it was only growing the longer she thought about him taking over Ray’s.

  “I guess Michelle filled you in on the terms of your father’s will.”

  His gaze kept her pinned to the spot behind the desk. “Only that you’ve somehow become the new owner of Ray’s.”

  He scrutinized her sister. What did he think of her now? Was this what he had wanted all along? It shouldn’t have mattered. Now that her father was gone, she was the only one to be hurt by their choices. She wanted to be free and clear of everything she had left behind in Oldport. Maybe then she’d be immune to the hurt and betrayal.

  She just needed to walk out the door, pick up her luggage, and catch a ride to the train station. She pulled the flannel shirt from the back of the chair and sniffed it. Could she really leave everything behind, let go of the bar and cut off every part of her life in Oldport?

  “I think we need to talk.” He turned to her sister. “Michelle, you’re worn out. Go home. Sam and I can close up. I’ve already sent everyone else along.”

  Her sister didn’t put up any kind of resistance. She rose from the couch, her bag in hand, and walked off without saying another word. A sign she really was exhausted.

  “When do you leave for New York?” He went to take the seat on the couch Michelle had just vacated but changed his mind and grabbed the stool in front of the desk.

  “I don’t know. I really haven’t figured that out yet.” She wanted to say she was going back to her apartment that night but she stayed fixed to the spot. Once she left, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be back again.

  He rubbed his knee and then for the first time since they met outside, something besides animosity crossed his face. The look of pity was even harder to accept. “We don’t need to do this now. You need time. I can meet you at your sister’s tomorrow and we can talk about it.”

  Disgust rolled over her. Did he live there now? “No, thanks. I have no interest in going to her house. Just get it over with. Did my sister give you the bar or did you get my dad to sign it over before he died?”

  He didn’t answer right away. He seemed to weigh every one of her words. “You think I conned your dad, don’t you?” He opened his mouth but she didn’t expect the laugh that escaped. “You’re really something else. Not everyone is like you, Sam. We’re not all after money at any cost.”

  She gasped and balled up her father’s shirt before tossing it down on the desk. “I don’t know where you get off saying something like that to me. I know what you did. I let you get away with it for years because I was too weak to do something about it. It’s not going to happen again. I’m not letting my father’s business get destroyed because of you.”

  “What the hell, Sam? I loved your father. At one time, I loved you, too. How can you even pretend I’d be out to hurt him or this bar?”

  Her fingernails bit into her palms; the pain couldn’t keep her from screaming out. Years of silence, years of being completely on her own had taken everything out of Sam. The tears and the hurt were no longer under her control. “We were married and you slept with my sister. I know exactly how low you can go.”

  Chapter Two

  A summer day in Oldport meant there were more boats out on the bay than cars on the roads. From his front porch, Lee watched them sail by. He wanted to be out there. Maybe then he could ignore the noise in his head that had started when he first saw Sam again two months ago.

  That was a lie. Any noise started long before Ray Pierce’s daughter came back to town. It started three and a half years ago when he first watched her walk into the bar after he got the job. It was only meant to get him through the mess his life had become, but then it turned into something so much more as he got to know Ray and his attractive younger daughter.

  Sam Pierce was a tornado of energy and movement. A dreamer, a girl with big ideas for the future. And him. Ray had every intention of passing on the bar to his younger daughter. She majored in business and had been accepted into a local MBA program just before she took off for New York. They’d made plans for the bar, how they would make it into more than just the run down honky-tonk it was turning into.

  Her words from last night replayed again, a movie reel on endless repeat. Sam thought he’d slept with her sister. It took him minutes before he understood exactly what she was saying. By the time he reached the parking lot, she wasn’t in sight.

  Was this the reason she left Oldport with Dylan? Or was this how she lived with herself? There was more to this than a small town girl shaking off the dust of her hometown to experience life.

  He took one last sip of coffee and then headed out to get answers. He wouldn’t let another day go by without understanding what Sam meant.

  The stream of memories flooding him was unrelenting. When he first met Sam, she was like a gust of fresh air. Sweet, innocent, and smart, she blew into his life. He’d respected Ray and he hadn’t planned to hit on his little girl. Sam was persistent though and damned successful at attracting his attention. He liked that Sam. Liked her a lot. She had a way of drawing the best out of a man and making him want to be even better. He could have loved her for that alone.

  When they started dating on the sly, he thought they were on the right track. He wasn’t even sure how two months later they ended up at town hall requesting a marriage license and then later swapping vows in front of a Justice of the Peace. He only knew Sam was his best chance at the white picket fence life he’d always wanted.

  They told no one. Laughing it off as a secret only they shared as they met at Ray’s old fishing cottage on his nights off. He hadn’t been prepared to tell her about his family and she never asked any questions. He only liked her more for it. Then Sam took off. Without a note or any kind of message left for him. Devastated and abandoned, he tried to come up with a reasonable explanation.

  Until Michelle spread the story around the bar. Her
sister had landed a big fish. The St. James family was just one of the many families with vacation homes on The Bluffs, an exclusive and expensive part of town. Money, social ranking, and everything Michelle claimed Sam wanted out of life.

  He didn’t believe any of it until Ray confirmed her story. Sam had indeed moved to New York City with her college roommate, Serena, and her brother, Dylan. Then the pictures started getting passed around the bar and he felt his heart ripped out of his chest. Dylan accompanied Sam on every one of her treks around the city. He went from anger to disillusionment to telling himself that he simply didn’t care what happened to Samantha Pierce Stone, as long as she kept her money-grubbing hands away from him. As soon as she took off, she lost any claim to sharing his life or his property.

  He pulled into the parking lot at Ray’s and kicked up dirt as he slammed to a stop beside the front door. He recognized Michelle’s small coupe as he looked over the lot. Hopefully Sam was inside with her sister.

  Lee waved at Alan, the bar manager, before seeking Michelle out at her usual corner table, standard diet cola in her hands. Her smile was more grimace than true happiness at seeing him. He walked directly to her, only stopping once to pat one of the regulars on the back.

  Just as he was about to confront her about Sam’s comment the night before, Michelle’s shaky hands reached up to adjust her hair. His gaze swept down to take in the dark bags under her eyes and the tightness around her mouth. No, he wouldn’t talk to Michelle about this. Not when she was so brittle. He would get answers from Sam first.

  “How did last night go?” Her voice was strained. When he shook his head, she continued, “I told you. She doesn’t want the bar anymore. That was always my father’s dream. Not hers.”

  He had been on her for weeks now to get Sam back to town to discuss the will. They should have handled it directly after the funeral, but Sam had left before they had a chance. He left Michelle and her lawyer in charge of notifying her sister when he should have done it himself.

  “I didn’t get the chance to tell her. She ran off before we could talk it over.”

  She nodded. They both knew Sam had a penchant for running. She took another drink of her soda.

  He needed to get things settled. He was anxious to see his past with Sam put to rest. It didn’t matter what she meant last night, they needed to get their marriage dissolved so he could finally move on with his life. “We’ll finish this business today. Where is she now?”

  “I have no idea where Samantha is or what she’s up to. She’s not staying at the house.”

  “Where has she been sleeping?”

  Michelle shrugged. “Probably with that rich boyfriend of hers. Funny, isn’t it? You’d think they’d be engaged by now. The truth is, Lee, if she up and left for New York, I wouldn’t have a clue.”

  He could only hope she hadn’t. “If she comes back here, can you give me a call so I can catch up with her?”

  Michelle nodded and he walked out of the bar. On days like this, there was only one place Ray would have been; he only hoped his daughter felt the same pull to be out in the sun.

  ****

  The crystal blue surface of the bay sparkled. Another small motorboat passed by and a wave of need crashed over her. She wanted to be out there, the wind blowing through her hair as she laughed over something her father said. They could have fished for hours. He would have listened to her stories about New York. Maybe he would have known how to handle the mess she turned her life into. But she wouldn’t have told him everything. Telling him the truth about Lee would have only hurt him. Telling him about New York and the last two years would have had him dragging her back home. No, maybe they would have just talked about the bar and whatever the latest bit of gossip was.

  She didn’t turn around at the sound of tires crunching over the seashell driveway. She knew he’d come. After all, at one time, this was their rendezvous place, their secret love shack. When footsteps approached her from behind, she didn’t even look before she asked the question. “Do you own this, too?”

  “No.” He sat down beside her on the sandy boat ramp. They both stayed there, as the wake of passing boats crashed in front of them.

  The silence between them felt too intimate, too much for the war of emotion going on inside her but she failed to come up with the right words to fill it. Only the sound of waves broke the quiet, the smell of salt water keeping her grounded to the present. She opened her mouth a few times and closed it again. She looked over at the small cottage as a copper mermaid hanging from the doorframe winked out at her. A small kitchenette, one bed, a miniscule bathroom, a couch, and an ancient television were all it boasted. Her father had kept up the maintenance over the last few years but it looked the same. God, she dreamed about this place all the time. But just like the bar, memories threatened to overtake her.

  “What did you mean last night?” Lee’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

  Nausea churned in her stomach. She hadn’t eaten breakfast, and now the emptiness in her stomach rumbled as the memories from that morning two years ago ran through her mind. “She told me all about it, Lee. I always knew you were hiding something, but I thought if you gave me every other bit of yourself, it wouldn’t matter if I knew about your parents or where you came from. How could I have known you’d shack up with both Pierce girls at the same time?”

  She wrapped her arms around her body and tried to contain the hurt. She couldn’t even look at him. Sam grieved the man she’d imagined him to be years ago. Now he was nothing more than a gigolo, a con man out for only himself. She moved to stand but his hand stilled her.

  “How could you think I’d ever do that to you?”

  She shook her head. Of course, he would deny it. “I tried to come up with some kind of reasonable explanation. Your nights off were so rare and that night you said you were too tired to meet me. I knew you were lying. Your car wasn’t at your apartment. Doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

  “This is ridiculous. I loved you. I married you because I wanted a future with you. Why would I screw that up? Look at me.” His hand curled around her cheek and he turned her to face him. “I did not sleep with your sister.”

  Only sincerity shined in his blue eyes.

  She pulled out of his grasp. “Then why didn’t you come after me? I knew if you weren’t guilty, you’d find me. But you never did. I had hoped you would prove me wrong. I wanted to be wrong.”

  “No, you didn’t. If you wanted to be wrong, you would have confronted me. You would have stayed and seen for yourself that your sister was lying. You just walked away.” He threw his hands down on to the sand. “How long did it take before you were off with Dylan? Hours? I was supposed to go after the two of you?” He jumped up to his feet and stalked off to the house. His fist connected with the cedar shingles before he turned around. “I loved you, Sam. We got married and you walked away like we meant nothing to you.”

  Tears streamed. She didn’t attempt to hide them. “It meant everything. How can you say that? You’re the one that hid everything from me. You never talked about your childhood. I don’t even know if there’s anyone still living in your family. You’re the one that wanted to keep it all a big secret, so don’t talk to me about how important marriage is. That was never my problem.”

  She pulled her knees to her chest and sunk her head down onto her arms. She didn’t know how long she cried. Each sob racked her body. Sobs for her father and for her dreams and for the boy she loved so much, she lost a part of herself when she walked away from him.

  When his arms came around her, she didn’t resist the slight pressure to lean on him. “I screwed everything up and I’ll never be able to make it up to my father. I loved him so much and I just left him here. I should have come back. I should have known that he was sick. Maybe if I was here, he would have told me.”

  His hands smoothed over her hair as he pressed her into his chest. “You don’t know that. He didn’t tell anyone. Ray was a proud man. He didn
’t want anyone to know. You can’t blame yourself. He wouldn’t want that for you. He was proud of everything you did. Everything. Even settling in the city gave him something to brag about.”

  He held her until the tears finally stopped. She didn’t want to leave the comfort of his arms, but there was too much between them now to stay there for long. Straightening, Sam pushed away from his warmth to look into his eyes. This close to him, she could see the specks of dark blue in the light blue depths. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  ****

  He kept one arm resting on Sam’s shoulders. So many confusing thoughts rushed around him. Sam had left because she thought he’d betrayed her with Michelle. Disbelief and anger warred inside him. He thought back to those days and only remembered being deliriously happy. It had never occurred to him that Sam was suspicious of his background or his secrecy.

  “Why didn’t you talk to me? I still don’t understand.”

  She pushed out of his arms. “You don’t remember. Whenever I asked you about your family, you told me that you didn’t want to talk about them. All that mattered was us. I knew you had joined the Marines and came out when you injured your knee. That’s it. Except for those few pieces of information, for all I knew, you didn’t exist until you came into my dad’s bar, asking for a job. Michelle filled in the blanks.”

  “Oh and you were completely open. I didn’t see you jumping up and down to tell your dad that we were married.”

  “I was looking for the right time to tell him I dropped out of the MBA program. It was your idea to tell him everything in stages. My dad didn’t want me to waste my time on a bartender. Imagine if he thought I quit the program for you.” Again her head dropped down between her knees. This time when she picked it up, there were no tears in her eyes. There was no hope either. “This is a wasted argument. We just have to move on.”