“What is this?” she asked, turning in a circle to take in the sheets of paper and poster board that covered all four walls.
“The future, I hope.” Dylan gently took her hand and led her forward. Carrie registered the warmth of his touch and the awareness pricked along her skin. But her heart was beating so hard in her chest she could hardly form a coherent thought.
“They’re drawings of the town,” she murmured, still trying to make sense of what she was viewing.
“What Magnolia could be,” Dylan clarified. “Or will be. I’m not going forward with my original plan, Carrie. You were right. This place is special already. I don’t need to create something new here.” He reached out and plucked one of the sheets of paper from the wall. “The community will decide what’s best for Magnolia and how to make its future a success.” He handed the paper to her. “Mayor Malcolm got the word out and asked for ideas about what people want to see as part of a revitalization.”
“Is this a water park?” she asked with a smile as she studied the drawing in her hand, done in colorful markers.
“That’s from Violet.” He indicated another, larger drawing that hung on the wall. “We also have suggestions for a performing art center, a new workout facility, an outdoor mall and affordable housing. And this is what’s come in over the past forty-eight hours.”
“Really?” Her heart was hammering so loud now she could barely form a thought around the pounding in her head. “People are that interested? I mean, I knew the business owners cared about making money and...” She shrugged. “I sometimes wondered if it meant more to me because of what my dad had let happen to the town.”
“It means a lot to the people around here,” he confirmed. “You mean a lot. You’ve gotten people thinking with hope about the future. All of your work has made them understand that Magnolia has a lot more potential than anyone gave it credit for.”
He tipped up her chin with one finger. “It’s made me understand that and so much more.”
“Oh, yeah?” She tried to sound casual, but the question came out on a squeak of breath. “Like what?”
“Like the fact that I love you more than I thought possible.” His voice caught on the last word and he cleared his throat, like he felt as nervous as she did. “I’m not sure I ever stopped loving you, Carrie. That first night when I saw you on the street, it was as if no time had passed between us. My heart understood why I’d returned to Magnolia even if it took my brain a little while to catch up.”
“You came back here because of Sam,” she reminded him, wanting to believe it could be more but afraid to let herself hope. Afraid that if she opened herself up again she might not recover.
“He’s part of it,” he agreed. “A big part of it. I didn’t think I was capable of giving him the life he deserved just like I didn’t believe I had it in me to love you the way you deserve to be loved. But Christmas in Magnolia...” He cupped her face in his hands and the look in his eyes melted her defenses like they were nothing more than candle wax. “These past few weeks with you have shown me that I have to move beyond my past. I want to become the man you and Sam need me to be. The man you both deserve.”
She blinked away the tears that filled her eyes. “You already are that man. I shouldn’t have made you the bad guy. You were never the villain for me. Always my hero.”
His sigh reverberated through her, and then he leaned in and brushed his lips across hers. A gentle touch filled with hope and promise and all the love she could imagine.
“Give me another chance,” he said against her mouth. “I want a future with you, Carrie. I want to build a home and decorate for Christmas and Halloween and string lights across the porch to celebrate every full moon if it will make you happy. I’ll go to every small-town parade and coach little league and volunteer at bingo and—”
She pressed her hand to his mouth to silence him as joy rushed through her like a tidal wave. “Bingo might be laying it on a little thick,” she said with a laugh. “But I’ll take everything else. All of it, Dylan. I love you and I’ll give you—us—as many chances as we need.”
He kissed her again and as Carrie wrapped her arms around him, her heart settled like it had finally found its place. In the arms of the man she’d love for the rest of her life.
* * *
The Road to Magnolia
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER ONE
“REMEMBER TO BREATHE,” Lily Wainright muttered to herself as she grabbed two plates from the pass-through window in front of the restaurant’s kitchen. It felt like a boa constrictor had wound its way around her lungs, squeezing tight. “Remember to breathe,” she repeated.
She turned and then narrowed her eyes at the man who watched her from his usual seat at the counter. “What?” she demanded.
“Breathing is an involuntary function.” Garrett Dawes shrugged, one big shoulder lifting and lowering as his dark gaze flicked from her to the bowl of oatmeal in front of him. “You don’t need to remind yourself.”
“So helpful, Garrett,” she said through clenched teeth and moved to deliver the order to a booth near the front of the restaurant.
She forced a smile as she scooted between crowded tables at MJ’s Cafe, the popular diner in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she’d worked for the past year. Quite possibly the only bright spot in the worst twelve months of her life.
And her breath caught in her throat. Involuntary, indeed. What did that gruff, unfriendly, unfeeling robot of a man know, anyway?
Her inability to pull off even automatic bodily functions was just one more thing to add to his unspoken but still obvious list of judgments against her.
At least her animosity toward the diner’s most consistent customer gave her a few seconds of relief from the anxiety pounding through her due to the most recent implosion of her life.
The relief lasted a few seconds, until the child at the table she was passing suddenly pushed back his chair, directly into her path. Her foot caught on one leg and she stumbled, the two plates sliding out of her hands and crashing to the tile floor. Eggs, bacon and toast splattered while the porcelain splintered, right along with Lily’s self-control.
As the diner went immediately silent, her eyes filled with tears, big sloppy ones that couldn’t be blinked away. They rolled down her cheeks, and she swiped at them as she drew a shuddery breath, then bent to pick up the mess.
“Was that ours?” one of the businessmen at the booth where she was headed asked. “I’m so hungry.”
“We’ll get another order right up and it’s on the house.” Lily heard Mary Jo Marsh, the diner’s owner, answer the customer, her tone both conciliatory and commanding. “Come on, sweetie,” she said to Lily, a gentle hand on her back. “You go take a break in my office. We’ll deal with things out here.”
Lily should have argued. This was her mess, after all. But she could feel the weight of a dozen eyes upon her, a restaurant full of strangers and people she considered friends bearing witness to her breakdown.
With a sniff, she nodded and straightened. “I’m so sorry,” she said to the man who’d spoken. She must have looked even more pathetic than she realized because he appeared embarrassed that he’d voiced a complaint.
“It’s fine,” he muttered.
She ruffled the hair of the boy who’d caused her to trip. His head was down as his mother chided him in hushed tones for not being able to sit still. “That was on me, buddy,” she told him. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He stole a glance in her direction and then nodded and picked up his fork.
Lily managed a smile for the kid’s mother, then hurried through the tables and past the counter, doing her best not to make eye contact with anyone. From her peripheral vision, she saw Garrett Dawes watching her.
Insult to injury. That seemed to be her current lot in life.
Lily pulled her cell phone out of the front pocket of her apron as she entered Mary Jo’s cramped office. File cabinets and boxes of paper napkins and plastic straws—no saving the turtles in this rundown corner of LA—lined the walls.
In the span of an hour, since she’d taken that first call from her sister Helena, Lily had received six texts. Four from her oldest sister and two additional from Meg, the middle Wainright sister.
She didn’t know how to respond to their increasingly insistent messages. She wanted to delete the messages, pretend that she wasn’t about to come face-to-face with all of the ways she’d failed in her life, especially compared to her successful, upwardly mobile siblings.
But there was no choice. No use making excuses or wishing things could be different. With jerky movements, she typed in a response to the two of them.
I’ll be in Magnolia by the weekend.
Anxiety rolled through her gut as she hit Send, and she flipped the phone onto the desk and sank down in the worn leather office chair. She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes, hoping that would make the pounding in her head subside.
As if anything could make this moment better.
Lily Wainright was going home.
CHAPTER TWO
“WHAT’S GOING ON, HON?”
Mary Jo walked into the office a few minutes later and shut the door. Luckily, Mary Jo Marsh was as tiny as she was strong-willed, so there was room for both of them in the cluttered space.
“I’m leaving,” Lily said quietly, even as a scream tried to rise up inside her. She swallowed then swallowed again, determined to hold herself together. Of all the challenges she’d faced since moving to California, why did returning to her hometown near the North Carolina coast feel like the most insurmountable?
“Okay,” Mary Jo answered with a frown. She grabbed a Diet Dr Pepper from the tiny fridge in the corner and offered a can to Lily, who declined. “Take the rest of the day and even tomorrow if you need it. Life has pelted you with a lot of lemons, and you’ve been downing so much lemonade it’s a wonder your eyeballs aren’t floating. I’ll find someone to cover your shifts so—”
“For good,” Lily clarified. “I’m going back to my hometown.”
Mary Jo paused with the can of soda halfway to her mouth. “Is that so?” she asked, her tone carefully measured.
Lily tried and failed to offer a smile, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “My sister called this morning. Dad fell and broke his hip. He’s scheduled for surgery and needs someone there to help with his recovery.”
The older woman shook her head. “Don’t they have healthcare workers in Magpie?”
“Magnolia,” Lily corrected her. “My father still lives in the house where he grew up. He and my mom bought it from my grandparents when they got married. He’s run the family’s hardware business for almost forty years now. He’s proud and stubborn and I can’t imagine him letting someone outside of the family help him.”
“Your sisters—”
“Have lives of their own.” Lily rolled her shoulders against the shame that coursed through her when she thought of how little she’d accomplished in her own life. “They have jobs and husbands and kids and neither of them live in Magnolia anymore. I’m the logical choice to help him.”
Mary Jo scoffed. “Because you live on the opposite side of the country and haven’t once gone back since you drove away from that town? I don’t see the logic there, sweetie.”
“I’m a waitress with no family and really no friends other than my coworkers.” Lily gave a humorless laugh. “I have a string of loser ex-boyfriends, a crappy furnished apartment and tons of debt thanks to the last loser ex. I’ve given up the dream of becoming an actress.” She sighed. “I’ve given up dreaming. There’s nothing keeping me here.”
“You sure don’t paint a rosy picture,” Mary Jo admitted. “But I believe in you, Lil. I believe you’ll get back on your feet. You’ve been knocked around a bit—”
“Literally, thanks to the one prior to the last loser,” Lily added, anger and embarrassment rushing through her in equal measure.
“You’ve got a big heart and so much potential.”
“I love you for saying that.” Lily choked back another round of tears. “I owe you so much, MJ. But he’s my dad. I have to go home.”
“You can always come back,” her boss said gently.
Lily nodded. “Maybe. I’ve told my sisters I’ll be there by the weekend. I don’t even know how I’m going to make that happen with no money and no car.”
“I knew Kenny was bad news when I met him. He had shifty eyes.”
Lily wished she’d listened to her boss’s advice about her last boyfriend. She’d met Kenny at a TV pilot audition, a final effort to make something happen in the acting career Lily’s mother had wanted so badly for her. Seven years in California and Lily had been in exactly two commercials, one miserable play that closed after opening weekend and a blink-and-you-miss-it role as a serial killer victim in a network crime show.
She felt bad about her failure but never quite mustered up the sadness over not becoming a star that her mother might have expected.
“I can buy you a plane ticket,” Mary Jo offered without hesitation.
Truly, the best thing about Lily’s time in LA was working at MJ’s.
“I can’t take Chloe on a plane,” Lily said, biting her lip.
“You could leave her—”
“No. She’s coming with me. I’m all she has. I might try social media or an online classified site. Maybe I could find someone who wants a copilot for a cross-country trek.”
“Absolutely not.” Mary Jo plunked down the soda can on the desk and wagged a sparkly polished finger in Lily’s direction. “Ted Bundy wasn’t an urban myth back in my day.”
“I’d be careful,” Lily promised. “My other option is trying to rent some cheap car and drive alone.”
Mary Jo closed her eyes for a long moment and when she opened them again, they gleamed with a light that made Lily more than a little nervous. “I’ve got an idea. Stay here.”
“Mary Jo.” Lily stood and wrapped the older woman in a tight hug. “You don’t have to solve this for me. I’m your employee, and you’ve been generous and kind and all those things.”
“You deserve that in your life, sweetheart.” MJ pulled back and patted a soft hand against Lily’s cheek. “We both know the dream you’ve been chasing out here belonged to your mother. I’m sad to see you go and would love for you to come back, but mostly I want you to be happy. When was the last time you felt happy, Lil?”
Lily shook her head. “I can’t cry again. Tears get me nowhere.”
“Stay here,” Mary Jo repeated and left the office, closing the door behind her.
Lily’s mind raced as she considered the logistics of packing up her life to get from one coast to the other in less than a week. With no money and her ex-boyfriend’s Great Dane riding shotgun.
The dog had been the final straw that ended their relationship. Kenny had purchased the year-old purebred on a whim from an expensive breeder that he couldn’t afford.
Little did Lily know that the jerk didn’t need to be able to afford the dog. He’d taken out several credit cards in Lily’s name, so almost all of the debt he’d incurred during their six months together legally belonged to her. She hadn’t even admitted how much she owed to Mary Jo.
Then Kenny had gotten in a car accident, totaling Lily’s old Nissan. Chloe, who’d been riding in the back seat, had broken her leg. He’d been ready to dump the dog at the humane society but instead Lily ha
d dumped him.
Her standards for men might be embarrassingly low, but she drew the line at animal cruelty.
“I’ll figure it out,” she told herself, then glanced around the empty office. Another reason she liked having Chloe was that the dog made Lily feel better about her tendency to have out-loud conversations with herself.
Maybe the Great Dane couldn’t answer with words, but she was still a sympathetic listener.
Guilt plucked at her nerves as the distant sounds of the kitchen drifted through the thin walls. She should go out there and at least finish her shift. She’d miss not only Mary Jo, but Darcy and Kristin, the two other waitresses, as well as the trio of older men who worked in the kitchen.
She might not have the life her mom had dreamed of for her, but Lily had survived. At some point in the past year, though, that no longer felt like enough.
The office door opened as she took a step forward, then froze when Garrett entered.
“The bathroom is on the other side of the hall,” she told him, smoothing a suddenly trembling hand over the front of her apron.
Garrett Dawes was—or had been—some kind of hotshot movie producer or writer or another type of Hollywood executive. Not wanting to compare his success to her failure, she’d done her best to ignore him.
It wasn’t hard. Garrett might be the diner’s best customer, but he rarely spoke to anyone. He showed up at the counter five days a week for either breakfast or lunch, ate in silence while reading a book and then left. Kristin, who took care of the counter, loved the man because he was no trouble and an excellent tipper, but he’d always made Lily feel self-conscious.
He was tall with a lean frame, angled features and thick chestnut-hued hair the same color as his eyes. She didn’t know what he did when he wasn’t at the diner, but his skin was bronzed like he spent time outdoors. He had the kind of long lashes that tons of women in Hollywood would pay good money for.
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