Page 22 of Just a Number (Magnolia Row #2)

“Who sent you roses?” the nurse asks, taking them from her and handing them to me so I can put them in the car. I buckle them into the backseat.

“Oh, a fine-looking young gentleman brought those to me,” she says with the expression of a cat who just caught a canary. “I still got it.”

The nurse laughs and tells her she’ll miss her, but not to hurry back.

We get Nana secured in the car, then I take her home. Once she’s comfortable in her recliner and watching Hallmark movies, I finally relax. I didn’t realize how much stress I’d been carrying until things finally feel normal again. All at once, exhaustion and achiness hit me like a ton of bricks.

I leave Nana to her movies, light some candles in the bathroom, and take a bubble bath in the old pink tub. I nearly fall asleep listening to Lana del Rey, only waking up when my phone dings.

It’s Garrett.

Hey gorgeous – you up for a visit this weekend?

I roll my eyes and put my phone down without responding.

I’m not sure what to say to him. I don’t want to see him this weekend.

It doesn’t feel right since I’ve now kissed Rhodes, though I’m technically not committed to either one of them.

If I do break things off with Garrett, what do I even say?

It’s not breaking up if we’re not together. What do I owe him, if anything?

I can’t think about this right now. I don’t want to think about anything, so I simply don’t respond to Garrett for the rest of the night. By the time Rhodes calls for our nightly chat, I’ve completely forgotten about Garrett’s text.

* * *

O n Thursday and Friday, I leave Nana at home to rest while I go to the store. I take tons of pictures of the new stuff and schedule social media posts for the next three weeks, then continue Nana’s job of cataloguing all the new items onto our spreadsheet.

I still haven’t responded to Garrett, but before I’m about to close up and go home to a quiet weekend, I get a text from him.

Hey sweetheart – did I do something? I’d really like to see you.

Sweetheart? That’s new.

I ignore this text too.

After a trip to Piggly Wiggly to grab some things for dinner, I go home and start cooking. I watch a Lifetime movie with Nana, then get her settled in bed and wait for Rhodes to call while I read Pride and Prejudice for the hundredth time.

My phone rings, and instead of seeing Rhodes’ name, I see Garrett’s.

He never calls me. Like, ever. Not in the all the years we’ve been doing whatever it is we do.

I almost let it go to voicemail, then panic-answer at the last minute.

“Hello?”

“Micah! Hey.”

“Is everything alright?”

“I…” he starts, his voice cracking. “I needed to hear your voice.”

“You sound upset.”

“There’s a lot going on. Things at work are really bad right now. I’m afraid I’m gonna lose my company.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “What happened?”

“Do you remember me telling you about the people we let go? They’re suing for wrongful termination and other stuff.

Now some of my current employees are making allegations.

It’s all total b.s., but my lawyer says I may have to pony up some funds I don’t have.

I’m … I don’t know. I need a friend, and you’re the only person I trust.”

This catches me off guard. I’d gotten to a place where I thought I was done with Garrett, but hearing him so vulnerable and open for the first time tugs at me in a way I didn’t expect. He needs me, and it feels good.

“That sounds awful,” I say. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Can you come up tonight? I don’t want to be alone. I’m not okay right now.”

I pause to think. I don’t want leave Nana, but she’ll be going to bed soon. I know she’s eaten and taken her meds, so she should be okay. And Montgomery isn’t too far. It’s not like driving to Birmingham.

“Micah, please?” he asks, his voice sounding weak and desperate.

“Only for an hour or two,” I say. “My grandmother isn’t doing well, so I don’t want to be gone long.”

“That’s totally fine. Thank you, Micah. I miss you.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Me too.”

* * *

N ana is tired, so I put her to bed and tell her I’m going out to meet friends.

I put on a low-cut lavender shirt with long sleeves to hide my arms, thankful it’s finally getting cooler outside and I can cover up without sweating to death.

Rhodes calls on the drive, but instead of lying to him, I ignore the call completely.

When I get to Montgomery, I check my makeup in the rearview mirror and head up to Garrett’s apartment. He’s in running shorts and a plain white t-shirt, and gives me a big hug when he sees me.

“God, I’m so happy you’re here,” he says. “It’s been a shit week, and you’re the only one I’ve wanted to talk to.”

“Tell me what happened,” I say.

We sit on his couch. I have to move a pile of dirty clothes and his video game controllers to clear a spot, but I figure he’s been too stressed to worry about the state of his apartment.

He relays a whole story about how some of his employees got together and decided they’d make more money from a lawsuit than actually working, so they purposely started performing poorly to bait him into firing them. He did, and they sued.

“There’s some other money-grab schemes going on too, but I don’t want to get into it. I guess when you’re this successful, everyone wants to try to take it away. It sucks, because I worked so hard to build this company from the ground up all by myself. I don’t deserve this.”

The lines his face are tense and I can tell he hasn’t been sleeping. I put my arm around him and he rubs my jeans-clad leg.

“It’ll be okay,” I say. “If you haven’t done anything wrong, they won’t win.”

“What do you mean, if I haven’t done anything wrong?” He’s suddenly defensive and pulls away. “Of course I haven’t.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” I say, taken aback by his combativeness. “I was only trying to say you have nothing to worry about. The truth will out, as they say.”

“The truth will out? I’ve never heard that before in my life.”

“It’s from Shakespeare.”

He shakes his head in a dismissive way. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he says. “Let’s go lay down.”

We go to the bedroom and, for a little while at least, he’s able to push his troubles aside and focus on being with me.

It makes me happy to feel needed and wanted in a way I’ve never felt with him, and I feel closer to him now than ever before.

I close my eyes and push away all my worries about Nana and the enormous guilt when I think of Rhodes.

* * *

I leave after a few hours. When I finally get home, Nana is snoring in bed and seems to be doing fine.

I collapse in my room and my head spins.

During the entire drive, all I could think about was how I’ve complicated everything with Rhodes.

It makes me feel gross. I shouldn’t have gone to Montgomery. It wasn’t fair to Rhodes…or myself.

Reluctantly, I listen to a voicemail Rhodes left earlier.

At the sound of his voice, I close my eyes and shake my head.

He simply wanted to tell me to have a good night and he can’t wait to see me again.

I know we’re not official, but it would hurt him to know what I’ve done tonight. I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid.

I delete his voicemail, crawl under the covers, and close my eyes. When I dream, it’s of Rhodes.