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Chapter Four

A fter making me drink a full glass of water, Belinda convinced me to leave the bar. We were mostly quiet on the way to Colt’s apartment.

“I have this weekend free,” she said at last. “We could go out of town for a girls’ weekend.”

I thought about the Southern Belles catering schedule. We were working a wedding on Saturday, but I definitely didn’t need to go to that. The last thing the bride would want was to be upstaged by the girl who’d almost gotten murdered.

“What about Owen?” I asked. “Are you sure you want to leave him?”

“He’ll be fine,” she said. “He’s got some job lined up this weekend that will take his full attention. Besides, we’re not to that level yet. We’re not syncing our schedules.”

I wished I was excited at the chance to get away with Belinda, but I just couldn’t find it in me to get excited about anything right now. Still, it was a good idea, and I loved her all the more for suggesting it. I knew I wouldn’t make for fun company at the moment, but Belinda, God love her, would want to be with me anyway. “Sounds good, but let’s make it someplace low profile so Mo and Molly can’t track us down.”

She made a face. “I’d love to get my hands on those two.”

The thought of Belinda taking on the podcast hosts made me laugh, but it dried up as an image crossed my mind’s eye: Belinda standing between me and the barrel of the gun in my father’s hand.

Would memories of that night ever stop haunting me?

“Well, hopefully you’ll never get that chance,” I said as she pulled into the parking lot of Colt’s apartment building.

“We’ll find someplace secluded.” She parked the car and turned off the engine.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “I don’t need help going up to Colt’s apartment.”

Her eyes narrowed as she studied me. “Do you even realize you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Call it Colt’s apartment.”

“So?” I asked. “It is his apartment.”

“It should be just as much yours as it is his, Magnolia. You’ve lived there for nearly six months. I’ve never heard him call it his apartment.”

I started to protest, but I realized she was right. Colt had signed the lease, but my father had footed the bill. In fact, he’d paid for the year in advance. It almost felt like he was still controlling me, still imprisoning me, from beyond the grave.

She opened her car door. “Let’s get you inside, and before you try to stop me, this might be my chance to confront those two podcasters and give them a piece of my mind.”

Belinda was the only twentysomething woman I knew who could unironically sound like an old woman.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “But I hope to God they aren’t here.”

Thankfully, my wish came true, and Belinda waited patiently while I fumbled to get the key in the front door. Those three drinks were hitting full force.

Once we were inside, she headed straight to the kitchen while I flopped on Colt’s sofa. I could hear the clink of ice cubes dropping into a glass, and a few seconds later, she appeared next to me holding a glass of ice water.

“You need to stay hydrated,” she said, handing me the glass and dumping two aspirin into my other palm. “Drink the water and take these.”

“You’re so bossy,” I grumped, but at the same time, I was grateful she wasn’t handling me with kid gloves like everyone else.

I swallowed the pills with a gulp of water and set the glass on the coffee table next to a white envelope marked with the return address of Martin and Cooper, Sweet Briar, Alabama. I picked it up and considered opening it. Although I’d acted disinterested when Colt mentioned the letters from the law office, there was no denying it intrigued me. I inspected every inch of the envelope.

“What’s that?” she asked, sitting next to me.

“An envelope,” I said.

“I can see that,” she said. “I’m asking if you know what it’s about. It looks important.”

“It has something to do with Momma. From her hometown in Alabama.”

“Why don’t you open it and see what it’s about?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just know it scares me.”

“Why?” she asked in surprise.

I shrugged. “Everything scares me these days. Why not an envelope from a law office?”

“It’s going to get better, Magnolia,” she said softly. “I promise.”

I sank back into the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. “Then why do I keep feeling worse and worse?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe getting away for a long weekend will help.”

I sure hoped so.

“How are things going with Dr. Norton?”

“Fine,” I said. “Good. I’m frustrated by my lack of progress, but she tells me I’m handling things as well as can be expected at this point, whatever the hell that means.”

“She came highly recommended.”

Which was why I was still going to her. Plus, I knew it was unrealistic to think she could make me better overnight. Except it had been half a year, which wasn’t exactly overnight.

“I like her,” I said. “And I like that she includes Colt in some of our sessions.” I gave her a weak smile. “I still can’t believe he wants to go.”

“He loves you so much,” she said. “He’ll do practically anything to help you through this.”

“I know all that,” I said, once again wondering why he put up with me. I knew what I was getting out of this relationship, but from what I could see, all he got was a heap of trouble. He’d been through a traumatic experience too, and he seemed to have gotten over it within a month.

“I really think a weekend away might help,” she said. “We can leave Friday morning. I don’t have an appointment until seven o’clock Monday night, so we won’t need to hurry back that morning.”

“That’s not much time to prepare,” I said half-heartedly.

“It’s Tuesday night, Magnolia. It’s plenty of time.”

“Okay,” I relented, hoping she was right. Hoping I could shake myself out of this.

“Good,” she said, reaching for my hand and squeezing it tight. “I’ll do some searching tonight and let you know tomorrow afternoon what I find.”

“Sounds good,” I said, smiling faintly at her. “Thank you, Belinda.”

“Of course.” She paused, tears filling her eyes. “I love you, Magnolia. I want to help you through this.” She gave me a tight hug, then got to her feet. “I need to go. Do you want me to lock the door behind me?”

Colt had given her a key to the apartment, but I wasn’t that needy. “No,” I said, rising from the sofa. “I’m going to get ready for bed.”

“Be kind to yourself,” she said as she stopped at the door. “You’re making progress. You just don’t see it.”

“Thanks.”

I locked the door behind her and turned to face the living room and kitchen. Belinda had pointed out that I called it Colt’s apartment, and I realized she was right. I did. The question was why didn’t it feel like my home too?

Perhaps because I couldn’t shake the memories of my father invading the space. My father was dead, and Colt had asked the building manager to change the locks, but I still felt on guard here. Maybe Colt would be willing to move before our lease was up. Even if we couldn’t afford it.

But why should he be forced to move because I was feeling skittish? He’d already given up so much because of me. That was one thing too many.

I started to pick up my glass of water, but I reached for the envelope instead. Maybe everyone was right and I should just open it. In a strange way, it had more power to hurt me if I left it unopened. Besides, I was damn tired of secrets.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed a loose edge of the envelope flap, ripped it open, and pulled out the single sheet of paper.

Dear Ms. Magnolia Steele,

We were sorry to hear about your mother’s death. Lila Mae Steele was a remarkable woman—a true force of nature. We’re hoping you are more amenable than your mother.

I nearly laughed. They’d certainly pegged my mother accurately, but I wasn’t sure they’d be much happier with me.

Your mother was the sole owner of her family’s farm outside of Sweet Briar. It’s not a large property—two hundred acres. It hasn’t been farmed in decades, but it’s in a great location and I’ve been approached by someone who wishes to purchase the property. Your mother did the bare minimum to maintain the property and refused to rent out the land to nearby farmers. If you don’t have plans for it, it only makes sense to sell it before the taxes are due at the end of the year.

If you are willing, we will proceed with the sale and overnight the paperwork you need to sign. Since the land and buildings have no liens or back taxes owed, you will make a very nice profit. Feel free to call us at the number listed below if you have any questions or wish to proceed.

Sincerely,

Wilber B. Cooper, Esq.

I stared at the letter in disbelief. The farm hadn’t been in Momma’s will, and while I knew she was from Sweet Briar, I hadn’t known about the land. Why hadn’t she mentioned it? Why hadn’t she sold it? I definitely planned to call, because if I could make several hundred thousand dollars, it would solve so many of my immediate problems. Of course, there might be complications with Roy, but surely the fact that the lawyers had reached out to me, not him, meant the land must be in my name.

After I put the letter back in the envelope, I tucked it into my purse, planning to call them in the morning.

I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then went into the semidark bedroom and stripped down to my underwear. Quickly, I pulled one of Colt’s T-shirts out of his drawer and tugged it over my head so I didn’t have to catch a glimpse of the long scars covering my abdomen. I still couldn’t bring myself to look at them very often. Seeing the scars on my thighs was bad enough.

I climbed into bed and turned on a Hallmark Channel movie—disgusted that I’d resorted to watching such fluff—but soon fell asleep.

When I woke, I could feel Colt’s chest pressed to my back, his arm wrapped around my front, the smell of his shampoo filling me with calm reassurance that everything was right in my world simply because he was there.

“I missed you,” I murmured, pulling his arm tighter.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Sorry that I overreacted earlier and was short with you.”

“You didn’t overreact, Mags,” he said with a sigh. “You were stalked by that woman, and I obviously didn’t handle it well. I’m sorry.”

I rolled onto my back and looked up at him. The bathroom light was on, as usual, and it spilled out of the cracked-open door, casting shadows over his face. “You had every right to be angry, Colt.”

“I wish I could protect you, Mags. I wish I’d stood up to your father sooner. I wish I’d come clean weeks earlier. I wish…”

His voice trailed off. Wishing was a pointless activity, and we both knew it.

“We both wish we’d done things differently,” I said softly. “But this is where we are, so we need to focus on that and move on.”

“Did Dr. Norton tell you that?” he asked with a grin.

“It’s good advice, don’t you think?”

“It’s great advice,” he said, leaning in to kiss me.

I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, holding him close as I deepened the kiss. I loved this man to death, and sometimes it felt like I couldn’t get close enough to him, but part of me worried I’d become too dependent on him. That maybe I was mistaking dependency for love.

We made love and Colt kissed my scars, assuring me I was still the most beautiful woman in the world. He seemed to believe it with all his heart, and basking in the warmth of his conviction, I believed it too.

Afterward, I lay in his arms, feeling warm and the closest thing to happy I’d felt since that awful night in April.

In moments like this, I let myself believe this was a healthy relationship. That he wasn’t with me out of pity. That I wasn’t dangerously codependent. That we really could last forever.

As he traced lazy figure eights on my arm, I looked up at him. “I opened that envelope tonight.”

He arched his brow. “What made you decide to do that?”

“I’m tired of being scared about everything, so I decided to just open it.”

He froze. “Are you scared of everything, Mags?”

“No,” I lied, “not everything.”

I figured he might buy it. After all, I’d been doing relatively well a couple of months ago. Before that stupid podcast made me into a paranoid wreck again.

The look on his face suggested he didn’t believe me, but he didn’t call me on it. “What was it?”

“Momma still owned her family farm down in Sweet Briar. My name must be on the deed, because the attorney said he has someone who wants to buy it.”

“You’re going to sell it?” he asked in surprise.

“What use do I have for a two-hundred-acre farm in Alabama?”

“For all you know, it’s been in your family for generations,” he insisted. “Aren’t you curious about it? Don’t you want to check it out first?”

“How do you know I’ve never seen it?” I asked.

“Lila wasn’t shy about the fact that she’d left Sweet Briar and had no intention of ever going back,” he said. “But it’s yours now, so you should at least see it.”

“Momma left that town as soon as she graduated for a reason, Colt. She was wise about many things. Maybe this is one of them.”

“Still, what could it hurt to go down and check it out?” he said.

I nestled my head under his chin. “I’ll think about it.”