Chapter 28

chapter

twenty-eight

OWEN

I drift into the Tap and welcome the mix of woodsy smells in this rustic bar. Immediately, I'm enveloped with clouds of perfume from the older woman seated at one table, and to my left, Scarlett squawks with her customers, tapping her pen to her server pad to the rhythm of her animated tale.

I cross the scuffed and scratched hardwood floor, the marks evidence of years of local patronage, and I reach the bar as screeching bursts from the stage, where Matilda and Hunter set up the microphone.

It's karaoke night—a Sunday night tradition around here. I've frequented plenty of them since I moved back to Sapphire Creek, and they've mostly been the same. After the weekend I've had, though, this one feels different, and we haven't even started.

I'm lighter than I have been in a while, and it's all thanks to Addie.

A fucking feather isn't as light as me, and it's not just because my balls have finally regained their natural color from the chokehold one woman had me in last week.

It's because Addie allowed me the space to open up.

I hadn't realized how badly I needed to before she asked me to tell her about myself. It's crazy to think of all the years we've known each other, and yet, Friday night felt like we were meeting each other for the first time.

It was special and freeing.

I dropped the funny-guy mask and was honest with someone for what might've been the first time since I cracked my first joke at seven—my origin story.

The goofy-as-hell joke I told back then got the entire dinner table howling with laughter. Even Whitney, who was only six months old at the time, released a squeal.

The joke wasn't even one I'd made up myself. A kid in my class had told it. I didn't know I'd remembered it until it fell out of my mouth, along with a few bites of mac and cheese. I followed it up by hiding Mom's reading glasses later that night, and the rest was history.

Until Addie.

She brings out a whole new side of me.

"If I have what Owen's having, will it put the same dopey grin on my face?" Nate slides onto the stool next to me, and he and Cole share a laugh.

I don't even remember sitting down or ordering a drink, but a full beer sits in front of me like it appeared through pure magic. I'm in serious fucking trouble here.

"What's going on, dopey?" Cole asks as he fills a frosted mug up with Michelob for Nate. "What deal did you make with the dirty Devil to be this chummy?"

"I'm always happy," I say.

"Happy, yes. Chummy, no." Nate wraps his hand around the mug and points it at me. "What's up, Chummy McGee?"

I turn between my two friends, who both stare expectantly at me. Cole even leans over the bar onto his elbows like he has all the time in the world for me to share my filthy secrets, but in reality, he has customers slowly occupying every seat along the bar.

Karaoke night is definitely popular in this town. There's not much else to do around here, especially not on a Sunday, as most businesses and shops close on this holy day.

I slide my fingers through the dew on my mug and grin. "I had?—"

The truth instantly dissipates on my tongue.

"We have to keep this a secret."

Addie and I agreed not to tell anyone about us. Does that include our closest friends? Has she told Maren or Caroline? Knowing her, she's taken her oath extra seriously. She probably wouldn't even tell Pastor Eugene if he asked.

In any case, I promised her I wouldn't share what's happening between us, and my word means everything, even if it requires me to lie to my best friends.

"I've been drinking all afternoon, and I'm already buzzed." I tilt my beer toward them. "Wild what some bourbon can do to a guy's mood."

"That's what you're going with—bourbon?" Nate lifts a brow.

Cole squints. "I don't buy it. You're hiding something."

"I bet he's hiding a cartoon puppy inside him. There's no other explanation than this is not really our very own Owen."

Cole throws his hands up. "God, how it all makes sense now. Your puppy heart is the reason you slobber over every meal and wolf down meat like it's from the last cow on earth."

"Also explains why it took him so long to be potty trained." Nate straightens up and places a coaster under his mug. They got new ones around here, and I think Nate's the only one actually who uses them at the bar.

"I took a normal amount of time to learn to pee," I toss back.

"Not what your mom said." Nate snorts, and Cole fist-bumps him.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Austin. The bastard's rude as hell, but at least he minds his own business." I roll my eyes and sip from my mug as the other two continue snickering.

Scarlett rounds the bar and places her hands on both hips. A pen is nestled behind her ear like a fifties diner waitress, her outfit complete with a collared shirt. She's just missing one of those pointy hats. "Every time I talk to my friends instead of working, you threaten me with kitchen duty with the funky smells." The young twenty-something girl scrunches her nose as she glares at us, dedicating a whole three seconds to each of us and ending with Cole. "What should I threaten you with, Mr. Big Shot?"

"Tell him you'll paint his house yellow. He's always hated that color," Nate chimes in. "Or better yet—paint his beloved truck!"

Thankful for the subject change before I blurted something I'm not supposed to say, I snap my fingers and tease, "Tell him you'll leave a turtle in the bed of his truck the next time he slacks off. He's scared shitless of those things."

"Are you serious? What adult is afraid of turtles?" Scarlett bursts into laughter as Matilda sidles up next to her in a matching outfit, only hers is pink to Scarlett's blue.

"What did I miss?" Matilda, the second gossip queen of the south, asks.

"It turns out, Mr. Big Shot is actually Mr. Scaredy Turtle." Scarlett shakes her head, her grin still wide and amused.

"What's with the matching getup?" Kenny, their boss and owner, interrupts, pointing between the two girls.

Scarlett holds her head high. "It's October, and we're celebrating Halloween all month long with different diner outfits."

"Let's cut the celebration short, shall we? They're too distracting, and they don't go with the culture in here."

"Oh." Matilda slumps her hip against the counter.

"You two are the most exhausting part of my job." Kenny sighs, then nods toward the crowd and clips, "Table seven needs refills, and Mr. Charlie is ready for his bill. Let's not keep our customers waiting, please and thank you."

Cole tightens his lips and busies himself with a new order. I imagine it's not easy for him to be bossed around by a younger guy, especially since Cole was a hotshot lawyer in Charleston before life and pressure chewed him up and spit him back out into Sapphire Creek.

It's why Scarlett calls him Mr. Big Shot.

The previously peppy girl taps at the screen of their POS system with obvious agitation, and once Kenny scurries away, a tray of drinks in hand, Matilda scoops ice into a glass and mockingly mutters, " Please and thank you ."

Scarlett mumbles back, "The things I'd like to say to that petty man."

"Why has he been such a dick this week?" Matilda hisses. "This please and thank you business just joined his vocabulary, and I am so not here for it."

"Same," Scarlett draws out and finishes the simple word with a groan. "He needs to get laid."

"You're not getting any. Yet you're not a dick," Matilda says over her shoulder toward Scarlett, who finishes up on the screen and tears a ticket from the machine.

"You know we're in a bizarre reality when Mr. Big Shot is getting more than us combined, even with his girlfriend living in Atlanta." Scarlett nudges Cole with her elbow.

"There's no reality where I will join this conversation." He holds his hands up, backs away from the bar, and stalks toward the stage.

Nate and I turn toward each other in sync. "Who needs TV when the Tap is so much more interesting?" he muses.

"That's just the tip of the drama-berg around here." I clap his shoulder and jostle him. "You'll get your fill of gossip within your first week of living here. If you actually stick around, that is."

"That's the plan. The sticking around part, anyway. Not the gossip." He swipes his mug and sucks back a gulp.

"You're probably already at the center of gossip, man." I shrug toward the few ladies making eyes at him from the corner. "The second you even thought of buying your parents' house and moving here, everyone knew, and they're ready to pounce."

He follows my gaze toward the women, who curl their fingers in waves at us, then turns back to me with a smirk. "I'm not dating anytime soon," he asserts. "I just want to focus on my daughter and me settling into a new normal."

"Where you're stuck in one place."

"You make it sound like I'm trapped."

"You're not, but do you think you are?"

"I'd only be trapped if I had no other options, but I do."

"But you're choosing this one. Is there a particular reason, or person, you're moving back for?"

"It's stable, and I want us to be around family." He shrugs. "Plus, my parents want to move to a smaller place across town, where my father can stop complaining about how much yard he has to care for, and my mom will stop going on about all the nooks and crannies she has to dust. The timing is perfect."

"And it has nothing to do with who your new neighbor will be?"

"Maren?" His laugh is sad, like he's forcing happiness right after his puppy was run over. "She doesn't even want to be my friend, let alone anything else."

"Is that what she said?"

"Not in so many words, but the obscene number of glares I've received is enough."

"There's a fine line between hate and love, man. Trust me." I smirk and toss the rest of my drink back as Cole grabs the microphone to kick off karaoke night.

After his quick greeting and introduction of the first singer, a short bob of dark hair by the door catches my attention.

Addie enters behind Maren, and she immediately finds me in the growing crowd, her twinkling blue eyes locked on mine.

My fucking heart thunders in my head.

It's the first time I'm seeing her since I left her naked in a hotel room. It's the first time since we agreed to keep things between us secret.

How am I supposed to tamp down the urge to scoop her into my arms?