Chapter 17
Magnolia made sure Eric got into his car and left before she turned for the house. In life, there is a difference between physical exhaustion and emotional. In this moment, she knew what it was to be emotionally drained. Slugging her feet up the steps to the porch, she let her shoulders hunch like they weighed a ton. An unsettling feeling hung in her stomach. This thing between her and Eric was going to get ugly, she just knew it. As soon as she was on the porch, the front door swung open and Dax strolled out with two cookies in his hand. Without a word, he handed one to her and took a bite of the other.
He locked eyes with her, seeming to wait for her to say something. When she didn’t, he walked over to the post next to the top step and leaned against it. “That husband of yours is a character.”
Leaning against the opposite rail, she took a bite of the cookie. The sugary sweetness melted in her mouth before she spoke. “Tell me about it. What a pain in the ass. I don’t even know how to handle this. It’s going to be ugly.”
Dax sighed. “How’d he take it when you told him you wanted a divorce?”
Magnolia shrugged and took another bite. “He didn’t.”
“Didn’t take the news, or you didn’t tell him?” Dax narrowed his eyes at her and that ticking in his jaw was back again.
“I tried to tell him.” Magnolia turned toward him and crossed her arms over her chest. How many arguments was she going to have with men today?
“You tried?” He stood up straight and took a step toward her. “There is no try when it comes to telling someone you want a divorce. You either tell them or you don’t.”
She pushed away from the post and took a step closer to him. “It’s not that easy.” It really hadn’t been. She’d tried to tell Eric it was over, but he wasn’t accepting her answer. How else could she handle it? This was their first interaction since the pancake mistress incident. Did she think her marriage was over? Hell, yes. But conversations needed to be had, and it couldn’t just be a ‘We’re getting divorced. Goodbye.’
Dax slowly shook his head back and forth, then sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “I can’t do this.”
“Wait, what? Can’t do what?” Panic forced her pulse to speed in her veins. What was he saying? He didn’t want to be around her anymore?
“This, Magnolia.” He motioned between the two of them. “He cheated on you for fuck’s sake, and you’re considerin’ stayin’ with that jackass.” He leaned in and hissed, “Even after in the loft yesterday.”
“I never said that.” She wanted to shove him off the porch and kick his ass for even suggesting what happened between them had meant nothing to her. She looked him dead in the eye. “Yesterday meant everything to me.”
“Well, you’ve got a damn funny way of showin’ it.” He turned away from her and marched down the steps.
“Where are you going? We are not done here.” She stomped her foot. The floor board creaked beneath her boot.
He spun around, throwing his hands out to the side with a shrug. “I think we are more than done here. Either you’re getting a divorce or you’re not. You can’t be all over me in lofts of barns one day and agree to stay married the next.”
Magnolia waved her hands. “Shhhh! Do you want everyone to hear us?”
“I don’t give a shit who hears us.” He turned away from her once more.
She called after him, “I’m getting a divorce. I’m not staying with him.”
Dax didn’t stop, didn’t turn, he just… walked away.
Utterly stunned, Magnolia sucked in a breath and took a step forward to go after him. He needed to know she wasn’t playing games with him, she wanted him, always had, and now he was leaving. A ball formed in her throat, the kind of ball she got each time she knew she was going to go have a good cry. Tears stung the backs of her eyes.
When she started to take another step forward, her father spoke from behind her. “Let him go.”
Magnolia spun around, about to yell at him for eavesdropping, but he was still in the house behind the screen door, and the barrier between them cooled her ire just enough for her to speak without yelling. “I have to go after him.”
The screen door creaked open and her father stepped through. He held a kitchen towel between his hands and rubbed them back and forth. “You have to give him some space. Damn it, Maggie, I told you to stay away from him.”
She threw up her hands, now in complete frustration. “Why? Why the hell do I have to stay away from a man who’s so far beneath my skin I can’t dig him out?”
Her father crossed his arms over his chest. “You say that now because you’ve had a rough couple weeks. You’re rebounding.” He pointed in the direction Dax had walked off. “And that man doesn’t deserve to just be a rebound. You cannot ride two bulls with one ass, darlin’.”
“Ugh, he would never be a rebound. I admit I messed up by leaving the way I did and choosin’ a man like Eric, who kept me down so he could put himself up. But I see it all so clearly now. I was young and naïve, but I’m not anymore, and Dax is the man I’m meant for.”
“Maggie, you say that now—”
“No! I don’t care what you or anyone else says about me. I know my marriage only just ended and this is crazy. But read my lips when I say I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks, and I will have Dax because he and I are inevitable.”
The screech of tires made her whip her head around just in time to see Dax peeling out of the driveway in one of the Triple R pickup trucks. Small pebbles shot up and a cloud of dirt covered the drive. The back end of the truck fishtailed as the tires spun until they found traction. The truck lurched forward, the engine revving with effort until he took off down the dirt path. It was like a dark blue streak of metal speeding away from her. Magnolia turned back to her father. “Give me the keys.”
She held out her hand, waiting for him to hand her over a set of keys to the other truck. He hesitated and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m not having you two racing my trucks all over the green earth. He’ll come back when he’s cooled down some.”
“Damn it.” She stormed past him into the house. “That just proves you don’t know him at all.”
Dax was not the type of man to just blow off steam and come back. Magnolia knew the fire in him would consume him if she didn’t stop him. Whatever was happening between them wasn’t just a fling, could never be. They were each other’s better half. She walked down the hallway and turned into her father’s office. The dark oak room was lined with shelves on both sides, and a large bay window was behind her father’s desk. She rounded the desk, coming to stand behind it.
When all she saw were papers lying about, she opened each drawer, shoving in her hands, feeling for the extra set of keys she knew her father always kept. Her hands shook each time she came up empty. There was no way she was letting Dax leave her like this. If he made up his mind not to have anything to do with her then she’d be screwed.
“Magnolia, what are you doing?” Her father leaned up against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest.
Her finger slipped inside a key ring, and a smile spread over her face. She pulled them from the drawer, held them up and shook them. “Victory! I’m going after him.” The keys jingled in her hands as she tried to walk by.
Her father shot his arm across the doorway, blocking her. “Why can’t you just let him go?”
“Because I’ve let him go long enough.” She shoved his arm out of the way and marched down the hall and out the door to find the man she was always meant to be with… Dax.