Not Alone (21 page)

Tucker would be staying with my dad tonight. He hadn’t wanted to leave his Pappy’s side since he came back into our lives, so he jumped at the chance to stay with him. On the way to Dad’s house, Tucker was quiet and looked deep in thought.

“What’s on your mind kiddo?” I asked as I looked into the rearview mirror at him in the backseat.

“Mom, can I be straight with you?”

Being caught off guard by the seriousness in my nine year olds tone, I answered, “Of course, Tuck, what’s going on?”

“Why aren’t you with Grady? You were the happiest I’ve ever seen you while you were with him, and now that you’re not. You’re the saddest.”

My heart broke a little more, if that could even be imagined. “Tucker, it’s not that simple—“

“Seems pretty simple to me. Just talk to him and see what he has to say. Get him back mom, so I can see you happy again.”

Bless his little heart
. “I’ll try to talk to Grady, but really I am happy with you, Poppy, and our friends, but most especially with you.”

“I know you’ll always be happy with me mom, but your heart deserves to be even happier. Do you promise to talk to him?” he said to me and I took in his puppy dog eyes, that reminded me so much of his father, but I ultimately could not refuse.

I’m conflicted, but nod my head while I said, “I promise.”

I arrived at the bar a little later than I had planned on, due to my dad talking my ear off about trying my best to have a good time tonight. Promising yet again today, and I didn’t make it a point to break a promise, but I wasn’t going to go out of my way to find and talk to Grady.  I was sure I’d have a good time, considering I was with my best friends. Finding a parking spot in the midst of more cars than I had ever seen occupy
Finnegan’s
at any given time, was difficult to say the least. I noticed that the usual
Finnegan’s
bar sign was taken down. That was odd.

I took a deep calming breath and released it before I pulled open the door. Walking into the bar the first thing that hit me wasn’t the massive amount of noise, which was way more than normal, but the décor. The actual bar was now in the shape of a rectangle in the middle of the floor rather than the one-sided counter it was before, opening up more seating along the extra countertops. The liquor was lined up on a new display case, which looked like it was intricately carved out of wood. It was amazing. All of the tables and chairs had been replaced along with the décor. Taking in all of the new rustic accents it made it strangely warm and welcoming. I could tell that Mac and Grady had been extremely busy in the past few weeks, and as much as I hated to admit it sort of, I was really proud of Grady.

Spotting Tessa, who was on her feet doing a half dance half wave of some sort, I made my way through the throngs of people.

“Hey girlie!” She threw her arms around me in an all-encompassing hug. “Glad to see you here. Better late than never!”

I rolled my eyes because usually it was us waiting on Tessa, who seemed to never be on time. I let her comment slide this one time because I could tell she was super excited for her announcement.

Taking my seat next to Charlie, which happened to be the only unoccupied seat, I thought things would be awkward between us, but things couldn’t be better. He had become a really good friend over the past two weeks. I owed him everything, but he said that my friendship was more than enough. And the ability to keep his secret job just that, a secret. He draped his arm around my shoulder and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. I smiled at him, expressing just how grateful I was towards him, but also knowing that nothing will ever come to be between the two of us, and I think we were both ok with that.

“Alright Tess, we are all here, now SPILL!” Toby muttered rather unenthusiastically, earning himself one of Tessa’s famous death glares.

“How do you do that? Your death glare even scares me,” Charlie said.

Looking at her fingernails, Tessa replied while shrugging her shoulders, “What can I say, it’s a gift.”

“Ok, Tess and I do have a major announcement,” Brock said, looking down rather adoringly to his wife. “Honey, go ahead and put them out of their misery.”

“We’re having a BABY!!!” she shouted, raising her hands in the air!

I jumped up and made my way over to her, throwing my arms around her in another massive hug, “I knew it! I’m so happy for you both, you will be amazing parents! We’ve got to get busy shopping!” I was so excited for my best friends, it couldn’t have happened to more deserving people.

“How did you know?” Tessa asked, her brows raised questioningly.

“Tess, you do know that I’ve been your very best friend for the past twenty years, so not much gets by me.” I winked at her.

“Except the things that actually pertain to you,” Toby said quickly then looked in the other direction.

The congratulatory praises die down and we each order our drinks, which was just a simple water for me. I’d already lost weight during the past few weeks due to stress and just the inability to eat anything, but now I was going to try and lose some weight, not for anyone else but for me. And I tried my best to nonchalantly look around the bar for Grady, but came up short.

Mac appeared on stage. “Good evening everyone and welcome to our reveal of the new décor of the bar! Since Grady is taking over the bar for me, he thought it would be only fitting since giving the bar a facelift to also give it a new name. Grady declined coming up here and revealing the new name sign himself. So we have enlisted the help of our favorite local band,
The Nation’s Capital
to unveil it, before they put on a rocking show for us.

I continued to look around for Grady but quickly my eyes sliced to Toby and they narrowed. Of course Toby ignored me as he made his way to the stage with the rest of the band.

Leaning in towards Tessa, I whispered, “Did you know anything about them renaming the bar?”

“Shh…just watch,” she said as she cut me off.

The four members of the band brought out the new signage that would be put up in place of the old
Finnegan’s Bar
sign, but it was covered with a  piece of cloth.

Toby took the microphone, no doubt to make a grand speech.

“Alright everyone! Uou know I’m known for my fabulous speeches, but this one will be short, sweet, and to the point. We are so excited to be unveiling this new sign, not only because this place will always be considered home to us, but also because the new name is very near and dear to our hearts. So without further ado, I give you the new
Finnegan’s Bar
…”

Charlie and Mikey each took an end to the cloth and pulled it off. Immediately the crowd erupts in joyous claps, but I couldn’t get over my shock of seeing what was displayed on the sign. Surely my eyes were deceiving me. Blinking, trying to get my sight focused and my wits about me, I took in the sign again and sure enough the name was still there, staring back at me. Lit up in bright red fluorescent letters, the name
Emmy Lou’s
was illuminated within the darkness of the bar.

Grady named a bar after me?

Why?

“Did you know anything about that?” I asked Tess in a clipped tone.

The look of sympathy in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. Grabbing my coat and my purse, I made my way out of the bar, not focusing on anyone or anything in particular. I knew I had to get out of there.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Grady

Taking in the progress that Mac and I had made with the bar in such a short amount of time, made pride fill my chest. I didn’t have anything else to do with my time so I worked ‘round the clock to get everything finished. Even getting back into woodworking, which was something I had enjoyed in high school. Making the liquor display case wasn’t an easy accomplishment, but it came out better than I had imagined.

Emmalynne was never far from my thoughts, though. Many times I just wanted to pick up the phone to call or text her, but Tessa was great about updating me on her progress.

When I told Mac I wanted to rename the bar, I knew exactly what it should be; a constant reminder that if things don’t work out, I had lost the greatest love of all. But if things went the way I planned, it would be tribute to an amazing woman.

My mom came in for Thanksgiving as planned and I was so thankful to have her here. I needed all the support I could get.

Toby, now being clued in to the disastrous misunderstanding, and Tessa promised they would do everything in their power to get Emmalynne to the bar for the unveiling of the new name.

It was time for my statement, for my actions to speak louder than the words I could ever say. If Emmalynne didn’t finally realize that I loved her, I didn’t know what would.

My mom and I seated ourselves at the back of the building out of the spotlight, but still in a straight path to where I could easily see Emmalynne at her table once she arrived.

The door to the bar creaked open, showcasing Emmalynne, and it made her look as if a beam of light was illuminating her amazing figure due to the sun setting.

Immediately I took in the cast on her arm and the fact that she’d lost some weight. It didn’t sit well with me because I fucking loved Emmalynne’s curves. But she still looked fucking gorgeous.

She quickly spotted Tessa’s animated waving and made her way to their table. I nudged my mom’s arm with my elbow to get her attention and did a quick nod of my head in Emmalynne’s direction.

“Is that her?” she asked as her eyes perked up and showed nothing but affection towards the woman who’d captured my heart.

“That it is. Emmalynne Morgan, and she looks beautiful tonight.” And she did. That lacy shirt was begging for me to rip it off of her. I never thought I’d be one to fall so hard for a woman, but fall I did. I fell head over fucking feet in love with a bookstore owner and fabulous baker from Brown County, Georgia, who had an amazing son that I would love nothing more than to call mine one day. Now, just to make her realize that.

My eyes never left her for a second and I saw every single move that was made at the table, including Charlie putting his arm around my woman and kissing her on the cheek. I knew it currently wasn’t my place to say or do anything, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to.

I immediately tensed up, especially when Emmalynne looked into his eyes with a smile. I hoped to fucking god that I hadn’t lost my chance, all because I sat back and tried to do the right thing.

My mom put her hand on one of my clenched hands and just gave a light squeeze reassuring me that everything would be ok, which caused me to release the grip I had.

The time finally came for Mac to announce the band, and I was glad that this was almost over. I caught Emmalynne from time, to time scanning the area, hopefully looking for me, but that was just wishful thinking. We were seated so far back, that she wouldn’t be able to see me, especially with how dim the lights were. I was so nervous to see her reaction that I was sweating bullets. I was glad that I had decided against presenting the new name and sign myself, because I was sure I would’ve passed out in front of everyone here.

Toby was doing his thing with his speeches. He would go on for hours if you let him. I think he liked to hear himself talk. I could hear my heart pounding loudly in my ears and my throat had gone completely dry. I’d seen the sign, so I knew it was absolutely amazing, pure perfection, just like the woman. Once the cover was dropped, everyone stood up clapping causing me not to be able to see Emmalynne’s reaction. I stood as well and noticed that she hadn’t moved from her seat. She said something to Tessa, then scraped her chair across the floor, took her things, and headed towards the door. What I noticed was that she didn’t smile, didn’t frown. Her face was a blank slate, like she had completely shut down all of her emotions.

And now I had my answer. I fucking blew it. Catching Tessa’s eye she shrugged her shoulders, then headed my way. I sat down, momentarily stunned because my plan had backfired. No, I was supposed to see Emmalynne smiling her fabulous smile, the one meant for me, when she realized that I did in fact love her. I was supposed to go and scoop her up and kiss her like there was no tomorrow. Instead, I felt like I was on the verge of tears. My sun had completely gone. I was in despair.

“I don’t know what happened. I’m going to go check on her to make sure she’s alright,” Tessa said once she leaned in to talk in my ear. Not thinking that I could make a verbal response without my voice cracking, I just nodded my head.

I left the seating area, making my way back towards my office.  I wouldn’t be pleasant company right now, plus I didn’t want people to see the tears that were welling up in my eyes once they spilled over which was going to happen in a matter of moments.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Emmalynne

Did you ever get in your car and drive somewhere and not remember a thing about how you got there? Yeah, that’s about how I was feeling at the moment. Believe me, I knew it wasn’t the safest thing to do, as in not at all. I made it home, evidently on autopilot, because next thing I realized, I was sitting in the driveway of my house. My brain had completely shut down, no emotions at all were crackling to the surface. I think I’d finally reached my limit. He had officially wrecked me.

What I didn’t understand was why he would name the bar
Emmy Lou’s
. He knew that name was special because it was what my mother called me. And yeah, I loved it when he called me that as well, but why name it something to serve as a constant reminder? Why would he do this when he was with that Brunette Bitch?! Nothing was adding up.

Fumbling with my keys several times before I finally pushed it into the lock; and I made my way into my house. I had just placed my keys and purse on the counter in the kitchen when my doorbell rang.

Tessa came barreling in and slamed the door, rage filled her eyes. Obviously she was pissed.