The Magnolia Sisters (Magnolia Sisters #1) - Michelle Major Page 0,37
way you want.”
“It will,” she answered with a shrill laugh. “I’m the best.”
“Of course.” He nodded. “I’ll wait to hear from you. Thanks for the water, Tammy.”
“Sure thing,” the receptionist called.
He didn’t even care that the other woman had witnessed him begging his ex-wife for something she should be willing to freely give. Hell, Stacy could have offered to bring Violet to the parade if the schedule was so important to her.
His stomach knotted and churned as he walked toward his truck, parked at the end of the block. The late-summer heat wave had finally broken. The unseasonable temperatures gave way to a pleasant cool front accompanied by a gentle breeze.
He’d lived in Raleigh for several years, having packed his beater truck to hightail it out of Magnolia as soon as he’d turned eighteen. At that point small-town life had been like a heavy wool blanket, oppressive and scratchy, weighing him down and chafing at his younger self. Then Violet was born, and suddenly he understood the appeal of a close-knit community.
Even his relationship with his mother had changed, softening in a way he never could have expected. He appreciated what she’d sacrificed for him and his brother growing up. Life and an unhappy marriage had molded her into the woman he’d known and resented all through his childhood.
Parenthood was a great equalizer.
So when his marriage imploded, it had been the most natural thing in the world to return to Magnolia. As a single dad, he needed the support of a community. He needed to know he wasn’t alone.
His hometown was only forty minutes from Raleigh, but it felt like a world away. It also felt like the place he belonged, and he was grateful to the people who had known him forever for taking his daughter into their hearts.
Nothing was more important than Violet and her happiness.
Which was why he forced himself to take several deep breaths and then climb into his truck. As much as he wanted to stalk back to Stacy’s office, picking a fight that would end with both of them going for blood, that kind of verbal sparring would do nothing for his girl. He hoped his ex would see her way to agreeing to the parade. But if she didn’t, he’d get Violet through the disappointment. He’d make it okay for her because she was everything to him.
* * *
“WHAT HAVE YOU done to that dog?”
Avery looked down at Spot, who was nosing around one of the planters of colorful flowers outside the gallery on Saturday morning, then smiled up at Meredith, who approached from around the corner. Avery could feel the stares from the people beginning to line the street along the parade route. She kept her focus on Meredith and Spot.
“I gave her a makeover.”
“She’s a dog,” Meredith muttered. “Not a fashion model.”
“I think she looks cute,” Carrie offered from where she stood in the gallery’s doorway. “Like Olivia the Pig.” Carrie edged back to allow Avery and Meredith to enter the empty space.
Carrie wore a long sundress with a pattern of lavender hyacinths splashed across the front. With her hair gently curling around her shoulders, she looked like a perfect Southern belle. Carrie belonged in Magnolia. Meredith, with her fitted T-shirt, cargo pants and boots, seemed far too nineties grunge throwback for the quaint small town, and Avery didn’t know how to behave in a place where everyone knew her business.
She’d dressed in a pair of tailored viscose trousers and a silk blouse. Her rationale for the formal outfit was that she should show the people of Magnolia she was a professional. She had her life together and couldn’t be swayed in her plan for the inheritance by tiny dancers or personal sob stories or anything of that ilk. But as she’d hurried to the gallery, past families and couples streaming into downtown to kick off the weekend’s festival, she realized her formal clothes would only make more glaringly obvious what she already knew. She didn’t belong here and her father hadn’t wanted her to be a part of his life or his precious town.