Not being terrified probably should've terrified him too.
Wrigley padded into the room, giving Mari Belle the same look that he gave the crazy Bliss lady the other night. "That coffee I smell?" Will said.
"Yep."
"Good." He went downstairs, Mari Belle and Wrigley both on his heels, but both of them silent. Not so unusual for the dog. For MB, though-that had Will worried. He checked his phone and found a message from Lindsey-Hanging with Nat and Noah today. Have fun. It took him another minute before he laughed out loud.
"Yes?" Mari Belle said.
Probably would've been nice of him to tell Mari Belle that Lindsey's dress was for her sister's new gown collection, but he liked keeping her on her toes. Instead, he poured a cup of coffee for his sister and let her assume what she wanted. "You here about Aunt Jessie and Sacha?"
Mari Belle heaved one of her trademark sighs and accompanied it with pinching the bridge of her nose. "There's not enough coffee in the world to tackle that one."
Will shivered. Hard to pretend everything was fine and he wouldn't have to pick whose house to go to first for Christmas, with Mari Belle confirming a problem. "They fighting over Donnie?"
"Of all her husbands, he's not the one I would've picked for them to break up over."
Will reached for Vera's strap, then almost cussed out loud when he caught Mari Belle watching.
Aunt Jessie and Sacha's friendship had outlasted three of Aunt Jessie's marriages, a couple of overnight stints in the Pickleberry Springs slammer-We weren't trespassing, we were traversing a different ethereal plane, Sacha had said both times Will bailed them out-and a breast cancer scare for Sacha two years back. Them fighting-over Donnie-wasn't right. Guy was fairly useless, far as Will could see. "Ain't that bad, is it?" Will said.
"It wouldn't be if Sacha would quit having her damn visions." Mari Belle latched on to the coffee and inhaled as though she were looking for life itself. "And if y'all would quit listening to her."
"She's family."
"She's a nut job."
"Still family."
"Aunt Jessie's family. And Aunt Jessie's picked Donnie over Sacha."
Will's stomach flipped as if he were on a roller coaster and dueling banjos rang out between his ears. His momma drank herself to death, his daddy went to prison, he'd had his share of trucks that broke down, his dog died and now the two women who had done the most to raise him-the two women who showed him what true friendship looked like, what supporting each other through thick and thin meant-were letting a man come between them.
His relationship with Lindsey probably fit in a country song too, but he didn't want to think on that too long.
"Lesson in there, Will," Mari Belle said. "Time to pick your smarts over all the psychic woo-woo."
He reached for a coffee cup of his own. They wouldn't agree on this one. Mari Belle never had warmed up to Sacha like Will had.
But then, Mari Belle hadn't been the one in the family telling him to go for his dreams when he came home from Colorado broken. She hadn't been the one telling him he was strong enough to heal his broken heart and find real love one day.
And Mari Belle wasn't the one who believed he should be here, where the music was talking to him again, and where he'd found Lindsey living out a life that was nothing like her dream.
He'd once sworn he'd love that girl with all his heart, forever. The longer he was here, the more he wondered if his purpose here wasn't to find his music but to help Lindsey find her joy.
If maybe the two were related.
Wouldn't be sharing that with Mari Belle though. Not when he already knew what she'd think of the idea.
"Go on then," he said. "Get it all out."
Mari Belle leaned her jean-clad hips onto the opposite counter and gave another big ol' Mari Belle sigh. "You already know everything I'm fixin' to say. So why do I need to say it?"
Alarm bells went off in Will's brain. Loud abandon ship alarm bells. Wasn't like Mari Belle to skip a chance to give him a good what-for. Especially after coming all this way.
"To make yourself feel better?" he said.
"It won't make me feel better, because you'll do whatever it is you plan on doing anyway, and I'll be the bad guy. Again."
Will tugged at his collar. He went for Vera's guitar strap-dammit. Would've been easier to deal with the hootin' and hollerin' than it was to deal with the fact that Mari Belle came up here to tell him she gave up.
She'd just taken guilt trips to a whole new level. "You've never been the bad guy," he said.
"No?"
"You've been the one we count on to keep us straight. Even when we don't listen."
"You don't listen. None of you do."
He spread his hands. "Listening now."
"You didn't talk for a month after spring break," Mari Belle said softly. "To anybody."
Heat crept along his ears.
"And when you did start talking again," Mari Belle said, "you weren't you. Will, I'm happy as anybody that you made it, but you weren't you when you left for Nashville. I kept waiting for Mikey to call and say you'd drunk yourself into a ditch, that you got run over, that they needed me to come identify your body. Do you know how that feels? And now you're going right back to the girl who started it. No telling how it'll end this time."
Will wrapped an arm around his sister. "I'm being smart this time."
He was. He was getting good and attached, but he was being smart. Reminding himself Lindsey hadn't answered a few questions, that she'd given him a deadline, that he was here for the songs.
And if in the process he happened to put that smile on her face instead of the one just on her panties, then good for both of them.
"This time. This time, Will," Mari Belle said. "You hear yourself?"
He did. And he knew what she was thinking. "This ain't like what Momma did." The words left a trail of acid all the way from the bottom of his lungs on out his lips.
Probably because he wasn't so sure it was true. Lindsey wasn't the cheating type, but she was the heartbreaker type.
"You've got a lot of Momma in you," Mari Belle said, soft-like and gentle, which wasn't like Mari Belle at all. "I don't give a good glory what this does to your career. I don't want to lose my brother. She broke your heart. She broke you."
"She didn't-"
"She did, and you talking about this time won't convince me," Mari Belle said. "You want a girl who only wants you once you make something of yourself?"
"Now hold on-"
"Everybody cares. Whether they want to or not, everybody cares."
"So you two had a good talk before she left this morning?"
Mari Belle crossed her arms. "She was quite gracious and polite and said all the right things."
"Bet that put a bee in your bonnet."
"You and I both know it's not what's on the outside that counts."
"Damn right. And she sees me. Not Billy. Not the guy onstage. Not the guy with the fans and the record deals and the big fat bank account. Me."
Mari Belle heaved her he's done gone and fallen off the turnip truck again, bless his heart sigh. "Will-"
"She won't hurt me. Not like that again. I came here for the songs. Ask Mikey. Haven't written this good in years. I've got two more weeks before she's kicking me out, and I'm fixin' to use 'em. Got a good life to go back to this time. Got people who'll keep me going. Being here-I ain't Momma, Mari Belle. I won't give up on life if a girl doesn't want me. I've got people to live for. Got you. And Paisley. Aunt Jessie. Sacha. And a whole lot more."
"You're a damn fool driving yourself to a second heartbreak, you know that?"
Will let himself indulge in a Mari Belle sigh. "You hanging out a while? Mikey's got a girl you should meet. We're going to her place for some ice cream thing tonight."
"You're fixin' to keep on being a moron, aren't you?"
"I'm fixin' to keep being me."
THE DRESS NAT had wrapped around Lindsey made her itch.
Not because there was anything wrong with the fabric, but because Lindsey couldn't help wondering what Will and Mari Belle were doing. If he'd still be there when she got home tonight. If she should've skipped the fitting and date with Noah and stayed home instead. Or perhaps if she should simply toss Will's belongings out the window and change the locks before either of them got more attached.
"You're not going to give us any details at all, are you?" Nat said around a mouthful of pins. They were over the showroom of Bliss Bridal, and Nat was working her magic with the dresses.
"Do I ever?"
"My mom didn't look near as disappointed as I would've expected about Billy being at your house," Kimmie piped up from her block across the room, where Nat's assistant was attacking her with pins too. "It's like somebody slipped a Xanax into her morning frosting."
"So you're saying she's hatching another plan?" Nat said.