Page 14 of Another Last Call
Maggie finally smiled. “Yeah. Alison comes back and visits her parents pretty regularly. I’ve been to visit her a couple of times. That’s where my tattoo artist is, so it works out well.”
She told me about the rest of the group. Most of them had moved, she said, but a few were still around, mostly on nearby farms. Of everyone, it sounded like Maggie was the only one who stayed in town permanently. There was a sadness in her voice, and I wondered how she had really been.
“The town’s changed a lot,” I said.
She nodded. “I cried when they closed the ice cream place.”
“What happened to it?”
“Mabel wanted to retire,” she said. “They wanted to sell the business as was, but those developers just… they come in and they make offers people can’t refuse, you know?”
“Has your mom gotten offers on The Sea Glass?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not yet. We’re off Main, so we’ve got that going for us. But I’m sure it’ll happen one day.”
“Do you think she’d sell?”
Maggie shrugged. “I think it would have to be a hell of an offer. I’d be mad if she sold it, though.”
“You wanna take over one day?”
A sweet smile spread across her face. “You know, for a long time, I kind of hated that it felt like my life was set out for me and that all I was going to be was a bar owner one day. But I kind of like the idea now. I just wish…”
“Wish what?” I asked when she trailed off.
She shook her head again. “Nothing. I hope she doesn’t sell it and I can take over. If she does, I don’t know what I’ll even do.”
Her voice took on that sad tone again and I itched to wrap my arm around her shoulders and tell her it would all be okay.
“You’d be damn good at running that place,” I said instead.
“Yeah. And I could dump all the beer I wanted on asshole tourists who try to pick me up.”
I burst out laughing. “What?”
She looked at me, a mischievous lop-sided smile on her lips. “Don’t worry. You have nothing to worry about. You’re not a tourist.”
The words hung there for a moment, tense and inviting. I wasn’t entirely sure if she was implying I could try to pick her up. I mean, she might have just been saying that I wasn’t an asshole.
But I was kind of hoping it was that first thing.
Before I could figure out what to say next, though, Maggie shivered and pulled the flannel around her more tightly.
“You cold?” I asked.
“A little. It’s, um, pretty late.”
I pulled my phone out and looked at it. “Shit, you’re right. I lost track of time.”
She bit her lip. “Are you wanting to go home?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “But you should, if you want to. Did you walk here? I can drop you off.”
Maggie’s eyes seemed to twinkle. “I don’t think that’s necessary. My place is closer than your truck is.” I was confused and she rolled her eyes. “There’s an apartment above the bar. I live there now.”
“I would never have guessed.”
“Come up and see it,” she suggested. “We can have a beer and warm up.”
