Page 104 of Any Luck at All

“Trust me, Georgie, You do.”

“What are you doing, Addy?” Georgie asked, nearly too weary to care.

“Trying to make you more presentable.” But then she surveyed Georgie and shook her head. “There’s no coming back from this.”

“What?”

Adalia shook her head, grabbing her upper arms and giving her a grim smile. “Trust your heart, Georgie. I swear it won’t let you down.”

The door opened then, as if the person inside truly were psychic, and Addy shoved her into the room.

Chapter Forty

River hadn’t thought he’d actually have to tell people’s fortunes. Josie had promised to bring Georgie to him straightaway, and since she wasn’t the most reliable person in his acquaintance, he’d texted Adalia to tell him where he was waiting.

You owe me, she’d written back.I think I’ll take an art lesson with Dottie as my payment.

Your funeral, he’d replied.

So when the first person knocked, his heart leapt in his chest, and he jumped off the bed, nearly tripping over a tent pole in his haste to answer.

He opened the door, ready to let all the things he’d been feeling pour out. Ready to tell Georgie the fullness of what he felt for her, but he only got two words out—“I love”—before he realized it wasn’t Georgie at all, but Blanche the brewery accountant. Blanche, who’d openly ogled him every time he came over to see Beau, even though her twin sons had been two years ahead of him in high school. She’d been one of the first people to congratulate him on getting the job.

She beamed at him, fluffing her bouffant of peroxide-blond hair.

“—telling fortunes,” he finished lamely.

Her face fell a little, but then her gaze landed on the tent setup. He’d turned on the twinkle lights Josie had used to line the edge of the tent and switched off the overhead light, thinking it would create a more romantic atmosphere. He’d set out two large floor pillows on either side of Josie’s crystal ball.

“Ooh, that looks cozy,” she said with a wink. “Why don’t we take a seat?”

Perhaps he’d been too successful.

“Um, I can already see your future,” River said, waving his fingers through the air as if pulling back the celestial curtain. “You’re going to have a grandchild within the year.”

He’d thought it a pretty innocuous thing to say—one of the twins’ wives looked so pregnant she was probably on her way to the hospital—but she gasped as if scandalized.

“I knew it, the little hussy,” she snapped. “I told her this would happen if she didn’t stay away from the brewery.” Which was when he remembered she also had a twenty-one-year-old daughter. “Which one of ’em did it? Huh? Was it Daniel?”

What in the world had he gotten himself into?

“Uh…the future is too hazy for me to see anything else.”

“Can’t you try the ball?” she asked, gesturing to it.

“The reception isn’t great in here.” He gestured to the walls. “You know what it’s like with these old houses. Thick walls.”

She pouted, and it seemed like she was on the verge of saying something else, but someone knocked on the door.

River practically lunged for it, but it wasn’t Georgie.

“River,” Tom said with surprise. “Why weren’t you at the party earlier?”

Blanche pursed her lips and stomped off. River had a feeling Daniel was about to get an earful.

“Thank God it’s you,” he said, pulling Tom inside. He saw the long line of people waiting to have their fortunes read. Should he just leave? Call Georgie so they could have this conversation over the phone?

But if Josie and Adalia really followed through on their part of the bargain, this would be the best place for him to talk to Georgie tonight. They certainly weren’t going to get a moment alone anywhere else. Even from this room, he could hear the shouting and music—was that K-pop?—from the backyard. He lifted the curtains and glanced out the window, hoping he’d get a look at her, but all he saw was Lurch riding a donkey.

---