Page 91 of Any Luck at All

“No”—she reached for his arm, but he pulled away. “No,” she added in a smaller voice. “I just wanted you to know what I was planning. That I had a way to make it right.”

There was that phrase again:make it right.

Was there a way to make it right? If so, he didn’t see it. Here he’d thought he and Georgie were a unit, that they were in this together—the brewery, their relationship—but she’d known about this and kept it from him. She’ddeceivedhim. Beau had used him as a pawn. And Jack clearly didn’t trust him (and now he knew why).

He was done with the Buchanans. Some things, once broken, could not be pieced together. Glue didn’t hide the cracks or fix them.

“You think I’m perfect, but I should have told you before…I’m not. Not even a little,” he said, hanging his head. “I can’t do this. I’ll be there Saturday night, so you don’t have to tell anyone yet, but you’re going to have to find someone else for the job.” And though it felt like he was ripping himself apart, he added, “I quit.”

With that, he turned and walked away. He left through the front door, and Georgie didn’t try to stop him, but Adalia called to him from the side of the porch.

“Excuse me for saying so, but your friend is kind of a jerk.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that.He’s not my friend anymoredidn’t feel precisely true, and he actually wasn’t pissed at Finn for telling him, or even for the way he’d told him. (River had put him into a corner.) So he just shrugged.

“I don’t know what happened,” she continued, completely serious for a change, even as she sipped her wine. “But you’re making a mistake. I’ve never seen my sister look at someone the way she looks at you. You belong together. To hell with the rest of our family.”

Only it wasn’t Jack or Lee who had hurt or wronged him, not really.

“Good luck, Adalia,” he said. “I’m glad you and Georgie are here for each other.”Thathe could say and mean. And after he did, he walked away.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Georgie watched River walk out the front door, and it felt like her life had just walked out with him, which was ridiculous. They hadn’t known each other for long enough for her to feel this devastated.

Yet she was. Her heart might as well have been ripped to shreds by Jezebel’s deadly claws.

Tears streamed down her face as she wondered how to fix this, but the sound of his car starting made her realize they were over…and they’d barely just begun.

“Georgie?” Adalia said, walking through the front door with a glass of wine.

Georgie heard the worry in her sister’s voice, but she didn’t answer, just stared at her sister in shock. Fifteen minutes ago, she’d been consoling Adalia. Now she was the one who was broken.

“We’re cursed,” she whispered. “Mom. You. Me. We’re cursed in love.”

Adalia’s lips pressed into a tight line. “I don’t know about that.” She grabbed another glass of wine up off the counter. “Here. You need this.”

Georgie absently took it, her heart breaking a little more at the sight of the third full glass. “I’ve lost him.”

“If he’s willing to just walk out like that, then maybe it’s for the best,” Adalia grumbled. Her eyes narrowed on her sister. “You should sit down. You look like you’re going to pass out.”

Georgie shook her head in dismay, still in shock over what had happened. How quickly it had all gone wrong. “I should have told him.”

“Sit.” Adalia gave her sister a tiny push into the chair Georgie had sat in the night of the beer tasting, that night she’d first realized River was different. Special. He’d gone out of his way to put her at ease and make her laugh. She’d never felt so comfortable with another man…and now…

Tears welled in her eyes. “I have to call him. I have to explain.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Georgie,” Adalia said softly. She’d gone back to the counter for the bottle of wine and carried it over by the neck before sitting in the chair across from Georgie. “At least notyet. He needs to cool down first. In the meantime, how about you tellmewhat’s going on.” Adalia poured more wine into her glass. “How did this thing between the two of you happen? I’d like to hear the other stories you mentioned too, if you don’t mind.”

Georgie ran her free hand through her hair, which reminded her she had a perfectly good glass of wine in her other hand. She took a generous gulp. “I started falling in love with him here at Grandpa Beau’s house. At this very table. Over beer.”

And she realized it was true. She’d heard of people falling in love that quickly, practically at first sight, and thought it was ridiculous. Nonsense. But River…everything about him had broken all of her rules, all of her notions about life. And now she had lost him.

A sob bubbled up, but she swallowed it back down. She couldn’t let herself fall apart.

Adalia narrowed her eyes again. “Okay, I’m not sure which topic to focus on, so I’ll pick neither and jump to the giant elephant in the room. What was that guy talking about with Grandpa Beau’s will?”

“This was supposed to be River’s,” Georgie said with a soft cry, her heart twisting in torment, not just over her loss, but at the knowledge of how betrayed River must feel. By her. By Beau. By his own aunt. “The house. The brewery,” she choked out as she broke down. “He was supposed to inherit it all, but then Grandpa Beau invited me to visit, and after I left, he changed the will.” She looked at her, pleading. “I didn’t know, Addy. I swear.”

---