Page 98 of Any Luck at All

Dottie gave her a long look. “Don’t make any decisions yet. Just come to the after-party and then sleep on it, okay?”

Georgie shook her head. “I think I should just go home, Dottie. Besides, it’s for the employees, people who knew Beau, and I’m just the estranged granddaughter who came in and stole everything.”

Tears swam in Dottie’s eyes. “You are so much more than that, Georgie, so much more. Just give him a bit of time, okay? Because not only are you exactly what Buchanan Brewery needs, you’re what my nephew needs too.”

Georgie shook her head more vehemently. “No. He needs someone he can trust. Someone who won’t lie to him and take advantage of him. He needs someone who won’t let him down.”

“Oh, Georgie,” Dottie said, cupping Georgie’s cheek. “That person doesn’t exist. No matter how much we try, we willalwayslet down the people we love. It’s human nature. But it’s how you come back from it that matters.” She leaned closer and whispered, “Just give him more time.” She pressed something into Georgie’s hand and then walked away, calling over her shoulder, “And youwillcome to the after-party. Not a single one of us will take no for an answer.”

Georgie opened her hand to see a two-inch, smooth, bright blue, striated stone with a small slip of paper. Dottie had written:

Blue Lace Agate—good for communication and purification. Just rub your fingers over the stone. All will work out in the end, Georgie. Have faith.

Love, Dottie

Georgie only hoped Dottie was psychic too.

With a sigh, she helped the staff shut everything down. Turned out she was going to the party after all.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

All of that, and he wasn’t going to make it.

River had spent an uncommonly long time getting ready for the closing party, especially since he’d ended up choosing exactly the sort of outfit he always wore, a short-sleeved button-down and khakis, Beau’s watch tucked into the pocket of the pants. Georgie had encouraged him to be himself, and he couldn’t be himself and also wear a suit. But he’d walked out of the room to find Hops with melted chocolate all over his fur. For a moment, he’d thought the dog had had a massive accident that he’d maybe rolled in, but then he’d found the chocolate wrapper by the couch. Turned out his aunt had hidden a dark chocolate bar for him at Easter—Easter—without telling him. Which might have been a nice surprise if he’d found it in April.

He’d panicked and immediately called Maisie, who’d walked him through what to do, which had involved giving Hops hydrogen peroxide to throw up. He’d needed to repeat it a couple of times before Hops actually vomited out the chocolate, and by then both of them were a mess, and slightly hysterical too. He’d changed his clothes and dropped Hops off with Maisie, who was at the shelter, not wanting to leave him alone after what had surely been a traumatizing experience. (Or at least it had been traumatizing for River.)

As a nice bonus, one of Hops’s sisters had been back at the shelter. She hadn’t worked out with her foster family owing to some antagonism from a cat who sounded a bit like Jezebel, so she was temporarily staying with Maisie. But he hadn’t stuck around to watch the big reunion. One glance at Beau’s watch told him all he needed to know—he wasn’t going to make it. Or if he did, it would be too late for him to pull Georgie aside so they could talk privately.

Aunt Dottie had texted and called him half a dozen times. (So had Adalia, whom he’d talked to after his call with Jack.) Georgie hadn’t said a thing, although no doubt she had to be assuming the worst. He had a pit in his stomach at the thought of what she must be thinking, and he also felt the ache of having missed an event he’d helped plan. The end of an era.

He texted his aunt:I had a situation with Hops. Please, please, please make sure she goes to the after-party.

She responded with a golden ring icon, which made him cringe a little.

We’ll see. Most couples don’t get married after two weeks. Some don’t even get married after twenty years. ;-)

Not that he’d wait twenty years, or even one, if Georgie forgave him. But he wasn’t about to encourage Aunt Dottie.

He sent a quick text to Adalia too, repeating the story about Hops and the request that she encourage Georgie to show.

Roger, she responded.But, oh boy, you better turn on the charm. You owe me one.

As if his stomach weren’t already in knots…

His call with Jack had been awkward, the way video calls usually are when they’re with near-strangers. Especially near-strangers who didn’t like you. But a phone call wouldn’t have cut it, because he’d needed Jack to see how much he meant it when he said, “I’m in love with your sister.”

That’s the way he’d answered Jack when the guy had asked if anything had gone wrong with the party planning, and then, after glancing around the loft, where River was calling him from.

Jack had looked pissed at first, understandably.

“Did you not read the addition to the employee manual?” he’d asked. “Or did you just fail to understand it?”

“Oh, I understood it, and we both know why you insisted on making that addition,” River said. “But I’m pretty sure she’s in love with me too. I know about the will now, Jack, and you need to know that I would never, ever sabotage Buchanan Brewery.” He swallowed. “Not just because it’s Georgie’s, but because it was Beau’s.” And because River would never do something like that anyway, but Jack struck him as a guy who liked solid reasons for things.

“You didn’t know all along?” Jack asked, looking at him as if he were a human lie detector test.

“I didn’t have a clue. We’d talked about his will before, and he knew I didn’t expect anything from him. He gave me more than enough while he was here.” And as he said it, he knew it was true. Whatever faults Beau had, he’d come by them honestly. He wouldn’t have intentionally made River feel used or disposable, not after all he’d done for him. “He was important to me. That means all of you are important to me too.”

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