Page 22 of Any Luck at All

Had he really quit?

She turned to him, about to say something, but Jack beat her to it. “Dottie happened to mention that the best brewmaster she knows is currently unemployed.” His brow lifted, and he shot a look at River. “Our first executive decision should be offering River a contract to pull us into the twenty-first century.”

Georgie wholeheartedly agreed, even if her heart sunk a little at the thought that he’d become off-limits.

Chapter Eight

“Will you do it, River?” Georgie asked, her eyes glowing.

About a hundred different thoughts ran through his head, but strangely, the one he settled on was disappointment. Turning Buchanan Brewery around would be the achievement of a lifetime—not to mention an homage to Beau—but it would mean he couldn’t date the owner.

He’d be stupid to even think about it.

Of course, he’d already reached the conclusion that Georgie Buchanan wouldn’t want to date him anyway. Hadn’t he?

Sure, but there’d been that moment when he’d almost kissed her…

Both of the Buchanans were looking at him now, silently pleading with him—hell, even Jezebel was giving him a dirty look from atop her perch on the cabinets—and he couldn’t help but think he’d be dumber than mud to turn them down. Even if Georgie and Jack probably shouldn’t be making a decision like this without discussing it with their other siblings first. Maybe they wouldn’t want to play an active role, but they were still partial owners.

But hell, maybe the other two were used to Georgie making decisions for them. She wasn’t the type to hesitate—something he liked about her.

His mind was already spinning as he thought through all the changes he’d want to make—the brews he’d keep and the ones that would go off the roster. Seasonal beers they’d need to get started on now if they wanted to have them ready for fall. Truthfully, it would feel good to innovate again. Success made life slower in some ways—his job had become more about damage control than about creativity, but now he would have a whole new drawing board.

He took a deep breath and let it out. “I’ll do it,” he said, looking Georgie in the eye, “on one condition.”

She bit her lip, as if thinking he might ask for a kiss, and God he wanted to, but he just smiled and said, “I didn’t forget the way your stomach was growling earlier. You should eat something. How about you, Jack? Care for any food? My aunt’s a fantastic cook, and she stocked up the fridge.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “thanks. Don’t mind if I do. She mentioned there was some chocolate cake in there with my name on it.”

Georgie looked at him then, and when their eyes met, she burst into laughter. The sweet sound of it, and the way it made his stomach flutter—almost like he had butterflies, for God’s sake—told him all he needed to know: he was in trouble.

* * *

When River’s phone beeped the next morning, he slapped it like it was a mosquito in his ear, something that hadn’t happened much since he’d done all that camping with his mom when he was a kid. It took a minute for everything to filter back in: in the space of a few hours, he’d quit his job and maybe found a new one.

But he knew it probably wouldn’t be that easy. Georgie and Jack might want to work with him—they’d spent another hour or two discussing his plans and their ideas—but Georgie was meeting Lee, otherwise known as Junior, and Adalia for breakfast this morning. And Lord knew, Junior was going to push hard to sell. Still, he didn’t figure Georgie or Jack as the type to budge.

But did he really want to sit in the middle of a sibling feud?

Yes, he decided—it would be worth it if he could make Buchanan Brewery competitive. It wasn’t the kind of opportunity that was likely to fall into his lap again.

The question of whether he was ready to keep things professional with Georgie was a whole lot less simple. His mouth twitched into a grin as he remembered the way she’d shouted a warning to Jack when Jezebel leapt down to snatch a piece of sausage he’d dropped in his lap. “Careful, she scratches!” she’d said, and given the cat had landed inches away from his junk, Jack had done the logical thing and tried to shoo her off. Normally, that kind of thing would have thrown her into a rage, but she just batted at his hand as if he was playing, and curled up on his lap.

Turned out Jezebel had a soft spot for the younger Buchanan brother.

River checked his phone, saw another three missed texts from Finn, one from Maisie, and another from Georgie. He skipped to that one first:Thanks for being there last night, River. Without you, I’m not sure how it all would have worked out. I hope you really meant you’d work with us, because we’d be lucky to have you.

He grinned and shook his head a little as he noticed the time stamp: 5:45 a.m. Leave it to Georgie to be awake and writing in full sentences at 5:45 after downing the equivalent of four high-gravity beers. She’d told him her breakfast date with the others was at 8:30, in an hour, so he wouldn’t hear anything else for a while.

He ignored the messages from Finn, although from the few words he caught, Finn was still deeply in denial. He knew he couldn’t avoid him forever. There’d be some hoops to jump through for the HR employee, Gladys. He’d need to get that settled before firming things up with the Buchanans. Still, he didn’t feel like eating bullshit for breakfast. He’d much rather get Maisie’s opinion on everything that had gone down.

They’d been friends since he first moved to town—sixteen years, as she’d recently reminded him, and he trusted her more than anyone other than Aunt Dottie. And Beau, but Beau was gone.

Awake, Maisie’s text said,although I didn’t sleep great wondering WTH happened yesterday. I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING. Come over to the shelter, STAT. I’d meet you somewhere, but we had seven puppies come in last night. Chaos. Bring coffee and danishes. Dustin’s been here since 7, so please show some love for him too.

He responded with the thumbs-up emoji and added,Seems like a fair price to pay for your advice. And playing with puppies.

Forty-five minutes later, he knocked on the locked door of Dog is Love. They didn’t open the doors until ten.

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