Page 109 of Better Luck Next Time

River sat with that for a moment, thinking, and then nodded. And Finn felt such a surge of relief that he popped a red petit four in his mouth. Then swore because it was the spiciest sweet he’d ever consumed. He gulped hot tea, revealing the first leaves at the bottom.

“Oh, you got one of the negative-energy-flushing ones,” Dottie said encouragingly. “That’ll help you.”

He sure hoped so, because it felt like the roof of his mouth had been burned off between the “sweet” and the hot tea. Maisie glanced at her plate, scrunched her nose, and moved one of the red cakes back onto the serving platter.

“Alan stopped trying to charm her,” River said. “He started sending threatening texts.”

A surge of fury shot through Finn, but River lifted a hand as if to say he wasn’t done. “He actually called her brother Lee, threatening to sue the family company if Lee didn’t pay him two hundred thousand dollars. But Lee knew better than to pay up. He called the gallery, and it turns out Alan’s trying to get them to pay restitution for his ruined pieces. We’re guessing Alan is in debt and he saw Adalia as his payday. He had some BS sob story for why she destroyed the pieces, but the gallery director knew things weren’t adding up. Adalia and Georgie are flying up to New York to meet with her on Thursday afternoon. I think their brother Lee is joining them.”

Adalia hadn’t told him any of that, which felt like a sucker punch. Had he gotten it all wrong? Did she not care about him after all? Those feelings were twined with anger—fury—toward Alan, the man who had hurt her. He had abused his power, his position, to seduce a student and then steal her art…what kind of person would do that?

The kind of person who’d done it before. How many other people had Alan Stansworth wronged? How many other artists had he siphoned talent from, like some sort of energy vampire?

They were all looking at him, waiting for a response, so he collected himself enough to give them one.

“I didn’t know any of that,” he said in a strangled voice.

“A woman’s nothing without some fire in her belly,” said Dottie, reminding him that he was still very much feeling that petit four somewhere in his esophagus. “She has her pride. You caught her at a very personal moment in my art studio—twoif you count the time she told you about Alan at the restaurant. She wants to be seen as a worthy person in her own right, not a collection of problems.”

The way she said it made him wonder if she’d spoken to Adalia, if maybe those were Adalia’s own words she was speaking to him.

She nodded in a way that told him he was onto something.

“But I’ve never seen her that way,” he said honestly. “I only want to help her because I care about her. Because she matters to me.”

“I know that, dear, and I truly believe she will come to that realization too at some point. It’s no mistake that Lola pulled the same draw of cards, in the same order, for both of you. You and Adalia belong together. Cosmically.” She paused and took a sip of her tea. “You had good reason for passing some of the management of the art show on to her, but it seems to have ignited some worry that perhaps you aren’t the type to stick around.”

“But that’s business—that’s not a person,” Finn sputtered. “There’s a big difference.”

River leveled him a wry look. “Doesn’t always feel like business.”

Which meant he’d made a similar mistake. Again. And didn’t that burn. Almost as badly as the red petit four. He popped a green one into his mouth.

Mint. It reminded him of the atrocity he and Adalia had made for dinner that last night. He’d thrown the jar of mint jelly into the trash, only to fish it out, empty it—gagging at the smell—and recycle it out of guilt.

“I don’t know what to do here,” he admitted, glancing around at each of them.

“Give her some space,” Maisie said. “I think she’ll come around eventually.”

Dottie tilted her head. “Yes, I agree. But I also think she might require a sign that you haven’t given up. That she matters to you regardless of whether you’re together. That she matters to you as a person.”

“Of course she does,” Finn said. He shot a glance at River. “I’m in love with her.”

His friend nodded, and Maisie said, “Yeah, we know.”

“And you must find a way to show her,” Dottie said.

“Like Darcy!” he said in a gush.

“Say what?” Maisie asked.

“Like Mr. Darcy inPride and Prejudice.He and Elizabeth Bennet weren’t together, but he made a grand gesture by helping her family deal with a scandal.”

“Finn, my bro, you need to get out more,” Maisie said. But her smile suggested she was totally aware of the plot ofPride and Prejudiceand that she maybe, sort of, approved of his line of thinking.

“Do you know what you’re going to do?” River asked. “We’re here to help if you need us.”

“Are you going to tell Georgie?” Maisie asked pointedly.

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