Page 12 of Better Luck Next Time

“Sort of.” She didn’t feel like telling him what she was really up to. Not after what he’d said to her. She was worried she’d see disappointment in his eyes, although for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why his opinion mattered. “But mostly playing the ‘Who are you?’game.” She was slightly embarrassed to admit it, but it felt safer than talking about the résumé. Or her art.

He leaned back, his upper shoulder pressed against the railing around the small seating area, his arms crossed over his chest—did he always wear button-downs or polos?—and an amused look lit up his eyes. “Okay, you’ve got me. What’s the ‘Who are you?’ game?”

“It’s simple,” she said, leaning forward, sure this would scare him off. He might talk like a poet, but he was still a rich boy businessman. His name was Finn Hamilton, for God’s sake. “You find someone walking by and come up with a story about who they are and where they’re going.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“I’ll start.” She scanned the street and found the mother pushing the stroller as she emerged from a store. “That’s Willow. She’s a former executive of some BS company from Charlotte—they probably made toilet paper or something. Then her husband got a hair up his butt to move to Asheville. She was reluctant at first, but see that yoga mat sticking out of the bottom of the stroller?”

Finn turned slightly, nodding when he caught sight of the woman.

“She joined a Mommy and Me yoga play group and she’s considering becoming a yogi.”

His slight smile turned into a full-blown amused grin. “And her baby’s name?”

“Fig Tree, Tree being the middle name, of course.”

“Of course,” he said, still smiling. “But you never said where they were going.”

“Home. The baby’s about to go down for a nap and she’s eager to try the tantric sex method she learned from the instructor while they sipped organic oolong tea after class.”

Adalia had said it to shock him. She was pretty good at catching people off guard, and she’d come to recognize it for what it was—a defense mechanism to keep others at a distance. And she definitely needed to keep Finn at a distance. Only he didn’t look as taken aback as she’d expected. Instead, he pursed his lips as though giving it some thought. “Interesting how you jumped right to sex.”

A slow smile spread across her face. He’d surprised her, and she delighted in surprises.Goodsurprises. “You disagree?”

He let his arms drop to his sides and sat up slightly. “No, quite the opposite.” He turned slightly to glance at the woman before turning back to Adalia. “I’m sure her husband is already waiting at home, ready to strip her naked the moment she walks through the door.”

The way he said it made Adalia shiver with anticipation, but she mentally shook herself. This was Finn. The man who’d betrayed River by selling Big Catch to one of those mega conglomerates with so many product lines the people who ran it probably only knew about half of them. Finn Hamilton was much too good-looking, rich, and cocky for his own good. He was used to getting anything and anyone he wanted, and she wouldn’t be one of his conquests. Not her and not her art either.

Then again, he wasn’t coming on to her.

“Okay,” Adalia said with a mischievous grin, picking up her coffee. “Your turn.”

His eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together. “Okay.”

He scanned the area, waiting for someone to catch his attention.

“I understand if you’re intimidated,” she teased, then took a sip from her mug.

“You underestimate me,” he said with an evil chuckle.

She perked up an eyebrow and tried to suppress a grin. Who would have thought Finn had a playful side? Granted, she barely knew him, but he hadn’t made a great first impression. She’d met him the night she’d flown back into Asheville, which was when he’d dumped an ice-cold bucket of hard truths on River.

Grandpa Beau had worked as many twists and turns into his will as a spy novel. If the Buchanan siblings failed to place in the top five in a national brewing competition next year, the brewery would go to River. Something Georgie had known about but hadn’t yet had the heart to tell River. Finn’s revelation had split them up, and even though the breakup had been brief, it had caused Georgie pain. She shouldn’t forget that, yet her opinion of Finn kept bouncing back and forth so fast it was giving her whiplash.

“Okay,” he said, casting her a playful look. “That guy at ten o’clock.”

She glanced around. “I don’t see a clock.”

“No,” he said with a groan. “I’m the center of a clock and he’s at my ten o’clock.”

“Why areyouthe center of the clock?” she asked, biting back a smile. She shouldn’t encourage any playful banter between them, but she was finding it hard to resist. “Why can’tIbe the center of the clock?”

He groaned longer. “Fine. You can be the center of the clock. He’s at your four o’clock.”

Her mouth twisted to the side. “I prefer twenty after, thank you very much.”

She kept a straight face for all of a second before she burst into giggles.

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