Page 125 of Better Luck Next Time

Jack and Maisie exchanged a glance.

“Sure, why not,” Jack said. “My little sister is in charge of this one.”

Maisie’s gaze shot to River and Georgie across the room, but she nodded without asking if they’d be leaving early too. Which was good. She no longer seemed intent on avoiding Georgie.

“Are you sure you want to miss the fun, Addy?” Jack asked one last time.

“Yup,” she said. “I can undress my boyfriend just fine on my own. I don’t need a goat to help.”

Another wince, but a playful one, if that were possible. “Say goodbye to the bro for me,” Maisie said with a wink. “I don’t want to interrupt his sales pitch. Blue already has a box ready.”

Adalia glanced back at Blue’s exhibit as Jack, Maisie, and Dottie walked away, and sure enough, Blue was preparing a box with tissue paper that matched the piece, which was a sensible preparation because the couple did indeed buy it.

After that, the event closed down quickly, and before Adalia knew it, she was giving a closing speech. She thanked the Buchanan staff for helping make the night so successful and told them to head home and come back the next morning at ten to help clear the event space. The remaining pieces would be on display—and for sale—in the tasting room until the new year. They headed off talking and laughing, bound for Dottie’s party, no doubt. Georgie and River gave her final hugs on their way out.

Finally, it was time to leave, and Adalia tugged Finn out to his car and made him get in the passenger seat.

“Do you trust me, Finn?” she asked once they were inside.

He turned serious. “Endlessly.”

She opened her small clutch and pulled out the blindfold he’d made her wear to the Biltmore.

His breath hitched. “Is it a waste of breath to ask what that’s for?”

Leaning over the console, she gave him a slow, provocative kiss, then pulled back a few inches and grinned. “Yes, but that’s a hint.”

He snatched the blindfold from her and slipped it on. “Why are you still parked? ‘We talkin’ or we racin’?’ Go.”

Laughing at theFast Fivereference—she’d “forced” him to sit through it five times, just like she had—she started his car and drove directly to her studio. After she parked, she led him to the front door and then down the hall to the space she subleased from Blue. Finn was an intelligent man, and she knew he likely realized where they were, but that wasn’t the secret. Besides, they both loved the blindfold game.

Holding his hand, she led him to a small sculpture positioned on an overturned metal drum. She removed the tarp and tossed it to the floor.

“Okay,” she said, “you can look.”

He tugged the blindfold over his head and stared at the piece, his jaw dropping. “Addy.When did you find time to work on this?”

“It wasn’t easy,” she said with a wry smile. “What with you being underfoot so often. But I did some of it on weekends, and I’ve gone into work late a few days.” He continued to stare at it, and her chest tightened. “Do you like it?”

His gaze shifted to her, and she saw her answer in his eyes.

She smiled up at him, tears pressing for release. “The piece I showed you before, the first one I made since the whole Alan debacle, represented what led me to you.” She smiled. “Don’t you see? That’s my past, and this”—she gestured to the two-foot sculpture of an anatomical heart that sat on the metal drum—“is my presentandmy future.” A tear slid down her cheek. “With you.”

“Oh, Addy.” Finn crushed her to his chest and kissed her so deeply it made her knees weak.

She pulled back and took his hand. “Let me explain it to you.”

“Okay.”

“Obviously, the heart is made of two different halves. One is rusted tin and the other is shiny but dented aluminum. That’s us.” Barbed wire was wrapped around both sides, but it was thicker on the rusted piece. There were multiple patches on both parts, representing their pasts. A heart locket she’d found in a flea market to represent her mother and a shiny silver business card holder to represent her father. On Finn’s side, she’d embedded a metal key chain with a Duke insignia, and a few bottle caps from Big Catch, as well as small trinkets to represent the lives they’d led before they came together.

His hand squeezed hers. “Addy.”

She smiled up at him. “See the thin line of gold that binds them together? That’s our love. And look at the bottom of the heart.” She pointed to the tip. “The gold is spreading out from the seam, starting to cover the pain we brought with us.”

The gold was partially covered a button with her high school logo and a piece of metal she’d embossed with the logo of the newspaper that had written the libelous piece about Finn.

“Addy,” he said breathlessly.

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