Page 36 of Better Luck Next Time

Except Lee liked her too, Finn was fairly certain. And if he could help her heal whatever had happened between them, he would. River was right. She needed friends right now, all of the good ones she could get.

“I sure do,” Jack said, “but you’re not going to like me after I make you drink this.”

Finn and River followed him up the stairs as he set Adalia on the chair he’d just vacated. Dottie grinned at them from her seat, not in the least bit perturbed by the situation. Sure enough, there was a glass cup on the little table between the chairs, its contents a somewhat alarming shade of red.

Jack handed it to Adalia, who gave the contents a big sniff and cringed. “Is that…fish?”

“No, dear,” Dottie answered. “With your brother’s permission, I’ve set up a few sardine traps to lure our girl home.”

Our girl being Jezebel. A quick glance revealed there were indeed open tins of sardines on either side of the porch. Huh. Jack might have taken a while to come around to Dottie, but he’d already gone to extremes to please her.

Jack shrugged self-consciously. “I don’t mind the cat. Besides, she’s our mascot for the sours. We need her.”

“My brother, the cat whisperer, ladies and gentlemen,” Adalia shouted.

A woman on the porch of the house next door flinched upon hearing the word “cat” and hurried inside.

“Adalia, you’d better drink that,” Finn said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

He hadn’t meant anything by the casual touch…or maybe he had. Either way, Dottie’s eyes instantly fixed on it.

“I take it your visit to Lola went well?” she asked.

“She basically told us we’re soul mates, so it went swimmingly. Swimmmmingly,” Adalia said, grinning.

River shot a look at him, and Finn realized he’d never told him what, exactly, Lola had said. Only that it had seemed legit.

Which meant River now knew Finn considered it possible that he and Adalia were meant for each other. He was surprisingly okay with that. At least his friend knew he was serious.

“Oh, that’s not news to me,” Dottie said, sweeping the air in a dismissive gesture. “Now, down the hatch, as they say.”

Adalia scrunched up her nose and gulped the red drink down.

“Is that the one I’ve had?” Finn asked Dottie in an undertone. The memory made him shudder. Tomato juice, a raw egg, and other “secret” ingredients Dottie had refused to divulge.

“With a twist,” she said.

“Dear God,” Adalia said, putting the glass down with a resounding click. “Is it supposed to cure me by making me puke?”

“No, but it is sometimes an unintended consequence,” Dottie said.

Adalia hung her head between her legs for a few seconds, but then she sat back up, and her eyes already looked a little clearer.

“Can someone please get me a Sprite or something? Pronto? I might actually die if that taste stays in my mouth.”

“Coming right up,” Jack said, disappearing inside.

Except several minutes passed without any sign of him, and Adalia seemed like she was in legitimate pain.

“I can go check on him,” Finn offered, after what seemed like Adalia’s sixth groan.

“It’s an eighteen-hundred-square-foot house,” she said. “I doubt he’s lost. But yes, please God. My kingdom for a Sprite.”

He knocked a couple of times before walking in, figuring it was the least he could do given it wasn’t his house, and made his way into the kitchen. He could see Jack through the plate glass door, an unopened can of Sprite in his hand, his cell phone pressed to his ear as he leaned against a support post.

He had an intense look on his face, nothing like the relaxed guy who’d been chilling on the porch with Dottie.

It didn’t look like he was going anywhere in a hurry, so Finn continued on to the fridge and grabbed another can of soda. But before he could turn back, he heard Jack say, “I wish you were here with me now.” A pause, then he added, “I know you wanted this. And so do I, but a few months feels like a long time right now… I don’t trust her.”

---