Page 8 of Better Luck Next Time

She reallywaspathetic.

Finn knocked again. “Adalia. Please. If you’ll just listen to what I have to say…”

Jack reached for the doorknob, but Adalia put her hand on his. “Stop. I’m just being ridiculous. I’ll talk to him and send him away.”

“You sure?” Jack asked, his brow lifted.

“Yeah, but I definitely could have used you a few months ago.” Before he could ask questions, she pulled the door open.

“You have ten seconds to tell me why you’re here—then we’ll pretend like this never happened.”

Finn looked surprised, then turned serious. “I guess I better get started.”

Chapter Four

Dottie had come back to find Finn holding that wet, ruined painting, feeling both lost and found.

“Oh,” she had said, nodding. “I wondered if you two would run into each other.” She hadn’t commented on the painting.

And while she really had gone out to get some cream, or at least she’d gone to the trouble of buying some while she was out, he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d set this up. If she’d known, somehow, that seeing Adalia out in the studio—releasing her soul onto that canvas—was exactly what he needed.

He hadn’t ended up telling Dottie about the whole Big Catch thing, if only because the Big Catch thing was now very much at the back of his mind. He had a new idea, and he was nearly bursting with it.

If not for Dottie’s gentle admonition—“Dear, give her some space. Anddotake a shower. If people see you out on the streets looking like that, I shudder to think what the next article will say.”—he might have left for Beau’s old house then and there.

Instead, he had gone home and showered. Because it was a fair point.

Now, standing on Adalia’s doorstep, it occurred to him that Dottie had probably meant that he should give her more than a few hours.

Still, he was nothing if not dogged. He wasn’t going to give up just because she was frowning like she’d caught him leaving a flaming bag of dog poop on her porch.

“I have a proposition for you,” he said.

“Oh boy, you’re not off to a good start,” Adalia commented. It was only then he noticed the big, dark-haired guy looming behind her. Jack, doing the whole big brother thing. They’d met in person a few days ago at the reopening of Buchanan, and he’d been perfectly friendly then. Not so much right now.

“Explain yourself,” Jack said flatly.

“When I saw you—”

Adalia’s scowl deepened, and she turned to Jack. “Can you give us a minute?”

“Did I just get upgraded from ten seconds?” Finn asked. And immediately regretted it when they both glowered at him.

“I’ll be upstairs in my room,” Jack said as if he thought Finn might take advantage of his sister in some way. Had he met her?

Adalia just nodded, but when Finn tried to come inside, she blocked his path. Moving her index finger back and forth, she said, “Nuh-uh-uh. To the back porch with you.”

He was happy enough that she’d agreed to talk to him that he didn’t push his luck. Even if it would have been much quicker to cut through the house. He started walking around, figuring she’d follow him, but he heard the door shut behind him.

Was this her way of getting rid of him?

He circled around anyway, his mind buzzing, and found her waiting on the chair that her grandfather used to favor. Did she know that, or had she just felt drawn to it?

She pointed to the other chair, which was unnecessary—there was only one—and he sat.

It was obvious from the look on her face—and, well, the fact that she’d made him tromp around the house—that she was still angry, so he did what he should have done in the beginning. He apologized.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I swear on all that’s holy that I didn’t know you were there. Dottie invited me over for tea the other day, and I wanted to talk to her, and then I heard you scream. I was worried that someone might be—”

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