Page 113 of Getting Lucky

Lurch and Stella stood in the opening, Lurch’s face still drawn up like a goat, along with a tall, silver-haired man with a chicken’s face superimposed on his features with paint. Lurch had gotten the short end of that stick—at least the other guy’s face could be washed. They had Lee with them, and the silver-haired fireman was holding him up.

Addy and Georgie hustled up to the front of the room, Finn and River with them. Maisie looked for Jack, assuming he’d head up there to deal with the situation, only to feel a sudden warmth at her side. When she glanced up, he was there beside her, his eyes on hers, a question in his gaze. He reached for her hand, and she gave it to him, his touch sending a rush of relief through her so great she nearly crumpled from it.

Blue grinned at her and stepped off to stand next to Iris. With her updo and dress, Iris looked like the adult she was becoming, but the wave she gave Maisie was all teenager.

“The party has arrived!” Stella said grandly. “I’ll be painting faces for half an hour for my new project, but only if you’re willing to pose nude.” Glancing at Lee, she announced, “I’ve already found my first volunteer.”

Lee pulled away from the fireman a little, wobbling alarmingly, and took a step toward his father. “And another thing. I quit.”

“You’re a disgrace,” Prescott said, his cheeks flushed. “You’ll be back, though. You wouldn’t know how to stand on your own two feet if someone drew a diagram for you.”

He gave Lee a withering look of contempt, which Lee responded to by wobbling a little more, looking just this side of nauseous. Really, if ever there had been a time to vomit, surely it was now.

“He doesn’t need you,” Georgie said, seething.

“He has us,” Addy said, and they fell in on either side of him, each of them taking one of his arms.

“He’s not going to stay here,” Victoria said as if scandalized.

“And why ever not?” Addy said. “Looks like you’re going to have to burn those wedding dresses and all of your monogrammed baby bibs. Either that, or you can take out a personal ad for someone whose last name starts with ‘B.’”

She gaped, wordless, and Prescott gave her another tug toward the door. After ushering her through the opening, he turned back in the doorway, no doubt to make some final pronouncement regarding his ungrateful children, but Lurch slammed the door shut in his face.

“I’m buying you a drink!” Addy said.

Stella grimaced. “Now, don’t you go trying to steal one ofmymen, girly, just because I like the look of yours.”

She gave Finn another of her long, lingering looks, making him edge a little closer to Addy.

Then Jack was turning Maisie around, looking down at her with those deep, dark eyes. Reminding her of the night of Diego and the petting zoo andthem.She hoped that had only been their beginning, and that this wasn’t their end.

But it struck her that his sisters were over there with his brother, and he probably needed to help them work out whatever craziness was still unfolding.

“We have to talk,” he said, squeezing her hand.

“Don’t you need to deal with the fallout?” She gestured to the gathering at the front of the room. Stella was waving around a paintbrush she’d retrieved from her bag, going off about promises being promises while Addy lectured her about consent and Lee teetered some more. “If you’re worried about Stella, I can go with you. But I don’t promise I’ll protect you from getting your face painted.”

“I’m only worried about getting things settled between us. Everything else can wait. I shouldn’t have let the party get in the way in the first place.”

“You know the world is falling apart around us, don’t you?” she asked, gesturing to the rest of the party. People were gawking openly, some taking pictures of Stella and her guys. If this wasn’t on all the local news reports in the morning, it was only Christmas that had saved them.

“The world fell apart this morning, and I’m not doing anything else until we make it right.”

As far as words went, they were perfect. It felt like someone had taken a big dishrag to the cloudy window concealing her future.

“There’s somewhere I need to take you,” she said.

* * *

The park was quiet and cold, its beauty lost to the dark and the winter. But she took Jack by the hand and led him to a wood bench. Christmas lights twinkled from houses in the distance, adding a little holiday sparkle to the view. They sat next to each other, sides pressed together, and he looked at her, waiting.

He probably wanted to know why she’d brought him somewhere outside rather than back to the warmth of her house. Which, fair enough. She was cold, despite having put on her dog-hair-covered coat. (He’d already seen the dress, she figured—might as well avoid freezing). But he hadn’t asked questions in the car. They’d just sat in companionable silence, soaking in each other’s presence.

No one had questioned Jack for leaving the party he’d put on. If anything, everyone had seemed pleased to see them go. She might have made a joke about that, but she wasn’t quite ready to laugh yet. Not until they talked.

“This is where I found Ein,” she said. “I was sitting on this bench, feeling more lost than I ever had. Molly had been getting into a little trouble at school, and I felt like I didn’t have it together enough to take care of myself, let alone her.” She looked down and smiled. “Then I felt something nudging my leg. I almost screamed, thinking it was maybe a bear, but I looked down and saw a filthy, starving, little dog. His skin was raw in patches, and he just looked…he looked like I felt.”

“You found Einstein out here?” Jack asked in surprise. “I thought people bought corgis from breeders.”

---