Page 22 of Getting Lucky

So he’d been outside helping Dottie cook something—or maybe create something. She liked the thought of him out there with Dottie, playing along with one of her games or ideas. It endeared her to him.

As if you needed to like him more.

“Play any poker lately?” Jack asked, lifting his eyebrows.

She gulped back a laugh, all too aware that Finn and Adalia were looking at them strangely.

“Not for a few weeks,” Maisie said. “But they say it’s like riding a bike. You don’t lose anyskillsif you take a little time off.”

Something flashed in Jack’s eyes, and he opened his mouth to say something, but she never found out what. Stella, of all people, barreled into the kitchen, followed by Lurch, who had a bright pink lipstick imprint on his bald head and a heavy-looking platter in his hands, covered by an aluminum tent. For a moment, the logistics of that kiss imprint boggled Maisie’s mind—Lurch was about a foot and a half taller than Stella, which raised questions about other logistics too. Then her gaze landed on the painting in Stella’s hand.

A naked Lurch stood next to a goose that looked like Diego, hand in wing as if they were shaking on something. Two goats stood behind them, one with a fork in its mouth, the other with a knife.

“It’s calledThanksgiving Dinner,” Stella said proudly, handing it to Adalia. “I know we got off on the wrong foot, what with the chemistry between me and your man”—she nodded to a flustered Finn—“so I brought you a housewarming gift. Well, two, I suppose.”

Adalia’s face lit up, which came as no surprise. Even if she didn’t want a naked Lurch hanging up on her wall, it was exactly the kind of gift she’d find hilarious. “Let’s hang it in the dining room so we can all admire it while we eat.”

Jack’s gaze shot from the painting to Maisie. Probably Adalia had thought he’d object, but he gave a wicked smile and said, “Sure. It brings up lots of good memories.”

Finn and Adalia were looking at him like he’d lost his mind, but Jack didn’t rush to explain himself.

“Oh, you were fond of Diego, weren’t you?” Stella said, reaching out to touch his arm. And even though she was apparently Lurch’s date for the evening, she hung on to that bicep for dear life.

Maisie couldn’t blame her, but she cleared her throat loudly anyway, giving Stella a look intended to remind her of the warning she’d issued a few weeks back. She clicked her teeth together, miming biting. Sure enough, Stella pulled away, mouthing something that looked suspiciously like “harridan.”

It was then that her earlier comment registered. “Wait, did something happen to Diego?”

Lurch lifted the platter and grinned. “You’re looking at him.”

Chapter Eight

Iris was in a mood, and the house was pure chaos. Jack had almost packed his little sister into the car and run to IHOP, which had been their Thanksgiving tradition whenever their mother had other plans, but two things had made him stay. One, he reallydidwant to have Thanksgiving with his newly discovered half-sisters despite all the craziness that seemed to entail, and two, Adalia had mentioned that Maisie was coming.

He hadn’t heard from her, and although he’d thought about reaching out, she’d made her one rule pretty clear: just one night. She’d called him a rule follower, and he supposed that was true for the most part, but as far as he was concerned, she’d shown up on his home turf, which meanthisrules.

Too bad he hadn’t figured out what they were.

Now would be aterribletime to try to start something with Maisie.

Iris’s move to Asheville hadn’t gone as smoothly as he’d hoped. When she wasn’t tearful and withdrawn, she was angry with Jack for moving to “this hippie town.” He had to acknowledge that moving to a new city less than halfway through her senior year had to be awful, but he couldn’t bring himself to go back to Chicago.

Did that make him a terrible person? He honestly wasn’t sure.

Iris had begged him to let her move in with Janie and her family, something they’d agreed to, but Genevieve had been calling and harassing Jack frequently enough that he didn’t dare risk it. Janie’s family didn’t deserve the hassle of dealing with his mother, and he wouldn’t put it past Genevieve to try to coerce Iris back home. Turned out that Iris’s father had caught wind that she wasn’t living with her mother anymore and had cut off his child support checks. (Did he have someone watching her? Jack knew they weren’t on speaking terms.) Jack noticed the asshole hadn’t sent the money his way instead. Not that he would have taken it. At least Prescott Buchanan had met with Jack a few times when he was a kid, before Genevieve got pregnant with Iris (probably his mother’s desperate attempts to rekindle something with his father). His sister had never once met her DNA contributor.

So Jack had told Iris that he was truly sorry, but their lives were in Asheville now, at least for the time being, and once she graduated from high school she could go to Northwestern University with Janie, just like they’d always planned.

Ifshe got in, which was questionable since they had an eight percent acceptance rate, and she was blowing off a good portion of her homework.

Iris needed his full attention. He’d already dragged her away from her school and her friends. He couldn’t add a girlfriend to the mix. It wouldn’t be fair to IrisorMaisie.

All the more reason to blow off dinner and go to IHOP, and yet he hadn’t left. He’d told himself he was sticking around because Adalia would hog-tie him to a chair if he suggested leaving—which was probably true—but he wasn’t a total fool. He’d wanted to see Maisie again. To figure out if that spark was still there.

The answer had been obvious to him before he even walked into the kitchen. He’d glimpsed her through the back door, handing pieces of a broken dish to Adalia, and the surprisingly vulnerable look in her eyes had drawn him away from his post in the back yard.

He was supposed to be on Dottie duty. She was frying a turkey, and River and Georgie had decided she needed strict supervision. They’d all agreed to take turns babysitting her and the fryer; Georgie had even mocked up a schedule. But if he’d learned anything about Dottie Hendrickson, it was that she thought love trumped all other causes. If she’d known why he wanted to be in the kitchen, she would have pushed him inside with both hands.

He’d walked through the door, watching Maisie for several seconds before saying something. He hadn’t planned to mention poker. The words had just flown out of his mouth.

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