Page 51 of Getting Lucky

She said it with the faith of a convert.

“So you’re on board with this?” he asked, his gaze starting on his sister and ending on Maisie.

She shrugged. “Sure. I won’t have to spend time with either of them if Victoria’s at the bachelorette party and your father’s with Dottie.”

“Oh no,” Adalia said, setting her doctored tea down on the coffee table with an emphatic smack that implied she’d already imbibed plenty of it. “You’re not turning your back on the bachelorette party.”

“But I’m the co-best man!” Maisie objected. She waved a hand at Jack. “And River and Jack need a buffer.” She’d meant they needed a buffer from Prescott, should he join them, but it hadn’t come out right. A little rush of panic reminded her that this wasRiver’sbachelor party. She was supposed to be upset about that, wasn’t she? Did she really want to be there with Jack? It sounded like a cluster of epic proportions.

“I need your help with Victoria,” Adalia said. “If the message comes only from me, she’ll go crying to Lee.”

“And Lee doesn’t know who I am,” Maisie finished, inclining her head.

“Something tells me he’ll know soon enough,” Jack muttered, but he’d said it almost proudly, and Maisie felt a little swell in her chest. “But Iwouldlike it if you came to the bachelor party too.” The swell got bigger, but his next words deflated it right back down. “And I’m sure River will be disappointed if you’re not there.”

“Okay,” Adalia said, grabbing her drink and starting to pace again. Maisie couldn’t help but smile when Tyrion, who’d sat down to rest, immediately leapt to his feet to join her. Oh, he was a loyal one. “So Dottie will take care of Dad, and Maisie and I will be on Victoria duty. We’ll send Maisie over to your party after she helps with ours.” She nodded resolutely. “We can do this. I’ll call Georgie and tell her our plan.”

Again, Maisie felt a compulsion to laugh, but she didn’t. Because shedidwant the wedding to go well. She wanted it for River. And hell, she wanted the engagement party to go well for Jack’s sake too. Something told her he was depending on it. He’d told her and Iris a little about the arrangements he made earlier, and it was charming, beyond charming, that he was going to so much effort.

Adalia walked off, apparently intending to call Georgienow, and Dottie finished off the last of her tea.

“Maisie, will you be a dear and drive me home?” she asked, just like Maisie had predicted.

“Of course,” she said, but even as she went to grab her keys from her pocket, Dottie shook her head.

“No, not quite yet.” She lifted the green sweater on her knitting needles. “Jezebel’s run off somewhere, and I need to find her to make sure the armholes fit.”

“Um, Dottie, that sweater’s a little big for a cat. I figured you were making something for Tyrion.”

Dottie clucked her tongue, getting to her feet. “Huskies don’t need sweaters, dear. I would have thought you’d know that. This is a dress.”

She disappeared into the house, leaving Jack and Maisie looking at each other. He had a flat expression, but she’d come to realize he looked like that when he hadn’t yet decided how to react. So it didn’t surprise her much when he smiled. This wasn’t one of his big, unstudied smiles from earlier in the night, though—this one took work.

“A dress for a cat, huh? Maybe she’s onto something.”

“Probably not.” She leaned into him a little before realizing what she was doing, pulled by the electric current between them. “I’m sorry he’s coming.”

“Who, River? He has to, given it’s a celebration for his wedding and all.” He’d meant it as a joke, obviously, but it still made her feel self-conscious and raw, which was probably the way she was making Jack feel by bringing up his father.

“It’s okay,” she said, “we don’t have to talk about it. We can spend the rest of the time before Dottie comes back speculating about adding a cat clothing line to Dog is Love. It would totally be on brand, don’t you think?”

He smiled again, and this one was more genuine, more him. “Yeah, I’m sorry he’s coming too. Before the will reading, I hadn’t seen him since I was eleven. He came to visit me a few times when I was a kid. At the time I thought he was trying to get to know me, but I eventually realized he was really testing me.” He shrugged. “He made his call, and I’m grateful for it.”

“What happened the last time he came to see you?” Maisie asked. Because she really was too curious for her own good. And also because she wanted to know how much of a hard time to give his father.

He scratched his jawline, drawing her attention to his heavy stubble. She wanted to feel it rubbing against her thighs again, but not as much as she wanted to hear his answer.

“He offered to send me to a prestigious boarding school, but only if I agreed to completely disavow my mother and sign an NDA of my own the moment I turned eighteen.”

She bit her lip. “You said no because of Iris?”

“This was before Iris,” he said, his eyes flashing. “I said no because screw him. He doesn’t get to make the rules.”

She leaned closer again, needing to be near him without understanding why she did, and he reached out and touched her thigh, his fingers searing her. He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of approaching footsteps reached them, and he jolted away as if she were diseased. That stung a little, but she understood. It could have been Iris.

Instead, it was Dottie, her mouth pursed as she held what had been a cat dress and was now a snarled and ripped collection of yarn.

“I guess we have our answer on the cat dress,” Jack said, giving her a look that she interpreted as a sort of apology. He hadn’t liked being interrupted either, but she understood without him saying so that nothing else had changed. He was still hesitant to explore this thing between them.

---