Page 59 of Getting Lucky

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Iris said. “Do you guys want to see the pictures?” She beamed as she said it, proud of what she’d accomplished, and Maisie marveled at the change in her. So much of her sullenness had been stripped away. For a teenage Molly, the key had been writing. For Iris, it had apparently been dogs. Or whatever else was going on with her that they didn’t know about. Because if she knew one thing about teenage girls, it was that they kept plenty of secrets.

“I’d love to see them,” she said, her gaze shifting to Jack. His eyes were already on her.

“I’d like to see them because you took them,” he said to Iris.

Dustin had never met a picture he didn’t like, and Chewie was just happy to be included, so they all crowded around Iris to see the photos on her phone, and they truly were the perfect union of an ideal specimen and a talented photographer.

“These are going to make us money,” Maisie said honestly. “You did good, kid.”

“Maybe we can even make prints and sell them!” Iris said happily.

“Um, that’s a hard no,” Jack said.

“You won’t do it for the dogs?” Iris said, and Maisie grinned at her.

“Keep working those heartstrings, kid. You’ve got a talent for it.”

Then they scrolled to the last picture—the snap of Jack and Maisie laughing together, eyes and faces bright with it—and he reached around to touch the small of her back. It was a brief touch, but it told her all she needed to know: there might not be something between them yet, but there wasn’t nothing either.

Chapter Twenty

“Shopping in downtown Asheville is nothing like shopping on the Magnificent Mile,” Iris said as she and Jack walked past a yarn store.

Iris and Jack didn’t have many holiday traditions, but shopping on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago had become one of their favorites. It had started the year Iris was eleven. Their mother had made a last-minute date and dropped her off with Jack at work. It was a few days before Christmas, and Iris was upset that she hadn’t bought any Christmas presents yet. Jack got someone to cover his shift, and the two of them went shopping and had dinner. Iris had loved it so much that she’d asked to do it again the next year. After that it had just become their thing.

Their mother had gotten jealous a couple of years ago and insisted on joining them, but Iris had convinced her to stay home by saying they still needed to find her a present. Wanting to dissuade future efforts to interfere, Jack had put extra effort into choosing Genevieve’s gift that year. He really loved his time with his sister, and their mother had a way of ruining things, sometimes on purpose, sometimes because she couldn’t help herself.

“I know,” he said, “but the important part is that we’re doing it together, right?”

“It’s not like before,” she said without any hint of anger or self-pity. “We’re together all the time now.”

He wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did she want to go home? Or was she trying to tell him something deeper? It had been so much easier to read her when she was that mostly innocent eleven-year-old, excited by the window displays.

“I’m sorry we can’t go back to Chicago for Christmas,” he said. “I know you really wanted to see Janie, but maybe you can go over spring break.”

“I wouldn’t have seen Janie anyway. Her parents decided to take her and her brother to Disney World,” Iris said, refusing to look at him. “One last family trip before college. So there’d be no point to going home.”

Was she upset they weren’t doing something like that? He’d never been able to bring her on a real vacation, not on his salary. And their mother had always preferred to go on solo vacations, leaving Iris with Jack or a nanny.

“Besides,” she said, “Mom’s not even going to be there. She’s going somewhere with her new boyfriend.”

“You found out about that?” He hadn’t told her, and as far as he knew, she’d only talked to their mother a handful of times since she’d arrived in Asheville.

She gave him an exasperated look and rolled her eyes. “I’m not a baby. You could have told me.”

“Sorry,” he said. “I just feel like I’ve caused you enough grief. I didn’t want to hand you any more.”

She stopped and looked at a window display of an eclectic gift shop. “We both know that Genevieve didn’t really want to see me. She doesn’t want custody either. It’s all a game to her. You’re her opponent and I’m the prize, only if she won me, she wouldn’t want me anymore.”

“Iris…” His voice broke off.

“Relax, Jack,” she said, making a brave attempt to sound nonchalant, but he’d known her for seventeen years. He recognized the pain in her voice all too well. He’d felt it himself more times than he could count. “I know you really love me, otherwise you wouldn’t deal with all my crap.”

He went to pull her into a hug, but she took off walking again, forcing a cheerful tone as she said, “I need to get Maisie a present. Have you gotten her one yet?”

He nearly stumbled on a crack in the sidewalk. “What? Why would I get her a present?”

“She’s friends with Addy, right? They all seem like the kind of people who’d get each other gifts, and besides, we’re seeing her on Christmas Eve. Wehaveto get her a gift.”

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