Page 64 of Getting Lucky

“That sounds horrible. Are all of them at four in the afternoon?”

“Nah. I’ve experienced this bar at every possible day and time,” Molly said, lifting her drink. “Now tell me what’s going on with you. I see that look on your face. You’re fretting about something.”

“A lot of things actually,” Maisie said, taking a sip of her drink too. “I haven’t seen Jack since last Thursday, but he started texting me.”

He’d had a brewery disaster to deal with on Sunday, some sort of commotion in the tasting room caused by none other than Stella and Lurch. Apparently, Lurch had created a distraction so Stella could remove some of the remaining paintings from Finn and Adalia’s Art Display from the wall and hang up a few of her own in their place. But his idea of a distraction had been to release a rat—a pet rat, as it turned out, and thus easily rounded up, but even so. Dottie had apparently taken him aside and given him a long talking-to. Somehow the incident had ended with one of Stella’s paintings being hung in the tasting room, alongside the much nicer work she’d tried to replace. Maisie had seen a snap of it. The goats were all wearing Santa hats and holding forks and knives, surrounding a frightened-looking hen in lederhosen.

Apparently, it had sold to a tourist within two days for an obscene amount of money, and now Stella had another painting hanging on the wall. It just went to show that karma was a crock.

But she hadn’t learned all of that until later. Her heart had sunk when Iris came in without him, but she’d done her best not to show she was disappointed. The last thing she wanted was for another person to communicate to Iris that she wasn’t enough. Two deadbeat parents had been doing that for her whole life.

Instead, she’d swept Iris up in a wave of enthusiasm and introduced her to their new border collie mix, Alfred, who was going to need alotof walking.

Iris’s mood was so buoyant it had surprised Maisie.

“What’s gotten into you?” she’d asked.

“I got some good news from back home,” Iris said.

But the good news clearly hadn’t come from her mother, since Maisie already knew from Jack that their mom had basically told them to get lost for the holidays.

“Is that the kind of teenager statement I’m supposed to pursue until you ‘relent’ and tell me what’s going on, or do you genuinely want to keep this quiet?” she asked.

Iris had laughed at that, and buried her face into the dog’s fur.

“I wouldn’t do that until he’s had a bath,” Maisie said. “Dogs have been known to roll around in poop.” When Iris pulled back in horror, she had to laugh. “He’s clean. I’m just messing with you.”

“I’ll tell you,” Iris said. “But not yet.”

“It’s a deal,” Maisie said, and they shook on it. “Just promise me it’s nothing dangerous or illegal.”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Iris said with a glow so bright it could light a city block. And because Iris was a good kid, once you got beyond her surface surliness, she believed her. So she hadn’t mentioned anything to Jack when he’d texted to explain why he didn’t show. Not that she’d been able to think of anything but him given he’d ended the Lurch story by saying,I missed seeing you today.

She’d replied:Same. I had the door to the storage closet open in anticipation. I even unearthed an old Santa hat you can wear for a follow-up photo shoot.

It had taken him a while to respond to that, but he’d eventually come back with:I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.

But your situation hasn’t changed.

I’ll be honest: I don’t know what to do here. You make me want more than I can give you right now.

What she wanted washim.

She related all of this to Molly, ending with the fact that they’d been texting, off and on, ever since. Their exchanges were somewhat flirty, because they couldn’t seem to not flirt with each other, but they were mostly conversational, deepening the connection between them. She’d learned he was a voracious reader, something she thought incredibly sexy, and that his sci-fi appetite went beyondCowboy Bebop. And he was so invested in making the engagement party special for River and Georgie, he’d spent several evenings and weekends planning it, including Tuesday night, the last time Iris had been to the shelter.

“God, men are sostupid,” Molly said with feeling.

“Hey, I’m right here!” someone said in the background.

“I’m not talking about you,” her sister said, rolling her eyes as she projected her voice. “The world does not revolve around you and your thousands of underpants, Blake.” Turning back to the phone, she said, “Well, it’s obvious he has all the feels for you, Maisie. He’s just being dumb. He’ll come around.” She smiled. “Just make sure to ‘accidentally’ lead him under some mistletoe. Did you get him a present?”

“Yeah. I’m getting everyone presents, although Lee, Prescott, and Victoria are all getting the same thing.” She grinned wickedly. “Donations in their names to Dog is Love.” Her gaze fell to Ein and Chaco, snuggling close.

“Diabolical! I love it. And what are you doing for Jack?”

“I haven’t fully decided yet.” She rubbed a finger around the rim of her glass. “But I was thinking about maybe giving him one of Dad’s watches.” Molly’s eyes widened, and Maisie immediately backtracked. “Is that weird? It’s too much, isn’t it? Or is it cheap of me to regift something?”

“No, Dad had some really nice watches, and you know Mary and I already took the things we wanted from the house. This just tells me that you’re really serious about this dude. Not that I blame you. I saw those pictures. Hell, everyone in my office saw those pictures.”

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