Page 4 of Ms. Fortune
Realizing he’d had to walk across the property from the large garage where the generator was—as well as where my grandfather’s old tractor, the Bobcat, and my truck were parked—I lurched forward and grabbed his rock-solid forearm while demanding, “Did you see someone down by the river just now?” I felt his muscles flex under my fingers.
He gently shook me off of him, his unusual-colored eyes narrowing as he grunted, “No.”
He didn’t elaborate. He never did. Usually, I appreciated not having to entertain him or force any type of false camaraderie. Tonight, I found it annoying as hell.
“I thought I saw someone. It looked like two people.” I shook my head. “Probably just my imagination.”
Risky turned his head and looked to where I had just been leaning over the railing. “It’s pitch-black out here. How could you see anything?”
I hummed in agreement, silently telling myself that opening one of the expensive bottles of wine wouldn’t hurt anything. I felt like I’d earned it after wearing my customer-service smile all night and working overtime to convince myself I wasn’t seeing things in the dark.
I waved Risky off when he offered to help clean the kitchen now that there was light. I wanted to jokingly ask him if he had ever mopped before, but if he answered no in his careless and unserious way, I didn’t think I’d be able to keep my curiosity at bay.
My sense of self-preservation wasn’t as strong as it normally was because my mind was occupied by other things.
I told him I would text him a list of what he needed to work on tomorrow, and we bid each other a stiff good night as he headed toward the foyer that served as the lobby. Common pleasantries always felt so awkward with him. It was like he was a golden retriever pretending to be a human and really sucking at it. I got the sense his goofy, incompetent attitude was a smoke screen for hisrealpersonality, which he kept firmly on lockdown.
Risky never made it out the door. Just as he was about to pull the heavy wood panel open, a furious knocking filled the large entryway. It was late. Considering this was a legendary vacation spot, it wasn’t unheard of that a lost tourist showed up in the middle of the night, seeking directions or a room for the night. Risky turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow, questioning without words if he should answer the door.
I nodded and moved closer to him in case he scared whoever was on the other side.
There was no need for a welcome wagon. The visitor opened the door like she had a hundred times before and rushed past Risky like he wasn’t even standing there. The woman who stormed into the lobby had her arms full of a screaming baby and hysterical tears running down her pretty face.
Without a hello, she sobbed, “He’s cheating on me, Lucky.”
The baby was shoved into my arms as my childhood best friend collapsed at my feet like she was boneless. Risky gave me a questioning look. I waved him off, and he took himself out the door. Once he was gone, I tried to shush both Banner and her little girl. I didn’t want to give the cranky girlfriend at the end of the hall, who was ready to bolt, another reason to complain about her stay.
Banner Gray and I had been besties since middle school. Her parents owned and operated a diner in town. Her family had lived in Blue River for generations. They were tried-and-true mountain folks, just like my grandparents. She came from the type of family I’d always idolized when I was growing up. Her parents were normal and treated her and her siblings like they were the most important things in the world to them. I’d spent plenty of weekends at her house, soaking up the homey feelings.
She and I grew apart when I left for college. Mostly because she was the one who always wanted to leave small-town life behind, and I was the one who actually did it. I never would’ve moved to Denver for college if my grandfather hadn’t made a degree in hospitality management a prerequisite for claiming my inheritance when the time came. In hindsight, I was incredibly grateful for the push. As soon as I moved back home, Banner and I quickly reconciled and put any hard feelings behind us. She was the only one who had welcomed me home.
Things had changed drastically for both of us.
She had a baby now and was married to a guy who was a junior partner at a law firm in Denver. I’d never met herhusband. He was a weekend warrior—a guy who worked several hours away and commuted to Blue River on the weekend, only when the weather permitted it. I knew Banner had been trying to convince him to bring her and their little girl, Rosie, to live with him in the city ever since she’d given birth. He always talked her out of it, saying it was too expensive, and it was easier for her to stay near her family to help with the baby. He wanted to focus on making partner at his firm before relocating her away from her family. Apparently, he had another reason for keeping her in Blue River while he stayed in the city.
I rocked the baby to calm her down and urged Banner to move to the kitchen. It was tricky, balancing the tiny, swaddled body and avoiding getting bloody fingerprints on her. Thank goodness the lights were on when they arrived. Banner would’ve broken her neck with the way she was stumbling over her feet and flopping around. I juggled the soft bundle while I ran water over my cut and wrapped it in a clean paper towel. The bleeding had slowed to a trickle. It wasn’t very deep, but it was right on the bend in my hand, which was going to be a pain in the ass as it healed.
“You were driving in this condition?”
She looked at me with watery red eyes and started to cry even harder at my question. I shook my head and patted the baby’s butt. I wasn’t great with kids, but Rosie was pretty easy. She was only freaked out because her mom was such a wreck.
“That’s dangerous, Banner. Did you come all the way from the city?”
She nodded, grabbing a nearby dish towel to wipe her face. “Our anniversary is tomorrow. Grant was supposed to come home, but he canceled at the last minute. He said he had to work. I thought I would go to his condo with Rosie and surprise him.” She sniffed loudly and stared at her fussy daughter. “I got us both dressed up and prepared everything to make his favoritemeal. I thought we could have a romantic night together and I could convince him it was time for us to be together as a family full time. I don’t care about the money. I can go back to work when Rosie gets a little older.”
She let out an ugly-sounding laugh and heaved a shaky breath. “I didn’t even make it in through the front door before I saw a pair of heels that weren’t mine in the entryway.” Her head dropped, and her dark brown hair covered her pale face. “He wasn’t just cheating. He lives there with another woman.”
I blinked in shock and looked down at the baby in my arms, who had finally stopped screaming. Rosie watched me with her wide, innocent eyes, and I felt my heart drop to my feet.
“You stay at that condo with him when you go down there, don’t you? How have you never noticed another woman’s stuff being there?”
I was baffled, to the point that I couldn’t be as comforting as she needed me to be. You would have to be blind to not see signs that clear.
“We usually stay with Grant’s parents so they can see Rosie. And the few times he took me to the condo, I was never there for very long and only to spend the night. If I did notice something that I didn’t recall leaving there, he would tell me that his sister had left it when she was over.” She started sobbing again. Her shoulders violently shook, and her breath was choppy and uneven. “His entire family lied to me. Everyone covered for him.”
I couldn’t imagine how badly that sort of betrayal must hurt. The best thing about having flighty, uninterested parents was the perpetually low expectations I had for the people who were supposed to love me. That wasn’t the case for Banner. She had grown up surrounded by love and affection. Her parents and grandparents had healthy, balanced relationships. The types everyone would happily wish to emulate. I doubted it’d everoccurred to her that the person she chose to give her heart to could break it without a second thought.
“I’m so sorry. You deserved better than that from all of them. Especially Grant.”
