Getting Lucky

by A. R. Casella

Jack closed the distance to the table, feeling guilty that he was about to eat a home-cooked meal while Iris was at home eating leftover pizza. But he knew she’d never want to come, and truth be told, he really did want to get to know Georgie better. Even if part of him still resented her a little.

  “Have a seat,” River said, gesturing to the chair closest to him.

  He sat while River headed back into the open kitchen. “What can I get you to drink? A beer?”

  “Water,” Jack said. He’d already had enough bourbon at the restaurant.

  River got him a glass of water, and Georgie brought out a basket of rolls before they both sat at the table.

  “You didn’t have to feed me,” Jack said, his stomach growling at the smell.

  “We’ve been wanting to spend more time with you,” Georgie said, digging a serving spoon into the casserole dish and serving Jack some pasta. “Your offer to plan our engagement party was more than generous.” She shot a look at River. “Especially since some of Dottie’s more eccentric ideas might need a second eye.”

  He held up a hand. “Before you say that, you might want to hear what Addy and I were discussing.”

  “Shoot,” River said, resting his forearms on the table as he gave Jack his full attention.

  He made a face. “At the risk of sounding rude, Addy thought you might enjoy yourselves more if a couple of people don’t attend the party.”

  “Oh?” Georgie asked in surprise as she scooped some of the pasta onto her own plate.

  “Let me guess,” River said, taking the serving spoon from Georgie. “Your father being one of them.”

  Jack shot a glance at his half-sister to gauge her reaction, but she showed none. “Yes, the other being Victoria.” He paused. “But that’s Addy’s take on the situation. What do you want, Georgie? It’s your engagement party. This is about you and River.”

  She hesitated for several seconds, keeping her gaze on her plate before lifting it to River. “I want the party to be a celebration,” she said. “My father will detract from that.”

  “And Victoria…,” River said, watching his fiancée for a moment before he turned to look at Jack. “Georgie’s making a concession by asking her to be in the wedding. If she doesn’t show up at the engagement party, I’m sure no one will be upset.”

  “But I want Lee there,” Georgie said, turning to face Jack, “and they seem to be a package deal.”

  “Addy has a plan to keep Victoria and Prescott away but still get Lee to come.”

  “I’m all ears,” River said wryly.

  “We think you should have the party on Christmas Eve.”

  “Christmas Eve?” Georgie said, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. “I’m sure everyone has plans.”

  “All the important people will be available,” Jack said. “Addy and Finn. Maisie. And Addy’s sure Lee will come, even though she doubts Victoria will.”

  “I guess she would know better than me,” she said. “She and Lee talk much more often than he and I do.”

  Jack sensed she was unhappy about that, but he didn’t hear anger in her voice. It was wistfulness, a feeling he understood all too well. He’d felt it for years after learning he had three other siblings. His visits with his father had ended by then, but a simple Google search during his sophomore year of high school had dredged up a photo of his siblings. He would have tried to contact them, but his mother had warned him she would have to pay back the hush money his father had forked over if he broke her NDA. And while Jack had long since stopped caring about pissing off Genevieve (he did a good job of that without actually trying), he hadn’t wanted to risk what little security Iris had, so he’d kept quiet. But as far as he knew, nothing had prevented Georgie and Lee from reaching out to him once they’d learned about his existence a few years ago. They’d just chosen not to have anything to do with him. Hell, Lee had yet to look him straight in the eye.

  But he shook that off, because Georgie had put a lot on the line to take over the brewery, and he knew it was partly for him. He appreciated that, even though it had obviously worked out pretty well for her.

  “I know you’re stressed about planning the wedding and getting ready for Brewfest, so this will be one less thing you need to worry about,” Jack said. “I’ll take care of it all, and if Dottie wants to help with the food, I’ll make sure she sticks to a predetermined menu.”

  River chuckled. “Have you met Aunt Dottie?”

  Jack’s mouth lifted into a wry grin. “Addy and I will make sure the food is perfect.”

  Even if they had to cook it themselves.

  Georgie gave River a long look. He reached over and placed his hand on hers and nodded. “I think we should take him up on it. Christmas Eve is perfect.”

  “Okay,” she said, turning back to him. “Thank you, but I don’t know how to repay you.”

  “We can plan his engagement party some day,” River said.

  “That won’t be happening any time soon,” Jack said, but he automatically thought of Maisie, which was beyond premature given he’d resolved to be single for the next eight months. Then again, eight months didn’t seem too long in the scheme of things.

  They chatted for the rest of the meal, discussing the wedding and River’s plans for the spring brews. He still hadn’t settled on a beer to enter into Brewfest, but he’d narrowed it down to three, and he was planning on using a Summer in January beer festival Finn had planned for Bev Corp as the dry run.

  Georgie offered Jack a slice of chocolate cake for dessert, but he declined.

  “I’ve got to get back to Iris. I hadn’t planned on being gone this long.”

  “Dottie left the cake with us yesterday, so take some home with you, otherwise River and I will eat it all.”

  “Iris loves chocolate cake,” he said. Then his mouth twisted to the side. “Or at least she used to before she moved here. Who knows what she likes anymore.”

  Georgie gave him a sympathetic look. “Hang in there. It’s not easy being a teenage girl, especially moving midway through her senior year… Give her time.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Thanks.” But he didn’t feel like time was on his side.

  Georgie wrapped up a large wedge of cake on a disposable plate, and he pulled out his phone and opened his Uber app.

  “Did you park around the block?” River asked. “I didn’t see your car.”

  “I took an Uber,” he said. “I rode to the restaurant with Addy and Maisie and took off when their friend Blue showed up. I was just about to request a ride home.”

  “Oh, don’t do that!” Georgie protested. “Let me take you.”

  “I don’t want to put you to any trouble…”

  “Don’t be silly,” she said. “I don’t mind at all. Let me get my coat and my purse.”

  Before he could voice an objection, or decide if he wanted to, she disappeared into one of the bedrooms.

  River gave Jack a slight nod as he started the dishwasher. “Thanks again for your offer to help with the engagement party, Jack. We truly appreciate it.”

  Jack got to his feet and leaned against the counter, feeling a familiar tingle of guilt. “Hey, man. I feel like I’m overdue with an apology.”

  River looked up in surprise. “What are you talking about?”

  “When I found out you were supposed to inherit the brewery if we failed to place at Brewfest…” Jack grimaced. “I handled it poorly, and I apologize.”

  It had been one of the more eccentric tenets of their grandfather’s will, along with his decision to include Jack, the unacknowledged Buchanan child.

  River reached over and grabbed his upper arm. “I understand, Jack. No hard feelings.”

  “It’s just…” He paused, then decided to plunge forward. “I don’t trust easily, and I thought you knew about the will situation and possibly planned to sabotage us to get the brewery. The whole Lurch thing didn’t help.”

  River grinned. “No, I imagine it wouldn’t. You know, Aunt Dottie told me St
ella’s more inspired by him than ever now that he has scars. Of course, by scars she means one long mark on his right hand. Apparently, all of the animals in her paintings have scars now too.”

  “Huh,” Jack said, wishing he could tell Maisie. She’d be amused. Probably. He doubted she’d gotten over the whole Diego thing. He and Adalia still had the Thanksgiving painting hanging up in the dining room. He’d wanted to superglue Georgie’s Post-it over Lurch’s junk, but his artist sister had disagreed on principle. (She didn’t believe in ruining art.) Instead, she’d painted a single perfect fig leaf over it. He fully expected a conniption fit if Stella ever darkened their doorway again.

  “Anyway, I digress,” River said. “I’m just a lucky man. Turns out I got the woman of my dreams and my dream job.”

  “If I didn’t know any better, I could accuse you of putting the moves on Georgie to hedge your bets.”

  River’s shoulders tensed.

  “Relax,” Jack said. “I was kidding. I know you’re in love with her, otherwise I never would have offered to plan your engagement party.”

  River offered his hand and Jack shook it.

  “Is everything okay?” Georgie asked as she emerged from the hallway, slipping on her jacket.

  “Yep,” River said.

  “Sure is,” Jack responded.

  She glanced between the two of them with a frown. “You ready, Jack?”

  Jack grabbed the cake plate and lifted it. “Sure thing. Thanks again for dinner and dessert.”

  “Glad to have you,” River said.

  Jack headed for the door, and Georgie followed him out. They got into her car and drove in silence for a couple of blocks before his sister said, “You know, I was surprised when you offered to plan our party.”

  “Oh?” Jack asked, shifting in his seat. “Don’t feel obligated to accept.”

  “Oh, no,” she said. “It’s just that you’re closer to Addy.”

  He didn’t know how to respond to that, because they both knew she was right.

  “I admit that I’ve held back,” she said quietly. “It’s been busy with the brewery and River, but I could have made more of an effort to spend time with you. I haven’t, though, and a large part of that is because I’m embarrassed and ashamed.”

  He nearly asked her what she was ashamed of, but she beat him to it.

  “I knew you existed, Jack, and other than a small attempt to find you on social media, I never really tried to reach out to you.”

  “It’s okay, Georgie,” he said, even though he only half meant it.

  “No, it’s not. I should have found a way to get in touch with you. But I messed up, and then you left Asheville, and part of me worried you were running off on me. And when you did come back, I didn’t know what to do about any of it. So I didn’t do anything.”

  He stayed quiet.

  “So for you to offer to plan our engagement party…”

  “It’s okay, Georgie,” he said, feeling better after hearing her apology. She obviously meant it. “I knew about you three, but I was legally bound from approaching you. Or at least my mother was. I could have defied the order and tried anyway—”

  “No,” she said emphatically. “My father would have legally pounced on your mother. You did the right thing. I have no such excuse.”

  “It’s already done,” he said. “We can’t change the past. We can only move forward.”

  She nodded but didn’t look entirely convinced. “You’re a good brother to Iris. She’s very lucky to have you.”

  His mouth parted, but he couldn’t find any words. He was momentarily speechless.

  “It can’t be easy becoming a guardian to a seventeen-year-old girl. I know that’s why you were gone this summer. You were being a father to her.” She grimaced. “You could have told me, Jack. I would have understood.”

  “But I didn’t know that at the time,” he said. “And I’m pretty protective of her.”

  She released a short laugh. “Trust me, I get it.” She paused. “River says she’s going to start working with Maisie at the shelter.”

  “Today was her first day,” Jack said, thinking about Maisie, his heart feeling both heavier and lighter at the same time. “But she wants to start working there twice a week.”

  “I saw you and Maisie at Thanksgiving,” she said quietly. “Are you two seeing each other?”

  “You mean dating?” he asked, caught off guard by her bluntness. “No.”

  She pushed out a sigh of relief. “Okay. That’s probably for the best.”

  “What makes you say that?” he asked, toning his question down from what the hell does that mean?

  A tight smile twisted her lips. “It’s nothing.” She pulled into Jack’s driveway and shot him a glance. “I just don’t think Maisie’s in a place to start a relationship right now.”

  “What?”

  “Look, I know I’ve missed out on a lot of years of being your big sister, but trust me on this one, okay?”

  He was about to insist she elaborate, but Iris’s face appeared in the upstairs bedroom window. She was bound to wonder why he’d left with Maisie and come home with Georgie. Besides, she seemed to resent all the time he spent with his “fake sisters,” as she called them.

  “Thanks for the cake,” he said, holding up the plate. “And I guess for the warning, although I’d really like to know more.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing.”

  But if it was nothing, she wouldn’t have mentioned it, would she have?

  It probably didn’t have anything to do with River, because if he and Maisie had been involved at some point, that would be very much in the past. He and Georgie were getting married, and only a total jerk would ask a recent ex to be in the wedding party. But Georgie was making it sound like anything with Maisie would be complicated, and that was the last thing he needed right now. Maybe Georgie knew something from River. It tracked with what Maisie said earlier, about having her own reasons for staying away.

  “Thanks anyway,” he said, trying to keep his disappointment out of his voice. “You’re filling in that big sister role pretty well.”

  She gave him an apologetic smile. “Just trying to keep you from getting hurt.”

  Now he was even more intrigued. Maybe Maisie had just gotten out of a relationship. If that was the case, he’d rather know. The last thing he wanted was to be her rebound. He was done being everyone’s second choice. For once, he wanted to be first.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Maisie had always worried what would happen if anyone discovered her secret about River. Anyone other than Molly and Mary, anyway, because they’d known for years. But Finn had caught her at a low moment and guessed the truth. Now, Adalia and Blue knew too, and life wasn’t any different. Adalia had kindly told her that she’d already guessed, and Blue had sighed deeply and said she understood the drive to keep a secret better than Maisie could ever know. Surprisingly, they had both supported her decision not to tell River.

  Maisie had gone to Bro Club on Tuesday, after spending half of Iris’s training session showing her the best way to clean poop out of the pens and the other half making up for it by teaching her how to train puppies to sit. Part of her had worried it would be weird to hang out with Finn and River, like maybe the fraying threads of Finn’s filter would completely rip free now that Adalia openly knew what he had done, but he didn’t say anything, and River was too pumped up about the plan to (hopefully) disinclude Prescott from the engagement party to talk about much else.

  She hadn’t told the others, but she’d had another reason for suggesting they hold the party on Christmas Eve. Christmas had always been a hard time of year for River. His mother had left him with Dottie two weeks beforehand…and he’d never seen her again. And while they were inviting Georgie’s estranged father to all of the festivities, no one had breathed a word about Esmerelda. Nor would they, she was sure. Everyone involved knew better.

  By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, she was feeling
pretty good, until Mary called her at ten until five.

  “Hey,” she answered, washing out some dirty bowls. Iris was with Beatrice today, and the other volunteer who was supposed to be helping out had called in sick, sounding so hung over she’d almost accused him of pregaming for SantaCon on Saturday. “What’s up?”

  It wasn’t usual to hear from Mary at this time of day, on a workday, no less. Mary was a lawyer, and she always insisted on a firm separation between her work life and her personal life.

  “I’m sorry,” Mary said, sounding flustered, “but your gift got delivered early. The deliverymen were supposed to carry it inside for you, but apparently no one was home, and the dogs were barking, and they just left it there. That is so against the rules, and I’m going to write them a scathing Yelp review, but that doesn’t change the fact that your gift is sitting out there.”

  “Um, I’m sure it’s fine,” Maisie said, not going into all the ways her sister’s explanation was crazy. It was almost three weeks before Christmas, for one, and for another, the house was set back from the road enough that it was highly unlikely any teens would happen along and steal her packages.

  “No, you don’t get it.” A pause hung on the other end of the line. “I got you a new bedroom set.”

  “What?” she squawked out, dropping a bowl to the bottom of the sink. One of their new rescues, a hound dog, started howling. “Can it, Ruby,” she called out fondly.

  “It’s just…you still have the same furniture in there you’ve had since you were a teenager. You have a double bed, Maisie. Don’t you want an adult set?”

  She refrained from saying the obvious—if she’d wanted it, she would have bought it—because then Mary would make some stuffy sort of comment along the lines of saving dogs never made anyone rich, Maisie, and you don’t have to pretend otherwise. And sure, no one would call her rich, but she wasn’t some destitute pauper in a Charles Dickens novel, wearing rags and eating gruel. She sent her sisters rent checks for God’s sake, to pay out their portions of the house, and she was never late. And okay, Mary had never once cashed one of the checks, but Molly needed the money and took it. As far as the shelter building went…they’d worked it out so it could be hers, fair and square. Molly and Mary had both gotten significantly larger portions of the life insurance money.