Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set

by Grover Swank, Denise

  Was this how it had started with her mom? One concession at a time?

  “Let me make you a cup of tea,” River said, wrapping his arm around her back and leading her to the sofa.

  A throw lay in a heap at one end, and Hops leaped up next to it, looking up at her as if to accuse her of not petting him.

  Once she sat down, River picked up the puppy and handed him to her. “Here. Maisie says there are very few emotional pains that cuddling puppies can’t ease or cure.”

  She took the furball, and Hops snuggled into her chest. “Maisie is a wise woman.”

  “Usually…” He grabbed the electric kettle from the kitchen counter and started to fill it up with water. “Tell me everything.”

  So she did, starting with Adalia’s strange behavior and the fact that she and Lee, who typically weren’t close, had become chummy. But it was Georgie whom Adalia had called from the police precinct, and she’d asked to come back to Asheville with her too.

  River listened attentively, and by the time she’d finished, he’d carried two mugs of tea into the living room, carefully handing her one and keeping the other as he sat in an armchair next to the sofa.

  Georgie felt a prick of disappointment, but sitting apart was probably a good idea. The need she felt to feel him close to her, by her side, told her that.

  “So, first of all,” River said, leaning forward, the mug still in his hand, “if Adalia wants to come to Asheville, you can skip flying to New York and just have her catch a flight here. She can get released from jail, pack a bag or two, and head straight to the airport.”

  “But what about her bail? I need to go pay it.”

  “We can find a bail bondsman to do that. If her arraignment’s at eight, the bondsman will likely be able to get her out faster than you can. We just need to contact one.”

  “I never would have thought of that,” she said, full of gratitude.

  He grimaced. “Let’s just say I’ve bailed out a few friends before.” Then he added, “In my lost years.”

  “After your mother left you,” she said quietly.

  His eyes widened in surprise, but it quickly faded. “Aunt Dottie.”

  “I don’t know anything really. Only the bits and pieces you’ve told me, and then Dottie confirmed what I already suspected.”

  His lips pressed together, and he stared into his steaming mug. “So you don’t know any specifics about what Adalia did?”

  “No.”

  “I guess you’ll just have to wait until you see her this afternoon.”

  “Yeah.”

  He set his mug on the table and got up, heading for his bedroom. She briefly wondered if he’d had enough of her Buchanan family drama and decided he was going to bed, but he returned seconds later with his tablet and cell phone in hand.

  “Since using a bail bondsman never occurred to you, I suspect you don’t have a preference about which one to use,” he said as he sat in the chair and booted up the computer.

  She released a short laugh. “No, and let’s hope this is a one-and-done situation.”

  “Any chance you have that pad and pen with you?” he asked, giving her a little smile before he started typing.

  She produced them from her purse, and when she walked over to hand it to him, she realized he was searching for bail bondsmen.

  “Oh, River. You don’t have to do that. That’s not why I’m here.”

  He stared up at her, searching her face. “Why are you here? Because you needed a friend?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, but it was more than that. She had to admit she liked letting someone take care of her for once. She was so used to taking care of everyone and everything else. To being the one who stepped up, whether people asked her to or not.

  But that wasn’t why she’d shown up on his doorstep in the middle of the night. She was here because he made her feel like everything would be okay. When they were together, her frantic soul quieted, and she let herself just be. There was nothing to prove. No one to impress. River liked her just the way she was. It wasn’t safety she craved from him, it was peace.

  “Then let me be your friend,” River said, reaching for her hand and squeezing. “You’re an expert at whipping breweries into shape, and I happen to be an expert at acquiring bail bondsmen.” A self-deprecating smile spread over his face. “Maybe I shouldn’t be bragging about that one.”

  She smiled, feeling like maybe everything would be okay. “I have my strengths and you have yours. We make a great team.”

  He laughed, looking more at ease. “Yeah, we do.”

  She realized they were still holding hands about the same time he did, and they both pulled their hands abruptly apart.

  With nothing else to do, she sat down on the sofa and curled up with the throw. It smelled like River, filling her with that sense of peace again. That sense of home. Hops climbed onto her lap and she felt herself getting drowsy. Soon she was fast asleep.

  Chapter 32

  She’d come to him. This thing with Adalia had rocked her to her core, and she’d come to him.

  River couldn’t stop thinking about that as he made the calls, securing the services of someone called Barracuda Bob, who had, despite the name, come highly recommended. Presuming Adalia posted bail—and the man seemed confident she would—she’d be free to go by 9 a.m. Georgie just needed to call in with her credit card number in the morning.

  He checked the flights from New York to Asheville and found only one seat left on a three p.m. flight connecting through Charlotte. He should probably check with Georgie before doing anything, but the next flight wasn’t until Saturday night, and he figured that would be a stressful situation for the sisters. Better for them to have time to connect before the closing parties. So he took a chance and booked the flight, using his own credit card. Hopefully it would be one less thing for Georgie to worry about.

  He’d gone to his office to make the calls, not wanting to wake her, but he returned to the chair he’d vacated—the one he’d chosen because he would have been tempted to scoop her into his lap if he’d sat next to her—and watched her for a moment. She looked so peaceful, Hops snuggled up next to her, and although he knew he should wake her, he wasn’t quite ready. He liked seeing her here in his home, at rest, as if she belonged here. Because it felt like she did, and if he woke her up, she might feel the need to leave.

  But she mumbled a little in her sleep, as if restless with bad dreams, and he told himself it was time. He went to her and crouched beside the couch. Touching her arm gently, he said, “Georgie.”

  “Hm,” she said, stirring. “River.” She reached for him, as if the last two weeks hadn’t happened and they were still in bed together. As if he hadn’t signed those forms. And although he loved the partnership of working with her, a deep part of him wished that were true. If not being with her was the cost of working at Buchanan, it wasn’t worth it.

  He took her in his arms because he couldn’t not do it, when she was reaching for him like that, but then he pulled away.

  A painful awareness had surfaced in her eyes, the dreaminess of moments ago drifting away.

  “Adalia?”

  “I found someone who’ll help,” he said. “He’ll be there in the morning. He seems confident it’ll work out. I told him you’d be in touch with your payment information between 7:00 and 8:00.” He paused, wondering if he’d overstepped, then added, “I checked the flights from New York to Asheville. The only seat available before Saturday night is on a three p.m. flight tomorrow evening—or tonight, depending on how you look at it. I went ahead and booked it. I realize it might not end up working out, but I figured it was worth doing.” He paused, hesitating to reveal he’d bought it, but he also didn’t want her to think he’d rummaged through her things to find her card. “I used my card.”

  She sat up abruptly, looking at him in a way he struggled to interpret, and Hops squeaked a small complaint that might have been a bark from a bigger dog and walked off, curling up on what R
iver had dubbed his special sandal. River went to sit in the chair again, but Georgie stopped him, her hand wrapping around his bicep.

  “Sit with me,” she said.

  And he did, sitting close enough that their thighs touched, every point of contact searing into him. She took his hand and looked into his eyes.

  “Thank you for doing that for Adalia.”

  “I did it for you,” he said honestly.

  “I know,” she said.

  They stayed like that for a moment, the silence between them intense but somehow not uncomfortable. In that silence, there was a universe of possibilities. Of different paths they could take, but his heart only led him down one.

  She spoke first. “I have a lot of regrets about the past, River.” Another pause, but the fact that she didn’t pull away kept him from wondering—or asking—if he was one of them. “My father might not have been a good husband, but my mother grounded him in some way. He became a hundred times worse after she died. It was horrible to live in that house. He was so judgmental. Cold. Cutting. And I left Adalia there with him. I could have gone to college in New York, but Harvard was my top pick, and I was so happy I got in.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, keeping her other hand entwined with his. “Truthfully, I think it was my top pick because I wanted to leave, although I didn’t think of it that way at the time. Adalia begged me to stay, but I told myself that she didn’t need me. That Lee would look after her until I got out of school.”

  “This isn’t your fault,” he said, turning a little to face her. Needing her to see that he meant it. “You’re not to blame for whatever’s happening with her.”

  “But I left her, River,” she said, her voice thick, “and things haven’t been the same between us since. If anything, they keep getting worse. When she got into art school, she called me before she told my father, and I messed up. I knew what he was going to say, how cruel he would be, and I warned her that he probably wouldn’t pay for it. That he would never consider art a career. My mother taught art history, and he always treated it like a hobby. Like it was something cute that she did.” She lowered her face as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. “And, to be honest, I kind of felt the same way about Adalia. I figured it was just a phase. So I have no right to be surprised that she’s kept her distance. That she hasn’t told me about her shows, her life. It’s my fault.”

  He reached over and tipped her chin up slightly, so their eyes met. Hers were brimming with tears.

  “I’m telling you it’s not,” he said firmly. “The only way of fixing something you feel you did wrong in the past is by acting differently in the future. By being there for her now. By owning up to how you feel.”

  “How can you be so understanding?” she asked. “I left her.”

  He understood what she wasn’t saying. His mother had left him like she thought she’d left Adalia, except it was a false equivalence.

  “If you’re talking about Esmerelda…my mother,” he clarified, in case Dottie hadn’t confided his mother’s name along with the rest of his personal history, “then you need to understand the situation was completely different. She was an adult, and you were still a child when you left home. A grieving child. You can’t beat yourself up about decisions you made before you had the perspective to understand what you were doing. Besides, it’s not like you disappeared off the face of the earth. I’m sure you called and texted.” He felt himself grin a little at that. “Probably more than she would have liked.”

  She smiled back, but it had to be the saddest smile he’d ever seen. “I guess I did.” She paused, looking conflicted, then shook it off and added, “I’m so sorry that happened to you, River.”

  “I’m not,” he said, and to his surprise, he somewhat meant it. “The best thing she could have done was to leave me with Aunt Dottie. I think maybe she knew that. She’s not a very happy person. I don’t think she ever really wanted a child or knew what to do with me. She didn’t even know what to do with herself. We moved every few months, but I don’t think she ever found what she was looking for.”

  “I didn’t mean to make you talk about this,” she said, but he could tell it was because she worried about making him uncomfortable, not because she didn’t want to know. And he found himself surprisingly okay with letting Georgie in. With spilling his secrets to her.

  Because she’s already in your heart, a voice whispered.

  “It’s okay,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but I don’t want to shift the focus off you right now. This is about you and Adalia. And you should consider the fact that your sister called you when this happened. Not your father. Not your brother. You. That means everything in the world.”

  The look in her eyes changed then, something fierce flashing in them.

  “And I came to you,” she said.

  “You did,” he said, his soft tone belying the sudden pounding of his heart. “And you always can, Georgie. Always. But I have to know why.”

  She looked down again, and for a moment he was afraid she was going to pull away, but if anything she tightened her grip on his hand. When she looked up again, her eyes were full of purpose.

  “Because all the reasons we’re supposed to stay away from each other don’t feel so important anymore. When I’m around you, I can’t seem to remember them. I came here because when I’m with you, I feel like everything’s going to be okay, not in the sense that you’re going to fix it, but because you’re there with me.”

  Something bloomed inside of him, a warmth like he’d felt earlier at Beau’s grave. The sense of coming home. But he didn’t pull her into his lap like he wanted to, because he had to know for sure. His heart needed it.

  “Georgie, if you change your mind about us, I need you to mean it. It can’t just be for tonight, or because your sister is in trouble.”

  She spanned the short distance between them and kissed him. It was soft and exploratory at first, almost as if she were asking a question, but the passion between them—banked for days—ignited in an instant. He shifted the angle to take the kiss deeper, their tongues twining, teeth knocking together as they tried to get closer, to take it even deeper. Almost as if they wanted to consume each other. She started to tug on the bottom of his shirt, but he didn’t want this to happen here in the living room. Not tonight. He wanted her in his bed.

  So he pulled away and, in response to her soft complaint, lifted her off her feet and carried her into his room.

  Chapter 33

  Georgie had a hard time concentrating at work in the morning. She’d only slept a few hours after receiving Adalia’s call, and despite having talked to her sister after she was released (she’d agreed to come straight to Asheville on the flight River had arranged), she was a mess of worry. Didn’t help that she couldn’t stop mooning over River. Dottie noticed something was off right away, and she barged into Georgie’s office midmorning with a sage stick, determined to drive the bad energy away because she sensed some really great energy radiating from Georgie.

  Was it obvious to everyone that Georgie had experienced the best sex of her life only hours earlier?

  It was hard seeing River in the office, where the current employee manual insisted they could not engage in any fraternization, when all she wanted to do was kiss him. He showed up in her doorway around noon, leaning his shoulder into the doorframe.

  “I think we should take a field trip for lunch,” he said with a sexy smile.

  Her stomach fluttered at the thought of eating lunch with him, but they’d agreed to keep their relationship on the down-low for the moment. She needed to find a way to tell her siblings, and she figured she’d start with Adalia first. But she hadn’t told her yet—it was a conversation best had in person, and her sister had just been released from jail, after all.

  “This is work-related,” River said with a glimmer in his eyes. “I thought we’d drop by Eye of the Tiger Brewery so you could try their porters. They make some of the best in A
sheville. We might consider adding one to the winter line.”

  “Yeah,” she said, smiling at him, relieved that she wouldn’t have to turn him down. “Testing some out would be the responsible thing to do.”

  “How soon will you be able to leave?”

  She glanced at her computer, then back at River…

  It felt so good to be able to let her eyes linger, to know she had a right to look at him, even if she couldn’t make it obvious until their relationship went public.

  “I can go now,” she said.

  “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  They were the same words he’d said to her that first night in his apartment, before their shower. Which made her think about showering with him, their bodies slick against each other. He’d promised to learn every inch of her, and he had. He’d insisted on swiping the cloth over her from head to toe, slowly enough to drive her mad, and then…

  She was at the office, where she should absolutely not be thinking about any of this. She felt her face grow hot. The grin on his face told her he’d done it on purpose, and she scowled at him a little as she gathered her things.

  They left together, acting like it was no big deal, but as soon as River pulled his car into a parking space at Eye of the Tiger, he leaned over and kissed her.

  “I’ve been wanting to do that for hours,” he murmured against her lips.

  “I guess good things come to those who wait,” she said, and kissed him again, letting it linger a little before she pulled away. “Are we really here to taste porters?”

  “No reason we can’t mix business and pleasure.”

  “I like the way you think,” she said, looking into his eyes. She liked what she saw there too. They were alight with pleasure, with happiness, something that had largely been missing the last couple of weeks, and she felt no small amount of wonder that he was happy because of her.