Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set

by Grover Swank, Denise

  “Georgie!” Lurch shouted from behind her, and she turned to see him riding on a donkey down the center of the street. “It’s your turn for a ride. You can enter the party like Jesus.”

  Georgie squeezed her eyes shut before opening them again, worried the stress of the day was causing her to hallucinate, but sure enough, Lurch was sitting on top of a donkey while a man in a cowboy hat tugged on the reins, leading them both.

  Bursting out laughing, Adalia exclaimed, “This party just keeps getting better and better. How could you even think of missing this?”

  Ignoring her sister, Georgie scrambled to get out of the way just as she realized what Lurch had said. “Oh, no, no, no, no.” She shook her head vigorously. “I’m not getting on top of that thing.”

  “She really can’t,” Adalia said. “She has to go inside. I’ve heard the statue of Beau is in there, and I need to see it.”

  The man led the animal to the side of the driveway.

  “Not yet,” Lurch said, sliding over the side of the pack animal, but his foot got caught in the saddle. He hung precariously sideways while the animal handler watched in fascination.

  Without giving it a second thought, Georgie rushed over to help. “Oh my goodness! Are you okay?”

  Just before Georgie reached him, Lurch fell to the ground in a heap, landing in a bed of flowers. “I’m okay!”

  But the flowers weren’t. Especially after the donkey dug his back hooves in as if to say, I thought that guy would never get off.

  Adalia’s eyes narrowed and she pointed to Lurch. “Uh…why does he have a smiley face drawn on top of his bald head?”

  “I have no idea,” Georgie said under her breath, although she wasn’t exactly surprised. There was just no end to the crazy when it came to Buchanan Brewery. Edging closer, she asked, “Lurch, are you sure you’re okay?” She resisted the urge to wave her hand in front of her. He reeked of sweat and beer.

  “Yep,” he said as he struggled to get to his feet. He grabbed her arm for help and nearly tugged her over on top of him.

  “Whoa,” Georgie said, bracing herself to pull him up.

  Once on his feet, Lurch fell sideways and pressed her back into the side of the donkey, which, unbelievably, stood stock-still.

  “You’re the best, Georgie,” Lurch said, his face in front of hers, blowing out a cloud of beer breath. “You’re gonna be great at Buchanan.”

  “Um, thanks,” she said, trying to push him away, but the next thing she knew he was shoving her up onto the saddle, his hand on her butt.

  “There you go,” he said. “Upsy-daisy.”

  “Addy!” Georgie called out in a panicked voice. She was straddling the donkey with her dress hiked up high on her thighs, nearly showing her underwear. “A little help?”

  Adalia started to say something, then stopped and grinned. “I don’t have any experience riding donkeys, but I think you kick them in the sides to make them go faster.”

  “Not that kind of help!”

  “She’s right,” Lurch said, staggering in place. “Like this.” Then he grabbed Georgie’s leg and pushed it hard into the donkey’s side.

  The donkey released a loud bray of protest, then took off running—or at least skipping really fast—toward the gate to the backyard, leaving its handler behind.

  Georgie shrieked as the donkey ran through the open gate, tearing a paper banner that read, Enter at the risk of excitement! which had been strung across the opening. Tearing through the paper sent the animal into overdrive.

  Once they were in the backyard, the donkey ran around the periphery of the fenced space, knocking over a metal tub of beer cans. A few people shouted in surprise, which scared the donkey even more.

  Georgie leaned forward and snagged the reins as the donkey raced toward the bounce house. Bounce house? When had Dottie added a bounce house? Heck, when had she added a donkey? She tugged the reins as hard as she could, and the animal came to an abrupt stop, sending Georgie tumbling over his head and into the inflatable structure.

  She flew head over heels, sprawling out on her back on the bounce house floor, staring up at the ceiling strung with white Christmas lights and streamers. Sparkles filled her vision. Had she hit her head? Did she have a concussion?

  “Oh, my God, Georgie,” Adalia called out breathlessly in the opening. “Are you okay?”

  “I think so.” But she remained spread out, trying to catch her breath and thanking the stars overhead that no one else had been inside.

  Adalia crawled in and knelt next to Georgie, her eyes wide. “Seriously, Georgie. Are you okay?”

  “I think so. How’s the donkey?”

  “The donkey seems fine. Dottie’s begonias, not so much.”

  Georgie still lay on her back. “That’s good. And everything else?”

  “A few cans of beer may have perished, but the video I plan to upload to TikTok should make up for it.”

  Georgie’s eyes flew wide. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Calm down,” Adalia said with a chuckle. “I was too busy running after you to dig out my phone.” She heaved a dramatic sigh, part Scarlett O’Hara, part Gossip Girl, and said, “And I’m sure that will be the biggest regret of my life…”

  The word regret reminded Georgie of the well of it she carried inside her, and tears sprang to her eyes. “I want to go home. Can I go home now?”

  Indecision wavered on Adalia’s face. Without a word, she grabbed Georgie’s hand and pulled her to a sitting position, then tugged her to the opening.

  Once Georgie’s feet hit the ground, Josie burst out through the back door. She was wearing a pink tulle ballgown along with small pink gossamer fairy wings, a large tiara on her head, and a wand in her hand. “Oh, drat! I heard you went flying, Georgie, but it looks like I missed it.”

  “Sorry,” Georgie said, looking down and realizing she was missing a shoe.

  Josie reached for her hand and started to drag her toward the house. “You have to come in and have your fortune read.”

  Shaking her head, Georgie said, “No. I already know my fortune. I’m going home.”

  “Here,” Lurch said, handing her a red plastic cup. “This’ll help.”

  Without thinking, she accepted the cup and took a big gulp…then spit out the liquid all down the front of her dress. “Oh my word! What is this?”

  “That’s the point,” Lurch said with a hiccup. “You’re supposed to guess.”

  Adalia took a sip, then made a face. “This tastes like cat pee.”

  Georgie shot her a suspicious look. “And how would you know what cat pee tastes like?”

  Twisting her mouth to the side, Adalia grimaced. “Some things are better left to the imagination.”

  Georgie wasn’t so sure about that. Her imagination hadn’t been good to her lately. “I’m going home.”

  “But Georgie…” Josie protested.

  “I’m going home,” she said more firmly, starting to limp toward the gate.

  “You’re going to disappoint Dottie,” Adalia said, running over to her. “And I think your shoe might be in the bounce house. And I still have to see that statue. We’re already here, so can we just go in and see it? Please?”

  “You go in and I’ll wait in the car.”

  “No!” Josie and Adalia both said in unison, and Georgie had to wonder why they wanted her in the house so badly. What new horror awaited her inside?

  Adalia took her hand and walked backward, dragging her sister with her. “Let’s just go inside for a minute, Georgie, please. And then if you still want to go home, I’ll chauffeur you. You can sit in the back and everything. But please come with me.”

  Georgie knew Adalia wanted to see the statue, but this was borderline obsessive. “You promise we can go home after you see it?”

  Adalia nodded her head enthusiastically. “Yes. Cross my heart and hope to die.” She made an X over her chest with her fingers.

  “Fine,” Georgie grunted. “I’ll give you five seconds, then
I’m leaving, even if I have to walk home with one shoe.”

  Adalia pulled Georgie through the back door while Josie followed closely behind, as if to make sure Georgie didn’t escape.

  A few employees congregated in the kitchen, talking and grabbing snacks from the kitchen counter. They stopped and stared at Georgie with open mouths.

  “Oh Lord,” Georgie moaned. “Why are they looking at me like that?”

  Coming to a halt, Adalia grimaced, then tugged the hem of Georgie’s dress out of the back of her panties.

  “Oh God…have I been flashing everyone my underwear?”

  “Calm down,” Adalia said, reaching up and trying to smooth Georgie’s hair. “People see worse at the beach.”

  “Excuse me,” one of the men asked, rushing through the back door. Ted from packaging, if she remembered correctly. “My wife is wondering where you purchased your underwear.”

  Georgie stared at him in disbelief but found herself answering, “Moon Goddess.”

  His face brightened. “She thought so, but she was wondering if it was from the Neptune or the Venus line?”

  Could this night get any worse?

  She plastered on a smile. “Neither. The Athena.”

  Ted nodded, his head bobbing like a hand pump. “Okay, then. Thank you.”

  “Do you think Buchanan will sell underwear like that?” Josie asked in her breathy voice as Ted rushed out the back door. She sounded hopeful.

  Georgie reached up to cover her face with her hands, but her fingertip touched something thin and metallic on her forehead. When she pulled her hand away, she found a quarter-inch, circular piece of silver glitter. It was then that she looked down and realized she was covered in it.

  “Where did the glitter come from?” she asked, looking Adalia in the eyes.

  Her sister’s brow shot up while her mouth tipped up in an apologetic smile. “The bounce house.”

  “It floats when you jump,” Josie said. “Just like in a fairyland.”

  “Of course it does.”

  “You really should try it,” Josie said. “We could both go right now.” She grabbed Georgie’s hand and started to drag her toward the back door.

  “While that sounds fun,” Adalia said, intervening, “I think Georgie should go back to the fortune room and take a moment to collect herself.”

  Josie’s eyes flew wide with excitement. “Oh! I can read her future.”

  Adalia’s head tipped to the side. “Let’s let Georgie handle her own future.” She steered Georgie past the sculpture, which was fully clothed and holding an empty beer can, and down a short hall, past a line of people.

  Did all of these people need to pee already?

  Stopping in front of a closed door with a sign in front of it that read, Find out your future…if you dare. At least ¼ may learn something devastating, Adalia stopped and plucked a piece of glitter from Georgie’s cheek.

  “No cutting in line!” someone called out.

  “You want your fortune?” Adalia asked in a threatening tone. “I’ll give you your fortune—your entire career depends on this woman, and if she wants to go first, you’ll let her.”

  Georgie shook her head. “But I don’t want to go first.”

  “Trust me, Georgie, You do.”

  “What are you doing, Addy?” Georgie asked, nearly too weary to care.

  “Trying to make you more presentable.” But then she surveyed Georgie and shook her head. “There’s no coming back from this.”

  “What?”

  Adalia shook her head, grabbing her upper arms and giving her a grim smile. “Trust your heart, Georgie. I swear it won’t let you down.”

  The door opened then, as if the person inside truly were psychic, and Addy shoved her into the room.

  Chapter 40

  River hadn’t thought he’d actually have to tell people’s fortunes. Josie had promised to bring Georgie to him straightaway, and since she wasn’t the most reliable person in his acquaintance, he’d texted Adalia to tell him where he was waiting.

  You owe me, she’d written back. I think I’ll take an art lesson with Dottie as my payment.

  Your funeral, he’d replied.

  So when the first person knocked, his heart leapt in his chest, and he jumped off the bed, nearly tripping over a tent pole in his haste to answer.

  He opened the door, ready to let all the things he’d been feeling pour out. Ready to tell Georgie the fullness of what he felt for her, but he only got two words out—“I love”—before he realized it wasn’t Georgie at all, but Blanche the brewery accountant. Blanche, who’d openly ogled him every time he came over to see Beau, even though her twin sons had been two years ahead of him in high school. She’d been one of the first people to congratulate him on getting the job.

  She beamed at him, fluffing her bouffant of peroxide-blond hair.

  “—telling fortunes,” he finished lamely.

  Her face fell a little, but then her gaze landed on the tent setup. He’d turned on the twinkle lights Josie had used to line the edge of the tent and switched off the overhead light, thinking it would create a more romantic atmosphere. He’d set out two large floor pillows on either side of Josie’s crystal ball.

  “Ooh, that looks cozy,” she said with a wink. “Why don’t we take a seat?”

  Perhaps he’d been too successful.

  “Um, I can already see your future,” River said, waving his fingers through the air as if pulling back the celestial curtain. “You’re going to have a grandchild within the year.”

  He’d thought it a pretty innocuous thing to say—one of the twins’ wives looked so pregnant she was probably on her way to the hospital—but she gasped as if scandalized.

  “I knew it, the little hussy,” she snapped. “I told her this would happen if she didn’t stay away from the brewery.” Which was when he remembered she also had a twenty-one-year-old daughter. “Which one of ’em did it? Huh? Was it Daniel?”

  What in the world had he gotten himself into?

  “Uh…the future is too hazy for me to see anything else.”

  “Can’t you try the ball?” she asked, gesturing to it.

  “The reception isn’t great in here.” He gestured to the walls. “You know what it’s like with these old houses. Thick walls.”

  She pouted, and it seemed like she was on the verge of saying something else, but someone knocked on the door.

  River practically lunged for it, but it wasn’t Georgie.

  “River,” Tom said with surprise. “Why weren’t you at the party earlier?”

  Blanche pursed her lips and stomped off. River had a feeling Daniel was about to get an earful.

  “Thank God it’s you,” he said, pulling Tom inside. He saw the long line of people waiting to have their fortunes read. Should he just leave? Call Georgie so they could have this conversation over the phone?

  But if Josie and Adalia really followed through on their part of the bargain, this would be the best place for him to talk to Georgie tonight. They certainly weren’t going to get a moment alone anywhere else. Even from this room, he could hear the shouting and music—was that K-pop?—from the backyard. He lifted the curtains and glanced out the window, hoping he’d get a look at her, but all he saw was Lurch riding a donkey.

  “This is a disaster,” he groaned, running his hand through his hair and closing the door.

  By the time he turned around, Tom was sitting on one of the floor pillows, patiently waiting as if he actually expected River to read his fortune.

  Since he’d rather sit with Tom than with any of the other people in line, River sighed and pulled the second pillow next to the twin bed before sitting.

  Tom looked at him expectantly, and River peered into the crystal ball.

  “Um. You’ll find great love and meaning within the next year,” he said. Tom was a single widower in his sixties, and he seemed on the lonely side, so River hoped it was true.

  “Thanks, River,” Tom said, beaming b
ack at him. “I surely hope so.”

  The grin he gave River made him fleetingly grateful he’d been in the tent instead of Josie—the last thing Tom needed was to be told he’d be eviscerated by wolves or would die alone in a vat of his own tears. But the next person who came in was Daniel, who was (understandably) pissed about the whole Blanche thing. He also complained that River didn’t look enough like a fortune-teller, which River waved off, but by the time the fifth person came in, River had tied a sparkly blue scarf around his head out of pure boredom.

  When the sixth person knocked, River was about ready to give up. He scrawled a sign on an old sheet of paper from the desk drawer—Closed due to curse—and opened the door ready to post it, but he dropped it when he saw her. Or, more accurately, when she was nearly shoved into him.

  Georgie’s light blue dress was soaked with something that smelled like beer, huge pieces of glitter clung to it in places, and she only had on one shoe.

  She’d never looked more beautiful.

  Her eyes lit up when she saw him, then landed and lingered on the scarf, which he immediately tugged off, his ears burning.

  “Nice look, River,” Adalia said with a laugh. “Or should I call you Madam Mysterio?” She stooped to retrieve his sign before shutting the door, so hopefully they wouldn’t be bothered every two minutes by relentless knocking. Turned out the people of Buchanan Brewery were aggressively interested in psychic readings.

  “What happened to you?” they asked at mostly the same time.

  She laughed, a little nervously he thought, and he took her hand—grateful when she gave it to him—and led her over to the cushions, which he pushed into their original configuration.

  “I’m sorry about earlier,” he said as they sat next to each other, her heat pressed to him. “Hops ate a chocolate bar, and I had to make sure he was okay. I wouldn’t have missed it otherwise. It felt awful not being there.”

  Something in her expression loosened at that, like she’d been carrying a weight he’d just eased.

  “Is he all right?”

  “Yeah,” he said, rubbing his thumb against her hand. “He’s going to be okay.”