When Hops released a mewl of protest, she stooped down and kissed his head.
River grinned as he lowered the puppy to the floor.
“I really am here to help,” he said, taking the box back from her and heading for the kitchen, “and I figured you probably hadn’t picked up anything for dinner.”
“You know my habits all too well,” she said as she walked with him. “Although I admit I’m surprised by the wine.”
“I remember you mentioning you drank wine before you got caught up in brewing beer. And I figured you might be in the mood for something different. Should be enough time for you to have a glass before you need to leave for the airport.”
“Well, thank you.”
“Are you hungry?” He set the pizza box on the counter and glanced around, his mouth parted. “Wow. This place looks great.”
“But it doesn’t look like Beau’s house.” She wondered belatedly if that would bother him. Hops was wandering the floor as if doing his own walk-through, his little tail wagging.
He shrugged and turned to face her. “But it’s not Beau’s house anymore. It’s yours. And you don’t have as many memories here, so there’s no nostalgia for you. Just a clean slate.” He made it sound like a good thing, but she still felt a little guilty. According to Dottie, Beau had considered giving River his house too. Georgie suddenly felt like Beau’s grandkids had taken everything from him. Like she had taken everything from him.
Would he see it that way too?
“Hey,” he said, wrapping an arm around her back and pulling her close. “Adalia should be on a plane by now. She’ll be here before you know it.”
She buried her face into his chest, feeling even worse. How could she ever make it up to him? The only thing she knew to do was stick to her original plan and buy out her siblings in a year so she could make him an official partner.
But even so, she had to tell him before that, didn’t she? How else would she live with the guilt?
He held her and gently rubbed her back. “Do you want to eat or work? Or just stand here and let me hold you?”
What she needed was to get herself together. Leaning back, she cocked her eyebrows. “What kind of pizza?”
“I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I got a half cheese and half pepperoni.”
“I say you open that bottle of wine while I open the pizza.” Then, with a dramatic flourish as though her task was as hard as his, she opened the box and pulled out a slice of pepperoni. She took a bite and moaned. “This is so good.”
He grinned. “Well, if that impresses you, wait until you get a look at what I got for Jezebel.”
“So you brought both of your girls some treats?”
His wink sent a bolt of lust and remembered pleasure through her. “I promise you’re my favorite.”
Turned out he’d brought some groceries too—some milk, coffee, eggs, another bottle of wine, along with some cheese and bread, and a few tins of sardines to lure Jezebel. Georgie put her pizza on a plate and helped bring them inside.
“I can’t say I approve of this plan,” she said, scrunching her nose. “It’s going to smell terrible if we leave that out.”
“And that awful aroma is sure to draw her home,” he said with a grin. “Beau used to give her these for a treat. It’s the devil cat’s version of catnip.”
“If this is such a slam dunk, why didn’t you try it before?”
He made a face. “I was worried she might show up and attack the contractors. As you’ve seen, she doesn’t take kindly to finding people in ‘her’ house.”
Which surely didn’t bode well for Georgie and Adalia.
Soon they were sitting out on the back porch, like they had that first night, eating pizza and sipping wine. A feeling of peace stole over Georgie. It felt like this was how it was supposed to be all along, like she’d spent the last two weeks fighting herself for no good reason at all.
“I didn’t know you drank wine,” she teased, nudging his shoulder. “Isn’t that kind of sacrilegious?”
He nudged her back. “You’re right. It’s sacrilegious for either of us to drink it. I guess I should bring the other bottle home with me.”
When they finished eating, River set out an open can of sardines on the back porch. Georgie had given him permission to try it once, with the agreement that he would be the one to remove the smelly fish if Jezebel (or worse, something else) didn’t get to it first.
“Maybe the neighbors will stop texting me at all hours,” River said. “The latest rumor going around is that Jezebel is a black panther escaped from Beau’s backyard exotic zoo.”
After cleaning up their dishes, they went upstairs and started changing the beds together, Georgie more than a little tempted to pull him onto one, but she checked the time and realized she had to go to the airport.
“You go get your sister,” River said, leading her to the bedroom door. “I’ll finish up here.”
She hesitated. While she absolutely loved that he’d dropped by to help, she didn’t want him to be here when she brought Adalia home. She and Adalia had too much ground to cover, plus she needed time to tell her sister about him first.
He grabbed both of her shoulders and held her gaze. “I promise that Hops and I will be gone when you get back.”
She looked away, feeling ungrateful. “River. I’m not ashamed of you.”
“I know. But this isn’t the way to tell your sister. You need to focus on her and what happened. We have time.” He gave her a soft kiss. “I’m not going anywhere.” Then he smiled. “Except for tonight, obviously.”
She laughed and rested her hand on his chest, savoring the feel of him.
Maybe love itself wasn’t toxic at all. Maybe her mother had just picked the wrong man.
She left River on Beau’s front porch, but not until after he kissed her so thoroughly her body ached to stay with him and finish what they’d started. He gave her a wave while Hops chewed on his shoestring, and then the two of them went back inside.
What would it be like to come home to River?
The thought caught her by surprise. But it was even more surprising how right it felt.
When Georgie got to the Asheville Regional Airport, she waited outside the security exit, nervous about seeing her baby sister. While she’d talked to Adalia twice during the day, both calls had been short, and they hadn’t talked about anything of substance. The unspoken understanding was that they’d do all their sharing once they saw each other. Besides, there’d been plenty for Adalia to do as she packed and squared things away to stay in Asheville for the indefinite future.
A group of people began trickling out of the doors, and then Georgie saw her. Adalia’s short blond hair was a mess, and she had red puffy eyes underscored with dark circles. She carted a rolling carry-on suitcase behind her, and something about her gaze searching for Georgie in the crowd made her look like a lost child. As soon as Adalia saw her, she took off running, barely stopping before she threw her arms around Georgie and began crying.
Georgie stumbled backward a few feet, absorbing her impact, then held on tight, her worry for her sister growing exponentially by the second.