River felt a pit open in his gut, each of Finn’s words tearing into him like an actual missile. What. The. Actual. Hell. Could that be true? Had she known all of this and kept it from him? Had she thought he’d, what, sabotage the brewery if he knew?
One look at those beautiful hazel eyes, swimming with tears, told him all he needed to know. He let his hand slip away from hers.
“You didn’t know that, did you?” Finn asked, his tone softer now, his gaze beseeching. “I didn’t think so.”
“You should go now,” Adalia said from somewhere behind him. “Unless you want to get clocked with another crystal.”
Dimly, River registered that Finn did leave. And the sound of footsteps indicated Adalia was making herself scarce too.
All he could think was that he needed to leave too. The safety he’d found with Georgie, the feeling of home—it had all been a lie. She’d only let him into her world under her rules. The fraternization clause. The noncompete. This. She and her brothers, or at least Jack, had known about the will all along.
It made it worse that Beau himself had arranged this. That he had played them like they were pieces in some sort of twisted game. Sure, Aunt Dottie had made Beau skew toward eccentric toward the end, but this kind of manipulation was something he’d expect more from the son than the father. This was a side of Beau he hadn’t known well, and one he was ashamed to realize he didn’t much like. It felt wrong to think ill of the dead, when Beau couldn’t do a thing to explain himself.
“River?”
He realized it wasn’t the first time she’d said his name, and her voice was shaking, with tears running down her cheeks.
In a weird way, he still wanted to comfort her, to trace those tears with his fingers and hold her, even though he was the one she’d hurt.
“I didn’t convince him to do any of that, River,” she was saying. “I didn’t know what he was planning. I wanted to tell you when I found out, I really wanted to tell you, but Jack was adamant. He wouldn’t have agreed to work with you if you knew, and—”
“When did you find out?” he asked, his voice sounding funny and flat to his own ears. “How long have you known?”
Her face, which had gone pale, lost even more color. “The day Jack and I signed the papers,” she said. “I’ve known since then.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said, but the truth drove the knife deeper. “Were you going to tell me?”
“Yes! Of course! I was trying to figure out a way to make it right. I figured I’d buy out Lee and Adalia after Brewfest, if we win, and make you partner. And if we don’t, you’d have control anyway.”
“You were going to wait that long?” he asked, anger threading into his voice now. “You were going to wait nearly a year?”
“No”—she reached for his arm, but he pulled away. “No,” she added in a smaller voice. “I just wanted you to know what I was planning. That I had a way to make it right.”
There was that phrase again: make it right.
Was there a way to make it right? If so, he didn’t see it. Here he’d thought he and Georgie were a unit, that they were in this together—the brewery, their relationship—but she’d known about this and kept it from him. She’d deceived him. Beau had used him as a pawn. And Jack clearly didn’t trust him (and now he knew why).
He was done with the Buchanans. Some things, once broken, could not be pieced together. Glue didn’t hide the cracks or fix them.
“You think I’m perfect, but I should have told you before…I’m not. Not even a little,” he said, hanging his head. “I can’t do this. I’ll be there Saturday night, so you don’t have to tell anyone yet, but you’re going to have to find someone else for the job.” And though it felt like he was ripping himself apart, he added, “I quit.”
With that, he turned and walked away. He left through the front door, and Georgie didn’t try to stop him, but Adalia called to him from the side of the porch.
“Excuse me for saying so, but your friend is kind of a jerk.”
He didn’t know how to respond to that. He’s not my friend anymore didn’t feel precisely true, and he actually wasn’t pissed at Finn for telling him, or even for the way he’d told him. (River had put him into a corner.) So he just shrugged.
“I don’t know what happened,” she continued, completely serious for a change, even as she sipped her wine. “But you’re making a mistake. I’ve never seen my sister look at someone the way she looks at you. You belong together. To hell with the rest of our family.”
Only it wasn’t Jack or Lee who had hurt or wronged him, not really.
“Good luck, Adalia,” he said. “I’m glad you and Georgie are here for each other.” That he could say and mean. And after he did, he walked away.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Georgie watched River walk out the front door, and it felt like her life had just walked out with him, which was ridiculous. They hadn’t known each other for long enough for her to feel this devastated.
Yet she was. Her heart might as well have been ripped to shreds by Jezebel’s deadly claws.
Tears streamed down her face as she wondered how to fix this, but the sound of his car starting made her realize they were over…and they’d barely just begun.
“Georgie?” Adalia said, walking through the front door with a glass of wine.
Georgie heard the worry in her sister’s voice, but she didn’t answer, just stared at her sister in shock. Fifteen minutes ago, she’d been consoling Adalia. Now she was the one who was broken.
“We’re cursed,” she whispered. “Mom. You. Me. We’re cursed in love.”
Adalia’s lips pressed into a tight line. “I don’t know about that.” She grabbed another glass of wine up off the counter. “Here. You need this.”
Georgie absently took it, her heart breaking a little more at the sight of the third full glass. “I’ve lost him.”
“If he’s willing to just walk out like that, then maybe it’s for the best,” Adalia grumbled. Her eyes narrowed on her sister. “You should sit down. You look like you’re going to pass out.”
Georgie shook her head in dismay, still in shock over what had happened. How quickly it had all gone wrong. “I should have told him.”
“Sit.” Adalia gave her sister a tiny push into the chair Georgie had sat in the night of the beer tasting, that night she’d first realized River was different. Special. He’d gone out of his way to put her at ease and make her laugh. She’d never felt so comfortable with another man…and now…
Tears welled in her eyes. “I have to call him. I have to explain.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Georgie,” Adalia said softly. She’d gone back to the counter for the bottle of wine and carried it over by the neck before sitting in the chair across from Georgie. “At least not yet. He needs to cool down first. In the meantime, how about you tell me what’s going on.” Adalia poured more wine into her glass. “How did this thing between the two of you happen? I’d like to hear the other stories you mentioned too, if you don’t mind.”