“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 Forty
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.