Lodged (Kinsmen Billionaires #2)

13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Ruin MacAllister

I t’s a beautiful fall day in the North Carolina mountains. The air is crisp, the leaves are beginning to change colors, and you can feel the buzz in the town—today is Apple Festival Day.

“Good morning, Rusty,” River greets me with the nickname he’s had for me since I was a tiny baby. He comes to stand on the porch next to me, a cup of coffee warming his hands. “A little airish this morning, I reckon,” he continues, and I chuckle. I love it when my brother uses the colorful Appalachian dialect. Airish is the word we use when it’s a little cold outside.

“Yes, but it’s still nice.” I breathe it in before taking a long sip of my own coffee. I brewed the one Gio gave me the other day.

“Where did you get this coffee? It’s really good,” River asks. I know where all this is going, but I’m still not ready to tell him about Gio.

“One of my roommates gave it to me,” I lie. I’m going to have to start writing down all my lies just to keep track of them.

“Hmmm. When you get back, you’ll have to ask her where she got it, because now I feel like we need to buy more.” I smile and nod at him.

Silence falls upon us, and I let myself enjoy the taste of my first pumpkin-spiced latte of the season with the most beautiful sight right in front of me. Our orchard spans over two hundred acres, with beautiful trees lining up and down the mountains as far as the eye can see. River’s busiest season is the harvest, and I’m sad I won’t be here to help this year, but once I graduate, I’m planning to move back. I love being near my family.

“Are you ready, Ru?” Miles comes out to join us, and I smile at him. We have a band, and every year, we perform at the Apple Festival.

“You know it,” I reply as I take another sip of my latte. Tonight will be epic. River and Miles play the guitar and banjo, Rain plays the drums, Merlin plays the violin, and I sing. We’ve been doing this since we were little, so we usually don’t need to rehearse much. Whenever we want to add a new song, we practice individually first, and then we come together to give it the MacAllister touch, as River calls it.

During the day, I help Mama and Rain in the family booth. We sell everything apple: pies, butter, and apples by the bushel. Mama and Granny spend the week before the festival baking and preparing the apple butter. People come from all over the state to our fair, even though it’s not the only Apple Festival in Appalachia.

Newcomers and locals alike stop by to say hello and buy from our stand. Rain and I are beyond busy—we switch between being the cashier and fulfilling orders.

River is always mingling and talking business with other local farmers, while Miles and Merlin help run the games section.

Last year, Granny volunteered Miles in the kissing booth. My poor brother ended up kissing over a hundred women. And as much as he likes to joke around, I know he felt it was a little too much. But Granny insisted the church needed a new sound system, and Miles needed to help fund it since he’s the one who makes her pray the most.

This year, Merlin volunteered to work on the dunk tank because the high school juniors were in charge of it. He and his best friend, Meadow, are taking turns getting dunked, and I love how cute they look together. I hope one day soon he realizes he’s head over heels for her.

“Ruination, long time no see.” I roll my eyes at the nickname. I would recognize the sleazy idiot who calls me that anywhere. Steve Haddock, my high school boyfriend, always loved to call me that. I hated it, but somehow, I believed him when he said it was because I had “ruined him for any other girl.” Ha! Joke’s on me—I caught him kissing Payley McGee under the football field bleachers during our homecoming dance. And sure enough, they ended up having a shotgun wedding not long after we graduated. Now, they have three littles, and he’s still as vexing as six years ago.

“Oh, but if it isn’t Haddock in the paddock,” Rain says as she approaches us.

“Rain,” Steve greets her with a curt nod.

“What do you want, Steve?” Rain asks him, cutting to the chase.

“I just wanted to say hi to an old friend. Last I heard, Ruin was living the life in the big city.” Steve plays with the toothpick he has between his lips, and I can’t help but shiver in disgust. He looks so slimy.

“Well, you’ve said hello already. So unless you’re going to buy something, we need you to move along because the line is backing up.” I try to cover the laugh that bubbles up with a cough, but I don’t think I did a good job because Steve is glaring at us now.

“Bye, Steve, it was good seeing you. Say hi to the missus and the kids for us.” I wave at him and he turns around and leaves, almost running. Rain and I explode in laughter.

“I can’t believe the nerve of that guy, coming to say hi to you. What was he thinking? That you were going to be his new side piece?” Rain asks as I elbow her in the ribs.

“Eww, take that back, Rain MacAllister. There’s no way I’ll ever be anyone’s side piece.”

“Praise the lord,” Granny says behind us, and we both jump.

“Granny, didn’t anyone teach you not to sneak up on people like that? We could have had a heart attack,” Rain admonishes her, but she dismisses us with a hand wave.

“I was doing my tarot reads but had to come see Ruin because this card came for her when I asked the angels.” I look at her confused. “Honey, when the angels want to speak to me they don’t care who’s in line. They just speak.”

Granny takes a tarot card from her apron pocket and hands it to me. It’s a pink, with golden letters that reads: Romantic Feelings . The image shows a couple, almost kissing. It’s cute, but I have no clue what Granny is talking about. Rain snatches the card from my hand, and I laugh.

“You think I’ve lost my marbles, but the angels don’t lie. And that man you met back in Raleigh is the real deal, honey. Trust me.” Granny pats my hand as she takes the card from Rain’s hands and heads back to her booth.

Rain looks at me. “Spill it, sister.” I know I’m blushing because I can feel my face getting warm.

“Later. Look at the line we have now.” I dismiss her quickly, but my twin is relentless.

“Good thing I know where you live, Ruin Josephine. This conversation isn’t over.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I smirk at her as I greet a customer.

It was another amazing day at the fair. Once we sold out all of the pies and butter, Rain and I walked around to see what others were selling. We passed wood statues, homemade lip balm, and kettle popcorn. I got a huge bag of salted caramel popcorn and was enjoying it until Miles decided it was his. He took it right out of my hands and ran. I chased him all over the fairgrounds until he started throwing popcorn back at me. There was a point where I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t keep running after him.

“Miles, give that popcorn back to your sister,” Mama says in her mom voice. Miles stops running so I can finally catch up to him. He doesn’t give me the popcorn back, though; he goes straight to hug Mama, who melts in his embrace. Mama is such a softie.

“I’m sorry, Mama. I promise it won’t happen again,” Miles says as he sticks his tongue out. I just cackle at his childishness.

“Are you two done playing around? It’s almost time to perform.” River comes to where we’re standing, and Miles sobers up real quick. After hugging Mama and Granny, we make our way to the makeshift stage.

“Are you all ready?” Mr. Tate, the town’s mayor, asks us before our time to sing. River looks each of us in the eyes, and once he’s done his round to ensure we’re ready, he nods at the mayor.

“Alrighty, up you go. I’ll introduce you all after I officially close the fair.” We take our spots on the stage as Mr. Tate thanks everyone for their hard work and for making the Apple Festival another successful event in Azalea Creek.

“And to close the fair with the best band around, I give you the MacAllisters.” The crowd explodes in cheers, and I smile at them as I take the microphone from Mr. Tate.

“Good evening, Azaleans. How are we doing?” I ask, and everyone cheers louder. “I can’t hear you! Did you all have fun?” Everyone shouts this time around, and I nod at the crowd as I smile, letting their energy and enthusiasm run through me.

“Are you all ready for some good ol’ music?” I look at Rain to start the count, and my siblings start playing a song by Shania Twain. I sway to the rhythm, enjoying myself like I always do when I’m on stage with my brothers and sister. When I start singing, everything around me fades, and I lose myself in the words.

This has been such an amazing day. It’s great to be home. The only thing missing is Gio. But all I can do for now is to hope that his words become a reality and that next year, he’ll be here with me.

“Okay, Ruru. Time to spill,” Rain declares as she gets in bed, turning on her side so we’re facing each other.

“Remember my teacher? The one who lent me his car?” Rain nods with a huge grin on her face.

“Well, we’ve gone out a couple of times.” I giggle and kick my feet in the air as Rain jumps up from her bed.

“Shut up! You’re dating an older man?” she asks as she gets back in bed with me.

“Ew, no. Gio is like thirty,” I tell her, and she nods as she bites her lip.

“Okay, tell me more. What does he look like? Why do you like him? Where have you guys been? Tell me everything.”

I chuckle at her enthusiasm, but I can’t help but get excited as I begin to share.

“He’s tall, with blond hair—shorter on the sides and longer on top. Sometimes it curls, which is so hot. He has the most gorgeous shade of blue eyes. They are dark, vibrant, but when he’s happy, they turn lighter.”

“Have you guys kissed?” she asks eagerly. I groan, and she frowns. “Why not?”

“Well, he’s my teacher, and even though I know he likes me, it was me who asked him out first. I think he was going to wait until the semester was over to ask me out.”

“No way. The man is a saint.” I chuckle at her assessment. “And from what we can tell, he’s rich.” I nod because I honestly don’t think anyone on a teaching assistant salary alone can afford a Range Rover.

“And he’s handsome and smart.” Rain keeps going, and I nod. “And he’s in love with my little sister. Oh my goodness, I can’t wait to meet him!” Rain shouts, and I cover her mouth with my hand.

“I don’t want to tell anyone until after the semester is over. I don’t want them to get the wrong idea about him. You know?” Rain nods, understanding dawning on her, and I remove my hand from her mouth.

“And that’s not all.” Her eyes grow big. “He asked me if I wanted to spend a couple of days with him in Corolla,” I say, way too giddy to contain myself.

“The Outer Banks?” I nod, and Rain whistles. “Yup, he’s loaded.”

“Well, that’s the thing. I don’t know if he’s paying or if we’re going dutch.” Rain rolls her eyes.

“What?”

“Ruru, do you really think that a man who drives a Range Rover is going to ask you out and is going to make you pay half?” I ponder her words, and I think she’s right. I haven’t even told her about the amount of flowers he sent me the other day. That must have cost at least a couple of grand.

“You’re right. Silly me.” I roll my eyes at her as I blow raspberries. I don’t doubt he’ll cover everything, but I feel like I should be contributing somehow. I’ll have to talk to him about it next time I see him.

“I’m always right, darling.” She winks at me, and we both laugh. I’m so lucky to have Rain in my corner.

“The semester will be over in, what, eight more weeks?” Rain wonders, and I nod.

“I can’t wait to meet him. I need to give him the twin seal of approval, but from what I’ve heard and the way your eyes light up, I reckon he’s one of the good ones.”

We hug, and I can’t help feeling overly grateful, loving this little sisterly moment too much.

I can’t wait to see those cobalt eyes again next week.