Fortune Found

Under the watchful eye of two of her children, Jessie did, wondering at the scowl that had come onto Ella’s pretty, freckled face as the little girl glared at Flint as if he’d done something wrong.

“Okay, we better get going before Gramma sends more troops,” Jessie said in a tone she hoped sounded normal. Inside, though, she was a jumble of excitement and confusion and something that seemed to remind her she was a woman—a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a very, very long time.

As she guided her kids out of the laundry room she couldn’t help glancing back just once because she thought she could feel Flint watching her.

He stood with his hips leaning against the front of the drier, his arms crossed over his wide chest. And he wasn’t merely watching her—there was something else in those eyes that almost seemed appreciative …

Why that again set off that tingling-across-the-surface-of-her-skin feeling, that reminder that she was a woman, she didn’t know.

She only knew that it needed to stop.

And it needed not to happen again.

She was a mother, first and foremost, and she couldn’t let herself be distracted from that. She already had her hands full.

And yet just the thought of having her hands full made her mind wander back to the feel of Flint’s rocksolid shoulders.

And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she’d liked the way they’d felt.

Chapter Three

Flint stood high atop his brother’s roof early Tuesday morning. He was supposed to be checking for loose shingles. Instead he was so intent on watching Jessie cross from her backyard into Cooper’s through the connecting gate that he was late in realizing that a car had pulled up in front of the house.

Only when Jessie had disappeared from sight was Flint’s attention drawn in the opposite direction, just as his other brother Ross was getting out from behind the wheel.

“Hey, down there! This is a surprise!” Flint called.

No one had said anything about Ross coming by today, or about his bringing their uncle William and William’s fiancée, Lily. But there they all were.

“I have some news,” Ross yelled back as he closed the driver’s side door.

Growing up, Ross, the oldest of Cindy’s children had looked out for his siblings and in that same vein, Flint saw him making sure that the elderly couple got safely out of his car as Flint climbed down the ladder and met them at the front porch.

William and Lily were supposed to be married in January. The match between William and his late-cousin Ryan’s widow had been kept quiet until they’d both felt the family could accept their relationship. The relationship that had come about despite the fact that William and Ryan had been close, despite the fact that Lily had adored her husband until his death six years before from a brain tumor. Two years ago, the also-widowed William and Lily had found their way to each other, and what had begun as a family connection turned into a friendship that had blossomed into love.

Their wedding had been set for January first—a New Year’s Day celebration. But William had never made it to the church. There had been speculation that he’d run off with another woman, that he’d been kidnapped, that any number of things had caused him to leave Lily at the altar voluntarily or involuntarily. His car had been discovered days later, having gone off a road near the neighboring town of Haggerty, almost completely concealed in a wooded ravine. William was nowhere around.

For months it hadn’t been known where he was, or whether he was dead or alive. Then, just a few weeks ago, he was located living on the streets in Haggerty, suffering from amnesia, not even aware of who he was.

Since being returned to Red Rock, to his family, to Lily—who had always believed William would return to her—he was getting better at recognizing the people who cared about him. And because he had a particular soft spot for Anthony—for no reason anyone could explain—Flint knew that whenever she got the chance, Lily liked to expose William to the baby in hope that something about Anthony was reaching William’s deeply buried recollections and helping to draw them to the surface.

“I don’t know what news you have, but it’s good to see you all,” Flint greeted the small group. “How are you feeling, Uncle William?”

“A little like I’m walking through a fog, but okay,” the older man answered, still sounding slightly befuddled.

“I thought it might be better if I brought Lily and Uncle William with me rather than tell what I have to tell twice,” Ross said then.

“Sure. Why don’t we go inside?” Flint suggested, ushering the threesome up the porch steps and hollering “We have company,” as he went in behind them all.

From upstairs came Coop, and from the kitchen at the rear of the house came Kelsey and the newly arrived Jessie.

And while Flint had no explanation for it, he only had eyes for Jessie, whom he said good morning to.

More greetings made the rounds and then Kelsey got everyone out to the picnic table in the backyard for coffee because no single section of the house could comfortably seat so many at once yet.

“I’m glad to see you back with us, Flint,” William said as they all settled. “I do remember that you were leaving after Anthony’s party for a business trip.”

“And I’m glad to see that you know who I am,” Flint teased his uncle.

With a nod in the direction of Jessie, William added, “And this beauty? She must be your wife?”

They were sitting beside each other—at Kelsey’s suggestion. But Flint was slightly discouraged by this lapse in his uncle’s recall.

“No, this is Jessie, Kelsey’s sister,” Flint explained as if it were no big deal that William had made the mistake. “I’m not married anymore.”

As if to get past William’s lapse, Lily jumped in then to ask where Anthony was.

“Coop just put him down for his morning nap,” Kelsey answered. “But you can look in on him later if you want.”

After a drink of his coffee, Ross took the lead. “I had a call from the police today,” he began.

As a private detective, Ross was the family’s closest link to law enforcement. He’d done all he could to try to find William when he was missing, as well as to look into the whereabouts of Lulu Carlton—Anthony’s birth mother—for Cooper.

After having it confirmed that Anthony was Coop’s son, Coop had done the math—he’d been involved with Lulu at the time Anthony would have been conceived. He hadn’t had any idea that she was pregnant when they’d broken up and he’d left her in Minnesota, but Ross had discovered that she’d come to Texas.

Ross had also discovered that there had been a car accident near where William’s car had gone off the road, on the same day William had disappeared, that a woman had been killed in that accident but that without identification, she was in the Haggerty morgue, listed as a Jane Doe.

The time lapse between when Jane Doe’s accident had been reported and when William’s car had been discovered in the ravine days later had raised questions about whether the two incidents were related. No one had yet to answer those questions. But the coincidence had made Ross suggest that Cooper take a look at Jane Doe.

Sure enough, Coop had identified her as Lulu Carlton and provided his son’s mother with a proper burial.

In the course of all that, Ross had had several dealings with state and local police, so it was no surprise that news coming through those same channels that involved the Fortune family would still go to Ross first.

“It seems,” he was saying, “that the man who was working at the church as the groundskeeper in January was arrested for stealing a car and robbing a convenience store in Dallas a couple of days ago. His name is Charlie something-or-other. He wasn’t alone, he had that Courtney woman with him—the one who brought Anthony to Max Allen—”

“Max Allen?” William asked, obviously lost.

Lily placed a reassuring hand over William’s where it rested on the picnic table. “Remember you met him—he’s Kirsten’s brother?”

“Oh, that’s right—that pretty girl my son Jeremy is going to marry. Max is her brother.”

“Right,” Ross confirmed. And apparently because William was drawing a blank, he explained what everyone else knew. “Courtney was Max Allen’s old girlfriend. She showed up on his door with Anthony, saying he was Max’s baby. Max didn’t believe her, and it was because he brought Anthony to the attention of the authorities that we figured out that Anthony belongs to Coop.”

“Ah,” William said.

Because the older man seemed to have grasped that, Ross continued. “Police in Dallas came down pretty hard on both the church’s former groundskeeper and this Courtney, looking for prior bad acts. Courtney broke down, gave enough information for the cops to use as leverage with the groundskeeper and—between the two of them—got the whole story. Apparently the groundskeeper found Anthony on the back doorstep of the church on what would have been the wedding day.”

“And all this time we’ve been thinking that Anthony must have been in the accident with Lulu? That someone took him from the scene?” Coop said.

Ross shrugged. “No one knew where else he might have come from.”

“But now it seems as if Lulu left him at the church?” Flint asked.

“We’re thinking that maybe she saw the announcement of Uncle William and Lily’s wedding somewhere, and thought that if she left him there that day, one of us would find him. That when we saw the medallion strung around him, we’d figure he belonged with us.”

“But none of us did find him,” Coop put in.

“So the groundskeeper took him,” Ross went on, “and pawned Anthony off on this Courtney woman. She actually got attached to the baby, which was why she wanted to make sure he got to someone she thought might do right by him when it occurred to her that she couldn’t keep him herself. That was when she went to Max Allen.”

“And if I’m remembering right,” Kelsey interjected, “First Courtney claimed that Anthony belonged to her and Max, then her story changed and she swore Anthony was her son with the groundskeeper.”

“Right. But like I said, Max Allen got suspicious,” Ross repeated. “And thanks to that and the medallion that these two less-than-upstanding citizens didn’t take from Anthony, we were able to do the DNA test that connected him with Coop.”

“We’re so lucky this worked out the way it did,” Coop said, choking up.

“It could have been so much worse,” Kelsey said.

“But he ended up with the two of you,” Flint reminded to soothe his brother and Kelsey’s fears before they got unduly out of control with what might have been.

“Anthony ended up with his family,” William confirmed victoriously. “That’s all that matters.”

“That and that we have you safely back, too,” Lily put in, squeezing William’s hand on the picnic table.

“Even if my memory is full of more holes than Swiss cheese,” William joked.

They all laughed at that before assuring the older man that everything would come back in time—what Flint knew was just wishful thinking at that point.

Then, to Kelsey, Lily said, “We shouldn’t keep you when you have so much work to do. Maybe we could just take that little peek at Anthony while he’s sleeping and we’ll get out of your way.”

“I know I could use a peek at him,” Coop said, still sounding unnerved by the thought of the complicated path his son had taken to get to him.

As everyone stood up from the picnic table, Kelsey turned to Flint and said, “Don’t get back on the roof. I have jobs for you to do with Jessie today.”

That brought a jab of Jessie’s elbow into Kelsey’s ribs that made Flint wonder if Jessie was unhappy with the prospect of working side by side with him.

But as Jessie began to gather empty coffee cups to take into the house, he hoped that that wasn’t the case.

And not just because the morning sunshine glistened off her hair like spun copper.

But because as home repairs went, doing them side by side with her took all the chore out of it for him.

“When I says g’night to my grampa I kisses his cheek. But Grampa says that when other mens says g’night they pro’bly shakes han’s.”

And with that explanation, Adam held out his tiny hand for Flint to shake.

Jessie watched Flint fight to keep from laughing, smiling instead as he accepted Adam’s outstretched hand and shook it. “Good night, Adam. Sleep tight.”

“Tha’s what my mama says,” Adam exclaimed before he ran off to join his brother, sisters and grandparents as they all went in the rear door of Jessie’s house.

“Your son cracks me up,” Flint said, releasing the laugh he’d been so obviously holding in.

Jessie smiled at Flint’s comment as she watched her youngest disappear inside.

The day had ended the way it had begun—at a picnic table. Only tonight it was the picnic table in Jessie’s backyard where she, her four kids, her parents and Kelsey, Coop, Anthony and Flint had all shared the grilled chicken that Jeannie Hunt had prepared for dinner.

It was nearly nine o’clock now, however, and much the way the rest of the day and evening had gone, Kelsey had orchestrated things so that she and Coop took Anthony home at the same time that Jack and Jeannie Hunt were dispatched to put Ella, Braden, Bethany and Adam to bed, leaving Jessie and Flint sitting directly across from each other at the picnic table. Alone.

“They’re all great kids,” Flint added. “And every one of them looks like you. Especially Ella—she’s a miniature version of you.”

“I can see their father in each of the kids in small ways,” Jessie answered Flint’s observation, trying to hide her embarrassment at her sister’s less-than-subtle manipulations to put them together. “She’s also taller than I was at her age, and lanky, the way Pete was. And when she frowns—”

“Which she seems to do a lot,” Flint remarked. “Especially when she sees me.”

“I’m sorry about that. I know she’s sort of treating you like the enemy. There was something about your catching me when I nearly fell off the drier yesterday …” Something that had also imprinted every tiny nuance on Jessie’s brain to relive over and over again. “Well, whatever it was, Ella didn’t like the look of it and you seem to be getting the full blame. I think she’ll get over it in a day or two, but for now—”

“I’m not the guy who just kept you from falling, I’m the guy who got too up close and personal with her mom.”

Up close and personal enough for Jessie to smell the clean, woodsy scent of his cologne. To see even more clearly the flecks of gold that illuminated his dark eyes. To have felt those steely shoulders in the grip of her own hands …

She swallowed hard, feeling as breathless as she had in the moment.

“Anyway, give her a day or two, and Ella will probably come around,” Jessie finally managed to say when she’d dragged herself out of her split-second reverie.

Flint didn’t respond to that, instead he went on with what they’d been talking about before. “And the twins, they seem like the spitting image of you, too. How do they look like their dad?”

“Their coloring is all Pete—the lighter hair and eyes. And Adam has Pete’s smile and his turned-up nose.”

Flint nodded, but his eyes were on her intently the whole time, as if he were gauging his words before he said, “Do you mind if I ask how he died?”

Not when it was asked so gently, so compassionately, so mindful of it being difficult for her to talk about.

She sighed. “It was an accident at a building site. A faulty crane, a dropped girder …” But she couldn’t bring herself to go into the details, so she said, “We were both working for the same construction company—I ran the office, Pete was the electrical foreman, so he was in the field most of the time. Sometimes I had paperwork that would take me into the on-site office—that was always set up in a trailer that stayed on a big job—”

“Were you there when it happened?” Flint asked, his frown lines deep with horror on her behalf.

“I was,” she said, her voice cracking even though it was barely above a whisper. “Thankfully I didn’t see it, but I heard workman shouting, running, yelling for someone to call for an ambulance, which I did before I ever left the trailer or knew it was Pete I was calling for …”

“I’m so sorry,” Flint said with heartfelt sympathy.

“He literally never knew what hit him, which was a blessing, I think. And I didn’t have to see him—the owner of the company kept me away until they had Pete in the ambulance. I rode to the hospital holding his hand …”

Okay, she couldn’t talk about that without breaking down, and she didn’t want to break down. She’d done more than her share of crying. So she swallowed hard and said, “Things are pretty much a blur for me from there.”

“That’s probably a blessing, too, in this case.”

“I know my folks were at the hospital by the time I got there. Kelsey wasn’t living in Red Rock then, but she wasn’t far away and she was at home with the kids by the time my folks brought me back. Telling them was the hardest thing I’d ever done.”

“This was how long ago?”

“A little over two years.”

“Were the kids even old enough to understand?”

“Adam was only a baby, so no. He doesn’t even remember Pete except through pictures and stories I’ve told him. Braden and Bethany were two and a half, so they didn’t really get it either. For a long time they just kept asking where Daddy was, when he was coming home, and we’d have to tell them all over again, try to help them understand—”

“But Ella, she was five, right?”

“Right. She knew exactly what was going on, poor thing.” And that, too, brought the sting of tears to Jessie’s eyes. But in two years she’d learned well how to hold them at bay. “Ella went back and forth between her own grief and putting up a strong front. Half the time she played parent—helping with the other kids, making an attempt to look after me …”

“Ross.”

Jessie raised her eyebrows at Flint in question to his oldest brother’s name.

“Ross did that in my family,” Flint explained. “We all took care of each other, but it was Ross who led the way, who played parent.”

Again Jessie wasn’t sure exactly why that had been necessary, but not knowing the details, she assumed that it had something to do with his mother’s overall less-than-stellar reputation.

“I suppose,” Jessie said then, “that that’s what’s going on now, too—Ella is feeling protective. And maybe a little territorial.”

“So we’re being pushed and pulled,” Flint said then with a knowing smile.

Jessie thought she knew what he meant, but she didn’t want to assume too much so she merely repeated, “Pushed and pulled?”

“Ella wants to pull you away, to keep you to herself. But there’s a lot of pushing going on with Kelsey, and now Coop and tonight your parents, too …”

“I know, I’m sorry,” she apologized for the second time. “I was hoping maybe you hadn’t noticed the not-so-veiled attempts at matchmaking.”

Flint laughed again and Jessie wished she didn’t like the sound of it as much as she did.

“You thought I hadn’t noticed that we’re being dispatched to paint rooms together, to go to the store together, to do everything they can possibly get us to do together? That seating arrangements always put us side by side—”

“And now this—” Jessie interjected, raising both hands in the air and glancing around “—getting everybody out of here so we’re alone.”

Flint grinned that great grin that drew such sexy lines on his handsome face. “Yep, I noticed. Impossible not to. It seems to be a conspiracy.”

“But Kelsey is the mastermind.”

“I think her intentions are good,” Flint allowed.

“Oh, they are,” Jessie was quick to confirm. “She just wants what she thinks is best for me.” And it was a compliment to Flint that Kelsey thought he was it.

“The two of you are really close, aren’t you?”

“She’s not only my sister, she’s also my best friend.”

“And your folks, have you all always lived together?”

“No, they retired about the same time I lost Pete. They’d both worked for a small, independent paper company. They had planned to sell their house and do some traveling when the time came, but instead they moved in here with me to help get me through the loss and to lend a hand with the kids. They’ve been a godsend. Between them and Kelsey moving back to Red Rock eight months ago, I don’t think I could have made it without them. But the matchmaking … all I can do is say I’m sorry.”

Flint smiled again, not seeming perturbed by what her family—and his brother—were doing.

“It’s not so bad,” he said in a tone that seemed as if it might have held some innuendo, except that Jessie thought she was too out of practice with men to be sure. “I just don’t know how that roof is going to get fixed if I don’t get up there and give Coop a hand with it.”

“I’ll try again to reason with Kelsey,” Jessie said as Flint got to his feet, apparently ready to follow Kelsey and Cooper home.

Jessie stood, too, and without thinking about it, began to walk with Flint to the gate that connected her backyard to Kelsey’s.

“Maybe instead of that,” he said along the way, “we should give them a little of what they want.”

Jessie didn’t have any idea what he was talking about that time. “Give them what they want?”

“Maybe we should pretend to go on a date together, come back and say we just didn’t click. Maybe then they’d relax.”

An instant wave of dejection—or maybe rejection—washed through her at the thought that Flint had decided they didn’t click. That decision shouldn’t have been jarring—after all, they didn’t need to click beyond the friendly superficialities that were already in effect. There was no reason for anything more than that.

And she didn’t want there to be anything more than that, Jessie reminded herself. This was strictly a distant, siblings-of-in-laws relationship.

And yet it was somehow demoralizing to hear that Flint didn’t think they clicked …

Especially when she was so intensely aware of him in every way.

She hid her feelings behind what she hoped was nothing more than a curious expression and as they reached the gate, said, “A pretend date?”

Flint opened the gate, stood in the opening and turned to lean one shoulder against the six-foot-high side post so that he was facing her. “We’ll go out alone, have dinner someplace innocuous—Not Red, where all eyes would be on us.”

Red was the local restaurant owned by the Mendoza family, who were extremely close friends of the Fortunes. They even had family ties with them now that the Mendozas’ son, Marcos, was engaged to Wendy Fortune—a member of the Atlanta branch of the Fortune family who had only recently come to Red Rock.

“All eyes would definitely be on us at Red,” Jessie agreed.

“So we’ll go somewhere else. How about that barbecue place outside of Austin that Coop and Kelsey were talking about tonight?”

“They seemed to like it.”

“Then we’ll come home, I’ll say you’re great but there just weren’t any sparks. You can say I’m a big jerk if you want—”

Jessie laughed but didn’t think it was wise to say that she already knew he wasn’t a big jerk, so instead said, “I’ll probably stick with the just-no-sparks thing, too.”

“And then they’ll all have to give it a rest.”

Jessie considered the ruse. “I suppose you do have a point. If they think we gave it a try and it just didn’t go anywhere, they’ll have to accept it and back off.”

“Not that I don’t enjoy working with you and talking to you …” Flint added with a small but genuine smile that convinced her that he actually did. Even if they didn’t click.

“But that roof is in bad shape,” Flint went on, “and even with two of us it’s going to be a big job. Unless you want to volunteer to work up there, then we can keep this going …”