The Fortunes of Texas: The Secret Fortunes

The man was already edging his way toward the back of the house as he spoke. It was obvious that he was hoping she’d agree.

Chloe really wanted to hand the baby back to this man, but she couldn’t very well turn down his request. Besides, she had promised Graham to wait until whoever he hadn’t been able to reach on the phone turned up for his interview, so what was one more thing added to that?

“Sure, I can watch her,” she told Roger.

The heavyset man beamed at her. “Thanks,” he cried. “You’re going to love working here. They’re both really great people,” Roger told her, giving her a quick fatherly pat on the shoulder just before he turned on his heel and quickly disappeared, leaving the same way he had entered.

“Looks like it’s just you and me now, Sydney. I’m Chloe, by the way,” she told the baby, who was staring up at her with enormous blue eyes, looking as if she was hanging on every word. “Your dad’s half sister,” she explained. “What’s that?” Chloe pretended to lean in toward the baby to hear the “question” that Sydney had “asked.”

“You didn’t know he had a half sibling? Well, he does. Several of them from what I hear,” she added with a laugh.

“Your grandfather really took that ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ passage in the Bible to heart, I guess. I’ve got a feeling that there’s going to be lots of us popping up around here from now on. I hope when you start talking, Sydney, you’re going to be good with names,” she told the baby.

And then she smiled down at the sweet, innocent face that seemed to be listening to every word she said.

“You don’t have a clue what I’m saying, do you?” Chloe asked and then laughed. “Know what? Maybe it’s better that way. Maybe it’ll all sort itself out by the time you’re old enough to know what’s going on. Until then—”

Chloe stopped talking abruptly when she heard someone knocking on the door.

Knowing it wouldn’t be Graham and his wife, she figured it was the other candidate. The one who’s after my job. She set her shoulders to do battle. “Let’s go see if we can scare him off or talk him out of it, okay?”

Sydney made a little noise, and then the next moment Chloe saw that there were bubbles being formed around the infant’s rosebud lips.

Chloe laughed, delighted. She shifted the baby, holding Sydney a little closer to her as she rose and began to head for the door.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Chloe told the baby.

Sydney responded by making even more bubbles.

Chloe opened the door, but whatever greeting she had come up with to offer the person on the other side temporarily vanished.

This was not the type of person she had expected to see when she opened the door. Given the position that she assumed they were both competing for, Chloe had unconsciously thought that he’d be a rather scholarly-looking man. The kind who seemed to fade into the woodwork without anyone taking notice of him.

Instead, what she found herself looking at was a cowboy, most definitely an adrenaline-stirring cowboy. The kind whom women were given to fantasizing about whenever the word cowboy came up.

The man standing before her had to be about six foot three with shoulders wide enough to give him trouble getting through narrow doorways. He had somewhat unruly, dirty-blond hair and eyes so blue they looked as if they’d been cut right out of the sky. He was wearing tight jeans, a long-sleeved denim shirt, boots and a Stetson—set at what could only be described as a sexy angle. In summation, he looked picture-perfect.

If she had to guess, she would have said that the cowboy was somewhere in his late twenties.

What she didn’t have to guess at was that the man was utterly gorgeous.

The second the thought occurred to her, it hit her with the force of a thunderbolt.

Gorgeous?

She hadn’t even so much as noticed another man since Donnie had died, much less labeled that man as “gorgeous.” What was happening here? she upbraided herself. Had she just lost her mind?

Chapter Two

Chance Howell realized that he wasn’t just looking at the petite blonde holding the baby, he was actually staring at her. That couldn’t be viewed as exactly getting off to a good start with who he assumed was the potential boss’s wife. He’d gathered some background on Graham Fortune Robinson and knew the man had two kids, one of whom was an infant. Hence the logical leap.

“Um, excuse me,” he began, feeling rather tongue-tied as he took off his hat and held it in his hands. “I’m Chance Howell. I’ve got an appointment with Graham.”

“He’s not here right now,” the woman told him. “He was called away because of an emergency, but he wanted me to tell you that he’ll be back soon.”

“You must be Sasha. His wife,” Chance added when the woman who was looking at him with large cornflower-blue eyes gave no indication that he had guessed her name correctly.

“What? Oh, no, no, I’m not. I’m Graham’s half sister.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, ‘Graham’s half sister,’” Chance acknowledged, putting his hand out to her.

The woman shifted the baby to her other side so that she could shake hands with him.

“Chloe,” she told him. “My name is Chloe. Chloe Elliott. And I guess we’ll be interviewing for the same job once Graham gets back.”

Chance could only stare at her. What was she, five-one, five-two? Did she say they were going to be competing for the same job? She didn’t look like a rancher, and she certainly didn’t look like any former military person he’d ever met. The ad he was answering was for a rancher, and it had said that preference would be given to any veterans who applied.

But then, what did he know? The world had been doing a lot of changing in these last few years. Black was white and white was black, and he’d heard that with proper drilling, tiny little ladies like her could mop the floor with guys like him.

That might even turn out to be an interesting experience, Chance caught himself thinking. The one thing he was certain of was that he was glad that the petite blonde wasn’t married to the man who he hoped would be hiring him.

He glanced down at her hand, which she had tucked around the baby. It was still clearly visible for his purposes.

There was no wedding ring.

Maybe things were looking up, Chance mused. He could use a little good luck right about now.

“What branch of the service were you in?” he asked her, curious.

Chloe looked at him quizzically. “Service?” she repeated.

“Yeah, you know, navy, army, marines, air force. Service,” he repeated. Had she been in some sort of secret branch? he wondered. Was that why she looked so reluctant to say anything?

“I wasn’t in any branch,” Chloe told him, looking bewildered. “What makes you think I was in the service?”

Aware he might have made a mistake, Chance backtracked. He didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot by insulting the woman.

“Well, the ad said that preference would be given to veterans,” he began, feeling as if he was on really shaky ground here.

“I didn’t see the ad,” she told Chance. “Graham just called to tell me about the position and he asked me to come out to the ranch to interview for it. And then he got called away because of that emergency.”

He nodded. “Right. The emergency,” he repeated. “So you said. Um, do you have any idea when he might be coming back?” He wasn’t much for small talk, but this had to be a new low, even for him.

Chloe shrugged. “Not a clue. He just said he’d be back as soon as he could.” She paused for a moment, as if searching for something to say in order to fill the stillness. “So, you served?” she asked.

Chance nodded. “Special Forces in Afghanistan—until that IED sent me straight to the hospital, and eventually, stateside.”

“Recently?” she asked, trying but failing to covertly scan his appearance.

The cowboy looked perfect, but she knew that there were some injuries and scars that weren’t visible.

But in her opinion, the worst ones were the ones that didn’t allow you to come home at all, other than in a coffin.

“No, I’ve been home for a few years now,” Chance told her.

“Where’s home?”

“Here and there,” he answered vaguely. “I go wherever the work is.” He didn’t want it to sound as if the reason for his nomadic existence was because he didn’t do a good job and was let go. “I don’t stick around long in any one place,” he confessed.

“Why? Are you looking for something?” Chloe asked.

“Not particularly.”

It wasn’t that Chance felt he was actually searching for something specific, he just stayed in one place until he began feeling restless. It was as if something inside him would suddenly tell him that it was time to go.

“I already know that the only place I ever feel like I’m at peace is on the back of a horse. I guess you could say that’s my haven, my church,” he explained.

She smiled at him, and it seemed to make its way to her eyes. “Lucky for you, you can keep your church close by so it’s there whenever you need it.”

He smiled back at her. “Something like that.”

It wasn’t really like that, but he wasn’t about to correct the blonde right off the bat. They hadn’t even known each other for a total of five minutes yet. Correcting her wasn’t exactly the way to get to know her any better.

He did, however, appreciate the fact that she wasn’t grilling him, trying to make him explain his thinking. Some of the women he’d encountered would try to do just that—especially the ones who made it clear that they wanted him to stay with them.

Just as Chance was searching his mind for something to say, an older man burst into the living room.

Chloe looked at the older man in surprise. She’d completely forgotten he was in the house, making a call. “Did you finish making your call?”

He looked at her a little sheepishly. “It took longer than I thought,” he apologized.

Obviously realizing that Chance had no idea who this man was, Chloe made the necessary introductions.

“Chance, this is Sasha’s uncle Roger. Roger, this is Chance Howell. He’s the other person Graham was going to interview today.”

“The one he couldn’t reach,” Roger acknowledged, nodding his head as he shook hands with Chance. “Matter of fact, that’s why I came back. Graham just called me to say that he and Sasha will be home soon. Looks like Maddie just broke her wrist, not her whole arm, but she’s still got a big cast and from what I could tell, that is one unhappy eight-year-old,” he added sympathetically.

“Anyway,” Roger continued, addressing Chance, “Graham told me to tell you that you can reschedule your interview if you don’t want to wait around until he gets in.” He turned to Chloe. “Same goes for you if you’re getting a mite antsy, waiting for him. Course, since you’re so good with the baby and all, I’m hoping you’ll stay.”

“Sure, that’s okay,” Chloe told Sasha’s uncle. “I’ll stay until he gets here. No point in my going back and forth.”

“Same here,” Chance chimed in. His eyes met Chloe’s and just for a moment, the job he had come out to apply for slipped into the background for him. “I’ll be happy to stay.”

What he really meant was that he was happy spending a little more time talking to the petite blonde with the sunbeam smile—even if talking didn’t exactly come easy for him.

Chloe felt a quickening in the pit of her stomach. It was identical to the one she’d experienced when she’d first opened the door and caught sight of the tall, rangy-looking cowboy.

Careful, Chloe. Remember, been there, done that. You really don’t want to go down that road again, do you? You know exactly where that road leads.

Donnie had been her first love. She’d fallen really hard for Donnie and had felt like jumping out of an airplane without strapping a parachute to her back. The feeling was nothing short of exhilarating, but in the end, leaping out of an airplane without a parachute was just asking for trouble, and that was the very last thing she wanted in her life: the kind of trouble that led directly to heartache.

But on the other hand, Chloe reasoned, she didn’t want to come across as rude, either, and being nice—cautiously nice—to Chance didn’t hurt anything, she silently insisted.

The trick was that she had to remember not to get carried away.

Before she could say anything to him, Sasha’s uncle stepped up.

“While you’re waiting for Graham to get back,” Roger offered, “I could give you two a tour of the place if you’re interested.”

“You mean of the house?” Chloe asked, looking down at the baby in her arms.

Sydney, to her surprise, had fallen asleep. Chloe had been so taken with the handsome cowboy, she hadn’t even realized. Nor did she realize the pain in her shoulder till now. She didn’t want to take a chance on waking the baby up, but on the other hand, she would really welcome the opportunity to set Sydney down in her crib.

“Well, the house to start with,” Roger said, answering her question. “And then the rest of the ranch. I could take you two on a quick tour in my truck,” he added in case they were worried about missing Graham when he and his wife returned.

Chloe looked down at the baby. “I don’t want to risk waking Sydney up.”

Roger looked as if he suddenly realized the position that Chloe was in.

“I guess I completely forgot about making you hold that little one,” he confessed, embarrassed. He looked at Chance.

“It’s up to you, Chloe,” he said. “If you don’t feel comfortable about waking that little baby, we can stay right here and wait for Graham and his missus. I don’t need special entertaining,” he went on to tell her as he smiled. “I’m just fine the way I am.”

You certainly are, Chloe thought.

The next minute, ashamed of herself, feeling guilty at being so flippant about Donnie’s memory, she admonished herself for thinking that way. She really had to get hold of herself. What was wrong with her? This wasn’t like her at all.

“I don’t want to keep you from seeing the ranch,” she protested, ready to wave Chance and Roger off on their way.

“If I get the job, I’ll be seeing it soon enough,” Chance told her. “And if I don’t get the job, well then, there’s really no point in taking a tour around the place, now is there?”

Roger looked a little perplexed as he listened to the exchange between the two younger people. Lifting his somewhat sloping shoulders, he shrugged and then let them fall again.

“Suit yourselves,” he told them. “But meanwhile, I can show you where Sydney’s room is so you can at least put her down in her crib. That way you can see if you can still move your arms.” Turning, Roger beckoned for her to follow. “It’s this way, Chloe.”

She saw no reason not to do that, as long as she could hear the baby if she started crying again. She was fairly confident that there had to be a baby monitor in Sydney’s room.

Feeling a sense of relief that she’d at least be away from Chance for a minute or two—enough time to break whatever spell he’d seemed to cast over her—Chloe happily fell into step behind Sasha’s uncle.

“Guess I might as well come, too,” Chance said to them. “No sense in standing around, talking to myself.”

Oh, joy. Just what she needed. More of the handsome cowboy.

Chapter Three

Chloe eased the baby ever so slowly into the crib. She held her breath the entire time until she was able to successfully withdraw her hands from around the baby’s little body.

Sydney made a little noise, then sighed before settling back to sleep.

Success! Chloe silently congratulated herself.

She took a step back and almost gasped as she bumped up right against Chance.

“Oh, sorry,” he whispered, immediately moving aside. He wasn’t sure if he was apologizing for being in her way or for feeling that sudden zip of electricity surging through his body when it made contact with hers. Granted the contact wasn’t of the intimate variety that he was normally accustomed to, but there was still just enough to get him going.

Chloe instantly turned around and nearly caused another, far more dead-on collision between them. At the very last minute, because Chance had moved back so quickly, the one-on-one collision between their two bodies was avoided.

She wasn’t really sure if she was relieved—or perhaps just a little disappointed.

Again? What is the matter with you? she silently demanded.

Yes, the man was attractive, she acknowledged, but lots of men were attractive and she hadn’t been drawn to them. So why was this man, this cowboy, different from the others?

He’s not. Get a grip, Chloe, she ordered herself angrily.

“Um, that’s okay.” She flushed, absolving him of any guilt in what had just transpired. “I shouldn’t have moved so suddenly.” She looked down at the sleeping infant. “I just didn’t want to take a chance on saying something too loud and waking up the baby.”

Since the room was relatively small, Roger had kept back, standing almost out in the hallway. He peered in now at the sleeping infant.

“She sure is a pretty little thing, ain’t she?” The whispered rhetorical question was steeped in complete admiration. And then he looked from Chance to Chloe. “You got any kids?” he asked Chance.

The cowboy looked surprised by the question. “No.”

“You already told me that you don’t have any,” Roger said to Chloe. And then he laughed to himself, as if he knew something they weren’t privy to yet. “Well, you two are young yet. You’ve got time.”

Time—that was what Donnie had thought. They had time. Time to be together, time to enjoy one another before they took that step to become parents. Again she wished with all her heart she had insisted on getting pregnant before he had left for overseas. At least she would have had Donnie’s child to hold in her arms instead of all that emptiness that he left behind.

“But once you’ve got ’em,” Roger was saying, “there’s just nothing like it in the world. Makes you realize just what you were put down here on earth for, what makes everything else all worthwhile.” Rousing himself, he beckoned them out into the hallway. “C’mon, we’d better slip out before I forget myself and start talking loud again.”

Roger put a hand on each of their shoulders—he had to stretch in order to reach Chance’s—and he guided them both out ahead of him.

The hallway was too narrow to accommodate all three of them. Roger fell behind them again.

As she and Chance fell in step beside each other, he glanced her way. “You want kids?” he asked her out of the blue as they made their way back down the stairs ahead of their unofficial escort.

“Right now, I just want a job,” she told him honestly. The next second, she realized that he might think she was trying to guilt him out of competing for the position he was here for. “I mean, if I turn out to be more qualified for it. But if it turns out that you are, well then, I’ll just have to keep on looking for something,” she concluded.

Chance caught himself studying her. Something just wasn’t adding up for him.

“Just how much do you know about ranching?” he finally asked her.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she stared at him, confused. Why would he ask her such a strange question? “Not much. Why?”

Something’s really not adding up, Chance told himself. “Well, because that’s the job I’m here about. The one I’m interviewing for. Graham wanted someone to run the ranch. Someone who was good with horses,” he finally said when she just kept looking at him.

“Run the ranch?” Chloe repeated, confused. She’d gotten the impression from Graham that she and Chance were here about the same job. She looked at him now. “You’re here about ranching?”

“Funny, I thought I just said that,” Chance answered. Judging by the expression on her face, she wasn’t here to apply for that job the way she’d made it sound earlier. “What are you here about?”

“Why, counseling, of course,” Chloe replied in no uncertain terms.

“Counseling what?” Chance asked, clearly surprised by her answer. And then it suddenly occurred to him what the sexy-looking blonde was saying. He had to admit that what he’d just asked made him feel like an idiot. “You mean the boys?”

Her smile was a natural reflex. “I kind of have to. Horses don’t listen to me.”

Chloe’s sense of humor tickled him and he laughed. Now it all made sense. They were here about two different positions. “I could teach you how to make them listen to you.”

“You’re talking about the horses, right?” she asked, a hint of mischief dancing in her eyes.

He found himself being pulled in and mesmerized by those deep pools of blue. It took effort to tear his gaze away. “Right,” he finally replied. “I’ve got no trouble getting horses to listen to me. Most people, though, just ignore me like I wasn’t there.”

“I don’t believe that for a minute,” she told him with feeling. How could anyone, male or female—especially female—not notice this man? His presence seemed to just fill up the very space around him. Heaven knew he certainly did that for her.

The way he was looking at her right now made her feel like nervously shifting from foot to foot. The butterflies in her stomach were multiplying at a phenomenal rate. It was hard to gather her thoughts together to answer him.

“For one thing, you’re really tall.” She knew that wasn’t much of an answer, so she searched for a better one. “And you have this commanding air about you. If you were a counselor, I’m sure that the boys here would listen to whatever you had to say.”

“Good thing we won’t have to put that to the test,” Chance answered, then confessed, “I’m not much when it comes to giving orders. I had enough of that when I was over in Afghanistan.”

The mention of the place that had seen Donnie die had her quietly saying, “At least you got to come back.”

The words slipped out before she could think to stop them. Any hope that Chance might not have heard her died the second she looked up into his eyes. He’d heard. There was curiosity mingled with a touch of pity in his blue orbs.

The moment grew more uncomfortable for her.

“Did you lose someone?” Chance asked kindly.

Her first impulse was to deny his assumption. But that would be like denying Donnie had ever existed, and she couldn’t bring herself to do that.

So after a couple of beats had gone by, she answered him. “Yes.”

“Brother? Father? Husband?” Chance kept guessing when she made no acknowledgment that he had guessed correctly. By the time he’d reached the word husband, with no visible response from her, Chance shook his head. “No, never mind. Don’t tell me. It’s none of my business. Sorry I asked,” he apologized. “It’s just that sometimes it feels like some kind of exclusive veterans club—the kind you really don’t want membership to,” he added ruefully.

“Does that mean you wish you hadn’t gone?” she asked, curious.

How many times had she lain awake at night, wondering if Donnie ever regretted enlisting before the war had taken him from her. Even now, after all this time, she hadn’t really come to any sort of a satisfactory conclusion.

“No,” he told her honestly. “I went to fight for my country, and I’m proud of that part. I just wish I hadn’t seen what I’d seen. Nobody should see that kind of thing,” he said quietly. “Nobody should have to live through it, either.”

Then, as if he replayed his own words in his head, Chance blew out a breath, mystified. “How’d I get started on that?” he asked. The question was meant more for him than for her. Clearing his throat, he abruptly changed the subject. “Anyway, at least now we know that we’re not out for the same job.”

Roger, who had been hanging back quietly this whole time, finally spoke up.

“Well, glad that’s been cleared up—and just in time, too.” His attention was immediately redirected to the sound of the front door being opened. “Looks like your future bosses are back,” he told Chloe and Chance with a broad wink.