Texan Seeks Fortune

by Marie Ferrarella

  “That is worth everything to me,” Connor answered in all sincerity.

  Brianna waited for him to elaborate, but Connor didn’t say anything more on the subject.

  She frowned. She didn’t like getting into something without having all the cards laid out on the table, especially when she had a gut feeling that there was something more going on.

  But there was no denying the fact that she could really use the money and she had a feeling that she was never going to see that money from Charlene or Charlotte or whatever the woman’s real name was. This was going to be her only chance of recouping her loss.

  “So, do we have a deal?” Connor asked her again, this time putting his hand out.

  Common sense told her that she needed more blanks filled in, but the bills that were piling up on her desk weren’t going to be paid with common sense.

  Brianna put her hand into his and shook it, praying she wasn’t going to regret this. “We have a deal,” she told him.

  “Great.” A hair-raising scream came from the kids’ bedroom. “You need help with that?” he asked, nodding in the direction the scream came from.

  “I can handle it.” Brianna looked toward the front door. “I’ll just walk you out first.”

  He was going to tell her that he could see himself out. But there was something about this unconsciously sexy lady that told him Brianna had trust issues and he had already pushed things about as far as he thought he could for now.

  So he flashed a smile at her and said, “Then I’ll walk fast so you can get to your emergency.”

  “No emergency,” she told him with just a touch of weariness as she led the way. “Just business as usual.” Reaching the front door, she asked, “Is it wrong for me to hope that the next fifteen years will fly by?”

  Connor laughed. “Given the situation,” he answered, “there would be something wrong with you if you didn’t. At least once in a while,” he added, sensing that the woman really loved these two whirling dervishes that were disguised as her children. “I’ll give you a call soon so we can set a time to get started,” he told her.

  “You have my number?” she asked, wanting to be sure he did.

  “Oh yes.”

  The way he said that caused her stomach to tighten. She was reading into it, she silently insisted. Stiffening slightly, she said, “Goodbye.”

  Before Connor could respond in kind, he found himself looking at the door. She had closed it on him in one fluid motion.

  He could hear her running toward the back of the house and her children. Connor shook his head. How did she manage to keep on going day after day, faced with these mini explosions? The woman definitely had her work cut out for her. Where did she find the time to get anything else done, he marveled, turning away. Her kids seemed to take up every single moment of the day as well as suck up all the oxygen in any room they were in.

  Connor walked back to his car at the curb and got in. If he listened, he could still make out the sound of high voices talking over one another. This sort of thing just reinforced his feelings about the single life. The thought of coming home to that kind of chaos night after night sent a cold shiver up and down his spine.

  Starting up his car, he thought of what Brianna had said about not being able to travel because of her children and their pets.

  Hell, he couldn’t imagine a life like that. Not being able to travel, being restricted like that because he had to be there day after day for two little warring people who had no idea of how much was being sacrificed for them.

  He thought of Ava and Axel. He had to admit that he’d gotten a kick out of how they seemed to hang on his words when he told them about Lightning, but hell, he could get the same sort of attentive effect from one of his friends if he just bribed them with a couple of drinks at a restaurant.

  This Brianna woman probably didn’t even realize all the freedom she was missing out on, all the freedom she had given up just to put up with those two walking accidents-waiting-to-happen. He hadn’t seen any evidence, such as photographs, of a husband on the scene. Nor was she wearing a wedding ring. Was the woman tackling all this by herself? She had to be a little crazy to do that.

  Yes sir, Connor thought, he was really glad he wasn’t in a committed relationship. Heaven forbid some cute little number started having designs on him, making wedding plans in her head.

  Wedding rings reminded him much too much of nooses and he wasn’t about to slip one of those around his neck, no way. While he could see, he supposed, his brothers and sisters settling down into what they were hoping were lives of domestic bliss, he had just been exposed to a real picture of what happened after the words “I do” were spoken.

  In very short order “I do” turned into “I don’t” as those words applied to doing things, taking off at a moment’s notice, having fun. All of that fell by the wayside, a casualty in the wake of deluded dreams of happiness.

  That kind of happiness was just a myth. Real happiness was something that the individual made happen. The individual, not the couple, Connor silently underscored as he drove back to his parents’ home.

  No, if he was ever tempted to go the route that his siblings had all opted to tread, he hoped that someone would have the good sense to shoot him—or at least tie him up until the moment of insanity passed and he was back to himself again.

  Connor turned up the music and tried, just for the next half hour, to clear his brain of everything.

  It was easier said than done. For some reason, images of Ava and Axel insisted on flashing through his mind’s eye.

  Along with that of their mother.

  He turned the music up even louder.

  Chapter Five

  Brianna didn’t have time to think about the unsettling stranger she had just sent on his way. She had a volatile situation she needed to defuse. The shouting was getting louder.

  Moving quickly, she headed toward the children’s bedroom.

  When she got there, she saw that Axel and Ava were at each other’s throats, fighting for sole possession of a one-eared stuffed rabbit. Getting between them, she managed to separate her children—and save the rabbit.

  “Okay, you two, you need a time-out,” she told them sternly. Physically holding them apart, she informed her children, “I’m going to separate you so you can think about how you’re supposed to behave.” Brianna gave her noisy twosome a dark look. “Especially when we have company.”

  Axel looked up at his mother, puzzled. “What company?”

  “Any company,” Brianna emphasized. Axel was just pretending not to understand. He was brighter than that, she thought.

  “She means the man,” Ava told her brother in her superior voice. And then a thought seemed to occur to her. She turned toward her mother, distressed. “Is he mad at Axel?”

  Judging by the look on her daughter’s face, Brianna guessed that Ava was harboring a crush on Connor Fortunado. Wonderful, Brianna thought. Just what she needed.

  “No, Ava, Mr. Fortunado is not ‘mad’ at Axel. I’m sure he understands that sometimes children need to be reminded how to behave around people,” Brianna told the battling duo.

  “Can I be around him?” Ava asked hopefully.

  Brianna wasn’t sure what her daughter was asking. It was hard to second-guess what was in either of her children’s heads.

  “What?”

  “You said you were sep-per-ating us,” Ava answered, carefully enunciating the word that was giving her tongue trouble. “So I want you to put me in his room. Mr. Fortu—what you said,” she concluded, unable to say Connor’s last name.

  Not waiting for permission, Ava darted out of the room she shared with her brother and ran back to the living room.

  “Ava Susan Childress, you come back here,” Brianna called after her daughter. Ava’s escape had caught her completely off guard.

&nb
sp; “You’re in trouble now,” Axel declared gleefully, running in after his sister. “Mama called out all your names.”

  Ava had reached the living room. Surprised to find it empty, she looked around with a puzzled expression on her face. When she heard her mother and brother coming in behind her, she spun around to face them.

  “Where is he, Mama?” Ava asked, disappointed. “Where’s the man?”

  Brianna tried not to focus on her daughter’s disobedience. Instead, she tried to remember what it was like to be Ava’s age.

  “He went home, Ava,” she told her daughter.

  Distressed, Ava whirled around to glare at her brother. “He went away because you made his feelings hurt.”

  “No, I didn’t!” Axel protested, growing defensive again. It seemed to be his default state.

  Ava had turned her attention toward her mother, the woman who could fix anything.

  “Make him come back, Mama. I liked him. He has a horse he puts clothes on,” Ava said as if that was what made the man so special to her. “I wanted to see the horse.”

  “Come here,” Brianna coaxed.

  She took each of her children by the hand and led them to the sofa. Sitting down, she tugged each of their hands to get them to sit down on either side of her. Their upturned faces made her think of tulips seeking out the sun.

  “Listen to me, you two. I am thrilled you have such a zest for life, I really am. But just for now, could you try to be a little less...zesty?” she asked, looking from one small upturned face to the other. “You’re wearing me out.”

  “Wearing you out where?” Axel wanted to know, looking all over his mother. He was obviously taking what she’d said literally.

  Ava frowned disdainfully at her brother. “She means she’s tired, dummy.”

  “Oh.” Axel sat up a little straighter, apparently feeling he had the solution. “Go lie down, Mommy,” he urged with a smile.

  There was no way she was doing that and leaving her two hellions to their own devices.

  “Heaven forbid. By the time I got up again, I wouldn’t have a house standing,” she murmured under her breath. “Besides, I don’t want to lie down,” she told her children, slipping an arm around each of their shoulders. “What I want is for you two to calm down. Do you think you can do that for me?”

  Both Axel and Ava solemnly bobbed their heads up and down.

  Brianna didn’t believe they meant it for a minute, but at least she had them pausing for a moment, allowing her to catch her breath.

  “Is he coming back?” Ava asked in a smaller, hesitant voice.

  “You mean Mr. Fortunado?” Brianna asked.

  Axel giggled, then covered his mouth. The giggle only grew louder. “That’s a funny name.”

  “Yes, it is,” Brianna agreed. “And yes, Ava, he’s coming back.”

  Ava’s eyes widened and practically sparkled. “When?” she asked eagerly.

  “I’m not sure yet.” Brianna scrutinized her daughter’s face. She had never known either of her children to take to an adult this quickly before. “You liked him, didn’t you?” she asked her daughter.

  Ava looked shy for a moment, and then almost blushed. “Uh-huh.”

  Curious why she was so taken with the man, Brianna asked her daughter, “Why?”

  “’Cause he told us a story. And he smiled nice,” Ava added very seriously.

  She was going to have to watch this one, Brianna thought. Her daughter was obviously skipping right over the “boys are icky” stage, going straight to being a tiny, budding femme fatale.

  Not to be left out, Axel added his two cents about the stranger who had been in their house. “And he didn’t tell us to be quiet.”

  “Well, if you calm down a little once in a while I wouldn’t have to tell you that so often, either,” Brianna pointed out.

  Axel hung his head as if he had suddenly become contrite and in a very small voice said to her, “Okay, Mommy.”

  “Okay, Mama,” Ava added, not to be outdone by her brother.

  Brianna sighed quietly. This docile moment had a life expectancy of about a minute and a half, but it was nice while it lasted and she intended to enjoy it until Axel and Ava returned to their natural, rambunctious behavior.

  Kissing both of their heads one at a time, Brianna rose from the sofa. “See how long you can be good,” she requested.

  “I can be gooder than Axel,” Ava assured her boastfully.

  Small light eyebrows drew together forming an annoyed, wavy line that joined together above Axel’s sprinkling of freckles.

  “No, you can’t,” he informed his sister. “I’m gooder than you.”

  “You’re both equally as good,” Brianna told him, raising her voice to stop the argument before it could take off.

  Today was going to be a very long, long day, Brianna thought.

  Leaving her pint-size warriors, she walked into the small room she used as an office. There was barely enough room there for her desk and chair. Directly in the corner she had a set of plastic drawers she’d bought at the local membership store. She kept all her files in those drawers, packed away.

  She wasn’t looking forward to the task ahead of her, but she needed to get started. She intended to find her notes outlining what she had sent to this person Fortunado was looking for.

  She knew she had sent the last correspondence to the woman approximately three months ago. Brianna remembered that it had taken her more than a bit of searching before she tracked down a large number of the people the woman told her she was trying to find.

  Brianna recalled thinking that the request was a little strange. Her client had told her it was for a genealogy chart but the people she was trying to find all seemed to be around the same age.

  At the time she decided that it was none of her business. She didn’t care that much why the woman was looking to find these people as long as the woman was willing to pay money for the results.

  Apparently, though, this Charlene/Charlotte person wasn’t willing to make good on her promise. When Brianna hadn’t heard anything from her client, she’d tried to contact her and request payment. But the letter had been returned, stamped Unable to Deliver, Return to Sender.

  At the time, she’d been too busy to try to follow up and find Charlene’s whereabouts. And then both of her kids came down with really bad colds that they kept passing to each other, so she had no time to track the woman down. Stressed, she’d given up, deciding to philosophically chalk it up to just one of those things—and then Fortunado had turned up on her doorstep.

  She caught herself wondering what he must have thought when she opened the door and grabbed his hand, dragging him into her bathroom and pointing to the almost-overflowing, nonfunctioning toilet.

  Brianna laughed to herself as she began to look through her files. You just never knew how things were going to turn out, she mused. Maybe she’d actually see that three thousand dollars after all.

  At least she had hope.

  * * *

  “You have a lead?” Valene asked, staring at her older brother uncertainly. The moment she had seen Connor pull up to the house, she had all but waylaid him at the door.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, surprised to see her. After all, she hadn’t lived on the family estate for a while now.

  She gave him a look that all but said he was being a typical male. “Wedding plans, remember?” she reminded him.

  That made him a little confused. “I thought that was yesterday.”

  Val rolled her eyes. “Could you be more of a man?” she asked, referring to his cluelessness as to what it took to pull together a wedding.

  “That depends. What’s in it for me?” he teased her with a grin and a wink.

  Valene blew out a breath. “Can the charming stuff. I’m talking about how clueless you are when it
comes to planning a wedding.”

  He saw no point in arguing her assessment. “And I intend to blissfully remain that way for the rest of my life.”

  “Really?” she questioned, giving him an evil eye, unwilling to believe he was actually serious. “You actually plan on remaining alone for the rest of your life?”

  A twinkle came into Connor’s eyes as his grin grew wider. “I didn’t say that,” he pointed out.

  Valene sighed mightily, exasperated. Oh well, Connor would change his mind when the right woman came along, she thought. “Getting back to what I asked before you started to give me your unwanted opinion about weddings, do you have a lead? So soon?”

  “What makes you say I have a lead?” he wanted to know.

  He had left early this morning in order not to say anything to anyone. He’d wanted to find out if he could get anything from the freelancer first. There was no point in raising people’s hopes for no reason.

  “Mom said you took off really early this morning. I assumed that meant that you might be onto something,” Val explained.

  “Right now what I have is a lead on a lead,” Connor told his sister.

  Val frowned slightly, confused. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He debated keeping his own counsel for a minute, then decided there was no harm in sharing what he’d been doing. “It means that I found someone who did some research for good old Charlotte—”

  Questions immediately filled his sister’s head. “What kind of research?”

  “Do you remember that binder Charlotte was supposed to have compiled on all of Gerald’s offspring?” he asked.

  “Yes?”

  Valene stretched out the word, as if afraid of where this was going. She remembered talk of a binder. She also remembered thinking that Charlotte was really strange to take the time to carefully put together all that miscellaneous information. To her it was like deliberately rubbing salt into her wounds since the names represented all of her husband’s infidelities.