Falling for King's Fortune

by Maureen Child

  “That all this is?” Adam asked from his seat on the leather couch in his study.

  Jackson stood up, walked to the fireplace and stared down into the flames as they licked and curved over the dry logs stacked in the hearth. “What else could it be?” He turned his back to the flames then and looked from one brother to the other before saying, “She had a meeting with Mac Spencer a couple of days ago.”

  “Is that guy still trolling in Birkfield?” Travis demanded.

  “Hell yes,” Adam said. “I actually caught him looking at Gina when she leaned into the car to get Emma out of her car seat.” The memory of it must have been enough to make him angry all over again, since Jackson saw his oldest brother’s jaw clench. “Never wanted to hit a man so badly in my life.”

  “Did you?” Jackson asked, wondering if his brother had had the satisfaction denied him.

  Adam sighed, disgusted, and took another drink. “Gina wouldn’t let me. Said I’d get my hands dirty by slugging anybody that nasty.”

  “Would’ve been worth it,” Travis mused. “A damn public service.”

  “That’s what I said,” Adam muttered, then shifted a look at Jackson. “Did you hit him?”

  “Came close,” Jackson admitted wistfully and silently added that he still wished he had. Just the idea of that bastard looking at Casey, touching her hand…“He ran so fast, I’d have had to chase him down though and I was too busy arguing with Casey.”

  “One day, some husband’s going to get to lay that guy out on the sidewalk,” Travis said and smiled dreamily, clearly hoping he would be the lucky winner.

  Jackson looked at his brother and realized how much Travis had changed over the last year or so. Once, he’d been interested only in his wines and a string of uncomplicated beauties who sailed in and out of his life in a steady stream. Now, he was settled. With Gina and their daughter Katie.

  “Hope I’m there to see it,” Adam muttered.

  “Me too,” Jackson said, letting go of musings about his brother to savor the idea of smashing a fist into Mac Spencer’s face.

  “Did we care this much about that guy before we had women in our lives?” Travis asked no one in particular, then answered his own question. “Women sure liven things up, don’t they?”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” Jackson said, staring now into the amber liquid in his crystal tumbler.

  “Not that talking about our women or dreaming about punching Mac out isn’t a good time,” Adam said into the silence, “but Jackson, was there a particular reason you wanted this meeting? Everything okay over at King Jets?”

  “What? Oh, yeah. Fine.” Jackson grimaced a little and said, “Well, I’ll need to hire another pilot soon. Dan Stone is going to quit. His wife’s scared and he won’t let that go on much longer.”

  “Good man,” Adam said, with a shake of his head. “I like Dan and I know he loves flying as much as you do, but it’s right he put his family first.”

  Jackson lifted a brow. Wasn’t that long ago that Adam had been devoted solely to the King ranch. But he guessed Gina had changed everything for Adam. Brought him back from the despair he’d hidden away in. His wife and daughter had given Adam exactly what he’d been lacking. Made him care about something more than the land and his brothers.

  “But,” Adam was saying, “I don’t see how you needing to hire more flyboys has anything to do with us.”

  “It doesn’t.” Jackson stalked over to the closest chair, and dropped into it. Damn it, he didn’t want to think about how much his brothers had changed. How everything seemed to be changing, including himself. For one damn minute he wanted the world to stand still so he could make sense of it again. But since that wasn’t going to happen…“I came to tell you I went to see Marian this afternoon. Told her I wouldn’t be marrying her anytime soon.”

  Both of Travis’s eyebrows lifted. “You broke it off?”

  “No,” Jackson told him. “I didn’t want to dump it all on her at once,” he admitted. “I told her I needed six months. Told her about Mia and Casey and I figure I’ll let Marian be the one to call it off. I owe her that much, anyway. But either way, the marriage isn’t going to happen.”

  “Thank God,” Travis said, a half smile on his face as he took another drink of wine.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Jackson looked at him and waited.

  “Nothing. Just,” Travis shot a glance at Adam as if for support, then looking back at Jackson, he grumbled a little and said, “But man, I never could see why you wanted to entangle yourself up with her.”

  Stunned, Jackson looked at both of his brothers in turn. Adam shrugged as if to say he agreed with Travis. “That what you think, too?”

  “Hell, yes,” Adam said and got up to pour himself another splash of brandy. At the wet bar, he turned his head, looked at his youngest brother and said, “Jackson, the woman’s about as warm and loving as a rabid polar bear.”

  Jackson hunched deeper into his chair, stretched out his legs and crossed one booted foot over the other. “Notice neither one of you said anything when I first suggested marrying her for the merger.”

  “You’re a grown-up,” Travis said, leaping out of his chair to join Adam at the bar. He poured more of the ruby-colored wine into his glass, chugged a healthy dollop of it then said, “If you want to make an ass of yourself, who’re we to speak up and stop you?”

  “My brothers?” Jackson stood up too and glared at both men. “Hell, you two had marriages of convenience and they worked out fine. You’re happy aren’t you?”

  Both of them shrugged and nodded.

  “So why shouldn’t I figure the same thing would work for me?”

  “Might have if you’d picked someone more…” Travis stopped short of a description of Marian.

  “Or someone less…” Adam’s voice trailed off and he shut up too.

  Shaking his head, Jackson looked at the two men who had been the one constant in his life. His family. The Kings stood together, everybody knew that. They supported each other. Protected each other.

  They always had, anyway. And now the two of them were standing there admitting that they’d been willing to let him walk into a marriage they both thought was wrong?

  “This is great,” Jackson said, crossing the room in a few long strides. He stepped around the bar and grabbed up the Irish whiskey. One more splash was all he could afford if he was going to drive home in an hour. “Thanks for nothing.”

  “You wouldn’t have listened to us anyway,” Travis said.

  “Always did have a head like a rock,” Adam added.

  “My own family doesn’t say anything when they think I’m making a mistake.”

  Adam looked at Travis. They both turned to Jackson, but Adam spoke first.

  “You want an opinion?” he asked. “Fine. Here’s one. If you’re looking for a marriage of convenience that has a shot in hell of working out, why not marry Casey?”

  “Huh?” Jackson set his untouched drink down on the bar and stared at the oldest King brother. “The last time I looked Casey doesn’t own any airfields.”

  “You’re either the most stubborn of us or the dumbest,” Travis said with a pitiful look in his eyes. “No, she doesn’t have airfields, you moron. But she does have your daughter.”

  Jackson took a breath and held it. He’d only just slipped out of a marriage that would have been, he could see now, a disaster. And his brothers wanted him to slip his head into another noose? What the hell kind of family support was this, anyway?

  “You’re crazy. Both of you,” he said, with a look at each of them in turn.

  “We’re crazy?” Adam countered. “You’re the one who seems willing to settle for six months with your kid. You’re the one who’s willing to let Mia and Casey stroll out of your life when there’s something you could do to stop it.”

  Jackson’s chest tightened. He wasn’t sure why. He only knew that it was suddenly hard to breathe. Yes, he cared about Casey. And he loved M
ia. But marrying the mother of his child just to get his child didn’t sound like the right thing to do either.

  “You know,” he said, “you guys sound like you’ve got all the answers. You’re standing there giving me advice like you’re experts on this stuff.”

  “We are married,” Travis pointed out. “To women we love.”

  “Uh-huh,” Jackson countered, forgetting about the damned whiskey and shoving both hands into his jeans pockets. “And let’s just think a minute about how smoothly you guys handled things with your women.”

  “Just a damn minute,” Adam told him.

  “No you wait,” Jackson said, turning on his oldest brother. “Think back, huh? Didn’t you make Gina so damn miserable she ran all the way to Colorado? Wasn’t going to come back, was she? Not until you groveled and begged your way back into her heart.”

  “I didn’t grovel,” Adam muttered, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

  “You sure as hell did,” Travis said, laughing now and shaking his head.

  “Just like you,” Jackson told him, his gaze fixing on the middle King brother.

  “Excuse me?” Travis’s eyes narrowed and his laughter fell away.

  “You heard me. You didn’t have the guts to admit you wanted Julie until she damn near died when that elevator fell.”

  Travis shoved him. “You don’t know a thing about what happened between me and Julie.”

  Jackson didn’t budge. His temper jumped inside, boiling and frothing as he looked at his older brothers. Sure their lives were good now, but it hadn’t always been so and damned if he’d let them forget it.

  “Yeah I do. And you know what, neither one of you is qualified for the job of advice god. So back off.”

  In the thundering silence that followed his short speech, all three of them glared at each other. Finally though, Adam spoke up. “He’s got a point.”

  “Don’t tell him that,” Travis muttered, taking another sip of wine.

  Jackson laughed, temper gone as fast as it had come and reached for his glass of Irish. He took a swallow, letting the heat slide down his throat and spread through his system. Looking at his now just a bit sheepish brothers, he shrugged, point made and enjoyed the renewed sense of camaraderie. “Damn, when did life get so complicated?”

  “You know exactly when,” Adam said smiling, lifting his own glass. “To the women.”

  “The women,” Travis said wryly, clinking his glass to theirs.

  “The women,” Jackson agreed and shared a toast with his brothers. His friends.

  “This is amazing,” Dani said the following Saturday. She was holding baby Lydia, jiggling her on her hip and watching as her son Mikey carefully held Emma King’s tiny hand and helped her walk across the crowded lawn. “Would you look at my gorgeous son? Why isn’t he that nice to his baby sister?”

  Casey laughed and did a little jiggling of her own as Mia started to fret. “Because Emma’s new to him, he’s a sweetie like his daddy and he’s nuts about his little sister and you know it.”

  Dani flashed her a smile. “Okay, yeah. He is. Just hope he likes the new one as much.”

  Casey shrieked and reached out to hug her best friend. “You’re pregnant again? That’s so great!” Eyes cautious suddenly, she said, “It is great, right?”

  Dani laughed. “Yeah, it’s great. Mike’s excited about it. Just look at him.”

  Casey’s gaze swung to where Mike Sullivan stood among the King brothers, laughing and talking as they drank beer and grilled steaks on Jackson’s shiny new barbecue. Her friend’s husband did look every inch the contented male and Casey was glad he’d been able to take the day off to join them all for the picnic Jackson had suddenly decided to throw.

  Her gaze fixed on the man most in her mind and she felt her heart give a little ache. He’d come to mean so much to her in the last month or so. She hadn’t expected it. Hadn’t wanted it. But the unthinkable had happened anyway. She’d fallen in love with a man she knew wasn’t interested in forever.

  “Uh-oh,” Dani said from beside her. “I see that look. And if you don’t want Jackson to see it, you’d better go to your happy place.”

  Chuckling, Casey tore her gaze from Jackson to focus on her friend again. “The problem with that suggestion is that Jackson is my happy place.”

  “Oh, honey, that just sucks.”

  More laughter. “Very eloquent.”

  “You know, there may be more to this relationship than you think,” Dani said, squatting now to sit Lydia on the quilt spread out at their feet.

  “I don’t think so.” Casey kneeled down, set Mia on the quilt beside Lydia and smiled at her daughter before saying, “Jackson was really clear right up front. He wanted six months. Well, one of those months is gone now. And he hasn’t said anything about wanting to renegotiate. Hasn’t mentioned that his feelings have changed…” Her gaze drifted, as it always did whether she wanted it to or not, to Jackson.

  In the bright spring sunlight, his dark hair shone and his eyes glittered. Standing with his brothers and Mike, with smoke from the barbecue twisting and swirling about him in the wind, he almost looked as if he’d stepped out of a dream. He laughed and something inside her fisted. His gaze slipped to hers and she felt the immediate swell of response in her body.

  She sighed and deliberately looked at Dani, watching her. “Oh,” her friend said on a sigh, “you’ve got it really bad, don’t you?”

  “Afraid so,” she said.

  “Not hard to understand,” Dani told her, waving one hand to indicate their surroundings. “This place is awesome. Jackson’s gorgeous and he’s crazy about your kid. You’d have to be made of stone to not be affected by it all.”

  Casey nodded and turned to smile up at the two women approaching them. “You’re absolutely right about all of it, but let’s change the subject, okay?”

  “Oh. Right.”

  “Hi,” Gina King said as she plopped down onto the quilt beneath the shade of an ancient elm tree. “Julie and I thought we’d join you two here, if that’s okay.”

  “Of course it’s okay,” Casey said and smiled as Julie, nestling her infant daughter to her chest, sat down beside her.

  “Your son is just the cutest thing,” Gina said, grinning at Dani. “The way he acts with Emma just touches my heart.”

  Naturally, the surest way to win Dani’s friendship forever was to praise one of her children. And as she settled in to talk babies with Gina, Casey watched as Julie opened her shirt to feed baby Katie.

  “She’s beautiful,” Casey said softly, reaching out with one hand to trace a fingertip across the tiny girl’s forehead. Already, Mia was growing up and Casey could see the day ahead when her little girl would no longer be her baby, needing only her. She would have liked to have more children, she thought longingly. But having Mia had been so expensive, the chance of repeating the experience was slim and she already knew that conceiving any other way was nearly impossible. But as she considered that, a new thought whispered through her mind and disappeared again when Julie started talking.

  “Thanks, Travis and I think she’s gorgeous, of course.” Julie hissed in a breath when Katie latched onto her breast, then grinned and said, “I wanted to tell you again, how much I love your ideas for the bakery Web site.”

  Pleased, Casey smiled back, pushing regrets and worries out of her mind for another day. “I’m so glad. I think it’s going to be fun getting the King family sites up and running.”

  “A woman after my own heart,” Gina crowed. “Someone else who thinks work is fun! I swear, to hear Adam grumble you’d think I’m the only wife in the world who has a job. And I work right there on the ranch! He sees me every day.”

  “Mike does the same thing,” Dani put in, “but some of that might be because we’ve become ships that only occasionally bump in the night!”

  “Travis hates it too,” Julie agreed with a small laugh.

  “He used that bakery of mine as a tempting offer to get me to marry him
in the first place and now he grumbles because I want to spend so much time there.” She laughed delightedly. “But then I remind him how hard it is to pry him out of the tasting room at the winery.”

  It felt good to be with these women, listen to them all complain lovingly about their husbands. But it also brought home a simple truth to Casey. She could complain all she wanted about Jackson, but she didn’t really have the right, did she? He wasn’t her husband. He was her lover.

  Her temporary lover.

  No matter how much she felt at home here, with these women, with the King family, at this amazing hilltop mansion, none of it really belonged to her.

  “I’m thinking when this one’s born,” Dani was saying slyly, “that I just might come to Casey for a job.” She slid a hopeful glance at her friend. “That way I can stay home with the kids and maybe Mike and I can see each other for more than a mumbled greeting in the hallway as we change shifts!”

  “What a great idea,” Gina put in. “I’ve got lots of plans for Casey’s time, so I think she’ll be needing the help.”

  “You’ve got plans?” Julie said with a laugh, shifting baby Katie from one breast to the other. “Back off, sister-in-law of mine, I’ve got the bakery getting ready to open and I want those menus done before the next tasting at the winery—”

  Enjoying herself immensely, Casey gave them all a broad smile and clapped her hands. “As much as I love being the center of attention,” she said, “there’s plenty of me to go around.” Then she shot a look at Dani. “As for you…we’re going to have to talk, because if you’re serious, I could use you sooner rather than later.”

  “Seriously?” Dani’s eyes sparkled at the thought of being able to stay home with her kids.

  “Definitely,” Casey told her. With all the new work she had lined up, she was going to need the help. Who better than her best friend? “And as for the menus for the winery,” she said, looking at Julie again, “I came up with an idea yesterday that I think you’re going to love.”

  “Excellent!” Julie whooped with excitement and just for good measure stuck her tongue out at Gina. “I win. Can I see them now?”