Standing on the corner in front of Whole Bean, Mollie sang and cheered and cried, especially when she saw Matt with his dog Hank and Bobby walking with Charlie at his heel. She didn’t have to say a word for Zeke, standing close behind her, to wrap his arms around her and draw her tight to his chest. Even her parents appeared both moved and pleased by the tribute.
“That was a lovely parade,” Georgia McFadden said, surreptitiously wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “Patrick would have been proud.”
“Yes,” Zeke agreed, “and you should be very proud of him.”
No lingering guilt, bitterness or anger colored his words. Standing next to him on that May morning, the red, white and blue flags flying all around them, Mollie loved Zeke even more than she’d thought possible. And just when the day couldn’t get any better, her mother turned to her with a slight smile.
“We’re proud of both of our children,” she said before she and Mollie’s father excused themselves.
“Wow,” Mollie said as she blinked back even more tears. Turning to Zeke, looking so handsome in a button-down blue checked shirt and dark denim jeans, she cupped a hand at the back of his neck and urged his head down for a tender kiss. “Thank you,” she told her soon-to-be husband.
She knew no one would ever take Patrick’s place, not in her life and not in her parents’, but knowing that their son’s best friend would soon be their son-in-law had started to heal something inside them. And while Zeke insisted his recent conversations with the McFaddens had been nothing more than a way of getting to know his future in-laws, Mollie knew he was helping them move past their grief and anger as only he could.
“Me?” His expression filled with enough love to take her breath away, he brushed the lingering tears from her eyes. “No way, Mollie, that was all you. The article Ryan wrote about you in the Chronicle really opened your parents’ eyes.”
The pleasure and pride in his smile heated Mollie’s cheeks. She was still somewhat embarrassed by her sudden fame. The feature, which had spotlighted the veterans and the foster dogs, also focused on Mollie and the work she’d done with Arti. She was glad the publicity had drawn attention to the shelter as well as her own business, but wasn’t quite comfortable being in the limelight herself.
Still, Zeke was right. The article, along with her engagement, had broken down some of the barriers to the point where her parents had hosted an engagement party for them. A party that had included Arti, Chief and Midnight.
Mollie was glad her parents had started to accept both her career and her pets. The dogs had played such big roles in her romance with Zeke, neither of them could imagine life without them. But she was going to wait a little longer before telling her mother that they planned to have Arti and Midnight as flower girls and Chief for their ring bearer at the wedding.
As much as she was looking forward to the ceremony, her heart still ached for the big brother who wouldn’t be there to see her marry his best friend. But Patrick would have wanted her to be happy each and every day, and especially on her wedding day. And even though he might not be there in body, he was always with her in spirit. Always looking out for her...
“Did you know my brother warned all the guys in Spring Forest to stay away from me before he left for boot camp?”
Zeke chuckled at that. “Feeling like you missed out?”
“No!” Slapping at his shoulder, she said, “You were the only guy I ever wanted. I was just wondering if you knew.”
“Yeah, Patrick made it pretty clear you were hands-off.”
“So he scared you off, too?” she challenged with a lift to her eyebrow.
“No.” Zeke laughed again before turning serious. Taking her hand in his, he ran his thumb over her knuckles, stopping at the diamond engagement ring. “Actually, he never told me to stay away. He asked me to look out for you. He said you had the biggest heart of anyone he knew.”
“He asked you to protect it,” she whispered.
“And I promise to spend the rest of my life doing just that,” he vowed as he lifted her hand to press a kiss to the center of her palm. “Although I don’t know if our getting married is quite what he had in mind.”
“Don’t be so sure,” she told him as she caressed his cheek with her fingertips.
After all, her brother had known the two of them better than anyone.
As a confetti popper launched a flurry of red, white and blue streamers all around, and as Zeke kissed her beneath the bright blue skies, Mollie couldn’t help thinking Sergeant First Class Patrick McFadden had completed his final mission.
* * *
Look for the next book in Furever Yours
the new Special Edition continuity,
The Nanny Clause,
by USA TODAY bestselling author
Karen Rose Smith.
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A New Leash on Love
by Melissa Senate
How to Rescue a Family
by Teri Wilson
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Texan Seeks Fortune
by Marie Ferrarella
Prologue
Connor Fortunado was torn.
He glanced out of the window of his first-class seat. The flight was just about over.
He was almost there.
Houston.
Home.
Connor half smiled to himself. Home, better known as “The House of the Incurable Romantics.” The whimsical title had recently occurred to him because every one of his five siblings was either married or going to be married.
Except for him.
And that little fact of life, he promised himself, wasn’t about to change anytime soon.
Or ever.
Connor was pretty happy with his life. He was thirty-one, single, carefree and able to take off at a moment’s notice without an explanation to anyone if he wanted to—the way he had just done. If he were married and had what was whimsically referred to in some circles as “a better half,” right about now that “better half” would most likely be giving him hell for the double life he was leading. She would have doubtlessly not looked favorably on his giving up an executive posit
ion with a prestigious corporate search firm just so that he could follow his passion.
Everyone in the family still thought he was that highly paid executive at his old firm. His former career had been a dependable, respectable position with an excellent, if somewhat boring, future laid out in front of it. None of his relatives knew that somewhere along the line he had discovered he had a real aptitude for detective work.
It had begun innocently enough. He’d helped his boss uncover an embezzling scheme within the company. But once he’d discovered the culprit, Connor found that he was hooked on the rush that came in the wake of untangling all the twisted skeins and getting to the bottom of the mystery. After a bit of soul-searching, he’d decided to put his newly honed skills to better use. So he had turned his back on the corporate world and became a highly paid private investigator.
Career changes like that wouldn’t have sat well with a wife and she would have undoubtedly had no qualms about making her displeasure known.
To everyone.
Connor frowned. The moment of reckoning was almost here. He was going to have to come clean to his family once he landed in Houston. Telling his siblings should go fine because for the most part, they were pretty open-minded. It was coming clean to his parents that was going to be the problem. His parents, especially his father, were not going to look favorably on this change in careers.
He was not looking forward to this. All things considered, he would have gone on keeping his secret for as long as possible.
However, fate had other plans for him and was forcing him to own up to this major change in his life. All in the name of the family good. He just hoped his parents would see it that way. Yes, he was an adult, but there was still a part of him that preferred parental approval.
But he really didn’t have the luxury of keeping this to himself any longer. His family needed him. There was no other conclusion to be reached.
Someone was out there, trying to get them.
It wasn’t merely a paranoid thought reserved for the rich but an honest assessment of the situation. How else could he view what had been happening to different members of his family in the last two months? Like to his father’s half brother. Gerald Robinson’s estate, palatial by any standards, had been the target of an arsonist, set on fire and almost burned down to the ground. The family-based technology firm, Robinson Tech, had been the victim of cybersabotage. And Fortunado Real Estate, a company his father founded and two of his sisters and one of his brothers-in-law now worked at, had been the target of sabotage, as well.
It was as if no one who was even remotely related to the Fortune family—no matter how they spelled their last name—was safe.
Connor had a gut feeling that it was only going to get worse unless whoever was responsible for wreaking all this havoc was found and captured. As a Fortunado, he had found that he and his family were related to the Fortunes. And that meant he couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and watch this little drama play out.
He had to do something. He had natural skills, he had connections and he had the money to fund the investigation, all of which would serve him well in his search for whoever was attempting to carry out this vendetta against the entire Fortune family.
His family.
In his mind, Connor was already getting started on the case even though he was still airborne.
All he had to do, he thought, was get past telling his parents.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we will be beginning our descent to Houston shortly. Please return your tray tables to the upright positions...”
The cheerful flight attendant continued with her instructions, her voice fading into the background for Connor.
Connor’s stomach felt just the slightest bit queasy. Not because of the airplane’s descent, but because of what lay ahead.
Zero hour was almost here.
Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Stacy Connelly for her contribution to the Furever Yours series.
ISBN-13: 9781488041884
Not Just the Girl Next Door
Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Not Just the Girl Next Door Page 19