Finally she said, “And try to pick up the pieces of my life again.” She forced a halfhearted smile to her lips. “I’m getting really good at picking up the pieces.”
Rising, Sierra placed her hand on Gloria’s shoulder. “Aren’t you going to tell Jack?”
She wanted to. But she knew she couldn’t. At least, not yet. “I don’t think Jack really wants to have anything to do with me.”
Shock, followed by anger, leaped into her sister’s eyes. “What? The rotten bastard gets you pregnant and then bows out?”
“He’s not a rotten bastard,” Gloria cried defensively, her emotions escalating again. She could call him that, but no one else could. It took her a second to get herself under control again. “It’s a long story, Sierra. And I already told you, he doesn’t know I’m pregnant.” She saw the look in her sister’s eyes. “And he’s not going to know, understand?” Gloria warned. “Not until I’m ready to say something to him. Right now, I couldn’t deal with an offer of marriage out of pity and I really couldn’t deal with him not making the offer.” She knew that didn’t make any sense to anyone but her. She was between a rock and a hard place.
Gloria rose and grabbed her sister by the shoulders. “Please, Sierra, promise me you won’t say anything.”
Sierra set her jaw stubbornly. “He has a right to know so he can do the right thing.”
“Oh, God, no,” Gloria groaned. The last thing she wanted was for him to “do the right thing.” She wanted him to do it because he loved her, not because it was right. She felt weary, anxious and angry at the same time. “The way I feel right now, he has no rights. Besides, he’s going back to New York.”
“Gloria…”
She shut her eyes to the pleading look on her sister’s face. She was not going to tell Jack anything, not until she was calmer. “I will handle this in my own way.”
No you won’t, Maria Mendoza thought as she stood on the other side of the door, listening. She’d been drawn by the sobs she’d heard, her mother’s heart alerting her that one of her children was hurting.
Gloria had been subdued all last evening. The most gregarious of her brood, her daughter had attempted to put on a happy face, but Maria could see that there was something wrong. It was right there, in her daughter’s eyes. She’d slipped out of bed this morning to talk to her privately.
But Gloria’s room had been empty. Except for the sobs. She was just about to walk into the bathroom from the opposite entrance when she’d heard Sierra enter from the hall. Something had made her stay where she was. Maria had been rewarded for her restraint with Gloria’s story.
It was obvious that her daughter was in love with Jack. The only one who probably didn’t realize it was Gloria. And possibly Jack.
She was going to fix that.
“You are going to throw another party,” Maria announced to her husband as she walked back into their bedroom.
Jose was still in bed, trying to steal a few extra minutes before he had to get up to go to the restaurant. They opened at noon, but there was a great deal to do every morning before then.
Accustomed to his wife’s ways after all these years, Jose smiled indulgently. “And just when did I decide this?”
Maria glanced over her shoulder. The bathroom door remained closed. Sierra was still in there with Gloria. She shut her own bedroom door. “A few minutes ago.”
“I see. Any particular reason I’m throwing this party?”
Maria came around to Jose’s side and sat on the edge of the bed. “To celebrate your daughter’s grand opening, of course.”
“Of course.” He pretended to look befuddled. “Wasn’t that what last night was about?”
Maria waved her hand, her mind already racing with plans and ideas. The first of which involved calling Patrick Fortune and asking for his help. “That was just for the family. This will be bigger.”
“I never doubted it for a moment.”
Jose looked at his wife. His feelings hadn’t changed about her since the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. She was still the most beautiful woman in the world. Hooking his arm around her waist, he pulled her to him. Maria squealed in protest, but not too loudly.
He paused only long enough to nuzzle her neck. “I will leave it all up to you, as always. Just tell me what you need.”
Maria kissed him with all the love that she felt. “You are a good man, Jose.”
“Yes, I know. And now the good man must get up and go to work. Call me at the restaurant.” Throwing back the covers, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. “By the way, when is this party going to be?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Call me quickly,” he advised as he went off to take a shower.
Patrick had trouble containing his smile. He felt as if it would come bursting out at any moment. But for now, he needed to keep it all under wraps. Otherwise his firstborn would know something was up.
He looked at Jack now. The latter looked restless, as if he wanted to be somewhere else. Back in New York, perhaps? Away from the source of his delightful dilemma? Patrick bit back that question, as well.
Finally, Jack was the one who broke the silence. “You said you had something to ask me?” he prodded.
“Yes. I’d like you to postpone leaving for a couple of days, Jack.”
Jack had been afraid of that. But all things being equal, he wanted to get back to his home ground. And as fast as possible. Maybe then he’d get a decent night’s sleep. A night in which he wouldn’t have visions of a black-haired she-devil who made him want to throw caution to the wind.
He was too old for that, he insisted silently. Too old to buy into never-ending happiness. “My reservation’s already made.”
The answer didn’t appear to faze his father. “Reservations can be changed.”
A flash of temper came and went, taking him by surprise. He’d never been truly annoyed with his father, not even during his teen years when those kinds of reactions were supposed to be commonplace.
“You still need me here?”
“In a matter of speaking.” He kept the thought that he wanted Jack to oversee the San Antonio office to himself for the time being. He could spring that on him later. For now, he needed to get Jack to agree to tonight. “I didn’t really bring you here to oversee Gloria’s new business.” He saw Jack eyeing him warily. “I asked you to fly out because I’m worried about you.”
“Worried?” Jack mouthed the word as though it were foreign.
“Yes, worried.” Patrick came around from behind his desk and placed a paternal arm around his son’s shoulders. “You don’t seem to ever have any fun, Jack.”
His father’s words immediately brought an image of Gloria to mind. Gloria, her shapely body sleek with perspiration as they made love in the elevator. He quickly banked down the thought before it took over his body. “I don’t need any fun.”
“Trust me, you do.”
Pausing, Patrick looked at his firstborn intently. Jack had never given him one moment’s concern. Until now. He knew how much his son had suffered when Ann had been killed. But that was years ago. It was time to resurrect his heart.
“We live in the moment, Jack. The past is gone, we plan for the future, but we live in the moment,” he insisted. Then he looked at his son pointedly. “We can’t relive the past, and we can’t change it no matter how much we want to.” He searched Jack’s face to see if he was getting through, but his son’s expression was a mask. Patrick pressed on. “All we have is the moment, to form our futures as well as our pasts. Don’t let your moments slip away, Jack. Don’t become married to the bank. It’s a very cold, demanding mistress. It can’t give you a family.”
“It can give me little branch offices.” And then he laughed, shaking his head. “I didn’t think I’d still be getting advice from my father at forty.”
Patrick smiled. “You’re never too old to be smart, Jack.” He tabled the lecture, knowing if he pushed too hard, he’d just succeed in pushing Ja
ck away from doing what was best for him. “Now then, Maria and Jose Mendoza are throwing a party tonight to celebrate the opening of Gloria’s store.”
That was what he was afraid of. It had taken a great deal of effort on his part to avoid going to the shop Friday. He’d won that battle, he wasn’t about to race onto another battlefield. “I can’t—”
“You can and you will.” Jack raised an eyebrow. His father’s tone brooked no argument. The last time he’d used that tone with him, Jack was eight years old and had decided to march off to Central Park before his father had had a chance to curtail his journey. “You handled the details of setting her up.”
Now there his father was wrong. “She handled her own details and I just rubber-stamped everything. In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s a very headstrong, independent woman.”
Patrick didn’t bother to hide his smile. “Yes, I noticed.” And their children would be just as maddeningly stubborn. He couldn’t wait to meet them. “Like the rest of her family. These are very proud people, Jack. You can’t insult them by not showing up. At least for a little while.”
There was suspicion in his son’s eyes. “How little a while?”
Patrick’s answer was innocence personified. “An hour. Two at the most. Do it for me.”
Jack sighed. He couldn’t turn his father down without arousing the older man’s suspicions and the last thing he wanted to do was to talk about the feelings that Gloria had aroused within him. Or that he was desperately trying to resist sweeping the woman into his arms and telling her that he loved her.
He couldn’t love her. Because he just didn’t want to leave himself open to heartache again.
Jack sighed. “All right. I’ll go. But only for an hour.”
Triumph underscored Patrick’s smile. “That’s all I ask.”
An hour, Patrick thought, should be enough time to turn this situation around. Maria had called him yesterday morning. He’d discovered over his first cup of coffee that he was about to be a grandfather. The rest of the details had quickly followed, including the one about his grandchild’s mother not telling his son that they were about to become parents.
The thought brought a flutter to his heart every time he thought about it. When he’d called his wife to tell her, Lacey had been over the moon about the latest addition to the Fortune family.
And so would Jack, once he knew. Because, damn it, the man was in love with that woman, even if he refused to admit it to himself. For the past week he’d watched Jack restlessly push his way from one day to the next, a man wrestling with some personal demon he wasn’t about to share.
Each time he’d asked him, Jack had said he hadn’t been to see Gloria. And each time he’d responded, his son had seemed more restless.
Young people, he’d thought with a shake of his head. They wasted so much time being stubborn.
When Maria had told him about the baby, he’d tried to envision a perfect combination of his son and Gloria. Jack was driven, intelligent and darkly good-looking. Gloria was smart as a whip, gregarious and one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Their babies were going to be awe-inspiring.
He wasn’t about to let his son make the biggest mistake of his life by walking away from this woman without at least trying to resolve things. And, bless Maria, she even had a plan how to get the two of them together. Simple, but perfect.
“The party is at seven-thirty tonight,” he told Jack. “We can go together in the limo.”
Jack was already thinking of how to make his escape. He wasn’t about to have his father talk him into staying longer. With any luck, he could avoid Gloria altogether. There would probably be a crowd around her, vying for her attention.
“If you don’t mind, Dad, I’ll drive myself over. That way you can stay as long as you like and I can leave after that hour I promised you.” He looked at his father pointedly.
Patrick’s smile was indulgent, but he was not about to be put off. “That’s all right. Simon can come back and get me after he takes you home.” As Jack opened his mouth to protest, his father overrode him. “I pay him an obscenely high salary to do things like that.”
Having no choice, Jack was forced to agree.
Patrick sensed his son’s displeasure as the younger man left the office. He smiled to himself as he reached for the telephone.
The woman picked up on the first ring.
“He’s coming,” was all he said. Warm laughter filled his ear.
“You are an angel, Patrick,” Maria declared.
“No, just a hopeful grandfather,” Patrick contradicted. And then he hung up, wanting to call Lacey again to tease her about being a grandmother.
Chapter Fifteen
“I want you to think about relocating here. Permanently.”
His father’s words echoed within the limousine, taking Jack completely by surprise. A moment ago he’d been looking out at the darkened landscape as they drove to the Mendoza home just outside of Red Rock, thinking how much he missed the never-ending activity of New York. He definitely hadn’t seen this coming.
Jack shifted in his seat, looking at his father. For the first time it occurred to him that perhaps the man he had looked up to and respected all of his life really didn’t know him. How could he, if he’d just made him this offer?
“Dad, I really appreciate the offer but—”
Patrick raised his hand, forestalling the words that were coming. “Just think about it,” his father requested. “You don’t have to give me an answer right away.”
Jack saw no point in delaying the inevitable. “You know what my answer’s going to be whether I give it to you now or later.”
The smile on Patrick’s lips was enigmatic. “Nothing is ever a sure thing, son.”
He didn’t want to seem ungrateful or to buck some master plan his father had conceived, but the sooner he got out of San Antonio, the better. He missed New York, but far more important, he needed to put some space between himself and Gloria. She was what he missed most of all and being so close was playing havoc on his willpower.
“You don’t need me, Dad. You just transferred Derek here.”
But Patrick wouldn’t retract the offer. In his quiet, forceful way, he was adamant. “And he’s your best friend. You’re the one who brought him to me in the first place, remember? You two work well together.”
His few encounters with Derek out here had left him feeling very competitive with his friend. It had made him take a step back to reassess the situation.
He decided that honesty was the best way to go, at least about work. “Yes, we do, but I thought you were grooming him to take over operations.”
Patrick was silent for a moment, as if weighing his words carefully. Jack wondered if it was because his father was trying not to hurt him. “The bank’s gotten too big to hand off to just one man, Jack. And if it weren’t too big, I would have handed it over to you. You’re the one I’ve been grooming all these years.” A smile quirked his lips before it ruefully faded. “Maybe over-grooming. You need some fun in your life.”
Jack sighed and shook his head. “So you keep telling me.”
Patrick straightened in his seat as the limousine pulled into the Mendoza driveway. Jack noticed that his father looked oddly alert, the way he always did when he was on the verge of an important merger.
“All right, we’re here,” Patrick said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “No more talk about work for the duration of the evening, all right?”
Jack thought it pointless to remind his father that he was only staying for an hour. Less, if he could arrange it. “Whatever you say.”
The passenger door opened. The chauffeur stepped back, allowing them to get out. Patrick flashed a smile over his shoulder at his son as he disembarked. “That’s what I like to hear.”
She didn’t want to be at a party, much less a party being thrown in her honor. But there just didn’t seem to be any way to say no to her mother. For some reason, the woman seem
ed very excited about the idea of this party. Besides, Gloria thought, she’d said no to the woman far too often while she’d been a teenager and then in her early twenties. If having her here, rubbing her elbows with well-wishers, made her mother happy, Gloria supposed it was the least she could do.
And if she had to constantly force a smile to her face as one person and then another tried to get her attention, well, at least it kept her mind off her problems.
Off the baby that was growing inside of her.
Clutching a glass of ginger ale, she took a sip and nodded at something that a friend of her brother’s was saying to her. Her mind was miles away.
How in heaven’s name was she going to tell her parents that she was going to have a baby?
She knew they were hugely supportive and that she could rely on them for absolutely anything, but she also knew that this was going to hurt them. Times might have changed, but pride hadn’t. Bringing a child into the family without having a husband in tow was still going to be an embarrassment for them, no matter what they said to the contrary.
But they would deal with it, because they loved her. She was secure in that love, but she still didn’t look forward to that initial moment when she saw them trying to hide their surprise and disappointment.
As if materializing out of her thoughts, her mother came up behind her. The slender fingers that had knitted and sewn countless things for her over the years took hold of her shoulders.
Her mother’s hands felt unusually icy. Gloria shivered.
“Oh, you feel so warm,” Maria declared with a touch of envy in her voice and then she sighed. “My blood doesn’t seem to want to move through this tired old body very much.”
Gloria turned around to face her mother. Maria Mendoza was not anyone’s idea of “old.” Just what was she up to? Gloria wondered.
“That’s because the rest of you is flying around. Maybe your blood is just sitting back, preparing for the next explosion.” Then, because she did look somewhat chilled despite the warmth in the room, Gloria handed her glass to her mother and began to strip her shawl from her shoulders. “Here, you want my shawl?”
Fortune's Heirs: Reunion Page 16