Fortune's Unexpected Groom

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  For a moment, the whole world disappeared.

  “Hello? Anybody here?”

  Until a familiar voice shattered the silence and tore them from their paradise.

  “Oh! Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.” It was Victoria, Jordana’s cousin. The one who had outed Jordana’s secret.

  In a matter of seconds, Jordana’s expression changed from one of rapture to that of a woman who wanted blood.

  * * *

  “Hi, guys!” chimed Victoria, who was all smiles. “I saw Tanner’s truck outside and I thought I’d pop in and see you.”

  For a moment Jordana didn’t say a word. She couldn’t. Because she was sure if she opened her mouth she’d say a bunch of ugly things that her better judgment assured her she’d regret later. Although, right now, she was itching to tear into her big-mouthed cousin and give her a tutorial on how to mind her own business, she knew she needed to carefully weigh her words.

  As the only girl and youngest child of Jordana’s uncle James and aunt Clara, Victoria always did what she wanted and said what was on her mind. And she usually ended up getting what she wanted—as evidenced by the big, fat engagement ring on her left ring finger given to her by her very own real-life hero, Garrett Stone. Back in December after the tornado struck, Garrett had pulled Victoria from the rubble at the airport. Victoria had been instantly smitten.

  While Jordana was happy for her cousin and hopeful that Garrett, who was fourteen years her senior, would have a maturing effect on Victoria, she was still miffed that Victoria hadn’t kept her promise and had told Tanner to call Jordana before she could make up her mind how she wanted to handle the situation.

  Tanner must’ve sensed Jordana’s discomfort because he broke the silence. “Hi, Victoria. I was just giving Jordana a tour of the flight school.”

  Victoria’s laugh sounded like two-part harmony as it mingled with the tinkle of her gold bangle bracelets that chimed when she flicked her long brown curls off her shoulder. The hair flip was one of Victoria’s nervous habits, a dead giveaway that she wasn’t as calm and carefree as she appeared. It made sense. Jordana hadn’t spoken to her cousin since she’d spilled the beans to Tanner, giving him the news that landed him on her doorstep in Atlanta last week.

  Gosh, had it been only a week? In some ways, it felt like an eternity ago. Maybe that was because even now, Jordana was having a hard time remembering her life before Tanner…and the baby.

  Admitting that—and the realization that Victoria might be a tiny bit nervous—quelled Jordana’s anger to a slow simmer.

  Really, it was the principle of the matter that still bothered Jordana. Because obviously, the outcome had worked out. She stole a glance at Tanner. Now that she was rested, things were feeling a little more stable between them. He may not love her…yet, but at least he was willing to commit. As far as she was concerned, as long as he honored his vows and treated her and their baby well, they had the rest of their lives to fall in love.

  Victoria’s bangles jangled again, drawing Jordana’s attention back to her. Hmm. Wasn’t that just like Victoria?

  And the fact that things were working out pretty perfectly with Tanner wasn’t the point. The point was that Victoria never could keep her big mouth shut and even if Jordana was having a hard time holding on to the remnants of her initial anger, she wanted to make busybody Victoria squirm a little bit.

  Finally, Jordana found her voice. “You always have had a knack for bad timing, haven’t you?”

  Victoria smiled and shrugged, a sheepish grin turning up the corners of her mouth. “Oh, Jor, let me see your ring.” Victoria rushed forward and grabbed Jordana’s hand. “Aunt Virginia told me. That’s how I know you’re here. Ohmygosh, I’m soo happy for you two. Jordana, we’re engaged at the same time. It will be so much fun planning our weddings together.”

  Victoria gushed some more over Jordana’s engagement ring.

  “Well, I have a feeling my wedding will happen quite a bit sooner than yours because we want to get married before the baby is born. Actually, I’d like to walk down the aisle before I start showing too much more than I am now. I guess I want the focus to be on the wedding without people saying, ‘Oh, look at the pregnant bride.’”

  But really it wasn’t an engagement in the pure meaning of the word—like Victoria and Garrett’s. He’d asked her cousin to be his wife because he loved her and for no other reason. Jordana refused to kid herself about the circumstances surrounding her own engagement. Especially since she and her groom-to-be had separate bedrooms. After he’d kissed her senseless, she’d nearly forgotten about last night’s awkwardness when he’d carried her bags into the master suite and relocated his things into the spare bedroom. A strange cloud of emotion momentarily shadowed the elation she’d felt seconds before, but she refused to let it drag her down.

  She could focus on the positive: that he’d cared enough to track her down and refused to take no for an answer; that he’d said he didn’t want to rush her—he was giving her time to get settled and acclimated to her new home before renewing their physical relationship.

  She could view his taking things slowly as romantic and caring or she could conjure up negative intangibles…that maybe Tanner wasn’t attracted to her. But then there was the way he’d kissed her—

  “Have you already set a date?” Victoria asked breathlessly.

  Jordana looked at Tanner. Their gazes snagged and lingered the way lovers might look at each other.

  Ooh, he was so good at making her feel like this really could be real…

  Without breaking their visual connection, he said, “Could be as early as later this week. We’re going to pin down the details today.”

  As the butterflies rose and swooped in Jordana’s stomach, Victoria squealed over the news and clapped her hands like a child who had just unlocked the secret surprise in the busy box.

  In vintage Victoria fashion, she’d managed to shift the mood so that any and all residue of ill feelings that had lingered in Jordana evaporated on the spot.

  Nobody could stay mad at Victoria for long. Especially when there was so much to celebrate.

  “Tanner, I know you want to show her around, but if you have to work today, I’d love to take her into town and treat her to lunch,” Victoria said. “We have so much catching up to do.”

  “Well, I do have a student coming in for a lesson in an hour or so. I was going to suggest that she take the truck and go exploring.” Tanner was giving her a look that seemed to say stop me if this is not what you want. Jordana wondered if Victoria could read it, too. But in the next breath, Jordana realized that Victoria was probably so focused on what she wanted to do that she didn’t see it. Or, even better, could Jordana dare believe that she and Tanner shared such a connection that this was something only the two of them could decipher?

  Yeah, all the way across the house from his bedroom to hers.

  She cleared her throat as if that would expel the negativity.

  “Sure, Victoria, I’d love to have lunch.”

  Even though she wasn’t mad at her cousin any longer, she still had a few things on her mind that Victoria needed to hear. It wouldn’t hurt to make her squirm a little bit more. Next time, maybe she would think twice before she opened her mouth and blabbed prematurely.

  Chapter Nine

  It was the perfect day to dine alfresco, and the table in the courtyard at Red was ideal. Shaded by a cobalt umbrella that matched the shade of blue in the hand-painted Talavera tiles on the fountain’s overflow pool, the pine table was situated in just the right location for people-watching and admiring the vibrant fuchsia of bougainvilleas that climbed the garden wall.

  “I understand you meant well, Victoria, but that’s not the point,” Jordana said. “I wasn’t ready to tell Tanner and you put me in such a
n awkward position.”

  Jordana was having a little too much fun needling her cousin. She shot a conspiratorial glance at her sisters, Wendy and Emily, as they waited for their food to be served.

  When Victoria had suggested they go to lunch at Red, the restaurant owned by Wendy’s in-laws, and managed by Wendy’s husband, Marcos, Jordana knew she had better call and invite Wendy and Emily to join them or she’d never hear the end of it. Especially if somehow they hadn’t talked to their mother and had instead learned through the Red Rock grapevine—or their cousin Victoria—that Jordana was back in town.

  Virginia had indeed told Wendy, who had relayed the news to Emily that their sister was moving to Red Rock…with Tanner…and with that, Wendy had filled in the blanks and solved the rest of the equation—that Jordana and Tanner just might be expecting.

  It was an easy conclusion, probably because Wendy had been in a similar situation a few months earlier. Two months after her late-December wedding to Marcos Mendoza, the two had celebrated the arrival of their baby daughter, MaryAnne, who was born a month premature.

  Emily had seemed a little quiet upon hearing the news. Immediately, Jordana had regretted not confiding in her sisters, especially when after the hugs and congratulations, Wendy had asked gently as she rocked MaryAnne to sleep, “Why didn’t you tell me before now, J?”

  Besides Victoria, the only other person who’d known Jordana’s secret was her friend Leah Roberts. In March, as Javier Mendoza and Leah were leaving a party to welcome Wendy and Marcos’s baby girl, they discovered Jordana sitting all alone on the porch looking very green in the gills. Javier tried like the dickens to convince her to go back inside so she could lie down, but Jordana refused. She was mortified that the others might find out she wasn’t feeling well and put two and two together and discover she was pregnant. Her worries weren’t such a far stretch because all Leah, who was a nurse, had to do was ask her a few questions and she figured out that Jordana was not “sick” but pregnant. Jordana implored her not to give away her secret. Unlike others, Leah was a vault.

  “I hadn’t even come to terms with the reality. I needed time to digest it. Time to figure out things. I wasn’t even ready to tell Tanner, but Victoria helped that along.”

  Victoria bristled. “The way you were going, it seemed like you never were going to feel ready. So, really, I did you a favor. Your marriage to Tanner was inevitable. You belong together just like Garrett and I do.”

  When the food arrived, Jordana decided to call off the dogs. Victoria had her convictions and seemed to truly believe that because it worked out for Garrett and her that it would work out for Jordana and Tanner.

  As feelings of hope blossomed in Jordana’s heart, she realized she wanted to believe her in the worst way.

  Maybe she should borrow a page from Victoria’s book of optimism, which at times Jordana had thought of as immature and idealistic, and change her mind-set.

  As the Fortune women raised their glasses and toasted each other with sparkling water, Jordana silently toasted her new life with Tanner in Red Rock and all the possibilities that lay ahead.

  “So,” Victoria said to Wendy and Emily. “This morning, Tanner said that the wedding might happen as soon as this weekend. We have a lot of planning to do.”

  Wendy gently shifted MaryAnne from her right arm to her left so she could eat her salad while the baby slept. Jordana looked on in wonder at how naturally maternal Wendy seemed. It was as if she’d been born to have a baby in her arms. “Have you made any plans at all yet?”

  “No. I don’t even know where to begin since I don’t really know the town. This has all happened so fast that I haven’t had a chance to check out our options here in Red Rock.”

  “Well, that’s where we can help,” said Victoria. “So, I guess the best place to start with is where you want to have the ceremony. Inside or outside?”

  Jordana’s plan for her ideal wedding had been quite traditional. The ceremony would’ve taken place in the church she’d attended since she was a child. She wanted a bridal party that went on for days and a dress with a train that stretched into next week. There’d been plans for at least three flower girls and a ring bearer.

  But here in Red Rock there was no church from childhood; the only child she knew was her infant niece, who was obviously much too young to toss flower petals; and she’d be lucky if her sisters and cousin would agree to stand up with her. In fact, she didn’t even know if her parents were going to be amenable to flying in, given her refusal of the quickie wedding they had offered.

  “Outside, I guess? I don’t know. Is there a nice garden close by?”

  Wendy, Emily and Victoria all started talking at once, throwing out ideas for possible venues, flowers and dress shopping. By the time lunch was over they’d made a list of places to visit that afternoon.

  Jordana had forgotten how much she enjoyed her family outside of the business arena. So much of her life had been centered around her job at Fortune South she hadn’t realized what it was like to let down her hair and enjoy herself without considering trends and market share and such.

  For a moment, she wondered if she should give Tanner an update, tell him that the Fortune women had taken their wedding and were running with it.

  Then as if tuned into that invisible connection that tied the two of them together, her cell phone rang. Tanner’s name flashed on the screen.

  “Hi, Tanner.”

  The girls hushed and turned their attention to Jordana when they heard her say his name.

  “Hi. Are you having a good day?”

  “I am. We’re just finishing up lunch at Red. Have you had lunch yet? Do you want me to bring you something?”

  “Thanks, but I’ve already eaten. Glad you’re having fun. Red is a great place. It’s one of my favorites.”

  “Yes, it is. I’d heard Wendy say so many good things about it, I was dying to try it.”

  “We’ll have to go back for dinner sometime. But in the meantime, I made some calls about the marriage license. There’s a three-day waiting period. But other than that, we’re good to go. How soon do you want to go down to the courthouse and apply? If we do it today or tomorrow, we can get married Thursday or Friday.”

  Hearing the words nearly knocked the breath out of her. This was really real. She was going to marry Tanner Redmond.

  “I’m up for either day, seeing how my schedule is pretty open. What works best for you?”

  “I don’t want to interrupt your afternoon with Victoria and your sisters…”

  “No, you’re not. Would today work?”

  “Yes, I was thinking the sooner we got through all the official red tape the sooner we could start our life together.”

  His words unleashed the butterflies again. Did that mean he was as eager as she was to do this? Since everything seemed to be pointing that way, she was going to let herself believe it was true.

  “How about if I have Victoria drop me back by the office once we’re finished here.”

  “Or actually, you know what I could do? Why don’t you all go downtown and I’ll meet you there. That way you won’t have to backtrack.”

  It was a plan.

  Once they hung up, Jordana relayed the news to the girls. “We’re getting our marriage license today. We’re getting married Thursday or Friday.”

  * * *

  Five days later, Tanner found himself pacing in front of the fountain at the Red Rock Botanical Gardens on his and Jordana’s wedding day. Even though he wasn’t allowing himself to have second thoughts—that wasn’t an option—he couldn’t deny he was more nervous today than he’d been on his first solo flight.

  The guests were just beginning to arrive for the seven o’clock ceremony. To steady his nerves as he waited, he went out to the site where he wou
ld take his vows to take in every detail of the elegant scene: the bushels of flowers—both imported for the ceremony and growing naturally in the garden—they were adorned with tiny white twinkle lights; the snow-white runner that stretched from the trellis at the back of the ceremony space to the front by the fountain where he and Jordana would exchange their vows; and the candles encased in glass lamps that lined the fountain and added an extra romantic touch. All the trimmings and little luxuries—including a courtyard dinner at Red after the ceremony—that Jordana and her family had somehow managed to pull together over the span of seventy-two hours to make this an evening he and Jordana would remember forever.

  The scene both warmed and terrified him. And if he was feeling this way, he wondered where Jordana’s head was right about now. She’d been the one with the most trepidation. Her parents, who had flown in yesterday for the ceremony, had tried to warn him that she might run. Now he wondered if he should’ve listened to them and gone along with the ceremony they’d tried to rope her into back in Atlanta.

  No. He had to trust that he’d done the right thing waiting to get married here. It was right because it was what Jordana wanted. He had to trust her, because if they were going to build a life together, they would have nothing without a foundation of trust. Not everyone ran out on their families like his father had done.

  He had to trust that Jordana would keep her promise.