A Fortunes of Texas Christmas

by Helen Lacey

  She nodded. “You were angry, I understand.”

  He gave a self-effacing grimace. “I was scared. I knew you could see right through me. All my life I have done exactly what I wanted. The money and fame, I am ashamed to say it came easily. Not that I didn’t have to work hard, but the results were there straight away, and I have lived a selfish life since. I got away with treating women poorly because I have notoriety and money, and that behavior does not sit well with me now. Because of you,” he said, running his thumb across her lips. “Because you challenged me and fought me and called me out when I behaved badly. I need that. I need you. I need you to always make me want to be a better kind of man.”

  “You’re the best man I have ever met,” she assured him.

  He smiled. “That is nice to hear, but probably not exactly true. But I promise I will be the best man I can be, for you. I will be the best husband I can be, and the best father I can be to our children.”

  Robin’s heart soared. “You really want kids?”

  “Absolutely,” he replied. “One day. But first, there are many things I want to do with you. I want to take you to Paris and show you my little vineyard on the hill. And every Christmas I want to take you to a different city so you can realize your dreams.”

  It sounded like heaven. But it was all happening so fast she could barely draw a breath. “You know, we’ve only known one another for three weeks...this is so unexpected it’s making my head spin.”

  “Does time really matter?” he asked softly. “I knew I loved you the first moment I saw you.”

  Robin stared at him in openmouthed shock. “You did?”

  He nodded. “You were walking through the garden at Kate’s ranch. I could not see your face, but you were wearing that white dress and that crazy big hat and you looked as though someone had plucked you from one of my dreams. My heart felt as though it had stopped. I did not understand at the time... I thought it was mere attraction and that it would fade. I thought that kissing you and making love with you would erase my desire for you—that it would make me behave as I always did.” He held her chin, looking reverently into her eyes. “But it did not. It simply made me love you more. My feelings will never fade, Robin. Je t’aime. I love you.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “I love you so very much, Amersen. And I can’t wait to see your house on the hill. Which does pose a sticky question...where are we going to live?”

  He pulled her close and the blanket fell, and she knew they should have been cold...but they weren’t. “As long as we are together, does it matter where we are?”

  He had a point, she thought as she kissed him.

  All that mattered was that they were together. For the rest of their lives.

  Epilogue

  Robin picked up that something was wrong the moment Amersen answered the phone.

  “What is it?” she asked when he ended the call.

  In was Christmas Eve, and they were picking up the remainder of Amersen’s things from the hotel suite before they headed to Paris on a late-night flight. They had spent a wonderful afternoon celebrating Christmas with her family, and although she was sad that she wouldn’t be spending Christmas Day with them as usual, she was super excited about heading to Paris to meet her future in-laws and his sister, Claire. She had a belly full of jitters, but she knew Amersen would be close at hand to help her through her nerves.

  “That was Kate,” he explained and came around the sofa. “We have been summoned to Sterling’s Fortune.”

  “Summoned?”

  “Our company has been requested.”

  Robin glanced at her watch. “But won’t we miss our flight?”

  “Kate has arranged for us to fly home on her private jet,” he said as though it was nothing out of the ordinary. “And there’s a limo waiting downstairs.”

  And just like that, half an hour later they were pulling up outside the ranch house at Sterling’s Fortune.

  “I think I could seriously get used to this rich-and-famous thing,” she said and took the hand he offered as they got out of the limo. “Maybe we should think about getting our own jet.”

  He laughed, and the sound made her giddy with love for him. The last week had been filled with love and passion and a kind of surreal happiness. They had spent every possible moment together, and their connection was stronger than she could have ever imagined.

  “There are a lot of cars here,” he said, more seriously.

  Robin’s eyes scanned the parking area, and she spotted several fancy cars and SUVs. She was so busy looking around, she didn’t notice that Amersen had stopped walking.

  “Are you okay?” she asked and reached for his hand.

  “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”

  She knew what he meant. The past week they had spent in a kind of hazy couple bubble, not letting anyone intrude on their time together. She knew he had deliberately steered clear of the Fortune family, and she’d respected his need to take things slowly.

  Robin squeezed his hand. “I’m here,” she said and urged him toward the house. “I’m right here with you.”

  He kissed her and whispered soft words against her mouth. “I know. That’s the only reason I am not racing back to the car right now.” He lifted his head and took a breath. “Let’s get this done.”

  * * *

  If Amersen had any preconceived ideas about what it would be like meeting the rest of his half siblings en masse, he threw them out the window the moment he stepped into the main living room. With Kate as hostess, he had no option but to face them all in one swoop.

  The names whirled around in his head in a jumble—Ben and his wife, Ella; Keaton and his wife, Francesca; Graham and his wife, Sasha, and their two young daughters; Kieran and his wife, Dana, and their little girl; and so many others he whispered to Robin that she would have to remember half of the room for him. Olivia came forward first, breaking the ice by giving him a brief hug and making the first few moments marginally less awkward than they could have been.

  “Are you annoyed with me for doing this?”

  Kate Fortune’s voice made him turn. Resplendent in an ivory silk suit, she was smiling as she passed him a champagne flute. They had been mingling for about ten minutes, and he was glad for the reprieve while Robin took a moment to speak with her friend Francesca and show off her engagement ring, much to the delighted squeals of the other woman.

  “I wasn’t sure you knew,” he said and took the glass. “You never said anything.”

  “I rarely show my entire hand,” she replied. “But I wanted to assure you that this had nothing to do with my reasons for our business venture.” She smiled a little. “Well, mostly.” She looked around the room and sighed. “They are good people...all of them worth knowing. As are you.”

  “Thank you, Kate.”

  She moved off just as Keaton and Ben approached. Amersen searched for Robin out of the corner of his eye and mentally willed her to return to his side. It took about thirty seconds for him to spot her weaving a path toward him.

  “You know, we’re not so bad,” Ben said and laughed. “Just ask Keaton... This time last year, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know us, either. And look how good it turned out,” he said and slapped the other man on the shoulder in a kind of brotherly affection Amersen had never been a part of.

  Brothers...

  These are my brothers.

  As he glanced around the room, he could see the familial resemblance, and by the time he stopped looking, Robin was back by his side. She discreetly grasped his hand and held it tight.

  “It’s good of Kate and Sterling to play hosts tonight,” Keaton said and nodded.

  “Yeah,” Olivia said as she came up between the two men. “It would be a bit awkward doing this at the ranch, with Mom being there.”

 
Ben groaned. “Oh, this is Olivia, by the way—she’s the sibling who always says what’s on her mind.”

  Amersen’s mouth twitched in a smile. “We’ve met. She gave me a roasting.”

  “You deserved it,” Olivia said and glanced at Robin. “But I’m glad to see you took my advice.”

  He grinned. “Me, too.”

  “It’s hard at first,” Keaton said more seriously. “But it’s worth it, in the end.”

  “And you’re always welcome to be a part of things,” Olivia chimed in. “Now we need to find the others so we can all get to know one another and act like a real family. So make sure you stay in touch.”

  “I will,” he assured her. “We will. And since I’m going to be living in Austin for the next six months, I’m sure we’ll have time to get to know one another.”

  It had been an easy decision. He needed to be close to work on Amersen Noir with Kate, and there was no way he was going to pluck Robin from her home and family and career and plant her in Paris without any compromise.

  “And after that?” Olivia queried.

  “After that, we’ll see,” Robin replied, squeezing his hand. “I like the idea of living in Paris for six months of the year. Whatever we do,” she said and laughed so delightfully his heart physically ached, “it sure won’t be boring.”

  Everyone agreed. And then Keaton made a toast.

  “To family,” he said as glasses were raised. “Old and new. Here or not. And to making new memories. Merry Christmas!”

  Amersen raised his glass and leaned toward Robin. “Joyeux Noël, Robin. This will be the first of many wonderful holidays together.”

  She reached up and kissed him, and his family cheered.

  His family.

  And then he swept her up in his arms and held her close, thinking that for the first time in his life, he really did have it all.

  * * * * *

  Looking for more Fortunes? They’ll return next month in the new Special Edition continuity

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS:

  THE RULEBREAKERS

  Nathan Fortune left the navy and returned to Paseo, Texas, vowing to put the past behind him. Until Bianca Shaw and her son show up on his doorstep and Nate finds that the past won’t stay buried...

  Don’t miss

  HER SOLDIER OF FORTUNE

  by

  Michelle Major

  Available January 2018, wherever Harlequin books and ebooks are sold.

  ***

  And catch up with

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS:

  THE SECRET FORTUNES

  Look for:

  A FORTUNE IN WAITING by Michelle Major

  HER SWEETEST FORTUNE by USA TODAY bestselling author Stella Bagwell

  FORTUNE’S SECOND-CHANCE COWBOY by USA TODAY bestselling author Marie Ferrarella

  FROM FORTUNE TO FAMILY MAN by USA TODAY bestselling author Judy Duarte

  FORTUNE’S SURPRISE ENGAGEMENT by Nancy Robards Thompson

  WILD WEST FORTUNE by New York Times bestselling author Allison Leigh

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SLEIGH BELLS IN CRIMSON by Michelle Major.

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  Sleigh Bells in Crimson

  by Michelle Major

  Chapter One

  Lucy Renner pulled her compact rental car to a stop in front of the enormous barn on Sharpe Ranch outside Crimson, Colorado.

  If Norman Rockwell and John Denver had looked down from the afterlife to create their perfect town, she figured Crimson would fit the bill to a T. She’d made a pit stop at a local bakery, Life Is Sweet, on her way through the picturesque mountain community. She had been greeted like an old friend even though she felt like an outsider in every way that mattered.

  The woman who introduced herself as the shop’s owner, Katie Crawford, had not only added an extra shot to the espresso Lucy ordered but then insisted she sample a fresh-baked cookie, still warm from the oven, all the while asking about Lucy’s visit to Crimson and plans for the holidays.

  But as kind as Katie Crawford seemed, Lucy didn’t trust people who were too nice. It meant they wanted something. At least, it did in Lucy’s world. Definitely in her mother’s world, which was why Lucy’s scam radar had gone on high alert when her mom called three days earlier “just to chat.”

  Her mother reached out only when she needed something. Despite Lucy’s resolve not to get mixed up in any more of Maureen’s romantic schemes, she’d never been good at saying no.

  Now she’d been summoned to the quaint Colorado town that looked like it had puked Christmas cheer all over the place. Much like the rest of downtown Crimson, the bakery had been decorated with festive lights, greenery, ornaments and other vestiges of Christmas, all coming together to make Lucy feel even more grinch-like than normal.

  She didn’t do Christmas, didn’t go in for the magic of the season. She’d worked retail long enough to know that Christmas spirit was a ploy to get consumers to part with their hard-earned cash. She’d had plenty of experience as a kid watching her mother make spirits bright in order to further her agenda of the moment. Lucy wanted no part of it any longer. Her plan for the holidays was to survive both the visit and her mother so she could retreat to her boring, quiet life back in Tampa.

  Unfolding herself from the car into the biting winter air, she pulled her thin jacket tighter around herself. A two-story farmhouse sat beyond the big barn, situated in the center of a copse of trees, the naked branches swaying in the cold breeze. A cozy stream of smoke rose from the redbrick chimney, and Christmas lights twinkled from a front window as the afternoon light began to gently fade while she stood watching.

  She couldn’t quite force herself to face her mother yet, not when Lucy’s life had become collateral damage in the fallout of Maureen’s last romantic catastrophe. Not when she would have to spend the next two weeks playing a role that made her stomach pitch and twist if she couldn’t convince her mom that whatever fantasies she had about being some sort of modern-day frontier wife weren’t going to hold up for the long term.

  A startled cry escaped her throat as something brushed against her leg. An orange tabby cat wound its way between her ankles then trotted over to the barn and disappeared through the slightly open door. A soft whinny broke the quiet a moment later, followed by an excited yip. Lucy f
ollowed the noises and slipped into the barn. Her mother was expecting her in time for dinner, but she had a few minutes to spare and couldn’t resist exploring.

  She’d taken horseback riding lessons briefly as a girl, paid for by her mother’s husband number three. The smell of a barn—the heady mix of hay and animal—had quickly become her favorite scent in the world, and it had broken her heart when she’d had to say goodbye to the leased horse she’d considered hers.

  That was when she’d been young and not so careful with her heart, but the smell of the barn still made her happy. It was warmer than she expected thanks to two industrial-sized heaters mounted on the far wall.

  This barn was even larger than the one at the farm where she’d taken lessons, with stalls lining either side and a packed dirt floor in between. A horse leaned its head over a stall door and snorted in greeting.

  “Hello, there,” she said, glancing around but not seeing any sign of human life inside the barn. “Aren’t you gorgeous?”

  The lights were on overhead and to her right was the open door of someone’s office. She peeked her head in at the meticulously ordered desk, but other than stacks of papers, there was nothing in the space to indicate who used it.

  Was this the office of her mother’s fiancé, Garrett Sharpe, the wealthy rancher who owned the property? She assumed someone with as many business dealings as Sharpe employed a ranch manager, so maybe the office belonged to that person.

  Whoever ran the barn was clearly quite tidy. Even the horse tack hanging on pegs in one corner was lined up evenly. Lucy could barely remember to put her wet towel on a hook after each shower.

  She spotted a basket of apples sitting on a shelf outside the office and grabbed one, then moved across the barn toward the horse. She heard the stamp of a hoof, and the animal bobbed its head as if calling her closer. He’d clearly noticed the apple.

  She held it out in an open palm and the horse snuffled, then took it from her hand. She slid her fingers along the underside of his jaw and up to his neck, loving the feel of the bristly hair under her hands. A high-pitched bark had her turning her attention to the next stall and, suddenly, as if she’d just been discovered, a cacophony of noise broke out across the barn.