Cowboy in Disguise

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  The Fortunes of Texas

  THE HOTEL FORTUNE

  Follows the lives and loves of a wealthy, complex family with a rich history and deep ties in the Lone Star State.

  Check in to the Hotel Fortune, the Fortune brothers’ latest venture in cozy Rambling Rose, Texas. They’re scheduled to open on Valentine’s Day, when a suspicious accident damages a balcony—and injures one of the workers! Now the future of the hotel could be in jeopardy. Was the crash an accident—or is something more nefarious going on?

  Laid-back “cowboy” Jay Cross has been working at the Hotel Fortune for six months now, and so far, no one has guessed his secret. He’s happy to be “just Jay”—especially since Arabella Fortune likes him just the way he is. But once the truth gets out, their simple relationship will get way more complicated...

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: The Hotel Fortune

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome back to Rambling Rose, the town that has been turned on its ear by the Fortunes of Texas, and never more so than now, when the Hotel Fortune—after fits and starts—is finally open for business. But what kind of business is actually going on at the hotel?

  For Jay Cross, who simply came back to Rambling Rose to get a break from the frenzy that his life had become, it’s a place to make an honest day’s pay where nobody has any expectations of him other than that he do his job. If not for the local law, who aren’t happy about the supposed “gaps” in his life when they look his way after one too many mishaps at the hotel, life is nearly perfect.

  For Arabella Fortune, who came back to Rambling Rose with dreams in her mind directly related to the handsome Jay, the business of the day is to finally find out what he was going to tell her the night they’d met so many months ago. The night he’d been unable to finish his sentence, I think you should know that— She’s been dreaming about a romantic ending to that sentence for months now.

  But will there be romance and love in store for them? Or has Arabella been fantasizing all of these months about a man who has more secrets than Texas has Fortunes?

  Hope you’ll enjoy finding out!

  Allison

  Cowboy in Disguise

  Allison Leigh

  Though her name is frequently on bestseller lists, Allison Leigh’s high point as a writer is hearing from readers that they laughed, cried or lost sleep while reading her books. She credits her family with great patience for the time she’s parked at her computer, and for blessing her with the kind of love she wants her readers to share with the characters living in the pages of her books. Contact her at allisonleigh.com.

  Books by Allison Leigh

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Return to the Double C

  A Weaver Christmas Gift

  One Night in Weaver...

  The BFF Bride

  A Child Under His Tree

  Yuletide Baby Bargain

  Show Me a Hero

  The Rancher’s Christmas Promise

  A Promise to Keep

  Lawfully Unwed

  Something About the Season

  The Fortunes of Texas: All Fortune’s Children

  Fortune’s Secret Heir

  The Fortunes of Texas: The Lost Fortunes

  Fortune’s Texas Reunion

  The Fortunes of Texas: Rambling Rose

  The Texan’s Baby Bombshell

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  This book is dedicated to my husband, Greg. You keep me sane.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Wildflower Season by Michelle Major

  Excerpt from The Baby That Binds Them by Stella Bagwell

  Chapter One

  January

  “I thought you didn’t eat bread anymore.”

  Arabella Fortune jumped guiltily and used the corner of her napkin to cover the roll she’d dropped in her lap, where it sat next to two others just like it. She looked from the empty bread basket to meet her brother’s laughing eyes.

  “More bread?”

  At the question, she swiftly looked from Brady to the handsome owner of the deep voice. His name badge said Jay Cross and he’d been attending to their table throughout the birthday party for her nephew. She picked up the basket, smiling into his deep green eyes.

  “Yes, please.” She sounded breathless and didn’t really care. “If it’s not too much trouble.” Jay was gorgeous. And every time their fingers brushed—when he’d given her a fresh napkin after she’d dropped hers, when he’d refilled her water glass, when she handed him the bread basket for the third time—there was an undeniable zing.

  And she knew he’d felt it, too. Right from the start. The way his gaze had zipped to hers...and clung...had made her certain of it.

  He had long fingers. She didn’t know if they were smooth or calloused, though he had a raised scar over one knuckle, long and whitish against his tanned skin, that made her think he didn’t spend all of his time on a catering crew.

  His smile widened and his gaze was as warm as a caress when he took the basket from her. “No trouble at all.” His fingers grazed her hand and she felt butterflies take flight inside her. That brush of his fingers had to be deliberate. “I’ll be right back.” He walked away with the basket in hand.

  “Why are you staring at that wader?”

  Arabella heard her brother’s grunt of laughter and she pulled her attention away from Jay to focus on Tyler’s four-year-old face. Since Brady had been left guardian of his best friend’s twins the year before, she’d become adept at telling the two boys apart. “Was I staring?” she asked innocently.

  Tyler nodded earnestly. “At his butt.” His young voice was piping clear. “The wader’s butt.”

  “It’s waiter. Not wader,” Brady corrected almost absently. He was busy trying to keep Toby—the more rambunctious of the two children—from unbuttoning his shirt because he was too hot. It wasn’t really too warm inside the hotel restaurant where the party was being held. It was January. Back home in Buffalo, they’d be under a few feet of snow, but here in Rambling Rose, the balcony doors were thrown open and the occasional breeze that flowed in was beautifully balmy. The other two occupants of their table—her brothers Kane and Joshua—obviously felt the same. As soon as they’d finished their entrées, they’d taken refuge from Toby’s and Tyler’s unrelenting chatter at the bar set up near the balcony and they both had their shirtsleeves rolled up.

  “Not another button,” Brady warned Toby before looking back at Tyler. “And don’t say butt,” he directed.

  “At his bottom,” Tyler revised obediently. But he still had a glint in his eyes. He might be the more sensitive of the two, but like Toby, his genetic makeup seemed to be half mischief.

  As the only girl among five protective older brothers, handling the four-year-old variety of male was almost a breeze. She leaned closer to Tyler. “D’you want to go outside for a few minutes?”

  He nodded so hard he nearly fell out of his chair.

  She looked to his twin brother, placed on her other side between her and Brady in a relatively successful attempt at helping them behave during the family event. �
�D’you want to go outside for a few minutes, Toby?” The restaurant, Roja, was located in the brand-new Hotel Fortune and though she hadn’t had a chance to see much besides her hotel room, she was sure there would be someplace where the kids could work out their wiggles.

  Toby was out of his chair before she even finished speaking, and hung on to the back of Brady’s while he bounced on his bare feet.

  Brady looked resigned at this latest discovery. “When did you take off your shoes and socks?”

  The little boy shrugged innocently.

  Arabella hid a laugh and slipped off her seat, prepared to dive under the table to retrieve the items. But she’d forgotten all about the rolls she’d snuck away in her napkin and they bounced onto the carpet like a cascade of ping-pong balls.

  Brady gave her a look that, lately, had been reserved for his young charges. “Subtle, Airhead.”

  She crossed her eyes at him and ducked under the floor-length tablecloth, dashing the rolls out of sight along with her, and fished out Toby’s shoes and socks then backed out again on hands and knees.

  A pair of shining black cowboy boots met her eyes.

  She looked up the long legs encased in black pants and felt her face heat at the laughter in Jay’s eyes as he set the fresh bread basket on the table. “Can I help you up?” He extended his long-fingered hand down toward her.

  The scarred knuckle hovered near her nose and those fluttering wings inside her took flight all over again.

  She placed her palm in his.

  Oh, hello. Forget zing. Palm-to-palm meant full-on heart palpitations.

  She didn’t even know how she got to her feet without catching her high heels in her maxi-length dress. Maybe she just floated upward, borne on the delight of his hand clasping hers. Regardless, she found herself standing a little closer than was probably appropriate for the moment—her nephew Larkin’s first birthday party. But she just couldn’t make herself put a few more inches between them.

  She looked up, then up some more, until her eyes met Jay’s.

  She’d already noticed how green they were. But standing so closely now, she could see the circle of yellow around his pupils. The spokes of darker color that radiated out to the deep green edges of his irises.

  She realized he was still holding her hand. Was, in fact, grazing his thumb ever so lightly over the back of her hand.

  She also realized that both Tyler and Toby were bouncing around her, impatient for the promise of an escape from the party. And that Brady was giving Jay a narrow-eyed stare. As was Brian who’d joined their brothers Kane and Joshua at the bar. Fortunately, Adam—the eldest of her siblings—was busy with Laurel and their little boy across the room or she had no doubt his suspicious glare would be trained her way, too. Instead, he and Laurel were talking animatedly with their folks.

  Catherine Fortune was smiling and nodding. Gary Fortune, however, had the same sour look on his face that he wore whenever he was faced with any of the extended members of the Fortune family. One might think discovering you had half-brothers out in the world that you’d never known about would be exciting. Not for Gary, though. Arabella knew for a fact that if not for Larkin—whose very survival had been in question not even six months earlier—her dad would sooner choke than have anything to do with “those” Fortunes.

  The ones who had money.

  More than they had, anyway.

  The ones who had success.

  Also more than Gary figured they had.

  But Larkin was his first grandchild. And the baby was now thriving. He’d made it to his first birthday. His parents—her brother Adam and Laurel—were together. Finally. Those blessings had provided enough impetus for her dad to put aside his usual animosity, at least long enough to come to Texas for the party.

  Brady nudged her from behind. “You going to let the guy get back to his job anytime this century?”

  She looked into those green, green eyes again and reluctantly tugged her hand free of Jay’s. “I was just going to try to find a place outside for these two to get some fresh air before the cake is served.”

  “I want cake,” Toby and Tyler both said, nearly in unison. “Cake, cake, cake!”

  “Run off some energy, you know, before we give them a sugar rush,” she added above their chanting.

  Jay’s smile widened. “There’s a perfect place downstairs. I can show you a shortcut.”

  Fluttering galore. “That’s so sweet of you.” She ignored the muffled sound of disgust that came from Brady and swept Toby up in her arms. He could put on his shoes and socks outside.

  “Ten minutes,” she told Brady, warning him with her glare not to embarrass her. He still rolled his eyes at her the same way he’d been doing for all of her life.

  She ignored him and turned with the boys to follow Jay’s extremely perfect backside out of the room.

  As soon as they’d passed through the door he held open for them, he let it swing closed and the chatter and music from inside went hushed.

  She felt a quick dart. “Are you sure this is okay? I didn’t intend to take you away from your work.” Not that she wasn’t going to enjoy it while she could.

  His dark brown hair was short. Thick. Light caught in the glossy strands as his head dipped slightly toward hers. “Job of the day is to take care of the Fortunes,” he said conspiratorially. He really did have the sexiest deep voice. “You’re a Fortune, so...” He touched her elbow lightly, directing her into a waiting elevator.

  She couldn’t help her shiver any more than she could help the laugh that escaped. “I’m not one of those Fortunes, though, so I’m not sure this counts.”

  The elevator car was narrow, long and tall and had padded walls. He punched the ground floor button. “I didn’t know there were a these and a those.”

  Her smile widened. If he’d been waiting on the table where her parents sat, he might have thought differently.

  The elevator lurched softly as it stopped and the doors opened again. Jay led them through a back corridor made even narrower by tall racks sitting on one side, then pushed through another door into the fitness center. They crossed the spacious room and stepped through another door and outside onto a grassy area.

  The music and laughter from the party upstairs carried easily down to them.

  Toby was squirming so much she set him down on the grass. “Put these on before you move an inch,” she ordered, handing him the shoes and socks.

  Tongue sticking out between his teeth, he quickly pulled on the socks. The heels weren’t in the right spots, but he didn’t seem bothered by it as he worked on the shoes. She knew better than to offer help. He had an independent streak a mile wide. Meanwhile, Tyler crouched down and began running a car she hadn’t even known he’d had along the cobbled pavers next to them.

  She looked up at Jay. “Thanks for this.” She gestured at the boys. “My brother’s their guardian.”

  He looked surprised. “Sorry, I thought they were yours.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. No kids. Not married.” She felt her face flush.

  His smile widened.

  Butterfly wings fluttered inside her chest. “So, uh, how long have you worked at Hotel Fortune?”

  “Almost a month now. They’re good folks here. Those Fortunes. Hey, pard, want a little help there?” He crouched alongside Toby who was still struggling with his shoelaces.

  Toby duly considered the matter, then to her amazement, he shot out his small foot.

  “Always had trouble with laces, myself,” Jay told the boy with a grin. “So my granny kept buying me cowboy boots. Just like these.” With a wink, he wiggled the toe of his boot and Toby giggled. “My mama, though, she said I couldn’t play baseball wearing boots so she taught me like this.” He stretched out Toby’s laces in a slightly exaggerated way. “Cross ’em over in an X,” he sang softly, “pull ’em dow
n and now what’s next?”

  Tyler came over to see. “Bunny ears.”

  “Right,” Jay agreed. “Only my mama called them donkey ears. Cross ’em over in an X,” he repeated, in the same deep singsong drawl, “pull ’em down and now what’s next? Donkey ears—” he nodded encouragingly when both boys shouted the answer “—get all crossed up. Make ’em do a somersault. Now that’s done, what else is left? Pull ’em tight and kiss an elf.”

  The boys wrinkled their noses and hooted. “Kiss an elf!” Toby stuck out his other foot and wiggled it back and forth. “Do it again!”

  “All right,” Jay agreed, catching the toe of Toby’s shoe. “But you do the laces this time.”

  Unspeakably charmed, Arabella watched them as Toby grabbed his shoelaces.

  Jay started singing again. “Cross ’em over in an X...” He trailed off, as the twins took over the words, easily remembering the simple, catchy tune while Toby’s fingers tried to replicate the motions. Jay straightened then and his eyes seemed to linger on her face.

  She raised her eyebrows at him. “Kiss an elf?”

  “Mom was—is—a piano teacher.” His smile was so easy. So sexy with that slash of a dimple that appeared beside his mobile lips. “She never claimed to be a lyricist.”

  Shoes successfully tied, Toby hopped to his feet and even though Arabella would have loved to linger a little longer with Jay, she knew she shouldn’t keep him. “Thanks for showing us the shortcut down here.” Already the two imps were chasing each other around the grass, burning off some of their never-ending energy.

  “My pleasure.” He gestured at the hotel. “Afraid you’ll have to use the main elevator to get back upstairs. The door we came out doesn’t open from the outside.”

  “What time do you get off work?” The words blurted out of her and she flushed. Not just because of the impetuous question, but because of the slow look he sent her way.

  “Jay.” Another one of the servers from the party stuck her head out of the door, obviously looking for him. “Need you upstairs, dude.” She stood there holding the door open, pointedly waiting.