Single with Children

by Arlene James

  Thirteen

  Laura stared at herself in the bureau mirror. She looked—and felt—like another person, from the sleek roll of her upswept hair to the dyed fabric of her shoes. So this was what it was like to be a Fortune. She didn’t think she could stand this day in and day out, but it could be fun once in a while, and tonight she intended to enjoy herself. Tonight, she was Cinderella at the ball. She considered her image once more. Yes, put a long, full skirt on this dress and she’d feel right at home in a coach and four. But there wasn’t time to act the seamstress; Prince Charming waited in the hall. Laura took a deep breath and strode from the room.

  Prince Charming had stuffed the little princes into their coats and was now down on one knee, trying to get them to stand still long enough for him to zip them up. It was Wendy who called a halt to the proceedings. The instant she saw Laura, she gasped and flung herself down the hall to stop at Laura’s side.

  “Laura! Oh, you look so beautiful!”

  Adam stopped what he was doing and stood. He turned, and Laura watched him take her in, his jaw dropping a little. She felt a surge of pride and then pure love as he strode toward her, arms outstretched.

  “My God!” He took her hands in his and held them wide. “You look like a queen. My queen.” He made a gallant bow from the waist.

  Laura laughed. “I don’t know too many queens who walk around in skirts this short.” She grimaced, an old worry surfacing. “It’s too short, isn’t it?”

  Adam’s gaze seemed to linger on her legs a very long time, but since he was shaking his head slowly side to side, she took heart. “Incredible,” he breathed finally.

  Laura laughed again and tilted her head coyly. “You don’t look too bad yourself.” That was an understatement if ever she’d made one. “In fact, you’re stunning.”

  He grinned, smoothing a hand down one shiny lapel, then tweaking his bow tie. Suddenly Ryan flung himself around Adam and collided with Laura’s knees. Bouncing off, he flung wide the sides of his coat.

  “Wook at me, Waura! Wook at me!” His speech impediment was always more pronounced when he was excited.

  Laura gasped, as if in delight. “My goodness! How handsome you are!”

  “Me too! Me too!” Robbie cried, jumping up and down in place.

  She made the same gasp and very nearly the same exclamation, then turned her gaze on Wendy. She had seen Wendy before, of course, having helped her bathe, curl her hair and dress between her own shower and dressing. She had made all the appropriate noises then, but she felt that Wendy deserved reinforcement, since everyone else was getting compliments. She addressed herself to Adam. “Doesn’t Wendy look lovely in her new clothes?”

  “She’s a perfect beauty,” Adam said, bending and curving a finger beneath his daughter’s chin to lift her face for his kiss. “In fact,” he went on, lifting an eyebrow at Laura, “if you’re the queen of this night, she must be the princess.” He smiled down at Wendy. “I’ll have the two prettiest females in the place on my arms.”

  Wendy giggled and clasped Laura’s hand, blossoming beneath the glow of her father’s pride. “Oh, Daddy.”

  He thumped her nose, then smiled at Laura. “Let me get our coats.”

  “I’ll do up the boys.”

  Laura stooped and wrestled Robbie’s zipper up. To her surprise and pleasure, Wendy took a hand with Ryan. She shook her finger bossily in Ryan’s face as he squirmed, admonishing him in a very adult tone to behave himself and be still. She couldn’t get the zipper locked into place, however, so Laura had to help her. Nevertheless, she hugged Wendy close. “Thanks for your help, sweetie.”

  Wendy beamed at her, then turned her attention to her brothers. “You two better be good. Daddy wants everyone to be proud of us for Laura.”

  Laura smiled and dished out kisses, leaving behind lipstick prints, which she hastily wiped off, saying, “I’m always proud of you three, and I know you’ll be very good tonight.”

  The boys gave confirming nods, while Wendy stood regally confident. Adam walked up behind them with Laura’s expensive new wrap, having already donned his own tan cashmere dress coat. Laura stood and allowed him to assist her, noting that he wore around his neck the white scarf she had given him. She belted her knee-length coat in place as she ushered the children toward the foyer. Laura herself moved unseeingly toward the garage door, but as she put out her hand to open it, Adam stopped her.

  “This way. Tonight we travel in style. Mother insisted.”

  He opened the front door and allowed the children to run down the walk toward the limo waiting in the drive. Laura gaped as the driver scrambled out of the car and opened a door for the children, bowing deferentially. It was obviously something they had done or seen done before, because they ignored him and merely climbed into the car. Adam smiled apologetically as he eased her out of the house and locked up. “Mother’s only thinking of the safety of her family. It is a party, you know, and I’m quite sure she means to float us all in champagne.”

  Laura nodded, feeling woefully out of her depth, but Adam gripped her hand and squeezed it reassuringly as they moved down the walk, side by side. As he helped her into the car, he bent low and whispered in her ear, “Relax, love. You’re going to fit in just fine.”

  The drive was short, but the boys made the most of it, taking every advantage of their freedom from their car seats. They climbed over everything and pushed every button they could find, opening and closing the sunroof, lowering the glass partition that separated them from the driver, then raising it again, locking and unlocking the doors, thrusting their hands into cavities meant to store drinks and other luxuries. Adam indulged them for a bit, then put each in his place firmly enough to let them know he meant it. “Settle down now. It’s perfectly permissible to have fun, but you’re to mind your manners, too. Don’t forget.”

  “They won’t forget,” Wendy promised, splitting a determined look between them. It was clear that she had taken over the herding of her brothers for the evening. Laura felt certain that she knew why. Wendy wanted her to make a good impression on the family at large. It was reasonable to conclude that, as nanny and potential stepmother, she would be judged on the basis of the children’s behavior.

  Laura smiled at the thought, despite a sense of unease. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be their stepmother—and Adam’s wife, of course. It was just that she couldn’t quite believe she’d ever get the chance. Too much stood in the way. No matter what Adam said about her fitting in with the Fortune family, Laura had her doubts. She was just an orphan raised on Catholic charity, after all, the ex-girlfriend of a dangerous drug dealer. All dressed up like this she might look as if she belonged with the wealthy Fortune clan, but anyone who cared to look beneath the surface would quickly discern otherwise. Still, she could not deny that she loved Adam and his children, or that they needed her—for now, at least.

  She could have brooded on that thought all evening, but her first sight of the Fortune mansion knocked every other thought right out of her head. It was magnificent, absolutely palatial, and gleaming softly with the glow of countless floodlights, its broad steps sweeping upward gracefully to a colonaded palisade that sheltered double doors of brass and heavy lead-paned windows shaped like clusters of diamonds. Erica had insisted on using the family home—which was held in a trust administered by an attorney named Sterling for all the family’s use—for the reception, saying that she wanted the family surrounded by Kate’s memory, if not her presence. Laura could see her point as the limo pulled up to the steps and the driver hopped out to hurry around to her door. The woman who had built this house had undoubtedly put a great deal of herself into it. Laura could almost feel a presence here, a will as strong as the walls that rose before her.

  Laura shivered, not with the cold but with the odd certainty that someone was watching. Doyal? Had he found her after all? Her thoughts flitted back to the waitress at the diner. Had she alerted Doyal? But that was absurd. Wasn’t it? As Adam helped th
e children from the car and retrieved Wendy’s present from the driver’s seat, Laura let her gaze travel slowly over the facade of the great house. At a dormer tucked below the eave of the upper story, she saw the movement of curtain against light, and the knot of fear in her chest began to unravel. A servant, someone who merely wanted to see the Fortunes arrive in all their style, must have been watching. When Adam slid his arm about her waist and ushered her forward, she turned a genuine smile on him, eager once more for this night of magic.

  They moved up the steps. The wide portal at their crest opened silently as they neared. Adam’s hand at her waist gave her a little nudge as he urged her ahead of him. She stepped into the black-and-white marble foyer. A brass chandelier gleamed overhead and brass fittings shone from every corner and niche. More brass shined from hooks on an enormous antique hall tree, a planter here and there, knobs and handles and the fittings of the sweeping ebony balustrades that flanked a broad, curving staircase.

  Erica emerged from a wide, open pocket door on the left. “We’re here, darlings, in the large salon.” She stopped and spread her arms wide, mouth slightly ajar as she took them in. “You’re magnificent, all of you.” She hurried forward to accept Adam’s kiss on her cheek. “I’ve never seen you so handsome!” She cupped his cheek with her hand, then turned to Laura. “My dear, you’re beautiful at your worst, but this!” She turned back to Adam. “She could model for Fortune—”

  “Oh, no!” Adam curved an arm around Laura’s waist and pulled her against his side, laughing. “Get that right out of your head. The only Fortune she’s going to model for is me!”

  Laura stifled a gasp. He might as well have proclaimed them lovers! But his mother seemed merely amused.

  “I should have guessed you’d say that.” She wrinkled her nose at Laura. “Laura darling, if you have some secret ambition to model, we’ll work right around him, I promise.”

  “Oh, no! No, I couldn’t. That is, I’d never want to be a model. It’s so…” She’d been about to say that it was intimidating, for the very thought of posing before strangers made her want to run and hide, but the admission of such a weakness suddenly seemed immature. “It’s just not me,” she finished lamely.

  “That’s my girl,” Adam said, and then, to her mortification, he kissed her gently on the mouth. Erica had turned her attention to the children, but Laura didn’t really have much hope that she hadn’t noticed! And yet she batted not an eyelash at the sight of her only son blatantly kissing his children’s nanny.

  Adam ushered her to the room his mother had identified as the large salon. It was there, on the threshold, that he slipped out of his own coat and finally handed it to a waiting servant. And then his hands moved to Laura’s shoulders. She unbelted the slinky wrap and waited. Suddenly it was as if every eye in the room were on them, and only then did Adam sweep the coat off her shoulders and down her arms. Laura knew that the resultant buzz of comment was exactly what he had intended, but she could only wonder why, turning a puzzled glance over her shoulder.

  He covered her bare arms with his hands and leaned close to whisper, “When his woman’s as beautiful as you, a man can’t resist showing her off.” The light in his eyes, like a banked and slowly burning fire, swept over Laura, making her catch her breath and warming her from the inside out. Her breasts swelled against the tightly fitting bodice of her dress. She felt promise in that gaze, promise and desire and more.

  “I love you.” The words fell out of her mouth in a whispered rush. She hadn’t even felt them on her tongue before they slid out.

  Adam’s arms came around her from the back, and he craned his head forward slightly, kissing her again fully on the mouth. The glow in his golden eyes was now a flame.

  Erica slipped by them, the children in tow, Ryan perched on the hip of her elegantly beaded pale blue gown. “Rachel,” she called, tugging the children forward, “Wendy has a gift for you.”

  Adam urged Laura to follow, his palm warm against the small of her back. Laura ignored the burn of color in her cheeks and followed the trail laid by Erica and the children. They were not to catch up with them, however, for no sooner had they stepped fully into the room than they were surrounded by Fortunes.

  “Hello, Adam.”

  “Michael, good to see you. Julia. Ah, Caroline. Nick! How are you?” He shook hands, then curved his own arms protectively around Laura. “All right, all right, everybody. Here she is. Allow me to introduce my lady, Laura Beaumont. Laura, this is my family, most of them.”

  He began pointing out sisters, cousins and spouses, but Laura simply couldn’t take them in. She hadn’t heard a word after “Allow me to introduce my lady…” Not “the nanny” or “my friend” or simply “Laura,” but “my lady.”

  “I believe we’re being paged,” Adam murmured at some point, nodding toward a tall, slender, achingly graceful woman pushing their way, one hand held out in entreaty. Her smile was kind, and her eyes were sharp with intelligence as they skimmed over Laura. Her dark brown hair had been caught at the nape and allowed to wave with artful casualness around a face utterly devoid of artifice. “Lindsay,” Adam said as she drew near enough to press her cheek to his. “Darling, I’d like you to meet my aunt. Dr. Lindsay Fortune Todd, Laura Beaumont.”

  “How do you do? Dr. Todd.”

  “Oh, no. It’s Lindsay.”

  “Then you must call me Laura.”

  “Of course. The children look wonderful, Laura. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Wendy sparkle so. But you’re missing the big moment.” She widened her gaze to take in Adam, too.

  He craned his neck over those around him, saying, “Looks as if the presentation is taking place.” He smiled at Lindsay as he urged Laura forward. They made their way to Erica and the children. The gift had already been unwrapped, and a tall, dark, ruggedly handsome man wearing gray slacks and a darker jacket had gone down on one knee before a thoroughly entranced Wendy.

  “Did you do this all on your own?” he was saying. Wendy gave her head an emphatic nod. “My, my, what talent. I’d like to hang this in my office.” He looked up at the tall redhead next to him. She was obviously pregnant, despite her sleekness, her chin-length wine-colored hair waving around her lean face, with its large, dark brown eyes. She was wearing a trim pair of black slacks and a big royal blue sweater that slid off one shoulder and sparkled with widely spaced beads.

  Rachel Fortune Greywolf laid her hand on her husband’s shoulder and said, “I know just the place for it, above the bookcase in the waiting room.”

  “Just so,” Luke said, turning his smile back to Wendy. “We’ll have a little brass plaque made with your name on it. It’ll say Wendy Fortune, Artist.”

  Wendy looked for a moment as if she would burst, and then she threw herself at Luke Greywolf. Everyone laughed. Adam leaned forward to kiss Rocky on the cheek, while Lindsay took advantage of the lull in conversation to say to Laura, “Luke is a doctor, too.”

  Luke patted Wendy on the back and stood to acknowledge Adam and Laura. Adam shook his hand heartily.

  “You look surprisingly fit,” Adam told him, grinning.

  “Marriage to my baby sister must be decidedly less dangerous than courtship.”

  Rocky punched him in the arm. “Don’t be a tease, big brother.” She shoved her hair out of her face and turned her large, dark eyes on Laura. She smiled. “You must be the miracle worker.”

  Laura made a small sound of dismay. Adam instantly bristled. “Rocky! Mind your manners.”

  “I wasn’t being ugly,” she said lightly, her gaze remaining on Laura. “It’s just that I’ve been hearing all about how you’ve mellowed my brother.” She grinned as Adam’s arm snaked around Laura’s waist. “Domesticated him, too, I see.”

  “Daddy loves Laura,” Wendy announced flatly, as if daring him to deny it.

  Laura’s mouth fell open, but Adam merely patted his daughter on the head. Then Ryan shouted, “He kisses her!”

  Laura hoped the floor would op
en up and swallow her before her face burned to a crisp, but Adam merely instructed the boy to lower his voice. It was Wendy who whirled and clapped a hand over Ryan’s mouth when he opened it again, saying, “You better be good and quit making Laura red!”

  There were chuckles and sputters and murmurs all around them, but it was Jake Fortune’s voice that sounded above it all. “I suspect congratulations will be in order here soon.”

  Laura felt him at her side and turned quickly in that direction, reeling from yet another shock. She realized vaguely that she was waiting for Adam to deny that the implied marriage was being considered. Jake Fortune smiled kindly at her and slipped a hand into the curve of her arm. Leaning close, he said softly, “Thank you, Laura. You will allow me to call you Laura, won’t you? Considering how happy you’ve made my son, it seems silly to call you anything else.”

  “I, er… Please.”

  Before she could gather her thoughts to say anything more, Adam pulled her back against him and laid his cheek against hers, looking at his father over her shoulder. “Trying to make time with my girl, Dad?”

  It was said in jest, and received in like manner. Jake Fortune chuckled. “Hardly. I know when I’m out-classed.”