She’d had unsettled stomachs before, for a whole myriad of reasons, but this…this felt different. This didn’t feel like nerves the way she was desperately trying to convince herself it was. This felt strange. And mornings were the worst.
And none worse than this morning.
Her parents had insisted on having the five of them, her brother, sisters and her, over to dinner to celebrate the store’s grand opening. At first she’d begged off, wanting to be alone with her hurt. But her mother had insisted and, eventually, Gloria had decided that maybe it was better to have people she loved around her. She’d hoped that they would take her mind off the pain of being ignored by the one man she’d thought would make a difference in her life.
The man she realized she was in love with, no good rotten so-and-so that he was.
Maria Mendoza had seemed so thrilled to have almost all of her children under one roof again that when she suggested they all remain for the night, no one had the heart to turn her down. After all, it was only for the one night.
But alone in her old room, Gloria found that her thoughts wouldn’t leave her alone. Her thoughts and her unhappy stomach.
Morning found her throwing up.
She had to face the music. So she dug out the box that had all but become a permanent companion and set it on the bathroom counter. She stared at it for close to ten minutes before she finally opened the box and followed the directions she had already committed to memory.
Waiting was agony.
Discovery was worse.
The stick was blue. She was pregnant.
Pregnant with the baby of a man who was going to be flying out of her life any day now. She strained her eyes, hoping to see the color fade into pink. But it didn’t.
Her knees buckled beneath her and she sank down onto the closed commode, feeling numb all over, a numbness that was climbing up into her throat, threatening to gag her.
Damn it, what had she been thinking to allow this to happen?
She hadn’t been thinking, that was the problem. Instead of being logical, she’d been feeling. For the first time in a long, long time, she’d let her feelings loose and it had been wonderful.
Looking back, she had to admit that the wild rush of being in love had been nothing short of exhilarating. But she had to squelch it now. That part of the wild ride was over. She had to think about what was ahead. And the baby she was going to have.
She covered her face with one hand. Oh, God, she couldn’t deal with this. Her hormones in flux, she felt absolutely lost and alone. The sensation threatened to swallow her up whole.
Still holding the stick as disbelief ricocheted through her, Gloria began to sob. Huge, racking sobs that shook her whole body.
She wasn’t exactly sure when she realized she wasn’t alone. Looking up, she saw that Sierra was standing in the doorway. Her younger sister looked confused.
Gloria realized that Sierra was looking at the stick she was still clutching in her hand as if it was a wand that had malfunctioned. Belatedly, she tossed it into the wastepaper basket. It fell into the box that had previously housed it.
Coming to life, Sierra quickly closed the door behind her, locked it and knelt beside her sister. “Gloria, what’s wrong?”
Gloria pressed her lips together. A sprinkling of the loneliness ebbed away for a second. She tried to smile, but couldn’t. “It’s just like me to forget to lock the door.”
Sierra clearly wasn’t about to be diverted by any flip remarks. She honed in on the source of her sister’s distress. “The stick was blue.”
“Yes,” Gloria acknowledged quietly, “the stick was blue.” The words, as she said them, felt like a death sentence.
Sierra’s shapely brows pulled together in abject confusion. “How can the stick be blue if you’re not dating anyone?” And then her eyes opened wide. “You broke the pact.”
“No, I didn’t. Not exactly. Technically, I’m not dating anyone.” She was clutching at straws, trying to save face. Looking for excuses she knew were less than flimsy.
Sierra looked down at the light-blue wastebasket, nodding at the box. “Then this is what, the Angel Gabriel making another middle-of-the-night visit, this time to your old room?”
Gloria dragged a hand through her hair, at a loss as to how to explain. “It happened in the elevator.”
Sierra stared at her, struggling to find a plausible explanation. This wasn’t it. “The Angel Gabriel appeared to you in an elevator?”
“No,” Gloria snapped, then looked at Sierra contritely. Emotions storm-trooped through her, making her want to laugh and cry at the same time. “It was Jack Fortune.”
This made almost as little sense. “He appeared in the elevator?”
She shook her head. She’d told her sister about the blackout, leaving out a few salient details. “No, he was in the elevator with me when the power went out.”
Sierra frowned. “Obviously not all the power.” Her sister paused and then her jaw dropped open. “Did he force himself on you?”
If anything, the man had tried to restrain himself, she thought. “It was more like mutual spontaneous combustion.” She tried to compose herself.
Sierra asked the million-dollar question. “Does he know?”
Gloria rolled her eyes. “I didn’t even know until this morning.”
“So what are you going to do?” This was her big sister, the one she’d always admired even when she’d sided with Christina. Gloria always had all the answers, even if some of them had been wrong. But this was an entirely new ball field they found themselves playing on.
“I don’t know.” Gloria stifled another sob, not wanting to cry in front of her sister. Her shoulders shook from the effort and she pretended to shrug them. “Have the baby.” That much she was sure of. It was the steps afterward that were so uncertain.
“And?” Sierra prodded.
Gloria tried to think, to channel the new person she had become, that of a confident businesswoman. It wasn’t easy. Right now she felt like a lost child who just wanted someone to take care of her.
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 st
ood 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 Jack 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 ye
sterday 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.”
Her Good Fortune Page 16