Corporate Daddy

by Arlene James

  “Logan, she’s gorgeous.”

  “What’d you expect?” he teased. “She’s got Mom’s hair, but it’s getting darker.”

  “And those eyes!” Eden gushed. “I expect she’s a real charmer, too.”

  Logan chuckled. “Extremely charming—as cyclones go.”

  Eden laughed and clapped her hands delightedly. “You’ve had Daddy on his toes, have you, sweetheart?” she said to her niece, and Amanda Sue grinned, taking advantage of the moment to reach for her father’s hat.

  “Ah-ah-ah.” Logan leaned back out of reach, pushing away her hand. “You can’t have Daddy’s hat.” As expected, Amanda Sue shrieked and threw herself backward, sobbing in protest. He was ready for her and simply held on, waiting it out with an apologetic shrug for his sister. Amanda Sue had used every weapon in her arsenal since he’d first put on the blasted hat, but he was determined not to give in on this. A cowboy’s hat was sacred, dammit, and even if her daddy wasn’t the working variety, she’d be spending her life around the real thing, so she had to learn. Besides, some lessons were uncompromising by their very nature.

  “Poor baby!” Eden crooned, and to Logan’s disgust Amanda Sue launched herself into her aunt’s arms, the very ones she’d pushed away only moments earlier. “Daddy just doesn’t understand that no woman can resist a cowboy hat,” Eden commiserated. “No Fortune woman, anyway, and you’re definitely that.”

  “Mimy,” Amanda Sue whined. “Oan Mimy Gooey.”

  “What’s she asking for?” Eden said.

  “Emily. Emily Applegate and her cat.”

  “Emily, your assistant?” Eden asked, obviously surprised.

  “And Amanda Sue’s temporary baby-sitter,” he said, removing his hat and jacket and stowing them in the foyer closet along with the small diaper tote.

  Eden lifted her slender eyebrows. “How did that happen?”

  “Did you ever interview nannies for Sawyer?” he asked cryptically.

  “Ah. It isn’t easy, is it?”

  Logan shook his head, really looking at his sister for a change. At twenty-seven and five-feet-and-seven-inches, she was a willowy beauty. Her long dark hair was looped into a soft roll on the back of her head, accentuating her high cheekbones and aristocratic features. Her expressive blue eyes rivaled Amanda Sue’s for color and sparkle. Logan marveled, understanding for the first time what she’d been through, what she’d accomplished, as a single mother to her young son with only the help of a housekeeper/nanny. “Have I told you lately just how much I admire you?” he asked softly.

  Eden studied him, gently embracing her niece, who had become interested in the byplay since the hat had been put away. “I’ve never seen you like this,” his sister finally said.

  He spread his hands. “I’ve never been like this.”

  Amanda Sue took it as an invitation and swayed toward him. Smiling, he pulled her against his chest. She patted his cheeks with both hands and said pleadingly, “Oan hat.”

  He put his nose to hers and said, “No.”

  She stuck out her bottom lip, and he kissed it. She wiped the kiss away with an angry swipe. He kissed her again. She swiped again. He rained kisses all over her face, and she succumbed to giggles.

  “Oh, this is too wonderful,” his mother said from behind him. He turned to embrace her, grinning ear to ear.

  “Mother.”

  She looped a hand behind his head and pulled him down for a kiss, then turned her attention to her granddaughter. “Hello, my beauty. Grandmother’s so glad to see you.”

  Amanda Sue seemed to remember her. Confident that she was adored, Amanda Sue even puckered up for a proper kiss but clung securely to her father’s neck.

  “Let’s take her in to meet the others,” Mary Ellen said. “Then I want some one-on-one with both of you, if that’s not a contradiction in terms.”

  Logan chuckled and proudly carried his daughter into the family room, flanked by his mother and sister. He’d expected his brother and sister, but the room was crowded with other Fortunes, too. Both his cousin Matthew and his wife Claudia were there, along with the mystery child they’d named Taylor. Their own infant son Bryan had been kidnapped on the day of his christening, and Taylor had been returned to them in his stead. Bryan’s whereabouts remained as much a mystery as to whom Taylor belonged. They knew he was a Fortune, because of his hereditary crown-shaped birthmark and rare blood type, but so far no Fortune had claimed him. For the first time, Logan was fully aware of how Matthew and Claudia must be suffering, and he was touched that they had taken the time and trouble to welcome his daughter.

  His cousin Dallas and new wife Maggie were there, too, looking radiantly happy as they watched their five-year-old son Travis tumbling on the carpet with Eden’s dark, handsome little Sawyer who was the same age. His cousin Vanessa and her new husband Devin, the FBI agent assigned to helping the local sheriff, Wyatt Grayhawk, find baby Bryan, were also in attendance. Knowing how concerned Vanessa was about her nephew, how concerned they all were, Logan was astounded at the size of the gathering.

  His brother Holden and sister-in-law Lucinda were the first to step forward. “Wow!” Holden said. “She looks just like Mom!”

  Lucinda, with her smooth bedside manner, already had Amanda Sue reaching for her. She was more used to delivering babies than treating them, but she took no time at all to announce that Amanda Sue was beautiful, healthy, and well cared for. When Vanessa tried to coax Amanda Sue away from her, though, the child reached for her daddy again. Holden laughed and exclaimed, “She actually likes him!”

  Logan couldn’t help smiling. “Of course she does! In fact, she loves me. Don’t you, sweet girl? Amanda Sue loves Daddy, doesn’t she?”

  She nodded dutifully, placed both hands on either side of his face, gave him a loud messy kiss and crooned, “Daddy hat?”

  Eden snickered, and Logan rolled his eyes. “Emily says she has a memory like an elephant,” he complained, explaining the hat situation.

  “Sounds like Vanessa,” Devin commented dryly.

  “Stubborn and beautiful,” Vanessa’s brother Dallas supplied.

  “Willful and intelligent,” Vanessa’s other brother Matthew chimed in.

  “Sounds like Eden to me,” Holden cracked.

  “She’s a Fortune, all right,” Logan declared, chuckling. “No doubt about it.”

  Everyone laughed, and Amanda Sue joined in, though it was obvious to all that she didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on. Her giggles brought all eyes back to her, however, and she seemed to enjoy the attention. She played to her audience, smiling at each with an attack of the cutes that had her batting her eyelashes and gyrating her shoulders. The five-year-old boys giggled at her antics, and it was only then that Amanda Sue seemed to notice them. She looked at her daddy, eyebrows raised as if to ask why he hadn’t told her there were other children present, bucked and demanded, “Down!”

  Logan set her feet on the floor, and she took off at her usual run, bowling right into the boys with her arms spread wide. They made appropriate noises and went down. She threw a leg over Travis, who was by far the largest, and climbed onto his back as though he were a horse. Sawyer thought that was terribly funny. Travis got up on all fours and rocked back and forth, snorting like a bull. Amanda Sue held on to his shirt with both hands and invited Sawyer aboard. “Mon,” she said. “Mon.”

  “That is a very secure child,” Lucinda observed.

  “Donna deserves a lot of credit,” Logan said, “and Emily, too.” Then he had to explain about each woman, and conversation progressed from there.

  Play got a little too rough at one point, and Amanda Sue bumped her head. Logan immediately came off the couch, where he was sitting with Eden and Mary Ellen, and knelt beside his daughter. She clambered up into his arms, complaining loudly about the affront. He kissed her bump, told her to play more carefully and asked if she needed a diaper change. She pretended not to hear him, ensuring that she did. “I’ll do it,” Ed
en said, but Amanda Sue shook her head wildly and struggled to get away.

  “No! No ditee! No ditee!”

  “Just hand me a clean diaper and the wipes, will you, Eden?” Logan said. Catching Amanda Sue with the long reach of his arm and gently laying her down, he quickly opened her corduroy jumper and stripped away the soiled diaper. Amanda Sue struggled constantly, but the diaper appeared quickly, and Logan had her cleaned up and changed in short order. “There,” he said, rolling the soiled diaper into a plastic wrap and wiping his hands clean, while Amanda Sue scrambled up and launched herself at the boys again.

  Logan got to his feet, and it was then that he noticed the absolute silence. He looked around him at the rapt faces. “What?”

  Everyone burst into laughter. “You’re better at that than I am!” Matthew exclaimed.

  “I never would have believed it,” Holden said, clapping Logan on the shoulder as if proud of him.

  It was Mary Ellen who put the cap on the moment, however. “I knew you’d be a wonderful father,” she said, embracing him.

  Logan couldn’t help grinning. “You knew more than I did, then,” he said truthfully. “Emily says I’ve come a long way, though, and what she doesn’t know about kids hasn’t been learned yet. She’s taught me lots.”

  “I have to meet this Emily,” Eden mused thoughtfully.

  “What are you talking about?” Logan said. “You’ve met her.”

  “Well, of course, I’ve met her, but I’d like to have a conversation with her. You know, a visit.”

  “I’m sure she’d like that,” Logan said. “She’d probably appreciate the adult company since she’s at the house during the days with Amanda Sue while I work. We got a temp to take her place in the office.”

  “Oan grink.”

  “Okay, sweetheart.” He swept her up into his arms and looked to his mother. “What’ve you got for a little girl to drink, Granny?”

  Mary Ellen traded a significant look with Eden, but then she smiled. “Why don’t we go see?”

  He followed his mother toward the kitchen, Amanda Sue held close to his chest. He didn’t hear the comments and speculation voiced by the others in his absence. If he had, he might have realized just how much he’d changed since Amanda Sue’s arrival in his life. He might even have realized that he had finally lost his heart—to someone besides his little girl.

  It was Mary Ellen who suggested that Logan and Eden pay a visit to their uncle Ryan at the main house on Sunday and introduce him to Amanda Sue, since he’d missed the family gathering. Ryan had much on his mind, she pointed out, and needed all the support he could get. Logan was only too eager to continue showing off his little daughter, and Eden was always ready to lend her support when anyone in the family needed it. They drove the two miles over to the big, sprawling hacienda, enjoying the rolling fields of mesquite and cactus interspersed with hardy grasses and the occasional tree.

  “Isn’t it funny,” Eden said, “that no matter where we go or what we do, this place is still home?”

  Logan nodded. “I’ve been thinking I’d like to live out here summers so Amanda Sue could experience growing up here.”

  “It’d be a long commute,” Eden said.

  “True, but I think it’d be worth it.”

  “What does Emily say?”

  “Haven’t mentioned it to her yet. I think she’d agree, though.”

  Eden smiled in that secretive way she’d developed of late.

  “What?”

  She just shook her head.

  He thought to himself that Eden was acting oddly, but then he fell to wondering what Emily would really say about his idea of living summers on the ranch. Should he think about building his own house, or would it be better for Amanda Sue to live in the house with his mother and his brother’s growing family? He loved the idea of Amanda Sue running through the same house in which he’d grown up, but maybe it would be best to build his own place. Maybe he’d ask Uncle Ryan about it after everything settled down. He was in no hurry, after all.

  The house came into view, and it really was a magnificent sight, wholly at one with its surroundings and seeming as old as the land itself. They parked in front of the door and got out.

  As expected, Rosita Perez, the housekeeper, let them into the house. Logan threw his free arm wide, Amanda Sue snuggled against his side with the other.

  “Rosita, my love!”

  Rosita poked a plump finger into his ribs. “Ha! Don’t think you can charm me, Logan Fortune. I’ve known you for a scamp since before you could walk, and I can still burn your backside when you need it.”

  He grinned, but then he said, “Well, better get out the paddle, then, Rosita. I’m afraid I’ve brought proof of my perfidy this time.”

  “I’m betting she’ll forgive you for this one,” Eden said with grateful knowledge. Rosita stepped forward, reached up and wrapped both arms around Eden’s shoulders. Eden had to bend forward to accommodate the plump housekeeper’s short stature.

  “How are you, my Eden? We don’t see you enough.”

  Eden kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Rosita. I’m well and busy.”

  Rosita looked into her eyes, nodded and stepped back, lifting a hand to smooth the wide, white streak in her neatly braided and wrapped, ink-black hair. Once more she turned her attention to Logan and, this time, his daughter. Folding her hands at her waist, Rosita tilted her head, studying Amanda Sue, who had her hand in her mouth as usual.

  Rosita nodded sagely. “She has the Fortune will. She needs a strong but loving hand to guide, but never contain, her. She is fortunate, I think, in her father—even if he is a scamp.” She smiled then and reached up to embrace both. Logan had to bend far forward to accommodate her, and as he did so, Amanda Sue reached out and lightly touched the white streak in Rosita’s hair.

  “A precious child!” Rosita gushed. “Just what your uncle needs right now. Come, all of you. He will be glad to see you.”

  They followed her through the cool, antique-filled interior of the old house, crossing floors of tile and plank and, finally, carpet. Rosita pushed open the heavily carved door of the so-called library and led them inside. “More company, Mr. Ryan. Wait until you see the little señorita!”

  Ryan was sitting on one corner of the massive old desk standing dead center of the big room. Couches and chairs were strewn about in comfortable groupings, one of which featured a television set. The walls were lined with shelves of books, leaving room only for a massive fireplace and various doors, a pair of which opened onto the courtyard.

  On the leather sofa facing the desk sat none other than Lily Redgrove Cassidy, wearing a long, slender denim skirt, matching vest, embroidered long-sleeved blouse, and red, hand-tooled leather boots, her long, dark hair lying atop one shoulder in a thick braid. At fifty-something, her dark, voluptuous beauty had merely matured and ripened, leaving Logan in no quandary at all as to what drew and held his uncle’s interest. She stood even before Ryan did and moved forward gracefully, beckoning to someone Logan hadn’t seen until that moment. Hannah, Lily’s oldest daughter, rose from a deeply cushioned armchair and smiled.

  Clad in neat, pleated khakis, a classic silk shirt and a brown corduroy jacket, Hannah would never seem more than plain in her mother’s presence, which Logan found a darn shame. He knew her to be a good soul, a kind and loving woman with a quiet beauty that was too often overshadowed as it emanated from inside and cared little for outward expression. In that way, she was much like her mother, much more so, he suspected, than her younger sister Maria.

  “Hannah!” Eden said. “How nice to find you here—and your mother, too, of course.”

  Hannah hurried to Eden’s side, but Lily was headed straight for Amanda Sue, saying, “Oh, Ryan, she’s gorgeous! That auburn hair, and those eyes!”

  “Good grief, she looks like you, Eden!” Ryan exclaimed, chuckling. “Except for that hair, which is Mary Ellen and Logan combined, I think.” He clapped Logan on the shoulder and shook his hand
while Lily coaxed Amanda Sue into her arms.

  “How old is she?” Lily wanted to know.

  “Going on seventeen months,” Logan answered proudly.

  “She’s walking, then,” Lily said.

  “Running, more like,” Eden answered.

  “She’s fast, all right,” Logan confirmed, “and according to Rosita she’s got the Fortune will.”

  “What Logan means to say,” Eden teased, “is that she’s as stubborn as he is—and as charming and bright.”

  “Brighter,” he said.

  “And more charming,” Hannah teased, giggling as Amanda Sue touched a fingertip to Lily’s mouth and announced, “Mouf.”

  Lily smiled and kissed her fingertip. An old hand now at showing off, Amanda Sue next touched Lily’s delicate patrician nose. “Noze.” Very carefully she touched Lily’s eyelid and other facial parts. “Eye. Ghin. Sheek. Foorhed. Eer.” Finally she touched wisps of hair framing Lily’s face and said, “Preey herr.”

  “Bright, charming, and she’s got good taste,” Ryan said to general laughter. He smiled down at Lily, who was making kissing sounds into Amanda Sue’s hand. “Let’s all sit down and have a chat.” Ryan suggested.

  Rosita said, “I’ll bring coffee and sugar cookies. Would the baby like milk?”

  “That would be great, Rosita,” Logan confirmed, moving with the others toward the largest grouping of furniture. “Just be sure it’s a plastic cup, and bring lots of napkins.”

  When they were all seated, Amanda Sue crawled over into Ryan’s lap. A moment later she moved on to Eden, then Hannah, and finally her daddy, where she stayed until Rosita returned with “num-nums.” She filled Logan’s lap with cookie crumbs, spilled milk on his jeans and insisted on blowing on his coffee before every sip, while the adults touched on various topics: Amanda Sue’s mother, the kidnapping and how Ryan had been pressing the authorities for action, the ranch, Hannah’s bridal shop in San Antonio, Eden’s son Sawyer and her consulting business and, finally, the remaining members of Lily’s family, her oldest son Cole and youngest daughter Maria.