A CHANGE OF FORTUNE

by Crystal Green

  “Last December.” Dad seemed relieved that his kids were asking questions instead of hurling accusations. “I told John about tracking her down, and he only cautioned me about falling prey to a con artist. But you kids have met her, so you have to know that’s not true. She’s a good woman.”

  Dad laughed without mirth, shaking his head. Sawyer didn’t understand Uncle John’s unwillingness to at least explore who Jeanne Marie was, either.

  “But you tracked her down,” Sawyer said. “She didn’t introduce herself into your life.”

  “Yes, and John knew that, but he thought she would take advantage of me and my ‘soft heart,’ as he called it. I didn’t listen, though, and I went to see Jeanne Marie for myself.”

  Another smile lit over Dad’s face as he linked gazes with Mom. It was heartening to see them looking at each other like this during a time when many other couples might be cracking under the pressure.

  This is what it’s like to have a real partner, Sawyer thought. A mental twin. Someone who understands you.

  Like Laurel seemed to do with him?

  His dad started up again before Sawyer could think on that too much.

  “Once I met Jeanne Marie,” he said, “I knew she was definitely my twin. I didn’t need a DNA test to confirm anything, although she would’ve willingly gone along. She didn’t know anything about her birth family and was overjoyed that she didn’t just have one brother, but two. Yet as I sat there in her run-down home, I felt ill. She’d lived her whole life in relative poverty while John and I were millionaires, raised with money. It didn’t seem fair.”

  Shane let out a jagged laugh as he stood from the sofa, running his hand through his dark hair as he turned his back on James and then came to face him. “That’s why you gave her half of JMF’s majority shares, isn’t it?”

  Wyatt joined in, sitting forward on the couch. “You felt that Jeanne Marie rightfully deserved money from your father’s estate? That’s why you went ahead and made such a rash move without consulting anyone?”

  Mom’s chin had gone up a notch, as if she were chomping at the bit to defend Dad. Obviously, she knew that there had to be more to the story, and all Sawyer wanted to do was hear it.

  He said, “Uncle John still believes Jeanne Marie is a fake looking to cash in on the family name, doesn’t he? And he thinks you’re more of a fool than ever.”

  “I’m afraid so,” Dad said, wiping a hand down his face.

  Sawyer met his siblings’ gazes, one by one. They were just as astonished as he was to see their typically cold, removed father so emotionally involved. For God’s sake—he’d even willingly parted with the company’s money, even without confirmation of Jeanne Marie’s parentage.

  Uncle John’s behavior was closer to what Sawyer—and no doubt the others—would’ve expected of their father, who was looking around the room at his family again. But unlike earlier, he was a different man. There was none of the arrogance or defensiveness he’d exhibited when he’d first sauntered in here. There was only a disheveled guy who’d loosened his suit—his armor—piece by piece, exposing a vulnerability that Sawyer couldn’t grasp.

  Was he about to ask for their forgiveness?

  Would they give it to him?

  Would he?

  On the smaller couch, Garrett was whispering into Victoria’s ear. She nodded.

  Even though he’d remained silent this entire time, Garrett talked now. “Anyone need a drink? I’m making a run to the kitchen.”

  Garrett wasn’t a fool—he knew they were down to core-family time now. He wasn’t here to forgive or not forgive James like the rest of them.

  No one took him up on the offer.

  As soon as Garrett left the room, Dad said, “I know I haven’t been a great father, and I’m sorry. I could tell you that I suspect my coldness goes back to my childhood, with a cruel father who must’ve provided a terrible example of how a man should act, even if I was too young to really remember details. Or that my time in foster care affected me. I don’t know if any of that would be excuse enough. And if I added that spending time away from my twin only gave me more of an isolated feeling...”

  Victoria took up where he’d left off. “You had scars. You knew they were there, even if you didn’t know why. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

  His mouth was a firm line, as if he was holding back more emotion. Sawyer glanced away, not knowing if his father wanted their sympathy.

  He guessed he’d grown up watching his own dad’s behavior and learning from it, too. Neither of them were big fans of pity.

  Finally, James was able to talk, especially after Clara took him by the hand and raised it to her cheek, supporting him, her eyes shiny.

  He dragged his gaze away from her. “I can’t ask you to feel anything for me that I don’t deserve, but I’m begging all of you to get to know your aunt better and not to judge her before you do. None of this is Jeanne Marie’s fault, and your uncle John is absolutely wrong about her. She’s not a...”

  “Gold digger,” Sawyer said before anyone else could.

  Shane shifted on his feet. He knew Sawyer was including his fiancée, Lia, in that comment because they’d all recently judged her before they knew better.

  His brother darted a sharp look to him, but Sawyer didn’t even blink. In fact, all his siblings were giving him glances that said maybe he was being too easygoing with Dad.

  They just hadn’t forgiven their father yet, and they were going to make him work even harder for it. But something needful in Sawyer was ready to let bygones be bygones—something inside a son who’d never been loved the way he thought his siblings had been loved. Plus, he felt bad for Jeanne Marie, who was an outsider, too.

  “I’d like to sit down with Jeanne Marie again,” Sawyer said, hoping everyone else would follow his lead.

  No dice.

  But James sent Sawyer a grateful glance. Was he finally valuing Sawyer’s open attitude? Was this all it took—a crisis that had put Dad into a different position so he could reevaluate his family?

  Even though Dad had come clean, Sawyer still sensed the tension lingering, like electrified air that was about to give way to another storm if someone said the wrong thing.

  Someone did.

  Only now did Sawyer realize that Asher, who’d been so reflective during the discussion, had actually been fuming.

  “I understand that there’re some heavy family issues at stake,” he said. “But we need to discuss why Dad gave away half of JMF Financial to a woman he might not even be related to. That was pretty extreme, and I can’t help thinking that it requires more input from us.”

  That’s when the hardest questions came out from the Fortune children, wounded and confused: No one has worked as hard as we have for a stake in the company...We started out with money, sure, but we built what we had up even greater heights...

  And most of all, What if Jeanne Marie really is an opportunist?

  Dad tried to raise his voice above everyone else’s. “Wait! I have a lot more to tell you—”

  Just as Sawyer was about to ask what he was talking about, Asher cut him off.

  “The bottom line is that you should have told us everything as soon as you knew, Dad. You may say you value family, but what about us? Your kids? Where else have you been all these months and why have you been stonewalling us? You couldn’t have been spending that much time just on Jeanne Marie.”

  As everyone but Sawyer agreed, Dad lowered his head.

  Until Clara stood up from her chair, her tone firm.

  “Listen!”

  When their mother asked them to do something, they did it. There wasn’t a peep now.

  “You all need to trust your father. He really does have everyone’s best interests at heart.”

  Much to Sawyer’s shock, William Fortune interrupted from the entry. Had he been staying close in case they needed a referee?

  “That should about do it for the afternoon, then,” the older man said, wanderi
ng into their midst, his voice level. “I’m calling a recess. Maybe y’all need some time apart to mull over this situation.”

  Shane started to speak. “Now, William—”

  “I mean it.” The blond-and-gray man motioned toward the room’s exit. “I recommend that you part ways and sort through your thoughts alone before coming together again.”

  No one argued with William, and everyone deserted the study.

  But when Sawyer began to leave, his father kept him back.

  Once again, Sawyer didn’t quite recognize this man with the rumpled clothes, and his heart thudded once before seemingly going still.

  “Sawyer,” he said, his voice a weak imitation of what it’d been earlier, “I wanted to tell you how much your support means.”

  Approval. A little bit of it was all Sawyer had ever wanted, and he couldn’t help but to let it show with a wary nod.

  Then he said, “They’re just angry, Dad. You kept everyone at bay for so long that there was plenty of time for frustration to grow.”

  “Not in you, though.”

  “Well...” Sawyer smiled without humor. “Maybe there was some in me.” Should he say it? Yeah, why not? “There’s been some for a while.”

  Dad didn’t say anything at first, but he didn’t seem surprised, either. He looked at Sawyer—really seemed to look this time.

  “I never thought you cared about rising through the ranks at JMF Financial,” he finally said. “Maybe you think I didn’t care about you, but I did, son. I tried to push you, just like the others, yet I felt a certain lack of interest in you. But there’s something about you now, Sawyer. I don’t know what it is, but I like it. And I’m happy for it.”

  This was the closest his father would probably come to being impressed with Sawyer, at least for now. But the thing was, Sawyer wasn’t sure his life depended on getting that approval from Dad these days. Sure, it’d be nice, but...

  But something had happened between Atlanta and now. Something that smelled like clean shampoo and flew the blue skies and looked impressed with him even if he hadn’t tried so hard with her.

  Taken aback by this realization, Sawyer stuck his hands in his trouser pockets. Dad seemed to misinterpret his body language.

  “I know you probably didn’t want me at your birthday yesterday,” Dad said. “But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about you, Sawyer. Did you like the coins?”

  Sawyer had almost expected Dad not to know what Mom had purchased for him. “You were definitely in on that?”

  Dad actually winced. “Of course I was.”

  “Then yeah, Dad.” He smiled. He was going to take a new look at those coins, even if he’d thought they were valuable before. “I like them a lot.”

  In his dad’s returned smile, as tentative as it was, Sawyer could see a new day before them. A road that’d just opened up, much like the one to Red Rock had done for him.

  And much like the one that he itched to take to the airport.

  Why he wanted to go there to see Laurel, he wasn’t sure, exactly. Nevertheless, he forgot about asking Dad what else he’d wanted to tell them regarding Jeanne Marie and went to his car, speeding it toward the airport.

  * * *

  Thank God Laurel had finished work for the day. She’d just been counting out what she thought were her last minutes on earth with a wild-hearted divorcee who’d decided to buy herself flying lessons to celebrate signing the papers that would end her marriage.

  And oh, boy. There’d definitely be no more merry divorcées in Laurel’s cockpit, she’d decided after assuming the controls from the woman, who’d wanted to try “all those tricks that the Blue Angels do” before she was even remotely ready.

  She was taking the edge off in the airport terminal’s lobby, sitting near the snack bar and downing a root beer now, mulling over going home or...

  Doing what? Calling Sawyer to see how his heavy-duty day had gone? Asking him to stop over so that she wouldn’t be alone on her birthday?

  She gulped down the soda. Yeah, she was feeling mildly sorry for herself right now, but she’d elected to work on her birthday before. Why was this time any different?

  Was she in a bummer mood because she missed Sawyer, and she hated to admit it?

  As if her thoughts had conjured him, he walked into the snack bar area, looking around for...her?

  Her heart blasted, and she forced it to behave.

  It’s just lust, she told herself. That’s it.

  When he spotted her, then walked toward her, she saw that something had affected him greatly, and she knew it had to do with that meeting with his dad.

  She stood. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  He came to within a couple feet of her, wearing the confident smile that always lit her up. But when she cocked her head, doubting his too-casual answer, he paused, then shook his head.

  “To tell you the truth,” he said, “I’m not sure if I’m okay or not.”

  Much to her shock, he began describing the drama on the Double Crown Ranch—his dad’s story about finding Jeanne Marie, his siblings’ reactions, then the rupture at the end.

  “You should’ve seen him,” Sawyer said. “My dad—the steeliest man on earth. But he wasn’t like that in the end.”

  It seemed as if he was about to say more. Maybe about the troubles she suspected he’d had with his dad in general, based on what she’d heard at that party....

  Laurel didn’t press him. If he wanted to tell her, he would. Besides, she probably shouldn’t know the details. Wouldn’t that be out of bounds for no-strings-attached people?

  “So,” she said, putting them back on safe ground, “your family’s back at square one with your dad? Nothing was really resolved?”

  “Pretty much.”

  His shoulders sank, and she couldn’t bear to see him like this. She wanted to see happy Sawyer, fun Sawyer.

  He was reminding her all too much of the pain she’d nursed from all her family problems, and she just couldn’t sit there and take it.

  Luckily, she’d always known how to escape problems.

  “Hey,” she said, giving him a light punch in the arm.

  He lifted his gaze to her.

  She grinned. “It’s a good thing I know exactly what you need right now, Sawyer Fortune.”

  As she grabbed his hand and led him out of the snack bar, the bewildered expression on his face made her smile.

  Once again, she had his number.

  Chapter Seven

  She really had known what Sawyer needed.

  But when Laurel had told him that she knew just what would cheer him up, then taken him by the hand and led him out of the snack bar, out of the terminal and toward the flight school building, he’d been thinking that she meant to...

  Well, do something that didn’t include taking him up in a plane.

  She had prepped for a flight and brought him into a Cessna 172, zooming off into the sky, making him feel a little more weightless than he had on the ground.

  As they’d nosed higher and higher, until the landmarks of Red Rock became specks on the ground, he’d felt the day roll right off his shoulders.

  He’d heard of people who dreamed of flying. Maybe he’d read about it in a college general psychology class that he’d barely been paying attention in, but he remembered something about how the dream meant that you’ve risen above something, getting a different perspective on what lay below you.

  Airborne, soaring, the whir of the small plane humming through him... Sawyer could’ve been dreaming, but he wasn’t.

  Laurel had been right—it’d been just what he’d needed. And every time he’d glanced over to see her wearing that headset, smiling as if the plane were an extension of herself, he’d been that much more at peace. And he’d felt that way until they’d touched down on the ground again.

  Now, in her office, he was still buzzing from the experience.

  He’d plopped down in a chair across from her desk, his ankle re
sting right above his knee, utterly relaxed.

  “I don’t recall ever feeling that way when I was learning to fly a plane,” he said. “But then again, you’re a smooth pilot, Laur. You made the craft feel like a Rolls-Royce up there.”

  She was leaning against a wall, one foot kicked over the other as she casually surveyed him. There was something about her...as if she was still up in the air, more at ease than he’d ever seen her.

  And somehow more stimulated, judging from the sparkle in her eyes.

  “Didn’t you enjoy getting your pilot’s license?” she asked.

  “No, I did. At the time. But flying didn’t stick.” Back then, he’d been in the middle of watching his siblings move up the ladder of success at work while he stagnated. At that point, he hadn’t been in the mood to feel good about much, except partying and forgetting himself in the pursuit of certain nocturnal activities.

  “Why exactly did you take lessons back then?” she asked. “If you weren’t going to use the license, I mean.”

  “Because it was something to do.” He held up his hands. “There—I confess. I wanted to be Howard Hughes in his cool days. I wanted to have a status-symbol plane.”

  “You wanted to be a Fortune, flying your own plane because you could.”

  She didn’t say it with any snarkiness—she was just stating a fact.

  He grinned. “I haven’t flown that plane in years. I should bring it out here so you can get ahold of it.”

  Laurel laughed. “I’ve never known anyone who talks about an aircraft as if it was a box of sweaters he left in an attic. Then again, I’ve never known anyone like you, Sawyer.”

  Had she meant the comment to be flirty?

  Or was there a deeper meaning there?

  When he glanced at her to see, she didn’t reveal a thing. She only had a small, kittenish smile on her mouth.

  The buzz from the flight, still lingering?

  “Do you get like this every time?” he asked.

  “How?”

  “As if you’ve just had the best sex of your life.”

  One would think that she would’ve gotten used to his frankness by now, but she still widened her gaze at him. Then she laughed again.