A CHANGE OF FORTUNE

by Crystal Green

  But she knew about the strife her presence had caused the family, and she reached out a hand for him to shake instead.

  Sawyer was having none of that, though. Back when he’d met her for the first time nearly a month ago, he’d had no doubts that this woman was his dad’s twin. Just one look confirmed it.

  He hugged her.

  She seemed as pleased as punch about that, patting him on the back and giving him a glowing smile when they pulled away from each other.

  “You were brave to show up,” she said. “Clara told me that your meeting yesterday left most of your siblings fit to be tied.”

  Sawyer should’ve known his mom would graciously welcome Jeanne Marie into the family in a show of support for her husband.

  “Everyone’s still working things out,” he said, softening the blow of the truth.

  As Jeanne Marie held his gaze, hers faded with sadness. “I never meant to cause such dissension in the family. I was as shocked as anyone to find out I’m related to James. I always knew I was adopted, but I had no idea that I had any birth siblings out there.”

  “This has to be rough on you.”

  “It hasn’t been the best time I’ve ever had, I’ll tell you that. But James insists that I stay here until matters are resolved. I think that means he wants every single one of you children to accept me, and he’ll be happy with no less.”

  “He’s stubborn like that.”

  She laughed slightly, and it reminded Sawyer of how his dad had laughed yesterday when he was hurt.

  Then she waved him inside. “Come in. You’re a coffee drinker, aren’t you?”

  “Who isn’t?”

  “I like my tea, and I was over the moon to see the selection they have here. But what don’t they have at this place?”

  Sawyer was just about to note that his father was a tea fan, too, when he saw how Jeanne Marie had laid coffee out on a table by the balcony as sunlight streamed into the room from the open window.

  He smiled as he pulled a chair out for her. “You realize that there’s room service here, and you can use it whenever you want.”

  “Oh, never mind that.” She sat, poured coffee into a waiting mug for him, then some already-steeped tea from a pot into her cup. “I’d be perfectly happy with a fraction of what this room has in it.”

  And she didn’t seem to be fibbing. She’d been taken from very modest means to this—a room with silk sheets, designer furniture and probably a whirlpool bathtub. He couldn’t imagine the culture shock she was going through.

  From relative poverty to poshness, he thought, remembering what his dad had said yesterday about how he and Uncle John had gotten suddenly rich after their father had died.

  “So this is nice,” she said. “Having my nephew visit me. It’s too bad that I didn’t know you when you were growing up. I would have been a wonderful aunt.”

  “You would’ve taken me to the zoo and all that stuff?”

  “Yes, I would’ve been the fun relative.” She smiled, but she was obviously referring to Uncle John, who was just as starchy as Dad. And from the way she raised her chin ever so slightly at the subject of the man who denied her very existence, Sawyer saw his father in her all over again.

  She had so many mannerisms that recalled James Marshall. No wonder he hadn’t asked for a DNA test.

  As they drank, she got more comfortable in her chair, holding her teacup above its saucer. They made small talk, about Sawyer’s old job at JMF, about how the New Fortunes Ranch was faring.

  But then it was as if the grace period was over, and she got down to brass tacks—another trait that was very James Marshall–esque.

  “I imagine that a big sticking point with your brothers and sister was those JMF shares James gave me,” she said.

  “You’d be right.”

  She sighed. “I told him that I didn’t need his money, but he feels terribly guilty that he has so much and I have so little.”

  Sawyer merely nodded. She was covering all the bases.

  Jeanne Marie put her tea on the table, wearing a wistful smile. “What James doesn’t understand is that there are all kinds of riches in the world. I may not have a fat bank account, but I have a loving husband back home, wonderful children and memories I wouldn’t sacrifice for a million shares of JMF.”

  Sawyer smiled, and not just because of her impassioned beliefs. Imagine—he had another uncle. Cousins.

  He hadn’t really grasped these truths she was telling before now, but there was a lot more than just money in this world...and hadn’t he experienced one of those things of value last night with Laurel?

  Jeanne Marie interrupted the thought, saying, “Honestly, I had no earthly idea that those shares were earmarked for you children. For heaven’s sake, all I want to do is tell each and every one of you that you can have them!”

  Sawyer agreed. “I think that’s a speech my brothers and sister need to hear.”

  “I wish they’d allow me the chance to give it.”

  As he watched the woman in front of him, the true-blue sister of James Marshall, his aunt, empathy overtook him. The eyes didn’t lie, and hers were brimming with a longing to make a case to the family.

  And even to be a part of them.

  Everything she’d said resonated, and he couldn’t stop thinking now about all the riches he had that couldn’t be stuffed into a bank account or portfolio: brothers, a sister, cousins—some of whom he didn’t even know—and even his parents.

  Being a Fortune had benefited him in more ways than just the financial. How long would he have taken his large, colorful family for granted if it hadn’t been for this conversation with Jeanne Marie?

  As the sun rolled through a window, he thought he noticed a different slant to the light, a different way of recognizing everything around him.

  Almost as if he was up in Laurel’s plane again.

  While Jeanne Marie smiled sadly at him, probably thinking that he didn’t have it in him to go to bat for her, he reached across the table and took her hand in his.

  “I’m going to see that you get the chance to talk some sense into my brothers and sister,” he said. “I promise you that, Aunt Jeanne Marie.”

  Her eyes welled up at the name, and she squeezed his fingers.

  “You can call me Aunt Jeanne, if you’d like. It’s shorter. And thank you, Sawyer. We don’t get many chances in life, but you can bet that I’m going to take this one by the horns.”

  Her last words echoed through him, and by the time he left the room, he felt wealthier than ever, with a new aunt, a new uncle, new cousins...

  ...and a new outlook that was starting to color in the blank spaces Laurel had left him with this morning.

  Chapter Nine

  Between lessons that day, Laurel took a break, grabbing a turkey sandwich, chips and bottled water from the airport lobby’s snack bar and taking a seat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Here, she could watch the airfield and the planes taxiing, taking off, landing...going places and coming back from them, she thought, sinking down in the chair.

  She made an attempt not to think of this morning, trying instead to concentrate on those planes and on the mellow activity of the terminal, where people milled around the posh waiting area and, upstairs, pilots and staff went in and out of the offices. Like the Redmond Flight School building, which was separate from this one, the terminal had suffered a lot of damage during the big tornado, but everything was remodeled now.

  Word had it around town that Sawyer, who’d been present for Marcos Mendoza and Wendy Fortune’s wedding, had just missed the tornado, already on the road and driving in the opposite direction for some kind of business appointment. Naturally, he’d rushed back to Red Rock to help out in any way he could.

  Of course, Laurel hadn’t known him back then. But did she really know him now?

  More to the point, how well did she know herself?

  The old Laurel would’ve never acted so loony on a morning after
, if she’d had many. And she sure wouldn’t be sitting here mooning over a guy.

  She took a bite of her sandwich. So much for not thinking about Sawyer. But how could she not, when last night had blown her away? Shaken her to the core?

  Scared her enough that she’d acted like a complete weirdo this morning.

  God, she wouldn’t be surprised if she never saw him again, with the way she’d just about sprinted right out the door this morning. I’m going to take off, if you don’t mind. Just lock the door from inside on the knob when you leave?

  She cringed even now. How socially awkward. He probably thought she was like a rookie who’d been passed the football during a big game and had run the wrong way on the field.

  The sandwich stuck in her throat. She washed it down with the water, then put the food aside.

  What a mess she was, caught between fearing that she had let Sawyer get too close to her last night and fearing that she had pushed him too far away this morning.

  Had she meant to do that, though? Push him away?

  Had she been testing him to see if he would come back, even when she was at her worst?

  She stared at the aircraft, wishing she could just fly all day, far away from her issues, coming back to a time before she’d decided to say yes to Sawyer.

  Because that would make her life easier, wouldn’t it?

  Or would it make it...

  Less interesting, she thought. A hell of a lot less interesting.

  A male voice sounded behind her. “It looks like you’re a million miles away.”

  She turned to see her brother, his dark eyes framed by smile lines. He was holding a sandwich and a soda, obviously grabbing a bite to eat, too.

  Gesturing to a seat next to her, Laurel said, “Are you here to crack the whip on me, Tanner?”

  “I’m not that much of a hard-case boss.” He sat. “Am I?”

  She laughed, shaking her head.

  As he unwrapped a BLT, he nodded toward the airfield. “This is where I always find you when you’re doing some soul searching.”

  She blinked at him. “What’re you talking about?”

  “You haven’t worked here long, but I’ve noticed a pattern. You’re here every time something reminds you of Steve, like an especially trying phone call from Juliet. You were even here after you finished unpacking a box that accidentally had one of our father’s old shirts in it.”

  The clothing hadn’t been anything sentimental to her; she must’ve grabbed it out of a rag pile at their mother’s place without thinking while she was packing up some Disney figurines she’d bought at a garage sale when she was five and then stored at Mom’s.

  But it’d been a shock to look at that piece of flannel when she’d been unpacking for her new apartment here, then realizing who it’d belonged to. She’d walked it to the Dumpster right away, thinking that her trash can was even too good for it.

  “So why’re you daydreaming in front of this window today?” Tanner asked.

  “You don’t want to hear it.”

  He put his sandwich back in its wrapper. “If Sawyer—”

  “He didn’t do anything wrong.” He’d done everything right. Too right.

  “Then I don’t get it, Laurel. What’s with the long face?”

  She glanced at Tanner. He was worried about her, and she didn’t want him to be.

  After blowing out a breath, she said, “It’s just that I’ve gotten closer to Sawyer than I planned.”

  “I see. Plans. You’re real big on those.”

  She had been, until Sawyer had made most of them fly out the window. “It’s not that I don’t care for him. I do. And that’s the problem.”

  “I get it. The thought of trusting someone again is daunting.”

  “Big-time.”

  “Then stop seeing him.”

  There must’ve been a flicker of helpless emotion that crossed her face, because Tanner cursed under his breath.

  “You didn’t,” he said.

  “I’m not going to tell you what I did or didn’t do.” Sex. Hot sex. Sex that’d sent her into a dither on the morning after, when she’d had time to absorb all the emotions that were overcoming her.

  “Didn’t you two have some kind of shared philosophy when this all started?” Tanner asked. “Some antimarriage crusade?”

  She nodded. But something stirred in her, and as a plane sped down the runway outside, winging into the air, she realized what that stirring was.

  What if she truly wasn’t antimarriage?

  Good God, didn’t everyone—even her—long to be loved, even if they hid it? To be cherished in a way they’d never been cherished before?

  She didn’t dare tell Tanner, because then it would all come tumbling out of her—the doubts that she’d covered up about maybe not being worthy of that kind of affection.

  For all her outward accomplishments, she really didn’t have any faith that someone would stick by her for the long haul, did she?

  She didn’t even have faith in Sawyer. And that’s why she would never believe that he could be someone long-term, even if he’d looked at her with his heart and soul in his eyes last night. Even if every touch, every kiss transcended “fun” or “benefits.”

  In spite of all the negative thoughts consuming her, one little ray of hope bled through: Was it too much to wish for someone who would unconditionally stick by her someday?

  Even now, just asking it, she shrank into her shell, pushing away from the little bit of hope she’d had before anyone else could tear her apart.

  Tanner had clearly been weighing his next words carefully. “I wish I had some solid big-brother advice up my sleeve, but I don’t. All I can tell you is that there’re a lot of people who start off thinking that love isn’t in the cards because they’ve been dinged by relationships before. Jordana and I didn’t even start off on a perfect note.”

  That was true. Jordana had gotten stranded with Tanner during the tornado, and they’d given in to the urge for danger sex, fueled by adrenaline and the fear of not surviving to see the morning.

  Then he’d heard that Jordana was pregnant. Then...the rest was history. Her brother had gone to Atlanta, pursuing the woman who was carrying his child, even though he’d been angry that she’d hidden the news from him, and their love had blossomed from there.

  No, Tanner hadn’t been built for love at first, because he’d had the same useless father Laurel had. He’d had the same hang-ups.

  But here he was, smiling, as if he’d started thinking of his wife and their son, Jack.

  “You know,” she said, her throat tight, “that was some pretty damned good advice right now, whether you meant for it to be or not.”

  As he rested a hand on her shoulder, she thought, Now, if I just knew what the hell to do with that advice...

  * * *

  When Sawyer walked into his dining room, he found Shane and Lia already there, eating a lunch of black-bean quesadillas, salad and fries.

  They were grouped at the far end of the table, and a place setting was waiting for Sawyer, who was wearing a smile as he sat.

  “Something’s up,” Shane said to Lia, who was resting her hand on her round tummy.

  “It’s the smile,” Lia said. “Always the smile.”

  Since she and Sawyer had mended their fences after the whole gold-digger situation, he felt free to give her a cheerful wink. “It’s been a good day.”

  “And apparently a good night,” Shane said, taking a bite of his quesadilla.

  Naturally, they’d noticed that he hadn’t been around until morning, when he’d come here to shower, hop into a change of clothes, then take off to see Jeanne Marie.

  Shane didn’t know about that last part, though. Not yet.

  Lia was waggling her dark eyebrows. “Did you and Laurel Redmond...?”

  Sawyer shrugged. A gentleman never told.

  But a gentleman certainly couldn’t get a lady off his mind, either. All day he’d worn a grin on his face, like
an addled fool.

  Lightheartedness wasn’t the only thing swaying him, though. A more serious side kept recalling Aunt Jeanne’s words. We don’t get many chances in life, but you can bet that I’m going to take this one by the horns.

  He’d decided that this should be the way he approached Laurel, too. After last night, he felt like a new man, and hearing Aunt Jeanne’s outlook on life had only encouraged him.

  It was true that he’d come to Red Rock to reinvent himself, just as his brothers had done, yet he’d realized today that reinvention might not be so necessary when he’d been this man all along. Someone who loved his family.

  Someone who’d just learned how much he appreciated everything he had.

  He’d actually been committed to family before, so why had commitment been such a dirty word with women? Maybe independence didn’t have to extend as far as he’d been taking it with Laurel, either.

  Now if he could only get her to see the same light.

  As Shane finished up his food, Sawyer said, “I have more than one reason to smile.”

  “And that would be...?” Shane asked.

  He readied himself for Shane’s reaction to the news of the Jeanne Marie visit.

  “I dropped by Aunt Jeanne’s today,” he said, tearing off the proverbial bandage with one swift rip.

  Shane put down the napkin he’d been using to wipe his mouth. The way he did it was so careful that Lia sat up straighter in her chair.

  Sawyer braced himself even more.

  “Aunt Jeanne,” Shane said. “Is that what she wants you to call her?”

  “She liked the sound of it. So do I.”

  “Dammit, Sawyer.”

  “What? What the hell is wrong with you that you’re icing out a woman who’s no doubt related to Dad?”

  Shane’s face went ruddy, and Sawyer decided that a gentler approach might be in order.

  Lia must’ve been thinking the same thing. “Shane...”

  He looked at her, his gaze filled with an emotion that made Sawyer think that his brother had talked to Lia about Aunt Jeanne at length.

  Affection took the place of everything else in Shane’s eyes as he sent a tender smile to his fiancée. Then he nodded.