A CHANGE OF FORTUNE

by Crystal Green

  That was when she realized why he wouldn’t go away.

  She’d fallen in love.

  As she slowed down near a bend in the trail, she walked, her hands on her hips, her pulse kicking through her from the exercise as well as her pumping emotions.

  She had no idea how to be in love. Steve had merely been a failed dress rehearsal, and how did a person recover from something like that?

  How did you move on?

  There was one person who would know, and Laurel had refrained from telling her about Sawyer, just as she had with most everyone.

  But now she took her phone off its clip at her waist and brought up her mom’s number.

  As her phone rang, Laurel paced.

  “Laurel!” her mother said when she answered.

  She sounded so excited, and Laurel wished she could feel that way again, too. But Sawyer was the one who brought joy to her life, and she’d chased him away.

  “Hey, Mom. You busy?”

  “When it comes to you, never. You sound winded.”

  “I was taking a run.”

  “I’m just cooking up some samosas to put in the freezer.”

  Laurel could imagine her in her kitchen in Tulsa, making good on those cooking lessons she’d signed up for.

  Mom added, “I won’t have much time for complicated meals this coming month. I decided to take ballroom-dancing lessons.”

  Laurel smiled at the evidence of how her mom was going out, living, when she could’ve still been curled up and crying because of how her ex-husband had treated her.

  “That’s so great, Mom.”

  “I know.” She paused. “Honey, is something wrong?”

  From the tone of her voice, Laurel could tell that Mom already knew about Sawyer. Damn Tanner.

  Mom said, “You sound just awful. I was going to call you, but Tanner reminded me that you would reach out when you needed to.”

  Was she really that much of a loner?

  The extent of her self-appointed alienation hadn’t hit her until now, after what she’d done to Sawyer...and herself.

  “What did Tanner say?” Laurel couldn’t even be mad at him for blabbing.

  “Just that you met a man. Sawyer Fortune. And that you...liked him.”

  “Except it’s not so much in the past tense.” Laurel kicked at a stone on the dirt. “I’m an idiot. I had something good going on with him, but I wigged out when he wanted to get serious.”

  “Did you want to get serious?”

  “I didn’t think so. But now that he’s gone...” Laurel leaned back her head. “Yes. I think I do.”

  “If you’re only thinking about it, then I’d reassess your feelings, honey.”

  She was right. Mom was always right.

  “Then I know I do, Mom,” she said. Wetness was leaking out of the corners of her eyes, but she didn’t bother drying the tears. It might feel good to cry. She hadn’t allowed herself to really let loose with it yet.

  She sat down on a flat rock as her mother spoke.

  “Laurel, you’re a strong woman, but is it the kind of strong that makes you happy? Or is it the kind of strong that’s going to isolate you for the rest of your life?”

  “I’ve got you, Parker, Tanner and Jordana and Jack.” And in the future, an adopted child, or one she could have on her own.

  But that sounded so sad when she could be with someone, have a family with him.

  Mom’s voice soothed. “That’s how I used to go about life after your father left. At first I pretended like he hadn’t hurt me. I raised you kids and loved you and put all my energy into you and my jobs, but it wasn’t enough, Laurel. And I wasted so much time lying to myself about it.”

  Now the tears were coming, and Laurel rested her elbow on her thigh and pressed her hand against her forehead. She’d become her mom, hadn’t she? And she’d told herself for so long that she’d never have her heart broken like her mother had, that what Steve had done to her was temporary and she could live through it.

  But how much time had she wasted with those lies?

  “Laurel,” Mom said, “I spent too much effort trying to recover from a man who couldn’t have cared less about me, and if you’re using your bad experience with Steve to make excuses about avoiding loving and living life to its fullest, stop now. Take it from me—it’s not worth it.”

  She was nodding, even if her mother couldn’t see her. And when she spoke, it even sounded as if she’d been crying. But why hide it anymore? She’d had enough of hiding what she really felt.

  “I don’t know what to do. I said some pretty bad things to Sawyer.”

  “And he believed them?”

  “No.” Her throat was so tight that she could barely swallow. “He kept insisting that he loves me and that I love him. He’s been calling, too, trying to get me to reconsider.” And asking her to come to his brothers’ wedding, even if she’d told herself that she didn’t want to see him.

  “So let me get this straight—you’ve got a man who’s so in love with you that he’s willing to put his pride on the line to get you back, and you’re sitting here telling me you have no idea what to do?”

  A tremulous giggle welled up in Laurel’s chest, and she gave in to it. Mom laughed with her.

  It was silly, wasn’t it?

  Maybe the scariest part wasn’t telling Sawyer that she’d been wrong and that she wanted more than anything to give them a try. The most terrifying part was the future, and what might happen if he changed his mind about how he felt.

  Laurel shook her head and snuffled away her tears. “How funny is this—I’ve been up in MC-130 Talons on missions. I’ve been fired on by enemy forces. And this is what’s scaring me.”

  Mom laughed with her. “You always were a different girl, Laurel.”

  Sawyer had thought that, too.

  But had he had so much time away from her that he’d reconsider his feelings? Had she already pushed him away enough that he’d changed his mind about how much trouble she was?

  Laurel fought off the too-familiar doubts before they devoured her.

  “I’ve got to go, Mom.”

  “You bet you do.”

  With a determined gait, she sped back down the trail so she could get home and see what she had in her closet to wear to a wedding.

  Chapter Twelve

  The day of the triple wedding dawned bright and sunny, shining down outside the church on what seemed to be a crowd composed of every Fortune who’d ever lived in Red Rock, mingling, waiting to be seated.

  Sawyer’s former Atlanta cousins—Michael, Scott, Emily, Jordana, Blake and Wendy—were with their significant others and any children. Some of them acted as ushers, but they were all generally making sure everything was running smoothly. Even Frannie and Roberto Mendoza and their kids, plus Lily and William and JR and Isabella, were in attendance, as well as what seemed to be every other Mendoza in town.

  The only person Sawyer didn’t see was Laurel.

  Back before he’d talked to Tanner, Sawyer had made it clear to her that she was welcome at the wedding, but he shouldn’t have been surprised that she’d stayed away. Even though Tanner had recommended leaving her to come to her senses on her own, Sawyer was getting more and more impatient every day.

  He blew out a breath and went inside the back door of the church, hardly feeling social enough to stand outside and chat with his relatives and the guests. Besides, the ushers were shepherding everyone inside now, and Sawyer needed to report back to his own duty.

  As he walked into the grooms’ dressing room, Shane, Asher and Wyatt turned to him, all of them dressed in matching tuxes that made them look sharp and suave.

  A sense of pride and love swarmed Sawyer, and his own problems fell away—except for the fact that he wished he could be more than their best man.

  That he could be waiting for his own bride to come down the aisle.

  “Look at you monkeys in your suits,” he said. It was better than being maudlin.

  S
hane couldn’t stop grinning, but then again, the same went for Wyatt and Asher.

  “Are things on track out there?” he asked.

  “Chugging right along.” Sawyer went up to Asher and adjusted his slightly crooked bow tie. “They should be summoning you victims out there soon enough.”

  None of them said anything for a few seconds. They just looked at each other, knowing that their lives would never be the same.

  At least that was true for the grooms, Sawyer thought, a pit of emptiness widening inside him.

  Just as Sawyer was about to crack another joke to make sure none of them started getting all mushy with each other, someone knocked on the door, and he went to answer it.

  Saved, he thought, opening up to find his mother there, fairly glowing in a light-pink designer dress with a skirt that came to her knees, a scooped neckline and shawl collar. She looked ready to burst with smiles and weep at the same time as he let her in.

  “Just checking on my boys,” she said, heading straight for Asher. She fussed with the bow tie Sawyer had just adjusted.

  She had an anxious energy, but it wasn’t just about her sons getting hitched.

  Their father had taken off a day or two earlier, honoring Shane’s, Asher’s and Wyatt’s wishes that he not attend the wedding. Although Shane had made peace with Aunt Jeanne, encouraging Asher and Wyatt to take steps to do the same, they were still pissed at Dad.

  Sawyer knew that this elephant in the room needed to be addressed, so he went for it.

  “Dad isn’t out there?”

  “No,” she said.

  His brothers set their jaws, and Sawyer could tell that, even though they were angry with Dad, they had still been hoping he would ignore their tempers and come to the ceremony anyway.

  Clara turned to Sawyer, her hands folded in front of her. But her knuckles were white.

  “I wasn’t going to say anything to any of you since I didn’t want to cause a stink, but James told me he would be here.” She glanced at the others. “He told me that, no matter how disgusted you were with him, he didn’t want to miss such an important day in your lives.”

  “Nevertheless,” Sawyer said, “he’s MIA.”

  Their mother nodded, then raised her chin a notch. “The cynical part of me is wondering if he was only placating me by saying he would be here and he never intended to be. Perhaps he didn’t want to rock the boat with you boys and he thought it was best to stay away.”

  Really? Dad had to pull this, and on such a special day?

  Sawyer had had enough, and he excused himself from the room, slipping out the back and getting out his phone.

  He dialed his father’s number, but all he got was voice mail.

  “Dad,” Sawyer said, “this is ridiculous. Call me back ASAP. There’s no family fight in the world that should be keeping you away from your sons’ wedding, even if you’re standing in back of the church incognito, for God’s sake.”

  He hung up. To think, he’d believed their father had turned some kind of corner, not only with him, but with the realization that family should always come first.

  When he went back into the dressing room, his mother had left.

  Wyatt shook his head. “She’s trying to delay the ceremony now. In spite of what she said, I think she really believes that Dad’s just late or something. She still has hope he’ll come through.”

  “Doesn’t she always?” Asher sighed. “I’ll tolerate one delay, but no more than that. You know Dad—we could be here all day long. The man’s so stubborn that I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t come.”

  Shane cursed, then cut himself off, no doubt realizing a church was no place for it.

  All in all, the three of them seemed regretful that things had turned out this way. But they’d been just as stubborn as Dad.

  Sawyer checked his messages, but that didn’t magically make his father call, and by the time he and his brothers were called out to the altar, they still hadn’t heard any word from him.

  But what could Sawyer do?

  He could be the most supportive best man three brothers could have—that’s what.

  When he accompanied Shane, Asher and Wyatt to the altar, he gave them reassuring smiles. Proud smiles. And as he looked around the church at everyone attending, he tried not to think about someone else who was missing.

  Laurel. Missing from the ceremony.

  Missing from his life.

  He attempted to concentrate on the fact that Uncle John and Aunt Virginia were here, and strangely, they were sitting on either side of Aunt Jeanne, who was wearing a yellow dress with her gray hair done up in a bun. It was anyone’s guess what his uncle and aunt had said to each other when they’d been seated so closely, but Uncle John did have a pensive cast to his gaze.

  Sawyer exchanged a glance with Shane, who’d invited Aunt Jeanne. At least they had this consolation prize—partial harmony in the Fortune family between John Michael and Jeanne Marie.

  The processional music began, and Sawyer readied himself to say goodbye to his siblings’ bachelor days.

  But then...

  Then the room lit up as the church door opened and one more person slipped inside, taking a seat in the back pew.

  Laurel?

  A little piece of Sawyer’s heart chipped off at the sight of her in a flowered dress, her hair down. He couldn’t see her expression, but he took it as a good sign that she’d come.

  For him?

  He wouldn’t even start to hope.

  But why else would she be here?

  The bridal party began to walk down the aisle, and when his sister, Victoria, approached the altar, playing the part of bridesmaid, Sawyer smiled at her because she looked so pretty...and because Laurel was here.

  But would he be smiling after he talked to her?

  When the three brides appeared, Sawyer forced himself to concentrate on them, and his chest got tight. His brothers’ futures, coming down the aisle, all resplendent in white dresses and holding bouquets of different flowers: pink calla lilies for Lia, ivory French tulips for Sarah-Jane and blue hydrangeas for Marnie. Shane, Wyatt and Asher couldn’t take their eyes off them.

  And Sawyer couldn’t help but look at Laurel again after the brides came to the altar.

  He couldn’t imagine living another day without her, but right now, he had to turn around and be a part of the ceremony.

  Still, he could feel her gaze on him the whole time.

  Or was that just his imagination?

  It didn’t matter—everything was going by in a blur, in a stream of speed that was getting him closer and closer to the moment when he could go to Laurel.

  Faintly, he heard the minister transitioning from the readings and sermon to the actual marriage.

  “I now invite you to join hands and make your vows...” he started.

  There was a shout outside the church, and the minister stopped talking.

  When the doors opened and Dad came through them, towing a woman behind him, all Sawyer could hear was the sound of everyone turning around to gape.

  James was smiling as he rushed down the aisle, bringing the mystery woman to the front of the church, where the father of the grooms was supposed to sit.

  “Sorry for the interruption,” he said, still beaming. That’s when Sawyer—and everyone else—got a good look at the woman.

  Jeanne Marie?

  She had the same tall frame, the same gray hair swept up in a bun, the same...everything.

  But Jeanne Marie was already present, and she was just as openmouthed as the rest of the church as she sat next to Clara and near John, who trained his wide eyes on this new mystery woman, then back to Aunt Jeanne.

  Dad faced his sons and their brides at the altar. “I thought you all might agree—family is family, and I wasn’t going to miss my sons’ weddings. Sorry for the entrance, but we got here as soon as we could. I wanted to make sure that the whole family could be here!”

  The church was buzzing, wedding or not. Sawy
er could hear the whispers that echoed his own questions as he looked at the new woman who could’ve been not only Dad’s twin, but Jeanne Marie’s.

  Shane stepped forward, off the altar. “Dad? What’s going on?”

  James Marshall Fortune glowed as he presented the doppelgänger, who was blushing furiously. “I got word from my P.I. yesterday that he’d hit the mother lode. Jeanne Marie and I aren’t twins. We’re triplets!”

  Next to Aunt Jeanne in the pew, Mom looked about ready to pass out. Uncle John was still staring at his new sister. Most everyone else in the church was gasping and whispering to each other in shock.

  Even Shane, Wyatt and Asher had stunned expressions on their faces, along with their brides’.

  Dad turned to the crowd. “May I introduce Josephine May Fortune. I wanted to get her here to see her nephews marry their beautiful brides, and it looks like we made it in the nick of time!”

  Sawyer was still speechless. A triplet?

  Asher held out his hands in a there’s-a-lot-more-you-could-be-telling-us gesture. “Dad?”

  James Marshall hugged his new sister to him. “I didn’t want to reveal everything to you all until I was absolutely sure, but my P.I. had found some hints that there was another Fortune sibling out there somewhere. I had my suspicions, too, but it sounded...too odd. So I waited for confirmation and did more searching on my own.”

  Realization dawned on Sawyer as he recalled something Dad had said during the family meeting.

  “That’s right,” he said. “You told us that there were two pink baby blankets that you found in Grandma’s things. Pink, as in girls.”

  “You’ve got it, Sawyer.” Dad gave him a respectful look that warmed Sawyer through and through, then continued.

  “The evidence started to mount with the P.I., and when he tracked down Josephine, it turned out that my triplet ended up in a much different place than Jeanne Marie, who’s lived in Horseback Hollow this whole time.” He smiled at Josephine. “But that’s a story for after the wedding. What do you say we get on with it?”

  The crowd applauded, but then James waved it down as Josephine...no, Aunt Josephine...took her seat, leaning over to Jeanne Marie and clasping hands with her. But that wasn’t enough for Aunt Jeanne—she sprang up and embraced her sister while Uncle John and Aunt Virginia scooted down the pew, allowing the sisters to sit next to each other.