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“The baby won’t want for anything,” she told him defensively. He must know that. She made good money doing what she was doing, quite apart from her heritage as one of the Fortune family. The city of Sioux Falls was practically owned by the Fortunes.
“Nothing but a father.”
She sighed. “My father and Patricia will be crazy about a baby. And my brothers, well, they’ll come around. The baby will be knee-deep in male role models.”
“And you don’t think that a biological father has any part in this warped family scene you’ve cooked up?”
“Zack, if you want to see it, have access, that’s—that’s okay.”
“Access?” he snapped, prowling around her in an ever-decreasing circle.
Skylar flinched, blinking. “If you want. What do you want?”
He gave her a withering look. “Thanks for asking. Pick a date. We’ll get the whole family around tomorrow and tell them we’re getting married.”
“What?” It was her turn to be shocked.
“Make it quick, Skylar. I can’t be away from home for long.”
“Married?” she whispered, her head spinning.
He drained his glass and banged it down on the table. “My child is going to have two loving parents, not just one.”
“I’m not marrying you, Zack.” A hiccup escaped her throat. “Not marrying anyone.”
He leaned down, his face inches from hers. “You may have cut me out of this till now, the worrying, the morning sickness, the movements. But that changes as of right now.” She’d never seen his gray eyes glint like steel before. “We are going to be married, so get used to it.”
She made a pitiful attempt at a smile. “That’s just—dumb.”
“What’s dumb?” he demanded. “Pretending it hasn’t happened? Hiding it from everyone? I suppose you could have delivered it in the stables and told everyone the stork left it.”
His flippant remark stirred an unusual lick of anger. “Maybe this is why I didn’t tell you. I was afraid you’d want to take over, have it all your way.”
Her voice rang out, clear and strong, making them both start. Skylar seemed to have lost her stammer. Normally she was hard-pressed to string five words together around Zack Manning.
He recovered first. “You’ve had your way. It isn’t good enough.”
“I’m not marrying you, Zack.”
“No kid of mine is going to be brought up without two parents and a wedding ring.”
“This child will want for nothing,” she repeated, stung at the assumption she couldn’t provide for the baby.
This wasn’t like her, to argue back. It must be her hormones kicking in. Her baby-protective hormones.
“No, it won’t, because I’ll take care of the both of you.”
Incredulous, she just stared at him, shaking her head. “I don’t believe you.”
“Whatever.” He shrugged and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“If I’m not back in an hour, your father has used his shotgun on me.”
“No!” Skylar leapt after him. “Zack, please. Let me tell him, my own way.”
“You’ve had your way for four months. The next five are mine, I reckon.”
She attempted to scoot around him to get to the door first. “He’s an old man and he has problems of his own right now.”
Zack blocked her with ease. “Your father is tough as an ox.”
“Zack, Patricia has left him. He’s devastated.”
“Then a wedding to look forward to and a baby on the way should be just what he needs to take his mind off things.”
“Will you please,” she implored, “leave my father out of this until I’ve had a chance to think?”
Zack nearly combusted, his knuckles on the doorknob turning white. “A chance to think?”
“Just until I tell everyone. I’ll keep you informed—”
He yanked the door open, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, right!”
Skylar was hot on his heels and having to run to keep up.
Zack turned on her. “Get back inside.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Skylar, this is man’s talk. You don’t want to be there.”
“Don’t you patronize me!” Much as the note of panic in her voice disgusted her, she had to stall him.
“Calm down.” He turned her, his hands surprisingly gentle on her shoulders and at odds with the harshness of his voice. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Dad’s not at the house,” she lied, desperate. “He had to go look for Patricia.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“You’re impossible!” she wailed.
“No, I’m a lamb.” He propelled her back inside. “And you are a lying, conniving…Sit down.” He settled her gently, insistently, into a chair. “And wait for me.”
“When did I ever lie to you?” Skylar wondered if she could faint on cue. Any stupid female trick would do, just to keep him here.
He bent toward her, his face so close she felt his breath on her skin. “How about my twice-monthly phone calls, when I would ask how you were?” he suggested.
She bit her lip, her eyes wide. Trust him to bring that up.
“Did you not think to say, ‘Fine, Zack. Pregnant. It’s yours, but fine.’” He glared down at her then turned on his heel.
She slumped. It was true. She’d had ample opportunities to tell him he was going to be a father. How excited she’d been, the first time he called, yet embarrassed, too, at the less than perfect ending to their night of passion. In subsequent calls he’d suggested she come down to check out his new stud and also dropped hints about his return in September for the Keeneland Sales: “Maybe you could take a couple days off and come with me…” She was ever the blithering idiot, too shy to talk of anything other than horses.
Naturally, after she discovered she was pregnant, those conversations were torture and she wondered why he bothered. But to give him his due, he had always shown an interest, always asked after her.
A car engine started up outside, rousing her.
Her father! She had to warn him. Picking up the phone, Skylar quickly dialed the house and begged her father not to talk to him. “Get Peggy to say you’re out,” she demanded. Goodness knows she asked for little enough from her father.
Curious, Nash Fortune agreed, telling her to come up directly after Zack had gone.
A few minutes later, Zack returned, thwarted in his attempt to speak to her father. Grim and determined, he pushed his face close to hers. “If you are not here in the morning,” he warned, “I will track you down. Count on it.”
As soon as he left for town, Skylar drove up to the big house and her father opened the door. “What is going on, Skylar?”
He looked so tired. She hated having to dump this on him, after the day or so he’d endured. It wasn’t a lie about her father’s wife leaving him. “Any news on Patricia?”
Nash shook his head sadly. “No. What’s Zack Manning got a bee in his bonnet about?”
“Sit down, Dad.”
Two
Never again!
Zack swung the rental car out of the hotel parking lot and headed toward the Fortune Estate, about twenty miles west of the city of Sioux Falls.
Never again would he allow himself to be shafted by wealth and power. That was his domain now. He had more than enough to make Skylar’s family squirm, should they play hardball.
His eye was drawn to the twenty-three-story Dakota Fortune building a block away, where Case and Creed, her half brothers, conducted their business. No doubt he’d have to deal with them at some stage, but his focus was on Nash Fortune this morning. Regardless of the man’s marital upheaval, his daughter was four months’ gone—four months!—and it was past time Nash knew what Zack’s intentions were.
He rubbed his eyes, a sleepless night exacerbating a whole hemisphere of jet lag.
Focusing on what to say to Nash helped ease the burn of anger. Skylar clearly thought so little of him, she couldn’t even tell him of the life they’d created. Sure, they barely knew each other, but he bristled at the notion that he was unapproachable where Skylar was concerned. He’d made a concerted effort to be pleasant to her on his visit here earlier in the year, especially when it became apparent how shy and uncomfortable being around him made her. Zack knew when someone was sweet on him.
His cell phone rang. It was Max Fortune, his closest friend and business partner in Australia and Skylar’s cousin.
“What in blazes? You knocked up my little cuzzy, you bastard?”
Zack grinned. The Australian rancher was all bark and no bite where he was concerned. They’d been through a lot together.
Then he sobered. These big rich families moved quick. He hadn’t said a word to anyone and already the southern hemisphere family grapevine was abuzz. “What do you want?” he drawled.
“To knock your block off, mate.” There was a pause. “What are you going to do?”
Zack blew out a breath. “I’m on my way to see Nash now about making an honest woman of her.”
There was a lengthy silence. The two men’s self-imposed bachelorhood had come to a sticky end a few months ago when Max wed his old flame Diana. Zack imagined the sound of necks cracking as his friends and enemies did a double take at this second blow to confirmed bachelor status Down Under.
“What does Sky think about that?”
Zack had his own ideas about that. While tossing and turning in his hotel bed, he’d concluded that he’d walked into a setup the night of Case Fortune’s wedding four months ago. Skylar’s setup.
“She’ll come around,” he said shortly. “Who told you, anyway?”
“Nash called Dad. Gave us all a shock, that’s for real. Dad told him, ‘Don’t trust that Kiwi, he’s got sprogs all over the world and he’s only out for your money.’”
Zack let out a bark of laughter and nearly missed his turnoff. “Tell the old reprobate thanks.” He knew of Teddy Fortune’s warm regard for him.
But there were some things the Australian Fortunes didn’t know. Like the mistake eighteen years ago, when Zack had gotten his young sweetheart pregnant. Like the anger that had burned in his gut all these years, born of his helplessness as a penniless boy from the wrong side of the tracks who had been virtually run out of town. Helpless to stop Rhianne from giving in to her rich family’s wishes to abort his baby and not ruin her life.
Never again…
“You’ll, aah, you’ll be nice, won’t you, Zack? I like old Freckles, she’s a good sort. I wouldn’t have her hurt.”
“I like her, too, Max,” Zack reassured his friend quickly. “Wish me luck or I won’t ask you to be best man.”
He hung up, thinking with surprise that was true; he did like Skylar, more than he’d liked any woman in a long time. There was something about her right from the start, even though she did nothing to lead him on, until the night of that family wedding.
Shocked nearly senseless at the news he was going to be a father, there was not a shadow of a doubt in his mind that he and Skylar would marry. Even now, about to confront her father and cause this family all sorts of upset, there was only one course of action.
Love didn’t come into it.
Just ahead, he saw the stone pillars that announced Fortune Estate land. Instead of turning off to Skylar’s cottage in the stand of trees by the stables, he drove toward the big house, as she called it, thinking it was better Nash was prewarned, had had time to think about it.
Despite that, his stomach tightened as he approached the huge old mausoleum the Fortunes called home. A little too gothic for his taste; Zack preferred a more contemporary residence. The dark gray stone made it appear almost black and very forbidding. But inside, it was comfortable and homely, reflecting Patricia’s warm personality.
He parked the car and took the steps leading up to the house two at a time. Peggy, the housekeeper, showed him into the dining room. Zack was surprised to find only Nash present. He’d expected one or two of the large family here at this time.
The older man looked up from his breakfast, his glum expression lightening. “Zack! Sit down. I hate to eat alone.”
The two shook hands and Zack helped himself to juice and toast from the ample buffet and tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent Nash calling to Peggy to fix some fresh eggs.
“Where is everyone?” he asked, part of him disappointed he could not settle with the whole family in one sitting. They chatted for a couple of minutes about the whereabouts of the other residents of the house. Since Zack had left in early February, Nash’s older daughter, Eliza, had moved to Montana to be with her husband, Reese. The other two sons, Case and Creed, divided their time between apartments in town and the estate.
Then Nash fixed him with a stern gaze. “So you’re about to become a daddy.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Congratulations.” Nash’s gaze narrowed as if trying to read his mind.
“Not sure that’s appropriate, under the circumstances.”
“New life is precious, whatever the circumstances.” Nash finished his pancakes just as Peggy slid a plate full of freshly scrambled eggs in front of Zack. His mouth watered. He’d eaten nothing but plastic airline food in the last twenty-four hours.
“I like you, Zack,” the older man continued. “You’re a straight shooter. I believe your intentions are good.”
