Fortune Found

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Flint didn’t respond to that, instead he went on with what they’d been talking about before. “And the twins, they seem like the spitting image of you, too. How do they look like their dad?”

“Their coloring is all Pete—the lighter hair and eyes. And Adam has Pete’s smile and his turned-up nose.”

Flint nodded, but his eyes were on her intently the whole time, as if he were gauging his words before he said, “Do you mind if I ask how he died?”

Not when it was asked so gently, so compassionately, so mindful of it being difficult for her to talk about.

She sighed. “It was an accident at a building site. A faulty crane, a dropped girder …” But she couldn’t bring herself to go into the details, so she said, “We were both working for the same construction company—I ran the office, Pete was the electrical foreman, so he was in the field most of the time. Sometimes I had paperwork that would take me into the on-site office—that was always set up in a trailer that stayed on a big job—”

“Were you there when it happened?” Flint asked, his frown lines deep with horror on her behalf.

“I was,” she said, her voice cracking even though it was barely above a whisper. “Thankfully I didn’t see it, but I heard workman shouting, running, yelling for someone to call for an ambulance, which I did before I ever left the trailer or knew it was Pete I was calling for …”

“I’m so sorry,” Flint said with heartfelt sympathy.

“He literally never knew what hit him, which was a blessing, I think. And I didn’t have to see him—the owner of the company kept me away until they had Pete in the ambulance. I rode to the hospital holding his hand …”

Okay, she couldn’t talk about that without breaking down, and she didn’t want to break down. She’d done more than her share of crying. So she swallowed hard and said, “Things are pretty much a blur for me from there.”

“That’s probably a blessing, too, in this case.”

“I know my folks were at the hospital by the time I got there. Kelsey wasn’t living in Red Rock then, but she wasn’t far away and she was at home with the kids by the time my folks brought me back. Telling them was the hardest thing I’d ever done.”

“This was how long ago?”

“A little over two years.”

“Were the kids even old enough to understand?”

“Adam was only a baby, so no. He doesn’t even remember Pete except through pictures and stories I’ve told him. Braden and Bethany were two and a half, so they didn’t really get it either. For a long time they just kept asking where Daddy was, when he was coming home, and we’d have to tell them all over again, try to help them understand—”

“But Ella, she was five, right?”

“Right. She knew exactly what was going on, poor thing.” And that, too, brought the sting of tears to Jessie’s eyes. But in two years she’d learned well how to hold them at bay. “Ella went back and forth between her own grief and putting up a strong front. Half the time she played parent—helping with the other kids, making an attempt to look after me …”

“Ross.”

Jessie raised her eyebrows at Flint in question to his oldest brother’s name.

“Ross did that in my family,” Flint explained. “We all took care of each other, but it was Ross who led the way, who played parent.”

Again Jessie wasn’t sure exactly why that had been necessary, but not knowing the details, she assumed that it had something to do with his mother’s overall less-than-stellar reputation.

“I suppose,” Jessie said then, “that that’s what’s going on now, too—Ella is feeling protective. And maybe a little territorial.”

“So we’re being pushed and pulled,” Flint said then with a knowing smile.

Jessie thought she knew what he meant, but she didn’t want to assume too much so she merely repeated, “Pushed and pulled?”

“Ella wants to pull you away, to keep you to herself. But there’s a lot of pushing going on with Kelsey, and now Coop and tonight your parents, too …”

“I know, I’m sorry,” she apologized for the second time. “I was hoping maybe you hadn’t noticed the not-so-veiled attempts at matchmaking.”

Flint laughed again and Jessie wished she didn’t like the sound of it as much as she did.

“You thought I hadn’t noticed that we’re being dispatched to paint rooms together, to go to the store together, to do everything they can possibly get us to do together? That seating arrangements always put us side by side—”

“And now this—” Jessie interjected, raising both hands in the air and glancing around “—getting everybody out of here so we’re alone.”

Flint grinned that great grin that drew such sexy lines on his handsome face. “Yep, I noticed. Impossible not to. It seems to be a conspiracy.”

“But Kelsey is the mastermind.”

“I think her intentions are good,” Flint allowed.

“Oh, they are,” Jessie was quick to confirm. “She just wants what she thinks is best for me.” And it was a compliment to Flint that Kelsey thought he was it.

“The two of you are really close, aren’t you?”

“She’s not only my sister, she’s also my best friend.”

“And your folks, have you all always lived together?”

“No, they retired about the same time I lost Pete. They’d both worked for a small, independent paper company. They had planned to sell their house and do some traveling when the time came, but instead they moved in here with me to help get me through the loss and to lend a hand with the kids. They’ve been a godsend. Between them and Kelsey moving back to Red Rock eight months ago, I don’t think I could have made it without them. But the matchmaking … all I can do is say I’m sorry.”

Flint smiled again, not seeming perturbed by what her family—and his brother—were doing.

“It’s not so bad,” he said in a tone that seemed as if it might have held some innuendo, except that Jessie thought she was too out of practice with men to be sure. “I just don’t know how that roof is going to get fixed if I don’t get up there and give Coop a hand with it.”

“I’ll try again to reason with Kelsey,” Jessie said as Flint got to his feet, apparently ready to follow Kelsey and Cooper home.

Jessie stood, too, and without thinking about it, began to walk with Flint to the gate that connected her backyard to Kelsey’s.

“Maybe instead of that,” he said along the way, “we should give them a little of what they want.”

Jessie didn’t have any idea what he was talking about that time. “Give them what they want?”

“Maybe we should pretend to go on a date together, come back and say we just didn’t click. Maybe then they’d relax.”

An instant wave of dejection—or maybe rejection—washed through her at the thought that Flint had decided they didn’t click. That decision shouldn’t have been jarring—after all, they didn’t need to click beyond the friendly superficialities that were already in effect. There was no reason for anything more than that.

And she didn’t want there to be anything more than that, Jessie reminded herself. This was strictly a distant, siblings-of-in-laws relationship.

And yet it was somehow demoralizing to hear that Flint didn’t think they clicked …

Especially when she was so intensely aware of him in every way.

She hid her feelings behind what she hoped was nothing more than a curious expression and as they reached the gate, said, “A pretend date?”

Flint opened the gate, stood in the opening and turned to lean one shoulder against the six-foot-high side post so that he was facing her. “We’ll go out alone, have dinner someplace innocuous—Not Red, where all eyes would be on us.”

Red was the local restaurant owned by the Mendoza family, who were extremely close friends of the Fortunes. They even had family ties with them now that the Mendozas’ son, Marcos, was engaged to Wendy Fortune—a member of the Atlanta branch of the Fortune family who had only recently come to Red Rock.

“All eyes would definitely be on us at Red,” Jessie agreed.

“So we’ll go somewhere else. How about that barbecue place outside of Austin that Coop and Kelsey were talking about tonight?”

“They seemed to like it.”

“Then we’ll come home, I’ll say you’re great but there just weren’t any sparks. You can say I’m a big jerk if you want—”

Jessie laughed but didn’t think it was wise to say that she already knew he wasn’t a big jerk, so instead said, “I’ll probably stick with the just-no-sparks thing, too.”

“And then they’ll all have to give it a rest.”

Jessie considered the ruse. “I suppose you do have a point. If they think we gave it a try and it just didn’t go anywhere, they’ll have to accept it and back off.”

“Not that I don’t enjoy working with you and talking to you …” Flint added with a small but genuine smile that convinced her that he actually did. Even if they didn’t click.

“But that roof is in bad shape,” Flint went on, “and even with two of us it’s going to be a big job. Unless you want to volunteer to work up there, then we can keep this going …”

“Mid-June Texas heat on a rooftop? I don’t think so.”

“We do a date, then?”

“I guess we could give it a try,” Jessie agreed. “When?”

“Tomorrow night?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll tell Coop and Kelsey as soon as I get inside. Hopefully they’ll figure if we’re seeing each other socially tomorrow night, they don’t need to push things in the day and Coop and I can get started on the roof.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” Jessie promised.

“And then we’ll have our fake date—at seven?”

“Sure.”

“Ella’s really going be mad at me after that, isn’t she?” Flint asked.

“It’s probably going to keep you blacklisted,” she confirmed.

“I’ll have to get you home early to convince everyone that the date is a flop—maybe that’ll help.”

And somehow the thought of making sure the date didn’t last too long was also a bit of a downer.

But Jessie shooed that away. Flint was right, a short date was more likely to look like a failure. And that was what they were going for.

“Okay, then,” Jessie said. “We have a pretend date tomorrow night at seven.”

“For barbecue. And we’ll just hope our plan works.”

Jessie nodded her agreement, and in the process her gaze caught on his face once more. On his smoldering eyes. On lips that were so, so supple …

And why she should suddenly wonder if pretend dates ended with good-night kisses, she had no idea. But that was exactly what she was wondering. Along with what it might be like to be kissed by Flint.

But the moment she realized that was what was going through her mind, she jolted herself out of it, telling herself that of course there wouldn’t be a good-night kiss. The whole point of the fake date was to convince their families that they didn’t click.

“Guess I’ll see you tomorrow for work first, though,” Flint said then.

Which seemed like her cue to leave, so she said she would see him the next day and headed to her back door, pondering why she was looking forward to a date that was only for show.

Chapter Four

“Mama, you’re so pretty!”

“Thank you, Braden,” Jessie said to her four-year-old son.

She was putting on the finishing touches for her pretend date with Flint on Wednesday evening by trying to force earrings into pierced lobes that hadn’t been used since Pete’s funeral. It had somehow drawn the attention of all four kids, who were sitting or lying on her bed to watch.

“You look good as Miss Osterman,” Bethany contributed, a compliment indeed because Miss Osterman had been the twins’ twenty-two-year-old drop-dead gorgeous swimming instructor and Bethany had already announced that she wanted to look just like that when she grew up. Who didn’t?