A Fortune Wedding Read online

  He caught her wrists. “You would’ve liked that, wouldn’t you? After all, I don’t have a multimillion-dollar trust fund or belong to the country club. You wanted me gone practically as soon as we got together.”

  “How can you say that? You lied to me. My God, one minute you were talking about how much you loved me and what you wanted for the future, and the next you broke and ran—without even telling me, without even a note. What happened, Roberto, did it get too real for you?” Her voice rose. “Did you get scared when you realized you might have to stand behind all the pretty talk?”

  “I ran?” He echoed incredulously. “What the hell are you talking about? I would have done anything for you. Anything,” he repeated, his face a fraction of an inch from hers.

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “Because you sent your mother out to run me off.” He’d been more naive than he’d had a right to be, thinking their feelings for each other would be enough. They’d ridden back to the ranch house that long ago evening, suffused with quiet happiness.

  Or at least he had.

  But they’d come back to a house lit up and a strange car in the courtyard, and the next night instead of Frannie coming to meet him as she’d promised, there had been Cindy.

  Love, a life together. To Roberto, it had been simple but Cindy had made it simpler—clear out or get thrown in jail for statutory rape, with Frannie’s testimony. He’d been a mistake. Frannie was done with him. The words had stirred only defiance—until he’d looked up from the dark barnyard to see Frannie staring down at them from an upstairs window.

  “You sat up there and watched,” he said furiously. “Don’t act like you didn’t know about it. I told her I wanted to marry you and she laughed and said you’d never marry me in a million years. You watched the whole thing.”

  And worst of all, she’d turned away.

  Frannie’s mouth fell open. “I watched the whole thing? Roberto, she gave me a note that said you weren’t coming. I was inside with the lights on, I didn’t see anything except my own reflection. And by the time I got out, you were gone.”

  “What was I supposed to do?” he demanded. “What was there for me here? Jail? I left because you gave me no reason to stay. And I stayed gone because…because I couldn’t take seeing you again.”

  They stood, staring at each other as the enormity of their words sank in. The ticks of the clock on the mantle sounded very loud in the silence.

  “That’s it?” Frannie whispered. “It was all my mother? This is nuts, Roberto. This kind of thing happens in soap operas, not real life. Do you hear me?” Her voice rose, flirting with hysteria. “You’re trying to tell me that it was all just a misunderstanding, that she played us for almost twenty years? Sweet Jesus.” She dropped down onto the couch and buried her face in her hands.

  Beside her, the cushions gave as Roberto sat next to her. “I don’t know what’s sane or insane at this point,” he said softly. “I know what I was told, and I know what I did. And maybe we were too young, maybe it wouldn’t have lasted, but I do know I meant everything I said to you that day, and I was ready to tell the whole world.”

  Frannie raised her face from her hands and turned to look at him. “Don’t tell me that. I don’t want to hear that.” Because she couldn’t bear to think of how different her life could have been.

  Roberto reached out, his fingertips as gentle against her chin as a butterfly landing, and turned her to face him. “I never stopped thinking about you, Frannie. Never once. And I guess that makes me an idiot, because you married another guy and had a kid with him.”

  “We were so young,” she whispered. “What we were feeling wasn’t real. It would never have worked.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Maybe this is all about another chance.”

  “How can we have another chance? Time changes people. I’m not the same person I was. Neither are you. That Frannie and Roberto are gone. What they felt is gone.”

  “You think so?” he murmured. “Let’s find out.”

  And he leaned in to press his mouth to hers.

  So many years had passed, each exacting its toll, changing the body, slowing the mind. How was it, then, that this was so familiar, so true? Nearly two decades had passed and she’d forgotten a million and one things in that time. But she remembered his kisses, oh, she remembered his kisses.

  Even before his mouth settled on hers, her lips knew the touch of his—the softness, the warmth, the gentleness that he always brought. Lloyd might have said words of love in the beginning, but Roberto had made her feel them. With every touch, she felt cherished, wanted, enveloped in warmth. As though she were a sunflower turning toward the light, she felt herself blossoming.

  How many times had he thought of this? How many times had he imagined the sweet scent of her, the soft coolness of her fingertips stroking his cheek? There had been other women, but always, inevitably, he’d found himself comparing them to his memories of Frannie.

  And always, inevitably, he’d found them wanting.

  He’d told himself that it was all his imagination, that no one woman could possibly feel so right. He’d told himself he was an idiot to even think it. He’d just gotten caught up in the same memory, month after month, year after year, and year after year it changed, like some internal game of telephone until memory transformed into a fantasy impossible for any reality to match.

  That was what he’d told himself.

  And in the moment his lips touched hers, he knew that he’d been wrong.

  She was all that he remembered and more—soft and fragrant and sweet. They fit, purely and simply. Her mouth felt so utterly right against his, every touch, every move. Her hair spilled over his hand. And as he heard his pulse roaring in his ears, he understood afresh how the twenty-year-old boy he’d been could have returned from that afternoon under the red oaks utterly and completely thunderstruck with love for her.

  He raised his head. Frannie stared up at him, her eyes huge and dark.

  He slipped his arm around her. “I guess we’ve got our answer.”

  “No.” She shook her head to clear away the haze. Her heart hammered in her ears. Life with Lloyd had been a battle for survival, but she had just about started to find the strength to start again. And now, to find herself so utterly taken with the barest brush of Roberto’s lips over hers was terrifying. “No,” she said again. “I don’t think we’ve got any answer at all. Just more questions and complications.”

  “You’re trembling.” He held up her hand. “You call that a complication?”

  “Yes.” She shifted away from him. “Right now everything is crazy. I can’t keep up. There’s too much going on. The fires, the notes, Cindy’s crash, Lloyd getting killed, I’m in jail, you’re in jail, I’m broke, we’re—”

  “Wait a minute, back up. You’re broke? I thought Lloyd was rich.”

  “So did I.” She closed her eyes a moment and let out a long breath. “It’s been a day for surprises. I met with my lawyer this morning and found out that my trust fund has been cleaned out, courtesy of Lloyd. I’m in debt up to my eyeballs.”

  “How did he manage that?”

  She shrugged. “My fault, I guess. I was seventeen when we married, I didn’t know much of anything about anything. I knew that I got the main bequest of my trust fund when I had my first child, but Lloyd managed our finances.”

  “And later?”

  “He ran everything. If I ever asked him for details, even to see a stock statement or a tax return, he got furious. I gave up control without even a fight. And I guess once that happens, you can never really get it back.”

  “The best defense is a good offense. He didn’t want you to know what he was up to.”

  “And it worked. I sat there in that office today listening to the lawyer talk about mortgages on office buildings and rental properties I didn’t even know we owned.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. It’s understandable.”

  “It’s pathetic,” she b
urst out, rising to pace. “I’m a grown woman and I barely even know my bank balance. He kept me in the dark, cleaned me out, and I let him do it.”

  “You’re not to blame for it, he is. But he’s gone now. Everything’s going to be all right.” Roberto came up behind her. “You and Josh will get through this, you’ll see.”

  Frannie sighed. “Yes, I’ll get through this. But I’m not taking money from Josh. His trust fund is for college, to get him started on life. I’m not going to siphon it off like Lloyd and my mother did to me.” And she burned at the thought of asking anyone in the Fortune family for money. After a lifetime of watching Cindy beg, the idea of coming to them with her hand out made Frannie cringe. “I’ll get through this,” she said again. And maybe if she repeated it enough times, a miracle would happen and it would be true.

  “We’ll get through this.” Roberto slipped his arms around her. “Whatever help you need, you’ve got it.”

  She turned to look at him. “I can’t take your money.”

  “Sure you can.”

  “You don’t understand. It’s more than two million dollars.”

  To her surprise, he laughed. “Frannie, you don’t know what I do for a living, do you? I own the second-biggest commercial construction and real-estate development company in Denver. I’ve got plenty of money, enough to help you take care of whatever problems you’ve got. More to the point, I can probably figure out how to make you a profit on those commercial properties that Lloyd’s stuck you with. Don’t worry. Leave it to me, I can fix it.”

  She moved away from him with a frown. “Haven’t you been listening at all?”

  “Enough to know we can take care of the details later.”

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “No,” she said again, her words stronger now.

  “You mind telling me why, exactly, you’re turning down help?” He kept his voice even, but she saw the little flare of temper in his eyes.

  “Roberto, I appreciate the offer, I truly do. But I just found out that the man I’ve been married to for the past nineteen years took me for everything I was worth while I just sat idly by.”

  “I’m not going to con you.”

  “That’s not the point. Or maybe it is. I haven’t seen you for decades, I don’t know you at all. And I don’t know what we’re doing here right now. We were kids when we were together before. Being in love at seventeen isn’t real.”

  His eyes were hot and dark. “It felt pretty damned real to me.”

  “But that was at the time. I’m not that girl anymore and you’re not that boy. For all we know, we could spend another hour together and start driving each other nuts.”

  “Judging by that kiss, I’d say that’s a given.”

  “You know what I mean.” She threw him an impatient look. “I just got out of a horror of a marriage. I can’t turn around and dive into something else with you. With anyone. There’s just too much going on.”

  “So that’s it?”

  “I don’t know.” Her voice rose in frustration. “I can’t decide this right now. I’m not made of stone, I felt something here when we kissed, but what does that signify? Maybe what happened tonight just means that we got back that afternoon we spent together. Maybe it means a whole lot more, I can’t say.” She shook her head. “If anything’s going to happen between us, we have to get to know each other all over again, don’t you see? I can’t just throw up my hands and turn the reins over to you. First it was my mom controlling me, and then Lloyd. I’m on my own now for the first time in my life and I’m going to take care of myself. I’ve got to.”

  “I’m not Lloyd Fredericks.”

  “I know that, believe me, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve spent so much of my life reacting to him, following his orders, living within his boundaries.” She brushed back her hair. She’d worn it long because Lloyd had preferred it that way. “He didn’t want me to go to college, so I didn’t go. He didn’t want me to work, so now I’m thirty-six and I don’t have a clue how to make a living. For all these years I’ve had nothing but Josh. There were days that I felt like I wasn’t even there at all and I can’t live like that anymore.” Her voice rose in a passionate torrent.

  “I’ve got to figure out who I am. I’ve got to learn to stand on my own two feet, and I can’t do that if I’m leaning on you. And if it means that working off Lloyd’s debts takes me the rest of my life, then that’s what that means. I have to do it myself. I can’t let you take care of me.”

  “I didn’t make the offer with strings attached.”

  “I know you didn’t. But you have to understand, I need to get past this on my own.” She blinked. “Before I can possibly be of any use to you or to myself, I have to figure things out. I need to know what I’m capable of. And I need to get Lloyd out of my head.”

  “I thought you didn’t love him,” Roberto said flatly.

  Frannie gave a ragged laugh. “Are you kidding? I spent most of our marriage hating him—when I wasn’t hating myself. And you. It’s all a mess, Roberto. I’m a mess. You deserve better.”

  “Let me decide that.”

  “I just…I need some time, can you understand that? I just need time.” She stepped in and pressed her lips to his cheek, then turned to the door.

  Roberto followed. “You’re going to leave, just like that?”

  Frannie’s eyes softened. “Not just like that. What happened here has changed everything. And even if there’s nothing left once this is done, I’ll always be grateful to you.”

  “It’s not gratitude I’m looking for.”

  “Will you take friendship, instead?” She tipped her head. “Look at it as kind of a lease-to-buy program.”

  And as she’d hoped, he smiled.

  “Whatever you need right now, you’ve got. And I’ll take friendship.” He caught her hand in his. “For now.”

  Chapter Four

  “What the hell is going on here?” Hands on her hips, Cindy Fortune surveyed the confusion of boxes scattered around Frannie’s living room and foyer.

  Frannie went back to the box she’d been packing with books when Cindy had knocked on the front door. “Getting the place ready to sell.”

  “In this market? You’ll lose your shirt, and this is way too sweet a house to give away. You and Josh could get lost in here. Hell, I could move in for a month and you’d never notice.” A speculative look entered her eyes. “Maybe I will.”

  She kicked a box out of the way and sprawled on the couch, her brassy blond hair spilling over the back, long legs stretched over the coffee table. The ravages of time didn’t stand a chance against the determination of Cindy Fortune, teased, Botoxed, lifted and liposuctioned to within an inch of her life. Seventy was the new forty, she was fond of saying, and she considered herself living proof.

  As long as you didn’t look too close into her eyes. Something hid there behind the false cheer—something that veered perilously between weariness and despair. But Cindy didn’t like to think about that too often. Easier on the whole to toss down a drink or three and forget.

  Frannie sealed her box and thumped down the tape dispenser. “Mother, what are you doing here?” Frannie had never even seen Cindy out of bed before ten, let alone ambulatory.

  Cindy blinked. “Well, to congratulate you on getting out. I told those idiots at the police department that you couldn’t have murdered Lloyd Fredericks, even if the pipsqueak did have it coming.”

  “I’m sure that was a lot of help.” Cindy Fortune making a scene at the police station. No wonder they’d held Frannie so long.

  “Anyway, I haven’t seen you in a while so I wanted to stop by.”

  “That’s right, you never did come to see me the whole time I was in jail, did you?” Frannie’s voice was cool.

  Cindy coughed. “Hey, well, you know me, kid. Jails aren’t my style.”

  “Except for your DUIs,” Frannie agreed, ignoring Cindy’s sharp stare. Instead, she brought a group of framed photo
s over to the coffee table and set them on a stack of packing paper. Pushing her hair back behind her ears, she picked up the top picture to wrap it. It was Josh at his first Christmas, surrounded by gaily colored holiday paper and ribbons, laughing against her.

  “I don’t see why you have to put all that stuff away,” Cindy groused, but Frannie noticed she didn’t offer to help.

  “Photographs are distracting. They make the buyers think of the current owners rather than imagining themselves happy in the home.” She set the wrapped picture in the box and reached for the next. Times changed, she thought, glancing at the shot of her and Lloyd and a ten-year-old Josh on horses at a dude ranch in Montana. The smiles had all become a little strained, with a distinct hint of annoyance in Lloyd’s eyes.

  But it was on the next photo that Frannie’s hands faltered. It was from a luau on a Hawaiian vacation taken just a few years before. Lloyd’s eyes were focused off to the side—at the hula dancer he’d been flirting with, no doubt—Josh stood between them with a bored, sulky pout and Frannie…

  Frannie looked lost, even in paradise.

  How was it that she hadn’t seen it before? Had she just lived with unhappiness for so long that she’d grown numb to it?

  Her hands tightened on the frame.

  “Anyway, if the place is too big, get another one,” Cindy was going on. “No reason to unload this one.”

  “Yes, there is. I’m broke.”

  “Because you could just get another—what?”

  “I’m broke, Mother, thanks to Lloyd. Remember Lloyd? The man I was supposed to marry because he’d take care of me? Instead of Roberto Mendoza?”

  “Roberto who?”

  The words came out a beat too late, a shade too innocent, and if she’d had any last doubt, Frannie knew now that it was all true. “How dare you,” she said in a low voice.

  “What?” Cindy asked weakly.

  “I said how dare you.” She stood. “Don’t try to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. I loved him and he wanted to marry me and you knew it.” Her voice rose. “You ran him off like he was trash, and you made him think I was a part of it.”