A Small Fortune

by Marie Ferrarella

  * * *

  With each step he took toward her, Asher could literally feel his courage flagging, deserting him like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

  He had absolutely no idea what he was going to say to her or how he would even begin his apology.

  Words had never really been a comfortable medium for him, and at a time like this, they certainly didn’t come easily to his tongue. His brothers all had the gift of gab, but not him.

  “Hello, Marnie,” he said, his mouth feeling painfully and incredibly dry as he all but forced even these simple words out.

  She barely nodded at him in response. “Asher.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, at least you’re not calling me names,” he noted. Or throwing anything, he added silently. “That’s a good sign.”

  Marnie had relived this scene over and over again in her mind as she lay awake, staring at her ceiling for the last few endless nights. On each of those occasions, all sorts of words had flowed from her tongue.

  Smart words, witty words, words that knit themselves into a bulletproof shield, completely protecting her from any heartache, past or present. Words that succinctly put Asher in his place.

  But right now, confronted with the actual sight of him, Marnie’s mind went completely, blindingly blank.

  Nothing, she thought in utter frustration. She had nothing.

  “My mother never allowed those kinds of words to be said in the house,” she told him in answer to his statement.

  A glimmer of a smile graced his full lips. “I like your mother,” he quipped.

  What was that supposed to mean? Had he come here to taunt her? Or what?

  Even just looking at him hurt, Marnie realized. “Look, I’m kind of busy here,” she told him, wanting to call an end to this. She had no idea how long she could keep up this charade before she broke down and cried.

  Asher looked around. “Your students are gone,” he pointed out.

  Her eyes narrowed. Was he challenging her now? “I do other things than teach riding.”

  His eyes met hers. “I know.”

  The way he said those two simple words caused a wave of heat to rush over her. Marnie felt herself growing angry.

  “Look, this isn’t going anywhere and I’ve got to—”

  “I love you,” he declared simply, without any preamble. It was all he had to offer, a simple truth that she could either accept, or trample under her feet.

  He was rooting for the former.

  Marnie looked at him, as dazed as if she’d just been kicked by a horse. She cocked her head like a swimmer trying to get the water out of her ears in order to hear better.

  “Say what?”

  “I love you,” he repeated quietly.

  Sincerely.

  He made no move toward her, afraid that she would rebuff him if he so much as attempted to touch her. She might as well hear everything, he decided. He was past the point of being afraid of losing. Without Marnie in his life, he was losing.

  “And I’m sorry I made such a mess of things,” he told her. “I don’t have a good excuse for acting the way I did. I was just... I don’t know, scared, I guess,” he said, finally putting a name to the emotion that had prompted him to back off initially.

  “You—scared?” she echoed in disbelief.

  “Yes,” he told her with all due sincerity, despite the fact that it wasn’t exactly something a man liked to admit. “Scared of making another mistake like I had with Jace’s mother. Scared of having my heart tossed back in my face.”

  And his fear of that had just evaporated? She needed convincing.

  “So, what are you doing here now?” she wanted to know, afraid to let herself believe that they were on the cusp of a change.

  He didn’t have to dig deep to give her an answer. He only had to look to his heart. “Because as scared as I am of you running over my heart, I’m even more scared of facing the rest of my life without you.”

  Marnie wasn’t saying anything, and that made him even more uneasy. But now that he’d put it all out in front of her, he knew that there was no turning back. It was a matter of all or nothing, and he knew he couldn’t bear it if the answer turned out to be the latter.

  “I am willing to do anything you want,” he told her. “To take it as slow as you feel comfortable with.”

  She looked at him for a long moment, as if weighing his words. “What makes you think I’d feel comfortable about going slow?”

  She was right, he was rushing this. They needed to go back to square one. “Okay, I can start by dating you. Then maybe, in a few months—”

  Asher got no further. Marnie had placed a finger on his lips, the way she had the time that they had made love. Then it had been to stop an apology. This time it was to halt a misconception.

  “No, you don’t understand. I don’t want to go slow. I want just the opposite,” she told him, a mischievous look beginning to enter her eyes.

  To say that Asher was stunned would have been one of the greatest understatements of all time.

  He stared at her, trying to find his tongue. “You mean—?”

  “Yup.” She grinned broadly at him. When Asher made no move toward her, she teasingly prodded him. “What’s the matter, are you stuck in quicksand?”

  It was all the prodding he needed.

  Asher cut the rest of the distance between them, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest.

  “No,” he said in response to her question, just before he kissed her.

  Marnie could have cried.

  She was home.

  * * *

  “You’re coming back?” Jace asked Marnie gleefully, his eyes dancing—just like the rest of him.

  “I’m coming back,” she confirmed. She was warm and confident in her answer. After leaving the stables, she and Asher had made what had initially been intended as a quick stop at his place before coming to pick up Jace. But quick turned out to be a relative term, and a five-minute stop turned into something just slightly under an hour.

  They had a lot of lost time to make up for. But eventually, sanity prevailed and they went on to Wyatt’s house, where Asher had dropped his son off before going on his do-or-die quest.

  “Forever and ever?” Jace asked, all but jumping up and down now.

  “For as long as you need me,” she replied, doing her best to keep a straight face.

  “That’s forever and ever,” the boy told her.

  She laughed, hugging him to her. She could feel the boy’s giggles vibrating against her chest. “Oh, I’ve missed you, Jace.”

  “Me, too,” the boy told her. “I missed you a whole bunch. Are you gonna live here now?” he wanted to know. To him that only seemed like the logical conclusion to draw from what he was being told.

  The question caught her off guard, making her stumble in her reply. She avoided looking toward Asher. “I don’t think that’s such a good—”

  Asher slipped his arm around her shoulders as he faced his son. “Don’t rush her, Jace. She’s got plenty of time to move in after the wedding.”

  Both Jace and Marnie stared at him and cried almost in unison, “What wedding?”

  “Ours,” Asher answered, looking at Marnie. “That is, if you’ll have me. Us,” he amended as Jace tugged on his sleeve. “If you’ll have us.”

  “So, it’s a package deal?” Marnie asked, doing her best to try to keep a straight face, but, since all she felt like doing was laughing in relief, she was failing.

  Had he assumed too much, gone too fast again? Asher wondered. Their pillow talk after they’d made love and just prior to heading to Wyatt’s place had skimmed along the notion of marriage. He’d thought that she was on board with this, but maybe he’d gotten his signals crossed.
/>   “Not if you don’t—”

  “I’ve always loved package deals,” she told Asher as if she wasn’t aware that he was trying to backtrack and possibly save face.

  Jace was the first to recover. “Then it’s a yes?” he asked excitedly. “You’ll really marry us?”

  She caressed both of their faces, a swell of affection shooting all through her. “How could I say no to two such handsome gentlemen?” she asked, looking from the son to the father.

  Jace leaped up in the air, his right hand fisted and pumping in a sign of triumph. “Yay! We’re getting married,” he shouted happily.

  The noise drew Wyatt out as Asher’s brother came to see what was going on.

  “What’s all this damn noise all about—oh. Never mind,” he amended when he saw his brother lost in a kiss with his son’s babysitter. Glancing toward his nephew, Wyatt put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and ushered Jace out of the room. “C’mon, boy, your dad needs a little alone time with your sitter,” he said.

  “She’s gonna marry my dad and be my new mom,” Jace told him proudly, simply bursting with the news.

  “I kinda had a feeling,” Wyatt replied, glancing over his shoulder at the happy couple. The knowing grin on his face deepened. “Now let’s you and me make tracks out of here, Jace.”

  “They want privacy, huh?” the boy asked.

  Wyatt laughed, ruffling Jace’s hair. “You’re getting just too smart for all of us,” he said in a low voice so as not to disturb his brother and the woman he assumed was going to be his sister-in-law.

  Asher and Marnie never even heard them leave.

  Epilogue

  Marnie understood now why some people, after having something incredibly wonderful happen to them, had an almost uncontrollable desire to pinch themselves just to make sure they weren’t dreaming.

  That was just the way she felt.

  Heaven knew she certainly felt as if she were dreaming.

  But she wasn’t.

  She was wide awake and all this was really happening. Asher had not only told her he loved her; he’d officially proposed the very next day. Proposed and when, choking back tears, she’d said, “Yes,” he had summoned their own personal little matchmaker—Jace—from the sidelines.

  Grinning from ear to ear, Jace had produced the ring box his dad had given him for safekeeping—five minutes earlier.

  And then Asher had slipped the most beautiful pear-shaped, blue diamond engagement ring on her finger.

  “Like it?” Jace had asked eagerly.

  “Like it? I love it,” she answered, almost breathless. Her eyes had shifted to Asher. “But I would have said yes even if you gave me a piece of yarn tied in a bow.”

  “Well, then, if that’s the case, I guess I’ll just take it back,” Asher had teased, pretending to reach for the ring in order to take it back.

  “Don’t you dare!” she’d cried with a laugh, raising her left hand above her head.

  And then Asher had taken her into his arms and kissed her. The kiss had been short because Jace was in the room with them, but it definitely held the promise of more things to come.

  That had been a little over a week ago, and Marnie had been caught up in a nonstop whirlwind ever since.

  Every day there was something else.

  Gifts arriving at either his house or hers, calls from people she didn’t know but were now family-to-be, wishing her happiness. There was a great deal of activity, she discovered, that was associated with becoming a member of the Fortune family.

  Today, she had actually thought that the dust was finally settling a little. So she was caught completely off guard when she walked into the Red Rock country club at the invitation of Asher’s cousin’s new wife, Felicity, and suddenly discovered herself in the center of a bridal shower.

  There were faces she knew and more faces she didn’t. Much to her relief, even her mother was there. Gloria was there to lend support, and apparently from what Marnie picked up, she’d also helped with the initial planning and groundwork for this impromptu shower.

  “But we haven’t even set a date for the wedding yet,” Marnie had protested. Asher, bless him, had offered to allow her some time to get used to the idea of becoming a wife and mother all in one swoop before they began planning the actual wedding.

  “This just makes it all official, darling,” her mother said, tucking her arm through hers and leading her into the center of the room. “All these lovely people just want to welcome you into the family,” she assured her, then smiled. “Your ‘stray’ belongs to a really nice family,” Gloria said with a nod of approval. And then she’d squeezed her arm. “You ‘done good,’ Marnie. Looks like you finally found someone who really appreciates your big heart.”

  Before Marnie had the chance to reply, Nicole Castleton appeared at her elbow. The smile on her lips seemed a tad forced. “Mind if I steal her for a minute, Mrs. McCafferty?”

  Gloria uncoupled herself from her daughter, dropping her arm to her side. “Go right ahead, dear. My work here is done,” she added with a touch of pride and just the slightest hint of a pang.

  Before giving Nicole her full attention, Marnie paused to kiss her mother’s cheek. As she did so, she whispered into Gloria’s ear, “You’re not going to be rid of me that easily, Mom. You’re stuck with me for the long run.”

  With a wink and a smile, she turned from her mother toward Nicole.

  The latter drew her over to a corner, then turned to face her.

  It was the first opportunity Marnie’d had to really focus on her friend’s face. Nicole looked pale in her estimation.

  Really pale.

  “Nicole, are you all right?” she asked, concern entering her voice. “You look like you’re coming down with something.” She suppressed the desire to touch her friend’s forehead to check for a fever.

  Nicole responded to the latter comment with an exceedingly nervous laugh, even though there wasn’t so much as a glimmer of a smile on her lips or in her wide eyes.

  “I’ve got a really big problem, Marnie,” she confided. “And I’m at the end of my rope. I don’t know what to do.”

  Marnie forgot about the party and her own source of happiness. This was her friend, and she obviously needed help.

  “What sort of a big problem?” she wanted to know so that she could do whatever it took to help Nicole in her obvious time of need.

  Despite the offer and the look on Nicole’s face, Marnie was in no way prepared to hear what her friend said next.

  There was a second’s hesitation, and then Nicole blurted out, “I need to get married, Marnie.” She took a deep breath. “And fast!”

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss the next installment in the new Special Edition continuity

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: SOUTHERN INVASION

  Their teenage romance was thwarted by her parents. Ten years later, heiress Nicole Castleton and executive Michael Mendoza are reunited in a marriage of convenience that is intended to be strictly business—until their hearts get in the way!

  Don’t miss

  MARRY ME, MENDOZA!

  by Judy Duarte

  On sale April 2013,

  wherever Harlequin Books are sold.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt of A Cold Creek Noel by RaeAnne Thayne!

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  Chapter One

  “Come on, Luke. Come on, buddy. Hang in there.”

  Her wipers beat back the sleet and snow as Caidy Bowman drove through the streets of Pine Gulch, Idaho, on a stormy December afternoon. Only a few inches had fallen but the roads were still dangerous, slick as spit. For only a moment, she risked lifting one hand off the steering wheel of her truck and patting the furry shape whimpering on the seat beside her.

  “We’re almost there. We’ll get you fixed up, I swear it. Just hang on, bud. A few more minutes. That’s all.”

  The young border collie looked at her with a trust she didn’t deserve in his black eyes and she frowned, her guilt as bitter and salty as the solution the snowplows had put down on the roads.

  Luke’s injuries were her fault. She should have been watching him. She knew the half-grown pup had a curious streak a mile wide—and a tendency not to listen to her when he had an itch to investigate something.

  She was working on that obedience issue and they had made good strides the past few weeks, but one moment of inattention could be disastrous, as the past hour had amply demonstrated. She didn’t know if it was arrogance on her part, thinking her training of him was enough, or just irresponsibility. Either way, she should have kept him far away from Festus’s pen. The bull was ornery as a rattlesnake on a hot skillet and didn’t take kindly to curious young border collies nosing around his turf.

  Alerted by Luke’s barking and then the bull’s angry snort, she had raced to old Festus’s pen just in time to watch Luke jig the wrong way and the bull stomp down hard on his haunches with a sickening crunch of bone.

  Her hands tightened on the steering wheel and she cursed under her breath as the last light before the vet’s office turned yellow when she was still too far away to gun through it. She was almost tempted to keep going. Even if she were nabbed for running a red light by Pine Gulch’s finest, she could probably talk her way out of a ticket, considering her brother was the police chief and would certainly understand this was an emergency. If she were pulled over, though, it would mean an inevitable delay and she just didn’t have time for that.