She thought about the adage that when the rest of the world felt like it was out of step, there was a pretty good chance the rest of the world wasn’t the one with the problem.
Zoe needed to chill out. Ronnie was allowed to make a phone call. She would be back in a minute. Zoe didn’t have to be anywhere and she certainly didn’t want to go home to her teal couch.
She leaned her head against the back of the leather sofa. Looking up, she could see the stuffed head of a big steer. Not enjoying that view, she sat up and looked around the bar.
There was a couple getting cozy at a table across the way. She looked in the other direction and saw a group of six women clustered in another of the nooks. It looked as if they were either celebrating a birthday or out on the town for a bachelorette party. When she looked past them, she saw a guy sipping a beer and checking her out. When he realized she was looking, he flashed a seductive smile and waved her over.
Uh, no, thank you.
Since looking around appeared not to be a safe means of distraction, she took her phone out of her purse. Maybe there would be a text from Joaquin.
Nope.
She was just starting to check her email when a text from Ronnie popped up.
Come outside. I need you.
Zoe’s heart lurched. What the heck was going on?
You okay? Be right there.
Zoe grabbed her purse and made her way out of the bar and into the Driskill’s grand lobby with its splendid staircase and stained-glass ceiling. She rushed out the front doors, looking around for Ronnie. That’s when she saw the horse and carriage and a guy who could’ve been Joaquin’s identical twin standing next to it.
Oh! That is Joaquin.
Zoe stopped dead in her tracks, suddenly afraid that she had stumbled into something she wasn’t supposed to see—like maybe he was here on a date. Had Ronnie seen him earlier and that’s why she’d been acting so squirrely? But why would she call her outside?
Her gaze performed a quick check of the horse and carriage, but it was empty and Joaquin was walking toward her. And he was smiling and holding out his hand. And there was a single, long-stemmed red rose in his hand.
Her heart pounded so hard, she was afraid it might burst.
“Go to him.” Ronnie was nudging her. “You can thank me later.”
Zoe did a double-take because she hadn’t realized her friend was standing next to her.
All of a sudden it hit her that this night had not been about being Ronnie’s wing woman. Not at all. Ronnie telling her to dress nicely, insisting on picking her up, her being so distracted with her phone and then getting up and leaving.
This was a plan, and quite a well-orchestrated surprise.
Joaquin was standing in front of her now. He handed her the rose.
“Zoe, I’m so sorry for everything that happened on Sunday. You have every right to not want to see me again, but I love you, and on Sunday you told me you loved me, too. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, will you take a carriage ride with me? I have so much to tell you.”
Zoe stood there paralyzed by emotion.
“This is where you say, ‘Yes, Joaquin, I would love to take a carriage ride with you,’” Ronnie said in a stage whisper. “And this is where I leave. Have fun, kids.”
As Joaquin thanked Ronnie, all Zoe could manage was a nod because she was still trying to process everything. Surely the things he wanted to talk to her about were good, because why would he have gone to the trouble to contact her best friend, whom he’d never even met, and get her to help him coordinate this surprise if they weren’t good?
And then there was the horse and carriage. Had she told him how much she loved carriage rides? She couldn’t remember.
But it didn’t matter because here they were here and he was helping her into the carriage. That’s when she noticed the silver ice bucket holding a bottle of champagne and the two crystal flutes in a special holder next to the bucket.
Joaquin signaled the driver and the carriage took off down the Driskill’s driveway.
“Zoe, before I went to Miami, I went to Horseback Hollow to see my father. I did it because you made me realize I would never be able to unload all the baggage I was carrying until I had talked to him. You are absolutely right and I feel like a new person.”
“That’s great, Joaquin,” she said, finally settling back into her senses again. “So I take it that it went well?”
He nodded. “It couldn’t have gone better.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I would love to, but before I do, I need to know, are we okay?”
All it took was one look at his gorgeous, anxious face and she knew that there was nowhere else she wanted to be. She felt whole again for the first time since she’d left his apartment on Sunday. Granted, the past three days had been hell, but if he’d needed that time to figure things out, it was all worth it. Obviously he had put it to good use.
“I told you I wouldn’t give up on you, and I meant it. But if this is going to work, and I really want it to, you realize this isn’t going to be our last fight, right? Even the best relationships have arguments.”
He nodded.
“I need you to promise me this is the last time that we will go three days without talking.”
Zoe saw his throat work beneath the white shirt and blue tie he wore with his black suit. “I promise you that and so much more, because I don’t want to spend another day without you. I realized that over these last three days.”
He told her about driving to Horseback Hollow on Monday and what his father had told him. He told her about Orlando flying them to Miami and how his father and his uncle had been estranged and how they had both loved his mother.
“But my uncle—my dad? Er, Esteban was too wrapped up in his own issues and too busy chasing skirts to realize he was losing the best thing that ever happened to him. However, my dad, Orlando, loved my mom so fiercely he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect her.
“If I learned one thing while we were apart, it’s that you deserve to be loved just as fiercely as Orlando loved Luz, and I now know I can love you that way if you’ll let me.”
When he leaned in and kissed her, Zoe melted into him. His lips were a touchstone, grounding her in love.
“So, I saw your father today.”
Zoe tensed for a second, but only for a second, because she somehow knew that he wasn’t going to ask her if she’d talked to her siblings about the Jerome Fortune issue. And she was right.
“Were you talking about a permanent position at Robinson Tech?”
Joaquin smiled. “You might say that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I asked his permission to propose to you.”
Zoe’s mouth fell open and she covered it with her hand. That’s when she realized she was shaking. “What did he say?”
“He said it was fine with him, but it was up to you.”
Joaquin reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small light blue box. The world moved in slow motion as he managed to position himself so that he could get down on one knee in the swaying carriage.
“Zoe Robinson, will you do me the honor of being my wife? If you say yes, I vow to bring you as much happiness as you have brought me.”
Tears streamed down her face as she threw her arms around his neck. As the carriage rolled along, passersby realized what was happening and cheered and applauded.
When he sat next to her, he placed the gorgeous, traditional round diamond on her left ring finger and opened the bottle of champagne.
“I don’t want to wait long to get married,” Zoe said. “In fact, how would you feel about Memorial Day weekend? It’s a long weekend. We should be able to gather all of our family. Do you think that will work?”
He put his arm around her. “It should, but as far as I’m concerned, we could elope.”
She snuggled closer to him. “I want a wedding. I’ve always dreamed of that special day. In fact, I’ve been planning our wedding since I was about nine. So it will be no problem to get everything ready in a couple of weeks.”
“I want you to have that wedding of your dreams,” he said. “The only thing that matters to me is that you’re happy.”
If this was a dream, Zoe hoped she would never wake up.
Chapter Fourteen
When Zoe and Joaquin announced their big news, everybody was elated. Rachel and Matteo even decided to come up from Horseback Hollow to take them out for a celebratory dinner, which soon turned into a family meal at the Robinson estate.
For the first time in a long time the Robinson siblings had something else to focus on besides “the great Fortune hunt.”
Not only was the pending wedding romantic and exciting, it had offered a much-needed breath of fresh air for a family on the brink of civil war.
It was as if they had hit the reset button.
At least for now.
If the engagement hadn’t already made Zoe’s heart so full it was overflowing, she might’ve been relieved that the secret her dad had saddled her with had been pushed into the background. But she wasn’t even thinking about it.
Of course, that didn’t mean the conundrum about whether to keep his secret was gone. She still didn’t know what she was going to do. What had changed was that the problem simply wasn’t the first thing she thought about when she opened her eyes in the morning and the last thing on her mind as she drifted off to sleep.
Now her mind was full of wedding dresses, flower arrangements, cakes and signature wedding cocktails, dinner menus and invitations, because there wasn’t enough time to send out a save-the-date card.
While it was a lot of work, it wasn’t as hard as it seemed. Because she really had been planning her dream wedding since she was nine.
Until recently, the only thing missing from her well-thought-out plan was the groom. Now that she’d met her prince, everything was complete.
As she and Rachel walked arm in arm up the front steps that led to their parents’ front door, they talked about bridesmaids’ dresses and upon whom, out of her three sisters and best friend, she would bestow the honor of serving as maid of honor.
As Joaquin and Matteo trailed along behind them, talking about Orlando’s newly mended relationship with Esteban—Joaquin had told his brother about his paternity issue, and it had turned out to be a nonissue because nothing had changed except for Esteban and Orlando ending their feud—Rachel said, “I have the perfect solution to your problem. I can be the matron of honor since I’m married. Olivia, Sophie and Ronnie can duke it out for who will be the maid of honor. Or if you want an easy way to settle it, since I am the oldest of the sisters, I should get special distinction and they can all be bridesmaids. Since I have already been through this, I have the most experience. I know what the perfect matron of honor needs to do.”
Maybe Joaquin had been onto something when he’d suggested they elope.
Oh, who was she kidding? She loved every single second of agonizing over every single tough wedding decision she’d faced so far. She was only doing this once and she intended to do it right.
A cluster of nerves knotted in her stomach, catching Zoe by surprise. This is really happening, isn’t it? She had dreamed of this time for so long, it was hard to believe it was finally here.
“We will figure something out,” Zoe said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. So we will make it work.”
She glanced over her shoulder at her fiancé, who was still laughing and talking with Matteo, oblivious to the wedding plans being discussed right in front of them. This time the butterflies swooped and circled in her belly for a completely different reason.
That handsome, incredible man was the one she would spend the rest of her life with, the man for whom she had waited her whole life.
He is the one.
The one.
Matteo was in the middle of saying something, but Zoe caught Joaquin’s eye. The smoldering exchange made her ache for him.
Since he’d proposed, when Zoe wasn’t thinking about the wedding her thoughts were consumed with giving herself, body and soul, to Joaquin.
She had waited so long for everything to be just right, and he was being such a good sport about honoring her wish to wait for their wedding night to make love. But it hadn’t been easy for her to resist him. There were times when she was with him that it took every ounce of willpower she possessed to not give in to her desire.
Rachel opened the door and motioned for Zoe and Joaquin to enter first. Zoe breathed in the aroma of something delicious and it suddenly occurred to her that they must be the first to arrive because the driveway had been oddly absent of cars.
As she made a mental note to talk to her siblings about punctuality, since they would all be part of the wedding party, she turned the corner into the living room, into the thunderous sound of a crowd yelling, “Surprise!”
This was no family dinner. Some very sneaky people had apparently invited every single person she and Joaquin had ever met—and then some—to a surprise engagement party/wedding shower.
Good grief, the wedding was right around the corner, but Zoe was touched and a little taken aback by the generous, loving gesture that their friends would come out on a Saturday night to celebrate Joaquin’s and her love.
She truly felt like Cinderella as she received good wish upon good wish. She fully intended to talk to each and every guest in attendance and to tell each and every one of them how much she appreciated them being here tonight.
About an hour into her mission, the waitstaff began circulating with trays of champagne flutes, and her father, with her mother, Charlotte, standing at his side, called everyone to order.
“I love all my kids,” Gerald said. “But it’s no secret that Zoe and I share an extraspecial bond.” Her father’s gaze snagged hers and Zoe couldn’t quite tell if he was simply nervous or if something else was going on, because something in his demeanor didn’t quite match the tone of the father-of-the-bride-to-be speech he was giving.
No one else probably noticed because Gerald Robinson was not known for being an emotional, warm and fuzzy kind of guy. Maybe it was because the two of them hadn’t spoken since the showdown in his study nearly a week ago. Maybe this was his way of sending her a message, like a male peacock who fans out his feathers in splendid glory when the gesture was really meant to serve as a warning.
Whatever the case, everything that had gone out of her mind elbowed its way back into the forefront. She’d resolved not to think about the situation until after her wedding, because it upset her. She still hadn’t wrapped her mind around the fact that her father was, despite how vehemently he’d railed against it, Jerome Fortune. She hadn’t come to terms with the fact that her knight in shining armor had lied to his family all these years.
No! She wasn’t going to think about that now. Joaquin’s arm was around her waist and when she looked up at him, his smile turned the butterflies loose again. Boy, they were really swarming tonight amid all the excitement. She took a deep breath and raised her glass to his, refusing to let Jerome Fortune spoil any part of Joaquin’s and her party. No, Jerome Fortune was not welcome at anything that had to do with their wedding. The next two weeks would be a Jerome Fortune–free zone.
She mustered the appropriate smile and made all of the coos and sighs expected of a consummate daddy’s girl and bride-to-be.
As everyone raised their glass and said, “Cheers!” Zoe scanned the crowd of happy faces, letting the merriment of celebration wash through her.
That’s when she noticed an unfamiliar face among the crowd. A nice-loo
king guy was standing in the back, holding a glass of champagne and engrossed in conversation with her brother Ben.
She hugged her father because that’s what everyone expected and kissed her mother on the cheek. Then she said to Joaquin, “I’m going to say hello to Ben. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Resuming her mission to greet everyone, Zoe headed toward the two men. Her brother had kept a relatively low profile tonight, or maybe there were just so many people here this was the first she’d seen him.
As she approached, she heard the stranger’s proper British accent. “Why don’t I come to your next family meeting and we can tell everyone about the others?”
Zoe stopped in her tracks, trying to figure out what they were talking about. Because surely Ben wouldn’t discuss their family’s dirty laundry with a stranger and air it at her engagement party.
Zoe stood there, intending to listen to their conversation, hoping to hear something that proved this wasn’t what it looked like, but Ben looked over and saw her.
“Zoe.” He motioned for her to come closer. “I want to introduce you to Keaton Whitfield. Keaton, this is my sister Zoe.”
Keaton Whitfield?
Was he kidding? He had better be kidding.
“Ah, yes, Zoe. It is lovely to meet you. Congratulations on your engagement. I am delighted to celebrate with you.”
The British accent confirmed Zoe’s nightmare.
This was the Keaton Whitfield. The guy Ben had found who claimed to be a half sibling and supposedly knew of others.
Was that what he meant a moment ago when he said he would come to the next family meeting and they could talk about the others?
“What are you doing, Ben?”
Her brother gave her an odd look. “I’m introducing you to Keaton?”
“Don’t be a smartass,” Zoe said. “You know what I mean. Why did you bring him here tonight? Tonight of all nights, Ben? Why would you do this?”
Keaton transferred his weight from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable. “I see that this is upsetting you, Zoe. I am terribly sorry. I will say good-night.”
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