LASSOED BY FORTUNE

by Marie Ferrarella

  After the vote, the restaurant would be a reality or it wouldn’t, depending on the outcome.

  And the outcome, no matter what it turned out to be, was going to affect him more than he’d dreamed, because this issue had become very personal to him in ways he hadn’t foreseen.

  *

  Deke Jones looked up when he heard his son’s truck approaching.

  Used to be, the man thought, that it was the sound of hoofbeats that would draw his attention. But he hardly heard those anymore, other than from the stock he was raising.

  For the most part, the sound of hoofbeats only echoed when he was working with his horses, reminiscing about days gone by, or going places that a four-wheel drive vehicle couldn’t go.

  The tall, lean rancher was a basic, simple man who was satisfied with little, even though he’d always wanted his children to have more—but not much more, because that would make them soft and to survive in this world, a person had to be tough. The land was bountiful, but it was also harsh and only the tough managed to make it in Horseback Hollow.

  When his second-born came driving up, Deke was busy cleaning the right rear hoof of his favorite horse, a palomino named Golden Lightning.

  He’d broken in the horse himself. Broken the stallion in so that Lightning would accept him as his master, but Deke had taken great care not to break the horse’s spirit. If he had done that, to his way of thinking it would have been a crime.

  “What are you doing out here in the middle of the week, boy?” Deke asked after Liam had gotten out of his weathered vehicle. “Your ma call and ask you to come by?”

  “No, I wanted to talk to you,” Liam told his father. He leaned against the corral, watching his father patiently scrape away.

  Deke went on working, removing debris that had gotten embedded around the horse’s shoe. He’d noticed Lightning favoring that leg this morning. To his relief, Deke discovered that the problem was easily rectified. He’d been worried there for a bit that the problem might have been serious. Finding out otherwise put him in a basically good mood—although with Deke, as his wife readily pointed out, it was hard to tell his moods apart.

  For the most part, Deke Jones kept everything to himself.

  “So talk,” he said without glancing up.

  Now that he was here, Liam realized that he hadn’t planned how he was going to phrase this. After he hesitated for a minute, he admitted, “This isn’t easy to put into words.”

  “I suspect you’ll find them if this means enough to you.” Deke glanced up just for a second. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He and his father had what Liam thought of as an “unspoken” relationship. They didn’t talk all that much, but things were just understood. He’d never heard his father talk any more than was absolutely necessary to get his thoughts across—and only as a last resort.

  But he needed to have this clarified for him, needed to know if he’d just assumed things and gone off half-cocked when he shouldn’t have.

  Or if his take on his father’s reaction to having the Fortunes suddenly part of their lives was dead-on.

  The only way to ask was to ask, right? he told himself just before forging ahead.

  “How do you feel about Ma finding out that she’s part of the Fortune family and her deciding to take their name and all?” Liam asked.

  He knew he was stumbling through this, but it was the thought, not the poetry of the sentence, he was trying to get across. He was fairly confident that his father would know what he meant.

  Deke went on working on the hoof and for a moment, Liam thought that his father either hadn’t heard him or had decided to ignore the question.

  Since it was important to him, Liam tried again. “Dad, how do you feel—?”

  “I heard you the first time,” Deke answered. Finished, he released the hoof he’d held nestled between his strong thighs while he’d worked.

  Golden Lightning whinnied, tossed his mane and haughtily retreated to the other end of the corral, as if to say that he’d been patient long enough.

  Brushing off his hands, Deke climbed over the slats of the corral fence and joined his son on the other side.

  “How do I feel?” he repeated. “How do you think I feel after years of breaking my back to put a roof over your heads and food in your bellies?”

  It was a rhetorical question so Liam made no attempt to answer him. He waited for his father to continue. The wait wasn’t long.

  “I was mad, that’s how I felt, thinking that maybe your ma didn’t think I was good enough and that was why she took on that other name.”

  His sharp blue eyes narrowed for a moment, pinning Liam in place before he said another word. “Having Christopher take off like that, going to Red Rock to work for those people didn’t help matters any.” He had his own question and he put it to Liam now. “Did any of you kids feel like you were missing out on anything when you were growing up?”

  Deke Jones hadn’t been the warmest of fathers when they were kids, but Liam recalled that he had always felt safe, as if his home was his haven and his father was the sentry guarding the gate. Nothing could ever hurt him as long as his father was there. He knew the others had felt the same way.

  “We had a great childhood, Dad.”

  The answer satisfied Deke. He wasn’t the kind to milk it for more.

  The wiry shoulders rose and fell in a careless shrug. “After I got over being mad, I started seeing things from your ma’s point of view. She grew up thinking she was all alone, that whoever her mama was, she just gave her away like yesterday’s hand-me-downs. It was nice for your ma to find out that she’s got family that wants her. Not everyone gets that.” He let the words sink in and then leveled a look at his son. “Why are you asking?”

  Liam was honest in his answer. His father would stand for nothing less. “I just wanted to know if you felt insulted.”

  Deke shrugged again. “It is what it is. I hear that the Fortunes are good people. That they don’t just take without giving back and they don’t act holier-than-thou, so unless I’m shown otherwise, that makes them all right in my book.” Deke cocked his Stetson back on his head as he looked intently at his son. “We done here?” he queried. “Because I got work to do.”

  Liam grinned. This had to be the longest conversation he’d ever had with his father. “We’re done,” he answered. “I’ve got to be getting back, too.”

  Deke nodded. “I’ll tell your ma you said hi,” he said as he walked away.

  *

  “Well, you certainly have a spring in your step these past couple of days,” Annie noted as she crossed the floor to reach her daughter. They spent a great deal more time together than the average mother and daughter did and Annie was keenly attuned to any changes in her daughter’s behavior. “Anything that I should know about?” she asked, a warm, very amused smile curving her lips.

  There was no way she was going to say anything about seeing Liam to her mother. Some things were best kept secret, Julia thought. Liam’s reputation as a lady-killer had always been larger than life and things like that took a long time to die. She didn’t want her mother worrying about her.

  It was enough that she knew this was just an interlude and that it would be over soon enough. She was determined to enjoy it while it lasted.

  Liam Jones wasn’t the kind to settle down with one woman and as long as she didn’t lose sight of that, didn’t delude herself into thinking that she was unique enough to get him to change his ways, she’d be all right.

  But her mother needed a reason for this upbeat swing in her personality, so Julia gave her one. That it also happened to be true was an added bonus.

  “I’m just looking forward to the restaurant opening here in Horseback Hollow, Mom. I’ve been in touch with Wendy and Marcos Mendoza—they’re the ones who are looking to expand—told them a couple of the ideas I had for the restaurant, and they really seemed to like what I had to say. I think they might offer me a job once the restaurant is up and r
unning,” she said with enthusiasm.

  “A job? Why wouldn’t they hire you to be the head chef, or the manager, for that matter?” Annie asked. “Why, if it wasn’t for you, the council wouldn’t even be thinking about this. And you’re bright, enthusiastic—”

  “One step at a time, Mom. I need some restaurant experience under my belt first.” Marcos’s explanation about that had made perfect sense to her. No one began at the top. “I really want this, Mom. I’ve always dreamed about being a chef and eventually having my own restaurant, and all this is going to be happening right here,” she said, barely containing her joy. “I won’t have to leave you or Dad,” she added, pleased at the way things had turned out.

  Annie had always been very supportive of Julia’s dreams, but she didn’t want her daughter getting all caught up in a dream before it was nailed down. “Has the final vote gone through?” she asked.

  “No, not yet,” Julia admitted, but that wasn’t going to throw cold water on her plans. This was going to work, she just knew it. “But I’ve been talking to everyone who comes in and I think I’ve got them all convinced that having a restaurant, a real restaurant, not just a bar and grill, in Horseback Hollow could only benefit the town.”

  Annie squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Don’t go getting your heart set on that, honey. Maybe they were just being polite and didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

  She knew her mother meant well, but what she was suggesting wasn’t the case here.

  “Mom, I’ve known these people all my life. They love to argue. If they didn’t agree with me, they’d definitely let me know it. No, I think this restaurant proposition is pretty much a sure thing.”

  Annie still held back. “What about Liam Jones?”

  Why was her mother bringing Liam up? Did she suspect that she and Liam had something going on? That when she’d left the store those times, saying she was going back to Vicker’s Corners to do further research into the way the restaurant was being operated, she was really going to Liam’s ranch?

  To Liam’s arms?

  “What about him?” Julia asked, trying her best to sound as if she was just being mildly curious why her mother would have brought his name up. Trying to act as if her heart hadn’t just started beating rapidly at double time.

  “Well, I heard him talking here to you that day. He really sounded as if he was dead set against having that restaurant built here and he might just find a way to keep that from happening. I just don’t want to see you get hurt, honey.”

  “Liam Jones can’t do anything single-handedly, Mom, and if the town votes to have it constructed—which I know they will—there’s nothing much that he can do about it,” Julia added.

  Annie inclined her head. It sounded good. “Still, tomorrow, when the town votes on this at the meeting, I intend to be there. Another vote in favor can’t hurt, right?”

  Julia laughed. “Right, Mama,” she agreed, resorting to the term of endearment she hardly ever used anymore. But this was a special time.

  Bending over, she kissed her mother’s cheek. “Another vote is always welcome. You realize that when this comes through, we’re going to have to hire extra help for you here in the store. But then, I’ll be bringing in more money, so we can easily pay for it.”

  “Whoa,” Annie cautioned. “One step at a time. Get this voted in, then you can start thinking about hiring people. And don’t worry about the Superette. It’ll be hard, but we’ll get along without you. We’ve taken up more than enough of your life as it is. Time you started carving out a life of your own.”

  The bell over the door announced the entrance of another customer. Annie automatically looked toward the entrance.

  “Right after you wait on this handsome gentleman,” she told her daughter, smiling at Liam. “Hello, Liam, how are your parents these days?”

  “They’re fine, Mrs. Tierney,” he replied politely. “Mind if I have a word with Julia?”

  “Have as many words as you like, Liam. And while you’re at it, why don’t you take her off my hands for the rest of the afternoon?” Annie suggested impulsively, much to Julia’s obvious surprise. “She hardly ever goes out of the store and she needs to get a little more color in her face.”

  Liam slanted a glance toward Annie’s daughter. A rosy hue was inching its way up Julia’s neck and onto her cheeks.

  He wondered if Mrs. Tierney suspected that Julia and he were involved. He’d always regarded Julia’s mother as a very sharp lady, despite her laid-back, unassuming manner.

  For that matter, Liam couldn’t help wondering if Julia suspected just how much she had managed to get to him in what seemed to be such an incredibly short amount of time.

  “Well, I think she’s getting some color in her cheeks right now, Mrs. Tierney,” he pointed out, amused by the fact that Julia was actually blushing. “But I’d be happy to take her out for you right now.”

  “I’m right here, people,” Julia said, speaking up as she raised her hand and waved it in front of her mother and Liam. “I can hear you, you know.”

  “Nice to know that there’s nothing wrong with your hearing, dear,” Annie said serenely. “Now go,” she urged, all but shooing her daughter and Liam out the door. “Have an afternoon outside the store, outside of everything—like a young woman who’s not perpetually trying to juggle too many things all at once.”

  Taking his cue from the older woman, Liam surprised Julia by suddenly going behind the counter and taking her hand.

  Julia tried to pull it away and found that she couldn’t. He was holding on to her hand rather tightly. “What are you doing?”

  “Listening to your mother—like you should,” Liam answered. Looking over his shoulder at Annie, he smiled. “See you later, Mrs. Tierney.”

  “Make it as ‘later’ as you like, Liam,” Annie urged.

  “Mother!” Julia cried. Okay, her mother had to know. But how? She hadn’t said a word.

  “She’s stubborn,” Annie told Liam as the rest of the customers in the store looked on in barely veiled amusement. “So you have your work cut out for you.”

  “I already know that, ma’am,” Liam replied, ushering a protesting Julia out of the store.

  The bell sounded, announcing their departure. Julia could have sworn she detected the faint sound of applause coming from the inside of the Superette and sending them on their way.

  The color in her cheeks deepened.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Once they were outside and clear of the Superette, Julia slanted an uncomfortable glance toward Liam to try to guess his reaction to what had just transpired in the store.

  “She knows,” she said, referring to her mother.

  She’d get no argument from him, Liam thought. “Your mother’s a sharp lady. I suspect she probably does. Question is, how much does she know?”

  Did the fact that her mother knew annoy him? Or did it just add notches to his figurative belt? Either way, she wanted Liam to know one thing. “I never said anything.”

  “I never said you did.”

  He didn’t see her as the type who had to share every intimate detail with someone. He’d known more than his share of that type, the ones who relived their relationships by going into great detail with every girlfriend they knew.

  “But some mothers have a way of just looking at you and intuiting things whether you want them to or not. I’ve got a hunch that might describe your mother. Is that a problem for you?” he asked. Unless he missed his guess, Julia seemed to be rather upset or flustered about the exchange that had just taken place with her mother inside the store.

  Julia shook her head. She wouldn’t exactly call being embarrassed by her mother a problem; she just didn’t know what to label it. “No.”

  “Oh.” He wasn’t 100 percent sure if he believed her. “Because you look a little upset.”

  She supposed she did at that. “If I am, it’s for you.”

  Why would she be upset for him? It didn’t make sense. “Now y
ou lost me.”

  That’ll happen all too soon, Julia couldn’t help thinking.

  Out loud she explained her reasoning to him. “I just don’t want my mother asking you a lot of questions, that’s all.”

  Was that all? Liam grinned. “Don’t worry about that. I can hold my own with your mother. Besides, she’s a nice lady.”

  Well, at least he didn’t hold grudges, Julia thought as she realized that she had gotten sidetracked by the exchange between her mother and Liam.

  “You said you wanted a word with me,” she reminded him. “About what?”

  He looked at her for a long moment. The early afternoon sun wove its way through her hair, giving the red strands a golden sheen. He wondered if she realized that she was beautiful.

  “I wanted to know if you wanted to see me tonight,” he told her. Then, before Julia could answer him, he continued, “Because I want to see you.”

  Had she been slated to go out with some girlfriends, or attend a school reunion, she would have found a way to postpone it or beg off to go wherever he wanted her to go. Julia was well aware that it wasn’t very independent of her, to be willing to rearrange her life because of a man, especially one with the sort of reputation that Liam had.

  But frankly, she couldn’t help herself. Being with him was like holding a bit of stardust in her hand. It was all magical and for as long as she could savor the experience, she intended to make the most of it. It would be over with soon enough and she didn’t want to do anything that would hasten its demise or curtail its very short life expectancy.

  She needed the memories to last her for the rest of her life because she instinctively knew that nothing, nothing was ever going to hold a candle to what she was experiencing with Liam.

  “Is this the part where I’m supposed to be coy?” she asked when Liam paused, waiting for an answer.

  He laughed. She was refreshingly devoid of any game playing. He liked that. “No, this is the part where you’re supposed to say, ‘Yes, Liam, I’d like to see you, too.’”