Maddie Fortune's Perfect Man

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  Madison rattled off some terms he required for the deal. Zach countered on some of the more unreasonable ones. Madison easily acquiesced because he knew they were unreasonable but always tried to push the envelope. The guy was always trying to spin a deal in his favor, but he also knew that Zach wouldn’t put up with his crap. He also knew that Zach was the best in the business and could sell out the building faster than anyone in Houston.

  “I’ll run this past my listing partner, Maddie Fortunado, and I’ll get back with you first thing tomorrow. Good?”

  “Uh, no. I don’t know who this Fortunado chick is, but I’m offering you this deal. Not her. You. Exclusively.”

  “First, she’s not a chick. She’s a damn good businesswoman. She’s part of the Fortunado Real Estate family. That’s the brokerage I work for.”

  He started to say she’d be running the place very soon, but stopped short. The thought surprised even him.

  “Yeah, well, she’s been annoying the crap out of me with all her phone calls. So—”

  Zach uttered another expletive. “If you’d call her back she wouldn’t have to keep calling you.”

  Dave Madison was starting to annoy the crap out of him. Nobody put Maddie down like that and got away with it.

  “All right, whatever. My offer stands firm. I’m happy to bring you on board. The chick can bring in buyers, but she’s not part of the deal.”

  * * *

  By 5:00 p.m., Maddie was wearing the cardinal-red gown Schuyler had chosen for her. The color matched the rest of the bridesmaids, but since she was the maid of honor, the style was different.

  Maddie loved her dress. Adored it. The cut flattered her in all the right places. The silky red fabric caressed her skin and made her feel beautiful and sexy. Most of all, she couldn’t wait for Zach to take it off her tonight, when they were both finally rewarded for their patience.

  She was falling for him. No, past tense. She had fallen for him, and hard.

  Maddie was in love with Zach.

  She’d talk to her father and make him work out something so that they both could stay. They both brought different strengths to the table. Fortunado needed them both.

  In the meantime, she wasn’t going to coast on her love for Zach. She was going to keep calling Dave Madison until he finally took her call. Zach clearly had the advantage since he knew Dave, but he’d stepped back on this, giving her a chance to bring something to the table. Zach had hooked Dave; now she was going to do her part and reel in the Paisley.

  Schuyler was in the shower preparing to get ready for the eight o’clock ceremony. That meant Maddie had about fifteen minutes to herself. She fished her phone out of her evening bag and dialed Dave.

  To Maddie’s utter surprise, just when she thought the call was about to go to voice mail, he picked up on the fourth ring.

  “Yeah?” He sounded groggy, as if she’d awakened him from a sound sleep.

  “Mr. Madison? Dave? This is Maddie Fortunado—”

  The grogginess gave way to a string of expletives that had Maddie holding the phone away from her ear. “I’m in Sydney. You woke me up. What the hell do you want from me?”

  Her first inclination was to apologize and tell him she’d call back later. But how in the world was she supposed to know where he was when he couldn’t even show her the courtesy of returning her calls—even if it was to tell her he wasn’t interested?

  “I’m calling about Fortunado Real Estate selling the units in the Paisley. I’ve left you a number of—”

  “I know you have and I haven’t called you back for a reason. I’ve given that contract to Zach McCarter. I’m good here, okay. Stop calling me.”

  Maddie dropped the phone before she could hang up. It slid under the bed.

  As she bent down to fish it out with shaking hands, the full magnitude of Dave’s words hit. He'd given the listing to Zach? She’d fallen hook, line and sinker for McCarter's game.

  Chapter Nine

  Schuyler was a beautiful bride in her mermaid-style gown that hugged her curves, showing them off to their best and flaring out at the knees for a dramatic effect. It was quintessentially Schuyler: sexy and dramatic.

  The outdoor wedding had been ethereally romantic in the Mendoza Winery’s sculpture garden with its rosebushes and views. The manicured lawn seemed to stretch on for miles, but the area where the ceremony took place, in front of the Spanish-tiled fountain, was adorned with orchids provided by the florist, which enhanced the rose garden that was in full bloom. The flowers, which were lit to perfection, seemed to be at their splendoring best when the couple exchanged their vows under an inky, starry sky.

  It was everything Maddie could’ve wished for her sister: perfect weather, supportive guests and a loving soul mate in handsome Carlo Mendoza.

  It almost made a girl believe in love again.

  Well, except for the love part.

  Schuyler had found her perfect man, but once again, for Maddie, love had delivered a sharp, poisonous sting.

  The mere thought of having to face Zach broke her heart all over again every time she thought about it. That meant the best thing she could do was steer clear of him for as long as possible. All she needed to do was stick it out until the end of the reception and she could drive back to Houston tonight.

  Since she was part of the wedding party, it had been easy for her to avoid Zach until the reception. Now that the ceremony was over, the photos were shot and the bridal party and newlyweds had been introduced, it would take some skillful maneuvering to circumvent him without creating a scene.

  She wouldn’t cause a scene.

  He was the last person on earth she wanted to see right now, but she wouldn’t ruin her sister’s otherwise perfect night.

  As the caterers buzzed around with the passed hors d’oeuvres, Maddie saw her father, but, to her relief, there was no sign of Zach.

  “Hi, Dad,” she said as enthusiastically as she could muster.

  “Madeleine, light of my life and apple of my eye. You look beautiful. How are you, honey?”

  It wasn’t the same cautious, tentative how are you subtext: how is the business arrangement going? It was a genuine greeting from a man who was genuinely happy to be celebrating his daughter’s wedding day.

  “Couldn’t be better,” she said.

  Liar.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “Me, too. Lovely wedding, isn’t it? You girls did a great job putting this little shindig together.”

  She knew he was in a good mood because he didn’t even joke about how much the little shindig was setting him back. She half expected him to make a crack about having to call off retirement to pay the wedding bills, but he didn’t.

  Instead, when a waiter came by with a tray of champagne, Kenneth snagged two flutes off the tray and handed one to Maddie.

  “Thank you, Dad.”

  “I take it that you and Zach are getting along well,” he said. “Isn’t he your date? Where is he?”

  Maddie groaned inwardly.

  Here we go.

  No. We’re not going to talk about this right now.

  “I don’t know where he is.”

  I don’t care. As long as you’re here and he doesn’t appear to be in this ballroom, I don’t care where he is or what he’s doing.

  “I was pleased when Schuyler mentioned that you two might be getting close.”

  Maddie choked on her drink. “She said what?”

  “She mentioned that romance might be in the air. I must say, I approve. Zach McCarter is son-in-law material.”

  Oh, no, he is not. He is a backstabbing, double-crossing turd.

  Never in her entire life had she ever talked about romance with her father. And she didn’t plan to start now. He was so very off base about this one. She hated to pull out the big guns, but she needed to put a hard stop to this conversation.

  “Speaking of sons-in-law, now that Schuyler is married to Carlo, I guess it will be more difficult to keep our possible
connection to the Fortunes quiet for much longer since the Fortunes and Mendozas seem to be inextricably intertwined.”

  Her father frowned, all traces of the earlier good humor vanishing from his face.

  Welcome to my world, Dad.

  “My feelings about the Fortunes remain the same. I am still not interested in fostering a relationship with them and I am not encouraging our family to reach out to them. Maddie, you know I’ve never been fully convinced of the connection. Your grandmother changed our last name when I was a young child. Her name was Mary Johnson. She changed our last name to Fortunado because it was a form of the name she believed we deserved but couldn’t claim. That’s how we ended up with the Fortunado moniker. Even so, we’re Johnsons, not Fortunes. But let’s just suppose by some crackpot shot we were related—that Schuyler’s right when she suggests that Gerald Robinson and I share the same father, Julius Fortune. The dad, Julius, has been dead a long time.

  “Even if it was true, I don’t see any benefit in pursuing the connection. From all accounts, I’ve heard Gerald Robinson—or Jerome Fortune, or whatever his name is—is a cold, hard, cheating SOB. I don’t even want to meet him. Why in the world would I claim him as family? Let’s leave well enough alone.”

  “I think that’s a great idea, Dad.” Maddie gestured to Barbara, who was walking their way. “I think Mom’s looking for you.”

  Kenneth brightened. “Oh, yes, of course. You have a lovely night, Madeleine. Don’t worry. Your day to be a bride will come. Hopefully, very soon?”

  Maddie kept her expression neutral. It had been a harsh means of stopping the Zach talk, but it had done the trick. Because of that, she was going to let his last comment roll right off her back. She walked over to her three brothers and Lila Clark Fortunado, who were sitting together at a table.

  “Hey, guys,” Maddie said, pulling out one of the empty chairs.

  “Hey, sis.” Connor Fortunado stood and hugged Maddie. Since Carlo had so many brothers and cousins, there hadn’t been room in the bridal party for her brothers, but, Maddie figured, the upside to that was it gave them more time to talk.

  “You’re looking good, Mads,” said Gavin. “You clean up nicely.”

  “When did y’all get in?” she asked, aware that Zach had just entered La Viña, the restaurant connected to the Mendoza Winery that was catering the reception.

  Gavin had gotten in last night. Having recently returned from their honeymoon, Everett and his new bride, Lila, had flown in this morning.

  Against her better judgment, she let her eyes scan the room. She wondered where Zach was. She'd lost sight of him while she was talking to her brothers. Zach was probably spinning another business deal that was bound to make her look bad. It certainly seemed as if he had no interest in anything but business. And that was fine. She wasn’t doing business this weekend. She was taking time off to live life, celebrating her sister’s marriage.

  She laughed at a story Everett and Lila told about their time in Las Vegas, where they’d eloped. As thrilled as she was for her brother, she couldn’t stop searching for Zach. She couldn’t help but be on her guard. Odd that she hadn’t seen him at the reception so far. He seemed to be gone.

  So was their father.

  “Where’s Dad?” she asked.

  “He’s with Carlo.” Everett gestured toward the large window that reached from the hardwood floor to the arched oak-paneled ceiling, offering a breathtaking view of the sculpture gardens. She spotted Carlo and her dad on the winery’s lower terrace, enjoying brandy, cigars and deep conversation. The sculpture garden’s soft lighting gently illuminated them.

  “That looks like a serious talk,” Maddie said to Everett. Even though Carlo had taken the old-fashioned approach and asked their father for Schuyler’s hand before he proposed, Maddie was certain their father was taking this opportunity to lay down the law, giving Carlo the “you hurt my daughter, I hurt you” talk. She chuckled to herself. If she’d learned nothing more from her parents, it was the importance of family. You might fuss and squabble, but family had your back. Family never double-crossed you. At least not the members of the Fortunado family.

  She glanced around for Schuyler, wanting to joke that their father was telling Carlo that now that he’d married Sky, all sales were final. No refunds. No exchanges.

  The Fortunado family, she laughed to herself. It was sort of like the mafia without the crime. Now that Carlo had married into the family, there was no getting out. He was one of them for life.

  But Carlo was clearly in love with Schuyler. If her dad was having the scary talk with him, good-natured Carlo was smiling and nodding and appeared to be humoring Kenneth like a good son-in-law. Carlo had never wanted anything from her father—except his blessing to marry Schuyler. He wasn’t interested in the real estate business, as he and his cousins owned the winery and the restaurant where they were right now.

  Maybe her dad was right. Maybe the Fortunados had everything they needed in each other. Maybe it wasn’t worth the risk to try and merge their family with the enormous Fortune family—or anyone else. When Glammy had been alive, Kenneth used to joke that with the nine of them they had enough to form a baseball team. “Who needs more?” he used to say. But since Glammy was gone and Schuyler had been hot on the scent of proving that Julius Fortune was their grandfather, which would make them related to the Fortunes, their father had been more adamant than ever about closing ranks.

  With Carlo as part of the family, they were back up to nine. Actually, since Everett had married Lila, they had their team and a spare. Maybe it was best to leave well enough alone, because when you trusted too easily, sometimes—oftentimes—you got burned.

  Maddie felt a pang of envy for Schuyler and Carlo’s and Everett and Lila’s good fortunes at having found their soul mates.

  She hated herself because her gaze unwittingly searched again for Zach. Not in the longing way she had in the past. This time it was out of self-preservation. It was out of keeping your friends close, and keeping your enemies in sight always.

  Last night, after that kiss, she’d let herself believe that Zach was her Carlo. She could imagine him asking her father for her hand, promising that he would love and cherish her for the rest of his days...planning a future with her, instead of stealing her future from her.

  She watched her father and Carlo shake hands. The satisfied look on her new brother-in-law’s face hinted that the talk went well. Her father wasn’t hard to get along with. He was a straight shooter who played by the rules and demanded the same from everyone else.

  Kenneth had no more than made it inside La Viña when Zach appeared. As if from out of nowhere, he was right there, shaking her father’s hand. Kenneth was slapping him on the back in a way that made the anger that had been simmering in the pit of her stomach boil. There was no denying that Zach looked handsome in his tux. The mere sight of him made her melt a little inside in a way that had nothing to do with how mad she was. And that made her furious with herself.

  Fantasies were for people who chose to sit on the sidelines and dream. Delusions were for people who allowed themselves to be taken advantage of.

  That wasn’t going to happen to her again.

  Enough with the self-pity. She needed to be proactive and figure out what she was going to do next. She was a strong woman. Strong women didn’t play the victim. Strong women didn’t make excuses or point fingers. Zach had won. Even if it wasn’t fair and square, he’d won, and the sooner she wrapped her mind around it and decided her next move, the better off she’d be.

  In the meantime, she wasn’t going to sit there and watch Zach McCarter glad-hand her father.

  Instead, she grabbed her brother Gavin’s hand. “Dance with me.”

  The band was playing a catchy eighties song and Gavin obliged without hesitation and followed her to the dance floor.

  The music was too loud to carry on a conversation while dancing, which made it perfect, because Maddie didn’t want to talk. She needed to b
urn off some of her rage before she did something stupid.

  The problem was her father wouldn’t see anything wrong with Zach’s tactics to secure the Paisley deal. Maddie knew Zach hadn’t gone about it honorably or honestly, but he’d sealed the deal when she couldn’t even get Dave Madison to return her call. The only way Dave Madison would go with Fortunado as the exclusive brokerage was if Zach was in charge. That was the bottom line. It was all that mattered.

  It was a slap in the face, but the deal was done.

  Zach had won.

  Plain and simple. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like the way he did business or the way he’d manipulated her to get what he wanted. Scratch that. She hated herself for allowing him to manipulate her. She’d let her heart get in the way. She’d trusted him when she never should’ve let him get that close.

  “Mind if I cut in?”

  Zach was standing on the dance floor tapping Gavin on the shoulder.

  “That’s okay,” she said. “I’m tired and I want to get something to drink.”

  She walked away and for lack of anywhere else to go, she went to the ladies’ room. She couldn’t cut out early and go back to the hotel because she was her sister’s maid of honor; she still had to make a toast. She needed to be there for her sister until Schuyler and Carlo drove off into the night. That meant she couldn’t hang out in the bathroom for the rest of the night either.

  She checked her reflection in the mirror, adjusting the neckline of the red gown Schuyler had chosen for her to wear tonight. It was a pretty dress, even if it was bright. The red lipstick she’d purchased that night at the drugstore matched perfectly. Schuyler had informed her that red lipstick was the hardest color to apply because of the hyperpigmentation. It wasn’t as noticeable when a lighter color went on crooked or bled outside of the lip line, but red was nearly impossible to mask...without a lip liner and a little bit of practice.

  Armed with the proper tools, Maddie had mastered red and looked darn good, if she did say so herself.