Maddie Fortune's Perfect Man

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  And she intended to keep giving herself these pep talks until she felt like herself again.

  She was the only one in the ladies’ room. So, she looked at herself in the mirror and said, “You can do this. You will get through this. Right now, do it for Schuyler. And soon you will be fine.”

  She checked her posture and as she pulled open the door, she nearly ran into her friend Billie Pemberton, a real estate agent and family friend who lived in Austin.

  “Maddie, hi!” Billie said, as she gave her a quick embrace. “You look gorgeous and the wedding was just beautiful. Schuyler and Carlo seem so happy. They almost make you believe in love, don’t they?”

  Maddie forced herself to laugh. “I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m so happy for my sister and Carlo.”

  “I hear that you and Zach McCarter are an item.”

  Maddie racked her brain trying to figure out how Billie would know Zach, but everyone in Texas seemed to know Zach. It was a small world and seemed to be getting smaller and smaller as the years flew by.

  “We’re just friends. This weekend is strictly work-related.”

  “That’s good,” Billie said. “He’s a good-looking guy, but it would be awkward if you crossed that line—if you know what I mean—and things didn’t work out. You know something always happens. Love is so overrated, even the guys who seem perfect wind up disappointing in the end.”

  “That’s the truth,” Maddie said. “It was great running into you, Billie. I’m sure I’ll see you again before the night is over.”

  When Maddie stepped out of the ladies’ room, the music was loud and thumping. She caught a glimpse of her sister out on the dance floor with Carlo. They looked like they were having the time of their lives and didn't look like they needed Maddie for anything.

  She needed some fresh air and decided it was a good time to step outside. She exited the side door and walked down to the sculpture garden where Carlo and Schuyler had been married a few hours earlier.

  The event coordinators had removed the Chiavari chairs and the sculpture gardens had been returned to their original splendor. The lush roses perfumed the air and the babbling fountain provided a soundtrack for her senses that eased a bit of the angst she’d been suffering.

  And to think, if she hadn’t promised Schuyler she’d stay with her last night, she might have taken Zach back to her room.

  If she was feeling this bad after just a kiss...

  No, she wasn’t going to go there.

  She walked over to the edge of the gardens, to the place where area gave way to the sweep of green grass that led to the vineyards, and stood there until she began to feel a chill from the cool night air. She crossed her arms and rubbed them, trying to warm up.

  “Are you cold?” asked a too-familiar deep voice that made Maddie’s stomach lurch and fall. “Take my jacket. It’s chilly out here.”

  “No thank you,” she told Zach. “I was just going inside.” Maddie turned to walk away.

  “Are you avoiding me tonight?”

  “I don’t really want to talk to you right now, Zach.”

  “Maddie, what’s the matter? Are you mad at me?”

  She stopped and whirled around. “You’re really going to stand there and pretend like nothing is wrong?”

  Zach stared back at her. “What are you talking about?”

  Maddie looked around, making sure they were alone before she quietly lit into him.

  “I finally got ahold of Dave Madison. It helps if you catch him when he’s sleeping. Either that or he picked up because he thought someone else was calling. Probably that, because he wasn’t very thrilled to hear from me. He said he’d already talked to you and the two of you had worked out the details about the Paisley. He informed me that you’re going to be handling the listings. Exclusively. Congratulations, Zach. That’s quite a coup. What’s next? A hostile takeover? Oh, wait, you won’t have to because now my father is going to make you the president of Fortunado Real Estate.”

  She gave him a round of applause.

  “It’s not as bad as it seems, Maddie. I promise.”

  “Frankly, Zach, from my vantage point, it couldn’t look much worse. When were you planning on telling me? Or were you staging your big reveal to be in front of my father? Oh, wait, that’s probably what you were talking to him about earlier.”

  “Maddie, listen to me—”

  “No, Zach, you listen to me. I can’t believe you would stoop so low. No, you know what I can’t believe? I can’t believe that I would fall for somebody who would stoop so low.”

  She turned around and walked away from him as fast as her stiletto heels would carry her.

  “When I was talking to your father earlier, I told him I was withdrawing myself from consideration for the promotion. The job belongs to you, Maddie.”

  She stopped abruptly, and turned around. “Wait, what? You’re withdrawing? What do you plan to do with the Paisley listing? You know you have a noncompete clause. You can’t just take everything.”

  “I’m going to stay as long as it takes to sell out the Paisley and then I’m going to marry you, if you’ll have me.”

  She was so angry that her ears were ringing from the blood that had been rushing and the sound of her heartbeat echoing. She thought he’d just said he wanted to marry her. Surely, she was mistaken.

  “What did you just say?”

  By this time, he’d closed the gap between them and there was no mistaking when he pulled out a small black box from his coat pocket and held it out like an offering.

  “I said, I want to marry you if you’ll have me. Because I love you.”

  He opened the box and showed her the small sapphire surrounded by diamonds. “I know it’s not big or showy, but it belonged to my mother. When Rich and I met yesterday, I told him about you and he could tell from looking at me that I was in love with you.”

  The world was whirling around Maddie, but Zach, standing there holding out that beautiful ring, was clearly, sharply in focus.

  “Are you going to say something?” he asked.

  Every fiber of her entire being was begging her to say yes, to throw her arms around him and kiss him so hard and so long that they would be each other’s only source of air. But the practical Maddie, the one who was still feeling compromised, spoke instead.

  “But, Zach, what happened with Dave Madison? He made it sound like he didn’t want Fortunado, like he only wanted you.”

  “I handled Dave. I told him without Fortunado, there is no me. But I also realized without you Fortunado wouldn’t be the same. At least not for me. I still believe your dad would’ve given you the promotion in the end, but—”

  Maddie smiled. “So, you’re withdrawing because you’re afraid of losing?”

  He smiled back. “You bet I am. I’m afraid of losing you. So, what do you say?” He got down on one knee. “Madeleine Fortunado, will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”

  “Yes!” She threw her arms around him and kissed him so hard the rest of the world disappeared.

  An hour later, Maddie joined all the other single ladies and lined up inside La Viña for Schuyler’s bouquet toss. Even though Maddie was newly engaged, she didn’t want to steal Schuyler’s thunder by breaking the news at the wedding. She and Zach would wait until Schuyler and Carlo returned from their honeymoon and they’d call the family together and make a big announcement of their own. They’d have to FaceTime her parents since they’d be out to sea on their big cruise. But they already knew. Zach had pulled Kenneth aside and asked his permission to marry his daughter. Then he’d found Barbara and both of her parents had given their resounding blessing.

  So, she stood waiting happily for the toss. Before Schuyler threw her flowers, she turned around and looked Maddie in the eyes and mouthed the words, These are for you. But when she tossed the bouquet, it split in two.

  Maddie caught half and the other part landed right in Billie Pemberton’s hands.

&nb
sp; “Oh, for God’s sake,” Billie muttered under her breath, but loud enough for Maddie to hear.

  “It’s a sign, Billie,” Maddie said. “We’re next.”

  “I don’t think so,” Billie grumbled.

  Zach appeared and swept Maddie into his arms. “It’s most definitely a sign. Just wait.”

  Epilogue

  The next morning, as Maddie awoke, she kept her eyes closed.

  She’d had the best dreams, the sexiest dreams, in which she and Zach had stayed up until the sunrise making love. They couldn’t get enough of each other.

  A strong arm pulled her in close to his rock-solid, naked body, confirming that what had happened after the wedding was prime-time real life. Her eyes fluttered open and she saw the gorgeous sapphire and diamond ring on her finger.

  “For a few seconds, I worried that I’d dreamed everything,” she said. “But here you are.”

  “Here we are,” he said. “Let me show you just how real everything was last night.”

  He entered her gently and they spent the rest of the morning making slow, tender love.

  Afterward, as they lay together, tangled and spent, Maddie said, “I want to tell you one thing you don’t know about me.”

  He propped up on his elbow and trailed his thumb over her cheekbone and across her kiss-swollen lower lip. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “I love you, Zach McCarter. I’ve been in love with you from the first moment I saw you. And I don’t know if I adequately expressed it but, last night, you made me the happiest woman in the world when you asked me to be your wife. Now I have a surprise for you.”

  “My love, you are full of surprises.”

  “While you were catching the garter, I was talking to my father. I suggested that he let both of us run Fortunado Real Estate.”

  Zach raised his brows.

  “Think about it,” Maddie said. “You and I bring different strengths to the table. What would be better than us joining forces at work and at home?”

  He pulled her tighter into his arms. “It’s true, we do complete each other. But we can talk about business later. Right now, I have one thing I want to tell you that you might not know.”

  “Oh, yeah? What is it?”

  “I love you even more right now than I did when you said you’d be my wife.”

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss the next installment of the new

  Harlequin Special Edition continuity

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS:

  THE RULEBREAKERS

  Rodeo star Grayson thinks he’s finally ready to quit the circuit and put down roots. Until he meets Realtor Billie Pemberton and suddenly, this cowboy is afraid of how deep he wants those roots to go...

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  FORTUNE’S HOMECOMING

  by New York Times Bestselling Author

  Allison Leigh

  On sale June 2018!

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  THE FORTUNE MOST LIKELY TO...

  by USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Marie Ferrarella

  FORTUNE’S FAMILY SECRETS

  by USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Karen Rose Smith

  and

  MADDIE FORTUNE’S PERFECT MAN

  by Nancy Robards Thompson

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  A Bachelor, a Boss and a Baby

  by Rachel Lee

  Chapter One

  Blaine Harrigan might have been the most delighted man in all of Conard County when he heard that a new planning manager had been hired. For years now the position had been vacant, the comprehensive plan was at least ten years old and he’d been dealing with all the county engineering while aware that they needed to update the plan. And he needed someone between him and the planning boards, which were made up of city council and county commission members. A little conflict of interest didn’t make his job any easier, especially with an out-of-date plan that they overrode readily because it was so old.

  When he heard they’d hired Diane Finch, he’d read over her résumé and given a huge sigh of relief. She looked competent and had great recommendations from her previous job in Des Moines. Better, she sounded more than capable of standing up with him to the so-called planning boards that had started looking more to their personal interests than what was best for the county and city.

  Well, maybe she wouldn’t stand up with him at first, not with her job so new, and not until she learned the lay of the land. But a professional planner? She probably wouldn’t be keen to play along with ideas that could make her look bad or adversely affect her career.

  What’s more, she had to be aware that the county and city couldn’t get useful grants without an updated plan and a planner to write the proposals and oversee performance.

  He’d probably have to wait awhile for the ally to emerge regardless. That was all right with him. He’d been poking his finger into the dike to stop the rash of self-serving plans for over five years now.

  More than once he’d considered looking for another job, but his Irish blood wouldn’t let him run from a fight. Besides, he’d grown fond of Conard County, different in so many ways from Galway, where he’d grown up. Life had brought him here, and while he’d always be homesick for the beauties of Galway, he found different beauty here in the mountains and rolling prairie. He’d also found a place he was willing to defend and maybe sink some permanent roots.

  With that random assortment of thoughts rolling around in his head, he strolled through the basement hallways in the courthouse, heading to the rooms that belonged to the planner. Diane Finch, according to the grapevine, had arrived early this morning, and for some reason the court clerks and the many city and county employees who filled the offices down here had been looking rather amused and whispering quite a bit.

  He wanted to know what was going on. Was she a golden-scaled dragon or something?

  Painting a smile on his face, he knocked briefly on the closed door and entered, ready to meet the woman he hoped would work with him. The sound that came through the door should have warned him, but since it shouldn’t be there, he’d assumed it was drifting down from the floor above.

  He froze in astonishment as he stepped in. The unlikeliest of sights greeted him.

  A lovely young woman with golden-blond hair, wearing what appeared to be a gray slacks suit, stood at a bare desk with a baby on
it. She appeared to be busy trying to put a fresh diaper on the squalling, struggling bundle of pink bottom and pulled-up yellow cloth. The golden eyes that rose in surprise to look at him also appeared almost frantic.

  Questions could come later, he decided in an instant. Swiftly closing the door behind him, he asked, “Need a little help there?” His brogue, so carefully erased, somehow pushed its way through.

  “You’ve got kids?” she asked almost plaintively.

  “I helped raise me five brothers and sisters. You’re new at this?”

  “Very,” she admitted.

  Without any hesitation, he rounded her desk and nudged her aside a bit. “I’m used to cloth diapers,” he remarked, holding the baby safely with a big hand placed gently on her tummy. The little bottom didn’t look irritated, so he just went about grabbing a wipe from an open container beside a disposable diaper at the corner of the desk. He cleaned the tot quickly before opening the fresh diaper with one hand and placing it on the little girl. Despite the child’s wildly waving arms and legs, it only took a few seconds, then he had her diapered and dry. Pulling down her onesie, he fastened the snaps easily.

  Instead of quieting, the baby continued to cry.

  “She been fed?” he asked.

  “Just.”

  “Ah.” Without another word he picked the child up and placed her on his shoulder, not caring he was probably going to need a fresh shirt after this. “Hush, little treasure,” he murmured, gently patting and rubbing her back with practiced ease while pacing the small office. After he took about a dozen steps back and forth, the babe’s fist found its way to her mouth and she quieted. Moments after that a small burp escaped her.

  “There we go,” Blaine said, “but it’s probably not the last. You mind?”

  She sank into the chair behind the desk and gave him a crooked smile. “Not at all. I’m so totally new to this I’m learning everything the hard way.”

  “No prior practice, then?”

  She shook her head. “Daphne is my cousin’s child. She’s in the hospital and I’m fostering. I thought it would be easy.”