by Helen Lacey
Valene hadn’t taken much interest at the time, since she’d been neck-deep in work and wanted to prove she could be as ambitious and successful at Fortunado Real Estate as her sister Maddie. But now the truth was out. They were really Fortunes—as their free-spirited grandmother had enjoyed an affair with the philandering Julius. Valene had learned to accept the fact that she had an incredibly complicated family tree. It wasn’t unusual to see an article on the internet or in the paper about the family. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that a journalist named Ariana Lamonte had done an exposé on all of Gerald Robinson’s children, including the ones he’d sired out of wedlock. Yeah, complicated didn’t really cover it. Particularly now that Gerald Robinson, aka Jerome Fortune, had left his embittered wife, Charlotte, and had sought refuge in the arms of the first and only love of his life, Deborah—who had borne him three illegitimate sons decades earlier.
Yes, the Fortunado/Fortune/Mendoza connection was about as complicated as it got.
“Okay,” Schuyler said and grinned. “I’ll admit that I’m the flake in the family.”
“What does that make me?” Maddie queried.
“The workaholic,” Val said lightly. “And I’m the spoiled brat. I know, since our brothers have told me that repeatedly over the years.”
“You’re not spoiled,” Schuyler defended. “But you’re the youngest, and since we’ve already established that you’re Daddy’s favorite, you know you have to get labeled as something. But now I think we should check out this Jake on social media and see what he’s hiding.”
Val rolled her eyes. “He’s not hiding anything.”
“Everyone is hiding something,” Maddie said, her mouth flattened. “What’s his last name?”
“I’m not saying,” Val replied, standing her ground. “I’m not going to do anything other than go on a nice and respectable date with the man.”
Schuyler made a dramatic sound. “Oh, I see, you actually like him.”
Val waved an impatient hand. She loved her sisters...but sometimes they were impossibly bossy and interfering. “We spent an hour together. I’d hardly call that enough time to form any kind of opinion.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Maddie said seriously. “I was pining for Zach for years after the first time I laid eyes on him.”
“But underneath your corporate and workaholic demeanor, you’re a soppy sentimentalist,” Val said and chuckled. “And I’m a realist.”
They all laughed, and it was so nice to spend some quality time with her sisters. Since both of them had married, and Schuyler had moved to Austin to be with Carlo, she’d missed their company. Of course, she still regularly saw Maddie at both the Houston and Austin offices, but that was work. She had friends, but other than her bestie, Adele, no one came close to the affection she felt for her siblings. She even missed hanging out with her brothers. Particularly Connor, who lived in Denver and was always a great source of advice and counsel.
Growing up as the youngest Fortunado child had had its difficult moments. For one, her parents were overprotective of her and often treated her as though she were eighteen and not twenty-four. Since her father had retired and he and her mother had begun traveling, their stranglehold had lessened a little, but she still spoke to both her parents every few days. Case in point: she hadn’t told her parents she was using My Perfect Match to find a man, otherwise she knew her father would start handing out her number to people he thought were suitable for his youngest, beloved child.
She packed up what was left of her lunch and gave each of her sisters a hug. “I have to get back to work. I’m showing an estate in Bunker Hill this afternoon.”
“The McGovern place?” Maddie inquired, quickly in CEO mode.
“That’s the one,” she said and shrugged. “I have a buyer from Arizona, a couple who are transferring to Houston for work. We video chatted last time I did an open house, and they seem interested in the property.”
“But?” Maddie asked, always picking up on Val’s body language.
“They’re going in at under three fifty per square foot.”
“Median price is what?” Maddie queried. “About four hundred?”
She nodded. “Yeah...so we’ll see. The husband really likes the place, but his wife is a banker and is naturally going to try to screw the owners with a lower offer.”
Maddie’s brows rose quickly. “Please tell me you’re not using that terminology with the clients?”
Val laughed. She loved Maddie, but sometimes her oldest sister was too uptight. “Of course not,” she assured her boss and smoothed a hand over her perfectly tight chignon. “I am always at my professional best when I’m with a client.”
“Well, as long as you let your hair down with your hot cowboy on Friday night,” Schuyler said and chuckled.
Your hot cowboy...
Her skin turned uncharacteristically warm at the thought of Jake Brockton.
“Would you stop encouraging her to be as reckless as you?” Maddie scolded her sister.
Val was still smiling as she left the boardroom and headed up the hall. She passed her brother-in-law Zach McCarter and hiked a thumb in the direction of the boardroom. He nodded and grinned, clearly amused that she knew he would be looking for the wife he obviously adored. Val liked Zach; he was a good boss and a great businessman. She’d learned a lot from him since he’d moved to Houston from the San Antonio office. The transition had been at her father’s behest, of course, before her dad had retired. Kenneth had pitted Maddie and Zach against one another in a contest to secure the top job once he retired, and over the course of the rivalry, they had fallen crazily in love.
She was still smiling as she entered her office and was moving around her desk when her cell phone beeped. She checked the text message instantly.
It was her hot cowboy.
Toscano’s. Seven o’clock. Looking forward to it. Jake.
She grinned when she noticed the smiling emoji, wondering how he’d wrangled a reservation at one of the most popular restaurants in Houston. She texted back quickly and tucked the cell into her pocket.
She had a date.
And for the first time in a long time, Val didn’t feel quite so alone.
* * *
“Seriously, could you be any more evasive?”
Jake made an impatient sound at the whiny voice rattling in his ear. The same voice that had been demanding answers to a barrage of personal questions for the last five minutes.
“Cass,” he said quietly, “I told you, it’s none of your business.”
“But it was my idea,” she wailed and came around his left side, ignoring the fact he was hitching up the cinch on his horse and she was very much in the way. “I suggested the dating app to begin with.”
The big gelding sidestepped and stomped its foot. Jake loved his baby sister, but sometimes she was as annoying as a buzzing mosquito. And about as relentless. She’d been at him the moment she got home from college for the weekend, demanding to know how his coffee dates went. Well, date, in the singular, because he’d canceled the two other dates he’d made once he’d met the vivacious and beautiful Valene Fortunado. He’d never been a player, and dating more than one woman didn’t sit right.
“Cassidy,” he said, calling his sister by her full name, “button up, will you. I’ve got work to do.”
She huffed and swished her flaming-red ponytail. “Sometimes you are such a killjoy, Jake. If you hadn’t taken my advice, you never would have met this goddess.”
He turned his head and frowned. “And not once did I use that word,” he reminded her. “Remember that when you start telling Mom how you’re playing cupid.”
His sister laughed. “You said she was pretty.”
“She was. She is. But I don’t want to make more of it than it was. Coffee and conversation,” he said, his voice sterner. “That’s i
t.”
“But you’re seeing her tonight, right?”
He nodded slowly. “Right.”
“You should take flowers,” Cassidy suggested. “Women love flowers. And wear a suit. And don’t take that crappy old truck of yours. Make sure you drive the Sierra. I don’t know why you bought the thing—you never take it out of the garage. You’d rather drive around in that old Ranger that you’ve had since you were sixteen.”
Jake wasn’t about to argue, since Cassidy had a point. He did prefer the Ranger. But he often had business dealings that required more class than the beat-up Ford that his father had taught him to drive in so many years ago. Sentiment made him hang on to the old truck. And memory. And the acknowledgment of where he had come from, where his roots were, and how far he’d come since his dad had been the foreman of the Double Rock Ranch.
Jake had been raised on the ranch since he was twelve and Cassidy a newborn. Along with their mother, they’d lived in the cottage behind the main house, and their life had been happy and fulfilling. Jake loved the land and the work, but he’d also gotten good grades in high school, so college was the obvious next step. But when his father had died suddenly from a heart attack when he was eighteen, he’d quickly hightailed it back home from school and stepped into his father’s boots. If he hadn’t, his mom and sister would have been forced to leave the ranch, and that was unthinkable.
But he understood why Cassidy made the comment about the suit and the truck. Jake had no illusions. Valene was city while he was country. But he wasn’t an uneducated hick, even though she might think he was. True, she hadn’t made any condescending remarks when he’d admitted to dropping out of college, but he sensed some level of disappointment. He did admire the way she’d kept that feeling to herself, though. And he liked how she had asked him about his work and hadn’t made any negative remarks about his occupation. He knew from experience that some women measured a man’s worth by the weight of his wallet.
Like Patrice...
He’d pined for her through high school, but she was with the it crowd, and Jake was definitely not on her radar. Years later, that changed. Patrice did notice him. And because he was still stuck on her, Jake didn’t hesitate in falling head over heels in love with her, not realizing she was cold and calculating and not to be trusted. He learned his life lessons the hard way. Through Patrice’s betrayal and humiliation, his heart hardened, and he was determined he’d never be made a fool of again.
Jake gently grabbed Cassidy’s shoulders and ushered her out of the way. He checked the cinch, grabbed the reins and effortlessly sprang into the saddle. “Try to stay out of trouble, will you. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“We haven’t finished this conversation,” she reminded him, hands on hips.
Jake shook his head. “See ya, kid. Don’t forget to study while you’re here this weekend.”
Cassidy was in her third year at college, but she was easily distracted. He loved her, though, and would walk through fire for her and his mom. He reined the gelding and headed from the corral, meeting up with two of the ranch hands who’d been waiting patiently by the stables.
“Sorry, boys,” he said, though no apology was necessary. They all knew how irritating and adorable Cassidy could be.
“No worries, boss,” the older of the duo replied. Kris had been on the Double Rock Ranch longer than he had. Jake still winced every time one of the ranch hands called him boss, but he’d worked hard to get where he was, and everyone on the Double Rock knew it and respected him for it. “I got a younger sister myself. Nothin’ but trouble.”
They all laughed as they headed off. When they passed the main house, Jake slowed down a fraction. The renovations were finally being finished, something that was a long time coming. For years the previous owners had let the home fall into disrepair, but things on the Double Rock were slowly changing. The ranch, situated in Fort Bend County, was a forty-minute drive to Houston and just under four hundred acres. Prime land, dotted with oak and pecan trees, it was predominantly cattle and horses and operated a highly lucrative Wagyu beef business. Jake loved the Double Rock and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
He spent the following hour checking the perimeter fences on the west side of the property, ending up down by the creek. From there he had a great view of the rear of the house and the back deck that was currently being redone. Several contractors were working on the place, and he waved to a couple when they spotted him.
By the time he was finished with the fences, it was past four o’clock. He headed for the office in the stables and did paperwork for an hour and then made his way to the bunkhouse to shower and change. Since Cassidy was staying for the weekend, he’d planned on bunking with the ranch hands for a couple of days, giving up his room in the cottage to his sister. He’d been staying with his mom for the last few weeks while the upstairs rooms in the main house were painted and the new flooring went down. Their mother had turned the third bedroom in the cottage into a craft room a couple of years earlier, and he wasn’t about to let his baby sister sleep on the couch.
He showered and dressed, dismissing the idea of a suit and settling on dark jeans, a white shirt and a jacket. Suits and ties were not his thing. Sure, Valene was a sophisticated and educated woman, but Jake wasn’t about to become someone he wasn’t to impress her. He was a rancher, a cowboy, more at home in his Stetson and denim than hand-tailored suits. He kept the suits for business and the denim for pleasure.
And a date with Valene Fortunado was definitely about pleasure.
For two long days he’d been thinking about her, remembering her lovely brown eyes and the perfectly shaped mouth he was hopeful he’d get to kiss at some point.
He drove the Sierra, despite some misgivings, and had to park down the street from the restaurant because the vehicle was so big. Toscano’s was a nice place, well regarded and hard to get a reservation at. But he’d been there a lot, with Patrice when they were married and many times for business lunches and for dinner. The owner, Serge, knew him, since the Double Rock supplied their beef, and he’d been happy to make a reservation for Jake.
Jake lingered by the door a few minutes to seven and felt relief pitch in his chest when he saw Valene’s familiar-looking Lexus pull into a newly vacant parking space down the block. He met her by the driver’s side and closed the door once she got out.
“Evening,” he said and held out his hand.
Her fingers curled around his and she met his gaze. It was dark, and a chilly February night, but he felt the connection between them instantly. She wore a long coat, and her beautiful hair was down and framed her face. She was, he thought, as lovely as he remembered. Attraction skittered down his spine, and he experienced an unusual shortness of breath. It had been a long time since he had been so aware of a woman. Too long. And he liked the sensation that being around her evoked. It made him feel as though he was alive, and not the version of himself he’d allowed to take the lead since Patrice had left.
“Hello, Jake, it’s nice to see you again.”
“Likewise, Valene.”
She smiled and withdrew her hand. “You can call me Val.”
“I kinda like Valene,” he admitted and waited until she’d moved onto the sidewalk before discreetly placing a hand beneath her elbow and ushering her toward the restaurant. “Is that okay?”
She smiled. “Only my dad calls me Valene. And Glammy.”
“Glammy?”
She nodded and suddenly looked a little sad. “She was my grandmother. When we were kids, my sister Schuyler had a lisp and couldn’t say Grammy...so the word Glammy sort of stuck. She died last year.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. She was a wonderful woman. One of a kind. I miss her a lot. How did you manage to get a table?” she asked as they reached the door, changing the subject. “Did you bribe the maître d’?”
He smiled and led her inside, speaking close to her ear. “Something like that.”
Once they were inside, she took off her coat to reveal a stunning black-and-white dress that was modest but enhanced her lovely curves. It took about ten seconds for them to be seated and for Serge to seek Jake out. The owner, a Sicilian in his late sixties, greeted him with a friendly handshake.
“So good to see you again, Jake. It’s been too long. I saved the best table for you.”
Jake could only agree and figured the restaurateur had probably shuffled reservations around to give them the table situated between the small front window and the bar that was away from other diners and offered plenty of privacy.
“Thank you, Serge,” he said and then introduced Valene.
The rakish Sicilian grasped Valene’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “A pleasure, lovely lady. I have seen you here before, yes?”
She nodded and briefly met Jake’s gaze. “Yes, mostly for business lunches. However,” she said and smiled warmly, “I have never sat at the best table before.”
