Mail-Order Cinderella

He sensed she was testing him. “Of course, children should always come first.” Had he really said that? He’d never voiced that opinion before, but he felt he really meant it at that moment.

Tyler took a quick swallow of the chilled pink wine and studied her expression, focused so intently on his. He knew she was fighting her innate shyness to hold her gaze steady. Maybe she had more backbone than he’d at first realized.

Their meals arrived, breaking their eye lock. After they’d both refused an offer of freshly ground pepper, he cut a large bite from his thick prime rib and tried to clear his head as he chewed. If he was seriously considering marrying this woman, there must be other questions he should ask.

“Did you get your thrifty nature from your parents?” He watched with alarm as the glow drained from her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I hit a nerve?”

Julie pursed her lips and pushed her fork gently into a fat sea scallop. “I don’t remember my mother. She left my father and me before I was a year old. Dad didn’t have much of a head for budgets. He drove trucks all of his life, never made much money. As soon as I was old enough to shop for us, I made sure there was food to last through the end of every month.”

Tyler frowned. “I see.”

“It wasn’t a bad life, but I spent a lot of time alone. My father passed away four years ago. I’ve lived on my own since. My aunts, uncles and cousins all live on the East Coast. I rarely get to see them.”

Tyler imagined her as a child. A waif with stringy brown hair and no responsible adult to look after her. He could imagine her balled up in a chair in a corner of the children’s reading room, lost in a fairy tale. It suited her.

He felt a pang of guilt for all he’d had and taken for granted. Sure, Devlin had worked most of the time. Tyler had desperately yearned for his father’s attention, but never had it crossed his mind that his next meal might not appear when he was hungry.

He looked into Julie’s eyes and saw an eternity of loneliness. He didn’t need to ask why she wanted a family now. But there was one thing he didn’t understand. “Your profile said you are twenty-seven years old.”

“Yes.” She tipped her head to one side, waiting, her fork poised over her meal.

“If you’ve always wanted to start a family, why haven’t you married before now?”

With a little huff, she deliberately laid her fork across her plate and looked up at him as if he’d just slapped her. “Are you trying to make fun of me, Tyler?”

He gasped. “No, of course not, I—”

“Look at me,” she demanded.

He looked. What he saw was a charming burst of fire in her eyes. But he didn’t know if he was meant to see that or something else, so he kept quiet.

“I’m no catch. I fade into walls, don’t have much of a figure, wear clothes because they’re comfortable, not fashionable. I get nervous on dates and make lousy small talk. I freeze up when a man tries to kiss me. I—”

“You cook,” he interrupted. “And you reupholster furniture and love books.”

“Yes,” she agreed on a long outward breath, eyeing him suspiciously.

“And you’re not nearly as ordinary as you seem to think. You have lovely eyes, Julie. When you laugh or get angry, like now, they light up to put an acetylene torch to shame.”

“Is that construction humor?” she asked dryly.

“No, it’s the truth. Which you should recognize because you seem to be an honest person yourself.” He reached out and laid his hands over hers on the white linen tablecloth, then held them there when she made a weak effort to pull away. “Although you’re quiet, you speak up when something is important to you. You’re intelligent, which can be very sexy to any man with half a brain. And you won’t drive a man into bankruptcy by expecting lavish gifts. That seems to me the sort of woman a lot of men would be wise to consider as a wife.”

Julie stared at Tyler Fortune. Did she dare believe he was serious? A man as stunningly sexy and self-possessed as he, telling her she was…what? Desirable? No, maybe not that, because he hadn’t even hinted that she aroused him. No, it was more as if he recognized her few strong qualities and acknowledged he might look favorably upon them in choosing a partner. But that was far more than any other man had ever given her.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “It means a lot that you’d say something so kind to me.”

“You deserve at least that.” Before she could react, he lifted her right hand and brought it toward him across the table. His lips brushed her fingertips so lightly she barely felt their touch. He sandwiched her quivering hand between his two rough, warm palms. “Listen, I understand why you want to marry. Families are important. Actually, if you decide to go through with this matchmaking thing, I have a rather large clan to share with you.”

Her heart leapt into her throat and an irrational joy filled her. He sounded serious. Until this moment, she hadn’t believed, not deep down in her soul, that he’d want her.

“Your family,” she said, forgetting all about her dinner, “what are they like?”

He looked a little unsure of himself. “I’ll be more than happy to describe them to you. But first, in all fairness, I should clear up a few misconceptions you might have about me.”

Her rainbow of hope faded. “Misconceptions?”

“You see,” he began, “when I told you I was in construction, I think you sort of read into the term and—”

“That’s all right,” she interrupted. “The job doesn’t make the man. Even if you dig ditches for a living, as long as you’re honest and work hard for your money, we’ll make do.”

“No.” He smiled boyishly at her. “I’m at the other end on the economic ladder.”

“You mean,” she said slowly, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “You mean, you’re a crew boss…or a foreman? How wonderful, Tyler, I’m so proud of you!” She bounced on her chair in spontaneous delight but stopped herself when the couple at the nearest table turned to smile in her direction.

“I own the company. And it’s a big one.”

She stared blankly at him. “You what?”

Turning her hand palm up, as if to read her future, he explained casually, “Actually I share ownership with my parents, brother and cousins. I guess you’ve never heard of Fortune Construction. Most people don’t pay attention to the names of builders, even on big projects. I’ll bet there aren’t ten people in all of Houston who could tell you who built the Astrodome.”

Her free hand flew to her mouth. “No.”

“No, what?” His gray eyes darkened with uncertainty.

“You’re one of those Fortunes? Last week I read in the newspaper about a wealthy Native American family that was building a children’s hospital somewhere in Arizona.”

“That’s us.” Tyler grinned, looking smug.

Her heart sank. This was terrible. Not only was the man handsome, sexy and intelligent, he was rich. There was only one possible explanation for his having anything to do with her. He must be mentally unhinged.

Julie felt like running out of the elegant dining room, straight to her car—if she could find it—and driving as fast as she could away from Tyler Fortune. She closed her eyes, fighting down the panic. But his deep voice called her back, and she focused again on his words.

“It isn’t just the family,” Tyler was saying. “A lot of donations have gone into the building fund. People who care all over the country are helping out.”

She frowned. “This doesn’t make sense. You must have money to burn. You could marry any woman you want.”

“I don’t want just any woman for a wife,” he stated, but no warmth was directed at her.

“Then someone special. Like that woman over there.” Julie turned and gestured with the tip of her chin toward a woman sitting at a nearby table. “She’s stunning. Just look at her—perfectly styled blond hair, beautiful jewelry…and that dress.” She sighed and leaned across the table to whisper. “Do you realize, Tyler, she’s been staring at you since we came into this room? I’ll bet women are always looking at you like that.”

He shrugged as if he was too accustomed to attention from the opposite sex to be surprised. “Look at the problem of marriage from my point of view. What if that woman there or some other agrees to become my wife because she’s physically attracted to me? How will she feel about me five years from now? Or, if money is the object of her affection, will she be calculating even before our wedding day how much alimony she can grab?”

“But surely, there are attractive women who might genuinely—”

“Fall in love with me? Be willing to take me on for better or worse in the traditional sense?” There was a heavy touch of bitterness in his laugh. “Haven’t stumbled across any yet, lady.”

“I see.” She sighed.