My Fair Fortune

“There’s a bit of a wait for a table,” Brodie said. “Why don’t we have a drink in the bar in the meantime?”

As they turned to go, the hostess said, “If you want a table, I need a name.” She tapped her list with her pen.

“Fortune Hayes,” he said. “Brodie Fortune Hayes.”

Caitlyn stopped. “What? You’re a Fortune?”

Chapter Four (#ulink_361ad6be-45b5-58cb-bb40-0e99b1577616)

Never mind that she’d met Brodie at a Fortune wedding and that they’d skipped the last names and jumped right to the sex. Finding out this way that he was part of the illustrious Fortune clan felt like she’d discovered an enemy who’d infiltrated her family’s camp.

The Fortunes were vehemently opposed to Cowboy Country because they were afraid that the park would bring in too many outsiders to Horseback Hollow and ruin the idyllic small town. Since the park meant so much to her father, Caitlyn couldn’t help but take their scorn personally. Now here she was sitting at the bar with Brodie, while he perused the wine list as if the revelation of who he really was hadn’t made things strange and different and even more wrong.

“Does my father know you’re a Fortune?”

It took him a minute to look up from the leather-bound listing.

In that time, she thought about calling her dad. But then reality set in. If he didn’t know, the shock would upset him. After his heart attack, he was supposed to remain as stress-free as possible. That was the whole reason she’d moved to Horseback Hollow, to steer Cowboy Country to a successful opening.

“Of course he does.” He looked at her as if she’d suggested they order orange soda rather than the bottle of wine, which, given his upper-crust airs, was sure to be the best the restaurant had to offer. “Why does my being a Fortune bother you?”

Why did it bother her?

He’d done nothing to indicate he’d taken the job for nefarious reasons—to spy and report back...to whoever he’d report back to... Umm, okay, so that sounded far-fetched. But wait! What if he’d come on board to wreak sabotage to keep them from opening?

The moment the thought formed, it seemed equally ridiculous. After all, he had been the one who’d exercised tough love on Clark Ball, sending him back to work rather than letting him take the afternoon off. If Brodie wanted to sabotage them, he could’ve simply let the electrician walk off the job. They wouldn’t have met the deadline to fix the electrical problems, and Cowboy Country would’ve failed the inspection.

Why did it bother her?

“Because it feels like you haven’t been honest with me.”

That seemed to wipe the smug smirk right off his face.

For about two seconds.

“I haven’t been honest with you?”

She let his words hang in the air, knowing where he was going with this.

“I suppose I could say the same about you, Cait from Chicago.”

She refused to let his words faze her. Until he said, “Do you see how bloody ridiculous this is?”

She sighed. “Oh, my God. I do. As hard as we’ve tried to skirt the issue, we’re going to have to talk about what happened that night.”

“Well, I don’t know if we have to go that far.”

“Brodie, we do. Because if we talk about it—or at least acknowledge it—then we can move past it and get to work.”

“Fair enough. We had sex and it was quite wonderful, if you must know.”

She felt her face flush. “Well, I really wasn’t thinking we should editorialize, but thank you.”

Dammit, it had been good. One night of pure pleasure that would’ve been pretty darn-near close to perfect if he hadn’t reappeared in her life and reignited that longing she felt every time she looked at him...or caught him looking at her...like he was doing right now.