Fortune's Hero

Her eyes sparkled. “Did you think I’d let you off that easily, cowboy?”

“Meaning?”

“I still want to get to know you.”

The last thing he wanted was more alone time with her. He turned on his heel and headed back to the barn. “You’re welcome to watch me work.”

He heard her following him and shook his head. She was like a mosquito. A stubborn, tenacious … and damned sexy pest.

He’d reached the barn door when the sound of a truck stopped him. His order of straw. Great. Lenny, the delivery driver, would spot Victoria and the town would soon be alive with rumor. Hell.

“You look like you want me to hide,” Victoria said. “You don’t want anyone to know I’m here, I suppose?”

Her insight surprised him. “Would you hide?”

“Heck no.” She laughed.

He eyed her steadily, resettled his hat on his head and went to greet Lenny, a sixty-year-old man who only seemed slow. He backed his truck to the barn door, hopped down and lumbered to where Garrett stood, waiting, Victoria next to him.

“Howdy, Garrett.” Lenny grabbed a bale hook, as did Garrett.

They worked in silence until the bales were unloaded and stacked. Garrett didn’t order too much at a time, preferring fresh straw and feed. His barn wasn’t huge, just ten stalls, one where he stored straw and another a tack room. Plus his workshop, hidden from casual glances.

When Garrett didn’t introduce Victoria, Lenny made it a point to do the honors. He lifted his gimme cap for a second. “Lenny Paulson, miss.”

“I’m Victoria Fortune.” She extended her hand as if he’d just washed up for supper, when in fact he was a mess from head to toe.

He hesitated, looked at his hand, then grasped hers for less than a second. “You Fortunes seem to have populated the whole earth.”

She laughed. “We have many branches all over the country, that’s for sure, and most have been fruitful. I have four brothers myself in Atlanta.”

“Whacha doin’ with this reprobate?”

“Learning how to muck stalls.”

Garrett almost laughed. She’d said it with a straight face.

“That so?” Lenny asked. “Got much call to do that in Hotlanta, do you?”

“You might be surprised.”

Lenny guffawed. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and passed it, along with a pencil stub, to Garrett, who signed the bill.

“He ain’t much of a bargain,” Lenny said to Victoria as he headed to his truck.

“‘Free’ is always a bargain,” she countered.

After the truck rumbled off, Garrett went to work finishing cleaning the stalls. She sat on a stool and watched, not saying a word, but not seeming bored, either. He wondered what Lenny would say to people, because he certainly wasn’t about to keep this bit of news to himself. No way.

Garrett was aware of her, of every time she crossed her legs or stretched or sneezed. Once when she was hunched over a little, her shirt gaped and he could see she was wearing a black bra. He liked red best, but black took a close second. It gave him something to fantasize about, anyway. Did she wear some tiny black thing as underwear?

“You only have the three horses?” she asked after a while, having seen them in the corral.

“At the moment. One’s been with me a long while. Apple Annie. These others ended up here over the past week. Haven’t located any owners as yet.”

“And how many dogs?”

“Six. At the moment.”

“Do those numbers change a lot?”

“They come and go. Except for Pete. He stays.”

“Abel seems pretty entrenched, as well.”

Garrett glanced over at the mutt, who’d made himself at home at Victoria’s feet. “He’s been hard to place. Not that he isn’t a good dog. He’s just … attached.”

“I haven’t seen any cats.”

“They keep to themselves. Last I counted, there were three. They do a good job of keeping the rodent population controlled.” He spread new straw in the last stall and wondered what would happen next. She didn’t seem inclined to leave.

“I brought lunch,” she said then, sliding her hands down her thighs nervously.

He didn’t know what to make of her—of the adoration in her eyes, her sassiness and straightforwardness. It was an odd and fascinating combination, and he needed to be careful. While he felt an almost blinding physical attraction to her, he would never be good enough for a Fortune, not with his past, not even for a night.

“I pictured you slapping a peanut-butter sandwich together for yourself,” she went on when he didn’t speak. “Thought maybe you’d like something a little heartier.”

He ambled over to where she sat. She straightened as he got closer. Her eyes took on a little wariness. “Victoria—”

“Vicki,” she interrupted breathlessly. “Most people call me Vicki.”

He let a few seconds pass. “Victoria, I don’t need mothering.”

“I’m not mothering you. I’m trying to be your friend. Friends do nice things for each other.”

“I’ve got all the friends I need.”

“Well, then, you’re a rare man. I figure I’ll meet lots more people in my life who will become friends. Some just for a little while and some forever. You saved my life, Garrett. That’s an unbreakable bond between us.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m beginning to regret doing that.” He stalked toward the door, not knowing where he was going, just that he needed to get outdoors.

She laughed and followed. “Roast beef sandwich, potato salad and apple pie,” she said, a coaxing lilt in her voice.

How’d she know his favorite meal?

“Estelle told me,” Victoria said smugly, apparently reading his expression. “Emily and I ate breakfast at her diner this morning. She even packed our lunch in a cooler I’m supposed to bring back when we’re done.”

He reached the stairs to his front porch, stopped and turned around. “So now Lenny and Estelle both know you’re out here visitin’ me. You might as well have taken out an ad in the weekly.”