Victoria Pade - Fortune Found

“I just really, really … like you …”

That made her feel a whole lot of things that were dangerous for her to be feeling.

Then he glanced up from his study of their hands intertwined and gazed into her eyes for a moment before he leaned just an inch or two closer, clearly aiming to kiss her.

But instead he paused, waiting as if tonight he wouldn’t do it unless she met him halfway, unless she let him know that it was something she wanted him to do.

She wished she didn’t. But wishing didn’t make it so. She wanted him to kiss her so badly that she couldn’t keep herself from drifting an inch or two forward herself, raising her chin almost imperceptibly but enough to give permission.

Permission he didn’t hesitate to accept …

Dear Reader,

Flint Fortune grew up with a bad opinion of marriage. In spite of that, he was crazy enough to try it once himself, with disastrous results. Since then he’s been convinced that marriage and family are not for him.

Jessie Hunt-Myers is a young widow who doubts that any man will ever be interested in taking on her and the four small children she’s raising on her own.

During the past six months, the tides seem to be turning for all of the Fortune family of Red Rock, Texas and, while Flint may think he’s not included in that, when he meets Jessie he can’t be so sure. But four—count them—four kids? That’s a whole lot to take on. And Flint just isn’t altogether sure he can do it. The problem is, he also doesn’t know how he’s going to walk away from the most wonderful woman he’s ever met.

I hope you enjoy this final installment in THE

FORTUNES OF TEXAS: LOST … AND FOUND. I

know I enjoyed writing it.

Happy summer reading!

Victoria Pade

VICTORIA PADEis a USA TODAY bestselling author of numerous romance novels. She has two beautiful and talented daughters—Cori and Erin—and is a native of Colorado, where she lives and writes. A devoted chocolate lover, she’s in search of the perfect chocolate-chip cookie recipe. For information about her latest and upcoming releases, and to find recipes for some of the decadent desserts her characters enjoy, log on to www.vikkipade.com.

Fortune Found

Victoria Pade

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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“Iss him! Iss him! Iss Fwint, Mama!”

The announcement came from Jessica Hunt-Myers’s excited three-year-old son, Adam, when he dashed to the open bathroom door, poked his head in, then dashed out again.

“Let me guess,” Jessie said to her sister, her tone holding no shortage of suspicion. “That phone call a little while ago was from Flint Fortune, saying he was on his way. That’s why you stopped me from sanding the baseboards, rushed me into your bathroom and gave me this sudden makeover.”

Jessie stood with her hips resting on the countertop that surrounded the sink, facing her sister, Kelsey. Kelsey was wielding a fluffy blush brush and applying the powder to Jessie’s face much the way they’d played dress up with their mother’s makeup when they were little girls.

Kelsey gave her a wide-eyed smile. “This really is new stuff that I just wanted you to try because I thought you’d like it. And that clip does look better in your hair than it did in mine,” she said innocently.

Jessie rolled her eyes, not buying the innocent act for a second. “Kelsey …” she groaned. “First you try to match me with a guy you like yourself—the guy you ended up with—and now you’re trying to push his brother?”

Kelsey shrugged. “I kept the first one for myself. It seems only fair that I find you someone else to make it up to you,” she joked.

The first one had been Cooper Fortune and after unsuccessfully attempting to put Jessie together with Coop, Kelsey had succumbed to her own attraction to the man. They were now engaged, raising Cooper’s six-month-old son, Anthony, and had moved into the house next door to Jessie’s.

The house was in need of extensive remodeling, which was the reason Jessie and Adam—the youngest of Jessie’s four children—were at Kelsey’s house late that Sunday afternoon. Jessie was helping with some of the work.

The renovation was also why Cooper’s brother, Flint, was scheduled for an extended stay in Kelsey and Coop’s guest room.

An extended stay that was apparently about to begin.

“I don’t need—or want —to be fixed up with anyone,” Jessie said emphatically.

“It’s been two years since Peter died, Jess,” Kelsey cajoled gently.

“Two years, eleven days, three hours.”

Kelsey shook her head sadly. “And you need more in your life to distract you from still counting the days. The hours.”

“More in my life?” Jessie said with a laugh. “I have four kids, Kelsey. Mom and Dad retired to move in with me and lend me a hand because I have so much in my life—”

“Your kids will grow up, Mom and Dad will decide to travel or get a place in a retirement community the way they talked about before. And then where will you be, Jess? Alone—that’s where.”

“With a bathroom all to myself and a house that actually stays clean for five minutes and the possibility that I might never again run out of cookies …” Jessie said in a dreamy tone of voice, making light of the bleak picture her sister was painting.

“Alone,” Kelsey repeated direly.

“Ella is seven. Braden and Bethany are four. Adam is only three. It’ll be a long, long time before I have to worry about that.”

“But don’t you want someone for yourself again now?” Kelsey persisted. “Pete would have wanted—”

“Oh, don’t pull that one! I hate it when people say what Pete would have wanted.”

“Okay, then he wouldn’t have wanted you to end up old and alone,” Kelsey insisted, reversing it.

“I’m not ready,” Jessie said definitively. “And when I am, it will happen. Without your beating the bushes for a man for me.”

“I haven’t been beating the bushes. I just think that sometimes fate presents opportunities and I know that without a push, you won’t see what’s right in front of you. Even though Flint is pretty hard to overlook—or didn’t you notice how hot he is?”

“Are you having second thoughts?” Jessie goaded her sister, turning the tables to distract her.

It didn’t work.

“No! It’s because I’m so in love with Coop that I want the same thing for you. And because I’ve learned firsthand that these Fortune men are men worth having and I want you to have a man who’s worth having. The way Pete was.”

“You can’t be sure that Flint Fortune is a man worth having just based on his brother. You barely know Flint himself.”