Fortune's Second-Chance Cowboy Read online

  Welcome Home, Chloe Fortune!

  “You’re family,” Graham Fortune tells his newly discovered half sister, Chloe Fortune Elliott, and just like that, Chloe has a new job and a new home in Austin. She works well with the troubled teens at Peter’s Place, but she’s having more difficulty managing a male of the grown-up variety. Ranch hand Chance Howell gets under her skin from the moment they meet.

  The tall blond army veteran is good with horses and adolescents, but he’s a master at avoiding intimacy. Maybe that’s why Chloe is so drawn to him. Or maybe it’s the sadness she recognizes in his eyes. Her head tells her falling for Chance is a bad idea. Her heart tells her she may have no choice...

  MEET THE FORTUNES

  Fortune of the Month: Chloe Fortune Elliott

  Age: 26

  Vital statistics: Five foot two, eyes of blue and a heart as big as Texas.

  Claim to Fame: None—until she discovers Jerome Fortune is her biological father.

  Romantic prospects: Questionable. She has loved and lost. Once you’ve “fallen off the horse,” it can be hard to pick yourself up again.

  “I’ve been working as a counselor at Peter’s Place ranch for just a few weeks now, and it’s just as challenging—and rewarding—as I thought it would be. One challenge I didn’t expect was Chance Howell. Graham Fortune’s new ranch hand makes me feel, well...he makes me feel. I thought my heart died along with my husband when Donnie got killed in Afghanistan.

  I suppose any red-blooded female would respond to a cowboy as sexy as Chance. But he’s a former soldier himself, and he’s made it clear he doesn’t “do” permanent. And I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I’m a Fortune. There are a million reasons why we shouldn’t get involved. So why do they go flying out the window the minute he sidles up beside me?”

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: The Secret Fortunes—A new generation of heroes and heartbreakers!

  Dear Reader,

  When I was growing up, my entire family, not counting me, consisted of four people: a pair of parents called Mama and Daddy and a pair of younger brothers (I asked my parents for pet dogs, but they couldn’t afford them, so this was my consolation prize) called pains-in-the-neck. It wasn’t until several years later that I found out they had names, Michael and Mark. Despite what I initially felt was a less than successful foray into siblinghood, I always wanted a large family, the kind that made finding parking places near the house around holiday time a tricky event. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out. Consequently, I went from not having any uncles or aunts (and thus no cousins) to not having any nieces or nephews because neither brother got married. I did succeed in finding someone to love and we had two kids together, but that’s a story for another time.

  To make up for this lack of relatives in my life, I write about families with relatives. In the case of the Fortunes, theirs is a family saga on steroids. With a prolific patriarch as their father, the children of Gerald Robinson, finally revealed to be Jerome Fortune, cannot turn around in a full circle without finding another one of their father’s offspring. What you have before you is the story of one such offspring: army widow Chloe Elliott, who only recently discovered that she has the same DNA as the very famous Fortune family. But DNA alone isn’t enough when it comes to being accepted, at least not by the entire family. Come read and find out how she finally becomes a genuine part of the family while also finding the love of her life—again.

  Thank you for taking the time to read one of my books, and from the bottom of my heart, I wish you someone to love who loves you back.

  Love,

  Marie Ferrarella

  Fortune’s Second-Chance Cowboy

  Marie Ferrarella

  USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–winning author Marie Ferrarella has written more than two hundred and fifty books for Harlequin, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, marieferrarella.com.

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Matchmaking Mamas

  Twice a Hero, Always Her Man

  Dr. Forget-Me-Not

  Coming Home for Christmas

  Her Red-Carpet Romance

  Diamond in the Ruff

  Dating for Two

  Wish Upon a Matchmaker

  Ten Years Later...

  A Perfectly Imperfect Match

  Once Upon a Matchmaker

  Montana Mavericks: The Baby Bonanza

  A Maverick and a Half

  Montana Mavericks: What Happened at the Wedding?

  Do You Take This Maverick?

  The Fortunes of Texas: Cowboy Country

  Mendoza’s Secret Fortune

  The Fortunes of Texas: Welcome to Horseback Hollow

  Lassoed by Fortune

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002

  To Tiffany Khauo,

  who is about to have her own population explosion. Tiffany, this one’s for you.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Just a Little Bit Married by Teresa Southwick

  Prologue

  “Hello, Chloe, are you still there?”

  Chloe Elliott’s hand tightened around her landline’s receiver as she heard the caller’s deep male voice asking her the same question again.

  Was she still there?

  Part of Chloe felt like answering the question by simply hanging up. She’d had enough disappointments in her twenty-six years to last a lifetime, why would she set herself up for yet another one?

  But there was this other part of Chloe, the part that needed to believe that good things could happen, that they still did happen. That was the part that had been instrumental in making her get out of bed every morning even after Donnie, the husband she’d adored, had been killed while serving in Afghanistan after they had been married for only an incredibly short two years. That was also the part that had decided to make her gather her courage together and to try to get to know her father’s family.

  The father who had, up until just recently, been a complete mystery in her life.

  Ever since she could remember—until she’d gotten married—it had been just her mother and her. There had been no other family members to speak of, and that had been just fine with her. Filling in the blanks for herself, Chloe assumed that her father had been her mother’s high school sweetheart who’d been killed in a car accident before he could marry her nineteen-year-old mother.

  B
ecause that had been her belief since forever, Chloe hadn’t been prepared to learn that her father was actually tech giant Gerald Robinson. And even more, that for years now he’d been living under an assumed name. Gerald Robinson was in fact Jerome Fortune, one of the famous Texas Fortunes, no less. Neither had she been prepared for the eight legitimate Robinson offspring, giving her half siblings she’d never known she had.

  And that didn’t even begin to take into account the various illegitimate offspring the man had left scattered in his wake, as well.

  All in all, it had been a great deal for her to take in and process.

  Realizing that the man on the other end of the line, Graham Fortune Robinson, the third of Gerald’s eight children, was still waiting for a response, Chloe answered quietly, “Yes, I’m still here.”

  Chloe could almost hear the pleased smile in her half brother’s voice as he continued. “You might not remember me, but we met at that big family dinner at Kate Fortune’s ranch.”

  How could she not remember? Chloe thought. She remembered everything about that evening, which had come about when Keaton Fortune Whitfield had contacted her out of the blue to tell her that he was her half sibling and invited her to come. And just like that, she’d gone from having no living relatives, now that her mother was gone, to having so many of them that she needed a scorecard just to keep track of them all.

  She remembered how frightened and excited she’d been, walking into that huge mansion that evening. She’d harbored such great hopes.

  Hopes that had been completely dashed when she’d met Sophie Fortune Robinson, her father’s youngest daughter. At least his youngest legitimate daughter, Chloe silently amended. Everything had gone downhill from there when she’d introduced herself to Sophie. The latter had looked utterly appalled to meet her, and if looks could’ve killed, Chloe definitely wouldn’t be alive to take this phone call right now.

  Not that she could really blame Sophie, Chloe thought. It had to be quite a shock to find out that the man she had thought of as her father all those years had a completely other identity that she knew nothing about.

  “Yes, I remember you,” Chloe finally responded to Graham’s comment.

  She recalled that Graham had been the handsome, energetic young rancher and businessman whom Kate Fortune had tapped to run Fortune Cosmetics for her. It was obvious that the reserved woman had been quite proud of him.

  “I know this must seem strange, my calling you out of the blue like this,” Graham said.

  “No stranger than finding out after all these years that my father was Gerald Robinson,” Chloe replied, wondering where all this was going.

  After that family dinner, she would have bet that that was the last time she would ever see any of those people again. And, to be quite honest, the run-in with Sophie had left a bad taste in her mouth. She’d decided to keep her distance from the Fortunes, especially since her mother had never had an interest in reuniting with her father.

  “If I remember correctly, you have a degree in counseling, don’t you?” Graham was saying.

  She was surprised that anyone even noticed her that night—other than thinking of her as an interloper. After all, how else would anyone regard their father’s bastard child? Chloe thought ruefully.

  “Yes, I do,” she said uncertainly, waiting for Graham to get to the point—and wondering if, once he did, she was going to regret it.

  “I know this might seem unusual to you,” Graham continued.

  Unusual doesn’t begin to cover the half of it, Chloe thought.

  “—but I’m calling with a job offer.”

  “A job offer?” Chloe echoed, stunned. “But you run Fortune Cosmetics. And I don’t know anything about cosmetics, other than what I have in my medicine cabinet.”

  She heard Graham laugh. “You won’t have to. Have you ever heard of Peter’s Place?”

  “Of course I’ve heard of it. That’s a therapeutic ranch for troubled teenaged boys.”

  “Right.” He sounded pleased with her answer. “Currently, my wife, Sasha, is the only counselor there. Because of a recent, rather generous donation from the Fortune Foundation, we’re going to be expanding Peter’s Place. I’ve been doing double duty running the ranch as well as helming Fortune Cosmetics. Frankly, between that and taking care of a baby plus our eight-year-old daughter, I’m spread pretty thin. I—we,” he amended, including his wife, “could definitely use a bigger staff. Now, I realize that you’re just starting out, but I’ve got a good feeling about you, Chloe. I’d like you to come down to Peter’s Place for an interview—it’ll pretty much just be a formality. And while you’re here, you can take a look around the ranch—that is, if you’re interested,” he tagged on. It was clear from the way he spoke that he really hoped she was.

  Life had robbed her of some of her optimism, making her suspicious of things that seemed to be too good to be true—which was why Chloe didn’t immediately jump at the offer, the way she might have only a few years ago.

  “Like you said, I’m just starting out. Why would you be offering this to me?” she wanted to know. “It sounds like you could hire anyone you wanted to.”

  “I know. And that’s what I thought I was doing,” he told her. “I’ve made inquiries about you, Chloe. According to my sources, you’re talented and you have a way with people. And,” he added most significantly, “because you’re family.”

  You’re family.

  Chloe felt a funny little sensation in the pit of her stomach. For most of her young life, it had been only her mother and her against the world. And then she’d married Donnie, only to have him taken from her all too soon two years ago. There was a part of her that was starving to be part of a family, even as part of her distrusted that feeling and the invitation she was being tendered.

  Still, because there was that hunger to be part of something greater than just herself, to be accepted into a family, Chloe heard herself asking, “When would you like me to come down?”

  Chapter One

  Dear Lord, what am I doing?

  The question echoed in her brain as Chloe pulled up before the main ranch house of Peter’s Place.

  Yes, she really wanted to be part of a family, part of this family, but did she really want to leave herself wide open like this? To get this close to the Fortunes? After all, she sternly reminded herself, her encounter last month with the clan was less than successful to say the least.

  It all came vividly rushing back to her now as she turned off the ignition and sat quietly in the car for a moment.

  She never should have agreed to this interview. She was too intimidated by Kate Fortune, the family matriarch, who Chloe figured would be at this meeting. And why not? She seemed to run everything associated with the Fortune family.

  Kate Fortune might well be ninety-one years old, but she looked decades younger and was sharp as the proverbial tack. The woman was not exactly the warm, cuddly grandmotherly type.

  Was it too late to change her mind? Chloe thought not for the first time.

  Then again, it wasn’t as if she was exactly hip-deep in job offers, able to pick and choose which position she was willing to accept. Given that, this job that Graham was offering her was at least worth a look. Heaven knew she wasn’t getting anywhere looking for work so far and she knew that Donnie wouldn’t have wanted her to give up on life just because he was gone. And who knew? Maybe she’d actually get it and things would work out for the best.

  There was always a first time, Chloe told herself philosophically, doing her best to bolster up her flagging courage.

  “Well, here goes nothing,” Chloe murmured under her breath as she unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door.

  Glancing up into the rearview mirror before she exited the vehicle, she made one futile attempt to smooth down her wayward curly blond hair. No
t that it did all that much good, she thought ruefully. Her hair seemed to have a mind of its own.

  “Just like me,” Chloe murmured, thinking of what her mother had often said.

  You just keep dancing to your own drummer, Chloe. The world’ll come around eventually to join you.

  Satisfied that she looked as good as she was going to look on this crisp March day—the wind had seemed determined to restyle her hair the moment she’d stepped outside—Chloe got out of her sedan and closed the door.

  She didn’t bother locking the vehicle because it wasn’t the kind of car that anyone would think to steal. It had already gone through several owners before she’d bought it a year ago. Close to ten years old, it ran mostly on faith and used parts.

  Warning herself not to expect too much, Chloe went up the three steps to the ranch house front door. Mentally counting to ten as she took a deep breath and centered herself, she knocked on the door.

  The second her knuckles made contact, the door seemed to fly open. As a matter of fact, she could have sworn that the door opened a second before she actually knocked on it.

  But that had to be her imagination—right?

  “Oh, Chloe, you’re here,” Graham said, looking startled to see her.

  He wasn’t in the doorway alone. Chloe recognized the pretty blue-eyed blonde right behind her half brother. It was his wife, Sasha. The petite woman looked even more frazzled than Graham did.

  “I’m sorry. Did I get the dates mixed up?” Chloe asked, looking from Graham to his wife. It was the only conclusion she could draw, given the expressions on their faces and their almost breathless manner.

  “No, no, you’ve got the right date,” Graham assured her. “But something’s just come up. There’s been a sudden family emergency. I just got a call from our babysitter that Maddie—that’s our eight-year-old,” he explained quickly, “decided that she’d give flying off the swing a try.” He frowned, shaking his head. “It didn’t turn out quite the way our fearless daughter had hoped. From all the screaming and crying, the sitter thinks that Maddie broke her arm. We’re just on our way out to meet them at the hospital.”