Fortune's Heirs: Reunion Page 17

  Maria stayed her hand immediately, shaking her dark head. “No, it looks so pretty on you, querida. Leave it on.”

  “I don’t mind,” Gloria insisted. “If you’re cold—”

  Maria gave her what Gloria always thought of as her “mothering” look. “You can be a dear and go get mine for me.” Her mother slipped her arm through hers, gently tugging her toward the stairs. “It’s in my bedroom. In the bureau. Bottom drawer. On the left.” Each additional instruction was given as she pushed her daughter off in the right direction.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Gloria nodded. At least it would give her a little respite from the crowd, she thought. She grasped the spiral, light-maple wood banister. “Sure, be right back.”

  Maria smiled to herself as she watched Gloria go up the stairs.

  Jack roamed around the master bedroom, feeling restless. The king-size four-poster that dominated the room was laden with coats and jackets. The scent of old wood and fresh polish subtly wafted through the air, mingling lightly with the cologne that Maria Mendoza favored.

  It seemed like a strange place for a meeting.

  A strange place for a man who had been acting strangely.

  Jack shoved his hands into his pockets. There were no two ways about it, his father had been acting very strangely of late. They’d had all that time to talk in the limousine as they were coming up here and instead the man had asked him to meet with him in the Mendoza’s master bedroom.

  Rolling it over in his mind now, it sounded a little clandestine to Jack, especially since his father had said earlier that they were tabling all talk about business while they were at the party.

  But the fact that he did want to talk about work heartened Jack. Maybe his father was coming back to his senses. Maybe there was something about work that couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

  A fond smile lifted the corners of his mouth. There was a time when his father worked every party, every event they went into, staking out potential future clients for the bank.

  But why here?

  Jack heard the bedroom door opening behind him. He turned, questions sprouting on his lips.

  “Why all the secrecy?” The next question died before it saw the artificial light of the evening as he watched Gloria walk into the room.

  She stopped dead just a few steps past the doorway, looking as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

  He’d spent the better part of his allotted time at the party avoiding her. When he’d seen her coming in his direction, he’d turned away, taking a deep interest in the huge variety of hors d’oeuvres that Jose Mendoza had put out for his guests. He’d noted that she had done two U-turns on the two occasions when she’d seen him. Clearly, they were avoiding each other.

  Gloria stared at him. What was Jack doing up here?

  “Excuse me?” she said coldly.

  “Sorry.” He lifted and dropped his shoulders carelessly. “I thought you were my father.”

  Her eyes narrowed. That was an odd thing to say. “Why? Do I look like your father?”

  Why did she have to look so damn desirable? He could feel everything inside him responding, just as it always did around her. He needed to get out.

  He remained where he was. “He said he’d meet me here.”

  She heard the words, but they made no sense to her. “Here, in my parents’ bedroom.”

  A humorless smile filtered over his lips for a brief second. “Yeah, does sound rather fishy, doesn’t it?” Jack started for the door, but to do that, he had to get past her. He stopped short of his goal. And her. “What are you doing here?”

  “Getting a shawl for my mother.”

  But even as she moved toward the bureau, she realized that she’d been had. If she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she would have seen this coming a mile away. Especially since her mother had already done this to her once before to get her to resolve things with her sisters.

  She laughed shortly and shook her head. “I smell a conspiracy.” Unable to help herself, she smiled. “Your father.”

  Jack could get lost in that smile. “Your mother.”

  Could get lost in her eyes, he added.

  “What the hell are they thinking?” Gloria asked, the tolerance beginning to ebb from her voice.

  She jumped as the door behind her suddenly slammed shut.

  The next moment her mother’s voice came through the closed door. “They’re thinking that maybe you should talk about the baby.”

  Gloria spun around, staring at the door, visualizing her mother behind it. Had Sierra talked? “You know about the baby?”

  The next moment all thoughts of her mother vanished as she heard Jack demand, “What baby?”

  Angry at being set up this way and cornered by her own flesh and blood, angry that this had even happened to her, Gloria turned to face him and retorted, “Your baby. Our baby.” And, ultimately, her baby, she thought. Because it would be. Hers alone.

  Jack’s eyes shifted to her stomach. She was wearing a clingy turquoise dress that breathed with her. Her stomach was flat. “We have a baby?” he asked incredulously.

  Did he think she was making this up? “In about eight months we will.”

  His eyes were open so wide as he stared at her, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights, she thought disdainfully.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  His voice was dangerously low. Any second, he was going to explode, she just knew it. She tried the door, but it was locked. There was no escaping this confrontation.

  Damn it, Mama, why are you humiliating me like this?

  “Because I just found out. And besides, it doesn’t concern you.”

  “The hell it doesn’t!”

  His voice almost rattled the overhead light fixture. Taking a deep breath, Jack tried to compose himself. But there were at least a dozen emotions whirling through him, each trying to take their turn at him. And all the while, a strange sort of joy was weaving itself in and out, lighting up the darkness inside.

  He looked at her stomach again. It hardly looked large enough to harbor a grape, much less the beginnings of a human being. “Are you sure?”

  Because becoming defensive was a lot easier for her, she took shelter in that emotion. “What? That I’m pregnant or that it’s yours?”

  He saw the anger in her eyes, saw the hurt that lay beneath it. Saw echoes of himself in her defensiveness. He’d been like that, he realized. Ever since Ann had died, he’d barred every hand that reached out to him. All these years, he’d gone out of his way to keep everyone at bay.

  Maybe it was time for a change.

  “That you’re pregnant,” he answered her question tersely. “Because I know that if you are, it has to be mine.”

  No, she wasn’t going to lower her guard, wasn’t going to take solace in his words. She was going to throw them back at him. Her chin shot up as though daring him to hit her.

  “And why is that?”

  His eyes met hers. He wanted to hug her, to hold her in his arms and to just revel in the news she had thrown at him. A baby. They were going to have a baby. That feeling of ultimately being alone had disappeared, just like that. “Because you’re not the kind of woman who fools around with a lot of guys.”

  The fact that he said it, that he even thought it, warmed her heart.

  She struggled not to let it.

  In her opinion she was way too vulnerable here and she couldn’t afford to be. “And how would you know that?”

  He spelled it out for her. “Logically, if you were the kind of woman who slept around, you would have been prepared. You would have offered me a condom, or been on the pill.”

  Jack paused, knowing if he said the next thing out loud, he would be taking a huge step. A step that, once taken, might not allow him to go back.

  Making up his mind, he took it anyway. “And emotionally, I just know.”

  He was telling her that he felt things when it came to her. Gloria pressed her l
ips together, telling herself not to cry. What he said didn’t change anything. In the long run, he was going to back away. Maybe offer her some financial help, but that was it. And even if he was half responsible for the condition she found herself in, she wasn’t about to ask for anything. Or take anything.

  “You don’t have to worry,” she told him quietly. “I don’t expect anything.”

  He caught her arm before she could turn away. He didn’t want to talk to her back. She needed to look him in the eye, to see that he was serious. “But I do. I expect to see my son or daughter every day.”

  The man was just full of surprises. “You want custody?”

  “Yes.” He looked at her pointedly. “Of the baby and of you.”

  “I’m too old for someone to have custody of me.”

  He looked annoyed that she was playing with semantics. “You know what I mean.”

  Happiness leaped inside her. He wanted her. But the next moment, logic came along to snuff out the joy. “No.”

  He stared at her, shaking his head slightly as if to clear his ears. “What?”

  She could feel herself turning to jelly inside, not knowing how much longer she could stand firm. Gloria struggled to sound distant. “It’s not a big word, Jack. I said no.”

  He wasn’t about to let it go at that. Having made up his mind about the matter, about her, he was digging in for the duration. He had no other choice. He loved her and the baby whose existence he hadn’t known about fifteen minutes ago.

  “Why not?”

  She fisted her hands on her hips. Was he dense? “What do you mean, why not? I’m not going to have you marry me out of pity or some misguided sense of obligation. Until you found out about the baby, you weren’t even talking to me. You were going to go back to New York without so much as a goodbye. And now you want to marry me?” She was no one’s charity case. “No way. Now I’m sorry if that offends your sense of pride, or honor or whatever, but—”

  “Enough!” he yelled. Then, as she stared at him, stunned, he demanded, “Can you stop talking for just one damn minute?” As if to underline his request, he pointed to his watch.

  He was wearing the watch she’d repaired.

  Did that mean something?

  God, she had to stop searching for hidden meanings in everything. If he was wearing the watch, it just meant that he liked it, not that he was wearing it because she’d fixed it for him.

  “Why?” Gloria demanded hotly. “Why should I stop talking?”

  “So I can tell you I love you,” he shouted back at her.

  She wanted to believe him. Rising up on her toes, her hands still on her hips, she jeered, “Oh, just like that.”

  “Yes.” He was still shouting. “Just like that. From the first moment I saw you, damn it.”

  She felt as if she’d just taken a torpedo to her hull. His words sank in. Was he serious? One look at his face told her that he was. Her heart turned over in her chest. “You’re going to need a little schooling in being romantic.”

  “I don’t want schooling, I want you.” It was time to make a clean confession. She wasn’t going to believe him otherwise and he needed her to believe him. And to understand. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  She heard him, but she couldn’t believe him. How could that possibly be true? “You were afraid of me?”

  Nodding, he took her hands from her waist, one at a time, and then took her into his arms. “Afraid to admit what I was feeling. Afraid that if I did, fate would pull the rug out from under me the way it did with Ann.”

  And just like that, her heart went out to him. “Jack, there’re no guarantees in life.”

  “Yes, and I’m logical enough to know that.” His eyes caressed her face as they washed over her. “I’m also human enough to be afraid of losing you.”

  She tilted her head, as if trying to find a way to fit the thought in. “So if you never get me, you can’t lose me?”

  It did sound pretty stupid when she said it out loud. “Something like that. But now there’s a third person to consider.” He pulled her closer, the baby a tiny seed between them. “I can’t be selfish. I’m going to be a father.” Feeling more love than he could ever put into words, he looked at her for a long moment. “I’d like to be a husband, as well.”

  She bit her lip, as afraid as he was to expose herself to more disappointment. “I don’t know—”

  Less than an hour ago that would have been enough to make him back away. But he was a different man now than he was half an hour ago. He dug in, then took one hell of a dive off the cliff he’d been standing on. This was for all the marbles.

  “All I have to know is if you love me.” He searched her face, hoping to see his answer.

  She had to keep reminding herself to breathe. Air kept standing still in her lungs. “And that’s all?”

  “That’s all.” And then, because fearing that she would say no, he swung the back of his wrist against the closest bedpost. The crystal cracked. A tiny bit of glass fell on what was almost the only piece of comforter that was still exposed. “I need you to fix my watch, Gloria.” And then he told her what was in his heart. “I need you to fix me.”

  She could feel the tears gathering inside her. Happy tears this time. “Oh, God, you make it hard to say no.”

  He ran his finger along her lips, already tasting them. “Then don’t. Don’t say no. Say yes, Gloria. Say yes. You smile when you say yes. Try it and see,” he urged.

  “Yes,” Gloria murmured, then said it more loudly. “Yes.” She laughed. “You’re right.” She threaded her arms around his neck, then looked over her shoulder toward the door, remembering that they hadn’t been alone. Was her mother still standing out there? “Did you get all that, Mama?”

  “Every word.” There was pure joy in her mother’s voice. “About time you were sensible.”

  Sense, Gloria thought as she turned back to the man who had her heart, had nothing to do with it. “Aren’t you going to kiss me?” she whispered.

  He secured his arms around her, pulling her closer. “For the rest of my life.”

  Laughter filled her. “Might make eating difficult,” she teased.

  “I’ll find a way,” he promised as he lowered his mouth to hers.

  She knew that if anyone could do it, Jack could.

  It was the last thought she had just before she sank into the kiss. And the four-poster. It proved to be a great deal more comfortable for lovemaking than the elevator floor had been.

  Epilogue

  “I don’t do windows.”

  Christina grinned as she opened the door to her apartment wider, letting her sister in. It was the following weekend and a great deal had happened. More than some people packed into a year. In seven days, Gloria had opened her store, announced she was pregnant and then, with Jack at her side, announced she was getting married.

  Which meant that she now had to pay up.

  Closing the door, Christina surveyed the costume Gloria was wearing. It was the Hollywood version of what a French maid’s costume should be. Christina imagined that Jack had approved of the super-high hemline.

  “Nice outfit. And, yes, you will do windows.” A frown appeared on Gloria’s face. Christina laughed. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Lucky for you I don’t have a house. Now, I have a whole list of stuff for you to do.” She unfurled what looked like a scroll, purely for dramatic effect.

  Gloria stared at it. Every line of the two-foot roll of paper was written on. She raised her eyes to Christina’s face. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Christina handed her the scroll. “You think this is bad, you should see Sierra’s list.”

  Gloria looked around the modern apartment. Their tastes were similar, she thought. Clean, homey lines, not too cluttered, not too austere. “But you just moved in here, how dirty can it be?”

  Christina fixed her with a look. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t maids not supposed to talk back?”

  �
�Obviously you never watched the Brady Bunch.” She looked at the list that Christina had handed her. “This thing is incredible.”

  Christina shrugged nonchalantly. Half the things on there weren’t going to be attended to, especially not in Gloria’s condition, but she’d enjoyed coming up with the insurmountable list. “Hey, us executive types don’t have time to clean.”

  Gloria stuffed the list into her shallow pocket. “You know, there are cleaning services you could avail yourself of.”

  “I didn’t say rich executive types, now did I? Besides, I’d feel too guilty paying someone to clean my place. Mama does her own work.”

  Gloria thought of the way her mother had plotted to get her together with Jack. If not for her, who knew how things would have wound up? “Mama is a piece of work.” She smiled broadly. “The very best.”

  “Yeah.” There was no arguing with that.

  Tugging at her short skirt, Gloria braced herself. “Okay, where do you want me to start.”

  “With this.” Christina surprised her by throwing her arms around her and hugging hard. “God, I hope you’re happy, little sister.”

  Gloria grinned, her eyes dancing. “If I were any happier, I’d have to be two people.”

  “Well, you deserve it,” Christina told her, feeling a little wistful because she knew she’d never be there to join Gloria in that new place she’d found. “Now, I thought you could start in here…”

  Gloria groaned as she followed her sister into the kitchen.

  There, next to the counter, was a bucket and every cleaning product known to man. Unopened. Christina gestured toward them, then added, “And I’d like you to whistle while you work.”

  Gloria gave her a look. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “Today I am the boss of you and I say it is.”

  With a sigh, Gloria began to whistle. Actually, she thought as she picked up a sponge and counter cleanser, she had a great deal to whistle about.

  A Tycoon in Texas

  By

  Crystal Green