The Fortunes of Texas: Cowboy Country

But that wasn’t the real problem as she saw it. The bistro had indeed turned out to be trendy as well as really captivating. It had stained-glass windows, copper ceiling tiles and a vintage art-nouveau crystal chandelier in the entryway.

Moreover, the food was perfect, the conversation was interesting and Cisco was charming, funny and a complete gentleman from start to finish. The date didn’t end abruptly or last too long. In the words of Goldilocks, Rachel thought, changing into a pair of jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, it was “just right.”

So why had she left Cisco at the door, hotfooting it inside and not inviting him in, not making herself available to be kissed good-night?

As she went in, Cisco had acted as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on, but she could tell that she had surprised him—and disappointed the man, as well.

Rachel walked back out into her living room and flopped down on the sofa. Picking up her remote control, she turned on the TV and automatically began flipping through channels.

She was searching for something—anything—to distract her.

Rachel frowned, wondering if there was something wrong with her.

It had been a perfectly nice date, and she had had a perfectly nice time. Granted, there hadn’t been a magical spark of chemistry blowing her away, but hey, that was lightning in a bottle, right? Finding something like that was exceptionally rare.

Especially since her mind kept drifting off, envisioning that other Mendoza at her side instead of his equally handsome, equally intelligent older brother.

Right up to the end, as she waited on their table earlier today, she kept hoping that Matteo would be the one who would ask her out or, barring that, the one who ultimately showed up in Cisco’s place, murmuring vague apologies for his brother and saying something about Cisco being unavoidably detained.

She had found out fairly early in their time together tonight that Cisco was a real-estate investor. So being detained by an important deal was perfectly plausible.

But Cisco hadn’t been unavoidably detained, and Matteo hadn’t come to take his brother’s place. Cisco had been the one waiting for her, the one who followed her home so that she could leave her car there and then ride in his as they went out.

On paper, the man was perfect—and very easy on the eyes, as well. But she heard no bells ringing and no banjos playing when they were alone together. And she really didn’t want to settle for anything less than bells and banjos. More than anything else, she wanted a magical relationship—or nothing at all.

It was just as well that it had been Cisco tonight and not Matteo, she told herself, still flipping channels and looking for something numbing and mindless to help her unwind. Cisco had told her that his younger brother was a pilot “like our father.” She felt that flying was somewhat risky, and flying for a living just increased that risk.

The last thing she needed was to lose her heart to someone who had a dangerous occupation and might not be there in a week or a month.

This way, there were no unnecessary complications for her to deal with. Just a nice date. End of story, she told herself.

“Face it, Rach. This is not the time for you to get involved with anyone.” First, she had to get her life in gear and on track—find out where she was going with this Foundation internship she’d taken on. Once that was settled, then she could think about getting romantically involved with someone and falling in love, she thought, giving herself a mental pep talk since she had no one to turn to for any sort of support. “Don’t go putting the cart before the horse. Remember, you’ve got a plan and order is everything.”

It made for a good argument, she thought, watching channels as they whizzed by.

But deep down in her soul, she wasn’t completely convinced.

* * *

Just as she had anticipated, Rachel didn’t sleep all that well following her date. Every time she managed to doze off, her brain would conjure up fragments of dreams.

For the most part, they had to do with her evening out. But oddly enough, instead of the charismatic and confident Cisco, she saw Matteo at her side.

The dreams seemed so vivid that she felt they were actually happening—until she would wake up and find herself in her bed.

Sweating profusely—and very much alone.

After she’d gone through three such cycles, Rachel gave up all attempts at getting any sort of decent rest.

Besides, she reasoned, it was actually already too late for that. Her alarm was set to go off at seven-thirty. That was in less than another hour. She was going to work at the Fortune Foundation this morning, and she wanted to get there early, before her workday actually started. She wanted to absorb everything she could about the company.

Rachel already knew that the Foundation had been founded in the memory of Fortune patriarch Ryan Fortune, a man who had been a firm believer in paying it forward. He had lived his life that way, personally doing just that at every opportunity.

She’d learned that from the people who had been chosen to run the Horseback Hollow branch of the Fortune Foundation: Christopher Fortune Jones and his new wife, Kinsley.

The couple were returning from their honeymoon today, and Rachel wanted to be right there when they came in—not just to welcome them back, but to be able to listen to everything Christopher had to say.

She sympathized with Christopher and the way he had initially felt about the Fortunes when he had discovered that he and his siblings were actually directly related to the wealthy family. He had learned about this unexpected connection not all that long ago, and it had turned his entire life upside down until he finally made peace with the information.

That had taken a bit of doing on his part, as had adjusting to the fact that his mother, Jeanne Marie, was actually one third of a set of triplets. She and her sister had been given up for adoption. Her brother, James Michael, had grown up not knowing a thing about his two sisters, with only the vaguest memory that they existed.

It was through his relentless efforts to find them that his two sisters were told of their true identities. Both women took it a lot better than their families did at first.

Amazing how being part of that family created such drama for some people, Rachel couldn’t help thinking.

The next moment, she pushed the thought aside.

She couldn’t just sit around, contemplating life’s little tricks and secrets. She had a job waiting for her. A job that wouldn’t be waiting long if she started coming in late—or calling in sick.

Now, where had that last thought come from? Rachel upbraided herself. It certainly hadn’t been on her mind a moment ago.

This was what happened when she broke with her routine, she chided herself. Last night had been an aberration from her normal course of operations, and now she was paying the price by feeling just a little bit better than death warmed over.

Or maybe just as bad.

Knowing she needed a boost, Rachel stopped in the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee. Her coffeemaker was ready for her, as she’d set the timer to brew at the ungodly hour of four-thirty in the morning.

Closing her eyes as she took her first sips, Rachel gave herself a moment to allow the jet-black hot liquid to go slowly coursing through her veins, bringing everything in its path to attention.

How did people live before coffee was invented? she idly wondered.

“Better,” she pronounced after a few more moments had gone by. She felt almost human now.

Fortified, Rachel set the cup down on the counter and hurried off to take a quick shower.

It was only belatedly, several moments later, that she realized a face had flashed through her mind’s eye when she’d closed her eyes to savor her coffee.

The face belonged to Matteo Mendoza.

This time she didn’t bother trying to deny it or to talk herself out of her obvious attraction to the man. Instead, she just found herself wondering if she was going to see Matteo again.

And if so, when.

* * *

Rachel made it to the Fortune Foundation office at ten to nine, approximately fifteen minutes before the newlyweds arrived.

Their attempt to slip in quietly was quickly thwarted. Several of the other people who worked in the office saw them the moment they walked in and greeted them with hearty words of welcome.

Rachel added her voice to theirs, genuinely delighted to see the happy couple.

“Welcome back, you two,” Rachel cried, speaking up to be heard above the rest. “We missed you.”

Christopher laughed as he looked in her direction and replied, “No offense, but we didn’t miss you.”

Chris looked back at his wife, and Rachel knew exactly what he’d meant with his last remark. That Kinsley filled up his whole world and there was no space left over for anyone else, so no one else could possibly be missed.

Rachel felt envy pricking her. The love Christopher and Kinsley had for one another was almost visible.

She caught herself wondering if she was ever going to find someone who loved her like that—someone whom she could love like that, she silently added.

If the way she’d felt yesterday evening after her date was any indication, the answer to that was a depressing but resounding no.

Pushing that daunting thought aside—and knowing that the couple undoubtedly was on cloud nine and not quite ready to descend and start working just yet—Rachel came over to them.

“So, how did the big family reunion go?” Rachel asked him. When Christopher looked at her, clearly puzzled, she clarified her question. “At the wedding. That was the first time you actually met some of the other members of the Fortune family—your family,” she corrected herself. “Right?”

Christopher nodded, the look on his face telling her that he was partially reliving the scene in his mind. “Right.”

“And?” Rachel prompted him eagerly.

“And,” Christopher continued after taking in a deep breath, “it was kind of rocky at first. I wasn’t sure how they’d all react to all of us, or to me,” he said glibly. He spared no words criticizing his own behavior. “I mean, I hadn’t exactly welcomed the news with open arms initially myself. To tell you the truth, I was pretty surprised that they even showed up at the wedding.”

“But your mother invited them,” Rachel pointed out.

“That made no difference.” And then he smiled. The smile was equal parts humor and relief. “But just as when I first met most of them in Red Rock last year, they turned out to be a lot more understanding than I expected. I can truthfully say that they are a very nice bunch of people as a group and individually,” he added. “To be honest, if I had to pick my own family, I couldn’t have done a better job than picking the Fortunes. They’re charitable and decent, and they don’t behave as if they feel they’re privileged or something particularly special.”

Christopher abruptly stopped talking. “You’ve got a strange look on your face, Rachel. Is there something on your mind you’d like to talk about?”

Yes, there is. But you didn’t come back to work to be burdened by my problems.

“No,” she said out loud. “I was just curious.”

But maybe now wasn’t the time to satisfy her curiosity. After all, there was the matter of that little gold band on his left hand. That undoubtedly would take him a bit of time to get used to, too—even after the honeymoon.

For now, Rachel decided, she was just going to keep a low profile and do her job—or jobs, she corrected herself, since, just for a moment, she had forgotten about her job at the Cantina.

The second she thought of the Cantina, an image of Matteo flashed through her mind. Something else she couldn’t think about right now, she silently chided.

With effort, she focused on what she had to do right this moment, at the Foundation—but it wasn’t easy. Thoughts of Matteo continued to tease her brain.

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