A Bride for the Black Sheep Brother

Sixteen


Cooper had consumed her life for those brief weeks she’d been at Bear Creek Lodge.

The whole time she’d been there, part of her had been convinced they were going to fail. That Bear Creek Lodge would be Cooper’s folly. It had never occurred to her that it would be her own.

And yet the exhibition had been a huge success. She had seen that even though she’d left partway through. The lodge had looked amazing. The guests had had a fabulous time. More importantly, the guests who were also investors had been impressed.

She had left Utah with no doubt at all that Cooper would be able to purchase, renovate and open Bear Creek Lodge. Either his own board would support the decision and the resort would open under the Flight+Risk name or other investors would step forward. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d already received numerous offers. Offers she would never know anything about.

She still didn’t believe opening the lodge would make him happy, but what could she do? She’d tried her best to give him an opening to repair his relationship with his brothers. She couldn’t do any more than that—other than hope.

Before leaving Bear Creek Lodge, she’d cleared out the little room she’d stayed in occasionally—the room she and Cooper had made love in. She’d headed back into Provo for the night and taken the first flight out in the morning. She hadn’t even waited for the first flight to Texas, but instead had just headed east. Between long flights and rushed connections, it took her almost eighteen hours to get back to her cozy house near the Galleria. It felt like years had passed since she’d been there.

She didn’t even give herself a chance to settle in but immediately called Jack Harding for the latest update on the missing heiress. Then she printed up all the information in the file and delivered it to Caro. Caro might be too proud to tell her sons about the state of her finances. She might be too proud to ask for help from anyone. But it had occurred to Portia that if Caro found the heiress on her own and presented the information to Dalton and Griffin, then they would almost definitely split the money with her. It was the simplest and easiest solution.

And Portia felt like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. Instead, she’d come up with a solution that had complicated everyone’s lives.

After that, like a bear going to ground for winter, she hunkered down, living like a shut-in for a week, talking on the phone only to her mother, who was baffled by her behavior.

Of course her mother—being a supreme gossip hound—had heard all about the exhibition and Portia’s part in it. There were phone calls—lots of them—from her mother. Fretful ones. Anxious ones. Critical ones.

It took a week for Celeste to run out of things to say. Portia knew Celeste could have held out a lot longer if Portia had given her anything to work with. But Portia refused to comment or defend herself, so eventually Celeste ran out of steam and left Portia alone. After that, Celeste had just ordered Portia to get herself together in time for the next gala on the society schedule.

It wasn’t until two days later when her doorbell rang that she decided she’d had enough. For once in her life, her mother just needed to bug off.

Except it wasn’t her mother at the door. It was Laney.

Portia just stood there in her yoga pants and Scooby Doo T-shirt, gaping at the sight of the woman on her doorstep. Laney’s pregnancy was just beginning to show and she had an adorable little bump tenting her vintage dress, a bump that her gorgeous gown from the other night had hidden. Her hair looked thick and glossy. Her cheeks glowed. She did not look like she’d spent the past week watching Nicholas Sparks movies and eating Pizza Rolls. And an entire Sara Lee pound cake.

Unfortunately, Portia was pretty sure that’s exactly what she looked like.

Laney seemed not to notice. Instead, she threw her arms around Portia and gave her a rib-crunching hug. The bag Laney was holding swung around and bumped Portia’s hip.


“Okay, I know it’s weird, me coming over,” she said as she pulled back. “But your mom called Dalton and asked him to come talk to you. He said that was a sure sign things were bad and that he really should come. But I thought him coming would be even weirder. Besides, he clearly didn’t even know what to say and he wasn’t going to bring ice cream. Or any kinds of snacks. At all. Men.”

Brushing past Portia, she held up the bag and gave it a jiggle. “I didn’t know if you were a sweet snacker or a savory snacker, so I brought some of each.” She plopped down on the sofa and started putting things out on the coffee table. “We have chips, guac, salsa, wasabi nuts, chocolate-covered almonds and five different flavors of Ben & Jerry’s. What’s your poison?”

Portia could only stare in amazement as Laney made herself at home. Laney.

Laney Cain was in her house. Her ex-husband’s current wife had to visit. Apparently to make sure Portia was prepped for the zombie apocalypse.

That was bizarre, right?

“What are you doing here?” she asked stupidly.

Laney looked up, her cheeks flushing. “Look, I know it’s weird.” She looked down at the table and nudged the various jars of things so that they all lined up perfectly. “Everyone is really worried about you. When we saw you in Provo, we thought something was up between you and Cooper. We thought maybe something—” she gave an awkward shrug and tried to smile “—good. Dalton thought it was weird at first, but he got used to the idea. We were hopeful. Except you came back here early and Cooper’s completely incommunicado, which just made us think maybe we should be worried. No one wanted to tell Caro because Hollister took a turn for the worse the other day and she’s busy with that.”

“Everyone’s worried about me?”

“Yes! Sydney offered to come by instead of me, but she and Griffin are leaving the country tomorrow morning. But if you need them, they’ll postpone the trip.” She gave a little shrug. “Look, I know you probably don’t like me. I can’t blame you. And you don’t even have to talk to me. You can just take my food and show me to the door. But if you want a friendly ear and a shoulder to cry on, you’ve got it. Besides, we’re family, so you know whatever you tell me isn’t going any further.”

What could she say to that?

No, she didn’t like Laney. She was the love of Dalton’s life. Of course, Portia didn’t like her.

Still, she was floored by the idea that Laney considered her family—let alone that she would go to all this effort on her behalf. The fact that Griffin and Sydney were talking about canceling their trip—for her—was baffling. Yes, she still had a good relationship with Caro, but she’d figured she was persona non grata with the rest of the Cains.

She walked over to the table and picked up the five pints of ice cream. “These will melt if we leave them out too long.”

She headed off into the kitchen, wanting to steal a moment alone. She shoved the ice cream in the freezer and then stood there for several long heartbeats, her forehead pressed to the front of it. Mostly just feeling sorry for herself.

Then Laney said, from the doorway, “Dalton said you were too smart to let a guy like Cooper break your heart, but me...I know smart has nothing to do with it.”

Part of her wanted to yell at Laney. Or have a temper tantrum. Or maybe just throw up her hands and cry.

She whirled around to face Laney. “Look, I appreciate the gesture. Thank you for coming and trying to help or whatever, but it’s just too weird, okay? I’m not going to cry on your shoulder. There’s not enough Ben & Jerry’s in the world for that.”

Laney just stared at her, an expression of sympathy on her face. Then she said softly, “You take care of a lot of people. Would it kill you to let someone take care of you for a change?”

Portia tilted her head to the side and just looked at Laney, trying to see past the layers of complication that separated them. She tried to imagine opening up to this woman, spilling her guts, crying her eyes out, eating Phish Food straight out of the container.

But she just couldn’t see it.

So instead of bursting into tears and throwing herself into Laney’s waiting arms, she answered the question that still hung in the air. “Yes. I think today it would kill me to let you take care of me. I can handle a lot, but I can’t handle pity from you.”

Laney looked like the protest she wanted to make was clawing its way out of her throat. But finally, she nodded, slowly crying the tears Portia wouldn’t let herself shed. “Would it be better if it was one of the other Cains?”

Portia shook her head. There was only one Cain she wanted to see.

“Okay. I’ll go,” Laney said. But at the door she stopped and added, “You’re wrong, though. It’s not pity that brought me here. I know what it’s like to be alone. To feel like you have no family. Not wanting you to feel like that isn’t pity.”

Laney left then, without giving Portia a chance to reply. She waited until she heard Laney’s car drive off before she let the tears fall.

* * *

Cooper didn’t know what to do with himself the next week, despite the fact that the rest of the weekend went off without a hitch. If Portia’s quick departure could be considered without a hitch. Portia had planned everything so well that things ran smoothly without her. The guests were impressed. The snowboarders had a great time. The media ohhed and ahhed. By the following week, several investors had already approached him about buying in. By the week after that, his board, Robertson included, was clamoring to move forward and commit Flight+Risk to the project.

And none of it mattered.

He felt none of the joy or satisfaction he should have felt at his success.

In fact, he felt nothing at all, until he came home to his loft in Denver one night to find Dalton waiting on his doorstep. Even then, it was only mild surprise.

“Hey,” he said with a nod as he opened the door.

Dalton waited until they’d entered the condo, then asked, “Did you sleep with Portia?”

Cooper didn’t answer, but Dalton must have seen the truth in his face, because he hauled off and straight up punched him.

Cooper staggered back a step in surprise. “What the hell?”

He didn’t have a chance to recover though because Dalton slammed into him again, this time shoulder first into his chest, plowing him back several steps until they both went feet over ass over the arm of the sofa.

“What the hell?” he asked again.

Still Dalton threw another punch. At that point, Cooper was just done. He caught Dalton with a jab to the kidneys. Dalton grunted and tried to dodge the blow. Cooper rolled on top of his brother and landed one more solid punch in Dalton’s stomach before scrambling back. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Dalton pushed himself up, the rage on his face dimming somewhat. “Yeah, well, I still want to hurt you.”

“Why?” Cooper asked.

“Portia,” Dalton answered, panting and rubbing his hand across his kidneys. “Because you screwed with Portia.”

“Oh.” Shock rocked him back on his heels. It took him a few seconds to process what his brother was saying. Then he pushed himself to his feet and stood, holding out his hand to Dalton. As he pulled Dalton up, he asked, “You want to hit me some more?”

“Yeah. I do.” He rubbed his hand down his cheek and flexed his jaw. “But I think I’ll give it a rest.”


Cooper nodded and headed for his refrigerator. He pulled out two Sierra Nevadas, popped them both open and handed one to Dalton. “She’s not yours.”

Dalton glared at him before taking a long draw from the beer. “You think I don’t know that? Of course she’s not mine.” He muttered something under his breath that sounded like dumbass. “But who the hell else does she have to come kick the ass of the guy who broke her heart?”

Cooper froze, the beer not quite to this mouth. That statement gave him pause for several reasons. First off, apparently he’d broken her heart. He’d known he’d hurt her. He’d known he’d pissed her off. He had not known he’d broken her heart. Secondly, apparently she’d shared this news with Dalton. Which surprised the hell out of him. But to Dalton, he merely said, “No one kicked your ass when you broke her heart.”

“Someone should have.”

Cooper raised his beer slightly in toast. “You wanna have another go? I’ll do it right now.”

Dalton ignored the jab and said, “Portia is an only child. Her parents are selfish nightmares. She’s essentially alone in the world. You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but she doesn’t make friends easily.” He took a drag of beer. “I did a lot of things wrong when I was with her, but I always treated her with respect. And I have a hell of a lot of admiration for her. She deserves better than to be jerked around by someone like you.”

“Yeah. I couldn’t agree more.” The words were out of his mouth before he even knew he was saying them. “She does deserve better. If I thought for a second that she really did love me, then things would be different.”

Dalton eyed him for a long moment. “So you’re just going to leave it at that? You’re just going to let her go? You’re not even going to try to fight for her? Because you never struck me as the kind of guy who would back down from a fight.”

“I’m not.”

Finally, Dalton shook his head, a smile pulling at his lips. “Then what the hell are you doing here? If you want to be with her, then you should be in Houston, begging her to take you back.”