Lassoed by Fortune

CHAPTER Thirteen


Once they were outside and clear of the Superette, Julia slanted an uncomfortable glance toward Liam to try to guess his reaction to what had just transpired in the store.

“She knows,” she said, referring to her mother.

She’d get no argument from him, Liam thought. “Your mother’s a sharp lady. I suspect she probably does. Question is, how much does she know?”

Did the fact that her mother knew annoy him? Or did it just add notches to his figurative belt? Either way, she wanted Liam to know one thing. “I never said anything.”

“I never said you did.”

He didn’t see her as the type who had to share every intimate detail with someone. He’d known more than his share of that type, the ones who relived their relationships by going into great detail with every girlfriend they knew.

“But some mothers have a way of just looking at you and intuiting things whether you want them to or not. I’ve got a hunch that might describe your mother. Is that a problem for you?” he asked. Unless he missed his guess, Julia seemed to be rather upset or flustered about the exchange that had just taken place with her mother inside the store.

Julia shook her head. She wouldn’t exactly call being embarrassed by her mother a problem; she just didn’t know what to label it. “No.”

“Oh.” He wasn’t 100 percent sure if he believed her. “Because you look a little upset.”

She supposed she did at that. “If I am, it’s for you.”

Why would she be upset for him? It didn’t make sense. “Now you lost me.”

That’ll happen all too soon, Julia couldn’t help thinking.

Out loud she explained her reasoning to him. “I just don’t want my mother asking you a lot of questions, that’s all.”

Was that all? Liam grinned. “Don’t worry about that. I can hold my own with your mother. Besides, she’s a nice lady.”

Well, at least he didn’t hold grudges, Julia thought as she realized that she had gotten sidetracked by the exchange between her mother and Liam.

“You said you wanted a word with me,” she reminded him. “About what?”

He looked at her for a long moment. The early afternoon sun wove its way through her hair, giving the red strands a golden sheen. He wondered if she realized that she was beautiful.


“I wanted to know if you wanted to see me tonight,” he told her. Then, before Julia could answer him, he continued, “Because I want to see you.”

Had she been slated to go out with some girlfriends, or attend a school reunion  , she would have found a way to postpone it or beg off to go wherever he wanted her to go. Julia was well aware that it wasn’t very independent of her, to be willing to rearrange her life because of a man, especially one with the sort of reputation that Liam had.

But frankly, she couldn’t help herself. Being with him was like holding a bit of stardust in her hand. It was all magical and for as long as she could savor the experience, she intended to make the most of it. It would be over with soon enough and she didn’t want to do anything that would hasten its demise or curtail its very short life expectancy.

She needed the memories to last her for the rest of her life because she instinctively knew that nothing, nothing was ever going to hold a candle to what she was experiencing with Liam.

“Is this the part where I’m supposed to be coy?” she asked when Liam paused, waiting for an answer.

He laughed. She was refreshingly devoid of any game playing. He liked that. “No, this is the part where you’re supposed to say, ‘Yes, Liam, I’d like to see you, too.’”

Julia grinned. “‘Yes, Liam,’” she echoed, “‘I’d like to see you, too.’”

His eyes were smiling as he regarded her. “Nice to know we’re of like mind,” he told her. And then a bemused expression came over his face as he cocked his head ever so slightly.

Was he waiting for something more? Or having second thoughts about what he’d just said? “What’s wrong?” She wanted to know.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he told her. The grin was back and it grew wider. “I just never realized that you’ve got dimples. Two tiny ones,” he went on. “Right there. And there.” He lightly passed his forefinger along first one dimple, then the other, one at either corner of her mouth.

The moment his finger touched her skin, Julia could feel the longing beginning all over again, spreading a blanket of fire all along her body.

Abruptly he dropped his hand to his side.

When he saw her raise her eyebrow in a silent question, he explained, “I think I’d better stop touching you when we’re out in public—because that might lead to kissing you and you wouldn’t want people talking about you.”

“I never cared about what people had to say,” she told him honestly. There were people who were given to gossip and those who couldn’t care less. Her friends wouldn’t care and the others didn’t matter.

“I do,” he told her solemnly.

“Bad for your reputation?” she asked, curious.

He surprised her by saying, “No, bad for yours.”

Julia blinked. “You’re worried about my reputation?” she said incredulously.

He was accustomed to people talking about him because of his penchant to love ’em and leave ’em. Talking about Julia, though, was another thing entirely. He felt protective of her. Another new feeling for him. Being with Julia ushered in a series of “firsts,” he couldn’t help thinking.

“One of us should be.”

Damn him, Julia thought.

Despite all of her silent lectures to herself, she could feel it happening. Could feel herself falling in love with Liam even though she knew there was no future for her in his life.

Falling for Liam was just about the worst possible mistake she could make.

And even though she knew that what he was saying to her was a line—he sounded so sincere, that just for a moment, she allowed herself to believe him.

He wanted to see her. She hugged that thought close to her heart.

“Why don’t you come by my place tonight and I’ll make you dinner?” she suggested.

Liam smiled and suddenly her immediate world seemed to light up. “I’d like that,” he told her.

Not half as much as I will, Julia thought.

“I’d better be getting back,” she told him. “Before my mother starts wondering what happened to me.”

“If it came to that, I think she’d probably have a pretty good idea,” Liam suggested. He turned his attention to what she’d said earlier. “What time tonight?”

“Eight?” It was more of a question than a statement. “It’ll be after I close the store.”

“Eight it is,” he repeated with a nod. “Oh, and, Julia?” he called out just as she turned away.

She stopped and started to turn around to face him again. “Yes?”

Liam had crossed the short distance she’d managed to create between them and was right behind her as she turned, catching her off guard. The next moment he surprised her further by brushing his lips against hers.

Right where anyone could see them.

He grinned down into her face. “I figured it was okay,” he teased, “since you don’t care about people talking.”

At this point, there were no other people in the world besides the two of them. For two cents she’d grab him by his shirtfront, pull him down to her level and kiss him long and hard.

She didn’t do it. Not because of the people who were around, but because she knew that kissing him that way wouldn’t satisfy her, it would just make her want even more. So she struggled to control herself as best she could.

“I don’t,” she murmured.

And then she was gone.

But as she hurried away, she could feel Liam’s eyes on her.

Watching her.

Julia was grinning fit to kill by the time she walked back into the Superette.

* * *

The next afternoon found the Two Moon Saloon filled to capacity with people.

Unlike in some towns and larger cities, where meetings were conducted in auditoriums that echoed with apathy and little else, apathy did not have a seat here in the saloon in Horseback Hollow. Everyone prided themselves on taking a keen interest in civic affairs as well as in matters that affected the town’s welfare. They’d come to realize that the concept of growth was more enticing than maintaining a status quo no matter how quaint that status quo might be in some people’s eyes.

The meeting had been going for over an hour and when the mayor had thrown open the floor for a final discussion before the vote was taken, a number of people had come up to the makeshift podium in front of the bar to express their thoughts about the proposed restaurant.

Some spoke a little, others spoke more. And then the mayor turned toward Julia and asked if she had anything further to add.

She banked down her nervousness—this wasn’t the time to indulge herself—and said that she did.

Coming up to the podium, she looked out at the sea of faces and told them what was in her heart.

“In this day and age,” Julia said as she addressed the people at the meeting, “if a town doesn’t grow, it shrinks and the outcome of that is obvious. Horseback Hollow means too much to all of us for us to watch it wither away on the vine.

“However, our choices have to be made carefully. We can’t just jump at the first offer that comes our way without examining all sides. Everything should always be examined and that includes weighing the pros and cons of inviting Wendy and Marcos Mendoza to bring their restaurant here to us.

“I know some of you are worried that we’d be sacrificing our way of life, become too ‘citified’ and so give up the warm, friendly atmosphere we all grew up with. That’s exactly why we wouldn’t bring in a chain discount store, or some big-name drugstore that cares more about profit than service. I can personally tell you that the Mendozas are good people and they’re associated with good people. I’m referring to the Fortunes. The latter have no desire to use this town, pick it clean of its assets and then move on to do the same to another town.” She paused for a moment to allow her words to sink in—and to take a breath.


“If we welcome them here, they will treat Horseback Hollow the way they treat Red Rock—like it was their home. And to insure that that is never lost sight of, they’ve asked me to be their assistant manager,” she told the people she considered to be her friends and neighbors.

A murmur of approval went up.

As she spoke, Julia glanced more than once in Liam’s direction. Each time she crossed her fingers behind the podium, hoping for a positive response.

To her relief, Liam appeared to be comfortable with what she was saying, unlike the first time when he’d walked out of the meeting when he saw that the preliminary vote was going her way.

When she was finished—having spoken longer than she’d intended—Julia left the floor open to any dissenters who wanted to air their last-minute thoughts. But there weren’t any when the mayor called for any further comments or discussion before the vote.

“Well, if nobody else has anything further to say,” he announced, “then I guess it’s time to take the final vote. All in favor of the Mendozas’ restaurant being built here in Horseback Hollow, raise your hands.”

When a sea of hands went up, the mayor dutifully counted each and every one of them.

From the looks of it, it appeared that most of the people there welcomed the restaurant’s construction. But bound by rules, the mayor called for a show of hands from those who opposed the restaurant being built in town.

“All opposed?” Several hands, totaling no more than nine, went up. He counted out each one.

“I guess it’s settled then,” the mayor told his constituents fairly confidently. “Looks like the ayes have it,” he said to the people assembled in front of him. Then, raising his voice, he declared, “The measure to build a new restaurant here in Horseback Hollow is passed,” and banged down the gavel to make it official.

“Meeting’s adjourned,” he announced needlessly since everyone was getting up anyway, talking to their neighbor, calling out across the aisles. It was obvious that despite the few dissenters, everyone appeared to have been won over by the idea of having a brand-new enterprise make a home in their town.

To a person, they looked forward to the pick up in business that was sure to occur as a by-product of the restaurant’s location.

Having taken a seat in the rear of the saloon so as not to call attention to himself, Liam had quietly taken in the proceedings as they’d unfolded. He knew that he’d surprised a few people by not speaking up when opposing viewpoints were requested.

Maybe he’d even surprised himself, as well.

The fire he’d felt initially in his belly concerning the matter eluded him now, having died out in the face of other things.

Talking to his father the other day had made him take a second look at his own feelings about being connected to the Fortunes. While he doubted that out-and-out jealousy had been behind his initial reaction to the discovery that his mother was one of them, he was willing to admit that he might have been more than a tad unreasonable, allowing his view of the situation to be tainted and made prejudicial by what he thought the Fortunes were like rather than finding out the truth of the matter for himself.

But he had to admit that the lion’s share of what had actually changed his mind for him about the matter was Julia herself. If someone like Julia could be so in favor of an issue, then that issue deserved, at the very least, closer scrutiny.

With that in mind, he’d done a little research of his own into the matter by talking to Gabriella, Jude’s fiancée. Gabriella, a Mendoza herself, had nothing but good things to tell him about the Fortunes, as well as her cousins. Julia was right.

The couple behind the new restaurant—not to mention the Fortunes themselves—were good people. And Wendy Fortune Mendoza was related to him and so she was family in the best possible sense of the word, he supposed.

Liam was not so na?ve as to think that just because someone was family that automatically made them good people. He’d seen enough of the other side of that coin to know that was definitely not a given.

But these people liked to give back to any community they were part of and he liked that.

Ultimately he had a gut feeling that this restaurant that Julia was championing would be good for Horseback Hollow. Just as he had a gut feeling that Julia was the one woman he could see himself sharing forever with.

That had never been on his agenda. He’d just assumed that he would always remain free and untangled, able to go from woman to woman and dally for as long as it suited him, then just move on when the whim hit.

And now all he wanted was to be tangled up with her. Permanently.

Last night’s lovemaking was still fresh in his mind. The mere thought of it sent his pulse up to a higher rate. But he didn’t want to just look forward to their next evening together, the next time they made love together. He wanted to know that he could look forward to forever, that she would always be there whether he was thinking about the next evening, the next week, the next year or the next decade.

The more he reflected on it, the more he knew that she was the one for him.

He supposed, now that he thought about it, that this was what love, what being in love, felt like. Wanting one person to be part of your forever and wanting them to want you to be part of theirs.

Who would have ever thought he could feel this way? Liam marveled, swallowing a laugh that would only call unwanted attention his way. This was Julia’s victory and she deserved to bask in it.

Flushed, thrilled, now that the meeting was adjourned and the vote was part of the town’s history, Liam watched as Julia plowed her way through the milling bodies within the saloon to reach him.

She was positively glowing, he thought.

Liam slipped his arm around her the second she reached him. “Victory looks good on you,” he told her, brushing his lips against her cheek. All he could think about was whiling away the night lost in her embrace and making love with her.

“You’re not mad?” she asked, peering up into his face. She was surprised—not to mention relieved—that he was taking defeat so well.

“How can I be mad about something that makes you look so happy?”

But the din in the saloon had risen by several decibels as people were trying to out-shout each other. Unable to hear him because of the noise, Julia shook her head and pointed to her ear, indicating that she hadn’t heard him.

Liam merely laughed, pulled her a little closer to him. Bending over her ear, he said, “Let’s get out of here.”

That, she heard, as a wide grin blossomed over her lips. His suggestion was music to her ears. Julia was more than willing to follow him anywhere he wanted to go.