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  Placing her phone in the nightstand drawer so she wouldn’t have to see it continue to light up, she rested her head on the soft pillow. The sheets smelled like the detergent her mother had used for years, and the feeling of safety Alice always had in her parents’ house gave her a little comfort. She turned on her side and watched Flynn through the slats of the crib set up in one corner of the room. In the glow of the night-light she could see his mouth work as he slept, unaware of the firestorm surrounding him and his mother.

  She hated that he was going to grow up with reporters as part of his life. Had she compromised her vow to protect her son, by falling so hopelessly in love with Charles? What would it be like if she moved to London? Would the British press be part of her everyday life, and who would she have to protect her?

  As doubts and fear careened through her mind in the silence of her childhood bedroom, her thoughts kept returning to Charles. Was he still in Horseback Hollow? Why hadn’t he called her? Did the press coverage they were receiving change his plans? Had their future together been ruined before it had even begun?

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Hey, James Bond, do you mind taking it easy on the curves?” Charles’s brother Jensen grabbed the handle of the passenger door of his oversize Chevy truck. “My truck has a lot of power but it doesn’t exactly handle like an Aston Martin.”

  Charles saw the sign for the Horseback Hollow branch of the Redmond Flight School and Charter Service in the distance and instead of slowing down, pressed his foot harder to the gas pedal.

  “You’ll be no good to Alice and Flynn splattered all over the side of a rural Texas highway.”

  That pierced the panic swirling through Charles’s mind and he forced himself to slow as he turned into the airfield. It was almost twenty-four hours since the story of Flynn’s paternity had broken in the tabloids. Unfortunately, he’d been out on a ride with his brother-in-law, Quinn Drummond, when the news first hit, and had left his phone in the ranch’s guest bedroom. They’d gone straight to dinner at one of the neighboring properties, and so far out of town, the reception was spotty at best.

  By the time he’d gotten back to Amelia and Quinn’s house, it had been almost midnight, but most of his family members were waiting for him, with various opinions on how to handle the media frenzy. The Fortunes in Horseback Hollow were somewhat insulated from the paparazzi, but Lucie had video chatted in from Austin, where an apparent media circus was raging.

  He’d listened to Alice’s three voice mails, her tone more desperate in each subsequent message. But he’d waited to call her back until this morning, not wanting to wake her or Flynn so late at night. That had been a terrible mistake.

  Her cell phone had gone directly to voice mail each time he called, and he’d finally resorted to tracking down her parents’ home number. It had taken a fair bit of convincing before her mother believed he was actually Charles Chesterfield, and when she did, Lynn Meyers wasted no time in expressing her disappointment in how he’d left Alice to fend off the tabloid press on her own. For someone known worldwide for his charm, Charles had an abysmal track record with the Meyers women.

  He explained the situation as best he could, then resorted to begging for information on how Alice was dealing with everything that had transpired. The real panic had set in when Lynn informed him that Alice was planning to leave Austin to escape the press. She wouldn’t tell him where her daughter planned to go, but did let him know that Alice was mostly ignoring her phone, since it was difficult to tell calls from the press from those of her friends and coworkers.

  Charles’s only thought was that he had to get to Alice before she left with Flynn. He was terrified that she’d disappear before he had the chance to tell her he loved her.

  Because that’s what had become clear to him in the midst of the tabloid furor. He didn’t care if he never attended another society party again. He loved Alice and the life he had with her. She didn’t need to fit into his world. He wanted to create their own perfect life together. He’d been a fool not to realize it sooner. A fact his siblings had been more than happy to point out over and over.

  Even that didn’t matter.

  All he cared about was finding Alice.

  He slammed on the brakes and threw the truck into Park, tossing the keys to Jensen as he climbed out. Charles had insisted on driving to the small airport, as he didn’t trust his buttoned-up brother to get him there on time.

  Orlando Mendoza, his mother’s new love interest, had offered to fly him to Austin. The trip was only about an hour by air, as opposed to the six hours it would take him to drive. Six hours he didn’t have if he was going to reach Alice in time.

  The reality was that he could track her down even if she left Austin before he got there. But somehow in Charles’s mind, getting to her first was an essential part of proving that he deserved another chance with her and Flynn.

  “Thanks for your help,” he called to his brother as he darted toward the small terminal building. “I’ll call when I work things out.”

  To his surprise, Jensen caught up with him in a few steps. “I’m going with you.”

  Charles shook his head but didn’t stop moving. “Don’t be ridiculous. I can handle this.”

  “Believe what you want, but if you’re determined to make things right with Alice—”

  “I am.”

  “Then you need support.”

  “From you?” Charles paused outside the door of the hangar.

  Jensen flashed a patently big brother smile. “From all of us.” He pointed through the terminal’s plate glass windows. Brodie, Oliver and Amelia stood talking to Orlando, next to a shiny single-engine airplane.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Lucie will meet us with a car in Austin.”

  “You don’t even know Alice,” Charles argued, shaking his head.

  “All the more reason for us to come along for the ride. We want to meet her before you pledge your troth and all of that business.”

  “My troth?”

  “Do you want to argue or shall we be off?” Jensen pushed through the double doors, leaving Charles no choice but to follow.

  He was both annoyed with his siblings for intruding and touched that they were willing to put their own busy lives on hold to support him. But whichever emotion won out in the end, Jensen was right about one thing. Charles didn’t have time to waste arguing.

  He sat next to Orlando in the cockpit, not wanting to spend the flight listening to his siblings argue over how he should handle both the press and Alice.

  It was a clear day, perfect for flying, and Orlando was a careful and experienced pilot. His salt-and-pepper hair was a contrast to the burnished tan of his face, and he still had the strong build of a much younger man. Charles knew Orlando was semi-retired and appreciated him arranging this trip on such short notice.

  He told him as much, talking through the headsets to express his thanks. Orlando glanced at him, gave a brief nod, then focused on landing the plane on the short runway outside Austin.

  As the plane touched down, Orlando finally spoke to him. “Good luck today, Charles. Your mother is proud of you for fighting for your baby and the woman you love.”

  “She was the one who taught me that love is worth fighting for.” He flashed a self-deprecating smile. “Too bad I was never the quickest study.”

  Orlando returned his grin before his gaze turned serious again. “From everything your mother has told me about Sir Simon, your father would be proud of you, too.”

  Emotion welled in Charles’s throat as he met the older man’s steady brown eyes. His mother had said almost the same thing to him, but hearing it from someone who was a father to his own brood of grown children and who would have been close to Sir Simon’s age made Charles feel like he was somehow gaining his own dad’s blessing.

  At the very least, Sir Simon would have respected Orlando, and Charles guessed the two men might have become friends. Although no one would ever take hi
s father’s place, Charles was suddenly grateful his mother had gotten another chance at happiness.

  Just as he hoped to earn his own second chance with Alice.

  As promised, Lucie was waiting for them behind the wheel of an SUV large enough to fit them all, once they exited the terminal.

  “How bad is it?” Charles asked. She gave him a quick hug, while Amelia, Brodie, Oliver and Jensen climbed into the back. Orlando had offered to wait with the plane so that his siblings wouldn’t have to spend more than a day away from home. Charles only hoped he’d have a reason to stay in Austin.

  “Have you reached Alice yet?” Lucie slid into the passenger side as he took the wheel. Charles was simply too nervous not to be in control of the driving.

  He shook his head. “I rang her again as soon as we landed, but still no answer. According to her mother, she’s quite upset.”

  “Of course she is.” Lucie stared out the front window as they turned onto the main highway from the airfield.

  Amelia leaned forward from the backseat. “We’ve grown up with the attention and it’s still upsetting when a story hits. I can only imagine how that poor girl is reacting.”

  As could Charles, and it made his stomach turn with worry, anger and regret. He should have been more careful when they were together. He should have kept Alice and Flynn safe.

  He stepped harder on the gas, ignoring Amelia’s gasp as she flew back in her seat.

  “No more talking,” Charles growled. “If you all want to tag along, at least do me a favor and shut the hell up.”

  He heard Brodie bark out a laugh. “He’s sounding more American by the moment.”

  “You’ll be the first one left on the side of the road.” Charles glanced in the rearview mirror. “So I advise you to close your piehole.”

  To Charles’s amazement, that final bit of slang did the trick, and his siblings were quiet for the rest of the drive.

  * * *

  Alice was not surprised to hear the doorbell ring as she zipped shut her suitcase. Although most of the paparazzi had been waiting on the street in front of her building, a few had managed to sneak into the place when other residents entered. After opening her door to a microphone and camera shoved in her face, Alice had quickly learned to ignore the ringing.

  She’d returned to her apartment from her parents’ house early this morning under the cover of darkness. Flynn had dozed in his car seat, and Alice had sneaked into the back of her building without incident. But she hated sneaking through her own life, with the constant fear of being ambushed by the press.

  The uproar over the discovery that Charles was the father of her baby would eventually die down, but their lives would never again be anonymous. There would always be an interest in Flynn. How did the Fortune family deal with that kind of scrutiny on a daily basis?

  She wondered if the tabloid news had finally reached Charles in Horseback Hollow, and wished she could hear his voice. Maybe he’d called her by now, but Alice had been so frustrated with the texts and calls she continued to receive that she’d chucked her cell phone out the car window on her way home this morning. It had been impulsive and foolish, but she’d barely slept last night and wasn’t thinking clearly.

  The insistent knocking continued, and Flynn gave a sharp cry from his crib. Alice lifted him up, cradling him against her as she stepped into the family room and stared at the door. She’d made plans to visit an aunt who lived outside Dallas, but how was she going to leave with reporters at her door?

  “Are you in there, Alice?” A crisp British voice clipped out the words. “Answer the door, love.”

  Her heart seemed to stop beating in her chest, and at the same time, relief washed through her. Charles would know how to handle the paparazzi. Charles would make the hell of the last twenty-four hours fade away.

  Relief was followed quickly by a dizzying anger at the situation and a lingering disappointment in her handsome British playboy for not rescuing her sooner.

  No.

  Not rescuing.

  Alice was not a woman who needed rescuing, no matter how much she’d wanted it.

  Hadn’t motherhood taught her she could stand on her own two feet? She was strong enough to fight for herself and her son. The question was, could she be strong enough to prove to Charles that she was worth fighting for?

  She opened the door, planning to tell him everything she was thinking, but stopped short at the sight that greeted her. Charles wasn’t alone. Two women and three men whom Alice immediately recognized as his five siblings flanked him on either side.

  So much for the paparazzi. Alice was under siege by the British Fortunes.

  All those aristocratic eyes staring at her were enough to make the thoughts in her head scatter.

  “Alice, thank God you’re still here.” Charles’s words had her attention snapping back to him.

  “I’m actually on my way out,” she said, proud that her voice remained steady despite the emotions swirling through her chest. “Flynn and I are going to visit my extended family until the worst of the attention blows over.”

  “You can’t leave,” he answered immediately, something close to panic flashing in his blue eyes.

  “Why?”

  One of the women, a tall, hazel-eyed beauty, leaned forward. Alice recognized her as Lucie, Charles’s younger sister, who was most recently the focus of a tabloid storm centering on her secret marriage to Austin native Chase Parker. “Well, unless you have an invisibility cloak tucked away somewhere, there’s a media circus on the sidewalk downstairs,” she said.

  Alice straightened her shoulders. “I won’t let the paparazzi hold me prisoner in my own home.” Even though that’s exactly how she’d felt the past day.

  “She’s got mettle,” one of the men commented, nudging Charles in the arm. “I like her already.”

  “It’s obvious you don’t deserve her,” the taller man on Charles’s other side muttered. “So you’d better make this good.”

  “Make what good?” Alice asked, a hysterical giggle rising in her throat as her gaze darted between the various Fortunes. It really was too much to have them all crowded in the hallway staring at her. She managed to tamp down both the laughter and panic, holding on to her baby like he was her anchor in a fierce storm.

  “I’m not making anything good,” Charles snapped.

  “Clearly,” the second sister, Amelia, murmured, and reached out to run a finger across Flynn’s soft cheek. “He’s a beautiful boy.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Charles said Flynn gives you some trouble sleeping.” Amelia offered a gentle smile. “Clementine was the same way and I often wondered—”

  “I’m wondering if the rest of you will be quiet,” Charles practically growled, shooting angry glares at his brothers and sisters, “so that Alice and I can have a conversation.”

  Immediately, Amelia stopped speaking, and along with the rest of the Fortunes, looked expectantly at Charles.

  “You can’t leave,” he repeated in a ragged whisper. “You’re going to London with me. I can take care of you there. You and Flynn.”

  She gave a small shake of her head. “I never agreed to that, Charles. I told you I’d think about it but—”

  “You have to, Alice. What’s happened here proves it. You need me.”

  She swallowed. “I need you?”

  He looked baffled that she would question him. “Flynn needs me.”

  At that moment, the baby let out a small cry. Alice looked between her baby and Charles.

  “Let me,” Amelia offered, holding out her arms. “I’ll take care of him.”

  “Flynn is staying with me. I’m his mother.” Alice wrapped her arms around the baby and stepped back into the apartment. She wasn’t handing over her baby to anyone, no matter how well-meaning Charles’s sister appeared.

  The truth was, the Fortunes were better equipped to care for the baby, with all the demands the press would make. They were a strong family with plenty of re
sources to ensure that Flynn would be protected. But Alice loved Charles, and she knew it would be too difficult to be a part of his life and not have her feelings returned. Despite the valid reasons he’d given why they should be together, never once had he mentioned love.

  She took a deep breath, looked him in the eye and whispered, “No.”

  * * *

  Charles felt his chest constrict as Alice uttered that one syllable. He could hear the collective sigh from his siblings.

  “You’ll be a wonderful father,” Alice told him, tears shining in her eyes. “And I want you to continue to spend time with Flynn, of course. But I need more.”

  More. How could he give her more when he was ready to offer everything he had? Everything he was.

  The only answer was that he wasn’t enough.

  He started to back away, to give her the space she obviously wanted, when Lucie elbowed him hard in the ribs. “You’ve told her, right?”

  Charles glanced at his sister. “Told her what?”

  Jensen flicked him on the side of the head. “That you love her, you dunce.”

  Charles smacked away his brother’s hand. “Stop. Beating. On. Me.” He turned and threw each of his siblings a pointed glare that they seemed happy to return. “She knows I love her,” he shouted.

  “You love me?”

  He whirled to face Alice again. “I asked you to move to another country with me. Why else would I make that offer?”

  “To take care of Flynn,” she answered immediately.

  He felt a poke at his back. “Tell her,” Lucie chided.

  Of course he loved Alice. How could he not? But he suddenly realized he’d never said the words out loud.

  He’d never said those three words to anyone. Maybe to his mother when he was a boy, but never as a man would say them to a woman. Not to any of the girls he’d dated. Not either of the times he’d been engaged.

  Alice had already told him no. His gut told him to cut his losses and turn around before he made a bigger ass out of himself, and with the additional humiliation of his brothers and sisters to bear witness.