Her Soldier of Fortune Read online

  “You might not be comfortable being out here with only me,” he suggested. “It’s a haul to town and Paseo is a postage stamp compared to San Antonio.”

  “San Antonio is too crowded these days,” she countered, wondering why Nate suddenly looked so uncomfortable. He hadn’t shown a moment’s hesitation in offering her a place to stay, but now he seemed to be almost warning her away.

  “I’m not great company,” he continued, glancing over his shoulder into the entry as if he might find a reason for her to venture inside the cozy farmhouse. “I make terrible coffee.”

  “I can make my own coffee.”

  “I’m grumpy in the morning. You might not like me when I’m grumpy.”

  “As long as you don’t turn green and bust out of your clothes, I think I’ll manage.”

  “I can be mean as a grizzly coming out of hibernation.”

  “If you’ve changed your mind,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest to mimic his stance, “just tell me, Nate. Otherwise, you’re not going to scare me away. Remember, I grew up with a navy SEAL. Talk all you want about grizzlies, but I know you guys are big teddy bears at heart.”

  “A teddy bear?” He shook his head, looking as offended as her late granny had when Bianca’s mom cursed in the middle of the Christmas church service. “I’m not a teddy bear and neither was your brother. In fact—”

  “Want to see my teddy bear?” a voice called from Bianca’s car. The back door opened and a pair of scuffed sneakers hit the dust, the heels lighting up as they did. “His name is Roscoe, and he’s my best friend.”

  “EJ,” Bianca called as the boy ran forward, swinging a battered stuffed animal above his head. “I told you to wait—”

  “You talked too long, Mommy. Roscoe got bored. He wants to see everything.” Her beautiful, energetic, precocious four-year-old son climbed the front porch steps, and she automatically held out a hand. As was typical, EJ ignored it.

  “Are you Uncle Eddie’s friend?” he asked Nate, who had taken a step back, staring at her boy like EJ was a snake in the grass. Or maybe it was shock over EJ’s resemblance to Eddie, with his dark hair, olive-colored skin and deep brown eyes that always seemed to be full of mischief. Mischief and EJ were bosom pals. “Are you a cowboy? Are we staying with you? Can I have a glass of water?”

  EJ didn’t wait for an answer to any of his questions. He ducked away from Bianca when she reached for him and barreled past Nate, disappearing into the house.

  Bianca started to follow but Nate filled the doorway, blocking her way. “Is there something—or someone—you forgot to mention?”

  She flashed what she hoped was an innocent smile and managed to only cringe a little when there was a crash from inside the house. “That’s my son, EJ,” she said quickly. “And we’d better go after him unless all the other breakables in your house are nailed down.”

  Chapter Two

  “I’m sorry, Mommy. It was an accident.” EJ clutched the raggedy teddy bear tight to his chest. “Roscoe bumped the lamp when I was looking at the game. He didn’t mean it.”

  “You owe Mr. Nate an apology,” Bianca scolded gently. “This is his home and we’re guests here.” She glanced up at Nate from below her impossibly long lashes. “At least I think we’re staying for a bit. But after this—”

  “Of course you’re staying,” Nate told her. “Accidents happen, and I never liked that lamp, anyway.”

  Bianca offered the hint of a grateful smile. She ruffled her son’s dark hair. “EJ.”

  In that way that mothers of boys had, Bianca seemed to be able to communicate an entire sentence simply by speaking her son’s name.

  “I’m sorry about your ugly lamp,” EJ said solemnly. “Roscoe is sorry, too.”

  “How old are you, EJ?” Nate asked.

  The boy held up four dirt-smudged fingers. “Four.”

  “How about Roscoe?”

  That question earned Nate a smile so like Eddie’s it made his chest ache.

  “Roscoe is two,” EJ explained. “So he’s still kinda clumsy.”

  “Is there a broom in the kitchen?” Bianca asked as she bent to pick up the top half of the lamp, which hadn’t cracked. “I’ll sweep—”

  “I can get it,” Nate told her, still shocked that Eddie’s little sister had shown up on his doorstep all grown up and with a child of her own. “Did you drive all the way from San Antonio today?”

  She placed the broken lamp gently on the table next to the sofa. “It’s only six hours. We got an early start.”

  “Did you stop for lunch?”

  “Nope,” EJ answered before Bianca could. “I had cheese crackers and a banana.”

  “I’ll make you both lunch.”

  “You don’t have to,” Bianca protested at the same time EJ offered, “I like peanut butter and honey with the crusts cut off.”

  “I can make him a sandwich,” Bianca offered, her cheeks flaming bright pink. “He’s a picky eater.”

  “I’m not picky.” The boy shook his head, still clinging to the bear. “I just eat what I eat.”

  “You sound like your uncle,” Nate said, a ball of emotion lodging in the back of his throat. “Do you know he put hot sauce on everything?”

  Bianca chuckled softly. Nate’s gaze tracked to her and they shared a smile, clearly both remembering the man they had in common. “I once saw him shake hot sauce on a brownie.”

  “Yuck.” EJ made a face. “I like ketchup.”

  “Me, too,” Nate agreed. “But not on a peanut butter and honey sandwich.”

  “Do you own horses?” EJ asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Cows?”

  “Yep.”

  “Pigs?”

  Nate shook his head. “No pigs, but we have a chicken coop.”

  “Do you make nuggets out of them?”

  “They lay eggs,” Nate explained, grinning at the boy. “I’ll make you an omelet in the morning.”

  “I like cereal,” the boy told him. “Where’s my room? Do I have a place to put my clothes? Can Roscoe have his own pillow?”

  “Let’s eat lunch and then I’ll give you a tour of the house.”

  “EJ,” Bianca said, putting a hand on the boy’s thin shoulder. “Can you thank Mr. Nate for letting us stay with him?”

  “Thank you,” EJ said, then added, “I need to pee.”

  “Bathroom’s right around the corner,” Nate said, pointing toward the hall.

  As the boy skipped out of the room, Bianca let out an audible breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention him at the start.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “I wasn’t sure—”

  “Bianca.” Nate stepped forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m happy to have both you and EJ here. He reminds me so much of Eddie. I bet your brother loved having a little mini-me running around. I can’t believe he never mentioned a nephew.”

  “EJ’s a great kid,” she said, not directly addressing his comments. “He has a lot of energy, just like Eddie.”

  “It should serve him later in life. Eddie had more stamina in his little finger than the rest of our squadron combined.”

  “I hope it does,” she said, almost wistfully. “He’s the light of my life. I’d do anything for him.”

  She blinked several times and turned to look out the family room’s picture window to the fields south of the house. Nate had a million questions, but suddenly she seemed so fragile, and he was afraid she might cry if he pushed her for details on how she’d ended up at his house. He couldn’t stand to see a woman cry, especially not one who was clearly trying to hold it together.

  As he looked at her more closely, he noticed faint circles under her big eyes, like she hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in ages. Where was EJ’s father? Nate knew if he had a son, h
e’d be a part of his life.

  Was EJ’s father dead or had he deserted Bianca? Nate thought about his newly discovered extended family of Fortunes. He and his brothers had grown up simply, unlike Gerald and Charlotte Robinson’s children. But they’d had a mother who loved them and the ranching couple who’d taken Deborah in, pregnant and alone, when she’d had nowhere else to turn. Did his mom ever feel as weary and desperate as Bianca looked right now? His heart clenched at the thought.

  “Ham or turkey?” he shouted suddenly, then forced a calming breath when Bianca whirled to him, her brown eyes wide.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Didn’t mean to startle you,” he told her. “I’m going to make sandwiches. Would you like ham or turkey?”

  “You really don’t—”

  “I’ll choose if you don’t.”

  Her delicate brows furrowed as she stared at him. “Turkey,” she said finally, and with that one word Nate felt like he’d won some sort of battle. He liked winning.

  “Great. Lunch will be ready in ten minutes.” He paused on his way to the kitchen. “Unless you need help unloading your bags from the car.”

  “No,” she said, almost too quickly. “We don’t have much. Just a weekend bag. We’re not staying that long. I don’t want to impose. It won’t—”

  “You can stay as long as you like,” he told her. “Eddie was family, Busy Bee. That makes you family, too. If you want to tell me what’s going on, I’ll listen. If not, I won’t intrude. But know that you have a place here.”

  He saw the sharp rise of her chest as his words seemed to hit their mark. “Thank you,” she whispered, and then hurried out of the room.

  * * *

  “It’s quiet here.”

  EJ flipped onto his side to face Bianca on the double bed in Grayson’s room later that night.

  “We’re in the country,” she said, gently pushing back the lock of hair that had flopped into his eyes. It was dark in the room, other than the faint glow from the night-light she’d plugged into the wall near the door. She’d told Nate that she and EJ could share a bedroom, but he’d insisted EJ could take Grayson’s room and she could use his mom’s since they’d be on the rodeo circuit until spring.

  Her son loved claiming the space as his own, and Bianca wondered if she might actually get a decent night’s sleep without the noise from the freeway across the street from their run-down apartment building in San Antonio. “There are country sounds here.”

  “Like the horses and cows,” EJ said in wonder, inching closer until his leg pressed against hers and she could smell his toothpaste-scented breath. She’d be sad when her boy got old enough that he didn’t want to snuggle any longer.

  “Don’t forget the chickens,” she told him.

  “The rooster is my favorite.”

  She dropped a quick kiss on the tip of his nose. “The rooster might even wake up earlier than you, buddy.”

  “No one wakes up earlier than me, Mommy.”

  Bianca sighed. “Think of this as vacation. You can sleep late.”

  He yawned, then smiled. “I don’t like to sleep late.”

  “I know, bud.”

  “I like it here,” he said sleepily.

  “Me, too,” she whispered, almost afraid to say the words out loud for fear she’d jinx her new bit of luck. She rolled her shoulders against the mattress, amazed at how light she felt. Strange that the weight she’d been carrying for so long it felt a part of her had already started to lift.

  She needed to find a way to earn her keep on the ranch, but not having the pressure of a dead-end job and the stress of worrying about childcare for EJ was a gift. She’d been running on all cylinders for so long with no time to catch her breath or figure out a plan for making a better life. Nate Fortune, with his matter-of-fact demeanor and quiet intensity, seemed to have no issue with giving her space. True to his word, he hadn’t pushed her for details about her circumstances. Not during the simple but satisfying lunch he’d made or on the brief tour of the house he’d led them on after they ate.

  He seemed to be almost more comfortable with EJ than he was with her, patiently answering EJ’s litany of questions while barely making eye contact with her.

  She had a healthy dose of curiosity where the former navy SEAL was concerned.

  Why did he leave the service and return to Paseo in the first place? She knew he’d been with Eddie on the mission that had killed her brother. Could he give her any more information about how and why her brother had died?

  She’d practically memorized the reports and brief news stories she’d found online, but nothing in the official paperwork told her what she wanted to know. Did Eddie suffer? Was it quick? How had things gone so wrong for the brother who’d always seemed invincible?

  She hadn’t asked any of those questions. If she wasn’t willing to share the specifics of her life, could she really expect Nate to open up his past for inspection? But he must have read something in her eyes because in the middle of the tour, his shoulders had stiffened and he’d made some excuse about needing to get back to work and all but bolted out of the house.

  Other than a distant trail of dust on the horizon, she hadn’t seen him again. He hadn’t returned to the house at dinnertime, and she’d eventually heated EJ a meal of chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. She’d placed the leftover macaroni in a bowl on the counter in case Nate wanted dinner when he came in. It was a meager offering, and she planned to drive into town for groceries the following morning. The least she could do while she was here was to cook Nate a few decent meals.

  She’d learned to cook as a teenager so Eddie would have home-cooked meals when he was on leave, and sitting around the small table listening to her brother tell tales of his adventures in the navy were still some of her happiest memories.

  EJ made a tiny whimpering sound and shifted away from her on the bed. She listened to his steady breathing for a few more minutes, then climbed out of the bed and crossed the hall to Deborah’s room, which Nate had offered her without reservation. She heard a noise from downstairs, alerting her that Nate had returned to the house. It was past nine and she wondered what he’d been doing to keep him away for so long. The thought that he might have a girlfriend in town both intrigued and frustrated her. She laughed inwardly as she realized EJ came by his curiosity honestly.

  The urge to see Nate again was almost overwhelming, but Bianca walked into her room and closed the door, leaning against it as if that would keep her inside. She was lucky Nate had agreed to let her stay so easily, and didn’t want him to regret the decision because she couldn’t help but make a pest of herself.

  His mother’s room was simple, with one chest of drawers and a faded quilt covering the bed. Bianca appreciated the framed photos scattered around the room, all featuring the triplets at various ages. Bianca’s photos of EJ and his preschool artwork that she’d framed were among her prized possessions, all of them currently stuffed in the trunk of her car.

  She dressed for bed, leaving the window cracked slightly so the night breeze cooled the air. She’d mostly kept her apartment windows shut, even in the blistering heat of a Texas summer, both for security reasons and to limit the outside noise. But the ranch was quiet and peaceful, and she took a deep breath as she slipped between the sheets.

  Bianca had gotten used to being tired, but that didn’t mean sleep came easily to her. She expected to toss and turn as she normally did into the wee hours, but the next thing she knew she was blinking awake as pale gray light began to creep through the curtains that covered the window.

  “It’s morning, Mommy.”

  EJ’s face was only inches from hers, and she turned her head to glance at the clock on the nightstand.

  “It’s six o’clock,” she said with a groan and then sat up, yawning widely. “I let you stay up a whole hour past your bedtime last night so you’d
sleep later this morning.”

  “Didn’t work,” EJ reported with a wide grin. “I haven’t even heard the rooster yet. I beat him.”

  “You sure did,” she agreed. She’d slept through the night without waking but somehow felt more exhausted than she had in ages. She struggled to sit up against the pillow, letting the sheet and quilt slip down to her waist. “But it’s too early, sweetie. I bet Mr. Nate isn’t even—”

  “Good morning,” a deep voice called from the doorway. “I’m impressed that you two keep ranch hours.”

  Maybe it was her fuzzy brain, but Bianca felt her mouth drop open as she took in Nate Fortune leaning against the doorjamb, sipping from an oversize mug. He looked even more handsome than he had yesterday, wearing a red-checked flannel shirt and faded jeans molded to his lean hips and muscled thighs. Bianca must have been more desperate than she’d even realized because she was jealous of a pair of pants. His hair was damp at the ends and curled over his collar like he was a couple of weeks past needing a haircut.

  “I beat the rooster,” EJ repeated, grinning widely.

  “Nice work,” Nate said with an answering smile.

  Bianca stifled a yawn. “This is an unholy hour for people to be awake and chipper.”

  “Mommy’s grumpy in the morning,” EJ announced helpfully.

  She made a face. “It’s practically still the middle of the night.”

  Nate chuckled, the sound reverberating through her. “At least you’re not turning green and busting out of your clothes.”

  At the mention of clothes, Bianca glanced down to the thin tank top she wore for sleeping. The words You Can’t Make Everyone Happy. You’re Not Pizza. were printed across the front, and she’d taken off her bra before she went to bed last night. She looked up again and Nate’s gaze slammed into hers. She automatically crossed her arms over her chest, but at the way his brown eyes sparked, it was obvious he’d already noticed her lack of a bra. Goose bumps rose on her skin in response to the intensity of his stare. Maybe Nate’s thoughts where she was concerned weren’t so brotherly, after all.