The silence between them, when he finally stopped was a relief. He waited for her castigation. And probably her demands that he tell Val Hensen what he did and give her the right to void the sale of the Chatelaine Dude Ranch. For the Fortune good name if nothing else.

  He was almost ready to hear it, too, when she opened her mouth. “It’s very clear to me that you love Lily.”

  Not at all what he’d been expecting, and so the truth popped out. “Of course, I do. She’s my best friend.”

  Freya’s headshake made him frown.

  “No, not just as a friend. As a woman. A wife. As a life and love partner.”

  Those last four words...struck him. A punch to the gut.

  “Go get your woman, Asa. Make it right. Before tonight so you all can enjoy your wedding celebration for real.”

  Life and love partner. Exactly. Life and love best friend.

  Life and love partner.

  That’s what Lily had been trying to tell him. They were already there. Living it. Except that he’d been too obstinate to see it.

  Marriage. Husband. Wife. They were words. It was the people, their actions, and how they felt, that made them successful ventures, who gave their hearts and souls to the roles they’d vowed to honor for life.

  And the chains...partners gave each other the freedom to express their needs. They listened with a need to understand. Not to change the other.

  Just as he and Lily had done from the beginning.

  Life and Love Partner.

  Oh, God. What had he done? He had to get to her...

  Bending, he gave the older woman a hug, and then, with barely a thank-you, jumped in his truck, backed up and sped out of town.

  * * *

  Before she could think about packing, Lily had to wash her sheets and pillowcases. She’d soaked the latter with tears during the night.

  And again that morning.

  She had to be done crying. And figured, the clean sheets would signify the tears’ final demise.

  Lily had no idea what she was going to do with herself once the marriage ended. But at least she’d have some financial resources. She was going to hold Asa to his monetary agreement with her, just as he was holding her to the friendship only part of their deal.

  The thought of leaving town had occurred to her. She could go to college somewhere. Get far away from Asa, at least long enough to get him out of her system.

  But Chatelaine was her home. The town was her family.

  And no way could she lose her sisters again, after finally having them in her life. Tabitha was going to need help with her little guys as they started walking and getting into things. And Haley...she needed someone to remind her that life was more than unanswered questions. At least if she wanted to find love for herself.

  Maybe Lily had been too hasty, quitting her job at the ranch. She loved the work.

  And what better way to get over a man than to have him for a boss? To work for him every day and, be around enough to see the women coming in and out of his life.

  Maybe she’d even end up falling for whoever he hired as a new ranch hand.

  When that thought brought more tears right as Lily was folding her newly cleaned sheets, she sniffled and kept folding.

  Then, leaving packing for another time, she took Max with her down to the barn and went to find Laura.

  The dog needed something besides tears and a maudlin woman for company. She’d hugged him plenty, but had barely spoken to him since she’d returned to her room the night before. There was just no way she could find words for the chaos going on inside of her.

  With Laura it was different. The mare was a female. And didn’t need words.

  She was also named after the woman Lily needed so desperately in the horrible aftermath of her botched bedroom encounter with Asa. Maybe if she’d had a woman who’d been through the ups and downs of adult romantic relationships, guiding her through every phase of her journey into womanhood, she’d have made different choices the night before.

  Wouldn’t have pushed Asa so far into a corner that he’d had to fight his way out.

  Up on the horse, she rode for a while, feeling somewhat better as she breathed the fresh air, enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine. She didn’t purposely head for the family trail with the notable jog around an old oak tree, but felt a little less alone when she saw it ahead of her.

  And when she stopped at the curve, sitting atop her horse close enough to the tree to touch it, she knew it was right that she’d come to her mother as she, once again, saw her life heading into another rebirth.

  She knew how to do it—how to re-create her home life. How to forge a place for herself wherever she ended up. And thankfully, she now had the money to choose that home for herself.

  Of course, it would have to be a small place. She wasn’t ever going to be rich. And maybe she’d have to take out a mortgage to finish it. If she built new.

  But...

  Laura’s head lifted, turned back toward the trail they’d come down, snorted.

  And then Lily heard it, too.

  Horse hooves. Heading their way.

  Putting a hostess smile on her face, expecting to see Jack, one of their ranch hands, with a guest rider, she felt her whole being slide into nothingness as Asa and Major appeared instead. Two strong male beauties. The one brought her a sense of comraderie. Acceptance. Understanding.

  And the other...the muscled cowboy on top of the horse...looking so ruggedly handsome...ripped her heart a little more.

  “Jack told me he saw you head this way,” he said, as though he had every right to seek her out in her private time.

  She nodded. Didn’t want to fight with him.

  Ever.

  She loved him. Flaws and all.

  Understood him.

  She just couldn’t be in love with him anymore.

  When he rode Major right up to her, within a foot, she sat straight. Didn’t flinch. Or give in to the temptation to give her mare’s sides a slight nudge and gallop off with her into the sunshine.

  He climbed down from the saddle. Then with a gentle tap of his hand to Major’s front paw said, “Back.”

  Lily watched, starting to wonder if the man had been drinking.

  She saw Major bow—one front leg bent under him as he went down—and hold the position. Lily was so busy watching the horse, it took her a second to realize that Asa had done the same. And was staring up at her.

  “Lily Perry Fortune, will you please give me a chance to take that chance with you that you offered last night, minus the six-month getaway clause?”

  Her heart pounding, she stared down at him.

  “Asa? What are you doing?”

  “I’m begging,” he said, as though it was obvious. “I love you, Lily. Like a man loves a woman. You saw it. I think I did, too. I just couldn’t get past my own deeply ingrained barriers to acknowledge what was right in front of me.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes again. She didn’t bother to blink them away. After the night before, she hardly felt they mattered. “This is because I’m quitting, right?” she asked. “You want me to stay here on the ranch with you.”

  “I do want that, yes. But that’s not why...”

  Was he going to shatter her heart completely before he let her go? “Don’t do this, Asa, please?”

  “I have to, Lily. I love you.”

  He’d said the words to her before. They didn’t change anything.

  Major stood up. Asa did not.

  “I want you in my home, in my bed, and to have my children.”

  She could hardly breathe through the tightness in her chest. Was shaking in her saddle. “Don’t, Asa. It’s not what you really want. Not what you believe in. Which means it will probably end up just like you fear it will.”

  He shook his head. “You’re wrong.”

  She wanted so badly to believe him, she almost slid down off her horse to throw herself in his arms. But she couldn’t fool herself anymore.

  She’d never find her dreams that way.

  “What changed between last night and today?” she asked him, finding the strength to resist him.

  “Four words,” he said, and for a second there, she went back to thinking he’d been drinking. Though, even that was so out of character it was hard to believe. Asa didn’t drink during the day unless there was some kind of party, and he never drank to the point of talking out of his head.

  “Four words?” she prompted when she could.

  “Life. And. Love. Partner.” He said each word like it was its own sentence. And then, “That’s when I got it. Marriage, husband, wife...those words, what they stand for in my mind, scare the hell out of me. But I am so in love with you, Lily, that the thought of losing you is making me want to sell the farm. Will you please be my life and love partner until death do us part, and beyond that, too?”

  “Life and love partner,” she repeated, her heart tumbling over itself in fear. On a race to a joy she couldn’t let herself grasp.

  “Aunt Freya... I told her what I’d done, that I’d lost you and she said those words. They clicked, Lil. They honest to God clicked. Because they described us exactly. It’s what you said. We’re partners who always consider each other’s needs as well as our own. A person is only trapped if he can’t get out, and as along as he is out, being heard...” He stopped, shook his head, as though he was getting too much to fast. “Please, please, will you be my life and love partner?”

  With tears streaming down her face, Lily slid down off her horse, and would have fallen if her husband hadn’t stood and caught her up in his arms, lifting her feet up off the ground with the exuberance and strength of his hug.

  “I love you, Asa Fortune, and I’ll very happily and sincerely be your life and love partner until death do us part and beyond,” she promised against his neck, right by his ear.

  He kissed her then, slowly lowering her feet to the path.

  And as she kissed him back, she knew her feet were never going to touch the earth in quite the same way ever again.

  Her step would be lighter because she wasn’t walking alone.

  No matter what the future brought them, she and Asa would live it together, until death and beyond.

  Just like her mother’s love had continued to live in Lily, even when Lily had refused to think about her.

  Because love carried that much power.

  * * *

  The party was in full swing. With Lily in a sexy white blouse and black jeans, and him in his own white shirt and black jeans, they had walked in holding hands, to a roar of cheers and flying confetti. They’d made their rounds, taken ribbing and heartfelt congratulations, had fed each other cake, danced their wedding dance alone in front of everyone, and toasted champagne.

  The pile of gifts was overwhelming and wonderful—mostly because of the look of awe on Lily’s face when she’d seen them—and were being sent to the ranch for opening later.

  She’d asked him for a few minutes alone with her sisters, and while Asa visited with everyone around him, he missed her. Had hardly been able to leave her side all day—not because anyone or anything was holding him there. Except his own desire to be close to his beautiful bride.

  The need would dissipate to a more normal level of togetherness. He knew that.

  Or, as Lily put it, faith in their togetherness would make it less necessary for them to be with each other every minute of the day.

  He wasn’t really buying it, though. It made sense to him that some life and love partners were just made to do life together—work and play.

  As Lily had pointed out, the Hensens had done so.

  And now he and Lily were carrying on their legacy.

  When Val Hensen came up to him, giving him a warm hug, he hugged her back and said, “Thank you.” He’d been thinking the words yet hadn’t meant to say them out loud.

  “You bought the ranch fair and square,” she told him.

  He shook his head, “No, thank you for forcing me to propose to and marry the love of my life,” he told her.

  And glanced up to see Lily, just approaching from the side of him. She’d heard his words. He could tell by the glow in her eyes.

  She licked her lips. Just as she’d done out on the trail that afternoon, asking for a repeat of two afternoons before. And then again, after they’d moved her things into his bedroom. She licked her lips and he was lost.

  “You trying to kill me here?” He leaned over to whisper in her ear, and then kissed her.

  Longer and deeper than he probably should have in front of an entire town’s worth of their family and friends.

  The catcalls that rang out that time were mostly calls for the two of them to get out of there, and when he looked at Lily, and she nodded, he scooped her up into his arms and headed for the door.

  They were almost outside when Tabitha and Haley appeared in front of them.

  “You’re a very lucky man,” Tabitha told him, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked from him to her triplet in his arms.

  “And a smart one, too,” Haley added.

  That was it, along with a glance that passed between the three sisters, speaking without words, messages he didn’t need to know.

  Messages that comforted him just the same.

  Lily might have grown up without family of her own, but she’d spend the rest of her life swimming in it.

  His. Hers. And theirs.

  And, if he had any say in it, they’d start adding to it, too, as soon as nature gave them the chance.

  He’d found his life and love partner.

  And the dream he hadn’t known to dream had found him.

  * * *

  Don’t miss Bea Fortune’s story, Expecting a Fortune by Nina Crespo

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  ISBN-13: 9780369746474

  Fortune in Name Only

  Copyright © 2024 by Harlequin Enterprises ULC

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Tara Taylor Quinn for her contribution to The Fortunes of Texas: Digging for Secrets miniseries.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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