The Fortunes of Texas
THE HOTEL FORTUNE
Follows the lives and loves of a wealthy, complex family with a rich history and deep ties in the Lone Star State.
Check in to the Hotel Fortune, the Fortune brothers’ latest venture in cozy Rambling Rose, Texas. They’re scheduled to open on Valentine’s Day, when a suspicious accident damages a balcony—and injures one of the workers! Now the future of the hotel could be in jeopardy. Was the crash an accident—or is something more nefarious going on?
Laid-back “cowboy” Jay Cross has been working at the Hotel Fortune for six months now, and so far, no one has guessed his secret. He’s happy to be “just Jay”—especially since Arabella Fortune likes him just the way he is. But once the truth gets out, their simple relationship will get way more complicated...
THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: The Hotel Fortune
Dear Reader,
Welcome back to Rambling Rose, the town that has been turned on its ear by the Fortunes of Texas, and never more so than now, when the Hotel Fortune—after fits and starts—is finally open for business. But what kind of business is actually going on at the hotel?
For Jay Cross, who simply came back to Rambling Rose to get a break from the frenzy that his life had become, it’s a place to make an honest day’s pay where nobody has any expectations of him other than that he do his job. If not for the local law, who aren’t happy about the supposed “gaps” in his life when they look his way after one too many mishaps at the hotel, life is nearly perfect.
For Arabella Fortune, who came back to Rambling Rose with dreams in her mind directly related to the handsome Jay, the business of the day is to finally find out what he was going to tell her the night they’d met so many months ago. The night he’d been unable to finish his sentence, I think you should know that— She’s been dreaming about a romantic ending to that sentence for months now.
But will there be romance and love in store for them? Or has Arabella been fantasizing all of these months about a man who has more secrets than Texas has Fortunes?
Hope you’ll enjoy finding out!
Allison
Cowboy in Disguise
Allison Leigh
Though her name is frequently on bestseller lists, Allison Leigh’s high point as a writer is hearing from readers that they laughed, cried or lost sleep while reading her books. She credits her family with great patience for the time she’s parked at her computer, and for blessing her with the kind of love she wants her readers to share with the characters living in the pages of her books. Contact her at allisonleigh.com.
Books by Allison Leigh
Harlequin Special Edition
Return to the Double C
A Weaver Christmas Gift
One Night in Weaver...
The BFF Bride
A Child Under His Tree
Yuletide Baby Bargain
Show Me a Hero
The Rancher’s Christmas Promise
A Promise to Keep
Lawfully Unwed
Something About the Season
The Fortunes of Texas: All Fortune’s Children
Fortune’s Secret Heir
The Fortunes of Texas: The Lost Fortunes
Fortune’s Texas Reunion
The Fortunes of Texas: Rambling Rose
The Texan’s Baby Bombshell
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
This book is dedicated to my husband, Greg. You keep me sane.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from Wildflower Season by Michelle Major
Excerpt from The Baby That Binds Them by Stella Bagwell
Chapter One
January
“I thought you didn’t eat bread anymore.”
Arabella Fortune jumped guiltily and used the corner of her napkin to cover the roll she’d dropped in her lap, where it sat next to two others just like it. She looked from the empty bread basket to meet her brother’s laughing eyes.
“More bread?”
At the question, she swiftly looked from Brady to the handsome owner of the deep voice. His name badge said Jay Cross and he’d been attending to their table throughout the birthday party for her nephew. She picked up the basket, smiling into his deep green eyes.
“Yes, please.” She sounded breathless and didn’t really care. “If it’s not too much trouble.” Jay was gorgeous. And every time their fingers brushed—when he’d given her a fresh napkin after she’d dropped hers, when he’d refilled her water glass, when she handed him the bread basket for the third time—there was an undeniable zing.
And she knew he’d felt it, too. Right from the start. The way his gaze had zipped to hers...and clung...had made her certain of it.
He had long fingers. She didn’t know if they were smooth or calloused, though he had a raised scar over one knuckle, long and whitish against his tanned skin, that made her think he didn’t spend all of his time on a catering crew.
His smile widened and his gaze was as warm as a caress when he took the basket from her. “No trouble at all.” His fingers grazed her hand and she felt butterflies take flight inside her. That brush of his fingers had to be deliberate. “I’ll be right back.” He walked away with the basket in hand.
“Why are you staring at that wader?”
Arabella heard her brother’s grunt of laughter and she pulled her attention away from Jay to focus on Tyler’s four-year-old face. Since Brady had been left guardian of his best friend’s twins the year before, she’d become adept at telling the two boys apart. “Was I staring?” she asked innocently.
Tyler nodded earnestly. “At his butt.” His young voice was piping clear. “The wader’s butt.”
“It’s waiter. Not wader,” Brady corrected almost absently. He was busy trying to keep Toby—the more rambunctious of the two children—from unbuttoning his shirt because he was too hot. It wasn’t really too warm inside the hotel restaurant where the party was being held. It was January. Back home in Buffalo, they’d be under a few feet of snow, but here in Rambling Rose, the balcony doors were thrown open and the occasional breeze that flowed in was beautifully balmy. The other two occupants of their
