Page 11 of Inheriting Miss Fortune

“Trusts and estates, mostly. I do some real estate work as well if my clients need it. Contract review, too, from time to time.”

“Sounds… lucrative,” I said for lack of anything better. It sounded boring as hell, to be honest, but I didn’t want to offend him.

“It is. Stable, too.” Tully straightened slightly and smoothed a hand down the remains of his crumpled dress shirt. His voice was a little starchier as he added, “I’m very grateful for my position at Dunlevy, Pace, and Trumble.”

“Glad to hear it.” It took all kinds, I supposed.

He hesitated. “What about horse breeding? Does it, um… pay well?”

Ah. This wasn’t “small talk” but an interrogation into what kind of life I had, what kind of financial stability I might be able to provide for Lellie. For my… daughter.

Disappointment flared hot in my gut. I’d hoped… well, I guess I’d hoped Tully was actually trying to get to know me. That the one night we’d spent together had been decent enough to make him give a shit about me as a person.

The encounter had stayed with me for a long time and kept me company through hundreds of lonely nights. I’d had fantasies about Tully Bowman—imagined what it would have been like if I could have pursued something real with him if he hadn’t been so closely tied to the life I’d had to leave behind. But it looked like that was well in the past for him and nowhere near his radar now.

The man was here for one reason and one reason only: to judge me on behalf of a little girl I’d never met and hadn’t evenknown existed. And it seemed like Tully Bowman was eager to find me wanting.

Which, let’s be honest, wouldn’t be that difficult.

FIVE

TULLY

I knew I’d fucked up the minute Dev’s face had gone blank. In my haste to get answers, I’d pushed too much too soon, and I silently cursed myself.

I’d been enjoying our talk—or, more accurately, I’d been enjoying the subconscious twitch of his lips whenever something amused him, the scent of sandalwood as the wind ruffled his dark curls, and the competent way his big hands gripped the steering wheel as he maneuvered us down the road.

When I’d realized I was relaxing a little too much in his presence, I’d panicked and scrambled to get my brain back on track. I hadn’t been as subtle as I should have been, and now Dev was entirely closed off.

Which wasn’t a thing I should feel upset about, I told myself firmly. Lellie was my priority here; that wasn’t in doubt. I needed to determine whether Dev was a fit parent or the kind of person who might take advantage of Lellie’s wealth. I didn’t want to think ill of him, for Katie and Lellie’s sake, but I also knew this world was harsh, and sometimes desperate situations made people… desperate.

I cleared my throat. “I’m… ah… sorry to just show up here with no warning. It’s just that I couldn’t find a phone numberfor you. I tracked you down to the ranch, but I didn’t want to contact the owners and potentially get your employer involved in a private… situation.”

His jaw ticked as he pulled off the highway and onto a gravel road and under a wooden archway that read Fletcher Ranch. “Appreciate it.”

The awkwardness deepened again as he made his way slowly past an old sprawling ranch house and acres of horse pasture.

“It reallyisbeautiful here.” I winced at the repetition. It had been years since I’d felt this wrong-footed. “I should have asked before we left town, but is there a place I can get a room for me and Lellie, after you and I talk? A bed-and-breakfast or something? I expected to find a hotel or motel on my way from the airstrip, but I didn’t see anything.”

“There’s an inn off Poke Street that probably has room, but you’re not taking Lellie.”

He pulled up to a large barn and pulled my rental next to a dust-covered but very expensive-looking SUV and several late-model horse trailers. Fletcher Ranch must have been doing very well to be able to afford high-end equipment.

It took me a minute to realize what he’d said, and Dev was out of the car before I could respond. I jumped out and scrambled around to face him, but he’d already pulled open Lellie’s door.

“Okay, hold up. I’m not leaving her with you,” I said, feeling the culmination of stress, exhaustion, and annoyance ball together in a dangerous simmer. “You saw how she reacted when you tried to hold her.”

“Then you can sleep on my floor,” Dev said gruffly. “Because if I’m reading you right, and I think I am, I just inherited my own… my own daughter.” He turned to pin me with a familiar hazel stare that swirled now with an explosive mixture of hurt, confusion, sorrow, and yearning. “I don’t know exactly how thatwill work going forward… but if you mean to take her away one minute after I learned she existed, you can think again.”

“Learned she existed?” I shot back unwisely. “You just go around donating sperm for the hell of it? She’s been alive for over a year, Devon. You neverbotheredto learn she existed until now.”

The anger radiating off him told me I’d made a mistake even before he leaned closer to me and bit out, “Because she had a mother until now. And I wasn’t aware I owed you an explanation for my choices, Tully.” Something in the firm set of his jaw, the determined intensity of his gaze, and the soft but commanding tone of his voice made my heart hammer.

I was torn between respecting the hell out of him for taking up Lellie’s cause and panicking at the thought of him fighting to keep her without knowing any of the details or having the capacity to give her the life she deserved.

“I’m not leaving her,” I said again. “If that means I have to stay on your floor, fine. You don’t even know what a toddler needs, do you?”

“And you do?” he snapped.

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