Fortune's Christmas Baby (Fortunes of Texas)

Stella behind without guilt.

“I agreed to it,” she said, figuring that the sooner they got through the conversation, the sooner her friend would get the rest she needed.

“What did he agree to?” They’d talked it all over the night before. Over and over. And again that morning before Carmela had left, and more that evening, too, when her friend finally got home.

“All of it,” she said, shrugging as she dropped down into an armchair, her feet up in it with her.

“He agreed to give you the full deed to the house?” Carmela’s eyes wide, she held her teacup halfway to her mouth.

“You didn’t expect him to?”

“I guess I did.” Carmela broke eye contact, but only for a second. “I just... I don’t know, maybe I hoped...”

“What?”

No answer came to mind.

“I think I hoped he’d ask you to marry him,” Carmela said softly, standing just behind her. “Didn’t you, Lizzie? Even a little bit?”

Tears sprang to her eyes, the first she’d shed all day, and Carmela wrapped her in a hug. “It’s okay, sweetie. I love how you always manage to hold on to hope until the very last minute,” she said, giving Lizzie one more squeeze before letting her go.

“I would have said no,” Lizzie told her, sniffing as she wiped away the little bit of tears that had fallen. “There’s no way he’s going to give up his life, and no way I could ever fit into it. Even if he’d asked me to. But I knew he wouldn’t. Not with what happened with his former girlfriend.” She’d told Carmela about Molly. And about Nolan’s older brother, too, who’d married a woman after only knowing her two weeks.

The Fortune family had survived it all just fine, but that didn’t take the sting out of the burn.

“I guess it’s good that he’s buying you a house...”

“...and an SUV with a lifetime service agreement,” Lizzie snuck in, because she wanted to give due where it was deserved. She wanted Carmela to know all of the facts because she needed her friend’s opinion.

She didn’t trust herself enough where Nolan was concerned to rely fully on her own.

“Wow!” Carmela said, her brow raised. And then, frowning again, she shook her head. “Still, I really didn’t think he’d just walk away...”

“I’d hardly call a couple of visits a month ‘walking away.’”

“Yeah and how long do you think that will last?” Carmela asked. “Until he starts seeing someone else.” She glanced at Lizzie and then added, “Or you do.”

She’d needed her friend’s honest opinion. But that didn’t mean hearing it was painless.

The microwave binged, letting Lizzie know her cup of tea was ready, and she figured there was nothing left to do but drink it, get sleepy and go to bed.

“You got pretty much everything you wanted, and then some,” Carmela said as the two turned out lights and headed down the hall.

“Yep.”

They stopped outside Carmela’s door. “You don’t seem real happy about that.”

She didn’t feel happy. “I think I’m just on overload,” she said. “And exhausted,” she added. “We’re going house hunting tomorrow. I’m sure everything will start to seep in then and I’ll be excited.”

Reaching up, Carmela smoothed a piece of hair away from Lizzie’s cheek. “Your life is going to be so much easier, sweetie.”

Yeah. Monetarily. Which had never mattered all that much to her, not that anyone else could seem to understand that.

“You still love him, don’t you?”

“I hope not. Because if I do, I don’t see how this is going to work.”

* * *