Fortune's Christmas Baby (Fortunes of Texas)

“You don’t get it, do you?” Nolan asked, taking her hand.

Looking at him, starting to cry again, she shook her head.

“I had you open the envelope first because I want you to know—always, first and foremost—that I will never, ever try to keep you out of Stella’s life. She’s your daughter. You’re her mother. That’s sacred.”

Her chin was trembling now. She couldn’t talk.

So she listened as he told her what he’d found out that night about his father. His family. Carmela’s boss was his cousin? That went right over her head. Nolan was a famous Fortune? It was too much. Way too much.

“So now you see, no one in my family would ever, ever take Stella from her mother. They just don’t want her to be separated from her father, either.”

She didn’t want that, either, but...

“And now you know that you don’t have to agree to anything else in order to keep her,” he added.

She was reeling from his revelation, and could only imagine how shocked he was. His entire family was. And yet, his siblings had made presents for her...

“The gifts...”

“My siblings are trying to show you—all except the peas, maybe—that I’m a good guy. I was talking to my dad, making arrangements to get back here, and I didn’t know what they were doing until they were done, but they made me swear that I’d give them to you first. Insurance, maybe. Or they were afraid I’d blow it.”

“Blow what?”

“I want you to marry me, Lizzie. To come to New Orleans with me, find the house you want to live in there and be my family. You and Stella.”

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

She couldn’t breathe. She’d told Carmela multiple times that if he asked, she’d say no.

“At least come back for Christmas dinner. Mom and Dad are going to call you and ask if I can’t get you to say yes.”

“That’s tomorrow!” she said. “We can’t possibly get a flight in so little time and—”

She couldn’t quit shaking.

“The plane’s ready and waiting whenever we are,” he was saying. “Carmela said you were opening gifts in the morning and then she was going to catch a flight out to see her family. I was thinking we could leave when she does. It’s only an hour-and-a-half flight...”

She was hearing more white noise than him. “What plane?”

“The family plane,” he told her. “Russell, our pilot, will head back home tonight and be here tomorrow at whatever time we need. His ex has their kids over Christmas this year and he was at a loose end...”

That was it. The end.

“I...can’t,” Lizzie said, standing, and then when she was hit with a swoosh of light-headedness, she sat again. “I can’t go. I can’t do this.”

“Just come for a visit. Meet everyone. See New Orleans.”

“I can’t, Nolan.”

He took her hand again. Rubbed the top of it with his thumb. “Can we talk about it?”

She shook her head, crying in earnest now.

“Can you tell me why not?”

“Money.” As soon as she said the word, more came rolling out, one on top of the other, like an avalanche. “It makes people crazy, Nolan. Makes them forget what really matters.” The memories assailed her then and she was powerless to ignore them. They took her back over a decade ago. “The weather had been so bad that day,” she told him, reliving the moment her life changed so drastically. “So bad. The sky was almost black, the kind where you get scared and just want to stay inside with the curtains closed and all the lights on. But when Barbara Mahoney called to say that the trip was still on, that the plane could go up, my parents didn’t even think twice. They’d been planning the ski trip for weeks. Some famous actor was going to be there. Anyone who was anyone was going to be there. I’d heard my Mom talking about it on the phone to Aunt Betty. I begged them not to go. Begged them. I held on to my mom’s arm, crying, trying to get her not to walk out that door, but she went, anyway. Because she was so driven by the temptation of being rich, she couldn’t see the danger. Or she didn’t see how the lure of money was changing her. She went right out that door and never came back...”