Fortune's Just Desserts Read Free

particular requirements of her figure was anywhere on the premises. He was going to have to put in a special order.
    It was starting already.
    Wendy fell into place beside him. “So I’m definitely going to be a waitress?”
    â€œYes,” he answered tersely, “You’re still going to be a waitress.”
    But, with any luck, you won’t be one for long, he added silently, for once tapping into his rather limited supply of optimism.

Chapter Two
    April
    â€œH ell of a mess, isn’t it?” Andrew Fortune commented to his older brother, Jeremy, who was throwing a travel bag with a few essentials into the back of the car they were taking on their rather abbreviated road trip. It was a trip born of necessity, not pleasure.
    Drew, Jeremy knew, was referring to the situation their entire family found themselves in. He laughed shortly, getting into the passenger seat.
    â€œHey, just because our last name’s Fortune doesn’t necessarily mean that the kind of fortune we’re going to run into is always going to be good.”
    â€œI’d settle for half-good,” his newlywed brother said. “As a matter of fact, thinking back on things, I don’t know about you, but I’d settle for just some peace and quiet for a change.”
    Drew was anxious to get started—and even more anxious to get back. He was also afraid that this trip might not turn out the way they hoped that it would.
    â€œIf that happened, you’d probably go stir crazy in a week,” Jeremy predicted with a short laugh. And then he grew serious. Their father was seventy-five. When last seen, he’d been in great shape. Maybe he still was. In any event, it wasn’t going to take two of them to bring him back. If that was their father the sheriff in Haggerty had found. “Listen, I can make this trip alone. You can stay behind and keep your blushing new bride company. You’ve only been married for a couple of months. These are the good times, or so they tell me. For all we know, this trip might just be a wild-goose chase. No need to drag you away.”
    Drew wasn’t about to be swayed. “Deanna understands,” he assured Jeremy, referring to his wife. “She wants to see the old man back where he belongs as much as I do. As much as we all do,” he amended.
    â€œYou’ve got a good woman there,” Jeremy commended, then murmured under his breath, “And with any luck, so will I. Soon.”
    Drew knew that Jeremy was referring to Kirsten Allen, the woman who had managed to wedge herself into his physician brother’s heart. They had recentlygotten engaged. “Maybe you should be the one to stay here,” he suggested.
    â€œYou’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Jeremy told him. If this man they were going to check out turned out to be their missing father, they would most likely need a doctor, and that would be him.
    â€œYou ready?” Drew asked, his hand poised to turn the key in the ignition.
    â€œLet’s go,” Jeremy gestured toward the open road.
    The sheriff had responded to the missing person bulletin they had posted and said that he might have found their father in town. They’d almost given up hope when they’d found their father’s sedan, abandoned and smashed, so this was definitely a turn for the better.
    â€œThink that homeless man really is Dad?” Jeremy did his best not to sound as nervous as he felt.
    Drew hated getting his hopes up, but at the same time, he needed to be optimistic. “Sure looked like it might be from that photo the sheriff emailed. A lot less dapper and pretty disheveled, but that definitely looked like Dad’s face to me. Anyway, Lily’s sure it’s him,” he added, referring to the woman his father was supposed to have married the day he disappeared, leaving a churchful of confused and concerned people in his wake.
    Formerly married to Ryan Fortune,