A Sweetheart for Jude Fortune. Cindy Kirk

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      Chapter Three

      “I’m going to marry her,” Jude told Liam, pointing across the room with his bottle of Dos Equis. “She’s The One.”

      His older brother glanced out over the crowd, settling on...Delaney. “Uh, you’re marrying our sister?”

      “Not her.” Jude spoke through gritted teeth. “The one next to her.”

      “The pretty Latina.” Interest filled Liam’s eyes. “She’s a looker, all right. I wouldn’t mind getting her between the sheets—”

      Jude punched his brother in the shoulder. Hard. “Watch it. That’s my future wife you’re talking about.”

      Liam snorted. “Heard that one before.”

      “Heard what?” Sawyer sauntered up and handed Liam a beer.

      “Jude says he’s found The One.” Liam laughed. “More like The One This Week.”

      Sawyer looked perplexed, but Jude saw no need to enlighten the cousin he’d only recently met. By the gleam in Liam’s eyes, his brother didn’t feel the same constraints.

      “My brother here—” Liam gestured with his head toward Jude “—falls in love with every pretty filly that crosses his path. And just as quickly out of love. A guy could get whiplash watching him.”

      Obviously intrigued, Sawyer cocked his head. “Who is it this time?”

      “Gabriella Mendoza.” Jude let the name roll off his tongue. The name was as pretty as the woman. “I’m going to marry her.”

      “Ah, didn’t the two of you just meet tonight?” Sawyer asked cautiously.

      “Actually we ran into each other at the Superette this morning.” Jude smiled, recalling how pretty she’d looked with the sun glinting off her walnut-colored hair. “Love at first sight.”

      “It’s a little faster than normal,” Liam informed Sawyer as if Jude wasn’t standing right there. “I’m figuring it’s the hearts and flowers in the air, what with Stacey getting engaged and Valentine’s Day drawing near.”

      “Scoff all you want,” Jude told his brother. “She’s The One.”

      “She’s a nice woman,” Sawyer said cautiously. “And very attractive.”

      “I’m taking her to dinner tomorrow.”

      Surprise flicked across Sawyer’s face. “You move fast.”

      “I figure why waste time?” Jude took a long pull of beer. “When you know what you want and you find it...you go after it.”

      * * *

      Gabi spent most of the next morning at the rehabilitation hospital, observing her father’s therapy sessions. With an arm broken on one side and a leg broken on the other, it was difficult for Orlando Mendoza to even get up from the chair much less manage what the nurses called his ADLs—activities of daily living.

      But her dad was tough. A man didn’t survive all those years as an air force pilot and raise five kids without survival instincts. Gabi had lunch with him in the dining room down the hall from his room. Apparently the nurses believed in keeping the patients out of their rooms as much as possible.

      “This is tasty.” Gabi glanced down at the grilled chicken breast, brown rice and asparagus spears.

      “It’s exactly what you should be eating.” Orlando spoke in the fatherly tone he took on when he was poised to lecture. “I hope you didn’t have alcohol last night.”

      Gabi thought of the blended margaritas, the fine wine, even the bottles of Dos Equis. She shook her head. “You know I don’t drink.”

      “You had a cup of coffee with you when you came yesterday.”

      “It was decaffeinated.” Gabi held on to her growing frustration with both hands, reminding herself that her dad had a lot of time to worry. Even when he’d been busy, worrying about her and her health had been his favorite pastime.

      “Oh,” he said. “Good.”

      “I know how to take care of myself, Papi.” She kept her tone gentle as she brought her hand to her chest. “This heart was a precious gift. I don’t take it for granted.”

      “You were so sick.” Her father’s dark eyes took on a distant look. “Your mamma and I thought we were going to lose you. Barely more than a baby and we thought we would lose you.”

      Those dark days had occurred when Gabi was nineteen, hardly a baby by anyone’s standards, unless by overprotective parents.

      “You always pushed yourself too hard.” He shook his head. “I told you many times to slow down but you wouldn’t listen.”

      “It was a virus. From the stomach flu,” Gabi reminded him. “It didn’t have a thing to do with my college schedule СКАЧАТЬ