Without seeming to realize she’d done so, she placed her hand in his. “You’re the COO,” she said faintly. “My brother was just reading an article about your company in Wired. He’s a, um, a computer fiend.” She seemed to realize he was still clasping her hand and quickly tugged it free.
“And you? What are you a fiend about?”
Her dark lashes dropped and she shook her head, smiling slightly. “Nothing except finishing school.”
God help him. “High school?”
At that, she looked up again, a little outraged. “I’m twenty-three!” She shook her head. “College, of course.”
Still, God help him. He had ten years on her. “What are you studying?”
“Accounting.”
“Dry, dry, dry.”
“Some might say that about computer technology, too.”
“Computers make the world go ’round.”
“And that all started out based on two little numbers,” she returned immediately. “Zero and one. Both of which have existed long, long before computers.”
He realized he was smiling. “So what else do you do besides study zeroes and ones, and fill in at the last minute for missing bartenders?”
Her smooth cheeks flushed again, which only made her blue eyes bluer. “Not much. There’s just my mom and my brother and me. I pick up as much temp work as I can to pay tuition. It’s one of the reasons why it’s taking me this long to get my degree. Never enough time or money in the day. I can only manage school part-time.”
Ben and his brothers and sisters had been raised with every conceivable advantage. It was the one luxury of being Gerald Robinson’s offspring. They’d never once had to worry about earning money to pay tuition. Or anything else, for that matter.
But when it came to other things? Their genius father was predictable in only one thing: being unpredictable.
The latest of which was the reason for Ben’s presence at this damned fete of La Queen Fortune’s in the first place.
“Are you all right?” Ella was looking at him, her dark brows pulling slightly together.
He nodded and looked away from her to face the rest of the room, where a hum of excitement was suddenly filling the air.
The hostess herself had finally made her appearance.
And even if her identity wasn’t a surprise to Ben, it was clear by the whispers flying around the room that it was to all the legitimate guests there.
The pictures he’d seen of her had told him she was small and slim. But in person, dressed in a pale silver suit with diamond jewelry glinting under the light, she seemed even more so. Then she spread her arms and smiled as brilliantly as her jewels, and her commanding voice filled the hall as the music died away.
“Welcome, everyone, to the Silver Spur Ranch and my ninetieth birthday celebration. I am Kate Fortune.”
All around Ben, the whispers went up a notch. Someone even gasped.
Kate Fortune.
Billionaire. Head of the internationally successful Fortune Cosmetics.
And, Ben thought bitterly, the self-proclaimed matriarch of the vast and widespread Fortune clan.
“Talk about a walking advertisement for Fortune’s Youth Serum,” Ella murmured behind him.
On that score, Ella was dead-on. Because even though Kate herself had just confessed her age, she looked a good twenty years younger. Maybe more.
The hostess was still smiling vivaciously. “I cannot express how much I appreciate everyone’s willingness to overlook a bit of...vagueness...and join my husband, Sterling, and me here tonight.”
Only then did Ben notice the older, distinguished-looking man standing off to one side of the petite powerhouse. He was smiling, but his gaze was unquestionably watchful.
“But as I said, I’m celebrating ninety years on this earth, and I thought it was high time that I do that with all of the Fortune family around me. Since so many of you seem to have found your way to Texas, it seemed only sensible that I find my way here, too.” She laughed lightly. “And I must admit that is no hardship, since spending January in Austin, Texas, provides a much friendlier climate at this time of year than my home in Minnesota.”
Ben’s fingers tightened around his glass.
Kate was stepping farther into the room. “Please, everyone. Take a seat.” She gestured at the expensively laid-out tables around her, and those who’d still been standing found their way to empty seats.
Ben didn’t bother. He hadn’t been on the guest list to begin with, so there was no fancily prepared card marking a spot for him.
When the sounds of chair legs scraping on marble finally subsided, Kate clasped her hands in front of her. “That’s so much better, isn’t it?” Her smile took in everyone with a skill that Ben could almost admire. “It’s a regret of mine that there hasn’t been more contact among our families over the years.” She gestured toward a table to her right. “John Michael, you’ve no excuse, either,” she said lightly. “You own a good portion of the telecommunications in this great country of ours. You, too, could have picked up a phone.”
Laughter skittered across the room, though as far as Ben could tell, John Michael didn’t show a helluva lot of humor over it.
And if Kate noticed, she didn’t show it as she looked next to her left. “And Lily, darling, it’s been much too long since I’ve seen you. Ryan was still with us, then. Such a tragedy to lose him.”
The striking woman Kate was addressing was nodding. “He was a good man,” she agreed.
“And I can’t tell you how much I’ve admired the work you’ve all done with the Fortune Foundation since his death. Ryan’s memory truly lives on throughout all of Texas in the foundation’s good works. But—” Kate’s smile turned humorous “—I know you’ve also learned what I learned many years ago. That the heart has no age. And you found happiness again with William, just as I found it with my Sterling.” Her gaze encompassed the room again. “I could go on and on, but none of you want to sit here and listen to an old woman talk forever. As your invitations indicated, this isn’t merely a one-night party. We’ll have ample time at the events over the next several days to get to know one another—either again, or for the first time. And I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. Because beyond all of the successes I have seen in my lifetime, I know that family is the most important thing there is.”
Ben buried his grimace in the glass he lifted to his lips.
“But as my husband and my children would be the first to attest, I don’t do anything without reason,” Kate continued. “And I want to ensure the success of my legacy for the future generations of this great Fortune family we all share.”
She slowly made her way around the tables. “And the first step in that direction is by choosing someone from among you to take the helm of part of Fortune Cosmetics.” She patted the air soothingly at the shocked eruption that ensued. “It doesn’t matter your background,” she said. “I don’t care if you are Harvard-educated or if you’ve made your way courtesy of a GED and gutsy determination. If your experience is in a boardroom—” she touched one dark-haired man on the shoulder lightly “—or in a mechanics’ shop.” She smiled at Mr. Smarty Pants, who looked like he wanted to squirm in his seat. “It’s not what you’ve done that will influence my choice, but who you are. I’m looking for a particular ingenuity and strength of character, and I know I’m going to find that ideal individual within our extended Fortune family.”