Perhaps he’d even forgotten her. They’d been young and foolish and totally unsuited for one another. Her Aunt Molly, the woman who’d raised her from the time she’d been orphaned at the age of three, had been a cleaning woman at the St. Francis Center for Boys. Nash Fortune had been the grandson of one of the richest women in the United States.
But you haven’t forgotten him, nagged that little voice again.
Maybe not. Nash had been her first love. A woman always remembered her first. There was the guilt factor, too. She’d been the one to call things off. She was the one who’d run away.
That was why she was making the whole thing into a mountain—and Nash would be viewing it as a molehill. Surely, now that they were both adults who were living their dreams, he would see that she’d made the right decision.
Still, she’d taken money for what she’d done. She might not have signed the papers and taken Maggie’s check if Father Mike Flynn hadn’t been there standing at the older woman’s side. And they’d made it so easy for her. All she had to do was leave a note for Nash near the statue of St. Francis in the little prayer garden at the center.
And it wasn’t just money Maggie had offered her. It had been an acceptance letter from a college in the Boston area where she could major in writing. There’d also been a job for her Aunt Molly in one of Maggie’s companies that had a branch office in Cambridge. Maggie Fortune was as skillful as the serpent in Eden when it came to offering the right bait.
Bianca fisted her hands at her sides. Bribe or not, she’d been right to do what she’d done. She’d gone off to college and Nash had been able to continue at the Air Force Academy without the burden of a teenage wife in Denver.
No matter that it had hurt so much at the time. Nor that there was a little place in her heart that still ached.
The important thing was that they’d both achieved their dreams and might not have if she hadn’t made that bargain eleven years ago.
So what are you so afraid of?
Good question.
She pressed a hand to her stomach and willed her nerves to settle. She had a plan. She’d arrived in Denver two days ago, settled herself in a hotel, and even visited the Colorado Springs Police Department to look over their files on the Silko disappearance. Tonight’s meeting with Nash was just another step. She’d set up an interview with him and use the time to probe his relationship with Brian as well as his position as the sole heir to the Fortune riches.
A few days from now she was going to laugh about what a non-issue meeting him again had turned out to be.
Stepping away from the willow tree, she strode down the path toward the laughter and the music. The important thing was to find out what had really happened to Cadet Brian Silko and write his story.
The moment she stepped onto the flagstone terrace, Bianca paused to scan the crowd. She had to hand it to Maggie Fortune. The woman knew how to throw a party. At the far end of the pool, she caught a glimpse of the musicians, and she thought they’d switched to Mozart. But it was hard to tell above the laughter and conversation.
White-jacketed waiters carrying trays of fluted glasses cut paths through the clusters of guests. She spotted a senior state senator whose name frequently made the news. She was pretty sure she recognized an aging film star she’d had a crush on when she was thirteen, and there were at least two men who’d retired from hosting network evening news.
“Miss Quinn?”
Bianca turned to a tall, very distinguished-looking man at her side. She guessed him to be in his early seventies. He had gray, thinning hair, and in his perfectly tailored gray suit, he reminded her of the actor Walter Pigeon, who’d appeared in the original Thin Man movies.
“I’m Grady, Ms. Fortune’s house manager. She’s stepped inside for a moment and she asked me to greet you in her place. You’ll find Father Flynn and some other people you might remember over on the other side of the pool.”
“Thank you.” Bianca started to thread her way in the direction that Grady had pointed, but it took her a few moments before she spotted Father Mike. The instant he saw her, he smiled and waved. At once, something inside of her eased.
She’d originally met him through her Aunt Molly. On Saturdays, she’d frequently helped her aunt to clean the St. Francis Center. At the end of her junior year in high school, Father Mike had offered her the job of writing the newsletter for the center. It had been her first official writing job, and she could never thank him enough for the opportunity.
Working on the newsletter had also given her the opportunity to get to know him, and he was the kindest and most truly holy person she’d ever met. He’d even taken the time to fly east to visit her and her aunt during the first few years she’d been in college. And when her aunt had passed on two years ago, he’d flown in to say the funeral mass.
As Bianca began to weave her way toward him, she shifted her gaze to the people he was with. That was all it took to set her nerves dancing again. The pretty young woman was a stranger, but in spite of the passage of time, she recognized the two men immediately. Gabe Wilder and Jonah Stone had been Nash’s best friends at the St. Francis Center.
Gabe wore black. That had been his favorite color in high school, but the shirts hadn’t been silk back then. But Jonah’s clothes also had her taking a second look. He’d been a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of boy, but the suit he was wearing today had been tailored to fit his tall, lanky frame perfectly, and she was pretty sure it boasted a designer label. He definitely wasn’t the rough-edged street kid she remembered.
As she drew closer, Father Mike held out his arms and she walked right into them.
“Welcome back,” he murmured. “You must come and visit me soon so we can catch up.”
“I will,” she promised as he released her. It was at that precise moment she felt the hairs on the back of her neck spring to attention.
Nash.
She could feel the heat of his gaze on her skin, and the moment she turned her head, she saw him. He stood next to his grandmother on a balcony overlooking the terrace and pool. Her heart started to pound, her breath caught in her throat. He was tall and blond and just as handsome as the image she’d had in her mind all these years.
The fact that he was wearing his uniform did nothing at all to lessen the intensity of his effect on her senses. But it wasn’t until she met his eyes that she felt the full impact. Everything inside of her heated as her mind emptied and simply filled with him. Pleasure shot through her, along with the beginnings of that same primitive and urgent desire she’d felt for him all those years ago.
With it came the impulse to forget every thing else and just go to him. She was not naturally impulsive, but he’d always had that effect on her, making her want to toss the world away and go into freefall just to be with him. He still had the power to make her feel that way. Baffled, she fought hard to keep her feet firmly planted where they were. But she might have lost the battle if he hadn’t chosen that moment to turn to his grandmother.
Even then, it took all of her concentration to turn her own head and focus as Father Mike said, “You must remember Gabe and Jonah.”
“Yes.” The word was barely audible and Bianca reminded herself to smile.
“Welcome back to Denver,” Gabe said.
Jonah merely nodded.
In spite of the friendliness of Gabe’s words, cool wariness was what she saw in the eyes of both men. Of course, both of them had been close to Nash when she’d run out on him. Clearly,