let the words ruminate in her brain for a moment.
This afternoon was for her parents. It was a big, big deal for them. It was a huge step for them. Today was about them.
Not her.
Them.
Her cheeks burned as she knocked back the rest of her champagne, draining the half-full glass. She could let them have their day. She should let them have their day. Her dad probably wanted to talk to her privately before he made the announcement.
Of course. He wouldn’t just announce her promotion without preparing her first.
Today was a day to celebrate Kenneth and Barbara. In fact, she was proud of her dad for not making today all about business. It took a lot of restraint on his part, since he was always all business, all the time. Plus, something so important as her stepping into her father’s shoes needed to be discussed. Even though they had already discussed it—in broad terms. But now that his retirement had a fixed date, they would need to discuss her salary. They needed to talk about his expectations. She needed to make sure he understood she wanted complete control. His role would be as support system to her.
Or better yet, he’d stay out of Fortunado Real Estate altogether and enjoy his retirement as she implemented her vision for the company.
Her gaze found Zach again. Like her, he stood just outside of the knot of people clustered around her parents, wishing them well.
Once she took over, she would offer Zach a lovely promotion. It was the least she could do if she couldn’t offer him her body—Stop that. To date, she’d never offered him her body and now she never would. And that was not the way a boss should think about an employee. Even if said employee was drop-dead gorgeous and flirted outrageously with her. He flirted outrageously with all women. He had a different girl with him every time she saw him. And that’s why she needed to focus on what would come next: her promotion. It was a chance to give her all to something bigger than herself—something that would never let her down. That was the way to go.
She would always love Zach, but he would never know it.
That was the price she would pay to secure her future. A future so close she could taste it.
* * *
Zach McCarter was honored to be invited to hear his boss’s big announcement. From the first minute Zach had joined the Fortunado Real Estate team five years ago, Kenneth Fortunado had made him feel like part of the family. Even so, he felt a little out of place here today. Like a fish out of water among Kenneth’s adult children and close friends. However, when his boss welcomed him as part of the family, it would be rude—hell, it would be downright ungrateful—to second-guess the invitation.
His gaze landed on Maddie Fortunado, who was standing apart from her sisters and the others who were clustered around their parents. Only he and Maddie, with her long blond hair and perfect skin, hung back.
She stood with her arms folded, wearing a Mona Lisa smile that didn’t quite reach her blue eyes. Zach knew she would wait until the scrum had dissipated before going in. He knew this because it’s what he’d do. He and Maddie were a lot alike when it came to things like this—and in their approach to business. But their backgrounds were polar opposite.
With her Ivy League education and continental upbringing, Maddie Fortunado was not your standard Texas debutante. She was smart—too smart to concern herself with inconsequential things that didn’t matter. She put her Harvard Business School education to good use at Fortunado Real Estate and seemed to live, eat, breathe and sleep her career.
While he and Maddie were philosophically alike, Zach hadn’t been born into money. He wasn’t implying that Maddie didn’t work hard. In fact, he had to hand it to her, she never coasted on the privilege of being the boss’s daughter. She was good at her job as vice president of sales. She was always in the office. Every time he was there, so was she. No one could accuse her of not pulling her weight. But at the end of the day, she was the boss’s daughter. That’s why he had to check any feelings that might have remotely resembled attraction.
And there had been a few.
Zach had worked double time just to get to the starting gate of his career, so that a man like Kenneth Fortunado not only knew his name, but respected him enough to invite him into his home and include him in an occasion like this.
Maddie glanced his way again and he made a face at her. She smiled—as he knew she would. She shook her head and rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
Zach closed the distance between them, walking across the marble back porch, past the koi pond to stand next to her.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey, yourself.” She cocked a brow. “I guess they let anyone in here these days.”
“Surprised by the announcement?” he asked.
She shrugged. “In some ways, yes, but it’s been a long time coming. So, in that regard, no.”
“What happens next?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” She raised her chin a fraction of an inch, a tell that she knew something she wasn’t sharing.
“If anyone knows what’s going to happen with the business after your father retires, it would be you.”
She opened her blue eyes wide, obviously feigning cluelessness, but she wasn’t very good at it.
“I don’t know, Zach. I guess you’ll just have to wait for another Fortunado family announcement.”
She fisted her hands on her hips and the movement showed off her sleek tanned arms beneath her crisp white sleeveless blouse. She had great arms that were toned and feminine. And long, long legs that could drive a man to distraction if he allowed it. Zach wouldn’t allow it. He couldn’t allow it, he thought, forbidding himself to glance down.
It was likely that Maddie would be named her father’s successor. That meant she would go from being the boss’s daughter to being the boss. No matter how alluring he found those long legs, they weren’t worth compromising his job. He’d worked too hard to get to where he was today to risk losing it all.
“Everyone, lunch is ready,” said Barbara. The crowd around her and Kenneth thinned. “Please help yourselves. We have pulled pork, barbecued brisket, and chicken. I hope you brought your appetites. Because there’s plenty of food and I don’t want any leftovers.”
Schuyler and Carlo were the first ones to approach the buffet. Zach and Maddie continued to hang back and let the other guests and Fortunado siblings go first. No matter how many family functions or Sunday lunches like this one that he’d attended, he always tried to err on the side of politeness. He was thirty-two years old and had been in the business since he was eighteen, but at times like this, he still felt out of place. If he thought about it too hard, the fifteen-year-old boy who was on the outside looking in beckoned him farther back into the periphery, where he would feel more comfortable watching than diving into the middle of everything. He’d outgrown his insecurities, of course. He’d like to think he’d gotten as strong as he was to spite them. Because confidence had been a must to succeed in the real estate business. In fact, in this industry, confidence was everything. But being in the Fortunado home like this, he preferred to stand back and watch the family dynamics. Watch and learn. The
