Fortune Found by Victoria Pade Page A

again be free to put her energies into her kids. Which was what she was determined to do. Her family was her priority and nothing was going to change that.
    And part of making them her priority meant that she was determined to be cautious about what—and who—she allowed into their lives.
    Yes, Kelsey thought Flint was a decent guy and so far Jessie hadn’t seen anything that said he wasn’t. But he also wasn’t from the best background—from what little Jessie knew.
    Granted, she didn’t know much, and she certainly didn’t know any of the details, but she did know that Flint and Coop’s mother had been married four times. That she’d had four children with three different fathers.
    That had to have made an impression on Flint, and Jessie couldn’t imagine that it had made a good one.
    And because she knew, too, that Flint was divorced—though, again, without knowing any details—and he’d said himself that he was not to be tied down—she thought that it didn’t speak well of his staying power and that that could potentially have come from his less-than-ideal background.
    If there was one thing that Jessie was terrified of, it was feeling about someone the way she’d felt about Pete, and losing them. She just couldn’t go through that again in any fashion—including divorce. She couldn’trisk that kind of loss for herself and she wouldn’t risk it for her kids.
    If she ever took a chance on another man, it would have to be with someone she knew without a doubt would never choose to leave her. Someone who would stick around through thick and thin.
    That someone wasn’t likely to be a man who was accustomed to seeing his mother go in and out of marriages, who already had a divorce of his own under his belt and was clearly a commitment-phobe.
    â€œNot that it matters. You don’t click with him, remember?” she told her reflection sarcastically.
    That tone of voice would have made Pete laugh. And suddenly, as had happened many times since his death, Jessie had such a strong sense of him that it made her wonder if his spirit was there with her.
    Watching her get ready to go out with another man.
    Pete had liked the earrings she was struggling to put on. Maybe she shouldn’t wear them.
    But somehow, even in her sense that Pete was with her, she didn’t feel as if she needed to change her jewelry.
    And that was when—out of the blue—another thought occurred to her that actually seemed to bear the mark of her late husband.
    Pete had always been an optimistic, upbeat person. Even in the most dire situations she’d never known him not to find the good that could come of anything. And while having a fledgling attraction to another man wasn’t a dire situation, it struck her at that moment that maybe the good to come out of it was that feeling even the slightest attraction to someone new, someone otherthan Pete, was a sign that she was becoming capable of moving on.
    The idea gave her a twinge of guilt, too, but she knew taking that first step was an indication that she was healing. That healing meant regaining some emotional health and stamina and resiliency. It meant she was getting stronger. And strength—especially when she was raising four children—was exactly what she needed.
    â€œSo, wondering what the man looks like without his shirt on is okay?” she asked her reflection and the room in general.
    When the question made her laugh a little, she decided it must be okay. That her secret appreciation of Flint’s physical attributes were indeed a positive sign that she was coming out of her grief.
    And since there was no danger of it going any further than that because he’d already let her know she didn’t do anything for him, and because tonight’s dinner was the beginning of the plan to get her sister and her sister’s matchmaking minions to back off, Jessie decided she could