Claiming The Cowgirl's Baby. Silver James

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       Two

      Pippa stared at her phone. Kade had very politely hung up on her without her getting another word in. What was going on? Before she could contemplate the situation, the waitress appeared again. If she didn’t eat something, Pippa would pay for it later. She ordered then headed to the ladies’ room. There was a line, and when she returned, her salad was waiting for her.

      Still trying to decide what to do about Kade, Pippa ate and people-watched. That’s when she recognized the five men occupying a nearby table. The last time she’d seen all five Barron brothers together had been at Cash’s wedding. They were all incredibly successful. Clay was a US senator. Cord ran the family’s oil company. Chance headed up a huge law firm. Chase normally lived in Las Vegas, Hollywood or Nashville as head of the family’s entertainment empire. She seldom saw Cash, though he lived in Oklahoma City. He was president of the security company in charge of safeguarding all the rest of the family’s enterprises.

      “So what are we going to do?” Chance sounded glum and Pippa stilled. It was rude to eavesdrop but instinct had her skulking behind the arrangement of plants between her table and theirs to remain unnoticed.

      “We can’t make him accept.” Clay shrugged and Pippa wished she could see his face. Who were they talking about?

      “It’s not like we hadn’t figured it out,” Chase added. “We’ve all hinted to Kade that we knew.”

      Wait...what? She was beyond confused now and waved away the waitress who was approaching with the iced water pitcher in her hand.

      Cord glanced around the restaurant and Pippa ducked down as he spoke. “Leave it to the old man to screw up things all the way from the grave.”

      A waitress arrived to take their orders and no one spoke for a few minutes after her departure. It was Cash who reopened the conversation. “How did you expect him to react? Jump up and down for joy? The guy works for us. For the old man. Never once did Dad treat him as anything but an employee. Put yourselves in Kade’s boots. He’s told he’s a bastard son and that the only way he can keep his job—keep everything he’s worked for the last eight years—is to change his name. If he doesn’t become a Barron, he’s out on his butt.” He met the gaze of each of his brothers and added in a sarcastic voice, “Yeah, I’d be thrilled to death with that ultimatum.”

      Pippa didn’t want to hear anything else. Her first thought was to get to Kade. No wonder he’d stood her up. Maybe she was too softhearted, as her mother so often complained, but she wanted to find him, try to make things better. If she jumped up and dashed from the restaurant, the Barrons would see her. She had to wait. That meant dessert. And coffee. And more stalling.

      She finally paid out and was just waiting for her chance to sneak away when a waitress and busboy began to clear the table between her and the Barrons. With a surreptitious glance toward their table, she slipped out of the chair and scuttled toward the door leading to the restaurant’s interior. She now had one goal in mind—find Kade.

      Walking to the parking garage, she considered what she’d overheard. Was Kade really a Barron? He’d never really talked about his family. Granted, she hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about her own. She and Kade were friends but not particularly close. Not that she didn’t want to know him better. She did because part of her remembered how she’d been that starry-eyed coed mooning over the handsome cowboy.

      Cash said that Kade had to change his name or he was out. What exactly did that mean? Obviously, they wanted him to be a Barron, but did they mean to kick him off the ranch if he didn’t? Her sense of justice surged again. Kade had told her she couldn’t help, but she was determined to do something. Besides, what was the worst that could happen? He’d get mad, tell her to go away and that would be that. He’d still help out with the therapy program. Probably.

      Before she could second-guess her motives, she headed toward the ranch, figuring that’s where Kade would go. He’d lived there since graduating from OSU. She knew he was from somewhere down south—Sulphur or Davis or somewhere. Surely he wouldn’t head that direction.

      There was only one way to find out. She kept driving north. Her foot might have been a little heavy on the accelerator because she made the drive in record time. She followed the long, sweeping trip to the big house. No vehicles were parked there.

      Pippa took a secondary road and headed toward the building that housed the ranch office. Kade’s truck wasn’t parked there either. She kept driving until she found the pickup in front of his house. She parked her Highlander next to his truck, worked up her courage and got out. After knocking on the door for several minutes and listening intently, she decided he must not be home. She stood on the porch and looked around. What would she do if she lived out here and was upset?

      The open door of the main horse barn caught her attention. Had he gone riding? After picking Kade’s brain about horse breeding and ranching, she СКАЧАТЬ