Lone Star Baby Scandal (Texas Cattleman's Club: Blackmail 7)

Clay watched from the window as she went outside and walked to where her car was parked. With one last wave, she backed out of the parking space and headed for the road that would take her back to the cottage.

* * *

Clay wasn’t in the office Monday morning. It was a first for him, but not really all that surprising considering what she’d dropped on him over the weekend. She thought she would hear from him but apparently not. What did that mean? She had no clue. Part of her said she was exactly where she thought she would be with regard to their relationship. He’d taken the news of the pending birth in stride, just like he did everything else. He’d accepted it, hadn’t questioned if the child was his, and life went on. She knew better than to expect emotion; still, she was slightly disappointed. But she reminded herself that it could’ve been much worse.

The office phones began to ring, indicating a typically busy start to a Monday morning. She had told him she would work another two weeks, not wanting to leave him shorthanded even though he had plenty of secretaries he could get here at a moment’s notice. She put in a call to the home office’s human-resources department and requested the same two secretaries who’d helped them out before when they were dealing with the Everest PR crisis. They had already been trained on the basic office procedures and would be able to step in without any problems. They would start the following Monday.

When she contacted her mother after gettin

g back to the cottage on Sunday afternoon, it had come as a relief to hear the smile in her mother’s voice. Everything had been arranged. Her father was to have the heart transplant on Wednesday. The prognosis was good. She let her mom know she had given her notice and would be coming back to Indiana. She’d call her again when she had a definite time of arrival.

Sophie got up and walked to the large picture window in her office. It looked out over the distant barns, forest and to the right the miles and miles of open range. She would miss this. She would miss working for Clay. This job, and Clay, had become her life. She spent more time in this office and with him than she did in her cottage. Maybe she and the baby could come back to visit in the future. She’d also made friends with a lot of the ranch hands and their families who lived on the spread. She knew when they found out she was pregnant they would want to see the baby. But she wasn’t the kind of person to pick up the phone and tell someone. At least not until Clay had made his intentions perfectly clear. For all she knew, he might not want anyone to know he was about to become a father. As these were his employees, she would leave it to him to tell them or not.

It was sad when she realized the greatest joy in her life was one she had to keep to herself. Maybe Clay would come around. He might not want to raise the baby under his roof, but at least her pregnancy would serve as no embarrassment to him. Miracles were in short supply this year and she had given her allotment to her dad.

Twelve

Friday morning as Sophie entered the office, she immediately saw Clay behind his desk, hiding behind his newspaper as usual.

“Good morning,” she offered. “I’m glad to see you back. I hope you enjoyed your vacation.”

“I did.”

“Well, when you decide to go to work, there are several calls you need to make. The messages are all on your desk and in the order you need to return them.”

“How are you feeling?”

His question surprised her. “Good. Well. Thank you. Still having the morning sickness but I should be through it soon. It usually goes away by the second trimester.”

That brought the newspaper down as he looked at her carefully. “I hadn’t realized you’d been sick. I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“Nope. It’s just part of being pregnant.”

He rose from his chair and walked to her. Catching her chin with his fingers, he raised her face to his. In what seemed like slow motion, he lowered his lips to hers. “I want to be with you through this, Sophie. I want to be there for you to ensure anything you need is at your disposal. I want you to marry me, Sophie. I realize this isn’t the way things should’ve gone down. This is neither the place nor the time to ask for your hand in marriage but I want to take care of you and I want to take care of our son or daughter.”

“You don’t have to be married to take care of your son or your daughter. As I said before, I don’t really want anything from you. Don’t feel you are required to give up your freedom simply because I got pregnant.”

Inside, Sophie’s heart was beating hard against her chest. She couldn’t deny to herself how badly she wanted to tell him yes. She wished this would turn out differently. Yes, she wanted to marry Clay. She wanted to be his wife in every sense of the word. She wanted them to be a family and live on the ranch. But she’d realized long ago people didn’t always get what they wanted. She knew he loved her in his own way but that wasn’t enough. Being her best friend did not make him husband material.

“Make those calls,” she said as she left his office for her own. “They’re important.”

Sophie glanced at her watch. It was almost ten o’clock. She needed to drive down to the local bank and Clay’s attorney’s to pick up the documents he needed to sign pertaining to Everest’s corporate restructuring. She pressed the intercom. “I’ve got to run to the bank. Anything you need me to get while I’m in town?”

“No, thanks.”

The drive from the ranch into downtown Royal took about twenty minutes. First National Bank of Royal was located on Main Street. Clay’s attorney had an office on the second floor. After stopping into the bank, Sophie headed upstairs. Mary Sue, the legal secretary, was waiting for her when she stepped off the elevator.

“Did you come to pick up those papers on the Everest reorganization?”

“Yep.”

“I have them ready for you right over here.”

Sophie followed Mary Sue to a side table with a large stack of paperwork. She placed them in manila envelopes and handed them to Sophie.

“Have you heard Joe Croswell’s business was targeted by what sounds like the same idiot who tried to bring Everest down?”

“No, I didn’t know. That person has got to be caught and stopped.”