Page 11 of Claimed By the Cowboys

“Well, it smells amazing.” I smile at him.

Tate winks. “Thanks, babe. How was your day?”

I launch into the whole saga of the chicken, which I have to say I draw out a little longer than is necessary. By the time I’m done, Tate’s got a glass of wine in my hand, and we’re setting the table for dinner.

He laughs when I show him the picture of Susana’s head sticking out of the plastic tub. “I love it, Pipes. It’s like a micro-sauna for chickens.”

“We’re building saunas for chickens now?” Brent says.

I turn, and my breath catches. He must have just gotten out of the shower. Brent dirty from farmwork is one thing. Clean Brent, with his black hair curling slightly at the edges, little splatters of water on his tight t-shirt, and smelling like soap is lethal.

“We don’t need saunas for chickens.” Brent casts Tate a glare. “You just got done building a hog roasting pit.”

That catches my attention. I lean back in my chair, swirling my wine.

“Okay, that’s cool. Why did you do that?” I ask Tate.

Tate, Dalton, and Brent exchange a glance. Almost as a unit, they sit down.

Uh oh.

I look between the three men. “Um. Okay. Why do I feel like this is an intervention?”

“It’s not,” Tate says quickly. He runs his fingers through his blond hair, then looks over at me. “It’s definitely not.”

“Okay… Then what on earth is going on?” I demand. I’m starting to get nervous.

Both Dalton and Tate look at Brent. He sighs and leans forward. “We want to ask for your help with something.”

Um. Considering that it seems like it’s kind of a big deal, a million scenarios run through my mind. And why on earth is one of them that they’re going to ask me to have a baby with them?

I shiver. What is wrong with me? Why can’t I get that out of my mind? The nurse didn’t even say anything bad…

“Piper?”

Blinking, I look at Brent. “Sorry. Yes?”

“We want to know if you’d help us grow our business.”

Huh? “The farm?”

Tate huffs out a sigh. “It’s a little more than that.”

“Okay. I’m confused.” I look at the three of them.

“I know,” Brent says. “We… well, we haven’t been keeping this from you or anything, but it’s not exactly really public. We’ve been raising cattle, but we’ve decided to take the farm in a new direction to get a little more business.”

“Oh? Well, that’s an interesting idea.” I still have no idea where this conversation is going, but if they just want help with marketing, then I’m happy to do that. And it doesn’t really feel like it elicits a sit-down conversation.

The guys are pretty quiet, almost nervous, so I raise an eyebrow.

“Do you want to tell me more about this business?”

Brent looks slightly relieved. “Yeah. Sure. Tate is going to start a catering company…”

“It’s going to be awesome,” Tate pops in. I can tell that he’s been holding back from telling me about this, but the enthusiasm is practically shining through him now. “I’ve already got plans for roasting whole hogs and shipping them nationwide.”

“Hog pit,” Dalton says with his eyebrows raised.

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