Page 40 of Secret Baby for the Triplets

“Looks like rain,” Toby comments brightly.

Oh great. Now we’re talking about the weather.

“That’s all right. We can stay indoors and work on the horse rehabilitation plans,” I suggest.

The brothers exchange a look, and I tense when they don’t respond.

Oh God. They’re getting ready to fire me.

Tears well in my eyes, and I’m appalled at my reaction.

Oh no! No! No crying! No matter what happens back at the ranch, you will not cry!

The fusion of hormones and emotional turmoil is proving exhausting. I’d just given Toby a whole spiel about how competent I am, and now I’m about to dissolve into a puddle of tears. That’ll sell my case for sure.

Get it together, Emerson!

“Iamgetting back to work, aren’t I?” I press when they don’t respond.

Owen steers the truck up the driveway and through the gates of Pine Sky Ranch’s entrance. “Eventually,” he answers evasively. “Let’s just focus on getting you back home and settled first.”

He bypasses the office, and I smother a groan when I realize they’re taking me directly to the coach house.

“Oh…” I sigh. “Guys…”

“What?”

“I don’t want to go to the coach house. I want to get to work.”

The siblings look at one another again. “Brock is waiting at the house for you,” he explains. “We’ll talk there.”

My brow furrows so deeply it’s beginning to give me a migraine.

Brock sits on the small front porch outside the coach house as we pull up. He’s on his feet as soon as he sees the truck, and he ambles toward the vehicle to open the back door.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, his voice even, but his gray eyes laced with concern.

I offer him a taut smile. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry. I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused.”

He steps back to let me out and closes the door as his brothers join us on the stoop.

“I want to get back to work today, Brock.”

Right away, he shakes his head.

“The doctor gave her the okay,” Owen explains quickly, as I part my lips to argue.

“Okay, but what happened in the first place?” he growls. “What if she pushes herself too hard, and it happens again?”

I bite on my lower lip. “It won’t,” I mutter, shamed. “I just?—”

“Is that what the doctor said?” Brock cuts me off. “Or is that what you’re assuming?”

I draw in a breath and meet his eyes evenly. “I didn’t handle the news of the pregnancy very well,” I confess honestly. “Instead of doing what I was supposed to do, seeing the doctor and taking the vitamins, I…I came here. I guess, in a way, I was running away from the truth and not confronting reality. But I am now.”

The triplets stare at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue. A peculiar sense of déjà vu rushes through me. The three of them standing around me like this, watching me. It’s hot, and I’m momentarily distracted by the surge of heat rushing between my legs.

Woah.

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