Page 16 of Claimed By the Cowboys
“Yeah, it’s not an ideal situation, but I can’t thank you enough for this,” I said, looking at the bags.
“They’re nothing fancy,” Emmy warned me.
I snorted lightly. “Like I care about that! Zeke said you were cleaning out your closet.”
Emmy nodded. “I still live in my childhood bedroom, and it’s getting a little overcrowded. I swear this was the perfect opportunity to declutter a bit.”
“Well, I’m glad my misfortune helped.”
As I spoke, I started cutting into the mac and cheese. Maisie had shown me where her pink princess plates were, so I dished her a small pile, along with some broccoli and three small chicken tenders.
Before she left, Emmy pulled me into a hug, whispering in my ear to stay strong before she hurried back to the diner for her shift.
Maisie was munching away on her food as I passed back into the kitchen area, grabbing a plate and starting to pile it high for myself.
The door opened once again, and assuming it was Emmy, I turned toward the sound with a huge smile on my face. “Couldn’t resist—Oh, hey, Clayton.”
The grumpy alpha was standing in the doorway, taking in the scene in front of him.
“Daddy!” Maisie squealed, clambering down from her chair and dashing across the room, jumping into his arms and squeezing him tightly.
“Hey, little bug,” he greeted, the deep timbre of his voice was far too appealing to belong to such a grouch.
“We’re eating!” Maisie declared.
“I can see that.”
“Are you eating with us?” she asked sweetly.
There was no missing the uneasy way Clayton’s eyes darted to me. From my limited understanding of their family dynamics, Clayton was rarely home during the day, so either this was an anomaly, or he was checking on me.
“Here, this is for Daddy C,” I said, padding over to the table and putting the plate I had intended for myself down. “How about you guys eat while I put away all the clothes Emmy gave me?”
Maisie paused, her little brain deep in thought for a moment before eventually nodding, toddling back over to the table, stabbing one of her broccoli florets and shoving it unceremoniously into her mouth.
“Do you have time for lunch?” I asked softly.
Clayton nodded, and I took that as a good sign as I quickly grabbed the bags and got the hell out of there, leaving the pair to have a little daddy-daughter lunch date.
Chapter 9
Montana
Another day, another packed lunch break of phone calls and re-checking spreadsheets instead of taking a second for even a snack; we kept enough of them around with a four-year-old.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, the telltale headache letting me know I really fucked up by hardly eating all day.
The digital calendar filled with blocks of purple, blue, and green made it incredibly clear that getting up from my desk and out of my office for a bite to eat wasn’t happening today.
While Piper had gotten into the groove of serving breakfast for all of us before Maisie, and serving lunch to both Clay and I in our home offices and Zeke and Kota in the field, the girls had taken a trip to the duck pond downtown this morning. It was entirely possible that I would be left to fend for myself for lunch.
A sad package of honey roasted peanuts and two paper-wrapped pieces of chewing gum stared back at me when I opened my top desk drawer to see if there was anything edible in there.
“No time for lunch when you’re carrying the livelihood of your entire pack on your shoulders,” I sighed to the empty room.
I reached out and flicked the tail of the miniature wind vane on my desk that Dakota and Zeke made out of bits of metal left over from re-roofing the toolshed. Streaks of light beamed across my office from the small stained glass sunflower that hung from the window.
Dear Old Dad would never have approved of the magpie’s nest of trinkets, treasures, and art that I called an office. Since I spent what felt like most of my life in here, it was important to me to surround myself with things I actually liked.
