Page 81 of Claimed By the Cowboys
Instead, my worst nightmare came walking through those doors.
Lance, Ralph, and Kyle, all three of them wearing business casual, sunglasses, and sour expressions as they stepped in from the summer heat.
Before I could say anything to Emmy, she turned on her heel and made her way to the hostess stand, grabbing three menus in preparation to seat the new guests.
“Would you gentlemen prefer a booth, or would you like to sit at the counter?” she asked in her usual sunny tone.
Lance pulled his sunglasses off, fixing Emmy with his cold silver stare for the barest of moments before his eyes found me in the back corner booth.
“I believe our party is already seated,” he answered coolly, shouldering past her to make his way toward me, the others filed in behind him dutifully.
Emmy faltered only a moment, a look of confusion crossing her features before she schooled a customer service smile back onto her face. “Oh! Are you friends of Piper’s from the city?” she asked brightly.
A look passed between the three, somewhere between incredulity that a service person would address them directly and mild disgust that Emmy had done so.
“We don't need a waitress right now, sweetheart,” Ralph cut in, giving Emmy a curt smile. “We'll be sure to call you over when we need something.”
Hands on her hips, more than slightly outraged, Emmy opened her mouth as if to speak, but Kyle was quick to cut her off.
“Go ahead, run along. I'm sure there's a table somewhere you could be wiping down.” Kyle sneered as a humiliated blush crept up and over Emmy’s pretty face.
I wanted to stand up and snap at the members of Pack Adamar that they couldn’t treat Emmy like that—to shout for the whole diner to hear that they couldn’t just walk back into my life and be douchebags. Especially after cheating on me with the goddamn concierge before I finally got the good sense to walk away from them.
Then my belly stirred, low and heavy beneath the sweatshirt that Dakota had lent me.
Oh fuck. I realized with a jolt of panic that I hadn’t spoken to Pack Adamar at all since that fateful night when I ran off to the diner. None of them had any idea that I had bonded into Pack Blackwood, that I was expecting the next addition to the pack in a few months.
Numbly, I braced for Lance’s unkind words, but instead of an insult about my choice of pack or the bun in my oven, he simply followed Ralph, dropping into the booth seat across the table from me, Kyle sliped in to bookend Lance.
“Hello, Piper, you’re looking…well, your face is certainly fuller than the last time I saw you.” He trailed off, his lip curling with mild disgust.
“Ice cream for lunch?” Ralph scanned me briefly. “Probably isn’t helping matters.”
I couldn’t believe it—Pack Adamar stepping casually back into my life like some kind of slow-motion scene from a horror movie, and already, they were calling me fat?
“Working as a nanny in this po-dunk town? I’d be eating my feelings too,” Kyle chimed in with a snide smile. “We heardabout your new careerfrom a friend.” He said the wordcareerwith disdain.
I blinked a few times, allowing their insults to sink in.
They thought that I was still a single nanny who’d put on a couple of pounds. That was actually pretty lucky. Maybe they would just shout more abuse at me and leave as quickly as they’d come.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted, resisting the urge to protectively lay a hand over my pregnant belly with every fiber of my being.
“Didn’t that pathetic country bumpkin ‘businessman’ Montana Flint tell you?” Lance pursed his lips plaintively.
My fingers curled into fists on the tabletop at the sound of Montana’s name in Lance’s mouth.
“Montana tells me lots of things, you’ll have to be a bit more specific.” I did my best to serve attitude back to Lance, but I could feel my lower lip trembling with threatening tears.
“After our visit to Elevation Springs at Sweetwater, we were able to see just how much the market was in need of more luxury hospitality offerings in the area,” Ralph cut in, adjusting the cuffs of his expensive button-down, his expression aloof.
“Good for you,” I offered with a saccharine smile.
“Not so good for your bosses,” Kyle sniped, drawing Lance and Ralph into a conspiratorial chuckle.
“Oh yeah?” I squirmed in my seat, doing my best to put forth a brave face, when all I wanted was for one of my pack members to swoop in and save me.
“As it so happens, our new business partner, Caroline Ross, is beginning the process of reclaiming goods and property, including that adorable little cattle ranch you’ve been toiling away on.” Lance smirked, knocking on the lunch table.
