Page 29 of Secret Baby for the Triplets

I trail off when I hear how I’m rambling. Inhaling deeply, I try again. “I’m not uncomfortable.”

He continues to stare at me across the desk. “Why do I feel like we’ve met before?”

A small wave of dizziness overcomes me, and I swallow rapidly. I don’t want to lie to him—to anyone, but obviously, I can’t tell him the truth.

My gaze fixes on the mound of papers in front of me, but before I can speak, my phone rings from the desktop where I’d left it.

“Oh, excuse me!” I breathe gratefully as Mae’s smiling face appears on the screen. “I should take this. She never calls.”

Shrugging indifferently, Owen returns to the forms, and I jump up to hurry into the outer office with my cell. Guilt slices through me as I brace myself to answer Mae’s call.

“Hi,” I mumble into the phone. “I can’t really talk right now.”

“The hell you can’t!” my best friend challenges. “You moved to Pine Sky?!”

I wince. So much for making this a short phone call. “I know. I was going to tell you, but things happened fast?—”

“No, no, no,” Mae cuts me off. “You moved without telling me! And you haven’t returned my calls in weeks. What the hell is this, Emmy?”

I jerk the phone away from my ear as she launches into her tirade, and frankly, I don’t blame her. If the roles were reversed, I’d be just as mad. But Mae doesn’t know about the baby or what happened in Vegas.

“Who told you? My mom?”

“Of course! Who else did you tell? I called there, worried about you because I went to your apartment when you stopped answering my texts. Imagine my surprise to find out you aren’t living there anymore?!”

“I know, Mae?—”

“No, you don’t know!” she fumes. “If you knew, you would’ve called me!”

Shame drills through me, and I hang my head. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I got this job, and I had to move right away. I was going to call as soon as I got settled, but things got so busy and…”

I trail off helplessly. “I’m really sorry.”

My best friend inhales sharply. “What’s the job?”

“I’m a ranch administrator.” I brace myself for another tirade.

“What kind of ranch?” she asks, interest coloring her voice. “Cattle?”

“Horses,” I correct her. “It’s so beautiful out here, Mae. It’s like a fairy tale, or what you’d see in the movies. And my place, it’s so…” I sigh. “Maybe you can come visit when I’m a little more settled.”

Mae’s voice softens. “Of course we’re coming down to visit. What’s the name of this place? I’m going to have Will check it out.”

I balk at the idea. “No! I don’t want?—”

Slowly, I glance over my shoulder to see if Owen is listening from the doorway, but there’s no one there. Lowering my voice to a near-whisper, I continue. “I don’t want Will doing that.”

“Don’t you want to know who you’re working for?” she challenges me.

“That’s my problem, not Will’s. Anyway, you know he’s not allowed to use police resources on private citizens.”

She grumbles incoherently. “Fine. Will you tell me the name of the ranch, anyway?”

I hesitate, unsure if I can trust her not to tell her police officer husband now. But Mae is still my best friend.

“Pine Sky Ranch.”

“I’m looking it up and I expect an invitation,” she tells me. “Soon.”

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