“When’s the baby due?”
“Mid-November,” she replied, wishing now she hadn’t ventured down to the stables. Being around horses had always helped soothe her, but finding herself alone with Kyle Masters was having the opposite effect.
“Piper! So this is where you got to,” Spencer said as he joined them. “Ah…I see you’ve met Kyle. Kyle, you remember my sister, Piper?”
“Yes, I remember Piper,” Kyle replied, and hearing the hint of amusement in his voice, Piper felt a warmth creep up her neck, as the memory of her last encounter with him returned.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Kyle added, “I’d better take a look at Firefly. Nice to see you again, Piper.” He opened the door to the mare’s stall.
“Come on, Sis. I’ll walk you back to the house.” Spencer put his arm through Piper’s and led her out into the afternoon sunshine.
“Does Kyle come to the ranch often?” Piper ventured to ask as they headed down the path to the security gates.
“He’s here once a week during the racing season or if one of the mares is pregnant,” her brother explained.
“I suppose he’s working with Henry Bishop now,” she said, remembering Kyle had been helping out at the veterinary clinic the summer she graduated from high school, the summer she made a complete and utter fool of herself.
“Henry retired. He moved to Arizona to live with his sister three years ago,” Spencer said. “They worked together for a few years, then Kyle took over the clinic.”
“Is he married?” she asked in a casual tone, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Divorced.”
She threw her brother a startled glance as he punched in the security code and opened the gate.
“He doesn’t talk about it much,” Spencer continued as they climbed up the path. “He has a daughter, April. She’s a real cutie. She’s four.”
“How often does he see her?”
“Every day,” Spencer replied. “Kyle has sole custody,” he explained. “You might remember his wife, Elise Crawford. She was a couple of years ahead of you in high school.”
Piper cast her mind back, recalling the striking blonde. “Didn’t she go off to New York to take up acting?” she asked.
“That’s right,” Spencer confirmed. “She didn’t have much luck and came home shortly before her mother died. I think that’s when she hooked up with Kyle.”
“I see.”
“But, it turned out she was still hankering for a shot at the big time after all, and a few days after April was born she packed her bags and hightailed it back to New York.”
“That must have been hard on Kyle, being left with a newborn baby to care for,” she commented.
“He’s not one to complain,” Spencer said. “And believe me, he’s had his share of things to complain about. I don’t imagine it’s been easy running a business and raising a daughter alone.”
“Other people seem to manage juggling family and a career,” Piper said, strangely reluctant to feel any sympathy for him.
“That’s true. But he was just telling me earlier that ever since his receptionist quit a month ago he’s had trouble finding a replacement. He’s put an ad in several newspapers, but so far he’s had no response.”
They approached the stairs leading to the wide veranda that surrounded the two-story ranch house.
“Enough about Kyle. I’m more concerned about you,” Spencer continued. “You’ve been here a week, and you’ve hardly said a word,” he chided gently. “I know we didn’t get a chance to talk much back in June, what with the wedding and everything, but you must have been pregnant then, right? So why didn’t you tell us?”
Piper flashed a smile. “Because, silly, it was yours and Maura’s big day, and I didn’t want to steal your thunder,” she said teasingly.
Besides she’d had a lot on her mind at the time, not the least of which was the fact that prior to her departure from London to attend Spencer’s wedding, she’d broken up with Wesley Adam Hunter, the baby’s father.
She’d been grateful that the bustle and activity surrounding her brother’s wedding had kept the focus away from her. Barely three months along, no one had noticed she was pregnant, and she hadn’t volunteered the information, still trying to come to terms with the news herself.
When the doctor told her that the cause of her continuous nausea wasn’t flu-related, she’d been stunned. In fact the idea of becoming a mother sent her anxiety levels soaring.
Being the baby of the family herself, she’d had very little contact with small children. She’d never even had a baby-sitting job. Her career had always come first; that’s why she’d risen so far so quickly, and while she’d watched several of her friends get married and start a family, that hadn’t been on her own list of priorities.
Truth be told it was actually the impending birth itself that terrified her. She hadn’t spoken of her fears to anyone, not even her mother.
She knew that giving birth was a normal and natural occurrence, and women did it all the time, but Piper couldn’t seem to get her mind around it.
She’d tried to tell herself she was being ridiculous, that it would be a wonderful and memorable experience but that did nothing to diminish the fear embedded deep inside her.
“What about Wes? He must be pleased.” Her brother’s comment brought Piper’s thoughts back to the present. “He is going to join you isn’t he, or is he off on another one of his daring assignments? I hope you told him you caught Maura’s bouquet and that means you’re next in line to get married.”
Emotion suddenly clogged Piper’s throat threatening to choke her. “There isn’t going to be a wedding,” she told him. “Wes is dead. He was killed in an accident in Asia while I was here at your wedding. I didn’t find out about it till I got back to London.”
Spencer’s shock was evident on his face. “Piper…My God! I’m so sorry.” He hauled her into his arms and held her for several long seconds before pulling away to look at her once more. “I don’t remember seeing anything in the papers.”
Piper’s smile held a hint of bitterness. “His family had it hushed up.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Apparently he’d been drinking with a group of young militant students,” she began. “You know Wes, always looking for a new angle, always trying to pry information from someone, somehow. Billy Brown, another reporter chasing the same story, came to see me in London after I got back. He told me the students had challenged Wes to a drag race.”
“And, of course, he accepted.”
Piper nodded. “Wes could never turn down a challenge.”
“But, how…?”
“He missed a turn and drove off the road. And because of the circumstances surrounding the accident, all that appeared in print was a small announcement saying he’d died in a car accident.”
“You should have called us.”
“And say what?” Piper countered. “Besides, you and Maura were on your honeymoon, and I needed time to deal with the news in my own way.”
“But you shouldn’t have had to go through it alone,” he chided softly. “That’s what families are for, to help you through the bad times.”
Piper