drank in silence for a time, two brothers who didn’t need to talk to each other to be understood.
“I see y’all have everything under control here at the ranch,” Adam said after a while. “More or less. I noticed that when Grace is cooking in the kitchen, Carter won’t come in the house.”
“Faith really likes her,” Grant said. “And I like Grace’s chicken-fried steak. That is some good stuff.”
“I’m looking forward to trying it,” Adam said.
“Now that you are home,” Grant said after another stretch of companionable silence. “I’ve got a business proposition for you. It might not make us any money, but then again, we might be surprised.”
“Yeah?” Adam looked interested. “Tell me.”
Grant did. Adam’s smile grew to an all-out grin as they talked. “Let’s do it,” Adam said when Grant finished. “Sounds like fun.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Grant said. They clicked bottles.
It was good to have Adam home again.
The next morning, Bailey called Grant while he was getting ready to head out to the ranch, and told him to go to Christina’s, where she’d spent the night, instead. Her tone was cheerful, but Bailey always sounded cheerful, even when she was delivering bad news.
Grant headed into town as quick as he could, stopped his truck outside Christina’s house, and went swiftly up to the porch. Bailey opened the front door before he could knock.
Christina sat on the living room sofa, looking fine in shorts, a blouse, and sandals. She usually went barefoot in the house, so her wearing shoes, even sandals, meant something was up.
Before Grant could ask, Bailey, who’d gone back to watching out the front window, opened the door and let in Ray Malory, who paused on the threshold and gave Grant a belligerent look.
“What’s going on?” Ray demanded of Grant.
“Hell if I know,” Grant said. He didn’t like this. “Christina?”
Bailey pointed at the two chairs on either side of the sofa. “Sit.”
Grant and Ray looked at each other. Ray had come from his ranch, his boots leaving bits of dust and hay on the carpet. The fact that neither woman said anything about that didn’t bode well.
Grant went to the chair on Christina’s right and sat down. Ray took the other chair. Christina said nothing, only looked straight ahead, her eyes on empty space.
Bailey remained standing, putting herself opposite Christina, completing the square. It was Bailey who spoke.
“Christina went to see Dr. Sue the other day, who confirmed that Christina is pregnant. From the timing, the father could be either you, Grant, or you, Ray.”
Grant’s heart leapt high then started pounding hard. He surged to his feet. “But—”
“Shh.” Bailey jammed her finger to her lips then pointed at the chair. “Sit down. You can talk when I’m done.”
Grant tried to catch Christina’s eye, but she wasn’t looking at anyone, not even Bailey. He clenched his hands, trying to tamp down both his elation and trepidation and sank down to the edge of the chair. Ray sat tense as a bull in a chute on the other side of the room, his breath coming fast, his gaze fixed on Christina.
Bailey continued. “Dr. Sue can run a blood test on Christina to confirm which of you is the father without doubt. All she needs is a DNA swab from each of you. Christina wanted you both to know, so you could have a fair chance at deciding what you want to do.”
Grant waited a beat, in case Bailey had more to say, but she appeared to be done talking. He got to his feet again, and Ray rose with him.
“Are you sure about him?” Grant asked Christina before Ray could speak. “You weren’t pregnant when you came back from Dallas, but now you are. That makes me the daddy, unless you decided to run off to Ray again in these last few nights.”
Christina nodded. “Dr. Sue says I’ve been pregnant all along—the Dallas clinic was wrong. She called them, they looked it up, and admitted they wrote the wrong result on my test. They offered to redo the test, free of charge. Real sweet of them.”
“Seriously?” Ray switched his glare to Grant. “You knew about this, but I didn’t?”
Christina broke in. “When I thought it was a mistake, I saw no reason to tell you, Ray. I didn’t want you to know until I was sure I was pregnant at all—and now I’m sure. From the timing, there’s a very good chance you’re the father.”
Grant knew she believed it—feared that the baby was Ray’s. She’d never have