Read Cowboy Daddy for Free Online Page B

her.
    Kip blew out a sigh as he dropped a tattered cowboy hat on his head. “I don’t have time today.”
    Nicole lifted her shoulder in a delicate shrug. “You’re the one who set out the terms of the visits.”
    Kip held her gaze, his eyes shadowed by the brim of the cowboy hat. Then he glanced down at her tailored suit and laughed. “Okay, but you’d better change. The boys are helping me fix a tractor this afternoon.”
    â€œShould I bring a hammer?” she said, determined not to let him goad her.
    â€œJust a three-eighth-inch wrench and a five-sixteenth-inch socket,” he returned.
    â€œExcellent. I just happened to bring mine along.”
    â€œIn your Louis Vuitton luggage?” This was tossed back at her underlined with the arching of one of his eyebrows.
    â€œNo. Coach.” And how would a cowboy like him know about Louis Vuitton?
    â€œCute.” He buttoned his jacket. “This has been fun, but I’ve got work to do,” he said in a tone that implied “fun” was the last thing he’d been having. “See you when we see you.”
    When he closed the door behind him, it was as if the office deflated. Became less full, less dynamic.
    Nicole brushed the feeling off and turned to Ron. “I’ll get my lawyer to call you. He’ll bring you up to speed on his side of the case, and the two of you can discuss the DNA tests.”
    Ron got to his feet and pursed his lips. Then he sighed. “I’m not speaking as a lawyer anymore, but as a friend of Kip’s. You may as well know that Kip Cosgrove dotes on those boys. He goes everywhere with them. Does everything with them. He has since those boys moved to the ranch with his brother.”
    â€œThey’re not even his.” As soon as Nicole spoke the words she regretted giving her thoughts voice. She knew how coldhearted that must have sounded to Ron.
    The reality was she knew firsthand what it was like to be the one pushed aside. She had been in enough homes as the “outsider,” the nonbiological child, to know that no matter what, biology always won out. The “natural” children were always treated differently than the “foster” child.
    Ron shot her an angry look. “That is the last thing on Kip’s mind,” he snapped. “Those boys have been in his life since they were one year old. Living on the ranch is the only life they know.”
    Nicole held his angry gaze, determined not to let his opinion of her matter. “They only know this life because Scott took them away from their biological mother.” She picked up her briefcase and slung her trench coat over her arm. “Now all I need to know is where I can buy some tools.”
    This netted her a puzzled look from Ron. “Why?”
    â€œBecause I fully intend on helping fix that tractor.”

Chapter Five
    K ip pulled off his “town” shirt and tossed it onto his unmade bed. He grabbed the work shirt from the floor where he’d tossed it. He’d been in too much of a rush to clean up before he left for town.
    He buttoned up his shirt as he headed down the stairs to where the boys were playing a board game at the kitchen table with his mom.
    Isabelle stood at the kitchen sink, washing dishes from lunch, her expression letting him know exactly what she thought of this chore.
    â€œOh, Gramma, you have to go down the snake,” Justin shouted, waving his arms in the air as if he had won the Stanley Cup.
    â€œOh dear, here I go,” Kip’s mother said, reaching across the board to do as Justin said. “This puts me way behind.”
    Kip caught her grimace as she sat back in her wheelchair and wondered again how long it would be before his mother was mobile. Though the kitchen was still clean from Nicole’s visit on Saturday, he knew it was simply a matter of time before things slowly deteriorated.
    â€œIsabelle, that laundry that got