The SEAL's Secret Heirs(27)

Yeah, none of that mattered.

Kyle and his daughters—that was what mattered. That morning she’d spent two hours in a room with her supervisor, Megan, going over her recommendation that Kyle be awarded full and uncontested custody of his children. With Megan’s stamp of approval on the report, Grace’s role in this long, drawn-out issue had come to a close.

Hadley answered the door at Wade House and asked after Grace’s parents, then let Grace hold the babies without Grace having to beg too much. She inhaled their fresh powder scent—it was the best smell in the world. Out of nowhere, the prick of tears at her eyes warned her that she hadn’t fully shut down the emotions from her conversation with Clare and Violet last night.

If this meeting went as intended, this might be her last interaction with Kyle. And the babies. They were so precious and the thought of only seeing them again in passing shot through her heart.

“I’m here to see Kyle,” she told Hadley as she passed the babies back reluctantly. She had a job to do, and it wasn’t anyone’s fault except hers that she didn’t have a baby of her own.

“He’s at the barn. Expect that will be the case from now on.” Hadley shook her head in wonder. “I have to say, Kyle is nothing like I remember. He had no interest in the ranch before. Right? You remember that, too, don’t you?”

Greedily, Grace latched on to the subject change and told herself it was strictly because she wanted additional validation that she was doing the right thing in trusting Kyle with his daughters. “I do recall that. But he’s taking over the cattle side, or so I understand.”

 “That’s right. Liam’s about to come out of his skin, he’s so excited about the prospect of focusing solely on his quarter horses. He didn’t think Kyle was going to step up. But Liam has admitted to me, privately of course, that he might have been wrong about his brother.”

Liam saw it, too. Kyle had changed.

That was very interesting food for thought.

“Do you think Kyle would mind if I visited him down at the barn? I need to talk to him about the report I’m filing.”

Grace was already on her feet before she’d finished speaking, but Hadley just nodded with a smile. “Sure. Bring Kyle back with you and stay for lunch.”

“Oh. Um...” Grace stared at Hadley gently rocking both babies in her arms and realized that her recommendations were going to affect Hadley and Liam, too. And not in a good way. She hated the fact that she was going to upset them after they’d spent so much love and effort in caring for Kyle’s babies in his stead. There was a long conversation full of disappointment in Liam and Hadley’s future.

All at once, she didn’t want this job any longer. She should have figured out a way to pass the case off the moment she’d heard Kyle’s name over the phone when Liam called. But she hadn’t been able to, and people’s lives were at stake here. She’d have to figure out how to handle it.

“Thanks for the lunch invite, but I have to be getting back to the office. Maybe next time,” she said brightly, and escaped before Hadley could insist.

The cattle barn was a half mile down a chipped rock path to the west of Wade House, and faster than she would have liked, Grace pulled into the small clearing where a couple of other big trucks sat parked. She wandered into the barn, hoping Kyle would be inside.

He was.

The full force of his masculine beauty swept through her as she caught sight of him through the glass wall that partitioned the cattle office from the rest of the large barn. He was leaning against the frame of an open door, presumably talking to someone inside, hip cocked out in a way that should seem arrogant, but was just a testament to his incredible confidence.

Working man’s jeans hugged his lean hips and yeah, he still had a prime butt that she didn’t mind checking out in the slightest. There might be drool in her future.

And then Kyle backed out of the doorway and turned, catching her in the act of checking out his butt. Shoot. Too late, she spun around but not before witnessing the slow smile spreading across his face. How in the world was she going to brazen this out? Heat swirled through her cheeks.

Kyle exited the office area with a clatter. His eyes burned into her back and she had the distinct impression his gaze had dipped below her belt in a turnabout-is-fair-play-kind of checkout.

“Hey, Grace,” he said pleasantly.

She couldn’t very well ignore his greeting, so she sighed and faced him, smug smile and all. “Hi.”

“See anything you like?”

How was she supposed to answer that? Men. They all had egos the size of Texas and she certainly wasn’t going to cater to inflating his further. He was lucky she didn’t smack him in his cocky mouth. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”