see.”
They convened in the kitchen where Matt had set his hat on the table and had flung his jacket over the back of a ladder-back chair. He was in the process of pouring himself a cup of coffee. “There’s nothing to eat around here,” he grumbled as he searched in the refrigerator, then the cupboard. He dragged out an old jar of instant creamer and poured in a healthy dose as Slade and Thorne filled him in on everything they’d already discussed.
“We need Larry Todd back on the payroll,” Thorne said to Matt. “Slade ran into him today and thought you might talk to him.”
Matt studied the contents of his cup and nodded slowly. “I can try. But he called me after Randi let him go, and to say he was a little ticked off is an understatement.”
“See what he wants,” Thorne suggested.
“I’ll give it a shot.”
“Convince him.”
“I’ll try.” Matt slowly stirred his coffee. “But Larry’s been known to be stubborn.”
“We’ll deal with that. I’ve got a call in to Juanita to see if she’ll come on board again,” Thorne said.
“She might be working for someone else by now. Randi let her go after Dad died.” Matt hoisted himself onto the counter and his feet swung free.
“Then we’ll have to make it attractive enough that she’ll come back.”
“Might not be that easy,” Slade said, sipping coffee from his paper cup. “Some people feel obligated to stay with their employer.”
“Everyone can be bought.”
Slade and Matt exchanged glances.
Thorne didn’t waver. “Everyone has a price.”
“Including you?” Matt asked.
Thorne’s jaw hardened. “Yep.”
Slade snorted in contempt. “Hell, you’re a cynic.”
“Aren’t we all?” Thorne said, undeterred. “And we’ll need a nurse. When Randi and the baby get here, we’ll need professional help.” He was running through a mental checklist. “I’ll call a law firm I used to deal with.”
“A law firm?” Slade shook his head. “Why in the world would we need lawyers?”
“For when we find the boy’s father—he might want custody.”
“He should probably get it, at least partial,” Matt allowed.
“Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know a thing about this guy.”
Slade rolled his eyes and tossed the remains of his coffee into the sink. “For the love of Mike, Thorne, don’t you trust anyone?”
“Nope.”
“If Randi chose this guy, he might be all right,” Matt conceded.
“So then where is he? Assuming he knows that she was pregnant, why the hell hasn’t he appeared?” The same old questions that had been plaguing Thorne ever since learning of his sister’s accident gnawed at him. “If he’s such a peach of a guy, why isn’t he with her?”
“Maybe she doesn’t want him.” Slade lifted a shoulder. “It happens.”
“Any way around it, we’ll need to see about our rights, the baby’s rights, Randi’s rights and—”
“And the father’s rights.” Matt pointed out before taking a long swallow of coffee. “Okay, I’ve got to run into town and go to the feed store. While I’m there I’ll pick up some supplies and hit the grocery store for a few things. When I get back, I’ll call Larry.”
Slade reached into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes. “I’ll ride into town with you,” he said to Matt. “I want to talk to the sheriff’s department, find out what they know about Randi’s accident.”
“Good idea,” Thorne agreed. “I’ve called but haven’t heard back.”
“Figures. Look, I’ve left a message with Striker, but I’ll phone him again,” Slade promised, shaking out a cigarette and jabbing the filter tip into the corner of his mouth. “What’s your game plan?”
“I’m setting up my office in the den, already scheduled equipment delivery and then I’m going to run into town myself. Visit Randi and the baby.” He didn’t add that he intended to see Nicole again.
“Yeah. I figured we’d stop by the hospital, too,” Matt allowed. “If you get any calls from Mike Kavanaugh, tell him I’ll call him back.”
“Who’s Kavanaugh?” Thorne asked.
“My neighbor. He’s looking after my spread while I’m here.”
Slade crumpled his empty coffee cup and threw it into the trash. “How long will he take care of it?”
Matt shrugged into his jacket and squared his hat on his head. “As long as it takes.” He locked gazes with his brothers. “Randi and the baby come first.”
* * *
Nicole ground the gears of the rental car and swore under her breath. She wheeled into the parking lot of the hospital and told herself to trust that the mechanics looking at the SUV could find the problem, get the part, fix whatever was wrong, and return it to her soon, without it costing an arm and a leg.
She had half an hour before she was actually on duty and planned to use the time to check on Randi McCafferty and the baby before taking over in the ER.
Setting the emergency brake, she switched off the rental, grabbed her briefcase and told herself that her interest in Randi and the baby was just common courtesy and professional concern, that oftentimes she looked in on patients once they’d been moved from the ER. This wasn’t about Thorne. No way. The fact that he was related to Randi was incidental.
She argued with herself all the way through the physicians’ entrance and in the elevator to her office.
“Something wrong?” a nurse she’d known since she’d arrived at St. James asked as she passed the nurses’ station in the west wing.
“What?”
“You look worried. Are the twins okay?”
“Yes, I mean Molly has a case of the sniffles, but nothing a little TLC and a couple of Disney movies won’t cure. I guess I was just thinking.”
“Well, smile a little when you think,” the nurse said with a wink.
“I’ll try.”
She made her way to the Intensive Care Unit, where she looked at Randi’s chart. “Any change?” she asked.
“Not much,” Betty, the ICU nurse, said with a shake
