The Baby Claim

by Catherine Mann

  These days, he opted for the salmon eggs Benedict.

  Their dad always said their mom had the hardest job of all, dealing with the Steele hellions, and the least he could do was give her a surprise break. He’d rolled out that speech at the start of every breakfast, and reminded them to listen to their mom and their teachers. If there were no bad reports, then they could all go fishing with him. Looking back, Broderick realized his father had done that so they wouldn’t rat each other out and would solve squabbles among themselves.

  It had worked.

  He and his siblings had a tight bond. A good thing, sure, but both a blessing and a curse when they’d lost one of their siblings in that plane crash along with their mom...

  Even when the table was full, it felt like there was an empty place without their sister Breanna there. Sometimes they even accidentally asked for six seats.

  Today, though, their uncle sat with the five remaining Steele children, pulling up an additional chair as he joined them.

  Uncle Conrad, their father’s brother, hadn’t been a part of building the Steele oil business. He was fifteen years younger than Jack, and had been brought into the company after finishing grad school with an engineering degree. He’d been a part of the North Dakota expansion. The Steeles had started in Alaska and moved toward the Dakotas, and the Mikkelsons had grown in the reverse direction, each trying to push out the other.

  Uncle Conrad reached for the coffee carafe as he scooted his chair closer to the table. “Where’s my brother? He’s been in hiding since those rumors started flying yesterday morning. Damn rude of him to wait so long to meet with us. Marshall, Broderick? Somebody?”

  “I only just got here. I was out with the seaplane, surveying,” Marshall pointed out. The family rancher, he oversaw their lands, as well as doing frequent flyovers of the pipelines.

  Conrad cupped his coffee mug in his hands. “You’d think he would have returned calls from his own brother.”

  The youngest Steele sibling, Aiden, reached for the pitcher of syrup. “You would think so. It sucks being discounted because you’re the last in line.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. A thick lock of hair fell over his forehead. “Right, Uncle Rad?”

  “Don’t call me that, you brat. You’re as bad as your brother here.” Conrad gestured to Broderick. “You both carry that sardonic act a little far. We’re your family. Tell us, Broderick, is it true that you and Glenna Mikkelson-Powers found your dad with...”

  Conrad shuddered and took a bracing swig of coffee, then refilled his mug, emptying the carafe. He held up the silver jug and smiled at the waitress as she swept it from his hand on her way to another customer.

  “I couldn’t begin to say what you’re all envisioning. And it was even tougher to see...” Broderick leaned toward his youngest sister.

  “Tough to comprehend,” Delaney responded, spooning wild berries onto her oatmeal.

  Naomi, the wild child, older than Delaney and the boldest, most outspoken sibling of the pack, leaned her arms on the table. “Was he really going at it with Jeannie Mikkelson?”

  “In the shower?”

  “In her office?”

  The questions from both brothers tumbled on top of each other.

  Broderick forked up a bite of salmon and eggs. “Sounds like you don’t need me to tell you anything.”

  Naomi slathered preserves on her toast. “What the hell is up with Dad?”

  Conrad lifted his coffee mug. “Oh, I think we all know what’s up.”

  Delaney snapped her napkin at him before draping it in her lap again. “Don’t be crude.”

  “He’s older, as am I—” Conrad waggled his eyebrows “—but not dead.”

  “Eww.” Delaney pushed her oatmeal away, her dark eyes widening and her nose scrunching. “Too much information.”

  A cluster of tourists walked by the table, cruise ship name tags on lanyards around their necks. The Steeles went silent until they passed.

  Naomi tapped a pack of sweetener against her finger before opening it into her coffee. “Do you think that’s all it is? An affair with a Mikkelson, the forbidden fruit?” She slanted a glance at Broderick. “I mean, you had that—”

  Broderick leveled narrowed eyes at his sister and mentally cursed himself for a drunken admission in a quest for advice.

  “Okay, okay.” She opened another packet of sugar into her coffee. “Damn, everyone’s testy around here.”

  “Well...” Delaney admitted softly, “I did get Dad on the phone, and while he wouldn’t give me details, he admitted they’re in love.”

  A series of hissed breaths and heavy exhalations sounded, along with silverware clanking.

  “Broderick,” their uncle interjected, “what do you think? You actually saw them together.”

  “I would say Dad’s serious about her,” he answered without hesitation.

  “You don’t think this has been going on for a long time? A very long time?” Naomi’s dark brown eyebrows, already plucked to high arches, went even higher.

  “Could be, but they say their feelings caught them by surprise. I choose to believe them.”

  “How serious do you think this is? Like...marriage? What’s going to happen to the business?” Marshall forked a hand through his loose brown curls, his face full of questions.

  Delaney stirred the berries through her oatmeal before spooning up a bite. “Were you able to get details about their plans? Do they want to make changes to the company’s safety standards?”

  Broderick shook his head. “We didn’t get that deep into the discussion. Dad said he wanted to speak to all of us at the same time Jeannie Mikkelson speaks to her children, but separately.”

  Aiden pulled three more pancakes from the platter in the center of the table. “I’m still stuck on the fact our families hated each other for years.”

  “Maybe just the fathers?” Delaney asked quietly.

  Broderick shook his head. He knew differently, firsthand. He and Glenna both did. “Jeannie Mikkelson was as much a part of that business as her husband. She’s different from Mom.”

  At the mention of their mother, his siblings went silent in a new way, leaving a heavier atmosphere around the table. None of them had really come to peace with losing her or their sister Breanna in such a violent and unexpected way. A plane crash into a mountain... There hadn’t been much left in the wreckage after the flames. Their father had been allowed to view the bodies, but he’d kept his children away.

  Broderick could see the memories ripple across each face at the table.

  Naomi finished chewing her toast and took a swallow of her coffee. “Maybe this group meeting with Dad will be a golden opportunity to get him to see that...hell, this is a mess for the business. The board will go haywire over this. The stockholders will react violently to the uncertainty.”

  Broderick scrubbed his hand along his jaw. “You’re going to tell them to break up for the sake of profit? That’s not going to float, not with our dad.”

  His youngest brother’s eyes went wide with a hint of fear, giving Broderick only a moment’s notice before a familiar voice rumbled over his shoulder. “What’s not going to float with me?”

  His father.

  Jack Steele had arrived.

  Three

  Broderick carefully set aside his coffee mug as he crafted an answer for his father that wouldn’t send the old man—and the table full of edgy people—spinning.

  His family had a way of letting their tempers fly. Especially since the peacemakers had died...his mother, his sister. These days, Delaney often tried to rein in family squabbles, but she was only one soft voice against a tide of pushy personalities.

  Just as he was about to opt for a Hail Mary distraction instead of a logical plea, he was saved from answering when Conrad stood and pulled up another chair.

&n
bsp; “Have a seat, Jack. You’re the man of the hour. We’ve all been on pins and needles, waiting to hear from you about your, uh, news.” Conrad clapped his brother on the back.

  “Thank you for meeting me here on such short notice.” Jack waved to the waitress as he took his seat. “The usual order for me, please,” he called, requesting sourdough waffles, as he had for decades. The only difference lately? These days he topped the waffles with fruit rather than syrup.

  They’d gathered at this table more times than Broderick could count, until it had become a de facto family dinner table. One his father loomed large over when sitting at the head.

  Being Jack’s oldest son hadn’t been easy. Broderick’s father’s boot prints in the snow were large to fill and he cast a long shadow in the business world.

  But damn it all, Broderick wouldn’t stand idly by and watch the Steele business be placed at risk. He knew Glenna felt the same about her family’s legacy.

  Strange to be on the same side with her.

  Broderick watched his father with analytical eyes. He wasn’t going to weigh in recklessly. He needed to wait for the right opportunity and choose his words wisely. The stakes were too high for misplaced speech. The fate of his company—and his place within the family business—depended on rationality, not impulse.

  Conrad took his seat again. “Thank you for putting your clothes on for us. Poor Broderick here still looks like he needs a bracing drink.”

  Jack scowled, his lips so tight his mustache all but hid them. “You can zip your mouth, brother.”

  Conrad smiled unabashedly. “Do we really want to talk about zippers right now?”

  Leaning back in his chair, Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “My sense of humor on this has run out. You’re being disrespectful to Jeannie and I won’t stand for that.”

  “Fair enough,” Conrad conceded. “You have to understand we’re all more than a little stunned by what’s transpired.”

  To hell with waiting. Broderick saw the opening to take control of this conversation, not only for his family’s sake but also for Glenna’s. “We grew up believing our families to be enemies. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard you curse both of them—Jeannie and Charles Mikkelson.”

  “Things change,” Jack said simply, pouring a mug of coffee. The statement was casual, as normal as the black coffee he had drunk every day for as long as Broderick could remember. “I don’t have to explain myself to any of you, but I will say that Jeannie and I love each other. Very much. We intend to be married—”

  “Married?” Aiden interrupted, his voice cracking on the word.

  Everyone else stared in stunned silence, then looked at Broderick as if he’d kept a secret from them. Shaking his head, he pressed his fingers to his temples against the headache forming. He’d had no sleep, instead wondering how serious his father’s relationship with Jeannie really was, if it might wane with time. A litany of questions had kept him awake. Not to mention being tormented by visions of Glenna in that tight skirt every time he closed his eyes. Seeing her again had brought back memories, vivid ones.

  “Yes,” Jack confirmed, in a no-nonsense tone, the kind he’d used on his children when they were younger, “married. Sooner rather than later, especially now that our secret is out. Jeannie and I discussed it at length last night, which was why we didn’t answer any of your phone calls.”

  Broderick focused on a crucial word in his father’s answer. “Sooner?”

  “Yes, now that you know, why wait for the perfect time to break the news? Jeannie and I had planned to tell our children in a more...prepared, controlled manner this weekend. But yesterday afternoon’s events forced our hand. Jeannie is speaking with her children now.” He glanced at Broderick. “As I’m sure you already know from talking to Glenna.”

  The mere mention of the Mikkelson CFO drew a few raised eyebrows at the table. His siblings looked at him with sidelong glances, understanding that their father had tipped the balance of power in the conversation. Shifting slightly in his chair, Broderick pushed the image of Glenna and her sunset-blond hair out of his mind. Far away.

  Broderick had no intention of letting his father distract them from the topic at hand. After all, the old man had taught that diversionary tactic to each of his kids.

  Leaning forward with elbows pressed on the wood table, Broderick levied his own power. “Let’s stay on target, Dad. You’re here to fill us in on your engagement plans to a woman we thought you didn’t like. Do I have that right?”

  “More than engagement plans. As I said, we are getting married.” His tone was as stern and certain as an Alaskan winter.

  “A long engagement?” Broderick said it hopefully.

  The extra time would give their relationship a chance to cool. Perhaps even allow Jack to see the madness of this whole situation. To really evaluate what this meant for their companies.

  Jack’s eyes warmed, wistful and sentimental. Something Broderick hadn’t seen in his father’s expression since before the plane crash.

  “Short engagement.”

  “How short?” Naomi asked. She was more of a daddy’s girl than she liked to let on.

  Jack waited until the waitress set his waffles in front of him and walked away before he continued. “Jeannie and I are getting married on my birthday. Surefire way I’ll never forget my anniversary.” A smile cracked his wind-weathered face and a slight chuckle escaped his mustached lips. Jack had clearly amused himself.

  The hair stood up on the back of Broderick’s neck. A guttural, visceral reaction to the realization of what his father was saying. “Your birthday is—”

  “In two weeks.” Jack’s chin dipped with a quick affirmation.

  “Oh God,” Naomi whispered, but every member of the Steele clan felt the words echo deep in the pit of their stomachs.

  Broderick sagged back in his chair. He sure as hell hadn’t seen that coming. Anger simmered deep in his gut. He’d let go of Glenna after one of the most memorable weekends of his life because of family loyalty. Even now, when he should be concentrating, he could almost taste her full lips... And yet he had pushed their attraction aside. He’d given everything for the Steele mantra of Family Above All Else.

  Where was family loyalty now?

  The anger kept his mouth closed tight. He didn’t trust himself to speak and not say something he would later regret. His siblings had no such problems. Their shocked words tumbled on top of each other in a jumble that made it tough to gauge who said what.

  Broderick pried his thoughts away from Glenna and back to the future of the Steele oil empire. “And the business leaks about stock sales? Does someone else already know about your relationship? If you’ve been meeting in the office, then others may already be talking. Dad, you have to know the implications to the fiscal health of both companies.”

  “Yes, about that...” Jack sawed into his waffles and speared a bite. “We want to work with you all on a presentation to the board for our plans to blend the companies.”

  Blend?

  Blend the companies?

  Normal businesses could blend. But this would be like combining flint and matchsticks. This was fire, an explosion—the end result possibly destroying everything they’d built.

  The confirmation of Broderick’s worst fear since he’d learned of those damned stock purchases stoked the flames of his anger to a full blaze. In a simple sentence, a single revelation, his father was risking what Broderick had devoted his entire adult life to preserving and growing.

  “Blending the companies? As in blending everything? You can’t just expect that we’ll—I’ll—accept that.”

  Jack leaned in nose to nose with his oldest son, a gesture of dominance. “That is exactly what I expect. I’m still the majority shareholder in Steele Industries, and Jeannie is majority shareholder in her company, as well. The board may have concerns.
You and Glenna may have concerns. But Jeannie and I have thought this through. It’s time for the feud to end. We are merging the companies. She and I are prepared do whatever is necessary to make that happen. You can join forces to make us a more powerful entity, or you can cash in your portion and I’ll buy it at fair market value. Your choice.”

  “Think about what you’re saying, brother,” Conrad hissed in alarm, placing a hand on Jack’s arm. “Are you prepared to cut out your children? Your flesh and blood?”

  Broderick was wondering the same thing. If his father expected him to surrender their company without a fight, then his old man was going to be very surprised.

  Jack chewed thoughtfully. “I did not say anything about cutting anyone out. I said if anyone wants to walk away from the business, they can. Family will always be welcome in my home.”

  Marshall spoke up. “And what about our jobs? Our family land, our heritage?”

  “You’re getting ahead of yourself, talking about things we haven’t gotten to yet,” Jack explained, looking too much at peace, considering he’d overturned their whole world. “Restructuring will create opportunities, too.”

  Restructuring? The word casually rolled off his tongue in the manner of someone mentioning that Alaska was cold this time of year.

  The word knocked around inside Broderick’s head for all of five seconds before gelling into an image that would create utter chaos for the Steeles and the Mikkelsons, both personally and professionally.

  “Dad, I’ve given this same talk to employees on their way out the door.”

  His father smiled with a hard-nosed determination they’d all seen before. “Then that gives you an edge that will put you in the running to be CFO of the whole operation.”

  Just when Broderick thought his world couldn’t be any more upended, he learned otherwise. Because his father had left no room for misunderstanding.

  It was Broderick or Glenna for CFO. One of them would be ousting the other.

  * * *

  “I hope you don’t mind that I brought my puppy.”