A Cowboy Billionaire Secret Baby (Brookside Ranch Brothers Book 4) Read online

  “Mm-hmm,” June agreed.

  “This one is especially pretty,” her friend said with excitement. “It feels special somehow. They have all these girls coming in wearing these beaded flapper dresses. I feel like I’m on the Titanic or something!”

  “I love how you equate beaded dresses with nineteen-twelve,” June said with a laugh.

  “Ah, it’s all basically the same, isn’t it? Long, old, fancy dresses?”

  “Flapper dresses weren’t long. Not really. And you’re not even in the right decade,” she teased, bumping her friend with her hip. “The style on the Titanic would have been more inspired by Japanese fashion. Lots of kimono-style dresses, lots of lace and beading.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes playfully. “Uh-huh.”

  “Flapper style was all about beads, fringe, sequins, and drop waist dresses that showed off your ankle,” June added.

  Danielle let out a mocking gasp, throwing a hand up to her mouth and exclaiming, “How scandalous!”

  “Mind you, those types of dresses were for women who had money,” June added, but she could see Danielle had already checked-out of their conversation.

  “Now that I’ve had my nightly fashion update, how are you doing?” her friend asked as she began throwing her hair up into a ponytail. “What’s Ember up to tonight?”

  “Staying with my sister. She’s the best babysitter ever,” June said. “I swear, Ember likes her more than she likes me.”

  “Impossible. I wish we worked opposite shifts; then I could watch her!” Danielle gushed. “But then I wouldn’t get to work with you, and how could my life possibly go on without you?”

  “I know someone who didn’t see a problem letting their life go on without me,” June said tersely, reflecting on the messy situation she had gotten into with her ex, Lincoln

  “Speaking of which, has Ember talked much about it?”

  June shook her head. “No. Not since he left. So basically, she’s devastated, which means I’m devastated. I’ve told her a million times it’s okay to be sad and that if she ever needs to talk to me...I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t want to badmouth him in front of her.”

  “I would!” Danielle scoffed. “You’re letting him off way too easily!”

  “Nah. I can’t do that. She loves Lincoln. I don’t want to ruin their relationship. He was done with me, not her. You know?”

  Danielle shrugged with a reluctant agreement.

  It had been hard not to let Ember hear anything bad about her father. It was all anybody wanted to talk about—it was all June wanted to talk about. But then she would think about all of the times she’d heard her parents fighting growing up. She thought about the things she’d heard her mother say about her dad when they were going through a rough patch. Her mother’s words tainted June’s opinion of her father for a long time.

  “She heard me crying the other night,” June said quietly.

  “Oh no,” Danielle winced as she began loading pitchers of water with fresh ice. “June, that’s awful!”

  “I know. I feel like I’m doing everything wrong,” she said.

  Lincoln had been her rock for all of these years, and suddenly having him out of her life left her feeling stranded. She’d never been a single parent, and to lose the daily help was crushing. She hadn’t realized how much she’d taken for granted the simple things Lincoln would do, like watching Ember so that June could take a bath or do laundry. She missed cooking dinner with him and watching him and Ember play together.

  She knew Ember missed him, too.

  As much as June missed him, there was also a growing part of her that was happy to be done with the marriage.

  She and Lincoln were very different people, and there was only one particular circumstance that could ever have allowed them to end up together: Ember.

  Once the reality of parenthood sunk in, the two grew further and further apart.

  June was happy not to go through the daily arguments, to deal with in-laws, or to have to worry about what Lincoln was getting up to when she wasn’t around.

  “Stop it,” Danielle said, pulling June away from her thoughts. “You’re doing everything right and I won’t even listen to you say otherwise! You do everything for that girl and Lincoln is a total jerk. Now, let’s not spoil our fantastic flapper night with talk of him. Deal?”

  June laughed. “Deal.”

  The girls continued setting up in the back room until the whole room had filled with guests and the bride and groom had made their grand entrance.

  The venue lit up with glittering gold, and they played instrumental jazz.

  After the bride and groom shared their first dance, the evening moved on to cheers and toasts which last nearly an hour.

  Once the well-wishers were finished, it was time to eat.

  The flapper girls and their gentlemen took their seats and June made her way out to supply the hungry guests with a much-needed appetizer.

  She brought the rolling rack over to her first table and began setting the dishes down in front of the reception guests.

  “And here we have filo tarts with a spinach salad with roasted summer squash and pine nuts,” she explained. June always wanted to do the best job she could and so rehearsed the menu several times the night before to make sure she didn’t forget.

  Even though she hadn’t been working at the venue long, she was already so used to her work that she did it without thinking twice. She smiled politely and the guests didn’t pay her any mind unless they were requesting something extra. But today, she could distinctly feel eyes on her as she moved around her table.

  June looked up at the man she was serving and recognized him immediately. It was Bennett Brooks.

  Thoughts flooded through her mind like crashing waves. She remembered blue and red flashing lights, whispers under covers, and the most passionate kisses she had ever known.

  She swallowed nervously and made eye-contact with him. He narrowed his brows at her, recognition in his face, and then quickly looked away.

  June’s heart was beating so hard, she felt like it was trying to knock something loose.

  “Oh my gosh,” June said in a panic as she came back into the kitchen.

  Danielle bumped into her as she entered, nearly spilling her tray of water onto the ground.

  June pressed herself thin against the wall to dodge her friend, but she’d already caught Danielle’s attention. The girl set her tray on a nearby countertop and rushed up to June.

  “What?” she friend asked. “What is it?”

  “There,” June said, peeking out the circular window on the flapping kitchen doors. She pointed as she explained, “Table Seven. The guy there!”

  Danielle squinted and stared out the window. Upon catching sight of him, she yelped, “Cute!”

  “Yes, cute,” June repeated in a panic. “Also, my ex!”

  Their whispers had alerted one of the other waitresses, Paris, who then joined them at the window. When she saw Bennett, she added, “Are you kidding me right now? That’s Bennett Brooks.”

  June’s stomach dropped at the mention of his name and backed away from the door. “How do you know that?”

  “What do you mean, how do I know that?” Paris laughed. “Everybody knows that!” She then pointed back out the window toward Bennett’s table and added, “That whole table is worth a couple billion dollars.”

  “What?” Danielle repeated in shock. “You dated a billionaire?”

  June frowned. “No, of course not!” She turned to Paris and asked, “Are you sure you have the right family?”

  Paris nodded absent-mindedly and pulled out her phone. She began typing and scrolling until she pulled up an article from two years prior. She showed June the screen that read: ‘Billionaire Montana ranch owner Bennett Brooks in top 30 businessmen under 30’ right next to a picture of Bennett.

  “I think one of his other brothers made the list, too,” Paris added with a shrug. “They run the Brookside Ranch franchis
e, right?”

  June was stunned. “Yeah,” she nodded. “They do. I had no idea he’d been so successful at it.”

  She hadn’t seen Bennett since they were both twenty-five years old. By that point, he’d only been running the ranch for a couple of years.

  Only he, his elder brother, and his parents owned ranches, but as she kept scrolling through the article, she realized that the Brookside brand had become a multi-billion-dollar chain with one run by nearly every member of the family.

  “He is sexy,” Danielle gushed, staring through the window.

  “Yeah,” June sighed. “He is.”

  “Did he see you?” Danielle asked.

  “Unfortunately,” she said.

  Paris asked, “Did he say anything?”

  “No, he was polite enough to avert his eyes and pretend he didn’t win,” June said, jutting the phone back toward Paris bitterly.

  Paris set her teeth together awkwardly and slipped her phone back into her pocket.

  “Win?” Danielle repeated.

  “Oh, come on,” June said, tossing a hand into the air. “We broke up and I’m a single mother serving him a salad, and he’s like, this hot, successful billionaire who has his whole life together!”

  “Shush!” Danielle said, waving her off. “You are raising a beautiful, charming, and sweet little girl, and you’re strong enough to do it on your own. You’re doing whatever it takes to put food on the table. That doesn’t sound like a loss to me! Does it, Paris?”

  Paris shook her head. “No, you’re a freaking champ. Now, tell us! How long did you go out for?”

  “We met when we were nineteen. Broke up. Ran into each other again when we were twenty-four and dated for another year before calling it quits for good,” she said, not exactly wanting to relive the years she’d wasted with the wealthy Brooks.

  “Wow, so you guys, like, really broke up,” Danielle said, her eyes going wide as saucers.

  The three girls stood talking for some time longer before all of the other servers began returning to the kitchen with cleared salad plates. This meant that June was going to have to go back out there and serve up the next course.

  “Guys, what am I supposed to do?” she asked in a panic. “I’m supposed to be delivering soups to that table in like two minutes!”

  “Just go over there and be cool,” Danielle said, nudging her playfully. “Act like he’s the last thing on your mind!”

  “Please, somebody take the table for me,” she begged.

  “I’ve never seen you so rattled before!” Danielle laughed.

  June’s brows narrowed hard enough to cause a crease to form. She turned desperately to Paris and said, “Put me out of my misery; come on, Paris?”

  “Pass!” the girl laughed, turning away from her and getting her serving cart ready for round two.

  “Danielle?” June asked.

  Danielle shook her head and marched June over to her serving cart. “And miss the opportunity to see your beautiful reunion? No way! Now get out there and go say hi!”

  June assumed her friend was trying to be cutesy, but she was not in the mood for cutesy. She didn’t want to run into Bennett again—especially not as his waitress.

  Any time she envisioned bumping into Bennett, she imagined she had her hair curled and looking especially thick, with perfectly arched brows and a cute summer wrap dress. Not carrying plates of fancy food with her hair up in a sweaty ponytail and wearing an ill-fitted servers’ uniform.

  June took a minute to collect herself in the backroom before heading back out into the lion’s den. She approached the table and recognized more familiar faces. There was Jett, the eldest brother, Shannon and Roger, the parents, and Hunter, who was several years younger than she was.

  She cringed inwardly as she began serving up the dishes, but tried to stay cool. She wouldn’t be the one to make the first move. If they were going to pretend like they didn’t know her, she would happily do the same.

  “We have here a cucumber and green grape gazpacho with a fresh pico de gallo topping,” she said as she passed the plates around the table, circling the family slowly.

  As she reached Bennett, she couldn’t help but look at him. He was handsome. Beyond handsome: he was hot. Bennett had always had a masculinity about him, but it only seemed to enhance with age and add to his rugged appeal.

  “June?” he said, and his voice was so shockingly familiar that she fumbled with the porcelain bowl and proceeded to spill the green soup all over his lap.

  He jumped as the cold liquid hit his pants and made a startled noise.

  June’s eyes went wide. She didn’t know if she was going to laugh or cry.

  “I am so sorry!” she exclaimed. “Oh, my goodness. I’ll-uh-I’ll get you a...” she stammered, horrified. “I’ll get you a napkin.”

  Chapter Three

  Bennett

  Bennett looked down in his lap at the splattered green spill and couldn’t help but smirk.

  “Was that June?” his father asked, trying to get a better look at the spill.

  “Yes, it was,” he laughed as he began wiping in vain at the soup that covered his legs.

  “Being her graceful self, as usual,” Jett chuckled. “I think you startled her.”

  While Bennet and the other Brooks men found the situation to be quite humorous, the matriarch of the family was hardly laughing.

  “Oh, no, I’m so embarrassed,” Shannon said, leaning a hand against her forehead. “Let me get my phone. I can see if someone can fetch you a clean pair of pants. Have somebody bring it over!”

  “It’s fine,” Bennett protested, holding a hand up to his mother as he stood.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Shannon asked, horrified at the liquid that was now seeping down his pants and onto the marble floors.

  “To find June,” he said.

  “What about your pants?”

  “It’s just soup, Ma,” he said with a wink.

  “Oh, this is such a shame. This is such a nice wedding. I don’t want to embarrass poor Greg or Amy,” she fretted, causing Bennett and Jett to exchange a brief but playful eyeroll.

  Bennett made his way into the bathroom to clean up as best as he could before he wandered toward the kitchen where he’d seen the wait-staff disappearing to.

  “Sorry, this is staff only,” a tall waiter said uncomfortably.

  “Sorry. I had a bit of a...” he stammered before gesturing down towards down his pants. “Do you mind if I get back there to talk to my waitress?”

  A woman with a nametag reading “Danielle” approached the two of them and offered a gentle smile. “Yeah, it’s cool. You can let him in.”

  “Thank you,” he said, stepping back into the immense stainless-steel kitchen.

  “I’m Danielle. I’m so sorry about what happened back there,” she said as she handed him a clean, wet hand towel.

  “It’s okay. I hear green goo is the newest trend so, I guess I’m sporting a popular look.”

  Danielle let out an amused giggle. “Ah, but was it popular for the nineteen twenties?” she said, gesturing out the swinging doors toward the roaring wedding theme.

  “I don’t think so,” he winked. “Guess I’m breaking the illusion, huh?”

  “I’m really sorry about that,” she said again.

  “It’s okay, I, uh, I know the waitress, so...”

  She raised her brows playfully and teased, “So, you’re used to her spilling soup on you?”

  “Would it be weird if I said yes?”

  The woman snorted with amusement. “I’m going to assume you came back here to see our little June for yourself?”

  “I was, uh, well, yeah. I was hoping to apologize. I didn’t mean to startle her,” he said.

  Danielle pointed toward a room at the far end of the kitchen and said, “She’s in there. And hey? Try to go easy on her.”

  “Will do,” he said and made his way toward the staff room. When he entered, he saw June sitti
ng at what could only be described as a stainless-steel picnic-table. She sat with her head in her hands and peeked out momentarily to glance up at him before making letting out an embarrassed, “Ugh!”

  He sat next to her with each of his legs on either side of the bench seat.

  “Couldn’t you have done the gentlemanly thing and pretended like that didn’t just happen?” she said.

  “Couldn’t you have done the lady-like thing and not thrown soup at me?”

  “I didn’t throw it at you,” she said, looking up at him shyly. “I spilled it. Big difference.”

  “Not to my pants,” he grinned.

  “I’m sorry. I just...” she swallowed nervously, and he watched her cheeks turn an impossible shade of pink. “You surprised me.”

  “Must have been my ridiculous hat,” he said, grabbing the brim of his swanky, embarrassing top hat and setting it down beside him.

  “Obviously,” she teased, then slapped his arm playfully. “You know what I mean. It was awkward. I didn’t know if we were just going to ignore each other or if I was supposed to say hi or...you caught me by surprise.”

  “Yeah, I figured,” he smirked. “I guess we were never destined to have a meet-cute.”

  “Hey, our first meeting was cute,” she said, and he gave her a curious stare. “Well, it was memorable, anyway!”

  “Yep. We made the papers the next morning, as I recall,” he said thoughtfully.

  “See? We were famous by the end of our first date!”

  Even dressed down in her black-and-white uniform, June looked as beautiful as she did the first time he saw her. He was nineteen years old then and working as a ranch hand at the first-ever Brookside Ranch—his parent’s starter ranch in Houston.

  He’d gone to cash a check at the local bank when he saw her at the first counter working as a bank teller. He knew then he had to talk to her. She had high cheekbones and ginger and gold hair that was fixed to the side of her face in an intricate braid, and the brightest eyes he’d ever seen. She had eyes so gray-blue they almost looked translucent.

  Bennett knew he had to talk to her, so he let others in line at the bank go ahead of him so that he could time his banking needs to when June was done with her customers.