Free The Cowboy's Secret Baby: BWWM Cowboy Pregnancy Romance (Young Adult First Time Billionaire Steamy African American) by Christin Jensen

we had wallboard,” Farris told him.  “I wouldn’t spackle up one of those pinholes for the world. – This is where I spent the happiest part of my life.”
    “Clarice was pretty happy, too, until Marion started sticking her horn in,” Pirtle remarked quietly.  “I understand why you’re both seeing shrinks; hopefully, eventually you can get back together again.  I know she misses you.”
    “I want us to be together more than anything else.”  Farris sank down in his usual chair.  “But it won’t work if Clarice is a puppet being worked by her mom, or even with me being a solitary guy who lives with other people’s ghosts.”
    “You never thought to set those detectives of yours on the trail of your own family?” Pirtle asked.
    “Most people use genealogists for that,” Farris told him, “and those folks don’t get the stories that make a family real.”
    “You and Clarice have both been screwed over by your kinfolk, it seems to me,” Pirtle remarked, finding a chair and opening the briefcase he’d been carrying all this time.  “But what I wanted to do – aside from having a good chin wag and sizing you up – was to see about developing a portfolio for my coming grandson.”
    Farris pulled his chair closer.  “Well, I don’t know stocks, except for my horse breeding specialty, but otherwise my business head is pretty sound.  Show me what you’re considering.”
    That evening, Clarice got a text message from her father in Lexington.  ‘Show that private Kentucky sketchbook of yours to Dr. Carstairs.  Farris says it’s the key to your superpower.  I agree.’
    Clarice keyed in ‘will comply’ almost automatically. – She should have thought of using those drawings earlier in her therapy, she realized.  Since her deeply troubling experiences in Life Drawing class, she had been careful never to sketch human beings.  Apparently her subconscious mind worked in pictures and picked up more than anyone wanted to show.  She got out the precious Kentucky notebook from her cedar chest and put it into the tote bag she used for her visits to Nashville.

Chapter 12
     
    Meanwhile, Marion Saxe had used her brief spell of notoriety to shore up her bank balance and replace the income she had lost when first Clarice and later John Pirtle had defected from her control.  Now her realty business was flourishing to the point that she could command a county work crew to repair her sidewalk.  Now the traffic was beautifully snarled on the main state road, and she could easily flag down Clarice and her tame driver when they came by on the way to the interstate.
    Sure enough, traffic was backed up for blocks when the puttering old brown truck chugged up outside her office window.  Swiftly, Marion ran up and grabbed the open window frame of the driver’s side door.  “Let me talk to my daughter for just a minute,” she demanded.  The driver, as she had heard, was one of the legitimate Pirtles, sent to Sewanee to help his erring half-sister.
    Now Clarice leaned forward and stared around the driver.  “Hello, Mother.  You are looking well.”
    “I just wanted you to know,” Marian said in a rush, “that I got a really nice price selling that old garden apartment of yours and its environs. – Somebody had seen the pictures when I did that talk show. – I also sold your car to make up for losing your income.  Business is now better than ever.”
    “I’m glad to hear that, Mother,” Clarice replied gently.  The older woman quickly let go of the truck door and ran back to her shop.
    Once traffic started moving again, Angus Pirtle looked over at his half-sister and whistled.  “No wonder you’ve got problems! – That back surgery after Tommy was born must have been more serious than Mom ever made out.  I can’t think of any other reason for Dad to hook up with something like that!”
    Clarice sighed.  “Just remember - everybody was young and stupid once, Angus. – Really, I am glad