He’d had a low-grade headache since he’d left Brodie and he’d been popping aspirin like an addict. It was a small price to pay for a very large oops.
Kade looked up when he heard a knock on the glass door. Two seconds later his personal assistant leaned into the room. “What’s up, Joy?”
“There’s someone here to see you and she’s not budging,” Joy told him after tossing a quick greeting to Quinn and Mac. Joy snapped her fingers. “Someone Stewart.”
Kade frowned. Brodie? Was something wrong? She’d just been texting him. He stood up abruptly and his chair skittered backward. Crap! Something must be wrong. Brodie would never come to his office without calling first. He started toward the door and stopped when he saw the slight, stylish figure of Poppy Stewart walking toward them.
“Poppy? Is she okay?” He winced at the panic in his voice.
Poppy frowned. “Why wouldn’t she be?” she said when she reached him. Kade placed a hand on his heart and sucked in a deep breath while Poppy graciously, but very firmly, sent Joy on her way. “We need to talk.”
“You sure she’s okay?”
“When I left she was eating an apple and drinking ginger tea. She has a slew of appointments today and was heading downtown later.” Poppy walked into the conference room and Mac and Quinn rose to their feet.
“My, my, my,” she crooned, holding out a delicate hand for them to shake, her mouth curved in a still sexy smile. “You boys certainly pack a punch.”
Kade rubbed his forehead. God, he wasn’t up to dealing with a geriatric flirt. And why the hell wasn’t the aspirin working?
“Poppy, why are you here?” he asked, dropping back into his chair.
Quinn pulled out a chair for Poppy and gestured for her to sit. “Can I offer you something to drink? Coffee? Tea?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Poppy replied.
Mac frowned at Kade. “I’m Mac McCaskill and this is Quinn Rayne.”
God, he was losing his mind along with his manners. “Sorry, Poppy. Guys, this is Poppy Stewart.”
“Stewart?” Quinn asked. “Any relation to Brodie Stewart, the matchmaker?”
“Great-aunt,” Kade briefly explained. He caught his friends’ eyes and jerked his head in the direction of the door.
Mac just sat down again and Quinn sat on the edge of the conference table. It would take a bomb to move them, Kade realized, so he stood up. “Let’s go to my office, Poppy. We’ll have some privacy there.”
“You need privacy from your best friends?” Poppy asked.
Mac lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, do you?”
“Right now, yeah!” Kade snapped. He rubbed his jaw before gripping the bridge of his nose with his finger and thumb.
“You haven’t told them,” Poppy said and he heard the amusement in her voice. Glad she was finding this funny because he sure as hell wasn’t.
“Told us what?” Quinn asked, his eyes alight with curiosity.
Poppy’s open hand drifted through the air, silently telling him it was his call whether to answer his friends or not. They had to know sometime. If he told them now, then he’d avoid them nagging him to distraction.
Kade looked toward the open door and crossed the floor, slamming it shut. They all knew the signal: closed door meant what was said in the room stayed in the room. Both Mac and Quinn nodded their agreement.
“Brodie is pregnant,” Kade quietly said. He handed Mac a rueful smile. “I’m right behind you in the new-dads line.”
* * *
Kade was grateful that beyond quietly congratulating him, Mac and Quinn didn’t make a big song and dance over his announcement. Instead they just left the room, still looking shocked. All their lives were changing at a rapid pace. Just a few months ago they had been the most eligible bachelors in the city. Now Mac was getting married and he and Kade were both going to be fathers.
Then again, none of them ever eased their way into a situation, Kade thought as Mac shut the door behind him. They always jumped into the deep end and swam hard. “They took it rather well,” Poppy said, linking her hands around her knee.
“They were behaving themselves in front of you,” Kade explained. “Trust me, when they get me alone, they’ll rip into me.”
Kade dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. White-hot pain shot up his spine and bounced off the back of his skull. Hell, he hadn’t had a migraine for years and, he recalled, they always started like this. It had been so long since an attack he’d stopped the habit of carrying medicine with him to take the edge off the pain.
“Are you unhappy about this baby, Kade?”