The Baby Claim

But none of them outstripped the cuisine here at Kit’s Kodiak Café in the little town outside Anchorage. The diner, a rustic barn type structure, was perched along the bay’s edge. The paned windows presented a clear view of a dock stretching out into the harbor, an occasional whale’s back cresting through floating chunks of ice. Inside, long planked tables accommodated large, noisy groups—like his family.

Menus crackled in front of the others, but he knew what he wanted, so his menu stayed folded. He flipped his coffee mug upright to signify java would be welcome. The waitress took their orders with quick efficiency and no pandering, another reason they all enjoyed coming here. Their family was well known in this café, but they appreciated not receiving special treatment.

He and his siblings had been coming to Kit’s since they were children. Their father brought them most Saturday mornings and sometimes before school so their mother could sleep in. He would bundle them up. Half the time, their gloves didn’t match, but they always had on a hat and boots as they piled into the family Suburban.

Broderick hadn’t realized then how his billionaire father was trying to keep them grounded in grass roots values by taking them to “regular Joe” sorts of places, the kind that played country music and oldies over the radio. The air smelled of home cooking and a wood fire. Back then, he’d thought the stuffed bear was cool, the music loud enough and the food almost as good as his mom’s.

And he still did.

As kids, the Steele pack had ordered off the Three Polar Bears menu. He’d taught his younger siblings to read their first words from that menu, even though they always ordered the same thing: reindeer sausage, eggs and massive stacks of pancakes served with wild berry syrup.

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.”