aunt, Nadine Waters, knows quite a few. And then if Taylor wants to marry you come December, then I guess I won’t be able to stop her.” She smiled. “They say nothing gets in the way of true love, Falcon.”
He put his hat on. “Yes, ma’am.” He went over and kissed her on her cheek, as he always did. “I’m going to live up to your expectations. You just wait and see.” He glanced at Taylor, who leaned up against the bar, her arms crossed, watching him. “You pick out your wedding gown. A Christmas wedding will work fine for me.”
“Good night, Falcon.”
That was all she said. It was enough. Jillian could fix Taylor up with all the men she liked, but in the end, Taylor was going to choose him.
He would see to that. Nobody had said romance and lovemaking were off the list—just no marriage proposal—and he did his best convincing in the sheets.
Those terms suited him just fine.
* * *
F ALCON ’ S BROTHERS, along with their sister, Ashlyn, were sitting in the upstairs library of Rancho Diablo when he walked in the next night. As he headed over to fix himself a whiskey before the weekly meeting, an explosion of colored confetti showered down on him. His siblings roared with laughter.
“What the heck’s going on?” Falcon demanded.
“We heard about your marriage proposal, brother dear,” Ash said. “We wanted to celebrate your effort, paltry though it was.”
“Thanks.” He flung himself onto a leather sofa. “How did you hear?”
“Word travels fast on Diablo’s grapevine.” His eldest brother, Galen, wore a grin on his pumpkin head that was positively gleeful.
The twins, Tighe and Dante, shook their heads. He had no comment for them. They’d been chasing two nannies—bodyguards in disguise—and that had gone nowhere fast for either of them. River and Ana seemed completely immune to what his brothers had to offer, and that was a great source of amusement to the Callahan clan. “Shut up,” Falcon said to Tighe and Dante, who snickered.
“We’re happy for you,” Ash said. “You made an effort. It’s progress. Even if you proposed in a diner. Couldn’t you have classed it up a little? We have a family reputation to uphold. We may be spontaneous, but we’re always classy.”
“Jeez.” Falcon examined his glass before he emptied it. “She didn’t say yes. Yet.”
“What made you decide to ask Taylor Waters to marry you?” Jace asked. “She’s a hot little thing, sure, but you’ll never get her, you know. She’s out of your league. Smarter than you. Nicer, too.”
It was no surprise to Falcon that Jace couldn’t understand. Jace was an earth lover, a man of his heritage, and he was young. He was the only one of the siblings who actually wanted to settle down. Jace dreamed of a wife and family.
Falcon had had to sneak up on the idea of marriage a bit more slowly. First, he hadn’t met that many women. He worked a lot, like everyone else in this room. They were soldiers, all of them, trained for covert ops and sniper fire, and everything else one faced in the Special Forces. The job wasn’t the best backdrop for casual dating. Anyway, the first time he’d laid eyes on Taylor, something had hit him in the gut. And it had hurt so good he’d known he was onto something with the spicy brunette.
“Sloan, you’re settled now, got kids,” he said. “What do you think about marriage?”
Sloan smiled. “I recommend it. Just maybe not with the first girl you lay eyes on. It’s all fine and good to try to win the ranch land, but maybe you don’t want to propose every day that ends in y until you finally pick off a female. Be patient. Eventually a woman will take pity on you.”
“Very funny.” Falcon grimaced. “It can’t be that hard. Marriage is just a contract between two people.”
Ash came over to sit next to him, leaned against his shoulder. “You really want that land, don’t you?”
“Look who’s talking—you’ve already named it,” he pointed out. “I’ve got a name chosen for when I win it, too.”
Galen sighed. “This is what Aunt Fiona and Running Bear want, all of us focused on the land and settling down at the drop of a hat. They did it to our Callahan cousins, and they’re going to be really happy to see all of us sink like rocks into the wedding swamp.”
“Swamp?” Dante laughed. “Even I wouldn’t have thought of Aunt Fiona’s wedding dare as a swamp. Maybe a soup.”
His twin, Tighe, shuddered. “Swamp works for me.”
Jace got up, went to look out a window. “I’m looking as hard as I can for a bride. It’s not happening.”
“They say a watched pot never boils,” Sloan said. “Maybe your fire’s not turned on.”
“My fire’s fine,” Jace snapped. “Let’s not worry about my fire, thanks.”
“I move we get on to the general business.” Falcon felt edgy, impatient. “Any news?”
“Fiona mentioned the chief dropped by.” Galen’s expression turned intense. “She said Running Bear wants to meet with us tonight in the stone circle.”
“Did our cagey aunt say what the topic is?” Falcon asked.
Ashlyn smiled, her once-short, light blond hair now grown just past her ears, making her look less soldier these days and a bit more delicate. “Apparently, Running Bear may have word about our parents.”
Falcon blinked. They hadn’t heard from their parents in years. At least twelve. He tried to remember. He was thirty-three now—he’d last seen their parents...on his twenty-first birthday.
Ash, the baby, had been thirteen, Dante and Tighe fifteen.
Falcon had been a man then—but it hadn’t felt like it. Galen had come home from his medical studies in the military to keep them in line. The siblings had tested Galen, giving him a bit of hell, but it hadn’t lasted long. Those who were of age followed him into the military. The rest Galen ramrodded into growing up good.
Good and tough.
He looked around at his siblings. “Well, that would be news. If it were true.”
They all gazed at him. He sighed.
“I’m sorry. I can’t get excited about it. It’s been too many years and too many dead ends in the maze.” He shrugged. “We all know how the story ends, anyway.”
They looked away. Falcon knew his words were perhaps harsh, but they were honest. He went to the windows and stared out at the vast horizon toward the canyons, feeling angry, hurt, somehow betrayed, even though he knew their parents had done exactly what he would have done—and would do, at this very moment if necessary, to protect his family.
He didn’t focus on the pain anymore. It didn’t do any good. He held his parents’ memories inside him, respecting them, knowing they were in his heart, where they could never be taken away from him.
Still,
