had ended just about the same time her father’s health had taken a turn for the worse. She felt the timing was right. She’d missed living in Arizona. She’d missed the ranch. But once she’d returned, she’d found that while everyone else had moved on with their lives, Callie’s life had remained stagnant. The room her mother had decorated when Callie was just a girl was one of many perfect examples. The Hawk never wanted the room changed and Callie had acquiesced.
“Yeah, you sound down this morning. There’s something wrong. So what’s going on?” her friend asked.
“I … I just miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” Sammie said. “And you know there’s nothing holding you there. You can come back to Boston anytime. I’ve got an extra room in my apartment that has your name on it. But, hon, I know that missing me isn’t what’s putting that tone in your voice. What’s up?”
“You know. The usual. My father.”
“The Hawk? He’s at it again? What did he do this time?”
“It’s a little complicated right now.”
Callie wasn’t ready to share everything with Sammie, especially the guilt she felt about her secret. But she could tell her the most basic truth, which was that she’d reached her boiling point with her father last month. She’d thought that having a college degree, having lived off the ranch for several years and having reached her twenty-sixth birthday would have made a difference with her father. But she’d come to the bitter realization that he would never change. Oh, she did love him. In many regards he was a good father, but his need to control the outcome of her life had gotten out of control lately.
“You know I was dating a man named Troy, right?” she asked.
“Right. The tall, blond carpenter.” He’d come to the ranch to build a new pool house and Callie had hit it off with him. “I thought you were still dating. I mean, the last time we talked you didn’t say you weren’t.”
“I didn’t tell you what The Hawk did because I was so furious with him, I needed some time to let it sink in. My daddy just doesn’t get that I can make decisions for myself.
He can’t see it as a control issue. He thinks he’s looking out for me the way a father should.”
“He’s overcompensating for you not having a mother. Trying to be both parents at once.”
“I’ve always understood that. I cut my father slack because I knew he grieved for my mother. But Mom’s been gone eleven years and instead of him moving on with his life, he tossed all of the love he had for her onto me. I’m on the receiving end of a doting, controlling, overpowering father. Lucky me.”
“Oh, Callie. Sorry. I thought he’d lighten up after you got home from Boston.”
“Just the opposite. He wanted me to work for him when I got home. Laid the guilt on pretty thick too this last time. The Sullivan legacy will die if I don’t take the reins at the ranch. All that he’d built up will go to ruins. The sky will fall and crush everything he’s worked so hard for. Finally, I gave in. I worked with him for months. And I tried, Sammie. But The Hawk and I just don’t see eye to eye on things.”
Which was a nice way of saying her father was too ruthless a businessman for Callie. She had strong professional ethics that he didn’t understand. They’d butted heads over business decisions constantly. “I finally told him no, not at this time. I want to work in the field I’m interested in, the field I studied for four years. And he backed off, a little. And then he pulled his Hawk maneuver with Troy.”
“What did he do?”
“Troy’s a really great guy. I liked him, but it wasn’t earth-shattering or anything.” Nothing compared to how she felt about Tagg Worth. Especially now, but she had to hold those feelings close to her heart for the time being. She was purposefully deceiving Tagg with a sin of omission, but it couldn’t be helped.
Restless, Callie rose from the bed. She moved over to the window and smiled when she looked down from the second story to find her palomino, Freedom, prancing around the perimeter of the corral. When her mother was alive, living on Big Hawk Ranch had given Callie so much joy. She still loved the ranch, but couldn’t abide her father’s way of doing things.
“I’d only dated him for a month. Daddy kept asking questions, hinting that Troy wasn’t good enough for me, just because of what he did for a living. Apparently, blue-collar workers aren’t good enough for a girl raised on a cattle ranch,” she added with sarcasm. “I was really beginning to like this guy and then he stopped calling. I couldn’t reach him by phone, so one day I stopped by his office trailer outside of town and asked him what happened. And you know, I have to give Troy credit for telling me the truth.”
“Which was?”
Before Callie could respond, Sammie sighed. “Oh, your father threatened him?”
Callie turned from the window, tempering the anger she felt at her father’s manipulation. “No, no … nothing that blatant. He offered Troy a lucrative job doing a remodel for a friend’s ranch in Flagstaff. Would take about six months at the very least. The only stipulation was that he break off all contact with me.” Callie laughed without humor. “Can you imagine? I about died of mortification and whatever I had building with Troy had been sullied, ruined by The Hawk, even though Troy had turned my father down flat.”
“Oh, wow, Callie. That’s too bad.”
Callie thought so, too. After that humiliating experience, Callie had packed her bags and driven to Reno to blow off steam. Her cousin, Deanna, lived there and she had an open invitation to visit. For the first few days, Callie could barely see straight for the anger and humiliation she’d felt and she vented to her cousin, who’d lent a responsive ear. She was on her way back home when she’d stopped at the Cheatin’ Heart and spotted Tagg sitting on that bar stool.
Callie’s fantasy man.
And her father’s worst nightmare.
Callie took the opportunity presented to her. No, that wasn’t entirely true. She had to be totally honest with herself—she’d made things happen with Tagg. Because she wanted him and because she’d been sorely exasperated with her father. She wasn’t sure if one or the other alone would have sparked her bold move, but the combination of both was too tempting to resist. She couldn’t possibly have predicted how that night would end.
Because Callie hadn’t planned on falling in love.
Or conceiving Tagg’s baby.
Yet, both had happened.
Callie finished her conversation with Sammie and placed the receiver back onto its cradle. With a hand to her belly, she marveled about the new life growing inside her, wondering whether it was a boy or a girl. Wondering if the baby would have her brown eyes or Tagg’s beautiful silver-blue ones. Would the child have a golden bronze complexion like the father or be fair-skinned like Callie?
In only her most selective, perfect fantasies did she entertain thoughts of a future with Taggart Worth. She wouldn’t use the baby as bait to lure him into a relationship. She wouldn’t trap him into marriage. Yes, he had a right to know about the baby, but not yet. Shoving aside the guilt that burdened her by not revealing the truth to him, Callie held firm to her convictions. She needed a little time
