The Rancher's Homecoming (13 page)

Bo had drawn her to him with his quiet, peaceful presence. He'd made her feel safe and treasured. There were elements of that with Rex, too, but he excited her in ways that she found disturbingly addictive. Even as she fought those feelings, she craved them, too, and that made her question her own judgment. Worse, she didn't know where to turn for advice, so she simply prayed on the matter. Then Wes called her to task.

“What's troubling you, girl? And don't tell me it's nothing. I'm sick. I'm not stupid.” He sighed as he sank down onto the side of his freshly made bed and kicked off his slippers. “Talk.”

Callie shook her head, gathering the discarded bed linens, and gave him a half-truth. “I guess I'm just waiting for the next round in this ongoing war between my dad and Rex.”

“Hmm.” Wes lifted his feet onto the bed and leaned back. “I wouldn't worry none. Rex can outfox old Stu.”

“Rex is as clever and resolute as my father, that's true.”

“And you don't think that's a good thing?” Wes asked, clearly hearing what she hadn't said.

Callie bit her lip, hugging the laundry to her. “Do you?”

Wes chuckled. “You know, I admire a lot about your father. I admit he sometimes lets his business sense get the better of him, but he's done plenty good around town, and he's made a lot out of nothing. Why, I remember when your dad first started in business.” Shaking his head, Wes grinned. “His little old grocery wasn't much more than a convenience store back then. He built that up, and then he bought out the Feed and Grain and improved that, and when the bank faltered, he stepped in there and put it to rights. Soon, he owned most of the town. He was well on his way to being the big fish in our little pond when your mother died.” Sighing, Wes went on in a more somber tone. “After that, he seemed to pour all his grief and fear into making money. I remember him telling me that the best thing he could do for you was to leave you a fortune.”

“But life isn't just about material things,” Callie argued, realizing as she said it that those words had become a mantra over the years, one her father had heard many times. And ignored.

“Of course, it's not,” Wes agreed, “but I think Stuart didn't know what else to do for you, Callie. Believe me, I understand his dilemma. I have daughters myself. I was also blessed to have a wife to help me navigate the confusing stages between infancy and womanhood with my girls. And it's still pretty much a mystery to me. I admit that I'd have been lost without Glory to help me raise my kids, and that includes Rex.” Wes rubbed a hand thick and heavy with years of hard toil over his bald head. “Except for those few years, Stu didn't have the luxury of a wife at his side, and he did love your mom.”

“He never talks about her,” Callie said softly. “What was she like?”

“You,” Wes told her succinctly. “Calm, strong, smart, pretty.”

Callie smiled, blushing. “I've always wondered how I could miss someone I never really knew, but I do. I always have.”

“Why, naturally you would. That's just human nature.” Wes stared into the distance, musing, “Jane balanced Stuart somehow. The day of the car wreck, I'd never seen anyone so devastated. I thought of him the day my Glory died and how blessed I was to have her for so many years.” He looked at Callie then, saying, “I understood Stu better that day. I don't think he's ever gotten over losing Jane. Seems to me one reason for his controlling ways is that he doesn't want you to go through life living with that kind of pain and loss.”

“And yet, here I am doing that very thing,” Callie said softly.

Wes nodded. “And he's trying to fix it.”

Shocked, Callie sighed. “Poor Dad. He can't fix it. If he could, I'd let him. Doesn't he know that?”

Reaching out to pat her hand, Wes said, “You'll find out for yourself one of these days how very hard it is to let go of your children and give them over to God. But it's like my Glory always said, God gives us the free will to choose our own way, and that's the example we have to follow with our own children.”

“I know Dad thinks I was wrong to marry Bo,” Callie said thoughtfully, “but I'd do it again, even knowing how it would end.”

“I'm glad for you then,” Wes told her. “I just hope you can understand your father's motivations a little better now. And I hope you can see how much there is to admire about Stuart Crowsen. And my son. They're strong men who make things happen, Callie. This world needs men like them.”

Callie smiled. “Those aren't the only two admirable men around here.”

Wes linked his fingers and tucked them behind his head, grinning. “Of course not.” He winked, then he closed his eyes.

Laughing, Callie carried the laundry from the room. With a father like that, Rex couldn't be
too
much like Stuart, which just made her situation all the more acute.

Callie knew that she had some thinking and praying to do, where both her father and Rex were concerned.

Was it possible that she had misunderstood her father all these years? Might this new insight help them come to an understanding at long last, and if they could manage that, might she and Bodie be able to stay around War Bonnet long enough for something meaningful to develop between her and Rex?

She still felt a prick of guilt, as if thinking of even the possibility of a future with another man was a betrayal of Bo. Yet, she knew that her late husband would not begrudge her happiness, help or love. She didn't doubt that she could—probably already did—love Rex, but she had no assurance in her heart that he could or would love her.

Oh, she knew that he was attracted to her, but that was not the same thing as true love, and neither was gratitude or pity. What she didn't know was if he truly meant to stay on at Straight Arrow Ranch or if he was God's will for her.

She supposed that time would tell, but her time here could be very limited. Ironically, now that she wanted to grasp time and make it stand still, it seemed to slip through her hands like sand.

If she could make peace with her father, convince him to back off his plans for her future and stop trying to force Ben Dolent on her, she could stay around War Bonnet. If, however, her father insisted on trying to bully everyone around them until she did as he wanted, then she'd have no choice but to take her daughter and move away.

She began to pray that God would give her the means to reach him. Doubt argued that she'd never been able to do so before, but that was before she'd known how like her mother she was.

Like mother like daughter. Calm, strong, smart. She hoped.

Chapter Thirteen

C
allie smiled at Rex when he appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.

“You're home very early today.”

She'd made a concerted effort lately to be welcoming and helpful without being too blatant about it. He'd been sweet lately, especially with Bodie and his father. It helped that he wasn't working himself to the bone anymore. Now that the sorghum had been planted and a few weeks remained before the rye and barley harvest could begin, Rex had been seeing shorter days, but he'd never before walked in just after two o'clock in the afternoon.

He leaned a shoulder against the casement of the doorway and lifted a brow, saying, “I thought I'd get a shower and clean up before your father arrives.”

The bottom dropped out of Callie's stomach. “My father?”

Rex nodded and folded his arms. “He phoned me on my cell phone earlier. Said he was in need of legal services.”

She shouldn't have been surprised, but somehow Callie hadn't expected things to play out quite this way.

“You couldn't refuse?”

“Thought about it,” Rex admitted. “Then I decided it might be best just to find out what he's got up his sleeve.”

Tilting her head, Callie considered a moment, then nodded. “You're right.”

Rex grinned. “A man loves a woman who tells him that he's right.”

Callie burst out laughing. A part of her hoped that he meant that literally, but she knew very well that he was teasing. Bodie chose that moment to use the rail of the playpen to pull up to her feet and call out to Rex.

“Hiii.”

Still smiling, Rex strolled over and crouched down beside the playpen. “Hi, baby. How's my girl this afternoon? Being good for Mama today?”

“Ma-ma,” Bodie repeated, reaching through the wood slats for him. He caught her hand and kissed her palm.

“I can't play now, baby. I've got to shower. I love you, though. You're such a cutie. I'll be back.” He pushed up to his full height, bent at the waist and kissed her on the top of the head. She screeched furiously when he walked away again, moving toward the back hallway and the stairs. Rex took her display of temper in stride, saying, “I need to hurry. He'll be here by three.”

“I'll make coffee,” Callie said, trying to placate Bodie with a stuffed toy. Her dad loved his coffee.

“Got any cookies to go with that?”

“No, but I baked banana bread this morning.”

“You're perfect,” Rex called as he began climbing the stairs.

“As if,” she shouted over the baby.

“Don't argue with me, woman,” he shouted back.

Smiling and shaking her head, Callie went to the pantry for coffee grounds. Bodie flopped down onto her bottom and started to cry.

“Oh, hush,” Callie told her. “He'll be right back.” Then she started to pray that whatever her father had up his sleeve would not harm the Billings family or any other innocent party.

By the time Rex came downstairs again, his damp hair curling around his collar, the cuffs of his pale blue shirt rolled back to his elbows, Bodie had calmed. Callie had sliced the dark, moist, nut-rich bread and arranged it on a platter, made a pot of fresh coffee and set out plates, forks and napkins. She'd also taken a cup of coffee and a thick slice of the bread to Wes, whom she'd told of the afternoon's development.

“This ought to be good,” he'd chortled. “Leave my door open, why don't you? Next best thing to being the proverbial fly on the wall.”

Callie rolled her eyes, but she'd left Wes's bedroom door wide open.

Rex took a slice of the bread and carried it into Wes's room. The two chatted while they waited for Stuart to arrive. They didn't have to wait long. Callie was watching through the window over the kitchen sink when the Cadillac pulled up. With her heart pounding, she went at once to tell Rex.

“They're here. Looks like Ben is with him.”

Rex shrugged and said, “I'll let them in.” As he passed her, he patted her shoulder and added, “Relax, sweetheart. Everything's going to be fine.”

Callie looked at Wes, who gave her a thumbs-up. She went to check once more that all was in readiness.

As soon as the three men walked into the kitchen, Bodie began to clamor for attention. Callie picked the baby up, settling her in her usual place on her hip as Stuart nodded a greeting.

“Dad. You're looking well.”

He skimmed his gaze over her and Bodie, saying nothing, while Ben shuffled his feet nervously behind him. Rex extended an arm in invitation.

“Let's all have a seat.” He pulled out a chair for Callie, but she shook her head.

“Sit, daughter,” Stuart barked. “This concerns you.”

Callie lifted her chin, about to tell him that she wanted no part of whatever scheme he was launching now, but then she felt Rex's hand at the small of her back and remembered all that Wes had told her about her father and his motivations.

She bowed her head, nodded and said, “All right. Can I get anyone a cup of coffee first? There's freshly baked banana bread on the table.”

“I'll have a cup,” Rex replied, though he usually preferred iced tea at this time of day.

“Me, too,” Ben joined in, taking a plate and helping himself to the sweet bread.

Stuart scowled and shook his head, then said, “Coffee wouldn't hurt.”

Callie smiled to herself, knowing what a coffee addict her father was. When she returned to the table, three cups of coffee balanced on a small tray, her father was picking at a piece of banana bread with his fingers, the fork that he'd used to serve himself abandoned on the edge of the plate.

Rex had taken the chair next to hers. When Callie sat down, Bodie immediately tried to climb into his lap. Callie shifted the baby to her other side, where she spied Ben's high-crowned hat resting, brim up, on the table. The look of horror on Ben's face as he moved the hat out of Bodie's reach made Callie bite her lips to hide her smile.

Stuart didn't waste any more time on pleasantries. He glared at Rex and demanded, “Where's Wes?”

“In bed,” Rex replied neutrally, “where he belongs. I'm afraid Dad still has to keep his distance from company because of the chemotherapy.”

Clamping his jaw, Stuart took his time choosing his words. “I'm sorry to hear that. Guess we should be thankful he's well enough to go around paying off loans.”

Callie tried not to breathe while Rex calmly sipped his coffee, set aside the mug and folded his arms against the tabletop. “What loan would that be?”

Stuart glared. “You know what loan! The Countryside Church loan. Don't take me for a fool, Rex Billings.”

Rex shook his head, pushed back his chair, got up and walked out of the room and down the hall to his father's bedroom door. “Dad,” he asked loudly enough for all to hear, “did you pay off a loan for Countryside Church?”

“No, I did not,” Wes answered just as loudly.

Rex walked back to the table. He sat down again and pulled his chair up to the table. “Now, if that's what you came to find out,” he said to Stuart, “you have your answer.”

Stuart frowned, his eyes narrowing. “If it wasn't him, then it was you.”

“I'm not even a member of that church,” Rex pointed out evenly.

Callie kept her face straight and her mouth shut, until her father turned his glare in her direction. Then she said, “Don't look at me. I haven't paid off any loans.”

Flattening his mouth, Stuart picked up his coffee mug and sat back in his chair. “Actually, there's another matter I wanted to talk to you about,” he said to Rex, “a personal one.” He looked at Ben, who ducked his head, picked up his plate and started to eat with great gusto. “I need a lawyer to draw up adoption papers,” Stuart said with a sly smile.

Panic hit Callie in a wave.

Rex glanced at her, echoing, “Adoption papers.”

Callie wanted to get up and run away, but she feared that her legs wouldn't hold her. She grabbed Bodie's hand in hers. The baby had been entertaining herself by patting Callie's chin in an attempt to get her to open her mouth.

Gulping down her panic, Callie snapped, “You cannot have my daughter!”

Her father gaped at her before demanding, “How would I take care of a baby? I could barely take care of you after your mother died, and you were practically dressing yourself. Babies take live-in help, and live-in help is not easy to come by around here, as you ought to know.”

“Then what are you talking about?” Rex asked sharply. “Bodie is the only child here that we know about.”

“It's possible to adopt grown heirs,” Stuart said smugly. “I've done my research. It's rare, but it happens.”

“Grown heirs,” Rex mused, tapping his chin and staring at Stuart. Ben suddenly set aside his empty plate with a clatter and seized his coffee, slurping loudly. Rex switched his gaze, fell back in his chair and shook his head. “Now, there is one for the books.”

Confused, Callie spread a look around the table. “What? What's going on?”

“Your dad is going to adopt Ben,” Rex drawled.

Callie realized she'd dropped her jaw when Bodie used her free hand to reach into her mouth and tried to pluck out her teeth.

“That's right!” Stuart exclaimed, leaning forward to make his point with Callie. “What I've built matters. To this community, if not to you.”

Callie pulled Bodie's hand away. “Of course it matters. I never said it didn't matter, just that it isn't the
only
thing that matters.”

“Someone has to take over for me someday,” Stuart went on doggedly. “Ben has a degree in business administration.”

Ben smiled and nodded.

“And yet he's managing a grain silo in a tiny town in Oklahoma,” Rex pointed out. “No offense, Ben.”

“None taken,” Ben said affably. “At my age, I figure it's better to be a big cog in a small machine than a small cog in a big—”

At Stuart's pointed glare, he broke off and swigged more coffee.

“The point is,” Stuart stated flatly, “I have to plan for the future, and if my only flesh and blood is going to throw back in my face my every attempt to protect and provide for her, then I have to look elsewhere.”

Callie rolled her eyes. At the same time, Rex said, “Just to be clear, you're talking about disowning your daughter and granddaughter.”

“It's not what I'd prefer,” Stuart said mournfully. “All I've ever wanted was to take care of my little girl, but I can't fight her forever, and like I said, I have to plan for the future. There are businesses, jobs, the loans that underwrite, all manner of livelihoods at stake here. I need to leave things with someone who I know can handle them.”

He shifted; then, so did Ben. Callie got the distinct impression that the first event occasioned the second. When Ben spoke, she was sure of it.

“You know,” Ben said, reaching toward Callie, “this doesn't mean all is lost.”

“Oh?” She knew instantly what was coming next. She knew, too, that Ben thought he was holding a winning hand at last. In many ways, she felt sorry for him. He must feel as if he'd won the lottery, that he'd fallen into the best deal imaginable, but she knew better. For one thing, she knew her father. For another, she knew herself.

Ben smiled. He really was a nice, if clueless, soul. “If you marry me, you can have it all,” he said through a broad smile.

Rex straightened and put his foot back as if he meant to shove his chair away from the table. Callie quickly moved her foot to intercept his. Then she shifted Bodie onto her lap and reached out to cover Ben's hand with her own.

“Ben,” she said gently. “I'll be glad to call you brother. But I will
never
call you husband.”

“Ohhhh.” Ben fell back in his chair, obviously deflated.

Rex parked his elbows on the edge of the table and dropped his face into his hands. Callie had the feeling that he was hiding a smile. Stuart, on the other hand, exploded. He leaped up out of his chair, throwing his arms about wildly. Bodie jerked, surprised by the sudden movement.

“Big words, little girl! But stop for one minute and think what you're giving up!”

Callie shook her head, holding Bodie close. “Maybe you need to stop and think, Dad,” she said sternly. “Did you really believe this would work? I gave up everything once before to marry the man of my choice. What makes you think I'd marry the man of
your
choice now just to keep it?”

“Didn't you learn anything married to that church mouse?” Stuart demanded.

“Yes,” Callie said, holding Bodie close and looking up at her father. “I learned what it means to be loved and appreciated, that faith and living in God's will is more important than anything else and that I can do anything I must as long as I put my faith in the Lord and seek His will. I also learned,” she went on more softly, “how much pain you must have felt when Mom died. I'm sorry for that, Dad. I'm so sorry. But I won't marry a man I don't love just so I won't be hurt when he dies.” She glanced at Ben, murmuring, “Sorry, Ben. I like you, but...”

“Aw, that's okay,” he said good-naturedly. “I never could see it anyhow.”

All the fight seemed to go out of Stuart. He dropped down into his chair again, muttering, “You're both stupid as bricks.”

From the other room, Wes called, “What'd he say?”

“Nothing he meant,” Rex answered loudly.

Stuart rested his forearms on the edge of the table and beseeched Callie. “I've never known what to do for you. Why can't you see that I cannot just turn over everything to you? You don't have a clue how to manage it all. At least Ben has a chance to keep it going after I'm gone.”

“It's not my fault I don't know anything about your businesses,” Callie told him. “Since the day I started dating, you've never let me do more than fill in here and there for one of your employees.”