Fated for Love (3 page)

“Or the perfect reading retreat, although the Wild West isn’t really my thing.” Callie took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air. “I can’t wait to get a massage and lay out by the pool. They have a pool, right?” Callie surveyed the grounds again, cataloging the barns just beyond the lodge.

“Kath? Where
is
the pool?”

Kathie flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and pressed her crimson lips together. “Oh, they definitely have someplace to swim, not to worry.”

Callie breathed a sigh of relief and smoothed her skirt. “Good. It’ll be nice to relax. I miss you guys so much. Thanks for planning this trip for us. I swear this doesn’t look like a spa at all. Must be a Colorado thing to look ranchy.”

“Oh, look, here they come.” Kathie pointed to Christine and Bonnie heading in their direction. She smiled at Callie. “We miss you, too, Callie.”

Bonnie held her camera up to her eye and stopped to take pictures every few steps. She was a nature and wedding photographer, and she was forever documenting her surroundings. She waved at them, and Kathie and Callie waved back with ready smiles for the pictures they knew she’d take.

“I feel a little overdressed. You guys are all wearing jeans.”

Kathie narrowed her baby blues again. “We had time to change before picking you up. You did bring clothes for the outdoors like we told you, right?”

Callie ran her finger along the wooden railing. “Of course. I brought sundresses and my bathing suit, oh, and that cute little skirt you gave me for Christmas last year. I love that. And I brought sandals and boots. I finally have someplace to wear my regular fun clothes instead of my work outfits. Is there a town near here? It might be fun to go shopping. Since you refused to tell me where we were going, I couldn’t even Google it, but I thought Christine said there was a town nearby.”

“Oh boy.” Kathie picked up her bags when the others joined them and crossed the bridge.

“Oh boy? What? Is there
not
a town nearby?”

Kathie flashed her an
oh-shit
look that made her stomach lurch.

“They’re here. Hey, Bon!” Kathie plastered a fake smile on her pretty face.

Oh God. What am I in for?

“You were right. Cabin Two, on the hill.” Bonnie pointed up the hill toward a log cabin. Bonnie had grown up on a farm, and like Kathie and Christine, she had grown up camping, fishing, and doing all the outdoors things Callie never had.

Callie wondered if they’d picked a spa that looked like a ranch on purpose because it reminded them of all the things they loved. When Callie wasn’t working, she was usually in her apartment experiencing life through the pages of a novel. The idea of a cabin was a little nerve-racking, but with her girlfriends’ woodsy expertise, she was sure they’d take care of creepy crawly things that gave her the willies.

Bonnie dropped her bags and held the camera at arm’s length. “Selfie! Gather around.”

They huddled together as Bonnie clicked off a few shots.

“I bet all you got was boobs.” Christine was a stand-up comic, and she never missed an opportunity to make them laugh.

“That only happens when I take the pics because I’m so short,” Callie said.

“Boobs or not, this is going to be awesome.” Bonnie slung her camera strap over her shoulder. “They said there’s a welcome barbecue down that dirt path by the big barn in an hour.”

“Barbecue? That sounds fun,” Callie said.

“Yeah…” Christine had a round face with flawless, ivory skin, and as they walked up the hill toward the cabin, her ever-present smile turned serious. “Maybe we should go over the
amenities
with Callie.”

“We will. They’re supposed to give us itineraries at the barbecue when we meet our
wrangler
.” Bonnie stopped in front of the cabin.

“Wow. This is a real log cabin. Check out the front porch.” Callie mounted the steps onto the wide front porch and dropped her bags. “Did you say,
wrangler
?”

“Yeah.” Kathie pushed her dark hair from her shoulder and glared at Bonnie, then turned and flashed a smile at Callie. “I think they call him a wrangler to keep it, you know, authentic to the mountains and the woodsy feel of the lodge…resort.”

“Makes sense.” Callie followed them inside the cozy, rustic cabin. “Oh my gosh, this is adorable. Look at those bookshelves.” She pointed to two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves packed full of books. She crossed the hardwood floor to a leather couch near the shelves and flopped onto it.

“You have to check this out. It’s so soft.” She kicked off her heels and put her feet on the coffee table. “You’ll find me right here reading if you need me.”

“I’m going to unpack.” Bonnie headed for the stairs.

Kathie hoisted a bag onto the counter in the kitchen. “I brought nutrition.” She withdrew several bottles of alcohol.

“It’s a spa. They’ll feed us,” Callie said.

“Yeah, but we need our Skinnygirls.” Kathie held up two bottles of Skinnygirl margaritas.

“Kathie, can you come up here a sec?” Bonnie called from upstairs.

“Pour yourselves a drink,” Kathie said as she ascended the stairs.

“I’ll just go make sure there are no Norman Bates bodies left behind.” Christine followed Kathie upstairs, bags in hand.

Callie settled into the deep couch cushions. She was in no hurry to check out the bedroom when she had all those titles to consider reading. Callie surveyed the room. The cabin was more rustic than the spas they had gone to in the past, with real log walls and chunky wooden tables that might be found in any Colorado farmhouse. Callie went to the picture window that overlooked a small deck. Just beyond was a view of the forest. She felt as if she were nestled among the mountains, and she realized that she liked that cabin better than the fancy rooms at the other spas they’d visited. Not that they’d visited more than a handful over the years for their annual girls’ trips.

A deep leather recliner sat at an angle beside the window with a reading light arced over the back of the chair.
That’s where they’ll find me reading.
She went to the bookshelves and ran her fingers across the titles, cataloging them in her mind. She bit her lip, fighting the urge to alphabetize them.
All About Horses, Cattle Driving, Colorado Wilderness Guide
. She was bummed that there were no women’s fiction titles.
A man definitely filled these shelves
. It was a good thing she never left home for an overnight trip without her books—or her Jillian Michaels DVD. She looked for a television and realized there wasn’t one. Her stomach clenched momentarily until she remembered that she’d brought her laptop and could watch the DVD on that.

Low voices filtered down from upstairs. Callie picked up her bags and went to join her friends. She found the three of them huddled in one of the two bedrooms.

“Hey, what’s the big secret?”

They turned deer-in-the-headlights eyes to her.

“Uh-oh. What is it?” They’d been friends for so many years that she knew something was up, and the fact that she was the only one not whispering made her stomach lurch. She sank to the bed and took a deep breath.

“Okay, tell me. What’s wrong?” She tucked her hands beneath her thighs, steeling herself for whatever it was that had her friends looking so worried. “You guys would only keep something from me because you think I can’t handle it. Oh no, please tell me no one is getting divorced, because you guys are the happiest couples I know. I couldn’t take that.” She lifted worried eyes to her too-damn-silent friends. She’d always been the most emotional of the group, and through the years her friends had tempered bad news—like when the sorority house cat got hit by a car—and she loved them even more for it. But no one had a cat at the moment, and she feared something worse might be waiting in the wings.

Bonnie pulled her back down to the bed and sat beside her. “It’s not anything like that. Kathie, I’m going to just tell her.”

“Tell me
what
?”

“Fine.” Kathie waved a hand in the air as if she’d forfeited an argument, then sat beside Callie.

Christine sank to her knees in front of Callie. “I think it’s time to give our little girl
the talk
.”

“Oh dear Lord. By the looks of you guys, I need that margarita…or the whole bottle.”

“You might.” Bonnie shot a narrow-eyed look at Kathie.

“Okay, here goes,” Kathie began. “Now that Christine is married, you’re the only single sister left in our little group.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So, we know how you hate to step outside your comfort zone, and now that you’re living so far away from us, we can’t exactly kidnap you once a week like we used to, to go out for drinks or dancing or to meet guys.” Kathie kicked Christine’s knee lightly.

“Right,” Christine added. “So, we wanted to help you a little, you know? Get you out and about and show you how strong you really are, so you wouldn’t be afraid to go out and get in trouble—”

Kathie kicked her again.

“I mean, do things by yourself in your new town.” Christine glared at Kathie.

“I’m missing something here. How will being at a spa make me stronger or want to go out by myself?” Callie looked at Bonnie, hoping to figure out what they were
really
telling her.

“Cal, this isn’t a spa. It’s a dude ranch. And we’re here for a few days of toughening you up.” Bonnie held tight to Callie’s hand.

“Toughening? Wait. What?” Callie pushed to her feet and went to the window. “So, there are no massages? No pool and no cabana boys to drool over?”

Kathie went to her side. “No, but there are hot cowboys, and you’ll learn that you can do so much more than you ever thought. I scheduled a bunch of fun things that you’d never do on your own.”

“There’s a reason I don’t go to places like this.” Callie stalked away, irritated and feeling duped. “I happen to like my life as it is. A dude ranch? Really, you guys?”

“Yeah, we know you love the library, and you love your apartment.” Kathie picked up Callie’s bag and dug through it. She held up a romance book and her Jillian Michaels DVD. “Cal, you’ve slept with exactly three men in your life, two of whom were nerdy math students. Your sex life is fictional and your exercise is…” She eyed the DVD. “Okay, it’s tough and efficient, but it keeps you locked in your apartment. We just want you to be happy, and we want you to meet a guy who will adore you. And you can’t exactly do that in a library.”

“I meet men.”

Kathie rolled her eyes. “Where? Because last I heard, your daily pattern was pretty much apartment to library to apartment. Rinse, wash, repeat.” Kathie pulled her down to the bed again. “Sweetie, we love you. You’re a beautiful twenty-six-year-old woman, and we don’t want you to end up a beautiful fifty-six-year-old cat lady having fictional sex. Especially when all it takes is knowing you can handle anything so you’re confident enough to go out without us and meet real men who give real orgasms.”

Callie felt her cheeks flush. “I’m allergic to cats, so no worries there, and you know I hate the whole idea of going out to meet men.” She couldn’t dispute the rest, and it had been way too long since she’d had an orgasm that wasn’t self-administered.

“We do know that, Cal, but it’s not like many young, single guys hang out at the Trusty Town Library. This is all going to be fun,” Bonnie assured her. “We’re going horseback riding, fishing, shooting.”

Callie didn’t care if many men hung out at the library. The only one she wanted did, and that was enough for her. Even if she never did more than talk to him once a week, a few minutes of Wes Braden was enough to fuel her fantasies at least seven days.

Callie flopped back on the bed. “All of which you guys will do really well and I’ll stink at.” She threw her arm over her eyes. “Just take me home. You can enjoy your little dude vacation, and I’ll go back to work, where I should be.”

“No way.” Kathie pulled her back up to a sitting position. “You’ve spent years hiding in your books, Cal. We love you, but just because our parents were more rural and yours were more academic doesn’t mean you’ll stink at these things. You just haven’t been exposed to them.”

“I hate being around deep water. You know that. I’ve never even ridden a real horse. A pony on a lead years ago, but…” Callie sat up and gave Kathie a deadpan stare. “And shooting, Kathie? Just the thought of guns makes my stomach hurt.”

Callie wondered what her parents would think about her being at a dude ranch, much less shooting a gun. They’d supported her move, but she knew they missed her. She was an only child, and they’d always treated her more like a mini adult than a child. They’d taught her to play Scrabble when she was eight, and the three of them used to read in the evenings when other kids were watching Nickelodeon. It never even would have occurred to them to vacation at a dude ranch.

Christine went to the window. “Cal, come here.”

Callie tried to fall back on the bed again and Kathie and Bonnie dragged her from the bed to Christine. She had to admit, the view was spectacular, and the horses were beautiful, but the serenity she’d thought about downstairs was blown apart by the image of guns and fishing and whatever other crazy things they wanted to torture her with.

“Look how serene it is out there. You can sit on the front porch and read all evening if you want.” Christine turned to face her. “All we want is a few hours of each day to get you out of your shell. They have live music at night, campfires, beautiful horses…and every ranch has sexy cowboys.”

“Can’t I get out of my shell at a real spa, without fish hooks and guns?” She remembered what Wes had said about spiders and snakes, and her stomach plunged again.

“I’ll tell you what. Give us twenty-four hours. Just one day of whatever they have planned for us, and if you truly hate it, we’ll leave and you can go home and bury your nose in a book and fantasize about Mr. Darcy, Prince Charming, or that
Shades of Grey
guy.” Christine’s big brown eyes held the hope and love only a best friend’s could. She saw the shiny side of a rusty dime, and she brought that positivity to the group. There was no way Callie could turn her down.

“Fine,” she relented. “One day.” She put her DVD and book back in her bag and carried it to the other bedroom.
A dude ranch
. What the heck was a dude ranch, anyway? She pulled out her computer to research The Woodlands while the girls showered and dressed for the barbecue, and of course, there was no Internet. She pulled out her iPhone.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat
.