His Callahan Bride's Baby (Callahan Cowboys) (11 page)

He rolled over, put his arm behind his head. “It’s harder for me to look at you and realize you’re the mother of my only child.”

She sneaked another look. Yep, still hotter than any man had a right to be. “Why?”

“It just is.” He sighed. “It was a bad idea for me to shanghai you into this trip. Sometimes I have a problem with boundaries.”

He sounded as if he regretted their time together. That bothered her more than she’d expected it would. “I should be mad at you. I was, in the beginning.”

“Was?”

“Well, I wish you’d asked.” She looked at the long stretch of brown skin next to her. “Then I realized I was having fun, so I got over it. But you have to ask in the future. No more Fiona-style traps.”

“Fine. And you have to tell me if you consider any more proposals,” he said gruffly. “It’s getting hard to keep score.”

“Remember when Jillian told me that you were too wild for me?”

“I remember,” he said. “You didn’t have to put the shoe on the other foot with such enthusiasm. I’m beginning to get an inferiority complex.”

Taylor smiled. “I very much doubt that.”

“Look what I had to do to get you on this trip with me. I’ve bribed people from New Mexico to Florida. You didn’t have to take Jillian’s advice so much to heart.”

Taylor shook her head, not about to encourage his beefing.

He raised up on his elbows to look at her. “I vote you give ol’ Benton a pass. He’ll never be able to keep up with you.”

“For your information,” Taylor said, “and not to give you any sense of satisfaction at all, but I already told ‘ol’ Benton’ that I couldn’t accept his proposal.”

“That’s exactly as it should be.” Falcon put his arms behind his head, lounging with satisfaction. “I’ve knocked out two men with proposals. That means mine’s gonna stick. Three’s the charm.”

She patted a sun hat onto her head. “Whatever you have to tell yourself.”

“So, when’s the big day?”

“What big day?” With Falcon, there could be any number of big days.

“The day my son arrives.”

Taylor took a deep breath. She couldn’t keep him in the dark any longer—he’d worked so hard to try to get in her good graces. And it was working. Bit by bit, she found herself trusting Falcon more and more—and falling more and more. “Baby Emma Marie Joy will rock your world in May.”

“Baby Emma Marie Joy?” He sat up. “We’re having a girl?”

She nodded.

He let out a whoop and tugged her from her chair, crushing her to him. Over his shoulder, Taylor could see all the bathing suits that had admired his surfing foray in the water sit up, staring over at them. Falcon laughed out loud. “I’m having a little girl!” he yelled, and all the bathing suits looked disappointed, although they clapped before they lay back down on their chairs and towels.

Taylor smiled. “Let go of me, Falcon.”

“I don’t think so. I’m celebrating. We’re celebrating.” His voice caught a little, grew husky. “I want Emma to know her father was the proudest dad on the planet. And that her mom looked sexy in her bathing suit when she finally gave me the good news.” He stroked her ponytail, and after a moment, Taylor relaxed and leaned against his chest. They lay on the sand like that until the sun went down, and Taylor thought it was almost perfect.

Almost.

Chapter Eleven

Falcon got up the next morning, his whole world bright. In the next room lay the woman he’d been trying to catch for months, pregnant with his daughter. He grinned, stretched, punched the air. Life was getting better all the time.

If he could just get Taylor to the altar.

“At least I ran off ol’ Benton.” He packed his suitcase, got ready to check out. Last night had stretched long without Taylor. He hadn’t tried to entice her into his room, and so he’d lain awake, his mind racing, too excited to sleep. Somehow he had to convince Taylor that a Christmas wedding was an absolute necessity. He didn’t want his daughter ever thinking her father had been a slacker.

Taylor could be stubborn, though, in the same league as Fiona and Ash. Wrangling her to the altar would take skill, finesse. A sure, patient hand.

“I’m in over my head,” he muttered. He was much more the get-the-job-done kind of guy, and that approach wasn’t going to work with Diablo’s best girl.

He picked up his suitcase, went to find his little woman. She didn’t answer when he knocked. Checking his watch, he tried not to be concerned. Their flight left in a couple of hours; they should be on their way to the airport.

Maybe she was downstairs eating breakfast. “My daughter was probably hungry,” he said proudly. Callahans were good eaters, and Emma would likely follow the family tradition. He went down to find Taylor, and when he couldn’t, he headed over to the desk.

“Mrs. Callahan took the early flight back, Mr. Callahan,” the desk clerk said, and Falcon was so stunned, he didn’t even notice the Mrs. Callahan bit.

“The early flight?”

“Yes, sir. She said she had a change in plans.”

“Thank you.” Falcon slunk back to the room to get his suitcase. That little devil! He knew exactly what she was up to: she hadn’t wanted to return with him. The whole town of Diablo would have been agog with gossip at them returning together. He hadn’t thought about it, but no one knew he’d joined Taylor and her mom on their trip.

“That little devil,” he muttered. “She gave me the slip.”

It was a week until Christmas. All he wanted for Christmas was a bride, his bride.

She was harder to catch than a shooting star.

He was going to have to figure out a way to do it.

* * *

T
WO
DAYS
BEFORE
C
HRISTMAS
, Falcon still hadn’t figured out how he was going to settle his footloose lady.

“Romance isn’t for lightweights,” Ash said. “It’s really more for tough guys.”

He didn’t point out that his sister’s face was longer than a shadow. “Still haven’t heard from Xav?”

“Stay on you, brother. I can handle my issue. My love interest isn’t having a baby.”

Still, her face was glum, despite her brave words. Falcon saddled his horse and pondered his dumb luck. “According to Jillian, Taylor says she needs time away from all men. So she went to stay with friends up north. Since her mom is still traveling, and seems pretty captivated by her new beau, Taylor told Jillian she’s free as a bird. Leaving me here like an unkissed toad,” he groused.

“Poor thing.” Ash got up, tightened the stirrups opposite the side he was on. “That’s what you get for jumping the gun.”

“What gun?”

“The one that says the man is supposed to win his woman, then get her to have his child. Taylor was always afraid your interest was just in the baby. Because of the ranch, you see.”

“Whatever. I’m sick of hearing about that land. I just want Taylor to marry me.” He sighed. “I threw everything I had at her. I wined her, dined her, whispered the sweetest of nothings—”

“Yes, so now you’re just going to have to wait.”

He hated the sound of that. “Wait?”

“For her to make up her mind.”

“Wait for her to toss me into the trash heap like Benton?” He did not belong in this limbo. “Haven’t you got better advice than simply wait?”

“Nope,” Ash said, wandering off. “You’ll just have to develop patience, something no Callahan has in abundance.”

Didn’t he know it. “My sister, the font of impossible knowledge.”

But maybe he had a source he hadn’t yet tapped. He rode into Diablo, threw the reins over a post, went into the Books’n’Bingo Society tearoom and bookshop.

Nadine Waters beamed at him. “Falcon! How nice to see you!”

“Thank you. It’s good to see you, too.”

Her eyes sparkled. “I bet you’ve come to ask about my niece.”

He laughed. “Not to put it too plainly, yes.”

She waved him to a seat, took a chair across from him. “I have no good advice where Taylor’s concerned. She’s always been our girl who makes up her own mind.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He just felt so out of sorts. Surely love was easier than worrying about scorpions in the desert.

Then again, maybe not.

“She won’t be back for Christmas?”

Nadine shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Can I get you some tea? Some cookies?”

“I’ve already got them,” Corinne Abernathy said, setting a floral teacup and a tiny dish of cookies down next to him. “Hello, Falcon.”

“Hi, Falcon.” Maxine Night sat, too, her gaze sympathetic. “We hear you’ve got quite the situation on your hands.”

“Yes,” Corinne said, “but how lovely that you’re going to be a father. No doubt your daughter will be just as plucky as her mother!”

“I can almost count on that,” Falcon said, brightening just a bit. “The thing is, though, I’d rather have two plucky ladies in my house, if you know what I mean.”

They nodded eagerly. He picked up a cookie to encourage them. “Maybe you could tell me where Taylor went?”

The three women shook their heads solemnly.

“We’ve been sworn to ultimate secrecy,” Nadine said. “Taylor says she needs time. And you know what it means when a woman says she needs time, don’t you?”

He sighed. “It means I’d better give it to her. Or I’m toast.”

“Maybe not toast,” Maxine said, “but definitely not the happiest loaf in the bread box.”

That was that, then. There was nothing he could do. His woman had played the Time card, and now he’d have to suck it up and wait.

“But,” Corinne said, her tone bright, “the good news is she spoke favorably of you before she left.”

“She did?” He perked up.

“Yes. My niece said that if she was ever going to choose a man, it would have been you.”

Falcon felt a surge of hope. “If?”

“Well,” Corinne said, “remember, you offered her a proposal on the spur of the moment. Taylor never quite trusted that you knew your own feelings.”

“She could have asked,” he groused.

“But then there was the baby,” Maxine explained. “Every man wants a baby.”

“Not really,” Falcon said, thinking about his lunkhead brothers, Tighe and Dante. He couldn’t see either of them with children. They were children themselves. Babies, really. “This stinks to high heaven.”

The ladies looked distressed. He could tell they honestly were trying to help. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“It’s all right,” they quickly said, their tones comforting.

“We understand completely,” Nadine said. “You just have to believe in love, Falcon.”

He got up, thanked them for their advice and their hospitality, then slunk off to his horse and rode slowly toward home, his heart heavy.

As he went past the window of Banger’s, Falcon never saw the shadow of a man move into place behind him, watching his every move.

* * *

“B
ROTHER
’
S
GOT
TO
PULL
his head out,” Galen said to Fiona, and Ash nodded in agreement. “I’ve never seen a man as low as Falcon. He has no concentration whatsoever.”

“Best to leave him alone,” Fiona said, but Galen shook his head.

“It’s another hole in coverage. He’s not able to focus on anything but his own misery.”

“Don’t sell him short,” Ash said. “He’s focused
here,
unlike Dante and Tighe.” She frowned. “And let’s not let Jace off the hook. Ever since Dante and Tighe, the resident Casanovas, retreated, Jace has been chasing down the nanny bodyguards with the complete joy of a man who has the field wide-open.”

Fiona shook her head. “I don’t know what to do. The wheels have just come off around here.”

“Which means we’re due a strike of some kind.” Galen looked worried. “We may have to bring in backup until things settle down. By the way, it’s good to see you feeling better, Fiona.”

“Yes. That cold I had was a doozy.”

Ash thought their aunt still looked a bit peaked. “Are you sure you’re feeling better?”

“I’ll be well enough by Christmas. Have to get Burke to play Santa. I can’t wait to go to Hell’s Colony and see all the children again! It’s been quiet around here for too long. Gets on my last nerve.”

She went off, humming a Christmas carol.

Ash looked at Galen. “Is she pushing herself?”

“A little. Her aura’s a bit off. She’ll come around.” He pondered his sister for a moment. “We need more help around here.”

“You could talk to Xav.”

He nodded. “He’d come back if we asked. Xav knows what we’re facing here.”

Ash sat up. “You really think he’d come back?”

“Sure. Nobody rides the canyons quite like he does.”

Her blood chilled as she thought about someone shooting Xav. Nothing had showed up on the casing; there was no match to a bullet purchase. But someone had shot him, and if she hadn’t found him, he might have died.

“No,” Ash said. “I’ll take the canyons.”

“I don’t want you down there. We’ll send Jace.”

Jace’s brain was like a pinwheel these days. On his day off, he chased Ana and River. “Not Jace. It has to be me.”

“I’ll do it.” Falcon walked in, and Ash shook her head vehemently.

“Absolutely not. You’re going to be a father in May. You have to get Taylor to marry you. Your plate is full.”

“I agree with Galen. You don’t belong in the canyons,” he argued.

Ash stood. “Yeah, well. Guess what? I’m a better tracker and a better shaman than all of you. I’ll be fine.” Besides, the cold loneliness would take her mind off Xav, which she needed.

She stalked out, her mind made up.

Falcon looked at Galen. “So stubborn.”

“Yes, and she’s right.” His brother sighed. “She is better than all of us. I just don’t like my little sister being out in the elements.”

“We’ll lock her in the basement.”

Galen laughed. “Good luck with that.” He studied Falcon. “Any luck with the runaway fiancée?”

“I’m counting on the Christmas spirit to work its magic on her.”

“And then?”

Falcon went to the door. “I’m going to tell Ash I’m taking the canyons. I’ve got nothing better to do with my life than wait on something that may never happen.”

Galen frowned. “Don’t say that. Stay strong.”

“I’m strong. I’m just outgunned in the stubborn department.” Nadine and Company had told him he was going to have to be patient. No better place to be patient than endless, freezing canyons under gray winter skies.

Falcon left and went to find his sister, who would no doubt open up a can of sass on him. He’d had lots of experience with it lately. “I’m becoming immune to sass—that’s the good news.”

It was his only news.

* * *

“F
ALCON
CAN
’
T
DO
CANYON
shift,” Taylor protested.

“He’s such a pain in my butt,” Ash said. “He insisted. I even tried to hypnotize him but he laughed and told me not to be such a newb. I did not appreciate that.”

Taylor looked out the window of her tiny house in Key West. It was so warm here it was hard to imagine the cold in Diablo. But it would be cold there, and snowy, and she hated the thought of Falcon exposed to the elements—and the danger.

“It’s no big deal,” Ash said. “Falcon’s been in colder, much worse places. I just thought you’d want to know you won’t be able to reach him. There’s no cell service out there, and I didn’t want you to worry.”

Taylor was worried. “I can’t help it. But I can’t make his decisions for him.”

“Yeah, I know. But if you came home, he’d come back to the ranch, and then I could go ride canyon. He’s being an overprotective ass. I’m much better equipped to handle what’s out there, and he’s going to be a dad. He should be buying baby booties and reading up on how to make organic baby food or something.”

Ash sounded disgusted. Taylor smiled. “I’m not getting in the middle of a family quibble. Sibling rivalry is something I have no familiarity with. I’m an only child, remember.”

“Yeah, but you don’t want Emma to be an only child,” Ash said, her tone a little sneaky and maybe a bit hopeful. “I just think if you come back, Falcon would settle down a little. He’s been wild as a coyote lately.”

Taylor shook her head. “I’ll think about it. But I’m not making any promises. I don’t want to rush anything with your brother, Ash. Falcon wasn’t interested in marrying me until he found out about the baby. It just doesn’t feel right to me to force a relationship.”

“Okay. I get that. I don’t like it, but I get it. Hey, I gotta go. Fiona just went by, and I think she’s got a plate of fresh gingerbread. Take care of my niece, Taylor.”

Taylor hung up and thought for a minute, and then she punched some numbers into her phone.

“This is Falcon.”

“Falcon, it’s Taylor.”

“Where are you?” He sounded just like he always did, demanding, in control.

“I’m staying out of the cold.” She looked out the window at the row of small gingerbread houses on her street. Tiny flowerpots decorated some porches; others had latticed windows. Getting away for a while had been good for her, and maybe Falcon, too. “I hear you’re taking over Xav’s ride.”

“Yeah. Might as well. I’ve got nothing better to do. Unless you’re coming back?”

She took a moment. “Actually, I’m not.”

“I’d like to spend Christmas with you.”

“I just wanted to tell you to be safe,” Taylor said, sidestepping the holiday talk. The last thing she wanted to do was let Christmas spirit force either of them into something they didn’t feel.