His Callahan Bride's Baby (Callahan Cowboys) (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

The babble of low voices in the next room caught Taylor’s attention. She moved to the wall to listen.

“It’s the end of April,” Ziha said. “He’s not coming.”

“Falcon Callahan isn’t coming,” Rose said, “so you misjudged their relationship, Wolf.”

“She’s having a baby,” Wolf said.

“Do we know it’s Falcon’s?” Ziha asked. “Just because she got pregnant doesn’t mean it’s his baby. He would have been here by now if he cared. So this mission has no purpose. And I’m out of here.”

Taylor put her ear tight against the wall so she could hear the argument better. Everyone sounded very frustrated, which made her smile to herself.

“You can’t leave,” Wolf said.

“Yes, we can. We didn’t sign up for you picking on an innocent woman. If you read her letters to her mother you’d know that she never mentions Falcon. Or any of the Callahans. She’s going to have that baby any day now, and I definitely want no part of holding a woman who should be with her mother when her child is born,” Ziha said.

“We quit,” Rose said. “Taylor’s a nice person, and you just can’t handle the fact that you made a mistake. This isn’t the way to flush Falcon out.”

“If you want to get the information on your brothers so badly, why don’t you just hold the old lady for ransom? The Callahans would sing like birds to get Fiona back,” a male voice said.

Rhine. He was a general troublemaker, in Taylor’s estimation. He didn’t look like part of the tribe, but he seemed more like a hired gun, and of all of them, she steered clear of Rhine the most. Especially since he probably still held a grudge about her shooting him.

“I think about taking Fiona,” Wolf said. “I’m just not sure how much she knows. I think the brothers are the only ones who know anything.”

“Okay, well, your plan of kidnapping women to get the men to squeal needs to be abandoned,” Ziha said. “You’ll have to figure it out on your own. We’re leaving on the next bus.”

Just then Taylor heard a “psst!” and she glanced at the window.

Falcon
.

She gasped and flew to the window, opening it. “What are you doing here? They’re in the other room. You have to leave!”

“I am leaving. We’re leaving. Get your stuff.” He looked at her. “You’re more beautiful than the last time I saw you, by the way.”

Taylor smiled, but her heart raced as she grabbed her few things and crammed them into a large purse. Falcon helped her out the window, and they hurried to the truck.

Taylor climbed in next to Galen, who was driving. Falcon jumped in next to her, sandwiching her, and Galen put the truck in Reverse.

“Hang on just a minute,” Falcon said. “I want to leave a parting gift.”

“Do we have to do parting gifts?” Taylor asked, worried. “They’re arguing fiercely in there. We could be thirty minutes down the road before they figure out I’m gone.”

“Life’s no fun without party prizes.” Galen halted the truck. “Go for it.”

“Oh, great. I’m riding with Cassidy and Sundance,” Taylor said.

“Nope,” Falcon said, squeezing off a shot that instantly flattened Wolf’s rear tire. “You’re riding with the Callahans.” He took out a second tire, and Galen sped off. “Lucky for you.”

“I knew you’d come.”

Falcon didn’t know what to think about that. Taylor didn’t seem annoyed or upset at all, and if he’d been in her place, he certainly would have been. “I would have been here sooner, but—”

“Running Bear said you would come when the ice and snow melted, and tempers grew hot. That’s exactly what’s happening back there. Tempers are flaring.”

Galen laughed. Falcon shook his head. “When did you talk to the chief?”

Taylor smiled at him, and it warmed every corner of his heart. “He came every month to check on me, usually around the first, a few days after the midwife.”

Falcon’s gaze fell to her stomach. “Is my baby all right?”

“Our baby is fine,” she reassured him.

He took a deep breath, feeling immensely better now that he had Taylor back. “Back to Running Bear—how could he see you every month?”

She shrugged. “He showed up at the same window you did. No one ever saw him. The sentries were posted, and I was never alone in the house, but somehow he still managed. I like your grandfather,” Taylor said, her eyes sparkling.

“He’s a wily old man,” Falcon muttered. “Crazy like a fox.”

He leaned over and kissed her, no longer able to hold back from touching her, holding her. “We have unfinished business, dating back to Christmas Eve.”

“That’s a night I’ll always remember,” Taylor said.

“What happened? One minute you were behind me, and then you were gone.” Fury filled him all over again, remembering how Taylor had been taken.

“I guess Ziha and Rose were hiding in the entryway. Someone knocked at the kitchen door to divert you, and they spirited me away out the front. They must have given me something that knocked me out, because I don’t remember very much until I woke up in Montana.” Taylor shook her head. “It’s kind of funny, though. Back there they were just giving your uncle their notice. They said you were never coming, and they were sick of his plan of action.”

Falcon smiled grimly. “I was coming. Grandfather was worried about what would happen to you if I showed up too soon. He felt like time needed to pass for them to get lax.”

“That’s what happened. Your grandfather told me to stay at peace, lie low, make myself happy, and that soon they would begin to get nervous, second-guess themselves. And grow slack. That’s exactly what happened.” She smiled at Falcon. “Rose and Ziha weren’t bad, actually, once we got to know each other. Rose is pretty sweet and seems like she doesn’t really belong with Wolf’s gang. I don’t think she and Wolf like each other very much. When I needed new maternity clothes, Rose and Ziha went into town and bought me some things. And I was teaching them card games and cooking skills.”

He shook his head. “Generous of you. I probably would have considered judicious poisoning if I’d been in your place.”

“Not generous.” She leaned against him. “I just trusted that everything would work out. By the way, your uncle is really frustrated. He’s going to be superhot that you got me out from right underneath his nose.”

“That’s just fine,” Falcon said. “Galen, don’t slow down until we hit the county line. Because if Wolf catches up to us, I’m pretty sure I’ll put a bullet right where it will do the most good.”

“You know Running Bear said absolutely not on the easy solution,” Galen said.

“I know.” Falcon wanted to do nothing more than take out his uncle and end the turmoil. Wouldn’t everything be solved then? They could all go on living their normal lives. Their Callahan cousins could come home. He and his siblings could go back—

They could never go back. Rancho Diablo had become their home. The Callahans were their family. And they knew each other better now than they had since before their parents had gone away. He remembered those days. They’d been the best times of their lives, long childhood days among their tribe, with each other.

Taylor put her hand in his. “It’s going to be all right.”

He nodded. “I know.”

Now that he had her back, that was exactly how he felt.

“Well, kids, this is where I get off this train,” Galen said. “You’re on your own from here.”

* * *

O
NCE
T
AYLOR
WAS
ALONE
with Falcon, she suddenly felt shy. They’d lost a precious four months and she felt far from her dream of them getting to know each other slowly before Emma was born.

He drove from the airport in Helena, and Taylor thought it was probably good that they were in a truck together for the next two days.

“I’d like to pick up where we left off,” Falcon said, “but I don’t know how possible that is.”

She thought about Christmas Eve, and how for one shining moment, she’d felt hopeful for a future together. “I don’t know, either.”

He moved his hat back a little, a gesture that she’d learned to recognize meant he was deep in thought. “Maybe we just go easy. Figure things out slowly.”

She nodded. “Sometimes slow is better.”

“Although I’ve had enough of slow. It’s frustrating, because I’m pretty sure I remember you proposing to me. Or saying yes. It doesn’t matter. Either way, I’m certain that you’d just agreed to hit up an altar with me, before you were kidnapped. I’m sorry as hell about that. The guilt is just tearing me up.”

“It’s not your fault,” Taylor quickly said. “And anyway, I knew what I was getting into when I... When we—”

“That’s the thing. I don’t think you could have known. I know what Jillian told you, and I know you took her advice to heart. The whole December deadline thing was a chance for you to find something better, have time to realize that a Callahan was the last thing you wanted.”

“I make up my own mind,” Taylor said impatiently. “I knew the risks, and I didn’t care.”

“I care,” Falcon said. “I don’t want this for my wife and child.”

“So what?” Taylor demanded. “So you’re just going to give up, walk away? Send me off to Hell’s Colony with the rest of your family?”

He perked up. “That’s an idea with some merit.”

“No, it’s not. I’ve been gone for four months! I’m not going anywhere else.” She frowned. “I’ll have you know I’ve lived in the belly of the beast for months with your uncle Wolf. And I’m fine. It wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life, but I learned patience. I learned what matters most to me in life. How is that different from Ash or you going off for days at a time to figure out your life? Commune with nature or whatever you call it?”

He smiled at her. “Listening to the spirits of our ancestors may be what you’re thinking of.”

She shook her head. “I’ll decide what bothers me, thanks. If you can’t handle your life, that’s your issue. Not mine. Wolf barely talked to me. There were days I wasn’t sure why he’d picked me. Ash or Fiona would be far more likely to raise a hue and cry from the Callahans—and they have answers about your family that I don’t know. Frankly, it was just a nice vacation in Montana for me, a beautiful state, a perfect place for Emma and me to hibernate.”

His gaze slipped over to her very large belly. “When does Emma come out of hibernation?”

“I haven’t had a prenatal checkup since December, but at the time, the doctor put my due date at about a month from now.” She couldn’t wait. Every day brought her closer. And now that Falcon had come for her, she had the comfort of knowing that her baby—their baby—would be born in Diablo. It was perfect.

“Wow,” Falcon said, and she realized he’d turned a bit pale.

“What?”

“A month to go? And you haven’t seen a doctor?”

“I wasn’t totally without care. It just wasn’t the sort of care I would have gotten with my own obstetrician. But I feel great. In fact, I’ve never felt better. It might have been all the good clean Montana air.”

“I should have put you on the plane instead of Galen,” Falcon grumbled. “I should have called Rafe and had him pick you up in the family jet. You shouldn’t be riding in a truck for two days.”

“I’m fine. I’ll let you know when I’m not.” She stared out at the beautiful landscape rushing past her window. “If you’re going to be a worrywart for the next two days, I will fly back.”

“I’m not trying to be a worrywart, I’m trying to take care of you.”

“I don’t need to be taken care of, Falcon. I want you to ignore the last four months and think of me as your partner.”

He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know if I can do that. Do you understand that other men don’t have to worry about their women being kidnapped because of a family feud? That’s what I face every day. It’s a damn helpless feeling.”

She understood, but at the same time, living in the past would mean Wolf won. She couldn’t let him win, for Emma’s sake. After a long moment, Taylor knew she had to be completely honest. She put a hand against his forearm. “We have to focus on what we’re doing, not what Wolf did, or this isn’t going to work, Falcon. And your uncle wins. Because nothing would make him happier than to know he’d destroyed a Callahan’s happiness.”

Chapter Fifteen

Falcon pulled into Rancho Diablo, his mind racing with how he was going to protect his new family now that they’d returned. Taylor had a point: Wolf wouldn’t bother her again, because Falcon hadn’t gone after her. Everything had played out just as Running Bear had said.

But a baby...would that be a whole different scenario? Falcon doubted Running Bear could stop him, much less Taylor, if Emma became a hostage.

“Quit worrying,” Taylor said, easing herself out of the truck as he cut the engine. “I can hear you worrying from two feet away. Nothing’s going to happen, Falcon.”

How could he be sure? Ash wasn’t here right now—she was still on some kind of spiritual bender. Tighe and Dante weren’t here; they were enjoying the heck out of the rodeo circuit, apparently. Falcon figured those two would never return to Rancho Diablo. Jace was around somewhere, and Galen had probably gotten back by now. Sloan and Kendall had gone to join the other family members at Dark Diablo, wanting the twins to have other cousins to play with. At the moment, they were filling in with hired help at Rancho Diablo, and that presented problems of its own.

“I’m not worrying. I’m just thinking.”

Taylor shook her head and went in the kitchen door, breathing a sigh of relief when she entered Fiona’s sanctuary. “Oh, my. I missed this. I miss my mother, too.” She looked at Falcon. “I may stay at my house, even though Mom isn’t there right now. You’ll fret less.”

He looked at her pumpkin-shaped tummy. She was beautiful—stunning and cute and everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. How had that happened? He’d watched her for many long months, trying to figure out how he could get a girl like her to go out with a guy—a renegade—like him. And then one day he’d blurted out his true feelings, that he wanted to marry her.

He loved her so much it was like his heart was a crazy, wild thing that settled only when she was around. “You might have missed home, but I missed you.”

She slipped her arms around his neck. “It was harder on you than it was on me.”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t be stuck in a cabin with Uncle Wolf for months.” He didn’t even like to think about it. But she was in his arms, and this was new, and yet familiar, and he loved her more than he could have ever imagined loving a woman.

She stood on her toes, pressed a kiss against his lips. He closed his eyes, enjoying the tenderness she gave him, then kissed her back with all the wistfulness he’d felt, and the ache of missing her. If a simple gesture could speak the words of his heart, he wanted his kiss to tell Taylor how sorry he was, how much he respected her, how much he needed her.

She sank back on her feet, and he reluctantly released her. Missed her already. “Thank you,” he said.

“For what?”

“For forgiving me. For not hating me. I was so afraid you would.”

“That’s because you don’t believe here.” She put her hand over his heart. “You’re going to have to start believing that what Wolf does, however bad, is going to come out good for us in the end. I believe it.”

After a moment, Falcon nodded. Her gaze was so clear, so honest and sincere, that he knew Taylor had made a decision to believe in him, believe in their relationship. He could do no less. “Okay. I’m going to work on it. I can be more appreciative of what’s going right for us.”

“Good.” She smiled, her face luminous. “I’m glad. We have a lot to look forward to.”

He felt hope lift him. “I agree.”

“Good.” She took his hand. “Because my water just broke, and I’m very certain Emma wants her father to be the happiest man in Diablo tonight.”

* * *

“I’
M
NOT
GOING
TO
SAY
I didn’t panic,” Falcon said proudly staring in at his new daughter in the bassinet in the hospital nursery. “I know I panicked. Taylor was calm, not rattled at all. She took a shower—she insisted she had to have a real shower after riding in a truck for two days—and then I drove her to her house, she packed some things, and I brought her here. My heart was racing faster than a car engine, and when they wheeled her back to the O.R., I thought for a minute I was going to black out.” He looked at Fiona and his sister. “Knowing that the woman who is having your child is undergoing a C-section is worse than being in the military. I saw a lot of stuff overseas, but I was never as torn up as I was when they took Taylor back.” He gazed at Emma, who was sleeping peacefully in her bassinet. His heart swelled with joy.

“Well, I’m proud of you, brother.” Ash patted his shoulder. “Emma is beautiful. Of course, she looks like her mother, thankfully. And I love her sweet blue aura. Such a happy baby.”

Fiona let out a sigh of happiness. “I’m so glad Taylor was here when Emma was born. I don’t think I could have borne it if she’d had the baby in Montana with Wolf and those dreadful minions of his.” She shuddered. “Dreadful, the whole thing. Wolf has got to be stopped, and soon. Or I’m going to do it myself. I’d have no problem serving him a big helping of apricot preserves with a splash of arsenic.”

“Aunt Fiona.” Falcon grinned.

“It’s all right,” Ash said. “I like having a bloodthirsty aunt. It’s kind of cool.”

“Don’t encourage her.” Falcon stared at Emma, seeing her tiny fingernails and shell-shaped eyelids. She was so adorable that his heart filled up despite the cracks it had suffered in the past few months.

Taylor had given him an amazing gift.

“I don’t need any encouragement,” Fiona said. “I think Emma would expect her great-aunt to be the standard bearer for the females of the family.”

“No!” both Falcon and Ash exclaimed.

“The chief says we’re not to hurt Uncle Wolf,” Falcon said, and Fiona said, “Humph. He said you Callahans can’t. I’m a good Irish girl whose family saw The Trouble. I have no problem with spicing up some jelly for your benighted uncle.”

She went blithely off, heading toward Taylor’s room.

Falcon looked at his daughter. “You don’t think Fiona would do anything rash, do you?”

“Sure. She’s Fiona,” Ash said. “She’s a fighter. Don’t doubt it.”

He didn’t. “Discourage her any way you can.”

“Okay, that will work. She’ll listen to us, because she listens to anybody.” Ash’s tone was sarcastic. She leaned closer to the nursery glass, considering the newborn. “Maybe Emma inherited your brains. One thing I can say about you, you got more than your fair share of gray matter, dear brother.” Ash gasped. “Maybe she got my heart!”

He grinned. “Well, as family gifts go, that would be a good one.” His sister had a heart like a lion. Between Taylor, Fiona, Ash, her grandmother Julia, Emma had all the genes for—

“She’s going to be a warrior,” Ash said in a wondering tone, and a tickle of premonition slid over Falcon.

“No. She’s not. This all stops now,” he said determinedly. “I’m going to keep her in a school for young ladies—”

“Which are great places for a girl to learn how to hold her own,” Ash said.

“And you are not to teach her to shoot, or hunt, or...any of the ways.”

Ash looked up at him. “What is the matter with you? Why wouldn’t you want your daughter to learn our ways?”

“Because,” Falcon said simply. He couldn’t explain his fear; he just was afraid. Because if he was the hunted one Running Bear had spoken of, then his daughter might be, too.

“You can’t keep her in a bottle, brother,” Ash said. “If she’s meant to be a lion, she’ll be a lion. You can’t make her a sparrow if that’s not her path.”

“You don’t believe in destiny. Or paths.”

Ash looked back at Emma. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind.”

Falcon stepped away from the window. “I intend to protect my family from now on. I’m never again going through what I went through, and my family is never being taken from me.”

Ash gazed at him. She looked as if she was about to say something, but Falcon turned and walked away.

* * *

A
MONTH
LATER
, after Taylor and Falcon had been through several shifts of night feedings, learning to diaper on the fly, and laughing at cute baby faces, Taylor began to realize that her husband had changed.

She looked out the window at Falcon. He had Emma strapped in a harness, cradling her little head with a big hand. “He never puts her down,” she told her mother, who’d come to see the baby.

“It’s good to see a father adore his child,” Mary said. “Your father was like that with you. He would have loved little Emma.”

“I know.” Taylor watched Falcon direct workers to different areas of the corral, putting several horses out for the day. “I barely get to hold her.”

“Don’t complain,” Mary said. “Falcon wants you to rest. Most mothers would love a husband that shares the duties.”

Taylor shook her head. “He doesn’t even put her down very often when he’s inside.”

Her mom looked at her. “Well, he’s a new dad. I’m sure that’s all it is.”

But Taylor didn’t think it was that simple. “Ever since he brought me back from Montana, Falcon’s been more of a bodyguard to Emma than a new dad learning the ropes.”

“Can you blame him?” Mary asked softly. “Falcon went through hell while you were gone. He blames himself. He’s not going to let anything happen to his daughter.”

“How long does it last?”

“What? New dad syndrome?” Mary shrugged. “Probably after he’s run off the first twenty guys who propose to Emma, and he’s finally settled on the one he can stomach taking his daughter away from him.”

Fiona sailed into the room, her usual cheery disposition on full display. “Isn’t this a lovely June day? I just love June.” She looked at Mary, her gaze conspiratorial. “I always think of weddings when the calendar page is on June, don’t you, Mary?”

Mary nodded. “June is such a lovely, traditional month for weddings.”

They looked at Taylor. She shook her head. “We haven’t discussed it.”

“Not even once?” Fiona asked, her voice disappointed.

“Not even once.” Everything had happened too quickly.

“What are you waiting on?” Fiona demanded, then sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business. I’m nosy, I’ve always been nosy. It’s my worst fault.”

“As faults go, it’s not that terrible,” Taylor said, trying to be diplomatic.

Fiona looked out at Emma and Falcon. “It’s just that my friends at the Books’n’Bingo Society have been asking, of course, since it is June, if they should mark any certain date on their very busy calendars. So many weddings in Diablo, and of course, no one wants to miss a single one.”

“Really?” Mary said. “Who else is getting married?”

Fiona blinked. “Well, a few people. But no matter. There doesn’t need to be a wedding. We had a christening, after all, and at least that’s something.”

Mary nodded. “It’s something.”

They both looked at Taylor, their gazes imploring.

She sighed. “Falcon needs time to adjust to fatherhood.”

Fiona glanced out the window. “He looks adjusted to me.”

“Marriage is a tricky thing,” Mary murmured. “We’ll just tell the ladies and Jillian that a baby shower is all we can accept at this time.”

“Did someone offer a baby shower?” Taylor asked.

“And a wedding shower,” Fiona said with the most pitiful expression Taylor had ever seen. “Our friends are a bit party-hard-y.” She looked mournful. “There was some suggestion that maybe the two of you need your own place—not that I agree, of course—and as such, perhaps a house warming party needed to be penciled on the calendar, as well. June was shaping up to be a busy month,” Fiona finished, looked sadder with each word.

“We don’t need a...” Taylor stopped speaking, glancing back and forth between her mother and Fiona. “I mean, how very kind of everyone to want to help us.” She took a deep breath, dived into the deep end of her fears. “Maybe I could mention these kind offers to Falcon—” the ladies’ faces brightened considerably “—and see how he feels. But I’m not making any promises,” she said hurriedly. “And as a matter of fact, if he even looks a little intimidated, I’m not saying another word about it to him. Ever.”

The ladies nodded. “I can accept that,” Fiona said.

“Me, too,” Mary said. “Just a tiny mention ought to be enough to get him to run with it. Men actually like marriage more than they admit.”

Taylor wasn’t so certain. Once upon a time, Falcon had been very gung ho about marriage.

She hadn’t quite known what to make of it. Had no desire to bring it up.

But it wasn’t about the parties or the showers, and she knew it, even though her mother and Fiona had couched it that way. It was about Emma, and building a family that couldn’t be broken.

Yet one thing had changed since the night Falcon had first proposed to her. That rowdy cowboy who’d surprised her with his proposal nearly a year ago in Jillian’s diner had said that after they got married and had a baby, they could figure out if they could still stand each other. And if they did, maybe they could sit on the porch together. He’d told her, in that teasing way he had, that he hadn’t wanted to work hard for a wife. And then he’d very subtly promised to make love to her every which way from Sunday.

He’d barely kissed her since she’d been back from Montana.

Not once.

* * *

“T
HIS
IS
WHAT
IS
KNOWN
as an intervention, brother,” Ash said, and the meeting commenced in the upstairs library. Galen, Ash, Sloan, Falcon and Jace were in attendance—and of course, little Emma.

Falcon looked at his daughter as she sat cradled in his arms. “Your first meeting,” he told her, “and they hold an intervention. What a silly thing to say in a little girl’s presence.” He glared at his sister. “Are you talking to me when you say intervention?”

Ash nodded. “Yes, I am. We all are.”

“Interventions may be necessary around this joint,” Falcon said, “but not for me. I’m doing better than I ever have.”

They all stared back at him, like a nestful of baby barn owls. “What?”

“Let Aunt Ash hold Emma,” Ash said, sidling over to take her tiny niece.

He leaned back to elude his sister’s greedy fingers. “She’s napping. Never wake a sleeping baby is the rule of thumb I salute.”