Paris or Bust!: Romancing Roxanne?\Daddy Come Lately\Love Is in the Air (12 page)

“Hi, I’m Evelyn,” she said. “Hello there, Ben and Jerry. What can I get for you folks?”

“Can we have a sundae, Daddy?” Ben asked.

When she heard the name “Daddy,” the young woman dropped her pen. Apologizing, she scooped it up. “I didn’t realize…I mean, you must be…I, uh, guess you’re a good friend of Jody’s.” She smiled.

“That’s a safe bet. I mean, yes, I am,” he said. “Let’s make that three sundaes. Is chocolate okay with everyone?” Two small heads nodded. “One coffee, too, please.”

“You bet!”

“I’d like to say hello to Ella Mae, if she isn’t busy,” he added.

“I’ll tell her right away!” The young woman gave an excited skip as she hurried to the kitchen.

“Do you guys eat here often?” Callum asked.

“Grandpa and Grandma used to bring us,” Jeremy said. “Mommy says we can’t ’ford it.”

“They make yummy burgers.” Ben rested his chin on his palm.

“From now on, you and Mommy can eat here a lot more often.” Callum hoped Jody wasn’t going to argue about his paying her a generous monthly allotment. If they got married as she’d suggested, there would be no question about his helping to support them. That was one point in its favor.

While the boys amused themselves by identifying letters in their plastic-covered menus, Callum’s mind remained fixed on Jody. Just thinking about their embrace this morning made him want her so much he ached. If she hadn’t interrupted their kiss, history might have repeated itself.

She was right, though, that attempting to have a real long-distance marriage might blow up in their faces. Neither of them had any experience at maintaining intimacy even under ideal conditions. As for a marriage of convenience, however, he didn’t see how they could be sure of resisting the temptation they hadn’t been able to resist in the past.

In order to make a decision, Callum needed some criteria. What would the rules be, and did they have a chance at succeeding? If only there were some way to test their resolve….

“Oh, look!” Ben jumped up. “It’s Abner!”

“Who’s Abner?” Callum hoped this wasn’t going to turn out to be another rival for Jody’s affections.

Jeremy pelted past him. “Hi, Abner!” He squatted to stroke a large calico cat. Joining him, Ben ran both hands through the thick fur.

The cat rolled onto its back, purring so loudly the sound echoed from the restaurant walls. “He’s certainly friendly,” Callum observed.

“He’s so outgoing, Ella Mae says he thinks he’s a dog.” Evelyn poured him a full mug.

A clap from the kitchen doorway announced the presence of a large-boned woman in her sixties. “Abner! Bad cat!” cried Ella Mae. “Go on, boy! Out!” Startled, the feline let out a disappointed sound halfway between a groan and a whine as it got to its feet and slouched away. “Sorry, folks,” the owner announced. “He’s not allowed in here, but he gets curious.”

After shutting the door behind the cat, Ella Mae fetched a plate of homemade cookies and passed them out to her customers. “This is by way of an apology,” she told Callum as she took a seat across from him. “It sure is good to see you. You’ve been gone far too long.”

“It’s good to be back,” he said, and meant it. His mother had died not long after he graduated from college and his father, who liked to visit cousins in Arizona, used to drive there and on to California once a year in his motor home until his death five years ago. As a result, Callum had become almost a stranger around here.

Evelyn returned with three scrumptious sundaes. The kids dug in. He ate at a more leisurely pace while he and Ella Mae brought each other up to date on their lives. She nodded appreciatively when he admitted he was the boys’ father.

“I always wondered about that,” she said. “The older those boys get, the more they look like you. I figured maybe something had gone on between you and Jody, but she didn’t like to let on and I’m not one to pry.”

“How come other people didn’t notice?” Callum asked. “Or did they?”

The café owner gave him a knowing smile. “People see what they want to see. Besides, Jody had another boyfriend before the kids were born. He moved away when he realized she could never really love him, or so I heard. I never did believe she had a fling with that rodeo rider, though, no matter what people said.”

“What rodeo rider?” He glanced at the boys, but they were absorbed in making mush out of their ice cream.

“Nobody to be concerned about,” Ella Mae said. “Now, I wanted to talk to you about Abner.”

“The cat?” Callum remembered about the contest. “Oh, right. You want to take him to Paris.”

She folded her arms on the table. “I entered the contest after I saw a picture on the Internet of some cats traveling with their owners. They looked real cute, but the more I think about it, the more I worry that Abner might get lost. I appreciate your making me a finalist, Callum, but I won’t feel bad if I lose.”

He thanked his lucky stars that she’d smoothed over the situation. “I’m sure our readers found the idea amusing.”

“Ever think about moving back here?” Ella Mae asked abruptly. “We’ve got a lot of nice things happening in central Texas. Maybe you could run your business from here.”

“I’d love to spend more time with my boys, but I don’t know if that’s feasible.” Callum had a packed schedule: supervising weekly story meetings, mediating staff disputes, handling sudden emergencies. Sometimes his ability to crank out a last-minute cover story or charm a celebrity averted disaster.
Family Voyager
needed him at the helm, in person.

“Well, you’d better do something before we end up with our own soap opera.” Ella Mae indicated the waitress, who was disappearing into the kitchen. “Evelyn’s got it bad for Bo Landers, and he’s got it bad for Jody. Or hadn’t you noticed?”

“I noticed,” Callum said between bites of ice cream. “The part about Bo and Jody, in any event.”

“She doesn’t look sick,” Jerry said.

“Excuse me?” Ella Mae leaned over and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Nobody’s sick, sweetheart.”

“You said Evelyn’s got it bad.”

She uttered a bark of laughter. “When somebody has it bad, that means they’re in love. My point is, this whole tangle needs to get resolved and your father is the only person who can do it.”

“Any suggestions?” Callum asked.

“Follow your heart,” said the café owner.

He wasn’t accustomed to following, he was accustomed to leading. Maybe that was part of the problem, he conceded. Maybe he talked too much and listened too little.

That was going to change. Callum intended to listen to Jody, even if it meant facing the possibility that a marriage of convenience was the right way to go.

CHAPTER FIVE

I
F
J
ODY
had figured she could spread the word quietly that Callum was the boys’ father, her hopes of discretion received a knockout punch on Sunday morning. As the four of them arrived for church, Ben greeted everyone he knew by announcing, “This is my daddy!”

“Mine, too,” Jeremy said, a bit defensively.

Although a few people had already heard the news from Ella Mae and Bo, most were startled. Jody caught a disapproving frown from Melody Lee, a former PTA president who’d tried to get Jody fired from her teaching job when she became pregnant. Others shook Callum’s hand, glad to see him again and willing to suspend judgment.

“The Prodigal Son has returned,” he told the preacher ruefully.

“To stay, I hope,” came the response.

“We’re working on that,” Callum said.

He’d certainly been working at being a father. Last night, he’d introduced the boys to the game of dominoes. Although they couldn’t add their scores, they’d relished the challenge of counting and matching the dots on the tiles.

Jody’s throat tightened as she recalled childhood evenings at the kitchen table playing with this same worn set in the company of her parents and friends. That was the way family life ought to be. If only she could have that kind of closeness with Callum for more than just a few days.

During the game, her gaze had fallen on his hands. Although they lacked the ranching scars her father had sported, they moved with strength and deftness. Between rounds, he’d built an elaborate domino structure and encouraged the boys to blow on the end tile until the array flattened itself amid an exhilarating series of clacks.

Later, Callum had directed the twins to sit beside their mother on the piano bench and sing while he stood behind them, providing bass. They’d harmonized until a muffed version of “Row Your Boat” dissolved into laughter.

If only Callum would stay. If only he belonged to her.

Jody was intensely aware of him sitting beside her through the service. The broad shoulders, the high planes of his face, the full, good-humored mouth all marked him as someone special.

For the rest of the service, she struggled to pay attention to the preacher. It was a good thing there wasn’t a pop quiz at the end.

In the social hall afterwards, as people gathered to talk before going their ways, the twins ran to play with friends. Old acquaintances surrounded Callum. Jody, hanging back in the crush, saw Bo approaching.

He seemed oblivious to the attention of the dark-haired waitress from the café, which had been riveted on him from the moment he arrived. Callum had mentioned yesterday, among various tidbits he brought back from town, that she had a crush on the guy.

“Have you two resolved anything?” Bo said quietly.

“Not yet,” Jody admitted.

Spotting Bo, Callum disengaged from his group and came over. “The boys asked if it was okay to go home with the Wiltons and their son for the afternoon. I didn’t think you’d mind. We’re supposed to pick them up after dinner.”

“It’s fine.” Already, Ben and Jerry were turning to their father as an authority figure, Jody mused.

“How long are you planning on staying?” Bo asked him. In case the question sounded rude, he added, “My interview comes out next Friday. I was hoping you’d get a chance to read it.”

“I’m not sure how long the office can spare me,” Callum admitted. “If I’m not here, maybe Jody will be kind enough to send me a copy.”

“Of course,” she said.

To her, Bo didn’t look satisfied by the indefinite answer. Neither, for that matter, was she.

On the road home, Callum took the wheel of the pickup. Jody settled back, content to let him drive. The truck had been her father’s and had never suited her.

“Tell me something,” he said. “Are you happy here?”

“In Everett Landing? Sure,” she said.

“Always have been?”

“Yes.”

“Always will be?”

“Probably.” As long as she had something special and wonderful to hold on to, Jody added silently. Like two adorable little boys. And a trip to Paris that she’d never forget.

“You enjoy being a rancher?” he probed.

“I like carrying on my parents’ work. The Wandering I meant the world to them.” That had been clear from her father’s will, which had left Jody copious instructions for running the ranch, as if to make sure she didn’t rush to unload the place.

“What about teaching?”

The question made Jody’s throat tighten. She’d adored her classroom and the challenge of helping her second graders master new material. “I miss it.”

“Will you ever go back?”

She hadn’t allowed herself to think in that direction. “It would be disloyal to give up the ranch.”

“You mean you’re going to spend the rest of your life playing Dale Evans even though you always wanted to be a teacher?” he said. “When we were in college, you used to dream about decorating your classroom.”

“Things change,” Jody said. “This is not your problem, Callum.”

“Okay, I’ll back off. For now.” He steered around a pothole in her driveway. “Let’s talk about getting married.”

Her heart performed a ballet leap. “Have you made a decision?”

“Only in the preliminary sense.” Maddeningly, he stopped talking while parking in the garage. After the engine cut off, he climbed out and started to come around.

Jody exited by herself, too impatient to wait. “What do you mean, you’ve made a preliminary decision?”

“There’s no sense in embarking on a marriage of convenience unless we’re sure we can handle it,” Callum said. “Do you agree?”

“I suppose so.”

Walking toward the house, he matched his stride to hers. “We weren’t very convincing yesterday during our jam session.” He opened the side door, which she’d left unlocked as always.

“What does music have to do with marriage?” Lifting her long skirt, Jody stepped over the sill.

“I wasn’t referring to the music. I meant our lack of restraint.” Callum paused in front of her. At such close quarters, his nearness made her skin tingle.

“What lack of restraint?”

“The part where I grabbed you.”

“It was just a kiss.” She was getting good at lying, Jody reflected ruefully.

“Like this?” His touch on her arm was all the warning she had before his lips gently explored hers.

Jody’s tongue tasted fire. She drew it back, and then dared the flames once more. Only when she heard a groan and realized she didn’t know whether it was hers or Callum’s did she wrench herself away.

“You see the problem.” His eyes had a hooded appearance. “We can’t keep our hands off each other.”

“My hands were nowhere near you,” she protested weakly.

“How can we spend a lifetime as platonic mates if we can’t spend a single day simply being pals?” he asked.

“Who says we can’t?” She was ready to fight her own instincts, Mother Nature itself and him, too, if necessary.

Callum drew himself up. “I take that as a challenge. Since the kids are gone, how about if we use this afternoon as a test?”

Jody usually took Sundays off, so there was no work to interfere. “It’s a deal. Anything special you’d like to do?”

“It’s warm. We could go swimming.” The animals’ water tank doubled as an informal pool.

An image of Callum in minuscule trunks quickened Jody’s breathing. “I don’t think swimsuits are such a good idea.”

“Who said anything about swimsuits?” He grinned.

She forced herself to stay calm. “Let’s go riding. That ought to cool your ardor, City Boy. I plan to change into jeans, and I’d recommend you do likewise.”

“You’re the boss.” With a casual salute, he strolled toward his room. She allowed her gaze to linger on his taut rear end beneath the silky blue suit.

What was wrong with her? They hadn’t even started, and she was already giving in to temptation! Jody chastised herself, and hurried off.

Dressed for the outing, they met in the kitchen, packed sandwiches and headed for the barn. Callum saddled his horse adeptly. He hadn’t forgotten much from his high school days, when he’d worked on ranches during the summer to help earn money for college.

“I should have put you to work the minute you got here,” she teased.

He held up his unscarred hands. “I’m out of shape. The only kind of animal I can wrangle these days is a mouse. The computer variety.”

“Let’s see what sitting around in a desk chair has done to your riding seat.” Jody swung onto her favorite mare, Flicka. “I’ll race you to the windmill.”

“Wait!” He was still arcing onto his saddle as she pressed her knees into the horse’s flanks.

From the barn, Flicka sped past the big house on Jody’s left and the corral chutes to her right. As they shot up the hillside, she heard Callum’s gelding, King Arthur, thundering behind them.

“Go, girl!” she shouted close to the horse’s neck. Warm sun bathed her back as Flicka hit her stride and they chunked over the grassy slope, the reverberations of the hoofbeats welding them into a single determined entity.

“Beep beep!” Callum called as he pulled alongside.

Atop the tall horse, he resembled a cowboy from a John Wayne movie, slim and hard and born in the saddle. Callum had the gift of looking at home anywhere, Jody reflected.

Was there any chance he really could feel at home on a ranch? He already had many of the basic skills. Maybe he, like her, was ready to consider a change of careers.

If she didn’t snap out of her daydreams, she was going to lose the race. “Hit it!” she commanded Flicka, and flattened herself against the horse. Inspired, the mare flew past the gelding and reached the windmill first by half a stride.

“I win!” After the horses slowed, Jody raised one fist in a victory salute.

“You do indeed. I’ll even forgive you for the head start, since my horse is bigger.” Callum had always been a good sport. “That was exciting.”

“You’re a good rider,” she conceded.

“It comes back to me.” He tilted his face to enjoy the sunshine. “This is almost beach weather.”

“Don’t you miss the seasons, living where it’s summer all the time?” Jody asked as the horses walked side by side. “To me, springtime is extra glorious because it comes after a cold, dark winter.”

“Don’t exaggerate,” he said. “This is Texas, not Montana.”

“It snows here!”

“Just enough to keep things interesting.” At the top of the hill, he reined to a halt and surveyed the patchwork panorama below them. Green fields and rambling fences, meandering cattle, stands of trees and a distant ribbon of highway sprawled to the horizon.

“Welcome to my place of business,” Jody said.

“You’ve got an even better view than I do,” Callum said. “This beats skyscrapers, hands down.”

Her heart leaped. Maybe there was hope, after all.

A sense of peace stole over Jody as she gazed across the land where she’d grown up. Here, to the ranch, she’d retreated when the popular high school girls snubbed her or she failed to get a date for a dance.

It had been her refuge five years ago, too. Jody had given up her rented house in town and returned, pregnant and defiantly independent but scared, too. Her parents had offered support, and the ranch had reassured her with its permanence.

It was different living and working here twenty-four hours a day, though. This past year, sometimes she’d felt confined and out of touch with the world. Maybe that was why she yearned to fly away to Paris.

“I wish I could read your mind,” Callum said.

“I was just thinking.” Jody didn’t want to go into detail. She hated revealing her vulnerabilities, because doing so made her feel weak. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“No, seriously.” She relaxed in the saddle, letting Flicka graze. “You couldn’t wait to leave this area. To me, it’s the center of the universe.”

King Arthur, who could get edgy if he sensed any insecurity in his rider, calmed enough to join the mare in grazing. It was a tribute to Callum’s skill in the saddle.

“This area is beautiful but I never felt like I really fit in here in Everett Landing,” said the man beside her.

Jody let out a disbelieving hoot. “You were the most popular guy in school, except maybe for the football team!”

“That’s a big exception.” He chuckled. “Besides, you’re biased.”

“The kids wouldn’t have voted you Most Likely to Succeed if they hadn’t liked you,” she pointed out. “I didn’t get voted anything.”

“What would you have liked to be?” he asked.

Most likely to have Callum Fox fall in love with me.
“Most likely to teach school,” Jody said, sticking close to the truth.

“I was flattered, getting voted an honor like that,” Callum said, “but if you view it a different way, it meant I was being voted Most Likely to Leave Town.”

“That doesn’t mean they wanted you to leave!” she protested. “I can’t understand why you say you didn’t fit in.”

“Let’s ride,” he said. “I think better on the go.”

Jody clucked to Flicka and they moved forward. She was glad Callum had arrived in time to enjoy the spring wildflowers and the bright new grass.

Since he’d worked on ranches himself, he probably also noticed that some of the fence posts needed replacing, which was an endless job, and that one of the pastures might be a bit overgrazed. Gladys had suggested hiring another full-time hand and buying new equipment, but it would mean taking out a large loan. Jody wasn’t ready to face the risk.

“I guess the place where I felt most out of place was in my own family,” Callum mused as they rode. “My parents were wonderful people, content living in a small town and running a store. They never understood why I was so eager to head off to college and see the world.”

“They were proud of you.” Jody had dropped by the feed store occasionally after he left, eager for news of his activities.

“I know, and I loved them a lot,” he said. “I wish I could have been the son they expected. It was hard on them, having their only child live so far away. But I took after my restless grandmother.”

Jody recalled his mentioning once that his father’s mother had been a painter from Chicago who arrived in town to capture the Texas landscape and ended up marrying a local man. “She must have found something special in Everett Landing.”