Jacqueline Diamond - Paris or Bust!

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.

IF JODY 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.