Paris or Bust!

PROLOGUE

Remember back in high school when you read The Odyssey? Remember Penelope, the woman who got stuck at home while everyone else went off having adventures? Remember the suitors besieging her to get their hands on her property?

Well, that’s kind of my situation.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my ranch, the Wandering I. Since I inherited it last year, though, I’ve learned what a big job it is running a spread like this, even compared to teaching second grade, which is what I did before.

Then there are the guys. In high school, I was a wallflower, so it’s nice to have admirers, if that’s what they are. The problem is, none of them noticed me before I became a property owner. Now they keep popping up under my nose, telling me that my four-year-old twins need a daddy.

Sometimes I’m tempted to marry one of these guys just to get a break from the others. Then I read about Family Voyager’s wonderful contest, with the first prize a trip to Paris for me and my kids. It sounds like a dream come true!

My little guys, Benjamin and Jeremy, have never been outside Texas. The farthest I ever got was to Santa Fe for the Indian Days festival. I’d sell my freckles for a chance to inhale fresh bread from a bakery instead of smelling cattle all day and to dine at the Eiffel Tower instead of flipping hamburgers on the barbecue.

If anyone needs a trip to Paris, it’s definitely me!

CHAPTER ONE

CALLUM FOX shoved back a rebellious hank of silver-blond hair and stared in disbelief at the e-mail on his computer screen. When had Jody Reilly had twin sons? How could her parents have died and left her the ranch without his hearing about it? And who said she’d been a wallflower in high school?

The publisher of Family Voyager stared into space, ignoring the manuscripts, galleys and photos scattered across his broad desk. The plush office and framed magazine covers on the walls faded from his mind.

He was back in high school, suffering from a crush on a laughing minx with flyaway reddish-brown hair. Even as a teenager, Callum had been in a hurry to set the world on fire. He hadn’t expected to fall for a high-spirited, slightly chubby girl whose aims in life were to teach elementary school and have lots of kids.

Despite their incompatible goals, he and Jody had had a lot of fun. They’d performed together in the school band and hung out after school and during college before heading their separate ways.

Five years ago, when Callum returned to the small town of Everett Landing to settle his parents’ estate after his father’s death, they’d spent a night of lovemaking that still made his chest tighten and his hands grow damp whenever he thought about it. He’d invited Jody to move to L.A., but she’d turned him down. End of story.

Through the open door of his office marched the managing editor, Tisa Powell, her high heels soundless on the plush carpet. A tall, slender African-American woman with a sense of style as well honed as Callum’s, she moved with energy and purpose. At twenty-eight, she was only a year younger than he was and equally ambitious.

“We’ve got a problem.” Tisa stood with hands on hips. “Have you checked out our Web site today?”

“As a matter of fact, no.” Usually that was the first thing Callum did each morning. He’d launched Family Voyager on the Internet half a dozen years earlier. Its runaway success, boosted by features on celebrity families and his knack for spotting new trends in travel, had enabled him to move into glossy print two years before. The magazine still maintained a dynamic presence online as well.

“I thought the senior staff was going to pick the finalists in the contest,” Tisa said.

“That’s right.” The Mother of the Year contest, sponsored by the magazine and several major advertisers, had been Callum’s brainchild. The grand prize was a trip for two to Paris and a shopping spree for the most deserving woman.

“Then why…”

Too impatient to wait for her to finish the sentence, he said, “I asked Al to winnow the entries down to a manageable number for us to review.” Al Johnson, the advertising director, had seemed like a suitable person to filter through the barrage of essays that had poured in through the Web site and the mail. “I sent them to his office last week. He’s not actually picking the finalists, though. In fact, I was just reading some of the entries myself.”

“Al’s been out since Monday with a strained back,” Tisa said. “Somebody winnowed them, all right. The names of ten finalists were posted on the site this morning.”

“What?” A few clicks on the computer brought Callum to a page flashing the words: “Contest Finalists! One of These Ten Moms Will Win a Trip to Paris!”

He scanned the finalists’ names and thumbnail descriptions with a sinking sensation. Some of the ladies were exactly the type of person he’d had in mind, including the mother of quadruplets. He had to admit, the choices looked interesting, including both married and single women.

But why, oh why, had someone selected Jody? There was an obvious conflict of interest for Callum, since the two shared the same hometown, although whoever had pulled this stunt couldn’t have known that there was an even stronger bond between them.

Uh-oh. There was a second finalist from his hometown, as well, a restaurant owner whose children had grown up and moved away. According to her entry, she wanted to take her pet cat to Paris.

“This is inexcusable!” Mentally, Callum searched through the staff roster, trying to divine which of his employees might hate him, because the situation reeked of sabotage. Yet he hadn’t fired or demoted anyone. In fact, he’d given them all a large bonus a few months ago at Christmas.

“You realize that we’re stuck,” Tisa said. “If we disfranchise any of these ladies, they could slap us with a lawsuit.”

“Did I insult someone at a staff meeting?” Callum asked. “I know I speak without thinking sometimes.”

“That’s because you’ve got so many ideas, you can’t keep them all inside.” The editor smiled fondly. “Nobody’s mad at you.”

“Then who’s behind this?”

“Let’s go down to David’s office and find out.”

David Renault, the Web master, apologized profusely when he learned of the problem. “The advertising department e-mailed them to me,” he said. “I thought they’d been approved.” He uttered a string of colorful curses. “I had no idea. I feel terrible.”

After reassuring David that it wasn’t his fault, he and Tisa trooped to Al’s office, which was only slightly smaller than Callum’s and had an even better view of the Los Angeles skyline. He’d been out all week, the secretary confirmed.

“I’ve been covering for him,” chirped the young woman, whose nameplate read Sally Sinclair. Although she must be in her twenties, to Callum she seemed about eighteen. “Don’t you just love the finalists? I tried to pick people our readers would identify with. I put my own stamp on the contest, don’t you think? My mother says that’s what I need to do to get ahead in publishing, to put my own stamp on things.”

“You picked the finalists?” Tisa asked in disbelief.

“I was showing initiative.” Sally’s cheerful confidence began to crumble. “Wasn’t I supposed to?”

“I asked Al to narrow down the entries, not choose the finalists and post them on the Web site,” Callum said. “Do you have any idea what a disaster this is?”

The secretary’s lips trembled and tears sparkled in her eyes. It was enough to melt a man’s heart.

Not a woman’s, though. “You are not the editor of this magazine. I am,” Tisa growled. “And Callum is the publisher. If you ever again presume to ‘put your stamp’ on anything without our approval, you can haul your initiative right out that door and pound the pavement with it.”

“I’m sorry.” Sally’s contrition might have been more impressive had she not added, “But aren’t they wonderful? I especially like that woman with the cat! And I chose two finalists from your hometown, Mr. Fox! I thought you’d appreciate that.”

The next thing Callum knew, Tisa had grabbed the collar of his designer jacket and tugged him into the corridor. “You had steam coming out of your ears,” she told him. “We’ll let Al deal with that twit when he gets back.”

Callum spared another glance at the door to the advertising department before accepting her advice. “We’ve got to run damage control,” he said.

“Maybe we could add a few more finalists,” Tisa suggested. “So we have more to choose from.”

“That might only complicate matters.” They were pushing a tight deadline. The winner had to be posted on the site by the end of May, and it was already March. A write-up about her and her trip would provide a future cover story for the print edition of Family Voyager. “I’m sure we can find a suitable Mother of the Year from that list.”

“Not the woman with the cat.” Tisa accompanied him down the hallway. “Some people may consider pets part of the family, but I doubt our advertisers do.”

“The readers will get a charge out of her, though.” Already Callum’s brain was making the best of things.

There was, however, one issue that he couldn’t erase from his mind: Jody Reilly and her boys. One sentence about the suitors stuck with him: They keep popping up under my nose, telling me that my four-year-old twins need a daddy.

If Jody wasn’t married, who was the father?

The timing looked suspicious. Five years ago, Callum and Jody had steamed up the windows of her bedroom. She’d amazed him with her unrestrained passion and he’d amazed himself with an all-night response that, he suspected, could have stretched much, much longer.

Was it possible she’d become pregnant from their encounter? Despite Jody’s fiercely independent nature, Callum couldn’t picture her keeping such a secret. Besides, he’d used protection when they made love. Well, the first time, anyway. After that, he didn’t remember.

No doubt she’d had plenty of other boyfriends before and since. In fact, during the days after the funeral when she helped him prepare his family’s old home for sale, he seemed to recall her mentioning that she’d recently broken up with someone. Perhaps they’d gotten back together later.

“Anyway, I’d make a lousy father,” he said aloud.

“What?” Tisa stopped outside the traffic department, the organizational arm of the magazine.

“Something just started me thinking,” he explained. “It’s a good thing I’m not a father, because I’d be lousy at it.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said. “I’ll bet lots of ladies think you’ve got potential.”

“You know what I’m like on Take Your Kid to Work Day,” Callum said. “That’s the only day of the year when I shut my door.”

“You and me both.”

“I have no patience. I don’t even know how to talk to children.” Seeing the managing editor frown in confusion, he said, “Never mind. The problem is, we’ve got to get the women from my hometown to withdraw their applications.”

“I thought you said the readers would love the one with the cat,” Tisa said.

“Yeah, I did. But the other one…” Callum decided to be frank, because he didn’t know how to be anything else. “She’s my ex-girlfriend.”

“I see.” A smile played around the corners of Tisa’s mouth. “Around here, she’d have to stand in line.”

“Appearances can be deceiving.” Although Callum’s picture frequently appeared in print as he escorted models and actresses around L.A., mostly it was a mutually convenient setup in which the women landed a suitable escort while he made contacts for Family Voyager. It was true that some women had pursued him and a few times he’d pursued them, but there’d always been something missing. “Jody was the only one who counted.”

“I can see why there’s a conflict of interest,” Tisa said.

“Even if I disqualify myself from the selection process, there’d be the appearance of unfairness,” Callum said.

“You should call her and offer her an inducement to drop out,” Tisa said. “She might prefer a guaranteed trip to a one-in-ten chance at the grand prize. How about a stay at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas?”

At the mention of Vegas, an imaginary slot machine whirred into Callum’s head. A ticket pinged into place, followed by a second and then a third. They weren’t tickets to Nevada, though. They were tickets to Texas, and they were for him.

“I’m going to have to do this in person,” he said. Even though there was only the slightest chance that those boys belonged to him, it wasn’t the sort of situation he wanted to discuss long-distance.

“Now? There’s so much going on.”

“I’ll take my laptop and my modem,” he said. “Trust me, I’ll be completely plugged in.”

“This isn’t like you,” Tisa said.

“I’m always jumping on planes,” Callum corrected. “I’ll fly into the airport at San Angelo, hook up with a rental car and maybe scout some stories along the way. You know how I hate to waste time.”

“So it’s a working vacation?” The editor shrugged. “You’re the boss. Just don’t stay away long.”

“Do I ever?” It was a rhetorical question, but Tisa replied anyway.

“I hope not,” she said. “I’m good at my job, but we all need you.”

“Thanks.” The vote of confidence buoyed Callum.

The trip might not be so bad. The boys’ father would turn out to be lurking in the background, Jody was going to jump at the chance of a guaranteed trip to Vegas and Callum would be back in L.A. before he knew it.

“I KNOW ADOPTION CAN WORK. Give it a chance, Elsie.” Jody called all her cows Elsie on those occasions when she addressed them directly.

Elsie stood glumly in her stall, trying to ignore the calf pulling at her udder. The baby, called Half-Pint like all calves on the Wandering I, had been one of a pair whose mother didn’t have enough milk for two. Since Elsie had lost her own spring calf, Jody had decided to pair her off with Half-Pint.

Jody had a strong sympathy for babies and mothers. According to her forewoman, Gladys, it should take about two weeks for Elsie to bond.

“You’ll thank me for this,” Jody told the cow. “On the other hand, maybe you’ll turn out to be as stubborn as I am. Lots of people gave me advice, but did I take it? No. And I’m glad I didn’t.”

The prevailing sentiment in town had been that Jody Reilly was out of her mind to keep the twins. It had been tough enough standing up to the censure of those people who wanted to fire her from her teaching job for having loose morals.

Complicating matters had been her refusal to name the father. Some people had suspected her ex-boyfriend, Jim, a fellow teacher who, after he and Jody drifted apart, had decided to join the Peace Corps. Others suspected a blond cowboy who’d visited the school when he was in town with a traveling rodeo. In fact, Jody had discreetly spread a rumor about him herself. As far as she was concerned, she had a right to keep her personal business private.

Despite the gossip, she’d slowly put her life in order. Her mother had volunteered to baby-sit while Jody worked. Restaurant owner Ella Mae Nickerson had trumpeted the fact that many of the town’s other children had been born less than nine months after their parents’ weddings. Tongues had fallen silent after she threatened to post a list in her café window.

Four years later, the kids fit seamlessly among the youngsters at Sunday school. The same people who’d scowled at first now joked about the fact that she’d named the pair after their grandfathers without realizing that, together, Ben and Jerry could open their own ice-cream stand.

Leaving Elsie and Half-Pint in the stall, Jody strolled through the barn to a normally unused stall from which came the sound of barking. On this rainy Saturday, the boys were amusing themselves by playing with a mongrel puppy that had wandered onto the ranch a few days earlier, most likely abandoned on the highway. Jody always did her best to find homes for strays.

“Can we keep him, Mommy?” asked Benjamin. “We’re going to call him Lassie.”

“Lassie is a female name,” Jody said. “Besides, we’ve already got enough dogs.”

“They’re always working,” Jeremy piped up.

“If Lassie sticks around, he’ll have to work, too.” Animals, like people, had to earn their keep on a ranch.

“We’ll take good care of him!” That was Benjamin.

“Children need pets,” added his brother. “It says so on TV.”

“Does it? Well, I’m not making any promises. Where’s Louise?” Gladys’s daughter had been baby-sitting the pair.

“She’s getting us a drink.” There was a refrigerator in the tack room for storing animal medicines and cold drinks.

“Well, great.” Jody leaned down and ruffled the two blond heads. Despite being twins, the pair had distinct personalities. Jeremy was stubborn like her, and Ben a smooth talker like his father.

Oh, darn. She didn’t want to think about Callum Fox. For a long time, she’d pushed him out of her thoughts, but entering the Family Voyager contest had reawakened memories and longings. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea, although she doubted the publisher of such a fancy magazine would read the entries himself.

She’d been surprised yesterday when Ella Mae called to report that they were both finalists. That proved Callum hadn’t done the picking, because Jody knew he never would have chosen two people from his hometown.

He probably didn’t give his old friends a moment’s thought. Judging by the photos she’d seen of him and his many girlfriends in People and Us, his social life rivaled that of a prize bull. No wonder he hadn’t even bothered to show up for their tenth high school reunion last year.

Her heart was safe enough. Safe from everything except her daydreams of a man with a smile to die for and a lean body that drove her crazy, even in memory.

From outside the barn, Jody heard the swish of tires on the muddy driveway. She hoped it wasn’t one of her would-be boyfriends, racing over after the morning’s downpour to make sure her ranch hadn’t washed away. Although she always needed help, sometimes she could hardly bear to look at eager men, none of whom were the one she wanted.

She’d loved Callum enough to let him go. Sure, she’d hoped he would come back, but she’d understood five years ago that having to take responsibility for a wife and children would destroy his dreams. He’d just been getting his magazine started and had been working a part-time job to make ends meet while he poured his energies into Family Voyager.

If he’d married her with two kids on the way, he’d have had to work full-time. The magazine would have lost its window of opportunity. By the time Callum came up for air, someone else would have seized the chance he’d let slip.

Although she sometimes wondered if she’d been a fool, Jody was glad she’d avoided a marriage that, under the circumstances, would have made them both miserable. She just hoped Callum would understand if he ever found out the truth.

Shrugging off her reflections, she stepped through the barn’s double doors and blinked as a shaft of sunlight broke through the parting clouds. Who on earth could be driving that aging boat of a convertible with the top jammed half-open?

The light must have dazzled her, because she could have sworn the man parking in front of the big house had Callum’s shaggy good looks. He bore little resemblance to his glitzy photographs, however, with his silver-blond hair hanging wetly and his clothes plastered to his body.

Jody’s pulse speeded. This wasn’t possible. Yet-being ruthlessly honest with herself-she’d known there was a chance he might read her essay and wonder about the twins. Was that why he’d come? Suddenly she wished she’d never entered the darned contest.

Feigning nonchalance, she strolled toward the car. Not yet aware of her, Callum got out and surveyed its sopping interior ruefully.

No other man could match him for broad shoulders and slim hips, or for the expressiveness of his sharply defined face. Jody remembered how he’d moved when he was on top of her, and beneath her, and most especially inside her. To her dismay, her body rippled with the memory.

“You forgot to put the top up!” she called.

“Jody!” Bright blue eyes fixed on her and she felt the connection crackle between them. “You look great!”

Self-consciously, she tucked her frizzy hair behind her ears. It was like trying to empty the Titanic with a teaspoon. “Oh, yeah? Says who?”

“Says me, and I should know.” With a couple of long strides, Callum reached her. “Don’t I get a hug?”

Jody nearly succumbed the moment she entered his arms. He smelled like expensive indulgences and honest maleness. No, no, no. She needed to keep a protective distance between them.

“So what brings you here?” she asked, extricating herself.

“A couple of things,” he said. “Hey, did I get you wet? I’m sorry. I should have reserved a car farther in advance. This was all they had. The roof doesn’t work, obviously. Would you look at me?”

Callum’s grin carried her back to their teen years, when he’d swept her off her feet by the open way he laughed at her jokes. He’d been irresistible. He still was.

“Come inside and dry off. You look like you could use some coffee.”

“Thanks. I’d appreciate it.” If he had any curiosity about the children, he gave no sign of it. He didn’t even look around for them.

Most likely, Callum was heading somewhere else, Jody mused as they walked. He would dry off, chitchat for a few minutes and be on his way quickly. She quashed a sharp pang of disappointment. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

“Do you have some business in town?” she asked.

“You’re my business,” he said.

Taken aback by this statement, Jody hesitated with one foot on the front porch. “Are you visiting all the finalists personally?”

“No,” Callum admitted. “It’s kind of a complicated situation.”

“Complicated how?”

“There was a mix-up.”

“What kind of mix-up?”

“The finalists’ names were posted without approval.” He bounded onto the porch with a litheness she’d missed more than she wanted to admit. “In fact, they got picked by an overenthusiastic secretary.”

In spite of her resolve not to let him get close, Jody’s spirits took a dive. He hadn’t come here for any personal reason. He’d been driven purely by pragmatism.

“So she picked your old pal as a finalist and it looks bad,” she hazarded. “You want me to withdraw, right?”

“More or less.” Quickly, he added, “Not without compensation, of course. We would guarantee you a trip to Las Vegas.”

From what she’d heard, Vegas could be a lot of fun, particularly if you scored tickets to the top shows. It wasn’t Paris, though. Paris was a fantasy, a dream of shrugging off the little disappointments and obligations that sometimes weighed on her spirit. It meant one last, glorious chance to fly.

All her life, Jody had been a good sport and the sporting thing to do right now was to cooperate. But she didn’t feel sporting. She felt determined.

Five years ago, Callum had made such tender, passionate love to her that he’d nearly spoiled Jody for any other man. Then, after she turned down his offhand suggestion that she pull up stakes and run away to California with him, he’d left without a backward glance.

The only reason he’d returned now was because she’d accidentally created an awkward situation for him. He expected her to give up the chance of a lifetime just as a favor? Not likely.

If she signed on the dotted line, he’d smile, thank her, slosh back to his pathetic rental car and drive out of her life forever. Although that was what she wanted, Jody refused to let him off the hook.

“Forget it,” she said. “I’m a finalist because I deserve to be one. I want that trip to Paris and that shopping spree. I’m going to enjoy buying some pretty dresses on my trip and, once I get home, I’ll hang them on the walls and enjoy the sight of them forever.”

She caught her breath, taken aback by her own defiance. Surely Callum, whose jaw had dropped open at her tirade, would respond with the scorn she’d always secretly suspected he must feel toward the homespun, unglamorous woman who’d briefly been his lover.

“Well, if we can’t come to an agreement,” he said, “I guess I’ll have to bring my suitcases in and stay for a while.” Before she could stop him, he retrieved two bags from his trunk and walked into the house ahead of her.

The sky had fallen, Jody thought. What was she going to do now?

CHAPTER TWO

CALLUM HADN’T HAD an easy trip. Airport security had searched him right down to his Italian leather shoes, his connecting flight in Dallas had been delayed and the sole vehicle available for rent in San Angelo might have served as a prop in the film American Graffiti.

The downpour had added injury to insult. Stymied by a truculent convertible roof, he’d plowed on for miles through rainswept ranchlands, certain that mildew was forming even as he drove and too uncomfortable to scout for potential magazine articles. Thank goodness his suitcase and laptop had been locked inside the trunk.

Callum knew he should have called Jody ahead. She had every reason to be grumpy with him. He didn’t blame her for refusing to withdraw from the contest, although he hoped she would change her mind.

Besides, he was glad for the excuse to stick around and get reacquainted with his old friend. He decided not to mention the children yet. For one thing, she would probably laugh him out of the house when she learned he’d imagined even for a moment that he might be the father. Also, it might be a sore point about the real dad-whoever he was-not being her husband.

The guy must be crazy to give up a woman like Jody. Even in her overalls, she had more earthy appeal than most models and actresses, whose bones stuck out.

He and Jody entered the airy house through a sunken living room. Three steps led up to the kitchen and dining area, where she poured coffee from a half-full carafe. Callum set down his cases, tossed his jacket over the back of a chair and went to towel off in the bathroom. He returned a few minutes later, slightly less damp.

“I don’t remember your house looking like this when we were in high school.” He was certain it had been a conventional ranch-style structure.

“It was falling down. My parents decided to rebuild six years ago.” Jody gestured him to a butcher-block table, where he took a seat.

“You said in your essay that you inherited the place last year.” Although Callum disliked mentioning what must be a painful subject, he wanted to acknowledge her parents’ passing. He’d been fond of the elder Reillys.

“They died in a car crash on their way to a stock show in San Antonio.” She offered cream and sugar.

“I’m sorry.” After helping himself, Callum savored the chicory-laced brew, although his usual taste ran to mocha lattes. “So you gave up teaching?”

“It was that or sell the ranch. I couldn’t do both.” Jody went on to tell him about her forewoman, Gladys, and how well they worked together.

As Jody talked, he cataloged the small changes since they’d last met. She’d acquired a rancher’s tan even this early in the season, and she held herself with a new maturity.

Beneath it all, however, she was the same breezy girl who’d played trumpet alongside him in the high school band. She’d nearly blown his socks off, literally, when she stumbled while marching during their first rehearsal and sent a blast of air along his pant leg. They’d both laughed so hard they had to sit down on the football field. Although the coach wasn’t amused, Callum had been smitten.

He’d loved her honesty and valued her advice. And he’d missed her keenly, more than he’d allowed himself to acknowledge until now.

“Where on earth did you get the idea that you were a wallflower?” he asked.

She stopped in midsentence and he realized he’d interrupted a description of how she was learning to clean and oil the farm machinery. “What?”

“In your essay, you said you were a wallflower in high school,” he said. “That’s not true. Lots of boys had crushes on you.”

Jody let out a hoot. “Name three!”

“Me, me and me.”

“You’re kidding.” She studied him as if seeking confirmation that this was a joke. “Come on, Callum, all the girls wanted you. I was your buddy.”

“You were my girlfriend,” he said.

“I was not! When did we ever go on a date?”

“We went to the prom,” he reminded her.

“You took pity on me. I said I didn’t have anyone to go with and you said, ‘How about me?”’ Jody’s forehead puckered. “Besides, you couldn’t wait to get out of town. You were just marking time, hanging around with me.”

“That’s not true. We went together all through college.” They’d both graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. “We dated for four years.”

“Study dates don’t count,” she said. “When did you ask me out for a romantic dinner?”

“You’d have laughed in my face.” Callum’s pride wouldn’t let him mention that he’d lacked money for such luxuries. The son of a feed store owner, he’d had to work his way through college and pay off student loans afterward.

“You should have tried me.”

“Okay, I’ll try you now,” he said. “May I take you out for fine dining and dancing, Madame?”

“Where? At the Downtown Café?” It was the fanciest restaurant in Everett Landing. That’s because it was the only restaurant.

“Just a minute.” Callum checked his watch. “It’s nearly five. People eat early in the country, don’t they?”

“Oh! That reminds me. I’ve got to start cooking.”

“Don’t move. Tonight you’re dining at Il Ristorante Callum, the finest Italian trattoria in Everett County.” Ignoring her halfhearted protest, he whirled into action.

As he’d expected, Jody kept her kitchen well stocked. In no time, he’d put a large pot of water on a burner, retrieved spaghetti and sauce ingredients from the pantry and set to whipping up dinner.

A man of the world knew how to cook and cook well, Callum had concluded long ago. With the food editor at Family Voyager contributing to his education, he’d honed his skills. Thanks to his interest, the magazine now included recipes with its feature stories on restaurants.

Jody watched with her chin resting on the heel of one hand. “I never thought of putting black olives in my spaghetti sauce.”

“Wait’ll you taste it.” The tomato mixture simmered, filling the air with the scents of basil, thyme and oregano. The salad, into which he’d tossed artichoke hearts and diced cucumber, stood ready on the counter. Careful not to break the strands of spaghetti, Callum stirred some into the boiling water.

With dinner under control, he skimmed down the abbreviated staircase to the living room and flipped through Jody’s CD collection. Once he bypassed the Sesame Street stuff and some old-time country classics that must have belonged to her parents, there wasn’t much left.

One label caught Callum’s eye and he extracted the jewel case. “Would you look at this! Everett County Regional High School Marching Band’s Greatest Hits. What a long title. And since when did we have any hits?”

“It was a fund-raiser,” she said. “Remember? It came out the summer we graduated.”

“How were sales?” He hadn’t kept track, but he suspected Jody had.

“We made enough to buy the band new uniforms.”

“Outstanding!” Callum put the CD into play. “I wonder if we can dance to it.”

“I’m not even going to ask if you’re kidding, because you’re crazy enough to mean it,” Jody said. “So tell me. How does one dance to a march?”

“By doing what the band director accused us of doing all along.” He pulled her to her feet. “Ignoring the rhythm and just going with our instincts.”

Laughter bubbled out of Jody as Callum drew her close. Small but lushly built, she flung her arms around his neck the way she used to in high school.

As they swayed together, ignoring the occasional flat blat of a trombone and the rousing beat suitable for a football halftime, Callum felt her breasts press into his chest. Through his shirt, he noticed the tips harden. Just like in the old days, his body sprang to full attention.

He buried his face in her hair and relished the fresh scent of hay. Let the pasta turn to goo and the salad wilt. He only had an appetite for the woman in his arms.

JODY HAD ALMOST FORGOTTEN how much fun Callum could be. He filled her house with a sense of magical adventure.

“This is better than a trip to Paris.” Quickly, she added, “Almost.”

“How would you know?” he murmured into her ear. “You’ve never been farther than Santa Fe.”

“You read my whole entry?”

“All two hundred and fifty words of it.”

“Tell me about France,” she said. “You’ve been there, haven’t you?”

“Several times.” Judging by the lilt in his voice, Callum had found something new and wonderful every time he’d visited. “The whole city comes alive from early morning until late at night. The streets smell like fresh-baked bread. In the sidewalk cafés, people debate issues as if they held the fate of the world in their hands.”

“I can’t wait!”

“After Paris, we should go to Rome,” he murmured, as if they were really planning to travel together. “We could dine beside the Spanish Steps and dance at a smoky little club I know. What else would you like to see? Venice? Sorrento? Perhaps Granada. There’s a beautiful city.”

He’d visited all those places, Jody thought dazedly. She could have gone with him if she’d accepted his offer five years ago to accompany him back to L.A. And, of course, if she hadn’t been pregnant. But even if he’d somehow managed to keep the magazine going while supporting a family, their relationship would never have lasted. Kids apparently didn’t mean much to Callum. He hadn’t even asked about hers.

Speaking of the boys, it was time they came in for dinner. Reluctantly, Jody separated from Callum. “I have to go get Ben and Jerry.”

“Great! I love ice cream.”

“No, my children.” From beyond the kitchen, she heard the side door slam. The boys still hadn’t learned to close a door quietly. “Oh, there they are.”

She hurried through the kitchen. In the hall, she found her two little guys wriggling out of their jackets. Despite traces of dirt on their jeans and shirts, both had shining clean faces and hands.

“Louise made us wash at the pump,” Ben said.

“There’s someone I’d like you to meet.” Jody took a deep breath. Her decision not to notify Callum about her pregnancy had seemed the best choice at the time for both of them. She’d had second thoughts, third thoughts and fourth thoughts as she watched the boys grow up without a father, but until last year their grandfather had done his best to fill that role.

She had no idea how Callum might react when he learned the truth. Had it even occurred to him on reading her essay that the boys might be his? If so, he’d given no indication of it since his arrival. But then, he hadn’t seen Benjamin and Jeremy yet.

It was too late to turn back now. At some level, she’d been hoping for, and dreading, this moment ever since she entered the contest.

Gathering her courage, Jody shepherded her sons into the kitchen. Callum stood in profile, draining the pasta into a colander.

Although he’d stopped the music, he was humming to himself and his hips swiveled as if he were dancing. Like the twins, he was never completely still except when sleeping. And not always then, as Jody had reason to know.

“Wow,” Ben said. “He looks like us.”

The tall man glanced up, his gaze riveted on the boys’ hair. Silver-blond, it was identical to his own.

A stubborn streak inside Jody urged her to deny the obvious. If she made up some plausible story about a long-vanished blond lover, she knew Callum would believe it because he trusted her. He would never discover how intrinsically his life had become interwoven with hers. Maybe, just maybe, she’d escape from this encounter with her self-control intact.

She couldn’t do it. Fibbing to nosy townspeople was one thing. Lying to the man she loved would be intolerable.

“Mine?” He mouthed the word as if unable to speak aloud.

Jody nodded. “Callum, meet Benjamin and Jeremy.” She pointed to each in turn. Since Ben preferred red shirts and Jerry’s favorite color was blue, he should have no trouble keeping them straight.

Callum stood there staring at them. For once, he’d lost his aplomb.

“Who’s he?” Jerry demanded. “Why is he wearing our hair?”

Approaching the newcomer, Ben reached up boldly. With a bemused smile, Callum bent so the boy could finger his stylish cut. “It feels soft,” the boy said.

Tentatively, Callum rested one palm atop the boy’s head. “So is yours.” He turned to Jody, his expression that of a man lost in a wilderness. A bright and shining wilderness, perhaps, but one with no known pathways. “What do we do now?” he asked.

“I’d suggest we eat dinner.” She waited tensely. Callum wasn’t the sort of man to explode at her in front of the boys. In fact, she couldn’t recall him ever losing his temper, although he did get a bit edgy sometimes. But he had every right to be angry.

Although four years ago she’d believed she was doing the right thing, she could see now that she’d been protecting herself as much as him. And it hadn’t been fair to the boys. The older they grew, the plainer that had become.

Callum pulled himself together. “I hope you guys like spaghetti,” he said.

“It’s my favorite!” When Ben grinned, he looked like an exact miniature of his father. His father. A lump formed in Jody’s throat.

“I like mine plain.” Jerry planted himself firmly next to Jody.

“How plain?”

“No sauce,” the boy said. “Just cheese.”

Galvanized into action, Callum transferred the pasta to a glazed bowl and poured the tomato sauce into a separate container. “I’ll tell you what. We’ll serve the sauce on the side and you can suit yourselves. Do they eat salad?”

“Surprisingly, yes.” Jody wasn’t sure how she’d been lucky enough to get children who liked vegetables. “As long as it has ranch dressing.”

They gathered around the table. Callum and the boys bowed their heads while Jody said a prayer, and she was pleased to see her sons minding their manners as they ate. That didn’t prevent a fair amount of tomato sauce from spattering across Ben’s shirt, but since it was already bound for the laundry, she didn’t care.

As the twins chattered about the new puppy, Callum stared from one boy to the other, wearing a puzzled half smile. Jody admired the way he’d kept his poise after being hit with a revelation that would have sent many men into either a towering rage or a mad scramble for the exit.

“Freddy asked Gladys whose car was in front of the house,” Ben said between mouthfuls of salad. “She told him Mommy had a handsome visitor.”

“Who’s Freddy?” Callum had mastered the art of twirling his pasta smoothly around his fork, while Jody’s spaghetti kept slipping off her utensils. Finally she gave up and chopped it into pieces.

“Freddy Fallon is our full-time assistant,” she answered. “He lives in the bunkhouse next to Gladys’s place, past the machine shop.” Because of the unpredictable hours and the distance from town, it was customary for full-time employees to live on the property. “He’s one of those fellows I mentioned in my essay.”

“One of your admirers?” Callum’s jaw jutted forward.

“You could call him that. We went square dancing once.” Jody had agreed in hopes of pacifying the man, who’d been tagging after her like a lovesick hound. It hadn’t worked.

“He’s got a brother,” Jerry said. “Frank works on Mr. Widcomb’s ranch.”

“Frank likes Mommy, too.” Ben helped himself to more spaghetti from the bowl, trailing a few strands across the table. When he reached for the sauce, Jody grabbed it first and ladled it onto his plate.

“Who else likes your mommy?” Callum asked.

“Everybody likes Mommy,” Jeremy said.

“Mr. Landers from the newspaper brings her flowers,” Ben said.

Callum’s eyebrows shot up. “Old Mr. Landers? He must be nearly seventy.”

“No, his son, Bo,” Jody said. “Don’t you remember him? He was a year behind us in high school.”

“That’s right, he worked on the school paper.” Callum drummed his fingers on the table. “Skinny kid with braces, wasn’t he?”

Bo had improved with age, Jody reflected. Although his gangly lope and gee-whiz style of talking were no match for Callum’s smoothness, he was the most interesting single man in Everett Landing, and he clearly cared about her. Sometimes she’d wondered if that might be enough.

“He took over the newspaper after his dad retired,” she said. “He’s a good friend.”

“Who else?” Callum asked.

“Who else what?”

“Who else is after you?” He’d stopped making any effort to eat.

“Mr. Lamont invited Mommy to one of his parties,” Ben piped up.

Jody felt her cheeks grow hot. Andy Lamont, a pretentious newcomer from the East Coast who’d sold his high-tech stocks at the right moment, was known for strutting around his ranch in glitzy cowboy gear and throwing wild parties for out-of-town friends. “I didn’t go.”

“Gladys said it was going to be an or-gee,” Jerry added. “What’s an or-gee? She wouldn’t tell us.”

“Who is this guy?” Callum’s tone took on a harder edge.

“He’s nobody,” Jody said. “Believe me.”

“An or-gee is a party with lots of food,” Jerry said.

“How do you figure that?” she asked, grateful for the distraction.

“People offer you two pies. You go, ‘Oh, gee, I can’t pick,”’ her son explained.

Ben wrinkled his nose. “I’d say, ‘Or, gee, I’ll have both.”’

Callum’s expression mellowed. “I like their style! Speaking of pie, what’s for dessert?”

Jody was tempted to deny having any, just to tease, but she couldn’t bear to crush the three hopeful looks beaming her way from around the table. “Cookies.”

“What kind?” Callum asked.

“Chocolate chip with pecans.”

“I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

“This isn’t heaven,” Jerry said solemnly. “Heaven’s where Grandma and Grandpa went.” He pointed toward the ceiling.

“You’re right.” Callum didn’t say much after that, letting the boys’ chatter eddy around him as they finished dessert. He kept watching them, as if fascinated. Or shell-shocked, perhaps.

Once the pair began yawning, Jody excused herself to bathe them and put them to bed. “Mommy?” Jeremy asked sleepily as she tucked him into the lower bunk. “Who’s Callum?”

She stroked his hair and slipped her free arm around Ben, who nestled beside her. “Remember when you asked me if you had a father, and I said you did but he was far away?” Two tousled heads bobbed in accord. “You asked when he was coming home and I said some daddies don’t ever come home.”

“Like Joey’s,” Ben said. A Sunday school friend, Joey lived with his divorced mother and never saw his father.

“Kind of,” she agreed. “Well, Callum’s your father.”

“Really?” Ben said. “That’s why he looks like us?”

“That’s why,” she confirmed.

Both boys started shifting around, as if they couldn’t find the words to express themselves and needed to move. Then they pelted her with questions. Why had their daddy been gone so long? Was he going to live here now?

She answered as best she could. “He’s here for a visit. Then he’s going back to Los Angeles. That’s where he works and he has to live there. He’s been really, really busy until now. I hope we’ll see him more often now, but he can’t move to the ranch.”

Surely they’d stay in touch, now that Callum knew the truth. At least, she hoped so.

“I like him,” Ben told her. “I always wanted a daddy.”

“He’s okay, I guess,” Jerry said. “But we’re your little men, aren’t we, Mommy?”

“You sure are.” She hugged them both. “Forever and ever.”

When they were both under the covers, Jody turned out the lights and paced toward the living room. She wasn’t looking forward to facing Callum’s questions, not one little bit.

CHAPTER THREE

HE WAS A FATHER. It was amazing. Wonderful. Scary.

Alone on the couch, Callum tried to sort out how he felt. His first reaction had been an indescribable thrill as he gazed down at those two little fellows who could have posed for his own childhood photos.

Over the years, Callum had considered it irritating when a friend brought a child to dinner because he spent the meal getting interrupted, peppered with nonsensical questions and kicked in the shins. Yet tonight, he’d enjoyed the boys’ liveliness and the twists and turns of their thinking. Was it because they belonged to him? Or were they simply, as he suspected, exceptional human beings?

He wished he’d seen them as babies. Leaning back, he tried in vain to picture the two of them as newborns. His mind just couldn’t shoehorn all that alertness and those full-blown personalities into such tiny packages.

Imagining the future proved easier. He could see the three of them rollerblading at the beach, weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic on the promenade. They’d enjoy Disneyland, and when they were older he could take them to the Page Museum to see the prehistoric beasts from the La Brea Tar Pits.

The details of how he and Jody were going to arrange things remained fuzzy. As a father, he knew he ought to take charge of the situation, but he wasn’t quite clear yet on what the situation was. Callum decided to play this one by ear.

Even with his eyes closed, he felt Jody’s nearness the moment she entered the kitchen from the bedroom wing. When he opened his lids, the air shimmered as she eased into an upholstered chair across from him.

“So how angry are you that I kept them a secret?” she asked. “On a scale from one to ten?”

“I’m not angry.” Callum realized it was true. He supposed he ought to feel cheated because he hadn’t been here for the twins’ infancy. He had no illusions about his own unreadiness for parenthood when he was twenty-four, however. He’d have done his best, but he was honest enough to acknowledge that he might not have been able to provide as much stability as the elder Reillys. “You’ve done a great job under difficult circumstances.”

“Would you have preferred it if I’d gone on keeping them a secret?” She twisted her hands together.

“No, of course not.” He wished she were sitting closer so he could take her hands to reassure her. They were cute hands, with plump fingers and short, clear nails.

She crossed her denim-clad legs. “They asked about you just now. I explained that not all daddies live with their children and that we might see you occasionally. Was that all right?”

“Of course you’ll see me.” He had no hesitation on that point. “I’ll be paying my share of their expenses, too.”

“We don’t need your money!” She squared her shoulders.

Callum understood about pride. He’d grown up on a tight budget, helping out at his parents’ store and earning extra money with odd jobs. “Maybe not, but I’d like to provide them with extras. Kids grow fast, or so I hear, and there must be a lot they’ll need once they start school. Don’t forget about college, either.”

“I haven’t given it any thought,” Jody admitted. “I’ve been taking life one day at a time since they were born.” She waved one hand. “That isn’t a criticism.”

“You mean you’re not complaining about the fact that I got you pregnant and hijacked the course of your life?”

“You didn’t do it on purpose,” Jody said. “Besides, I could have told you.”

That brought them to the sticking point. “Why didn’t you?” Callum asked.

“It would have killed you to come back here and give up your dreams.”

He supposed she was right. It wouldn’t have had to happen that way, though. “I invited you to California.”

“We’d have ended up hating each other,” Jody said. “Besides, I don’t belong in California.”

She belonged there as much as anyone he’d ever met! “Do you think there’s a panel of judges that rates people who want to move to the Golden State?” Callum asked in amusement.

“Don’t make fun of me!”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” The hurt in her eyes filled him with remorse. “Please tell me why you don’t think you’d fit in L.A.”

“I’m not glamorous.” A narrowing of her eyes warned him not to interrupt. “I neither know nor care what the latest styles are, and neither do my kids. They’ve got lots of learning opportunities here, and a lot of emotional ties. Besides, I have a responsibility to the ranch.”

“Surely your parents never meant to chain you to it,” Callum said. “If you want to come with me, you should.”

“You’re asking me to join you now?”

“Sure.” He hadn’t known he was going to say that or considered the consequences, but it made sense. Besides, he was a father now. He had responsibilities.

“What happens then?” Jody demanded. “If I go to California, what’s our relationship going to be?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead.” Flying by the seat of his pants had always been in Callum’s nature. If he’d stopped to weigh every possible angle, he might never have launched Family Voyager. “We’ll work it out. Trust me, Jody. I won’t let you down.”

Her long hair whipped through the air as she shook her head. “I took charge of my fate five years ago and I’m sticking with what I know. You’re a great guy, Callum, but I need someone down to earth, more of a homebody. Like one of the guys I mentioned in my entry.”

Wait a minute. She wasn’t seriously considering marrying one of those fellows, was she? “I thought they were a pain in the neck.”

“Sometimes,” Jody admitted. “But people can grow on each other.”

“I could be a pain in the neck if that’s what appeals to you,” he teased.

“You already are!” At least she smiled when she said it.

“You have to give me a chance,” Callum said. “Remember, I just learned I’ve got two sons. It may take me a while to formulate a plan.”

“I don’t want anybody making plans for me,” Jody answered fiercely. “I’ll make my own plans. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve had a long day and I’ve got some paperwork to do. I’ll show you where you can bunk.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. “You’re not sticking me out in the machine shop with Gladys, are you?”

Her laughter flowed around him in a warm current. “Gladys doesn’t sleep in the machine shop! She has her own house. And no, I meant you could use the spare bedroom.”

After being shown to a small bedroom off the hallway, Callum unpacked his suitcase and set up his laptop. Jody had explained that he would share a bathroom with the boys, while the master bedroom and her office were located off the living room. Although that was too far away for Callum’s taste, at least he got to be near his sons.

Fortunately, there was a phone line in the room, which meant he could read his e-mail and hook up with the Internet while talking on his cell phone. Eight o’clock in Texas was six in California. Tisa might still be in her office.

In a few minutes, Callum was immersed in work as if he’d never left.

“WOW. DO YOU HAVE any good games on your computer?” The little boy stood in the doorway, blond hair rumpled, blue eyes wide. His pajamas had cartoon robots printed on them.

Tearing himself away from his editing, Callum searched for a clue to the twin’s identity. At dinner, the boys’ different-colored shirts had made it easy to tell them apart, but which… Aha! The robots were red.

“There’s a few games, Ben, but I use the computer mainly for working,” he said. “Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?”

The four-year-old climbed onto Callum’s lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to do. “I’m not sleepy.”

He closed his file. He’d been working for two hours and deserved a break, anyway. “Let’s see what we can find.” A few clicks later, a Roman centurion appeared on the screen. “My goodness. Where did he come from?” he joked.

His son felt warm and solid on Callum’s lap as he snatched the mouse. “I want to play!”

“Do you know this game?”

“Yeah.” The little boy worked the mouse eagerly. Although it soon became apparent that he had no idea of either the rules or the strategy, he had good aim. “Yay! I wiped him out!” he crowed as a hairy Visigoth bit the dust.

“You sure did.” It occurred to Callum that Jody might not appreciate his encouraging Ben to commit mayhem. “I think that’s enough for one night.”

“Okay.” His son gave him the mouse.

“Are you always this cooperative?”

“Mostly. Jerry’s not.” Ben nestled against Callum’s chest. “He doesn’t like you.”

This was news. “Why not?” he asked. “I’m such a likable guy.”

A sigh greeted this blatant play for sympathy. “He says he can take care of Mommy. I want a daddy.”

Callum wrapped his arms around the boy. He didn’t want to make promises, not yet. Having barged into his family’s lives without warning, he had no right to try to change everything to suit himself.

Although he hadn’t deliberately abandoned them, five years ago he’d been so absorbed in trying to make a go of his Web site that he’d only called Jody once after he got home, and hadn’t pressed to make sure she felt all right about what had happened between them. Maybe if he had, she’d have told him the truth. At the very least, he didn’t want to upset the delicate balance she’d achieved in his absence.

“You do have a daddy,” he told Ben. “I’m him, and from now on I’m going to see you as often as I can. But my magazine is based in Los Angeles, which is a long ways from here.”

“You can take a plane,” said his son.

“You mean commute long-distance? It’s a bit far,” Callum said.

The child yawned and snuggled closer. “We need a daddy who lives around here.”

Callum frowned. “Anyone in particular?”

Ben didn’t answer. Apparently he’d fallen asleep between one breath and another.

As Callum carried his son across the hallway and tucked him into the top bunk, his mood darkened. He’d only just discovered that he had a family. He wasn’t about to lose them to some Johnny-on-the-spot.

The key was to get rid of those other guys before Jody foolishly married one of them. All he lacked was a plan.

By morning, he intended to come up with one.

JODY AROSE EARLY, downed a bowlful of cereal and went about tending the animals with Freddy’s help. Usually Louise came by to fix breakfast and watch the boys, but Jody had given the girl the day off, assuming Callum would want to fill that role.

In their stall, Elsie and Half-Pint had settled into wary mutual toleration, she was pleased to note. At least one relationship was on track around here.

It was several hours later before Jody returned to the big house. In the play yard, Ben dug in the sandbox while Jerry swung as high as he could on the swing set.

Gladys, taking a break from her own chores, sat on the side patio sharing a cup of coffee with Callum. Designer jeans and a denim jacket highlighted his lithe body and, in the bright sunlight, he seemed to glow from within.

Usually, the forewoman treated male visitors the way she treated stray dogs, with casual tolerance punctuated by the occasional sharp command. It surprised Jody to hear her laughing freely.

Tall, with her light-brown hair pulled into a ponytail, Gladys looked like what she was: a woman who’d grown up on a ranch. The daughter of a foreman, she’d married a man who owned a small spread and treated her little better than a hired hand. When they split up, she’d taken their daughter and set out on her own.

Eight years ago, she’d persuaded Jody’s father to hire her as forewoman, despite the scoffing of some neighbors. She’d more than proven them wrong.

Without her, the Wandering I would never have survived the past year. And without her daughter, Louise, who’d graduated from high school early and was taking a correspondence course in medical transcribing, Jody didn’t know where she’d have found a baby-sitter for the twins.

She’d phoned Gladys this morning and explained about the boys’ father. In her usual low-key manner, the forewoman had accepted the situation with only a few questions. She’d no doubt intended to decide for herself whether she approved of the man. Apparently, she did.

Callum waved when Jody came through the door. “I can heat up some pancakes if you’re hungry.”

“No, thanks.” She poured herself coffee from an insulated pot and leaned against the railing. Even on a Saturday, there was too much work left for her to get comfortable.

“Gladys was telling me about the Curly Q,” Callum said. The spread, dubbed a “non-dude ranch,” took paying guests who pitched in with the chores. “I think I’ll drive over there later and conduct an interview for the magazine, if the owners are willing. I’ll take my digital camera.”

“I want to get one of those.” Turning to Jody, the forewoman explained, “Callum took some shots of the boys earlier and you could see the pictures right inside the camera. You can get rid of the bad ones, and e-mail the good ones to your friends.”

“I thought you hated computers,” Jody said. Although her friend used one occasionally for ranch business, she avoided them otherwise.

“That doesn’t mean I have to act like a mule about every kind of new technology that comes along,” Gladys answered.

That was Callum’s good influence, Jody thought. Still, she hoped Gladys wasn’t going to get too cozy with him, because he’d be gone soon. “We need to move those steers today. Freddy’s going to be tied up seeding a field.”

“Darn right.” Gladys uncoiled from her chair. “Callum, I’d love to stay and chat, but duty calls.”

“For me, too,” he said. “Jody, if it’s all right with you, I’ll take the boys with me over to the Curly Q. Gladys gave me directions.”

Although she didn’t want the boys getting too used to being around him, Louise needed to put in more hours on her studies. The young woman would always rather tend the livestock or play with the kids than do her assignments, to Gladys’s dismay. “Okay. You can get their booster seats out of the pickup.”

“Thanks for trusting me with them. I know it isn’t easy under the circumstances.” He gazed at her in a way that made Jody want to forget about moving the steers and corral him instead.

“No sweat,” she managed to say, and turned to follow Gladys.

Callum should find it easy to persuade the Wiltons to grant an interview, since their enterprise would benefit from publicity. Too bad their six-year-old son had school today. He and the twins enjoyed playing together.

All morning as Jody worked, Callum made guest appearances in her thoughts. Whipping up dinner for the boys. Dancing with his arms looped around her. Burying his face in her hair.

She could so easily fall in love with the man again. Heck, she was halfway there already, but she refused to make a fool of herself by running after him to California and getting her heart squashed like a bug on a highway. Life in the fast lane was out of Jody’s league and she knew it.

What she needed was that trip to Paris-a few weeks of enchantment, a chance to reawaken the devil-may-care attitude of her younger days. Then she could return to her familiar world and live contentedly without the things she’d loved and lost, like teaching and, above all, Callum.

At noon, when she rode back to the big house, Jody got an unpleasant surprise. She mopped her forehead with a sleeve as she stared at the battered sedan and Everett Landing Weekly News van parked in front. There was the tractor Freddy had been using this morning, too. What on earth were all these people doing here?

Not just people. Male friends.

Since she had no intention of greeting visitors in her mussed condition, Jody slipped around to the rear of the house, where she entered her office through its exterior door. The office connected to her bedroom, into which masculine voices drifted from the front. She recognized Bo’s, then Freddy’s and finally his brother, Frank’s. They sounded polite and uncertain.

Callum had gathered her suitors together, omitting only Andy, who didn’t count anyway. What colossal nerve! Jody was so steamed at his interference that she nearly stomped into the living room, smelly clothes and all. What steadied her was common sense plus the memory of her mother’s admonitions to act like a lady.

Twenty minutes later, damp from the shower, she marched out wearing a long denim skirt and a ruffled blouse. The three men scrambled to their feet. Callum, who was fixing sandwiches in the kitchen, was already standing.

He’d swapped his jeans and jacket for a silky dark-blue suit that looked casual yet sleek. “Perfect timing,” he said serenely. “Lunch is about to be served.”

“What’s going on?”

“I called a summit meeting.” Callum set a pitcher of lemonade on the table. “We’ll have to eat buffet style. It would be too cramped at the table with five of us. Louise is making macaroni and cheese for the boys at her place, by the way.”

His gift for taking charge had impressed the heck out of Jody in their early days. Now, she wanted to kick him for his arrogance.

“You had no right to invite my friends without asking me,” she said in a low voice. The three guests shifted uncomfortably in their seats. She guessed that they all wished they could disappear, which was probably Callum’s goal.

Bo, who had the advantage of already knowing their shameless host, wore an eager-to-please expression. It wasn’t his fault that his brown slacks and tweed jacket appeared baggy compared to Callum’s stylish outfit.

As for Freddy, his incomplete effort to clean the morning’s mud from his boots and overalls had left him with a kind of sepia tone that did nothing to enhance his short, stocky build. His older brother, Frank, wore a nearly identical outfit, sans dirt and, while several inches taller, he was even stockier.

“I didn’t mean to go behind your back, but you were busy and the idea just struck me,” Callum said with feigned blandness. “I got their phone numbers out of your directory.” He indicated a spiral address book on the counter.

“What do you mean by a summit meeting?” Jody demanded.

“We’ll get to that in a minute.” Callum set out plates of sandwiches on the counter. He’d also fixed celery stuffed with reddish cream cheese. Following her gaze, he explained, “Pimientos. Guys, come and get it!”

Bo rubbed his hands together as he surveyed the spread. “This looks tasty.”

“I did work up an appetite this morning,” Freddy agreed, and took one of the paper plates.

“By the way,” Bo said, “is there any chance I could interview you for my paper? You’re the closest thing to a celebrity we’ve got around here.”

“I’d be honored.” Callum sounded as though he meant it. “Later, all right?”

“Sure thing.”

Soon the men were arrayed around the living room, balancing paper plates and cups as if at a tea party. The only one not noticeably ill at ease, Callum had chosen to eat standing by the mantel. This saved him from having to juggle his food and gave him a commanding advantage over the others, Jody noted with grudging admiration.

When the men were on their second helpings and the sound of chomping had slowed, Callum spoke. “As you probably know, Jody is a finalist in the Mother of the Year contest presented by Family Voyager magazine, which I publish. She and I also were close friends for many years. After reading her entry, I wanted to meet the people who are important to her now.”

“Are you interviewing all the finalists?” Bo asked.

“Well, no,” Callum admitted.

“Then why fly all the way to Texas to see Jody?” In his own polite way, Bo was defending his territory, or what he wished was his territory, Jody surmised.

“I wasn’t sure I should bring this up, and I hope Jody will forgive me, but the truth is, I’m the father of her children,” Callum said.

Freddy choked on a piece of celery until his brother whacked him between the shoulder blades. Bo paled. Oh, great. Although Jody had realized she wouldn’t be able to keep the secret much longer, she hadn’t expected Callum to make a public announcement. Even though he’d begged her pardon, he sure had a lot of nerve!

“You?” Bo said. “I thought…” His voice trailed off. Guiltily, Jody remembered mentioning that nonsense to him about the alleged rodeo Romeo. That had been several years ago, before there was any suggestion of Bo’s courting her.

It wasn’t as if she’d owed anyone an explanation. Still, she wished he hadn’t found out in such a blunt manner.

“Where’ve you been, huh?” Freddy demanded. “Where’ve you been all these years?”

“I should have come sooner. A lot sooner,” Callum began.

“I didn’t tell him he was a father.” Jody knew the fault was largely hers. “I didn’t even mention that I’d had children.”

She winced at Bo’s expression of disappointment. “Didn’t you think he had a right to know?”

“We’ve all made mistakes,” Callum interjected. “Well, maybe not you personally, but Jody and I are working this out together.”

“I knew you two used to date, but it always seemed kind of casual,” Bo admitted. “I didn’t know there was any more to it.”

“There wasn’t,” Jody said. “Just that once.”

“So you’re not getting married?” Freddy persisted.

His brother fixed him with a quelling look. “That’s none of our business.”

“You like her, too! She ought to go to one of us.” Realizing he’d overstepped his bounds, the hired hand said, “I mean, ’stead of some guy who hasn’t been around since gosh knows when. We’re the ones who understand about ranching. At least, Frank and I do. We’re more her type.”

“I guess you didn’t read her contest entry on the Web site,” Bo said. “I have to say, that was a clever literary reference to Penelope, although I hope you don’t feel like I’ve been pressuring you, Jody.”

She wished a herd of cattle would stampede through the living room and sweep her away. She’d never considered how her friends would react if they read what she’d written. “I was using poetic license,” she said. “I just wanted to go to Paris with the kids. I’m sorry, Bo.”

“From what Jody tells me, you’ve been a good friend,” Callum said diplomatically.

“He stood up for me when some of the townspeople said the school ought to fire me because I was a single mother,” she said.

To her relief, Bo smiled. “I understood what you were doing, Jody.”

“Who’s Penelope?” Freddy asked. “Don’t tell me they’ve got a new waitress at the Downtown Café! I was just getting used to Evelyn. In fact, she’s kind of pretty.”

“She sure is.” Frank looked at Callum. “Her folks moved to town a year or so ago.” Already, Jody gathered, the brothers were turning their attentions elsewhere.

“Why did you really want to meet us?” Bo asked. “I don’t mean any offense, but some people might say you were meddling in Jody’s personal business.”

“Those people would be right,” Callum answered honestly. “I intend to interfere as much as I can because, no matter how things look, I really care about her and I’m hoping she’ll forgive me. As for what else I’m hoping, I think I’ve shot my mouth off enough for one afternoon.”

“You can say that again,” Jody muttered.

“Fair enough,” Bo said. “At least we know where we stand.” The other two men nodded reluctantly.

“It strikes me that it’s time for dessert. Does anybody like apple pie?” Callum said.

As it turned out, everybody did.

He fetched the dessert from a sideboard, doling out five pieces with enough left for the boys. It was delicious, of course. Jody had stocked her freezer with her favorite brand of pies from a sale two weeks earlier.

“Tell me about publishing a magazine,” Bo said. “I’ll get started researching my own article, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.” Callum stood at the mantel, radiating confidence. “I got the idea of starting Family Voyager six years ago. People said I’d never make any money at it, but I figured the key was to make it entertaining and adventuresome and original.”

He regaled them with stories of how he’d stumbled and brazened his way to success. Callum made them all laugh, even the Fallon brothers, with anecdotes at his own expense. His sparkle eclipsed the modest living room.

Jody felt herself yielding to his charm. She wasn’t sure what, if anything, he’d accomplished by confronting her friends, but he’d succeeded in a different way.

Until today, she had almost convinced herself that liking could grow into love if she gave Bo a chance. After seeing him in Callum’s company, however, she knew it was hopeless. Maybe she couldn’t have the man she wanted, but she could never love anyone else, either.

Now she had to decide what to do about that.

CHAPTER FOUR

FOR THE SPACE of several minutes as he cleaned the kitchen, Callum allowed himself to wonder how he dared try to take over Jody’s life. It was true, as Freddy had said, that he hadn’t been here when she needed him. It was also true that he couldn’t move back to Texas and she refused to consider California.

Nevertheless, if there was anything his experience with the magazine had taught Callum, it was to keep his eye on the goal and not worry too much about obstacles. They had a way of disappearing when he forged ahead. At the very least, he intended to play an active role in raising his sons and at best he intended to play an even more active role in Jody’s future.

“Bo’s a nice guy.” In her denim skirt and a blouse that made no secret of her curves, Jody radiated appeal. “He’s not as flashy as you but he lives nearby.”

Her words reminded Callum uncomfortably of what Ben had said about needing a daddy who lived in the area. Since he didn’t think Jody was in the mood for a serious discussion at the moment, he answered lightly, “I’ll bet he can’t play the trumpet. You and I used to be pretty good together. Do you still play?”

“Mostly I play piano these days.” She indicated an upright in the living room. “How about you?”

“As a matter of fact, I joined a quartet. We jam at a jazz club once a month,” he said.

Jody regarded him with interest. Callum doubted she had any idea how cute she looked. He nearly forgot what they’d been discussing until she said, “Want to jam with me?”

“Now? Sure!”

She left and returned with a trumpet case. “I give it a whirl every now and then, so it’s in good condition.”

Callum unsnapped the case and hefted the instrument, admiring its silvery sheen. “Didn’t you used to play the clarinet, too?”

“I gave it up,” she said.

“Why? The band needed clarinets.” He recalled the bandleader complaining about the dearth.

Jody shot him a sideways glance. “You idiot.”

“Excuse me?”

“I started in the marching band on clarinet and switched to trumpet so I could be in your section.”

That was news to him. “You did? Why?”

“So you’d notice me.” She bit her lip, apparently embarrassed by the admission.

“Wow, I’m flattered.” Callum had figured it was just great luck when Jody started marching alongside him. “How did you happen to notice me?”

“How could I help it?” she said. “You were the golden boy of Everett County Regional High. I shouldn’t tell you this since you’ve got a big enough ego already.”

“Golden boy?” Callum refused to take offense at the comment about his ego. “I was simply one of the guys.”

“That was your greatest asset,” she said. “You weren’t stuck on yourself.”

“You just said I have an ego!”

“That isn’t precisely right.” She took a seat on the piano bench. “What you have is a self-assurance that I envy. I’ve always been more of a shrinking violet.”

“Is that anything like a wallflower?” Callum deadpanned. “In any case, you’re neither. You could teach assertiveness classes in your sleep.” He stopped talking while adjusting the trumpet mouthpiece.

“Only when I’m defending someone or something I care about,” Jody said. “Now are we going to jam or not?”

“You’re calling the shots,” he said.

After a couple of false starts, they launched into some old favorites. “Tijuana Taxi” and “The Lonely Bull” segued into “Hello, Dolly” and “Mack the Knife.” They were completely in synch by the time they tackled, and more or less conquered, “The Flight of the Bumblebee.”

When they were finished, Callum set down the trumpet. “My lips are going numb.”

“We can’t have that.” Jody gazed up at him from the piano bench, the angle of her face and neck alluring. He cupped her chin with one hand.

“Care to help them heal?” Without waiting for an answer, he brushed a kiss across her full mouth and couldn’t resist its sweetness. Sinking onto the seat beside her, Callum caught Jody’s shoulders. She leaned toward him.

He kissed her again, lingeringly, his eyes drifting shut as the contact linked them in a hundred ways.

It came as a shock when Jody drew away. “What’s wrong?” Callum asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said. “I just got an idea.”

SHE KNEW that if she gave herself time to think, she would change her mind or lose her courage. It was an outrageous idea, worthy of some stunt Callum himself might pull. But she had to take action before the kiss dissolved the last of her willpower.

As they jammed, Jody’s spirits had soared with every note. She could never return to the way things had been before he arrived, she realized. He’d stirred up too many emotions.

Yet she had to cut off his courtship, or pseudo-courtship, or whatever it was. Callum was too mercurial to be the man she needed, and she was too much herself to fit into his high-flying existence in California. At the same time, she didn’t want to deprive the boys of their father.

When he kissed her, Jody’s soul had ignited in a pure blue flame. No other man would ever be enough for her. Any chance at the marriage she’d always dreamed of had been ruined.

That was when the solution had hit her. It solved almost everything, including the fact that, subconsciously, she’d been waiting five years to hear words Callum would never speak. So she decided to say them herself.

“Let’s get married,” she said.

He stared at her blankly. For once in his life, Callum Fox was speechless.

“I can be the respectable Mrs. Fox and you can give the boys your name,” Jody went on. “When they start school, they’ll be able to look any bully in the face and say, ‘I do so have a father.”’

“Of course they do.” He clearly had no quarrel with that point.

“You can fly home to L.A. and tell your friends anything you like,” Jody went on. “I don’t care how you act as long as you don’t create a scandal that reaches Everett Landing. You can visit me every now and then. As far as anybody else is concerned, we’ll have a long-distance marriage.”

“What about as far as we’re concerned?” Callum asked.

“If we try to act like a real man and wife, we’ll end up hating each other.” She’d resigned herself to that fact long ago. “You’ll try to argue me into giving up the ranch and I’ll get jealous if you escort other women to movie premieres.”

“Why would I escort other women if I’m married?” He was sitting so close, she could have buried her nose in his neck.

Jody held herself rigidly straight. “Because it’s going to be a marriage of convenience.”

Callum ran one hand through his hair. “I thought those only existed in Victorian novels.”

“Not true,” Jody said. “You’ve heard of green card marriages, haven’t you?”

“Neither of us is a foreign citizen.” He appeared to be taking her seriously, at least, or maybe he was in shock.

“There’s a rancher on the outskirts of town who married a widow because they were both lonely,” Jody added, seeking ammunition. “Of course, we’d be doing the opposite, getting married and living apart, but it will take care of our problems.”

“How’s that?”

“I won’t have to worry about men pursuing me. No one will ask me out if I’m married,” she said. “Of course, you can date if you want to.” I don’t really mean that, do I? “I mean, taking actresses to openings and things like that.”

“I’d rather take my wife,” Callum said.

“You don’t have a wife.”

“If memory serves, you just proposed to me,” he said.

“I’d be your wife legally, but not in other ways.” She figured she’d spelled that out plainly enough.

From his seat beside her, Callum ran one hand up her wrist and caressed the inside of her elbow. Jody gave a delicious shudder.

“It isn’t going to work,” he said.

“It has to work!” Irked at her own vulnerability, she slid away on the bench.

“Be reasonable,” Callum said. “We can’t have a platonic marriage when your scent alone gets me aroused.”

“It does?” She could hardly breathe. She’d had no idea he felt that way.

“Come closer and I’ll demonstrate.”

Jody shook her head. “You react that way to lots of women! There’s nothing special about me as far as you’re concerned.”

“That’s not even remotely true,” Callum said. “Nobody compares to you. No one ever has.”

“It’s taken you five years to figure that out?” she demanded. “Let’s not forget that, during that time, you failed to visit me or even call. If I hadn’t entered your contest, you wouldn’t be here now. I think it’s safe to say that out of sight is out of mind as far as you’re concerned. Right?”

Although she could tell by his expression that Callum wanted to argue, he didn’t. “I’ll admit, I’ve tended to live in the moment. Five years ago, I was barely scraping by running a Web site and writing ad copy part-time for a hotel chain. I asked you to move to L.A. because I knew we’d have fun together, but when you turned me down, I figured I had to move on.”

“And I let you,” Jody conceded. “I can’t blame you for something that’s partly my fault. Still, fundamentally, the only thing that’s changed is that we have two sons.”

“That’s a pretty big change,” he said. “Tell me why our getting married in name only would be good for them.”

“It will placate the town gossips, for one thing.” Jody’s attachment to her idea grew as she spoke. “Also, it should make it easier for them to trust that you’ll come back, if they know you care enough to marry their mother.”

Callum considered. “Why couldn’t we be a real husband and wife even though we live apart? Other couples do it.”

“I told you, we’d be wretched. At least, I would be,” Jody said. “I’d miss you too much. I’d pester you and mope around and then I’d get mad. If I know up front that it’s simply an arrangement for the boys’ sake, I can get on with my life.”

“It’s important that we stay on good terms.” He sounded thoughtful. “Let me mull this over, all right?”

“Sure.” That was only fair, since she’d sprung this idea on him without warning. Besides, Jody was in no hurry, in case his answer happened to be no. If so, it would most likely be followed by “adios” and a quick exit in that ridiculous convertible. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a full afternoon ahead.”

When she returned from throwing on her grubby clothes, Callum was dishing out leftover apple pie for the boys. “Hey, Mom, are we going to buy jeans?” Jeremy said.

“It’s Saturday,” Ben reminded her.

She’d promised to take the boys shopping at Banyon’s Clothing Store. “Oh, darn, I forgot.” Jody had gotten behind in her chores since Callum arrived. She had to prepare for next week, when she, Gladys and Freddy planned to vaccinate the spring calves.

“I’ll take them,” Callum volunteered.

“You don’t need to.” Her protest sounded weak.

“I want to.” He made a shooing motion as if to herd her toward the door. “It’ll be fun to spend time with my sons. Besides, I’d like to talk to Ella Mae at the café. She’s a finalist, too, you know.”

Jody had been amused to hear about it. “All right. Have a good time.”

“You bet.”

As she turned to go, the sight of the three males standing close together, their silver-blond hair and supple bodies so much alike, tugged at Jody’s heart. She hoped Callum would go along with her idea. She wanted this relationship tied up neatly with a bow so it wouldn’t keep tearing at her heart.

RIDING IN AN OPEN CAR thrilled the boys, who whooped and chortled from their booster seats. Thank goodness they had no idea the decrepit vehicle was nothing short of a fashion felony, Callum thought wryly.

Everett Landing hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen it. The grocery store had been re-painted white with blue trim and the hardware store displayed computers and DVD players alongside tools in the window. Otherwise, there was a lazy 1950s feel to the sprawling main street that even the presence of a few late-model SUVs failed to dispel.

Although Callum knew that being stuck here after high school would have chafed him beyond endurance, he relished the small-town pleasure of walking into Banyon’s and greeting the salesclerk and two customers by name. All welcomed him warmly, although there were startled looks as they saw him with the boys. From the way their glances trailed between him and his sons, he knew they were noting the similarities.

He forgot everything else as he helped the boys pick out clothes. Both wanted jeans, and they were delighted when Callum agreed to buy them new sneakers, as well. With a pang, he realized how tight money must be for Jody. Thank goodness he’d learned about the twins while they were little.

Ben’s taste ran to T-shirts with pictures of teddy bears and puppies. Jerry fell in love with a black-and-tan short-sleeved shirt much too large for him and refused to give it up. “I want it! It’s mine!”

“That’s an adult small,” the storekeeper, Al Banyon, commented. “It’ll come down to his knees.”

“I don’t care.” Jerry thrust out his lower lip.

What good was a father if he couldn’t indulge his child? Callum reflected. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “We’ll buy this, but you have to pick out at least two other T-shirts that are the right size.”

His son reflected and came to a decision. “Okay.” He walked to the racks, grabbed two plain blue T-shirts, and returned with a triumphant smile.

“I’m hungry,” Ben said after Callum finished paying.

He checked his watch. Three o’clock. Usually he sent his secretary out for a latte about now. “Let’s stow these in the trunk and see what they’ve got at the Downtown Café.”

They sauntered along the sidewalk to the corner of Main Street and Mesquite Avenue. The sight of children playing at the elementary school across the street unlocked happy memories of Callum’s own school days.

Inside the gleaming eatery, a couple of cowboys were chowing down one of the café’s famous round-the-clock breakfasts. The only other occupant was a pretty, dark-haired waitress mopping the tile floor.

Callum chose a table near the window. The waitress disappeared, exchanged her mop for an order pad, and returned.

“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

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.

“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.”

“I suppose she did, although she stopped painting after a while,” he said. “I think she romanticized the place to herself, and by the time she figured out that she’d boxed herself in, it was too late. But I’m just guessing. She died when I was little.”

“Did she paint the landscape in your parents’ living room?” Jody had admired it when she visited there.

He nodded. “She had quite a talent and a great imagination. Dad was nothing like her.”

“Your father had his own gift,” Jody said. “He always had a kind word or a joke to brighten my day. You’re more like him than you realize.”

She wondered if she’d said the wrong thing, because Callum changed the subject and began asking for details about the ranch. Or maybe he simply wanted to know more. He listened intently as she described how much she’d learned the last year as the cycle of seasons rolled past, from summer haying to winter repairs and spring calving.

While she talked, Jody felt both satisfaction and the heavy weight of responsibility. With her students, she’d been able to measure their progress, and she could count on a paycheck. A ranch struggled to survive. She no sooner finished a chore than it needed doing again, and there was always the risk of a natural disaster or other financial setback.

She tossed her head, letting her hair billow on the breeze. This was the life into which she’d been born, and she’d put down roots here.

Even so, she hoped right down to her bones that soon she and the boys would be kicking up their heels beneath the spires of Notre Dame. Although she might lack Callum’s daring, once in a while she got restless, too.

“YOU’RE HUMMING,” he said approvingly. Callum enjoyed the way Jody often hummed or sang under her breath as if a musical current ran through her veins.

She blinked in surprise. “Was I?”

He let the melody reverberate in his memory before identifying it. “It’s ‘Under Paris Skies.”’

“Oh.” She blushed.

All the while she’d been rhapsodizing aloud about her life as a rancher, she’d been dreaming of Gay Paree. “I understand how it feels to wish you were somewhere else,” Callum said.

“I don’t wish I were somewhere else!”

“You never wish you were in a classroom?”

“That’s cheating,” she told him. “I was able to indulge my dream for a while. Maybe I’ll do it again when I get too old for physical labor, although standing in front of kids all day isn’t exactly easy.”

“When we were in college, I half expected that you’d decide to come to California, too,” he said. “You seemed interested in the challenge of working in a larger school district, and you used to pepper me with questions about everything from Disneyland to the movie industry, as if I had some secret fount of knowledge.”

“I was just curious because you were going there,” Jody said. “I wasn’t interested for myself. I’ve always known where I belong.”

“You’ve always known where you felt safe,” Callum corrected. An unexpected thought occurred to him. The place you’ve always belonged is with me.

That didn’t make sense. They’d spent so many years apart that in some ways they hardly knew each other. Yet in other ways, it felt as if no more than a few months had passed since they’d attended college together.

“Let’s have our picnic over there.” Jody pointed out a stand of trees. “There’s a stream through the middle. It’s one of my favorite spots.”

“I’m sold.”

Inside the dappled grove, they set the horses free to graze. With their reins draped on the ground, the well-trained animals wouldn’t wander far.

There was no need for words as he and Jody spread a blanket on the ground and helped themselves. In addition to the sandwiches, they’d packed carrots and cookies, which vanished swiftly.

“Is my hair a mess?” Jody asked as they relaxed afterwards. She wore it loose, the way he preferred.

“A little tangled maybe.” Callum plucked a twig from one curly strand. “Hold on.” He retrieved a folding comb from his pocket and, moving closer, began to work through her tangles.

“You don’t have to do that.” Despite her words, Jody didn’t pull away.

“I don’t mind.” Sitting behind her, he slid closer until she fit between his upraised knees. “You smell like roses.”

“I smell like my shampoo.”

“Could you be a little less romantic?” he teased.

“We’re supposed to be testing our ability to remain platonic friends,” Jody reminded him.

How could a man remain platonic with a softly built honey of a woman grasped between his thighs? Callum knew better than to even hint at his response to her, though, or Jody would whisk out of his grasp so fast she’d take the comb with her.

He searched for a neutral topic. It wasn’t easy, because he kept picturing her in the shower, shampooing her hair with her arms raised and her full breasts thrust prominently the way she’d done after they made love. Correction: after the first time they made love and just before the second time.

“Do you think I should cut my hair?” she asked.

“It’s beautiful this way.”

“It’s messy and it makes me look like an idiot,” she said. “The reason I wear it all one length is because Louise can cut it.”

“You don’t look like an idiot,” Callum said. “I know actresses who would kill to have hair like yours.”

“You’re lying!” Even with her back turned, she radiated disbelief.

“With the split ends trimmed off,” he amended.

“I do not have split ends!”

Callum laughed close to her neck, and felt her quiver in response. “I made that up. Seriously, you have lovely hair. Lovely everything else, too.”

“No, I don’t. I could lose some weight,” Jody said.

“What?” To him, her womanly figure had always been the standard to which he compared all others. “You’re built just right.”

“I don’t look like a model, and don’t lie to me about it.” Although he couldn’t see her face, Callum imagined the way her lips must be twitching as she awaited his response.

“I agree. You don’t look like a model.” He played the comb lightly against her scalp, doing his best to tantalize her. “If I put my arms around a model, all I feel are bones.”

Her shoulders drooped. “You put your arms around them a lot, don’t you?”

“Hardly ever. Let me show you what I mean.” Setting the comb aside, he stroked Jody’s cheek and trailed the back of his hand along her jawline. When the tension eased from her muscles and she issued a small sigh, Callum bowed his head until his nose grazed her neck. “There’s no one else I want to be this close to.”

“Me, either,” she whispered.

He collected her in his arms. Although his body tightened instinctively, Callum didn’t want to rush. Every moment with Jody was precious, he mused as he kissed her earlobe.

The breeze sifted around them, filled with the scents of fields and trees. From nearby came the rustling of the horses as they fed. Callum didn’t remember when he’d known such utter peace.

His arm brushed the swell of Jody’s breast. Her nipple hardened and he rubbed his wrist up and down against it.

She arched her back, thrusting her breasts harder against his arm. That, he gathered, was a definite Go.

As Callum unworked the buttons of Jody’s blouse, it occurred to him that this whole platonic business didn’t appear to be much of a success. He didn’t mind in the least.

CHAPTER SIX

IN TWENTY-NINE YEARS of hard living, Jody had accumulated her fair share of wisdom. For the chance of making love to Callum again, she tossed it all to the wind.

Her muscles grew heavy as his fingers opened her shirt and smoothed down the bra straps. When he cupped her bare breasts, exquisite sensations spread all the way to the spot between her thighs.

His palms squeezed her before easing down to stroke her ribs and waist. Jody heard his breathing intensify and his heart pound in counterpoint to her own, creating their own private music.

She turned her face until their lips met. Gently, Callum tipped her chin upward and introduced his tongue into her mouth. It probed her with the tantalizing sweetness of a flute.

Freed from her inhibitions against touching him, Jody gave herself over to exploration. Silvery blond hair drifted between her fingers, a startling contrast to the prickliness of Callum’s jaw. She nibbled on his neck and then, after prying open the buttons on his shirt, rubbed her nude torso against his sculpted strength. Together they swayed to a subtle, intensifying beat.

Rising on her knees, Jody rubbed her cheek across the top of Callum’s head. His hands smoothed her jeans down her hips.

They should stop, she thought distractedly. Maybe in another century or so.

Callum fondled the curve of her bottom. “Magnificent,” he whispered.

There’s too much of it, Jody wanted to say, but that wasn’t true. At this moment, she relished her feminine curves because they gave him pleasure. And he gave it back to her in waves as he tasted her.

Jody released a small cry, like a clarinet tone that gets lost in a soaring symphony. How did she dare to open herself to Callum this way? Yet how could she do anything else?

When she almost couldn’t bear any more pleasure, he laid her on the blanket and stripped off his pants. What a beautiful sight he was, even better than in memory, with sunlight and leaf-shadow highlighting his splendidly toned body. Best of all was the tenderness on his face and that grin of pure, unabashed happiness.

She loved everything about Callum, from his long legs and taut masculinity to his exuberance. She wanted to urge him on, and yet…

“Wait.” Jody rolled over.

“I’m not sure I can.”

She reached for her jeans and, from the pocket, produced the protection she’d brought in case of something she hadn’t wanted to admit was possible. “Remember what happened the last time we did this?”

“Thank you for thinking ahead.” He reached for it, unfolded it and slipped it onto himself. The sight of him so ready for her carried Jody past a moment when her good sense almost reasserted itself.

Callum rolled her atop him, lifting her easily. She gripped him with her knees and they came together in a fierce thrust that vibrated through her like the clash of cymbals.

Callum gasped. “You’re beautiful.”

“You,” Jody whispered.

He gave her a puzzled look. “What about me?”

“Gorgeous.” That one word encompassed it all. The man electrified her, as he had from the first moment she’d seen him. He was the wild clarion call that stirred her long-suppressed sense of daring.

Callum rocked his hips rhythmically, moving himself into her and out, slowing the tempo and then speeding it again. Atop him, Jody floated into a dimension ruled by sheer sensation.

Just when she thought she might actually levitate, he shifted away and slid her onto her back. As he rose above her, cool air replaced him between her legs. The absence was intolerable.

Jody wrapped her legs around him, determined to take charge. She drew him downward, wriggling and arousing him with a dance into which he joined eagerly. She could read the joy on Callum’s face as he lost his battle to prolong the exquisite agony of delay.

When he entered her again, it was with the wild abandon of a conductor bringing a symphony to its crescendo. Jody writhed against him, giving herself to his power.

Callum’s mouth closed over hers. Their tongues entwined as the climax seized them both. It roared through her, a thrilling tangle of melodies and percussion that she wished would never end.

The last note reverberated into silence. Jody lay spent, eyes shut, as Callum stretched out beside her. She wanted nothing more than this.

Gradually the caress of the breeze, the chirp of a bird and the nicker of a horse transformed paradise back into a ranch. Callum changed from her dream man to the boyfriend she couldn’t keep. Before long, he would be flying away from her arms.

Maybe she would be flying away, too, to that fantasy known as Paris. But it could never be as perfect as this, Jody thought.

For a foolish while, she lay hoping to hear Callum say I love you. That would be the ultimate magic.

It occurred to her, when the words didn’t come, that they’d just banished any possibility of a marriage of convenience. What could they substitute? More years of silence and separation?

Curious about Callum’s reaction, she peeked at him. On his nose sat a butterfly, its black-and-yellow wings undulating. He stared at it cross-eyed, and she laughed. Disgruntled, the insect caught a current and bumbled away through the air.

“Only you would have a butterfly land on your face,” Jody said.

“Bugs like me. What can I say?”

Apparently horses liked him, too, because King Arthur, tired of grazing, ambled over to him. Callum reached out and scratched the gelding’s ears. “We should pick up the boys soon. I don’t want them to think we’ve forgotten them.”

Jody realized to her surprise that she hadn’t given a moment’s thought to her sons all afternoon. How ironic that it was Callum who’d remembered.

“I think you’re bonding with them,” she said. “They’ve taken a liking to you, too.”

“Jeremy’s the most resistant.” He pulled on his underclothes.

“I’m surprised you noticed.” Although reluctant to end their idyll, she reached for her clothing, too.

“They have distinct personalities.” Callum shrugged into his shirt. His chest gleamed in a ray of sunlight, and Jody wished he wouldn’t cover it. But he did. “I can’t wait to see how they develop. It should be a fascinating process.”

“I’m sure it will be.” She wanted to share the miracles with him day by day. First, though, they had to figure out how they were going to handle this relationship. “Where do we go from here?”

“They’re at the Curly Q. We can take my car if you like,” he said.

“I didn’t mean literally,” Jody said. “You proved your point. We can’t have a marriage of convenience. What are the other options?”

“One thing at a time.” He stretched lazily. “What happened just now was fantastic. It’s going to be a while before I can think clearly.”

There was no arguing with that, Jody reflected. As for herself, she wasn’t sure she could ever think clearly where Callum was concerned.

THE TWO ADULTS cooked dinner while the boys watched a videotape. When the meat was browning, Callum slipped his arms around Jody and nuzzled her neck, but otherwise he behaved himself. He had to set a good example for their sons.

After the meal, they sat around the table and played Go Fish. Callum, who normally reveled in winning any game he attempted, found it was more fun to yield to the boys. The odd part was that, while Ben had accepted him more readily, it was Jerry who kept asking him for help while his brother turned to Jody.

They were in the middle of their second game when Jerry got a huge grin on his face. “Anybody got any kings?” he called.

“No fair!” Ben said.

“Give me your kings!”

Callum intervened before a fight could erupt. “Sorry, Benjamin. If your brother asks for a king, you have to give it to him.”

“But he hasn’t got any kings!” Ben answered. “I just drew my third. Mommy has number four!”

Callum and Jody exchanged glances. The rules of the game must have escaped Jeremy. It was understandable, at his age.

“Let’s see.” Callum examined the boy’s hand. Sure enough, he didn’t have any kings. “I’m sorry, son. You have to have a card before you can ask for the ones that match.”

“I want the kings! The kings are best.” Storm clouds gathered in his son’s blue eyes, darkening them to a smoky gray.

Is that how I look when I get angry? Callum wondered, but brushed the thought aside. “Aces are the high cards, Jerry.”

“I want the daddies!”

“The daddies?” Callum asked.

“That’s the kings.” Ben was in agreement with his brother for once. “The queens are the mommies.”

“You mean the mommies are second best?” Jody asked with feigned hurt. Or maybe it wasn’t entirely feigned.

“They’re the best cards, too,” Ben said diplomatically. Jerry nodded.

“If kings are daddies and queens are mommies, what are the jacks?” Callum asked.

“They’re us,” Jeremy said. “You know, boys.”

Jody spread her hands in amazement. “I have no idea where they got this notion.”

“The tens are girls,” Ben added.

“Hold on.” Jody folded her arms and glowered. “The tens are below the jacks. This is a sexist hierarchy.”

“What’s that?” Ben asked.

“Your mom’s right,” Callum said. “Kings and queens are equal in this house and so are jacks and tens.” After a moment’s thought, he added, “Just not in card games.”

“I want the kings,” Jerry said doggedly.

“I had them first!” His brother stuck out his tongue.

The next minute, cards tumbled to the carpet as Jeremy lunged at Benjamin. It took both adults to untangle them.

“Now what?” Callum asked as he threw Jerry over his shoulder.

“They both get time-outs,” Jody said. “Jeremy for attacking his brother, and Benjamin for sticking out his tongue and provoking him. You go that way and I’ll go this way.” Holding Ben’s hand, she marched him toward her bedroom.

“Well, big guy, I guess it’s you and me,” Callum said.

“You’re hurting my tummy.” When this didn’t bring an immediate response, Jerry added, “I might throw up.”

“Down my back?”

“And into your pants. I did it to Mommy.”

“I’ll bet she loved that.” Callum set the boy on his feet. “Okay, kid, march!”

The little guy’s stubborn expression hadn’t softened by the time they reached the boys’ room. “How do these time-outs work?” Callum asked.

“You have to go away.” Jerry’s mouth quivered.

“Is there any rule that says the daddy can’t stay here with you and have a time-out, too?” Callum asked.

Jeremy shook his blond head. As the boy plopped onto his bed, a slow smile warmed his features. “I guess I won.”

“How’s that?”

“You’re the king and I got you.”

Callum lowered himself beside his son, bending so as not to bump his head on the upper bunk. “What was this fight really about?”

“Ben says you like him better than me.” Jerry wiggled around on the quilt as if unable to hold still. It might, Callum suspected, be a condition endemic to four-year-old boys.

“Where did he get that idea?”

“You let him play with your ’puter.”

“Only because he invited himself into my room.”

“Can I play on it?”

On the point of agreeing, Callum remembered that this was supposed to be a punishment. “Not until you’ve served your time. You attacked your brother, remember?”

“Can I play later?” Jeremy asked.

“You bet.” He supposed he ought to leave now. The last thing he wanted was to interfere with Jody’s discipline program. “I don’t know about this household, but where I grew up, the rule was that time-outs also included a hug. Is that true here?”

“Yes. Unless I’m mad,” his son said.

“Can I have my hug now, in case you get mad later?”

The boy considered the question solemnly. “Okay.” He threw his arms around his father’s neck.

Drawing Jerry onto his lap, Callum hugged and rocked him. It took a moment before he realized that this rush of tenderness was love, a different kind of love than he’d ever experienced before. He wanted to protect this little boy so fiercely that he would do anything, give anything, sacrifice anything for his sake.

When the boy started wiggling again, Callum released him. “I’ll see you later.”

“Okay.” Jeremy beamed.

In the front room, Jody said, “You’d better go see Ben. He feels neglected because you went with his brother.”

“They’re amazing.”

“I’m a little jealous,” Jody admitted. “Although I know that’s ridiculous.”

“I’m the new toy. Of course they find me more interesting, temporarily,” Callum said. “But they’d be lost without their mom. So would I.”

The words slipped out before he had a chance to reconsider. Well, so what? He’d meant it.

Ben kept him entertained with tales of adventures at the Wiltons’ ranch. Later, after the twins apologized to each other, they took turns at the computer and Jody then read them all a storybook. Her animated face and voice cast a spell over Callum.

When the twins were asleep, he went to his room to work on the laptop. It was rare for him to spend a whole day, even a Sunday, without accessing the Web site and reading his e-mail. Tonight, however, he couldn’t concentrate.

Hoping another cookie would help, he wandered into the kitchen. Music reached him from Jody’s room. Oh, to heck with work, anyway, he thought, and went to pay her a visit.

She lay on the king-size bed where he’d hugged Ben earlier, reading a novel while country music played on the radio. Beside her on an end table lay a monitor, which he realized must be tuned to the boys’ room.

With her hair spread across the pillow and her inviting curves outlined by a silky nightgown, Jody might have been a seductress from an exotic tale. His own private Scheherazade.

“Hi,” she said, bookmarking her place.

“Want company?” Callum sat on the edge of the bed. “If you’re not too tired, maybe we could…”

“Shut up and kiss me,” said the most enchanting woman in the world, and she pulled him down beside her.

This time, there was less urgency to their lovemaking and more sweetness. They amused each other slowly, teasing and talking. Callum wished he could extend this intimacy forever, but at last passion overcame his resistance.

When they’d finished, it was a luxury to sleep beside her all night, to listen to her breathing and feel the subtle electricity of her skin. He wanted to spend every night this way.

Toward morning, Callum dreamed that he was riding home after a long day on the range. Jody emerged from the barn to greet him, a little girl clinging to her skirt. The boys, grown into pre-teenagers, waved from a corral where they were training horses. He drifted awake with a profound sense of yearning.

He glanced toward the other side of the bed. Empty. Jody must have arisen early to start her chores. She couldn’t afford to linger in bed on a Monday morning.

Monday! Callum sat up straight. He was missing the weekly staff meeting, and he’d promised to call his secretary about rescheduling his appointments. With April almost here, the copy was due for the July issue and the Web master would be changing the site soon.

Of course, Tisa could run the operation for a while. She did her job efficiently and with flair. No one had Callum’s gift for the stylish and the eye-catching, though. When celebrities called, they asked for him personally. Some of the major advertisers did, too.

Enthusiasm powered Callum through his morning routine. When he’d showered and changed, he was relieved to find Gladys’s daughter, Louise, ready to take the boys to town for their half day of preschool.

He gave each boy a hug, distracted for a moment from his preoccupation with work. Once they’d left, Callum powered up his laptop, picked up his cell phone and got to work.

He came alive as he immersed himself in activity, his mind ticking off a dozen details at once. The adrenaline rush made him forget his surroundings for hours.

By lunchtime, last night’s dream had almost disappeared. It came back to Callum only when he looked out the window and saw Jody and her hired hand marking off a large rectangle toward the back of the house. Judging by the stumps of cornstalks, they must be planning to clear and replant the vegetable garden.

The cycle of life on a ranch had a nostalgic familiarity. Callum understood the satisfaction of seeing crops grow and herds increase. Although operating a modern ranch required sophisticated knowledge of everything from cattle prices to tax laws, would it be outside the realm of possibility for him to stay here and learn to run the Wandering I with Jody?

A shudder ran through him. That man riding home in the dream could never be him. Not for long, anyway. He loved Jody and the boys, but he didn’t want their closeness to deteriorate into broken promises and resentment. There had to be a better solution.

Callum went to fix lunch. Jody must be starving after a morning of hard physical work. Ranching didn’t suit her, he thought, even though she was doing a conscientious job. She belonged in a classroom.

He set to work fixing a large Nicoise salad with leftovers and some purchases he’d made in town. Boston lettuce, ripe tomatoes, thick slices of potato, hard-boiled eggs, tuna, black olives, capers, anchovies. The names of the ingredients fitted into a mesmerizing rhythm while he worked.

He was mixing the vinaigrette when Jody came in. “That smells wonderful.”

“As good as chalk dust?” he asked impulsively.

“Is that a joke?” Her nose wrinkled. “Because it isn’t funny.”

“It’s not a joke.” Callum took her hands in his. Turning them over, he inspected the scarred and calloused palms. “You’re doing a great job. Your father would be proud of you. But this isn’t right.”

A frown settled across her face. “What you mean is, it isn’t what you want me to do.”

“That’s partly true,” Callum conceded. “I want you and the boys to move to L.A. so we can be together.”

“You want to have your work and us, too,” Jody answered. “Well, this is my work. That land out there is my office, and I have a staff, too. You can’t ask me to toss them aside any more than I can ask you to toss your magazine aside.”

“One of us has to move,” he said.

She pressed her lips together. He imagined he could hear what she was thinking: It won’t be me.

Darn! She’d always been stubborn. But then, so was he.

“Let’s eat,” Jody said. “I’m grumpy on an empty stomach.”

He had to win her over, but he’d already played his trump card by mentioning her teaching career. He knew she’d be happier teaching in a classroom than oiling farm machinery any day of the week, if only she would allow herself to admit it, but for some reason she’d refused. What else did he have to offer?

For once, Callum Fox had run out of ideas.

CHAPTER SEVEN

AFTER LUNCH, Callum took a cell phone call and disappeared into his room. Too edgy to return to work, Jody sat at the piano and rippled through a show tune, then another and another, while her thoughts played over their conversation.

He’d asked her again to come to L.A. The scary part was that she’d been tempted to agree.

Here at the ranch, she fit into Callum’s arms and matched him in their verbal sparring. She was his equal. In California, she would be just one more woman seeking his attention, and not the most beautiful one, by far.

She’d also meant what she said about the boys having emotional ties to the home where their grandparents had helped raise them. True, during the past few days she’d been surprised at how quickly the pair had taken to Callum. Perhaps they needed a father more than she’d realized. Still, something was missing.

As her fingers moved across the keys, Jody was finally able to pinpoint what troubled her so much. Despite his invitation, Callum still held back. He hadn’t said he loved her. He hadn’t asked her to marry him.

He might love her a little, but not enough to sustain a lifetime. The omission confirmed her belief that he wasn’t truly committed to her. And if it didn’t happen here in Texas, it certainly wasn’t going to happen in the land of temptation.

Hearing his footsteps in the kitchen, she dropped her hands to her lap and let the silence enfold her. The moment she glanced up, she saw the news in his expression.

“You’re going home,” she said.

Callum blinked. “I didn’t know you could hear my conversation.”

“I didn’t have to.” The mixture of emotions on his face told Jody everything. Especially the hint of relief playing around his mouth. “It’s obvious. You’re eager to be gone.”

“I’ve got my work cut out for me. One of our major advertisers is threatening to take his business to a rival publication.” Callum’s long legs carried him down the steps toward her. “While our advertising director’s been out with an injury, our competition seized the chance to wine and dine our client.”

“And you’re the only one who can turn him around.” Jody understood the impact of Callum’s charisma.

“I don’t want to leave until we resolve our situation.” He sat beside her on the bench. “Jody…”

To her dismay, tears clouded her vision. Defiantly, she said, “Don’t try to snow me. You’re relieved. Go on, deny it.”

He couldn’t. Callum might seem glib at times, but he was honest. He proved it by admitting, “In a way, I am. Not because it means leaving you and the boys. I hate that part.”

“What’s the part you like?” Jody forced the words through stiff lips.

“Do you remember my senior year in college, when Dad had his first heart attack?” Callum asked.

“You went ballistic.” He’d left campus the moment he got the news, skipping classes to stay at his father’s bedside until his recovery was assured. “You did everything you could for him and your mom.”

“Until then, I’d taken them for granted, the way kids tend to.” In the warm midday light filtering through broad windows, Callum’s eyes had a faraway glaze. “I was thrilled that he got better. But not entirely for selfless reasons.”

“You were worried about the feed store,” Jody remembered. “I told you your mom could run it.”

“Not alone. I wouldn’t have let her. You know she had chronic health problems.” A shadow fell across his clean-cut features, perhaps from recalling her death soon after their graduation. “During that whole period, I had a recurring nightmare where I was locked in a room and couldn’t find the door. After a while, I realized there was no door.”

“You felt trapped,” she summed up. “You were afraid you’d have to give up your dreams to run the store.”

He nodded. “I realized that later.”

“Is that how you feel about the ranch? Like you’d be trapped if you stayed here?” Until this moment, Jody hadn’t wanted to admit to herself how much she was hoping Callum would either sell the magazine or find a way to run it from the ranch.

“There’s a part of me that loves this place.” His hands closed over hers. Although they were sitting very close, he hadn’t touched her until now. “That part of me wants an idyllic life here with you and the boys.”

“You’d hate it.” Her voice came out flat, making a statement she desperately wished weren’t true.

“I could do it,” Callum said earnestly. “For a while. Then I’d get testy and difficult, and I’d be a total pain in the neck.”

Jody couldn’t deny it, because he was right. The nonstop action of city life, the acclaim of talented people and the thrill of achievement were as essential to Callum as security and close friends were to her. Fate must have laughed when it made them soul mates, because they could never live together.

“I don’t want us to become enemies. That’s what would happen if I stayed here.” Callum swallowed hard. “We have to find a way to stay close and share the boys.”

“You can visit them here until they’re old enough to fly out west by themselves,” she said. “As for staying close, I don’t see how that’s possible.”

“I’m sorry the marriage of convenience idea didn’t work.” His smile was tempered by regret. “Maybe we should have tried harder to keep our hands off each other.”

“It was a lost cause from the start.” Jody didn’t regret making love with Callum yesterday. She would always cherish the memory.

“When’s the boys’ birthday?” he asked.

“August fifteenth.”

“I’ll come back then,” he said. “Sooner, if I can.”

“Fine.”

That was it? Everything smoothed over and an appointment made as if these past three days had been simply an interlude? Jody wanted to rage, except that it would be useless. Callum had to go. And she had to let him.

She found the strength to stand up calmly and say, “I’d better go watch for the boys. Louise will be bringing them home any minute.”

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur. Callum explained his departure to Ben and Jerry and promised to return for their birthday. Although the boys protested, before long they went out to play with the puppy, which was eager for attention.

She didn’t ask what he was going to do about her being a finalist in the contest, even though she knew that was the reason he’d come to Texas. He didn’t say anything, either. Maybe he needed to consult the rules or talk to his managing editor or figure out some alternative. Jody decided to leave that up to him.

It amazed her how fast he could pack, make a plane reservation, kiss them all and drive away. She knew he was eager to fix the problems at work. She wished she felt the same enthusiasm about vaccinating her calves, but it was simply one more chore to be accomplished.

Despite the distraction of hard labor, the next few days proved difficult emotionally. Jody cried often, and knew her friends worried about her, especially Gladys and Bo, who dropped by to check on her.

Ben and Jerry got excited when their father called to say he’d arrived safely and missed them. The next day, he e-mailed a photo of his office so they could see where he worked, along with shots he’d taken of them at the Wiltons’ ranch. When he spoke to Jody on the phone by herself, he asked how she was doing and she told him “Just great” with hardly any irony.

A few days later, Callum reported that he’d persuaded the advertiser not only to sign a long-term contract but also to sponsor a cable TV series in conjunction with the magazine. The man had one condition: that Callum himself host the show.

“You’ll be fantastic,” Jody said, and meant it.

On Friday, she went into town to do some grocery shopping and collect the boys. As she was about to leave, the preschool director said, “Congratulations.”

“For what?” she asked, but another parent called the woman’s name at the same time and distracted her.

At the grocery store, several more people congratulated Jody. She wondered if the contest winner had been named earlier than expected. Too embarrassed to admit she hadn’t checked the magazine’s Web site, she simply thanked everyone.

Could she possibly have won the trip to Paris? It didn’t seem likely, given Callum’s conflict of interest. Perhaps a winner had been named and the magazine had decided to give the other finalists consolation prizes. A new wardrobe or a smaller trip would be nice, too.

As Jody drove onto the ranch, Gladys waved from horseback and called, “Good for you!”

She waved back, but the forewoman was too far away to engage her in conversation. Besides, she’d be able to access the Web site in a few minutes and get the story herself.

After settling Ben and Jerry for quiet time in their room, Jody logged onto the computer in her office. The Family Voyager site was a collage of enticing headlines and lively photos, including one of Callum shaking hands with the advertiser. His sunny image leaped off the screen.

She couldn’t stay angry with the man. He was like a force of nature. How could she have believed she could capture him any more than she could hold the wind in her hands?

Tearing her attention away, Jody scrolled down to the latest developments in the contest. There was more information about the finalists, but no reference to a winner. If people hadn’t been congratulating her about the contest, what had they meant?

Outside, she found Gladys releasing Elsie and Half-Pint into a grazing area near the house. “They’re getting along just dandy now,” the forewoman said before Jody could question her. “You’re doing a lot better job than your daddy thought you would. He told me once that you were a born town girl.”

“Wait a minute.” Her father hadn’t believed she was suited to being a rancher? “I thought my parents were counting on me running the Wandering I. Dad went on and on in the will about how to handle everything.” Jody had read the document many times for guidance. “If he expected me to sell it, why did he bother?”

“What your father expected and what he wanted, well, I don’t know if they were the same.” Removing her baseball cap, the forewoman wiped the sweat off her forehead.

“Don’t pussyfoot around!” Jody said. “Did Dad want me to run the ranch or not? You were a witness to the will. You must have some idea.”

Gladys leaned against the fence. “You want me to level with you?”

“You bet!”

“Your father told me he figured you’d insist on running the place because you’re so stubborn,” she said. “As best I can remember, his words were, ‘Once she gets an idea in her head, Gladys, she won’t let it go. She’s a schoolteacher, not a rancher, but just you watch.’ He left you those instructions because he figured you’d need the help.”

Jody struggled to absorb the implications. “What did he want to happen to the ranch?”

“He didn’t say.”

It wasn’t like Gladys to act so cagey. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Jody demanded.

Her forewoman wedged the cap onto her head. “Because, you see, Louise and I…” She broke off to clear her throat.

“You and Louise what?” Jody prompted.

“We’re both ranchers by nature,” Gladys said. “But she knows how hard it was for me to find anyone that would hire me, so she’s studying transcribing although she doesn’t give a darn about it. As for me, I’d like to buy the place if I could work out the financing, but I doubt any bank would take a chance on me. In any case, it wasn’t my place to tell you what to do.”

In other words, Jody thought, she could have arranged a year ago to sell the ranch to Gladys and carry the financing herself, but her forewoman had been too ethical to take advantage of the situation. “I’m glad you told me this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Gladys said. “I’m glad you’re running the place. Just as long as you don’t sell it to some male chauvinist, I’m happy. I’m sure Bo and I will get along fine.”

“What’s Bo got to do with it?” she asked.

“You mean you’re not going to let your husband be involved with the ranch?” Gladys asked.

Jody wondered what on earth she was talking about. “What husband?”

“You and Bo,” said her forewoman. “The other day in town, he said you two were engaged.”

This was getting weirder and weirder. “When was this?”

“I was at the drugstore restocking our supplies and some of those ladies who’ve got nothing good to say about anyone started pumping me for information about Callum.”

“Oh, great.” Every town had its busybodies. Everett Landing was no exception.

“Melody Lee, that old witch who always looks like she’s sucking a lemon, said wasn’t it too bad you couldn’t hold on to a man and how glad she was you weren’t teaching school anymore and corrupting the children with your loose ways. You know how she is.” Gladys shook her head. “Well, Bo overheard and he said, ‘A lot you know. The fact is, Jody sent him packing because she and I are engaged, only we haven’t announced it yet.”’

“Bo said that?” She had to smile at the image of her friend flying to her defense. “I appreciate the impulse, but it’s not true.”

“It’s not?” Gladys let out a snort. “It sure did shut up those gossips.”

“No, it didn’t.” Jody sighed. “They must have told everyone in town. That’s why people kept congratulating me. What a mess!”

“It’s not so bad,” the older woman said. “It wouldn’t hurt if Callum heard that rumor himself.”

“Don’t you dare!”

A piercing whistle from the barn drew their attention to Freddy, who was signaling for Gladys’s help with a stubborn horse. “Got to go, boss-lady. I’ll see you later,” said the forewoman.

“Thanks for telling me about Dad. And about Bo.”

“My pleasure.”

Jody marched into her office and dialed the newspaper. Bo’s secretary put her through.

“Jody!” His voice rose half an octave on the end. It sounded as if it were in danger of breaking.

“I heard we’re engaged,” she said. “It came as kind of a surprise.”

He issued a choking noise. “I meant to tell you about that.”

“When?” she asked. “On our wedding day?”

“I’m really sorry.” Bo sounded so miserable that she took pity on him.

“I appreciate that you were trying to help. Gladys told me about Melody and her remarks,” Jody said. “Couldn’t you have said something less extreme?”

“We could make it true,” said her friend. “We could get engaged. Married, even. I mean, if you want to. I’d sure be honored.”

Although she’d set aside any notion of marrying him after Callum returned, Jody allowed herself to toy with the idea once again. Having a husband would protect her and the boys from gossip. And with Bo, she could truly have a marriage of convenience.

She doubted that was what he had in mind, however. It certainly wasn’t what she wanted or needed. “Thank you, but I’m afraid I’m not in love with you,” she said. “Besides, it would break Evelyn’s heart.”

“Evelyn?” he asked in confusion.

“The waitress at the Downtown Café.”

“Oh, that Evelyn,” Bo said. “I eat lunch over there two or three times a week. She’s so pretty, I figured lots of guys ask her out.”

“Bo, you’re the one she wants,” Jody said. “Callum said it, so it must be true.”

“Callum found out that Evelyn likes me?” He sounded baffled but not displeased. “That’s amazing. I mean, a woman like her could have anybody.”

Jody supposed she should be offended that a man who’d just proposed to her was flattered by another woman’s interest. On the other hand, since she’d rejected him, his ego deserved massaging. “You should ask her out.”

“Are you matchmaking?” Judging by his tone, the prospect amused him.

“I like happy endings,” Jody said. “If I can’t have one for myself, I’d at least like to see one for you.”

“How’m I going to explain my chasing another woman when I’m engaged to you?”

“Tell people the truth,” she said. “It hurts less in the long run.”

“You’re a wonderful woman. If Callum can’t see that, he doesn’t deserve you,” Bo said. “I guess I’d better take your advice. If I eat dinner at the café tonight, I can ask Ella Mae to spread the word that I spoke in haste.”

“Oops. I just remembered, I volunteered to help at the charity bazaar at church tonight,” Jody said. “I guess that means I’ll get lots of opportunities to set the record straight.”

“I could stop by and help.” His statement lacked enthusiasm.

“Go to the café,” she said. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

By the time she hung up, the boys were awake. Jody had no more time to think until much later. As it turned out, Gladys’s revelation about the ranch had given her plenty to chew on.

BY CALLUM’S USUAL STANDARDS, the week had been a triumph. On Friday afternoon, the entire staff celebrated the plans for the cable series. He sent out for champagne and chocolates, and everyone was having such a good time that an hour later he ordered pizza so they could party into the dinner hour.

It was a lot better than going home alone to his empty condominium. Despite its prized beach view-at an angle from the balcony-and trend-setting decor, he now found the place less than satisfying. There was no one to play cards with and no one to accompany his trumpet playing. The steady boom of waves and the mutter of passing cars were no substitute for childish shouts and womanly laughter. He even missed the smell of manure from the barn.

Until last week, he could have sworn no one in L.A. looked like Jody. Now he saw her everywhere. A ripple of brown hair going into an elevator had pumped adrenaline through Callum’s veins only this morning, and yesterday he’d quickened his stride on the sidewalk to come alongside a shapely brunette in jeans and a bandanna. Each time, his spirits had plummeted when he angled into position and saw that, of course, it wasn’t her.

“You can’t be having much fun, standing over here wearing a lost-puppy expression.” Tisa paused in front of him. Around them, he realized, the room was emptying as co-workers finished their pizza and departed for the weekend.

“Sorry. Am I putting a damper on things?” he asked.

“You know, I’ve met a lot of men who think they’re the center of the universe,” the managing editor told him. “You’re the only one who actually comes close to being it. This whole place feeds off your energy. When you’re down in the dumps, we all start to sag.”

Callum couldn’t summon enough energy to enjoy the compliment. “I miss my family.”

Tisa folded her arms. “I never thought I’d see you lovesick, Callum Fox. That Jody must be one fine lady.”

“I asked her to move out here. She turned me down,” he said.

“When did you start taking no for an answer?” asked the editor.

She had a point. Still, Callum knew that, where Jody was concerned, applying pressure might simply backfire. “I’ll think about that.”

“I hope you get it together before we all sink into a major depression.” Tisa flipped shut a box holding half a pizza. “Take this home and eat it. That ought to help.”

“Thanks. I haven’t had time to get to the supermarket in days.”

The beach area was filling with people in a party mood, Callum saw as he drove home. Young couples wandered along the sidewalks, scanning menus posted outside restaurants. From the condo next door, music blared through open windows. As he closed his garage door and circled to the front, he caught the smell of spilled beer mingling with the briny sea scent.

One of these days he ought to buy a house inland with a yard big enough for a dog, Callum thought. He might even find a horse property in one of the canyons that ringed L.A.

What on earth was he thinking? He didn’t have time to take care of a horse, or a dog, either.

In the kitchen, he munched on pizza while calculating how many times he’d phoned Jody since Monday. Once to report that he’d arrived. Again on Wednesday to tell her about the cable show. In between, he’d e-mailed photos. She didn’t seem to mind the intrusion, and it had been two days. He decided it wouldn’t be intrusive to call again.

His mood lifting at the prospect of talking to her, Callum rapid-dialed her number. His heart gave a sharp thump when he heard a female voice, until he realized it wasn’t hers.

“Reilly residence,” said a familiar Texas twang.

“Hi, Gladys,” he said. “Is Jody around?”

“She went out,” said the forewoman. “I’m baby-sitting.”

Although he always enjoyed talking to the boys, Callum’s spirits nose-dived. “Do you expect her back soon?” Surely she couldn’t be out much longer. It was nearly nine o’clock in Texas, and ranchers kept early hours.

“I don’t expect so,” Gladys said. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard the news.”

“What news?” He hadn’t been gone long enough for anything major to change, surely.

“About her and Bo. It’s all over town that they’re engaged.”

“You’re joking, right?” Jody hadn’t shown a trace of interest in the man!

“She can hardly get out the door without someone congratulating her,” Gladys said. “Folks around here think it’s a great idea.”

“It’s a terrible idea,” Callum said. “She doesn’t love him.”

“He’s crazy about her.” That much was true, he supposed. How could a man help falling for Jody? “And the boys need a father.”

“They already have a father!” he said. “I won’t allow it.”

“I can’t see that it’s up to you,” Gladys answered in a maddeningly calm drawl. “You’re not here, if I may point out the obvious.”

“I’m going to be,” he said. “I’m coming right out. Don’t tell Jody. I don’t want to give her time to marshal her arguments.”

“My lips are sealed,” said Gladys.

At his request, she put the boys on the phone. Callum managed to concentrate long enough to enjoy their anecdotes about their games and the puppy. He assured them that he loved them and promised to see them before they knew it.

As soon as they hung up, he got on the Internet and booked the first available flight.

CHAPTER EIGHT

RUNNING THE Rototiller was hard work. Sweat trickled between Jody’s breasts, darkening her T-shirt as she pushed ahead, determined to finish the job this afternoon. The garden needed proper tilling to bear enough vegetables not only for eating but also for canning.

Behind her, the boys followed at a safe distance, collecting rocks and debris in buckets. The dirt smears on their faces testified to their enthusiasm.

She supposed she could have assigned Freddy to push the machine, but she relished accomplishing the hard task on her own. Maybe her father had been right that she wasn’t cut out to be a rancher, but he’d been right about her stubbornness, too.

Over the roar of the motor, she heard the boys shouting, so she turned it off. As the rumble died, Ben and Jerry were calling, “Daddy! Daddy!”

Impossible. Jody turned and stared. How could Callum be here? Yet there was no mistaking his grin, so bright it eclipsed the sun, as his sons pelted toward him across the yard. Tailored slacks and a soft jacket outlined the lean stretch of his body when he lifted first one and then the other overhead.

Too overwhelmed to react, Jody stood like a tree stump, waiting for this sophisticated apparition to acknowledge her. She hated being so disheveled but it couldn’t be helped.

After setting the boys on their feet, Callum let them tug him forward. At the edge of the dirt, he stopped to frown at her. She didn’t think he was really angry, but something must have put his nose out of joint.

“What?” she demanded.

“You are not going to marry that man!”

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t love Bo. He could never make you happy.” Callum folded his arms. “Furthermore, I refuse to let another man raise my sons. They’re mine and you’re mine.” He blinked as if surprised by his own words. “Not that I’m trying to boss you around. Well, yes, maybe I am. Break off the engagement. I’m not leaving till you do.”

Jody’s mind performed a rapid search of possibilities and hit on the obvious. Gladys must have told him about the sham engagement. Shame on her! And hoorah, too.

Apparently Callum had flown all the way to Texas to demand that she jilt Bo. Double hoorah! Unfortunately, once he learned the truth, he’d go straight home.

Jody decided not to let him off the hook yet. “It’s not every day an old maid rancher gets a proposal of marriage.”

“You’re no old maid. And there’s no reason to run down the aisle with the first man who asks you!” Callum snapped.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jody said. “I have no intention of running at my own wedding. I might trip over my gown.” The boys stared from one to the other of them, trying to understand. Since this wasn’t an appropriate conversation for them to overhear, she said, “Why don’t you kids go tell Gladys that Callum is here? I think she’s in the barn.”

“Okay.” Ben turned to his brother. “Race you.”

“Loser!” said Jeremy, and took off running.

“I don’t understand,” Callum said when they were alone. “Why are you doing this?”

“Bo asked me to marry him,” Jody said. “He also told some people in town that we were engaged because he was trying to spare my reputation after you left. But I said no.”

For several heartbeats, Callum didn’t move. Finally, he said, “You’re not getting married?”

She shook her head. “No, although I was tempted.”

“Why?” he said.

“I told you. Because he asked me.”

He waited as if expecting more. When it didn’t come, he said, “That’s it? You were tempted to marry Bo because he asked you?”

“It’s more than you’ll ever do.” To Jody’s chagrin, her voice trembled.

“But I asked you to move to L.A.,” Callum said. “You and the boys.”

“What kind of commitment is that?” she demanded. “You want me to uproot my entire life so I can be your girlfriend? No, thanks.”

“Whoa.” He spread his hands to halt her.

In the past, she’d avoided confrontations from fear of alienating him. Well, she was finished letting fear run her life, and she didn’t intend to stop talking until she was good and ready.

“California is your turf, not mine,” Jody said. “You have your work and your friends. What about me? In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not the type to hang on some guy’s coattails. I don’t want to be part of your entourage, Callum.”

“What entourage?”

“All those women who think you’re wonderful and those celebrities who invite you to their parties.” She barely caught her breath before raging on: “You’re going to be an even bigger deal once you’re on television. Maybe when they drop by your house, your pals will mistake me for the housekeeper. Won’t that be fun?”

He looked so bewildered she almost felt sorry for him. “Is this because I haven’t asked you to marry me?”

“You’re really slow on the uptake,” Jody said.

“But in L.A., people don’t worry about things like that,” he said.

“About things like what? A wedding ring?”

He nodded.

“I’m not from L.A. I’m from Texas.” As an afterthought, Jody threw in, “And so are you.”

“Good point,” said Callum. “Wait here.”

Without another word, he walked past the screened porch and disappeared around the chicken coop. Jody was so furious she wanted to scream, except that she didn’t see what good that would do. She was debating whether to turn the Rototiller back on and take out her frustrations on the hard ground when the boys dashed toward her.

“We can’t find Gladys,” Ben said, plowing right through the dirt.

“Where’s Daddy?” Jeremy trailed in his wake.

“I don’t know,” Jody said. “He’s kind of a funny guy sometimes.” An outrageous guy, she wanted to add, one who never made her forget she was alive.

If he were here right now, she’d slap him and then she’d hug him. Or maybe the other way around. Of course, once she hugged him, she might not feel like slapping him anymore.

“I see Daddy!” Jerry crowed. “I see him first!”

“I see him second!” cried Ben.

Callum swung through the afternoon carrying a big bunch of wildflowers. He raised them above his head, clasped both hands and gave a victory salute.

Okay, so I love him, Jody thought, her heart swelling. I must be the most foolish woman who ever lived.

He marched right through the freshly turned soil. In front of Jody, he dropped to his knees, extending the flowers. She took them as gently as if they were made of glass.

“Daddy, your pants will get dirty!” Ben said.

“Too late.” Callum chuckled. “Well, now that I’m here, everybody gather around.” They drew closer. Jody could hardly breathe. “First of all, I love you, Ben. I love you, Jerry. And I love you most of all, Jody.”

If a tornado had struck at that moment, she wouldn’t have stirred.

“If you would do me the honor of becoming my wife, I’d be the happiest man in the world,” he said. “I’ll sue anybody who claims he’s happier than me.”

“I was wrong,” she said. “You’re not a Texan anymore. Definitely from California.”

The interruption didn’t faze him. “I’ve given it a lot of consideration while I was picking these flowers and I’m willing to move the magazine to Dallas,” Callum said. “That’s as close as I can get and still have access to a major airport and the kinds of facilities we need. Maybe we can buy a ranch within commuting distance. What do you say, Jody? Will you meet me halfway?”

“You’d give up the West Coast for me?” she asked.

“I used to be afraid of getting trapped,” he said earnestly. “But I’ve changed. Setting the world on fire doesn’t mean much if there’s no hearth fire waiting for me at home. Not that I expect you to become my hausfrau when you look so cute behind a plow.”

“I look like an idiot,” Jody said. “I’m just stubborn, that’s all. I was never cut out to be a rancher. I’ve already decided that as soon as we can arrange it, I’m going to sell the ranch to Gladys. And since I’m going back to teaching, I might as well do it in Los Angeles.”

“Really?” Hope lit Callum’s face. “Does that mean you’ll marry me?”

“I will!” Jerry said.

“Me, too!” said his brother.

“That makes three of us,” Jody said.

“You mean it?”

“I love you,” she said. “I’ll sue anybody who says I don’t.”

Callum’s shout of happiness wiped away the memory of all those lonely years without him. As he drew Jody and the boys close, she could see that it had been her own anxieties that had held her back. She could have left with him after college or five years ago, but each time she’d feared that she would lose him once they reached the big city. Well, she’d nearly lost him anyway. It was long past time to take a chance.

When he released them, he was covered with dirt and utterly unconcerned. Jody brushed him off and then noticed the hopeless condition of her own shirt. “I’m going to change into clean clothes and then we’ll celebrate.”

“What about the garden?” Callum asked.

“I’ll deal with it later,” Jody said. “I was mostly doing it as a favor to Gladys, anyway.”

He handed her his jacket. “Take that inside for me, will you? I’ll finish for you.”

“But…”

“Never say I refused to do a favor for your forewoman,” he told her. “Besides, I like playing with noisy machinery.”

The motor roared to life and clods of dirt filled the air. Jody beat a hasty retreat while the boys stayed to cheer for their father.

Gladys was going to be delighted at the results of the trick she’d played on Callum. As for herself, Jody knew that, as the wife-to-be of the publisher, she would have to withdraw from the Mother of the Year contest. Under the circumstances, she didn’t mind one bit.

It seemed to be a good day for making dreams come true, all the way around. As carefree as if she were still a girl in high school, Jody went into the house.