Page 9 of Must Love Mistletoe

She nodded jerkily and refolded the apology and held it out to him.

He sure could back up fast for a big man.

“It’s for you.”

“He can’t read.” His brother Seth tried to make a joke out of the awkward moment.

“Allergic to limelight,” Jett offered.

“I’ll take it for safekeeping,” Mason offered, and it was this comment that had Cal reaching for the paper and hastily pocketing it.

The way Cal and his big brother locked hard gazes seemed only to confirm that Cal had just been soundly outmaneuvered. They butted heads, those two. Like two bucks fighting for dominance, and yet they would also defend each other to the death.

All she had to do was remember Mason’s words up on the mountain to know that.

“Thank you, all of you.” It didn’t seem like her apology had been nearly enough, but at least she’d kept her promise to her son and to herself and delivered it. “Ready to roll, Sam?”

Sam stepped up to Cal and hugged him hard, burying his head in the man’s waist. Cal’s big arm came around her son’s shoulder as he returned the hug. “You did your father proud today. I knew you would.”

“You helped.”

“Always will.”

And there it was. The steadfastness she didn’t know how to respond to because it called to her and always would.

“Come by for a coffee one morning this week if you have the time,” she said to Cal, as Sam solemnly shook hands with the rest of the Casey men before making his way to her side. “I have a thought or two about what I want to do with the ranch that I’d like to run past you.”

“We all invited?” Mason asked. “Because I’m away next week but back the week after.”Heknew, or at least suspected, where her ranch conversation was going. They probably all did.

The simple fact being that she couldn’t keep running it into the ground.

“Just Cal to start. And if any of you feel a burning need to tell me that Cara Sefton’s buying property in the area and would spend a small fortune to secure mine, I already know.”

“We can counter her,” Seth said swiftly. “I promised mom I wasn’t going to talk about this today and I’m not. But Casey and Sons, and that means all of us, can counter.”

“Good job not talking about it, dude,” TJ offered dryly.

“I can drop by Wednesday morning around ten,” Cal said.

“I’ll make breakfast. Second breakfast.” Was that too neighborly? What rancher ever said no to second breakfast?

“Can I be there, too?” Sam asked, but at this she balked.

“You, light of my life, will be at school.”

Chapter Four

Wednesday morning rolledaround way too soon as far as Beth was concerned, and her plans to meet Cal had changed twice already. First, when Cal had changed the time to eight in the morning. Second, when the hospital had called and asked her to cover a Tuesday night shift for a sick coworker. Savannah had offered to keep Sam overnight, Cal had offered to drive him to school and collect her for breakfast on the way, and Beth had gratefully agreed.

Which was how she came to be sitting in the cab of Cal’s work truck, with Sam squished between them, looking much the same as when she’d left him the night before, but in some ways rather different. “What are you wearing?”

Her boy grinned, lightning fast and all the sweeter for his simple joy. “Jett Casey’s winter gear from when he was twelve. I’m bigger than he was back then. And I got Cal’s belt from when he was a kid. Look, Mom. Hemadeit.”

It was a brown leather belt, plain as they came, with a strong steel buckle.

“And it fits me just right.”

“Good job,” she murmured.

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