Page 33 of My Cowboy Temptation

My shoulders ease a bit from his news. Everly is safe. The stalker is out of commission.

Although the fact remains. We crossed the Palmers unnecessarily, and now there’s the risk they’ll find out our involvement in Cody’s incarceration and come after Lucas Castle and those he cares about.

Another reason that Callie will be better off getting out of this town.

Hanging up, I stare at the cabin again. She needs to know, and it probably would be best coming from me.

With the rain beating hard on my shoulders, I race across the stretch to the cabin porch and pound on the door. I sense her hesitancy to open it to me before she probably realizes that I might have news about her friend, and her footsteps race to the door, and she throws it open.

“Yes?” she asks, trying to be distant and reserved even though her green eyes are wild with fear.

“It’s okay. Your dad and Everly are going to be okay. She was nicked by a bullet, but once the medics have cleared her, she and your dad will be returning to the ranch.”

It’s like a dam breaks, and Callie steps forward into my arms, a motion that is so natural for us, and she sobs tears of relief while I hold her tight.

We might not have forever, but I can at least give her this now.

Finally, realizing we’re standing in front of the open door, I come in and shut it behind us. She takes my hand and brings me to the couch, taking a seat next to me.

She needs to talk. I can see that, and I’ll be here to help her through whatever she needs me for.

“Yesterday, when I walked into the kitchen and saw them together,” she starts, looking down at her hands. “I was so hurt, so outraged. And angry too, all at once. There are only a small handful of people I have in my life that I love and trust with my life, and to find that two of them have been keeping this secret from me was hard.” She wipes away a few tears and meets my eyes. “It’s not fair of me, I know. Seeing as how I’m keeping—we’re keeping—something from them as well.”

“Your reaction was perfectly natural. He’s your dad, and she’s your best friend. I’ll be honest; it was even a surprise for me. Although I have had some suspicions over the past few days.”

Callie blinks. “You already suspected they were together?” She shakes her head. “I don’t know why that surprises me. You always notice everything. Maybe if I wasn’t so caught up in this thing between us, I might have seen it too and not been taken so off guard.”

Tears well up in her eyes, and I rest my hand over hers, noticing how small and soft it is compared to my own. I like that.

“God. I think about how close I might have come to losing them both tonight,” she continues. “It made me see that the only thing that matters is that they love each other, and I love them. They have each other. And no matter how hurt and betrayed I might have felt, in the end, that’s what matters. I’ll forgive them and accept what they are.” She looks up at me with those beautiful green eyes, and I can’t breathe, scared that what she’s going to say next is going to make me hurt her more than I have. “And I’m certain that once we tell my dad about us, once he works through his own pain and betrayal and anger, he’ll come to see that he loves both of us and that seeing our happiness will be enough.”

Damn. She went there. And I sense there’s some truth in what she’s said. Her dad will certainly be furious—maybe even murderous—when he hears the truth about what I’ve been doing with his baby girl. But in time, he might come around to seeing that we make each other happy.

Although neither of us have said the words, I can see by the tender look in her eyes as she stares at me that Callie loves me. Nearly as much as I love her. And that love might make it easier for Lucas to come around.

Then again, maybe not. Maybe he’ll cast us both out of this life. Something that would be fucking painful, but that I could take and accept because I would have her.

But could Callie live without her father’s approval? Without his financial and emotional support? Possibly. I’d like to think so.

But then it always comes back to this.

That she shouldn’t have to settle for a life with a simple man with simple desires of living and working this land. She should have the whole world and any man she desires in it, any job or opportunity she wants, with the blessing of her dad.

She deserves more than I can give her. Plain and simple.

“I’m sorry, Cal. It’s just not that easy. Things between your dad and me, they go too far back for me to risk losing it.”

It’s the simplest excuse. Even if it makes me look like a coward, afraid to take on Lucas Castle. If I knew that I could make Callie happy in this life, that she wouldn’t be racked with regret for settling for me, then I would take on Lucas Castle and anyone else who would challenge what we have. But I don’t have that guarantee.

Her face goes blank; her eyes that were warm with a fire before are as cold as stone. “You’re saying you don’t want to fight for me. For us. That you’re more willing to throw what we have away than to risk losing my dad’s good graces.”

I don’t have a response, not one that will satisfy her. I just hang my head, unable to look her in the eye and see the damage I’ve caused her.

“I need you to go, Brody,” she says, her voice flat, with no emotion. “Now.”

I get up and go to the door, fighting the desire to turn around and tell her to hell with it all, let’s do it, let’s share what we have with everyone, to hell with the risk. But I can’t do that to her.

I’m almost through the door when her voice stops me.

“Tomorrow, I’m going to go to my dad and to my best friend and give them my blessing. Then I’m going to get on a plane and head to London where you won’t have to worry ever again that I’ll beg for you to take me back. I accept your limitations, Brody. I wish you well.”

“Cal, I—” But I don’t have anything else to say that will make this better. “I wish you well too.”

Then I step outside into the pouring rain and try to find space to breathe, knowing that I’ve lost the only thing worth having.

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