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Callie held her breath and on to the hope that surrounded her.
“You have?”
He wrestled with his words. “I’m … sorry. About Reno. Shouldn’t have happened.”
She deflated faster than a birthday-party balloon. Her stomach clenched tight and a slow burn began inside her belly. She’d been bold with Tagg that night. She’d never be sorry for taking what she wanted. For giving Tagg all she had to give. She’d relinquished more than her body in Reno. And now he was apologizing? Telling her it shouldn’t have happened?
Pride and anger replaced her disappointment.
“I don’t walk out on women like that, usually.”
How many women? How many one-night stands? She wished they’d woken up in each other’s arms that morning and declared undying love for each other. But she wasn’t foolish enough to believe that would happen between them.
“You left a note,” she reminded him in a tone that made him wince.
His look of deep, honest regret overpowered her. He regretted everything while she held close to her heart those wonderful memories.
“I should have stayed and explained.”
“Nothing to explain, Tagg. We both got what we wanted.”
Tagg shook his head. He didn’t believe it.
Unable to stomach his remorse another second, Callie looked away, glancing at the mare. “Are you going to comb her down? She’s breathing hard.”
Before he could answer, Callie took the reins and walked the horse inside the barn. “Come on, girl,” she cooed. “Let’s get you out of the hot sun.” The familiar musky scent of straw, feed and dank earth wafted in the air. She’d grown up around those barn smells.
Tagg stood there a moment watching her, his expression tight, giving nothing away. Then he strode into the barn behind her. Callie had never felt so raw inside. So unnerved. But she came here to tell Tagg something and she wouldn’t leave until she did.
She took off the mare’s bridle while Tagg began removing the saddle.
“You don’t have to do that,” he snapped.
She’d annoyed him. Good. “It’s second nature with me. I grew up on a ranch, too.” She shot him a smile.
“Kind of hard to forget our biggest competitor.”
She set the bridle on a hook and grabbed a grooming brush. “Is that the problem? I’m The Hawk’s daughter?”
Tagg’s mouth twisted. “No.”
She handed him the brush and their fingers touched. Briefly. For a split second. It was electric, a jolt that tingled down to her toes. She saw a flicker in Tagg’s eyes, a gleam that lit up before fading into his unreadable expression once again.
“I wasn’t expecting flowers and candy,” she said quietly.
“You got less than you deserved.” He set the brush on the mare and began grooming her with long sweeping strokes.
“I knew what I was doing, Tagg. It was … pretty amazing. Are you going to deny that?”
Tagg stopped brushing the mare and turned to her, his eyes dark and hard. “No, I won’t deny that, but it can’t happen again.”
“I don’t want it to,” she said quickly, her pride taking hold. “Just so you can get your ego through that barn door, I’d better say what I came here to say. I thought you’d care to hear this from me rather than from your brother. You’re going to see me around Worth Ranch from now on. I’m volunteering at Penny’s Song. It’s a worthy cause that I’m fully behind and I can’t wait to get started working with the children.”
“You?” Tagg silently cursed. Callie Sullivan was the last person he wanted to see on Worth land day in and day out. He couldn’t believe she’d shown up here today. He’d been thinking about that night in Reno for weeks now. Remembering how good it was with her. His blood pressure escalated the second he’d spotted her on his property. And in that instant when they’d touched, memories of hot sweaty mind-numbing sex had rattled his brain.
“Yes, me.”
“Why?”
“I told you. I want to work with children. I’ve got a degree in psychology and I know I can be an asset at the facility. Clay thought I’d be perfect, since I’m good with horses, too.”
Clay? He was going to have to talk to his brother. Never mind that Callie Sullivan was Hawkins Sullivan’s daughter and they’d already beat Worth Ranch out of one big cattle deal this year, Tagg didn’t need the temptation Callie posed to him.
He resumed brushing down the mare. Clay had no clue about Tagg’s one-night stand with Callie and he wasn’t going to bring it up. If word got out, the family would try their hand at matchmaking. Lord knows, they’d tried before. But Tagg wasn’t shopping for a relationship and he’d made himself very clear. “Well, thanks for telling me.”
“It’s a pretty wonderful charity. Your brother is a good man for doing this.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I told him to forget I’m The Hawk’s daughter while I’m on the ranch. My focus will only be on helping to get Penny’s Song off the ground.”
“I’m sure he appreciates that.” He patted the mare’s rump then turned to fill a steel bucket half-full of oats. He’d ridden the horse hard while on the range.
Before he could get the oats to the mare, Callie stepped up, bumping him slightly. He caught a whiff of her perfume—flowery but earthy, as if she’d stamped her own unique scent on it. Memories flooded back instantly. That sultry dance in the bar. Her long black hair flowing wild and free. The way her moist skin tasted when he’d kissed her.
“I bet she’ll like this more.” Callie reached into her front pocket, coming up with half a dozen sugar cubes. She opened her palm to the mare. A pink tongue came out to lap up Callie’s treat. She slid her hand along the mare’s mane. “Are we friends now, girl?” Her tone was soft and soothing, as if they’d just shared something intimate. “Yeah, I think we are.” She turned to Tagg, her eyes bright. “What’s her name?”
Tagg set the bucket down in front of the horse and moved to the wall to hang up the brush, leaving Callie and her tempting scent behind. “Russet.”
Callie smiled wide. “That’s perfect.”
Tagg nodded, watching Callie interact with his horse. She wore jeans and a soft cotton shirt, nothing daring, nothing that would raise a man’s temperature. Except that he knew what was underneath her clothes: soft creamy skin, hips that flared slightly and perfect breasts that when freed of constraints could bring a man to tears.
She knew horses. Knew how to talk to them, how to treat them. That didn’t surprise him as much as please him. He leaned back against the wall watching her until Callie realized what he was doing.
Her brows lifted, a question in her expression as she looked at him.
“Why’d you do it, Callie? We barely knew each other. Why me?”
Deep in thought, she studied him, and Tagg wondered if she would tell him the truth. A moment ticked by and then she tilted her head slightly. “When I saw you sitting on that bar stool … you looked how I felt.” She stood with set shoulders near his mare. “Lonely. Disappointed. Wishing things in your life were different. I thought we needed each other. That maybe we could help each other.”
Tagg hadn’t expected that much honesty. Callie had looked into his soul and really seen him. He never spoke of Heather to anyone. It was as though if he didn’t say the words aloud, they wouldn’t be true. They wouldn’t hurt as much. Except now, with Callie, he felt a need to explain, if only this one time. “It was the anniversary of my wife’s death. She was everything to me. I went to Reno on the pretense of business, to forget.”
Callie cast him a sympathetic look, her eyes filled with under standing. “I’m sorry.”
“No sorrier than I am.” He looked away, gazing out the barn doors to the land that had belonged to the Worths for generations, not really seeing any of it. He pushed images of that fiery split-in-two plane on the tarmac out of his mind. He’d seen it enough in his nightmares. He turned to her then, looking deep into her pretty brown eyes. “When I said that night shouldn’t have happened, I meant it. Nothing’s gonna come of it, Callie. It’d be best if we put it out of our heads.”
“Agreed,” she said instantly, her eyes firm on his. “Like I said, I’m here to break the ice. In case we should bump into each other at Penny’s Song. I’m not good with awkward.”
Tagg smiled. “Me, neither. Never had any social skills.”
She chuckled deep in her throat and nodded in agreement. He almost took offense but then Callie’s lips parted slightly and she spoke soft words that couldn’t be misconstrued. “You make up for it in other ways.”
“Do I?” Always nice to know a female companion had no complaints when he took her to bed. Tagg’s mind drifted to the beautiful brunette with soulful caramel eyes moaning his name as he drove deep inside her. Oh, man. He shook those thoughts free before Callie caught a hint of what he was thinking.
He wondered what she needed to forget. What kind of loneliness and pain had she been clinging to that night? But Tagg wasn’t going down that road. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want any more involvement with Callie Sullivan, pretty as she was.
Callie pursed her lips and nodded. They stared at each other silently.
“I should go.”
“Probably should.”
“Okay, then.” She walked out the barn door and Tagg followed quietly behind her.
But then she stopped, turned on her heels abruptly and he nearly mowed her down. Their bodies connected; his chest knocked her backward. On impulse, he shot both arms out to keep her from falling. “Damn, woman. Give a man some warning.”
And there he was, holding soft, pretty Callie Sullivan in his arms. Her hair fell back, and when he righted her, the shiny strands came forward and tickled his fingers.
She blinked. Looked up into his eyes. “Thanks.”
“Why’d you stop so quickly?”
“I had something else to say.”
“Say it.” That musky flowery scent invaded his senses and reminded him once again about their night together. He released his hold when he was sure she was on level footing. Callie set her hands on her hips, the exact place where his hands had been. It was an unconscious gesture on her part, but one that tugged at his cold heart.
“I don’t usually pick up men in bars.” She shot him a bold look that dared him to doubt her.
Tagg arched his brows.
Color rushed to her face. “I mean to say, I’ve never had a one-night stand before. It’s not my—”
“Got it.” He wanted out of this conversation and the reminder of that night.
“You do? You believe me?”
“Doesn’t make a bit of difference if I believe you or not, but yeah, I do believe you. I may not have social skills but I’ve got good instincts.”
“It makes a difference to me. I’m glad you believe me. I mean, since we’ll be seeing each other from now on. Your opinion matters.”
It shouldn’t, he wanted to say, but kept his lips sealed.
His cell phone rang and he was glad for the interruption. Callie had a vulnerable expression on her face and Tagg was a sucker for a female in distress. He lifted up the phone. “Gotta get this.”
She smiled weakly and nodded. “Goodbye, Tagg.”
He watched her walk to her car and get in. Once she started the engine and circled around to the gravel road, he answered Clay’s call. “What in hell were you thinking hiring on Sullivan’s daughter?”
“I’m so glad you called, Sammie. I really needed to hear your voice today.” Callie leaned back on her bed, resting her head against the daisy pillow sham, speaking on the phone with her best friend and onetime college roommate.
Her bedroom on Big Hawk Ranch looked the same as it did when she was a child. The pale yellow and cornflower blue walls spoke of a brightness that Callie didn’t feel these days. She’d come home from Boston because her job there had ended just about the same time her father’s health had taken a turn for the worse. She felt the timing was right. She’d missed living in Arizona. She’d missed the ranch. But once she’d returned, she’d found that while everyone else had moved on with their lives, Callie’s life had remained stagnant. The room her mother had decorated when Callie was just a girl was one of many perfect examples. The Hawk never wanted the room changed and Callie had acquiesced.
“Yeah, you sound down this morning. There’s something wrong. So what’s going on?” her friend asked.
“I … I just miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” Sammie said. “And you know there’s nothing holding you there. You can come back to Boston anytime. I’ve got an extra room in my apartment that has your name on it. But, hon, I know that missing me isn’t what’s putting that tone in your voice. What’s up?”
“You know. The usual. My father.”
“The Hawk? He’s at it again? What did he do this time?”
“It’s a little complicated right now.”
Callie wasn’t ready to share everything with Sammie, especially the guilt she felt about her secret. But she could tell her the most basic truth, which was that she’d reached her boiling point with her father last month. She’d thought that having a college degree, having lived off the ranch for several years and having reached her twenty-sixth birthday would have made a difference with her father. But she’d come to the bitter realization that he would never change. Oh, she did love him. In many regards he was a good father, but his need to control the outcome of her life had gotten out of control lately.
“You know I was dating a man named Troy, right?” she asked.
“Right. The tall, blond carpenter.” He’d come to the ranch to build a new pool house and Callie had hit it off with him. “I thought you were still dating. I mean, the last time we talked you didn’t say you weren’t.”
“I didn’t tell you what The Hawk did because I was so furious with him, I needed some time to let it sink in. My daddy just doesn’t get that I can make decisions for myself.
He can’t see it as a control issue. He thinks he’s looking out for me the way a father should.”
“He’s overcompensating for you not having a mother. Trying to be both parents at once.”
“I’ve always understood that. I cut my father slack because I knew he grieved for my mother. But Mom’s been gone eleven years and instead of him moving on with his life, he tossed all of the love he had for her onto me. I’m on the receiving end of a doting, controlling, overpowering father. Lucky me.”
“Oh, Callie. Sorry. I thought he’d lighten up after you got home from Boston.”
“Just the opposite. He wanted me to work for him when I got home. Laid the guilt on pretty thick too this last time. The Sullivan legacy will die if I don’t take the reins at the ranch. All that he’d built up will go to ruins. The sky will fall and crush everything he’s worked so hard for. Finally, I gave in. I worked with him for months. And I tried, Sammie. But The Hawk and I just don’t see eye to eye on things.”
Which was a nice way of saying her father was too ruthless a businessman for Callie. She had strong professional ethics that he didn’t understand. They’d butted heads over business decisions constantly. “I finally told him no, not at this time. I want to work in the field I’m interested in, the field I studied for four years. And he backed off, a little. And then he pulled his Hawk maneuver with Troy.”
“What did he do?”
“Troy’s a really great guy. I liked him, but it wasn’t earth-shattering or anything.” Nothing compared to how she felt about Tagg Worth. Especially now, but she had to hold those feelings close to her heart for the time being. She was purposefully deceiving Tagg with a sin of omission, but it couldn’t be helped.
Restless, Callie rose from the bed. She moved over to the window and smiled when she looked down from the second story to find her palomino, Freedom, prancing around the perimeter of the corral. When her mother was alive, living on Big Hawk Ranch had given Callie so much joy. She still loved the ranch, but couldn’t abide her father’s way of doing things.
“I’d only dated him for a month. Daddy kept asking questions, hinting that Troy wasn’t good enough for me, just because of what he did for a living. Apparently, blue-collar workers aren’t good enough for a girl raised on a cattle ranch,” she added with sarcasm. “I was really beginning to like this guy and then he stopped calling. I couldn’t reach him by phone, so one day I stopped by his office trailer outside of town and asked him what happened. And you know, I have to give Troy credit for telling me the truth.”
“Which was?”
Before Callie could respond, Sammie sighed. “Oh, your father threatened him?”
Callie turned from the window, tempering the anger she felt at her father’s manipulation. “No, no … nothing that blatant. He offered Troy a lucrative job doing a remodel for a friend’s ranch in Flagstaff. Would take about six months at the very least. The only stipulation was that he break off all contact with me.” Callie laughed without humor. “Can you imagine? I about died of mortification and whatever I had building with Troy had been sullied, ruined by The Hawk, even though Troy had turned my father down flat.”
