A Callahan Wedding. Tina Leonard
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He could fix everything.
* * *
“I THINK MATTERS ARE pretty much as you’d want them to be, Fiona,” Chelsea said on the phone that evening as she relaxed in the Callahan guesthouse. It was comfortable here. The Callahans were nice, and they never bothered her, just seemed determined that she eat with whatever Callahan brother’s family had an extra seat that night. Altogether, being here was an enjoyable adventure, and the experience would give her a lot of material for the next mystery she was writing. “Jonas has a new baby—”
“A baby!” Fiona’s voice was like an explosion in her ear.
“Yes. His name is Joe. Sabrina’s the mother—”
“Sabrina McKinley!” Fiona chortled. “That is going to be one wily child. I wonder which parent he’ll be most like? Jonas is slow and studious, and Sabrina is quick-witted and adventurous.”
“He looks like Jonas,” Chelsea said thoughtfully, “but I do think he has some of his mom’s mannerisms. Sometimes when he sits in his carrier looking out at the world, I could swear he knows exactly what’s going on.”
“Tell me more,” Fiona said.
“Well, there was some guy here who apparently hacked into Seton’s computer in his effort to find your sister and her husband—”
“What?” Fiona’s voice over the phone sounded strained. “They caught him?”
“I heard they did.” It was hard to listen in on conversations around the ranch and not ask questions. Chelsea tried not to arouse suspicions. The last thing she wanted anyone to know was that Fiona had put her up to coming over with Jonas to “report” on the family. When he had proposed, it had seemed to Fiona like a golden opportunity, and she’d hatched this plan. Chelsea had been fine with it, excited to come to America, but she’d quickly figured out there were a lot of deep currents under the seemingly placid Callahan waters. “They had to release him, though.”
“That worries me.”
“It was strange, because the guy had been living in the canyons for years, biding his time. Sort of a secret cell, waiting for something to come to light.”
“Hmm. I don’t like the sound of this. Chelsea, are you all right in Diablo, or do you want to come home?”
“I’ll be fine for another week or so, I think.” It really was pretty in Diablo, so different from Ireland. Her mother was in good hands at the moment, so an adventure was probably best for all of them.
“Thanks. I’ll talk to Burke and see what he thinks we should do. Call me soon, all right?”
“I will.” Chelsea hung up the phone and looked out the window, where she could see Sabrina and Jonas with little Joe. She smiled at the picture the three of them made. Never had she seen a man more gaga for a woman than Jonas. He really had been fooling himself about not marrying Sabrina.
I’d like having a man so crazy about me. The problem is, I’m too picky for my own good.
* * *
“I CAN’T DO IT,” JONAS told Sabrina as they took a stroll around the ranch that night. Little Joe dozed in Jonas’s arms. “I can’t find myself. You’ll have to choose some other Herculean task for me to perform.”
Sabrina stared at the man who’d fathered her child, and shook her head. “What spooked you?”
“I’m not sure. It was a combination of things. You’ll have to choose a different test.”
Sabrina watched the moon glowing in the New Mexico sky, and thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen besides little Joe. “It’s not a test, Jonas. It’s just giving you time to figure out what you really want in life. And you can’t do that until you know what happened in your past. I think the past determines the future.” She reached up to run her hand across his cheek. “When I first met you, your aunt had hired me to tell you a yarn. I did that, only because I knew Fiona had her heart in the right place, that she was trying to help you Callahans, and not hurt you. I just don’t want you to ever regret that you married a woman who was out to trick you. Remember when I told you that the ranch was in trouble?”
“Yes,” Jonas said, “and it was.”
“Well, that’s the point. It still is.”
He rubbed his chin. “Just from a different source.”
“Exactly.” She knew the sheriff had released the man Sam had caught snooping around Rancho Diablo. And why wouldn’t the spy go right back to doing what he’d been doing—trying to find their parents? After all, that’s what he’d been hired and trained to do. “Maybe you should talk to him again.”
“I don’t think so. He’s not going to give up any more information. Anyway, you’re going about this all wrong. You should marry me, and then let me solve all these issues as they become solvable.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Sabrina said. “But you have a lot to do. You don’t need to be sidetracked right now.”
“There are more important things in life than worrying about the ranch, or about the past. Like watching little Joe pull himself up today. I’d rather focus on the good things.”
“I know,” Sabrina said, “but every marriage has rough patches. Take care of this rough patch first. You’ll thank me later.”
“I don’t know,” Jonas said. “I feel strangely compelled to get into bed with you instead of playing Sherlock Holmes.”
Sabrina smiled. “I never said you couldn’t seduce me, cowboy.”
Jonas’s eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t?”
She shook her head slowly. “No, but maybe I should. You’ll work harder.”
“I was always the guy who worked best with incentives,” Jonas said, pulling her close with his free arm. “Try me with the carrot-and-stick approach and see what happens, beautiful.”
“Jonas!” Sabrina giggled and put up no fight as they stepped through the door of the main house.
Five pairs of eyes stared at them.
“Hi, Jonas,” Rafe said. “Did you forget it’s time for the weekly meeting?”
“Uh…” Jonas carefully untangled himself from Sabrina and looked around at his brothers. “Can I skip this one?”
“Jonas,” Sabrina said quickly, “you have your meeting. I’m going to go give Joe his bath. ’Bye, guys.” She gathered the baby into her arms and stepped back into the night air, taking a deep breath as she went.
It had been a long time since Jonas had held her. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on him.
Yet rushing things wouldn’t help anything.
She drove to Corinne’s and went up the stairs to draw a nice bath for Joe. The house was dark and empty, and Sabrina wondered where her aunt was. She set Joe in the tub, washing him with a mild, lavender-scented shampoo. He splashed in the water, delighted with this playtime.
She didn’t want to rush Jonas, but moments like these were so sweet they were meant to be shared with the father of her child. He’d lost six months of Joe’s babyhood.
It would be easy to accept Jonas’s proposal. But if she hadn’t had Joe, maybe Jonas would have married Chelsea, or some other woman. What did marriage mean to Jonas? Partnership? Companionship?
Sabrina wasn’t certain.
For her, it had to be true love. That’s all she planned to say yes to—true love, the real deal.
“Or it’s just going to be me and you, babe,” she told little Joe, rinsing his hair carefully. “And we’re a pretty good team, anyway.”