Little Cowgirl on His Doorstep (Mills & Boon Cherish) (Cadence Creek Cowboys - Book 3)

by Alward, Donna

  She loved him. She must, or the words he’d flung at her this morning wouldn’t have hurt so much. She did love him, because as much as they hurt, she’d already forgiven him.

  There was only one thing that Callum would understand. And it involved Avery taking the biggest risk of her life.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  AVERY STOOD IN front of the storefront, gazing into the dusty windows. Tomorrow the real work would begin. The landlord was going to take out part of the wall separating the Cadence Creek Bakery from the other vacant space to make it one big store, with tables to sit at café-style. The bakery would continue to bake its fabulous breads and rolls, cookies and pies. The fancy cakes, though, that was going to be Avery’s area of expertise. Joining forces had been the smartest thing to do—working with, rather than in competition against, the biggest baked-good supplier in town. It also meant lower overhead for Avery, as she had access to the bakery’s equipment. It was a winwin—running her own shop without assuming the same level of risk.

  The biggest risk was moving here in the first place. But whenever she started to get cold feet, she thought of Clara’s words. Cadence Creek was a good town with good people, business opportunities and, as she’d reiterated during their phone calls, a built-in support system. Avery loved it with or without Callum, and she was excited about starting this new chapter in her life, and thrilled that Nell was going to grow up in the warm, small town.

  The kicker was that Callum didn’t know anything about her return. She’d sworn all the Diamonds to secrecy and she’d resisted the urge to tell him each time they spoke about Nell. The conversations were always polite but strained.

  She’d been terribly afraid to tell him for fear he’d try to talk her out of it.

  Nell kicked her legs in the stroller—the heavy-duty one this time—and with a laugh Avery wheeled her back to the car, which she’d parked on a side street in the shade. There was a different feel to Cadence Creek now in late September. The hanging baskets were still up on the lampposts but there was a laziness to the Indian summer heat, a fullness to it, that Avery enjoyed. She missed the bright colors of an Ontario autumn, but she found herself intrigued by the golden-hued prairie fall.

  All along the drive out of town and south to Callum’s place she admired the yellow poplar and birch leaves and the brown stubble of the harvested fields. A beat-up half ton truck she didn’t recognize sat beside Callum’s newer one.

  Avery knocked on the door, doubting that she’d find him inside at this time of day. When the door swung open she caught her breath at the sight of him.

  Callum wasn’t dressed for work. He was in khaki pants and a dress shirt with his hair freshly cut and perfectly in place. Avery thought he’d never looked more wonderful.

  “Avery! What in the world are you doing here?” he asked, coming forward with a wide smile and eyes only for Nell. “Oh, my gosh. She’s grown so much and it’s barely been more than a month.”

  He reached out and grabbed Nell, propping her up on his elbow as he gave her a kiss on the head. “Hello, Nell-Bell,” he said, quieter, but Avery heard it and her heart melted.

  Even if things didn’t work out between them, she knew this was the right move. Callum needed to be near Nell. She was good for him. And he was good for her—even now, when Nell’s fingers reached out and grabbed Callum’s bottom lip.

  “You didn’t tell me you were planning a trip so soon. Is everything okay?” He frowned.

  She smiled to reassure him. “More than okay.”

  He paused and then met Avery’s eyes. She would swear he looked guilty of something. “You look good, Avery. Happy.”

  She was, she realized. Even with all the nerves and uncertainty, she was happy. In the time since leaving here in August, she’d discovered that she’d been trying to shoehorn herself into living someone else’s life. She wasn’t doing that anymore. Avery wasn’t an afterthought or a surrogate anything. She was a single mom in charge of her own destiny.

  Which brought her back to standing in front of Callum.

  “I am happy. And I have some things to tell you. Mind if we come in?”

  “Oh, of course!” He stood back, holding the door open for her to enter, Nell still sitting on his arm.

  Callum’s house hadn’t fallen back into the same unkempt state as before, and she wondered if he had more time or if he’d kept on with the hired help from Butterfly House. It felt like home. And Callum’s reception had been warmer than she’d expected, considering how they’d left things.

  “You two sure gave me a surprise,” he said, but Avery noticed he avoided looking into her eyes. Her heart sank, but only for a moment as he turned his attention back to his daughter. “How’s my girl, huh?”

  Nell giggled.

  “Gosh, I missed her,” he said. “I know it’s only been a little over a month, but she’s changed so much.”

  The sight of them together warmed Avery’s heart. “She’s sitting up on her own now. And I’ve had to start her on solid foods. She loves bananas and sweet potatoes.”

  Callum met her gaze. How she’d missed those dark, somber eyes. Was even more shocked when he reached out and took her hand with his free one.

  “Avery, the day before you left…I was a complete ass. I should have apologized long ago but I could never find the right words. I’m so sorry for the things I said that morning.”

  It should have made what she had to say easier, but it didn’t. “A lot happened in a short time,” she said quietly. “I understood where it was coming from.”

  “You were right,” he replied, his face close to Nell’s. Goodness, they really did look alike. “I was scared and I lashed out at you.”

  He swallowed, and she saw his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. She might as well go for broke and just say what she’d come to say. Someone had to break the silence. “Look, Callum, the reason we’re here is because we’ve come to Cadence Creek to stay.”

  “You need a place to stay? Of course you should stay here.” He still wasn’t looking in her eyes, instead focused on his daughter, who had a death grip on his index finger.

  Avery swallowed and tried again. “No, what I mean is…I’ve quit my job and terminated my lease and we’ve moved here for good.”

  That got his attention and his hand stopped moving. “You did what?”

  He stared at her like she was crazy. Lord, this wasn’t going as she expected. Then again, with Callum it never did, did it? The first time she’d arrived he’d called her a liar and slammed the door in her face, and she’d wanted nothing more than to return to her old life. Now here he was holding his daughter in his arms and she had uprooted everything so they could be together. Callum and Nell. Callum and her. All three of them.

  And now that the moment was here she was absolutely terrified of telling him how she felt.

  “It wasn’t fair that Nell was so far away. You’d see her, what, maybe twice a year? With airfare being what it is…and let’s face it, you can’t up and move without selling your whole place. It was easier for me, and there are opportunities for me here. I saw that this summer when I had to turn down requests for private events.”

  “So you came for Nell. And for work. Is that it?”

  She held his gaze, wanting to say the next words, the ones she’d practiced over and over in her head so often. They left her now, chased away by her fear of being turned away. He’d apologized but once more it fell short of any sort of declaration. She’d never laid her heart bare before anyone before, because she was always afraid it would get handed back. Not once in her life had anyone considered her worthy of fighting for. Not even Callum. He’d let her go so easily. Being the one to take the first step was terrifying.

  “Don’t you want to be closer to her?” she asked.

  “Of course I do.”

  “Well, then.”

  “What are your plans?” he asked, settling Nell on his hip and reaching into a jug for a wooden spoon. He handed it to Nell to play with.r />
  Disappointment rushed through her. That was all he was going to say about it? She struggled to keep her voice steady. “I’m renting the vacant spot next to the bakery. We’re taking out the adjoining wall and joining forces. I’m going to specialize in cakes and cupcakes, and Jean and her staff are going to keep on with the breads and pies. We’re adding a coffee area and some tables, too.” She smiled. “Jean says we’re going to give Martha Bullock at the Wagon Wheel a run for her money.”

  “It sounds great,” he replied. “Well thought-out. Still. It’s a big move, considering how much you loved your old job. To give up all that…”

  Her throat tightened. “Nell needs her father. You were denied the opportunity to be a dad once before, Callum. I couldn’t do that to you again.”

  Nell rapped his arm with the wooden spoon but he ignored her for once and pinned Avery with his gaze. “So this is about Jane?”

  “Isn’t it? I tried to tell you but you wouldn’t believe me. I want to show you that not everyone is like her. Not everyone is out to deceive you or pretending to be something they’re not. You couldn’t believe the words, so I chose actions. I swear to God, Callum, I was as surprised by that feeling of relief as much as you were. Up to that point, I had believed wholeheartedly that Nell was absolutely yours. When I saw the results, I finally understood why you’d insisted on having the test in the first place. Concrete evidence.”

  “I overreacted that day,” Callum admitted quietly. “What had happened between us scared me to death. I wanted to believe you. I did believe you. It was taking the next step that was freaking me out. It wasn’t about Nell. It was about you and me.”

  Avery watched as he absently rubbed his broad hand over Nell’s back. Nell was perfectly contented in his arms.

  “You and Nell need each other.”

  “Yes, we do. But what about you, Avery? What do you need?”

  She spun and looked out the window, surprised by the question and the rush of emotion it brought. “Oh, you know me. Just give me a decorating bag and a cake and I’m in my glory.”

  “Bull.” He came to her then and finally, finally, touched her. He put his hand on her arm and spun her back to face him. She couldn’t look in his face. If she did he’d see everything. So she stared at the button on his shirt instead.

  “What do you need, Avery? Just say it.”

  “I need…”

  She paused. Nothing had ever been this frightening before. Even with Crystal, she hadn’t had a choice about the emotion or the heartbreak. This time, though, this was like putting her heart in her hands, passing it to Callum and giving him every opportunity to grind it beneath his heel.

  “Yes?” he prompted, his fingers tightening on her sleeve.

  “I need…”

  Her breath clogged in her throat as she choked out an emotional hiccup. “I need you,” she whispered.

  “You need me,” he repeated softly.

  She nodded, tears spilling over her lashes. “Dammit,” she lamented, wiping them off her cheeks. “I don’t want to cry like an idiot. I don’t want to…”

  “What else, Avery? You need me…to do what?”

  She shook her head. “This is so hard,” she whispered.

  “I know,” he answered. “God, I know. But I need you to say it, Avery. Please.”

  She took a big breath. “I need you to love me, Callum. Because I love you.”

  “Thank God,” he murmured, letting out a giant breath.

  “I didn’t come back for work. I came back for you, Callum. And I’m so sorry for what happened before. So sorry how it all ended between us.” Now that the words had started she couldn’t seem to stop them. “My feelings for you were so new and scary, but it seemed like you didn’t feel the same way. You were so cool about it all. So ‘let’s just take it slow and see what happens’. I made everything about Nell and we never talked about how we really felt, even after…”

  She broke off, feeling suddenly awkward.

  “After making love?”

  She nodded.

  He smiled softly. “That’s why it hurt so much when I saw that look on your face when you read the results. We were together because I wanted to be with you. Because I found myself having feelings for you. I know I played it cool. That was my way of seeing if you were on the same page. It was all supposed to lead up to me asking you to stay. I was going to ask you that morning and then I just felt so…so foolish and betrayed.”

  “You were going to ask me to stay?”

  He nodded. “When Jane told me the baby wasn’t mine…you don’t know what that did to me. It was ten times worse with Nell, because I already loved her. I’d held her in my arms and seen her smile and heard her laugh.” He reached out with his hand and cupped her cheek. “I was afraid of everything I was feeling and that one little thing gave me the excuse I needed to lash out at you.”

  She lifted her eyes. “You were really going to ask me to stay here, with you?”

  He nodded slowly. “I was going to ask you to do the very thing you’re doing right now. Start your own business here in Cadence Creek. Not just because of Nell. Putting you on that plane, watching the two of you going through security was like watching my life walk away.” He inched closer and his thumb began rubbing her cheekbone. “I want you here with me. I want to wake up in the morning with you beside me. I want Nell in her own room with her own crib. You made me start feeling again, made me face the past and remember all the dreams for the future I used to have. And what did I do? I freaked out and pushed you away.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her softly, the baby-powder scented shape of Nell between them, holding them slightly apart. Avery didn’t mind. She had dreamed about kissing him again, longed for it in the depth of night when Nell was asleep and she’d felt incredibly lonely. Her life was broken into so many segments now. Before Crystal’s death and after. Before Nell and after. Before falling in love with Callum…and after.

  “What about the future you can have right now?” she asked, resting her forehead against his. “Do you trust me now, Callum?” She stepped back so she could look him in the face. “I know words aren’t enough, but I’m trying to show you that I’m here, and that I’m ready to stick it out.”

  “As grand gestures go, it’s pretty good,” he admitted, a tender smile on his lips. It faded as his gaze plumbed hers. “I love you, Avery. I should have said so ages ago. I may have been angry, I may have been scared, but letting you walk away was the biggest mistake of my life.”

  He pulled back and nodded toward the door. “A mistake I was going to try to fix.”

  She turned and saw a packed duffel bag behind the door.

  “I don’t understand.”

  His gaze delved into hers. “I hired one of the hands from Diamondback to watch things here for a few days. I was going to catch a flight to Toronto tonight.” He sighed. “I was pretty sure I’d wrecked any chance between us. I gave up, just like you accused me of doing. It took me all of ten minutes to realize I’d been an idiot. Harder to swallow my pride, though, and face my fears dead-on. I certainly don’t deserve another chance. But I knew I had to try. I love you, Avery. I love you so much. Nothing was right after you left.”

  “You were coming for me,” she said softly, amazed.

  “I was coming for you,” he confirmed. “I should have done it sooner. I should never have let you go in the first place. How very like you to beat me to it.” He smiled tenderly at her.

  Avery swallowed around a lump in her throat. “Oh, Callum, you deserve so much more than you think. You deserve someone who loves you, who will be there for you. Who cares for the man you are rather than wishing you were someone else. I love you just as you are. You don’t have to change a single thing.”

  His arms tightened around her, holding her so close that she wondered it was a miracle that Nell wasn’t protesting by now. She breathed in the scent of the shampoo he used in the shower. It was the smell of home—the one she’d always been loo
king for and had never found.

  “I love you,” she repeated. There was no fear in the words. Instead they expanded into something big and bright and limitless. She smiled, tilting her head to look up into his face. His lips curved until they were grinning at each other and Nell was beating the spoon on his shoulder and saying “bah, bah,” while neither of them cared a bit.

  Callum kissed the top of her head, then rested his cheek on her hair. “You didn’t give me the chance to show up with flowers and an apology. But I can’t be sorry, not as long as you’re here now…”

  “Just try getting rid of me,” she replied, snuggling into his side.

  “Never,” he decreed. “I won’t let you walk away twice.”

  “Well, I’m not walking away now. I’m here to stay.”

  Callum released her from his embrace, handed Nell over to her arms, then moved to stand in front of her. “Then I think we need to make it official.”

  “You do?”

  Callum nodded. “Yes, I do. You should be here, Avery. You and Nell, in this house. It wasn’t a home until you showed up and it’s where you both belong. And since I don’t expect this to be a temporary arrangement…”

  He reached for her hand. “I don’t have a ring or a fancy speech. All I can offer you is myself. So how about it? Will you marry me?”

  “What happened to taking it slow?”

  “I’m not letting you get away again. Not when I was so foolish to do it the first time. Marry me, Avery. Make us all a family.”

  Nell threw the spoon across the kitchen and it clattered on the floor, the sound making her throw up her hands and giggle.

  Callum and Avery laughed at the surprised expression on Nell’s face. Avery twined her fingers with his. She’d gone most of her life feeling like there was something missing. An anchor to keep her grounded. A safe place to rest her head and put down her worries. Here, in Cadence Creek and with Callum, she knew she’d found those missing pieces, and more. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t perfect, but it was right. And she knew that whatever happened, they’d find a way to make it work…together.