Carrying the Rancher's Heir

by Charlene Sands

  It took a second, but her expression changed. She met his gaze finally as recognition dawned. Her eyes went wide. “You think I did this. That I—I—” she stuttered and couldn’t finish the sentence. Tears welled in her eyes.

  “Tell me he blackmailed you. Threatened to take your trust fund away.”

  Her head shook back and forth. “No. No, Tagg. My father didn’t threaten me. He didn’t blackmail me. Tagg, this is ridiculous. You can’t possibly think that I had anything to do with it. You have to believe me.”

  He ignored her plea. “I meet you in Reno and the next thing I know, I lose three big accounts. Three, Callie. Right in a row. We play house and my company goes straight into the toilet.” His body rigid, his heart frozen, he pointed his index finger at her. “I want to know, how did you do it? Did you spy on me? Listen in on my business conversations? Go through my files when my back was turned? Did you hack into my computer while I was sleeping?”

  Her expression changed. She lifted her chin, her caramel eyes hard and hot as fireplace pokers. The tears were gone now. How easily she turned on and off the waterworks. “I didn’t do any of that. And you know it.”

  Tagg didn’t believe her. He wouldn’t believe another word out of her pretty, traitorous mouth. “You know, you had me fooled. I was beginning to fall in love with you. You’re good, Callie. You kept me entertained. Does your father know how good you are in bed? Does he pay you to distract me with down and dirty sex?”

  She slapped his face. “You bastard.”

  Tagg’s rage surfaced. He fisted his hands and backed away from her. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  “I can’t promise that,” she spat out.

  Callie’s cell phone rang. She glanced at it on his desk, then locked eyes with him in a battle of wills.

  Tagg’s face stung from her slap. He wouldn’t soothe it. He needed the wake-up call to see his wife for the manipulative little bitch she was.

  The phone continued to ring. “It’s your father, isn’t it?”

  Callie shook her head. “No, it’s not my father.”

  “Answer the phone, Callie. Or I will.”

  “Fine, I’ll answer it.” Callie picked up the phone and seemed to recognize the number appearing on the screen. She spoke quietly. “Hello.”

  There was no mistaking a man’s deep voice coming through the receiver.

  “Yes, this is Callie.”

  Tagg took the phone out of her hand and put it up to his ear.

  “Well, hello, Callie. This is John Cosgrove. I looked up Wild Blue for you. I’ve got the name of his owner here. He’s thinking about selling. You could probably talk him into it if the price was right.”

  Shaken, Tagg stared at the phone. His stomach knotted. He turned toward Callie, confused, as if he were in a horrible, inescapable dream. “Were you trying to buy—”

  “Happy birthday, Tagg,” she bit out.

  Tagg closed his eyes and cursed under his breath as he realized his mistake. Clay’s warning hammered in his brain. You got yourself a good wife, Tagg. Don’t blow it.

  But it was too late.

  Callie had dashed out the front door.

  She was gone.

  Tagg slumped down in his chair and nearly missed landing in the seat. He grabbed the arm for balance and hung on. What had he been thinking? Maybe he hadn’t been thinking at all. Maybe he’d just been reacting to emotions he’d bottled up for too many years to count. Maybe he was too damn scared to face his feelings.

  He’d treated Callie like a second-class citizen on the ranch. He’d kept her at arm’s length and he’d done a good job of injuring her, time and time again.

  She didn’t deserve his brash treatment.

  A flash caught his eye from his office window. He strode over to peer out. Callie had saddled up Freedom and had taken off at breakneck speed, leaning forward and low over the saddle, the palomino’s mane slashing at her face. She headed north toward the rocky terrain of Red Ridge Mountains.

  Tagg raced out the front door and around back, calling her name. “Callie!”

  She didn’t hear him. She was already only a tiny speck in his line of vision.

  He stood there, for a moment. Defeated. Angry. Ashamed.

  And then he thought of another argument he’d had. Another wife. And all those guilt-ridden memories came back more clearly now than ever. He’d let Heather go after they’d argued. He’d been stubborn and prideful and something terrible had happened. She’d lost her life. Because he hadn’t backed down. He hadn’t stopped her from leaving. He hadn’t gone after her.

  His thoughts flashed back to Callie and the terrible hurt he’d witnessed in her eyes. He’d accused her of sabotage and wouldn’t let her explain. Her body had stiffened at his accusations and she’d looked so damn confused and innocent. At the time, he’d thought it an act. But the horrible joke was on him. He was the maker of his own tragedy. He’d been dead wrong about her. It shouldn’t have taken a phone message from John Cosgrove to wake him up. He should have known. He should have placed more trust in Callie.

  She’d been a good wife to him. She’d tolerated his moods and, Lord knows, he’d had more bad than good ones. He thought of the two children she’d helped in Boston and the foundation where she’d volunteered her spare time until she’d felt duty bound to come home and tend to her lonely, wretched father. And when she got to Red Ridge, she’d joined the Worths to help his family launch Penny’s Song. She’d done all that without asking for anything in return.

  She enjoyed making others feel good about themselves. Hell, she’d tried to do that with him. She’d tried so damn hard to cement their lives together so that one day they’d become a true family. It couldn’t have been easy for her—both Tagg and her father had pulled at her from opposite ends. He wouldn’t blame her if she wrote the two of them off for good.

  He thought about the stone and stucco walls he’d built to wallow in solitude, to keep others out and hide away for fear of feeling something valid and meaningful from entering inside of him. It was just a house, not a home. A house without life. A house without joy. A house without Callie.

  He didn’t know if she would ever forgive him for the awful things he’d said to her, the appalling way he’d treated her. He’d been granted a second chance, a second wife in Callie and hoped it wasn’t too late. He wanted her in his life. He needed her in his life. He’d been such a fool.

  Without wasting another minute, he grabbed his hat and strode to the stables. He had a wife to retrieve and he saddled his fastest horse to bring her back home.

  Callie slowed Freedom to a trot as they left the pasture behind. They headed east, climbing up the foothills with the sun at their backs. It had taken ten full minutes for her heart to stop bulldozing its way against her chest. The pounding finally relented and she was able to take normal, steadying breaths, yet she felt as if she’d been hit over the head with a sledgehammer, torn up, broken down and beaten.

  She’d been unnerved by Tagg’s accusations. They’d come out of left field and startled her. She’d never fully understood the depth of his hatred for her father and the residual effects it had on her until now. Tagg had never trusted her. He’d probably always suspected her of sabotage. That’s why he’d kept her out of his office. Why he wouldn’t let her work alongside him. Why he’d never allow himself to place any faith in her.

  Callie tried being a good wife. A wife Tagg never wanted, she reminded herself. She’d done everything she knew to do to make him see her for herself and make him love her. But it wasn’t enough. Nothing she’d done had been enough.

  She rode into the canyon, her mare climbing up a plateau where the vistas were staggering. Off in the distance, white puff clouds in a summer blue sky touched the mountaintops, but the immediate view was just as breathtaking. Callie dismounted and let her mare graze. She looked out into the crimson hills and deep-cut canyons before her with a heavy heart. She couldn’t truly appreciate the beauty here. Everything bright in h
er life had dimmed. Whatever was left began fading fast.

  Exhausted and weary, she walked to a boulder flat enough to fit her bottom and sat down. She put her head in her hands and closed her eyes.

  A few seconds ticked by before she heard the earth pulse beneath her, a subtle sound that she recognized from years of trail riding.

  When he reached the ledge, she didn’t look up. “If you’re here because of the baby, you can turn around and ride back home. I know my limitations and I’d never push Freedom further than was safe. I’d never endanger my baby.”

  “Our baby,” Tagg said tenderly. She heard him dismount and approach. “And I’m not here because of the baby.”

  “Go away.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Taggart Worth can’t do something? Now that’s a first.” She kept her head down and studied the red dirt encased on her boots. The sound of Freedom’s breathing reached her ears. She’d ridden her mare hard.

  “Callie, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a fool.”

  Callie peered at him finally, only to agree with him. “Yes, you have.”

  “I never meant to hurt you. I swear to you.”

  “You’ve never seen me as anything but the enemy’s daughter. You’ve never given me a chance. I can’t…do it anymore. I won’t.”

  Tagg nodded. “I don’t expect you to.”

  She looked away then, her heart aching with raw pain. She knew her marriage was over.

  “Callie.” He stepped closer, his voice so achingly gentle now that she steeled herself. She had to be strong and brave.

  “What hurts the most is that you think my father actually needed my help to sabotage you. And that I would do it! He’s been one-upping his competitors all of his life. But you’ve beat him many times, too, and don’t forget I came to the ranch only after you’d already lost out to him once this year. Knowing me had nothing to do with that. Don’t you know that he’d bribe, undermine, lose money and even pose subtle threats to win out against you? The Hawk doesn’t play fair, but you’re too honest and honorable to know that. You have principles. You’d never do something like that to a competitor.”

  Tagg lifted his beautiful lips. “You love me.”

  For all her little speech, he only got that from her explanation? Her dismay turned to anger. She rose from her granite seat. “Of course I love you, you idiot! Why do you think I slept with you in Reno? Why, Tagg? Did I just pick the hottest cowboy in the crowd and drag him off to bed? You…you were my fantasy. I’d only known you from a distance, but I’d seen you in school, seen you at the rodeo and when I saw you on that bar stool that night, looking like you needed someone to help you forget the pain, I took a chance on you. You were forbidden to me up until then. I chucked my father’s rules and maybe now I wish I hadn’t.”

  “You don’t mean that.” He came closer. Their eyes met. His presence unsettled her. She needed space from this man. She needed to push him away and keep him away. The hurt of losing him would nearly kill her. It was killing her.

  She realized the implication of her last statement. Her voice softened. “No, I don’t mean that,” she admitted. She put her hand on her abdomen and felt nothing but love for the baby growing inside her. “I want this baby, Tagg. I want it more than my next breath.”

  Tagg exhaled and it came out as a deep sigh, “So do I. I want our family. I love you, Callie.”

  She shook her head, refusing to believe him. This would only hurt later and the wound would never heal. “No, no, you don’t. You don’t love me.”

  “I do, Callie. I’ve been fighting it. For so long.”

  Tears threatened to fall. She had to be strong. “How can I believe that?”

  “You can’t take me at my word?”

  “Not this time, Tagg. You have too much at stake. I know you want to protect the baby from my father. I know you don’t want me to move off the ranch.”

  “I love you, Callie.”

  She shook her head.

  “I love you. I’ll say it a thousand times if I have to. I’ll say it until the day I die.”

  She gasped, wanting to believe him. Trying to believe him.

  Tagg studied her, seeing her indecision. When she thought he’d give up and stalk away, he sucked in a breath. It was as though he fought a mental battle and the decision was made with a quick nod of his head. He met her eyes earnestly. “I know your father was at our wedding.”

  Was this another of his accusations? She retreated. “I had nothing—”

  “Shh.” He snaked an arm out to bring her close and pressed two fingers to her lips. “I know you had nothing to do with it. I did. I arranged for him to be there.”

  “You!” Callie couldn’t believe it. Why, when Tagg hated her father so much, would he have allowed him on their property, much less to watch them take their vows. “Tagg, not you. You’d never—”

  “I did and believe me, it wasn’t for your father’s sake. To this day, he doesn’t know I was the one who arranged it. I did it for you. I didn’t want you to regret marrying me. I couldn’t bring myself to have The Hawk as part of the ceremony, but I knew one day you’d come to resent me for not having him there. And even then, as angry as I was with you, I wanted to give you that much.”

  “Oh, Tagg.” How could she not love this man? How could she turn him away now?

  “There’s more, Callie. It’s time I told you the whole truth. You have a right to know. To understand why I couldn’t give you what you wanted. My first wife…”

  Tagg’s voice broke. Callie helped him along. “I know about Heather.”

  “You don’t know this. No one does. I’ve kept this secret from everyone important to me. But now, you need to hear this as much as I need to say it.”

  “What do I need to hear?”

  “The night Heather died, we had an argument. Fact was, Heather had been married before. It only lasted a few months and the marriage had been annulled long before I’d met her. Her ex showed up at our house and I found them together talking. Just talking. She tried to explain but I was too jealous, too angry to listen. It was something that I should have let go but the whole thing got blown entirely out of proportion. We’d never fought like that before. She couldn’t take it anymore. She packed a bag and told me she was going to spend some time with her mother. I was…I was foolish enough to let her go. I figured I was right and she was wrong and she’d come crawling back to me when she figured it all out.”

  “Tagg, you couldn’t have known…”

  “I know that, but it doesn’t help. If I’d called her back, she’d be alive today.” Tagg’s face twisted in pain.

  “I’m so sorry.” Callie ached for him, but she didn’t have words to share in his grief.

  He closed his eyes as if reliving it. Then on a quiet, barely audible breath, he said, “Heather was pregnant.”

  Callie stared at him. She shook her head. “Oh, no.”

  Tagg’s voice took a self-loathing turn. “She hadn’t told me yet. The doctor said she’d wanted to wait…until my birthday. She’d wanted to surprise me.”

  Callie gasped, unable to hide her shock. She cried inside for the loss of life, for the unborn child that had never stood a chance. For an accident that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Everyone knew about the plane crash on the runway, a takeoff that went very wrong. Everyone knew that Heather died that night. But to her knowledge no one knew about the baby. Tagg had carried his burden alone. He’d lost a child that night as well. The guilt and pain he felt must have been excruciating for him to bear. And he’d chosen to endure that all alone.

  Callie couldn’t miss the similarities to their relationship. The pregnancy she’d kept from him, the birthday surprise, the fight that they’d had tonight and her storming out, riding off the ranch on her horse. All of it seemed surreal now. “Tagg, I…” But she couldn’t get the words out.

  “I closed myself off, Callie. I refused to let anyone in. I’d already blown one relationship. I lost someone
dear to me. I lost a child. It was my fault—all of it. I didn’t want to feel anything for anyone ever again. I wouldn’t let myself fall in love.”

  Tears spilled down her cheeks. Emotions washed over her at the utter pain she heard in his voice. “Oh, Tagg.”

  “I figured when Clay started Penny’s Song I could contribute and, in some small way, I could make up for the child that I’d lost.”

  She wiped her tears away. “Because you’re a good and honor able man.”

  “And a big idiot, too. You were right. I know I don’t deserve you. I used you as a scapegoat. I blamed you for something you couldn’t help. Your father has a vendetta against my family, but you have never taken part in any of that. What’s important now is that you know that I’d move heaven and earth to earn back your love. Let me love you, Callie. I promise I’ll do better. I’ll make it up to you.”

  He took her hand in his and she felt her bruised heart healing. He’d confided in her something he hadn’t told another human being. He’d trusted her with his truth. He’d opened up his heart to her and bared his soul.

  She wouldn’t tell him about his father and her mother. Not now. But maybe someday the two families could sit down together and talk it out, finally putting the past where it belonged. She would make her father listen to reason. And if she had to, she’d give The Hawk an ultimatum. If he didn’t let the past go and accept Tagg on his own merit, he’d truly have no part in her life. Or her child’s. Callie would make it right. She had to. She loved Tagg and her unborn baby too much and wouldn’t be torn in two any longer.

  Tagg got down on one knee.

  Callie drew her lips tight. Her hands trembled and the rest of her was a wobbly mess of nerves. “What are you doing?” she asked on a whisper.

  “I’m proposing to you, Callie. The way I should have. Let me do this right.”

  He waited for her answer.

  “Okay,” she said ever so softly.

  He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then began, “Callie Sullivan Worth, will you marry me? Will you let me love you and treat you the way you deserve to be treated? Will you let me be a husband to you, giving you all my faith, trust and love? If you give me this second chance, I swear to you, I won’t ever disappoint you again. I promise you we’ll have a good life together. I promise you, I’ll love you forever and then some.”