The Rancher's Homecoming

by Arlene James

  “You said, ‘Chloe,’ I think.”

  Shaking his head, he slid to the edge of the couch, mumbling, “Uh, I f’got t’ tell you ’bout her.”

  Sighing, he got up, but he swayed so badly that Callie had to catch him, encircling his waist with her arms.

  “You need to go to bed.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let me help you.”

  “Always,” he muttered, dropping an arm about her shoulders and sounding half drunk. “Don’ know what I’d do withou’ you.”

  She moved him toward the foyer and the stairs.

  “Up we go.”

  “I hope.”

  He reached out and grasped the rail, pulling as she literally pushed, and together they slowly climbed the stairs. Two steps from the top, Bodie began to whimper; by the time Callie got Rex to his bedroom door, Bodie was wailing.

  His head turned, and he swayed in that direction, but Callie pushed him through his bedroom door even as he asked, “What does the baby want?”

  “Me.”

  “Smart girl.” He sighed, as she guided him to the narrow bed. Callie pushed, and he plopped onto the side of the bed. “Kiss her f’ me,” he mumbled as Callie picked up his foot and pulled off his boot.

  “I will.” She dropped the first boot and went after the other.

  “Here,” he said, catching her face in his hands and guiding it to his. He kissed her sweetly. “Mmm. Thank you.”

  “Go to sleep,” she whispered as he collapsed onto the bed.

  Sighing, he closed his eyes and drifted away even as her daughter shrieked from the other room. He was too big for that bed. Callie glanced around. He didn’t belong in that bed or in this room. This room was meant for a boy, not a grown man who worked until he collapsed. It seemed to her that everything had gone all topsy-turvy at the Straight Arrow, that nothing was quite as it should be. How much of it was because of her? Brushing tears from her eyes, she went out and closed the door, hurrying to take care of her demanding little daughter.

  He was up and gone again before daylight, no breakfast other than the toast and coffee that he fixed for himself, though she rose early to try to catch him. Callie made up her mind that she would grab the car keys from his dresser and drive his expensive two-seater out to the field if he didn’t come in for lunch. He’d probably have a fit. She hadn’t even seen the car. It sat under a temporary cloth cover beneath the big tree out behind the house, but she knew that it was an expensive, low-slung sports car completely unsuited to ranch life. Still, if he didn’t take care of himself, she would do what she had to.

  She didn’t have to make that drive, but not for the reason she’d hoped.

  As she was in the middle of lunch preparations, she heard the sound of tires on the dirt road outside the house. Assuming that Rex had come in for the midday meal, she relaxed, but then she heard unusual footsteps on the porch and a knock at the door. Glancing at Bodie to be sure she was fine in the playpen, Callie cleaned her hands and moved cautiously into the foyer to answer the knock.

  A stunning redhead, her long hair draped over one shoulder, smiled and fluttered a slender, perfectly manicured hand in greeting. She was tall, or seemed so in high heels, and wore an obviously expensive white suit with a pencil-thin skirt and formfitting jacket. Gold dripped from her wrist, fingers, throat and earlobes. Callie felt like a rock next to a polished gem.

  “Hello,” said this woman in a silky voice, her perfectly made-up, violet eyes sparkling with curiosity. “I’m Chloe Gladden.”

  “Chloe Gladden,” Callie echoed stupidly.

  Chloe. I forgot to tell you about her.

  “I believe Rex is expecting me.”

  “Rex, uh, isn’t here.”

  “No?” The woman shifted, bringing a slender briefcase from her back to her side, its narrow strap slung over one shoulder. “Well, I am a little early. I imagine he’ll arrive soon. Should I wait out here?”

  Callie swallowed down the response she wanted to make and backed up, opening the door wide. “No, no. Please come in.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chloe Gladden strolled gracefully inside. On closer inspection, she seemed a bit older than Callie had assumed, but she was slender, fit and very attractive.

  “Please take a seat. I’m sorry that I must ask you to remain in this room. Rex’s father is seriously ill and shouldn’t be exposed to anyone outside the immediate family.”

  “Yes, I know,” Chloe Gladden said warmly, sinking down onto the edge of the sofa. “How is Wes?”

  Callie found it surprisingly difficult to speak for some reason. “Um, as well as can be expected.”

  “Oh, I’m glad, for Rex’s sake as much as Wes’s.”

  Trying to smile, Callie asked, “How...how do you know Rex and Wes?” She knew the question was out of line, but she couldn’t help herself.

  Chloe Gladden sat up a little straighter, if such a thing was possible. “Didn’t Rex tell you? I’m his mother-in-law.”

  Mother-in-law? “I thought Rex was divorced,” Callie blurted out.

  Chloe Gladden smiled smoothly. “Yes. Of course. Technically I’m his ex-mother-in-law.”

  If this was the ex-mother-in-law, Callie thought bitterly, she never wanted to lay eyes on the ex-wife.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” she said quietly, “I need to get back to work.”

  Chloe Gladden smiled benignly, the type of smile that bespoke an easy comfort with servants. “Of course.”

  Turning blindly, Callie hurried from the room, bruising her heart with every step.

  Chapter Twelve

  “You’ve looked better,” Chloe said bluntly, following Rex into the study.

  Hanging his hat on the wall peg, he chuckled, well aware that he was dirty, unshaved and uncombed. “No doubt, but I’ve never been happier, Dad’s health notwithstanding.”

  “I guess that means you’re not coming back to the firm.”

  Surprised, he walked around the desk. “I thought we’d already settled that.”

  Chloe shrugged. “Your talents have been missed. In all areas.”

  Knowing perfectly well that she referred to her daughter, Rex snorted. “I find that hard to believe.”

  In a gesture of studied submissiveness, Chloe sank down onto the edge of the chair in front of the desk, her hands folded atop the slender, expensive briefcase in her lap. “Amy wonders if you would consent to meet with her. She wants to talk, to apologize.”

  With his hands at his waist, Rex looked Chloe straight in the eyes. “There’s nothing to talk about.” He pulled open a desk drawer and removed a file, tossing it onto the blotter. “You can tell her that her apology is accepted, and that’s the end of it.” He pushed the file forward. “The Shallot file.”

  Chloe reached out and picked it up. “You’ve moved on.”

  “I’ve moved on,” he confirmed. “The invoice is attached to the inside of the file jacket.”

  Flipping open the file, Chloe glanced at the invoice and raised an eyebrow before sliding the file into her briefcase. Relaxing back into her chair, she lifted her gaze.

  “Callie, is it?”

  Smiling, Rex went to the study door. “Callie!” he called.

  Within five seconds she appeared, Bodie on her hip, a dishtowel on her shoulder. “Yes?”

  “Sweetheart, would you mind if Chloe and I have lunch in here? We have work to do.”

  She glanced curiously into the study, while Bodie reached for him. “No problem.”

  “Thank you.” He kissed Bodie on the forehead, which allowed her to get one hand on his collar and the other in his hair. He laughed. “Hey, monkey, I’m too dirty for you.”

  “Let go,” Callie admonished gently, trying to pry her off.

 
“Oh, let her stay until you bring lunch,” he said, changing his mind. He pulled the towel from Callie’s shoulder as he gathered Bodie into his arms.

  Her forehead furrowing, Callie asked, “Are you sure?”

  He nodded, arranging the towel across his chest and holding Bodie against it. “She’ll have to have a bath afterward.”

  “She has to have a bath anyway,” Callie said. Leaning close, she whispered, “Lunch is just sandwiches, though. Why didn’t you warn me?”

  “Great,” he said heartily, ignoring the latter. “Bring it on.” He hadn’t warned her because he’d been too tired to think the previous evening, and he’d completely forgotten to leave her a note this morning. If Chloe hadn’t called for directions when she’d reached War Bonnet, he’d still be in the field now. For apology, he kissed Callie on the forehead. He really wanted to kiss her on the lips, but he feared that would embarrass her in front of Chloe.

  Frowning, she went off to put together the meal. Rex carried Bodie into the room and sat down behind the desk with her, turning her so that her back rested against his towel-covered chest. She stared at his guest, her fist in her mouth, drool sliding down her arm. What passed for shock widened Chloe’s carefully arranged lawyer’s expression.

  “You’ll have to forgive her,” Rex said smugly, jiggling Bodie’s bare feet. “She’s not much of a conversationalist, especially right now. She’s teething like crazy. Aren’t you, princess?” Bodie tilted her head back, yanked her fist from her maw and gave him a grin that showed all four of her tiny teeth. “She is, however, quite entertaining.” As if to prove the point, Bodie suddenly pitched forward and made a grab for the ink pen beside the blotter. Rex calmly flicked it out of her reach.

  She flipped over and crawled up his chest. Rex leaned back in his chair, laughing as she bounced up and down on his thighs, her chubby knees digging into his ribs.

  “Good grief, you mean it,” Chloe said. “You’re not coming back.”

  “No, I’m here to stay,” Rex told her, looking around Bodie as she smacked both hands on the top of his head. “Home has never been sweeter.” He kissed Bodie’s belly, where a strip of skin showed between the hem of her little T-shirt and the top of her diaper. She squealed with delight, tickled by his whiskers, and patted herself while he held her steady with both hands. “Work’s never been more enjoyable. Or harder.”

  Chloe shook her head. “Surely you’re not giving up the law.”

  “Nothing of the kind,” Rex said, tucking Bodie into the curve of his arm. “I’m thinking of specializing in ranching and cattle issues. It’s what I know best, after all, which is why your firm called me in on the Shallot mess. Though I may open an office in War Bonnet.”

  “Well, you’ve certainly got the chops for that specialization,” Chloe conceded. “And Callie?”

  “Haven’t worked that out yet,” he admitted. Callie suited him somehow, she and Bodie, but he wasn’t sure the feeling was mutual. That, however, wasn’t why he’d asked Chloe to come. “I’ve got some things to clear up first.”

  “And that’s why I’m here,” Chloe guessed.

  Rex smiled. “You did say that you wanted to pick up that file, too.”

  Glancing around the room, Chloe said, “I wouldn’t have to if you’d buy a printer with a scanner.”

  Laughing, Rex wrestled Bodie down into his lap. “It’s on my list of things to do, right below get the sorghum planted and harvest the oats and right before buy a new truck.”

  Chloe gaped at him. “Will wonders never cease?”

  “You know what they say. You can take the boy off the ranch, but you can’t take the ranch out of the boy. Or something to that effect.”

  Laughing dryly, Chloe asked, “So what do you need?”

  “It involves a church and a loan that I want paid off anonymously.”

  Chloe stared at him for five full seconds. “She must be something, this Callie.”

  “Not something,” Rex said softly. “More like everything.” But he couldn’t be her escape from her father any more than he’d been Amy’s gift to hers.

  If he and Callie couldn’t be together because they were right for each other, because they belonged to each other, were made for each other, then they shouldn’t be together at all.

  He’d tried to tell himself that it didn’t matter how they came together, only that they be together, but experience had shown him the folly of that. Besides, Callie’s late husband had been an exemplary character, heroic, even. A man like that could be difficult to live up to. If Rex was to risk his heart again, he had to know beyond any doubt this time that he was chosen and loved purely for himself. As sweet and caring and affectionate as Callie was, he could see those doubts in her eyes.

  That didn’t stop him from letting everyone around them think they were a couple. Even the ranch hands had started to assume that they were “courting,” as Woody put it. Stark Burns called it “getting serious.” Rex had bluntly told the pastor and head deacon that Callie was the finest, most moral and completely adorable woman he’d ever known. He’d made his personal interest plain while defending her reputation, even worrying aloud that he might not be worthy of her. Both knew that she’d been married to a minister who’d died in an act of heroism, though Stuart talked about Bo Deviner as if the man had been a bounder after his money. At least Rex could escape that accusation. He hoped.

  Callie came in with two plates of food, flatware, napkins and drinks on a tray. Her sandwiches stood two inches thick and came accompanied by a colorful, fresh fruit salad, bread-and-butter pickles, pretzels, cold iced tea and some dainty white cookies. She off-loaded the tray and set it aside, reaching for Bodie just as Rex sneaked the baby a bite of cookie.

  “Don’t you dare,” Callie scolded softly.

  “Aw, come on,” Rex protested, popping the remaining cooking in his mouth, where it literally melted. “They’re so good.”

  “You spoil her,” Callie said, parking Bodie on her hip.

  “You spoil me,” Rex countered with a smile.

  Callie glanced uneasily at Chloe, who was picking delicately at her fruit. “I don’t. And if I do, it’s because you work too hard.”

  “Look who’s talking,” he retorted with a wink, popping another cookie into his mouth.

  Shaking her head, Callie leaned over, snatched the dishtowel off his chest and spun on her heel.

  “Close the door, hon,” he called as she exited the room. She shot him such a look that he wanted to laugh, or get up and hug her. Instead he ate another cookie then grinned very broadly as she carefully, quietly closed the door.

  “Boy, you have got it bad,” Chloe drawled.

  “Uh-uh,” Rex corrected, picking up his sandwich. “I have got it good. Very good.” Please God, he prayed silently, let it last.

  They talked out a solution to his loan issue over lunch. Chloe jotted down the particulars on a notepad. Then they went online using Rex’s laptop and made the necessary financial transfers.

  “I’ll take care of it before I leave town,” she promised.

  Callie tapped on the door, asking if she could come in for the dishes.

  “Sure,” Rex called, lounging back in his chair. She opened the door and came in. He’d stacked the dishes on the tray and left them on the end of the desk. Smiling, he said, “We’re just about through here, babe.”

  She widened her eyes at him, picking up the tray.

  “Speaking of babes...” Chloe said, her voice laced with humor.

  Callie smiled tautly. “Bodie is napping upstairs.” She looked pointedly at Rex, adding, “And Wes is sleeping in his room.”

  In other words, he should have looked in on his dad before he’d closeted himself in here with Chloe. Point taken.

  “I’ll look in on him when we’re done.”

  Call
ie nodded, the slightest of smiles on her face, and carried the dishes from the room.

  “Keeps you in line, doesn’t she?” Chloe observed wryly.

  “With great ease,” Rex admitted, a grin breaking across his face, “and I don’t even care if she knows it.” Chloe laughed. “Back to business. What do I owe you for your help today?”

  Chloe reached into her bag and drew out the file he’d given her earlier. Opening it, she reached inside and pulled out the invoice stapled to it. “Let’s just call it even, shall we?” She crumpled the invoice in her hand and tossed it onto the desktop.

  “That’s very generous, Chloe. Thank you.”

  “It’ll earn me brownie points at the firm when they don’t have to pay you for this,” she said dismissively, returning the file to her bag.

  A few minutes later, he walked her to the door, delicately kissed her cheek, ignoring her wrinkled nose, and sent her on her way before going in search of Callie. He found her in the laundry room, shoveling wet clothes into the dryer. She straightened and turned when he came into the room.

  “All done?”

  He nodded. “She’s going to handle paying off the church loan for me. That’s why I asked her to come. That and she needed to pick up the case file I prepared for her firm last week. Um, remind me to buy a new printer with a good scanner function.”

  “So she’s a lawyer, too.”

  “Yes.”

  “But why do you need a lawyer?”

  “For the same reason that a doctor needs a doctor. It would be foolish to represent myself, especially when I’m trying to remain anonymous.”

  Callie blinked at that. “Why do you need to be anonymous to pay off the church loan?”

  “I don’t need to be,” he said. “I want to be.”

  She fluffed her bangs, showing him a beetled brow. “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Just seems the right way to handle it. What is it Matthew says? When you give, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give in secret.”

  “‘Then Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you,’” Callie quoted.