by Joanna Sims
Liam took her face in his hands and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“You’re saying yes to tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Another kiss.
“You’re saying yes to forever?”
“Yes.” Her voice was breathier now, her heart beginning to beat faster.
He kissed her neck.
“Are you saying yes to marriage?”
She hesitated for only a second before she nodded. “Yes.”
Liam gathered her into his arms, her breasts pressed tightly against his chest, his tongue intertwined with hers.
“Are you saying yes to taking me for a ride?”
Kate laughed against his firm lips. “God, yes!”
Liam lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bedroom. They stripped out of their clothes and met each other, naked, in the middle of his bed. There wasn’t much foreplay—he was hard and she was wet. They wrapped their arms and legs around each other’s bodies, and he slipped deep inside her, and they found that rhythm that only they knew.
After the lovemaking, Kate curled her body next to the man she loved and felt like she had finally come home. Wherever Liam Brand was, as it turned out, that was home.
“Kate?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you just agree to be my wife?”
She tightened her hold on his body and nodded. “Yes.”
“I’ll have to get you a ring.”
“Okay.”
There was a span of silence and then he added, “And I’ll have to actually propose.”
“Whatever you want.”
“I have what I want.” He kissed her on the top of her head.
“So do I.”
They lingered in bed for an hour and then Kate checked the time on her phone and realized that the day was slipping away, and she needed to get back to Callie. Liam watched her through sleepy eyes as she dressed.
“You’re beautiful,” he told her, his eyes drinking her in.
“You always say that.”
“Because it’s always true.”
Dressed and ready to go, Kate walked around to his side of the bed and leaned down to kiss him. He accepted the kiss, but reached for her hand to stop her from leaving.
“Sit down for a minute. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
There was a seriousness in his tone; this wasn’t going to be a light conversation.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about us—and by us I mean, you, me and Callie. I know how much you worry about what would happen to Callie if something happened to you.”
That was true. Her biggest worry had always been about her daughter. Who would take care of her? Who would watch out for her? If she had gotten a different father other than Lloyd in the father lottery, her worries wouldn’t be so great. But that wasn’t the case.
“I want to adopt Calico.”
Kate was rendered temporarily speechless. Yes, Lloyd was an absent father, but he was listed on the birth certificate. She’d been a single parent for so long that it seemed more normal than not.
“Did you hear me?” Liam prompted her out of silence.
“I did.” She gave a quick nod. “I just don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything right now. Just think on it. I know she’s an adult now, but she’s always going to need someone to watch out for her. That way, she’ll have a full-time father and you’ll have peace of mind that if something happens to you, Callie will have the entire Brand family looking after her.”
Chapter Eleven
Kate did think about Liam’s offer, and the more she thought about it, the more she came to believe that the idea made sense. Callie could have a large, powerful, wealthy family on her side for the rest of her life. And the truth was, if the laws of nature unfolded in a typical fashion, that Callie would outlive both of them. Liam had a pack of siblings—someone would be there to watch out for Callie. The Bozeman Brands stuck together like glue, and once Callie was a Brand, they would take her into the fold as one of their own.
The only roadblock to the entire plan was, of course, Lloyd. It had taken him weeks to return her phone call about Callie coming to see him, and she wasn’t the least bit surprised when he came up with an excuse for why his daughter couldn’t come for a visit. She really dreaded discussing adoption with him, because Lloyd, from what she could gather over the phone, hadn’t matured a whole heck of a lot over the last several decades. He could still be jealous, petty and downright unreasonable.
“Katie Did!”
Kate cringed at the nickname and the sound of Lloyd’s voice. This time, though, she didn’t correct him as she usually would.
“Two weeks in a row. This’s got to be some sort of record,” he added.
“How are you, Lloyd?”
“Can’t complain,” her ex said. “Who’d listen anyway, right?”
“Right.”
“Hey, Katie Did, I’m real sorry Callie can’t come see me this year. What, with the economy just really starting to come back and construction picking up, I just can’t...but next year, for sure.”
“Sure,” she agreed, but didn’t put any stock in the idea. “Look, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”
A tense silence on the other end of the line.
After a moment, Lloyd cleared his throat. “Now, Katy Did, I know I owe you a couple of clams...”
Kate cut him off. “I’m getting married.”
Another strained silence.
“Did you hear me?”
“Do I need to get my ears checked? Did you say you were getting married?” He sounded so surprised that it irritated her. Why was the idea of her getting married so shocking to him? Should she pine for him until death?
“Your ears work just fine.” Kate struggled to maintain a civil tone with the man.
“Well, isn’t that something? A big surprise,” he continued. “I suppose congratulations are in order. Who’d you manage to slap that ole ball and chain on?”
“Liam Brand. You actually played ball with him in high school, I think.”
“Yeah.” Lloyd didn’t sound impressed. “I know the guy.”
More silence.
“Is that all?” he pressed her, seeming a little more impatient to end the call.
“No,” she replied as evenly and calm as she could. “There’s no real easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Liam wants to adopt Calico, and I want him to adopt Calico, which means that you need to forfeit your parental rights.”
* * *
“So, how’d he take it?” Liam had arrived at the Triple K for dinner and now, as was their habit, they had taken their coffee to the swing beneath the old oak tree in the front yard.
“The phone call went downhill fast after that.”
Liam wasn’t surprised; he hadn’t liked Lloyd back when they played ball together. Kate’s ex had always been a fast-talker who’d had an even faster fastball. Everyone thought he’d make the pros one day, but it seemed like Lloyd had fallen short of fulfilling all of his potential. Particularly when it came to his daughter, Callie.
“I hate the fact that Callie’s father is such a jerk. But he is, in fact, a jerk! This isn’t about him wanting Callie to be his daughter, because I think we’re all pretty clear on his position on fathering her. And it’s not like he has any feelings for me, other than some lingering, misguided, misplaced, sense of ownership. As if because he was the first one to gain access to my vagina that he has a lifetime guarantee or something!”
“He was your first?” Why did that even bother him in the slightest? And yet, irrationally, it did. Kate sent him a withering look, and he immediately regretted asking.
“God.” She rolled her eyes in frustration. “Are all men a slave to your stu
pid egos? Who was your first, if we’re asking questions?”
Liam opened his mouth, but before he could respond, she cut him off.
“Never mind. I don’t care. And neither should you.”
“I don’t.” He finally got a word in. “Just forget what I asked. I’m a man, and as such, I tend to say really stupid things. Friends?”
Kate rewarded him with a smile. “Friends.”
They talked about a strategy to get Lloyd to sign over his parental rights. Their best bet was the thousands of dollars of back child support Lloyd owed; there was interest attached and the debt was only growing over time. If Lloyd agreed to sign over his rights so Liam could adopt Callie, they would find a way to settle that debt so Lloyd was free and clear.
“We won’t talk to Callie until after we have the document in our hands,” Kate insisted.
“Agreed.”
“How do you think your kids will react? To you adopting Callie, I mean.”
Liam had thought about his kids and Callie quite a bit. Even though things had eased between him and his kids by the end of their week together, their relationship had been damaged by the distance.
“I don’t think Cole will care one way or the other, really. But Sarah... She’s going to be upset about the marriage and the adoption.”
“But she was so good with Callie,” Kate said. “Why would she mind?”
“She was good with Callie and I was proud of her for that,” he said. “She wants to come back to Montana.”
“To live with you?”
Liam nodded. Sarah had nearly begged him to let her stay before they headed out to the airport. They had moved to a different part of Seattle to be closer to her stepfather’s work, and she hated the school, she hated the new house, and she hated her mother for moving her away from friends and her home for a second time.
“I spoke with her mom last week. She’s totally against the idea.”
“Could we fight her?”
Liam had been looking out at the landscape, but now he wanted to look at Kate’s face. The fact that she used the word we was very meaningful to him. For the first time, in a long time, he felt what it was like to have a woman standing by his side.
“It’s not out of the question. But we’ve got to get ourselves straightened around first. We need to get things settled with Callie’s father before we start dealing with my ex.”
“One ex at a time.”
“That’s right,” he agreed. “One ex at a time.”
* * *
“Daddy!”
Kate was in the middle of treating an infection in one of her horse’s hooves, bent over with her back aching, when she heard Callie scream in excitement. This, in itself, was not unusual. Callie could get over-the-moon excited about the smallest of things. What she screamed, however, was an entirely different thing.
Kate put the cap on the syringe she was using to treat the hooves, patted the horse on the neck and walked, quickly, toward the front of the barn. There, she found something she had never expected to find: Lloyd standing in front of her barn hugging Callie.
“Hello, Katie Did.”
“Kate,” she corrected for the umpteenth time in the last decade and a half.
“Mommy!” Callie had tears in her eyes. “Daddy’s here!”
Lloyd, tall, slender, with more gray in his hair than black, was still a handsome man. When they met, he was in college and she was still in high school. Oh, how she had thought the sun rose and set because of Lloyd Harrison. Not to mention that he had the hottest muscle car in Bozeman. And, out of all the girls in town, Lloyd wanted her.
“You’re lookin’ good, Katie.” Lloyd slipped off his glasses so she could see his green eyes. He knew how women loved his unusual cat eyes because he’d been told so often.
“Callie,” Kate said in an even tone, “why don’t you go on in the house and fix your father something to drink. You still like sweet tea, Lloyd?”
“The sweeter, the better.” He winked at her.
God, she hated him.
“Go on, kitten,” Lloyd said to Callie. “Mind your mother.”
“I don’t need your help in that department,” Kate snapped at him. That was just like Lloyd. Show up, unannounced, out of the blue, after years of avoiding the Triple K like the plague, and try to take up the role as a parent. He hadn’t earned that right.
Kate waited until her daughter was out of earshot before she narrowed her eyes at the wayward father of her child. “What are you doing here?”
“Is there something wrong with a father coming to see his daughter?”
“Yes,” she barked at him. “If the father happens to be you. Tell me why you’re here.”
“Now, Katie Did...there’s no need to get all riled up.” Lloyd tried to use his charm on her. He added with a condescending laugh, “Woo-we darlin’. You still have one hell of temper on you, don’t you?”
The man actually tried to put his arm around her shoulders. She spun out from underneath his arm, wishing that she had a reason to shoot him. She might be able to make a case for trespassing.
“You’re not staying here, Lloyd. Get that straight right now. Callie is going to ask, and you are going to say ‘no, thank you.’” Kate began to march toward the house, her fists balled up next to her body. “God! I can’t stand the fact that you’re here.”
Lloyd just laughed at her frustration. She was convinced, after years of dealing with him, that the man had zero ability to feel sympathy or empathy.
“Why are you so fired up, Katie Did?” Lloyd sauntered behind her, his long legs matching her stride one for two.
Kate stopped in her tracks, spun on her heel and confronted him. “I swear to God in heaven, Lloyd. If you ever call me Katie Did again, I am going to shoot you and bury your body in the compost pile!”
Lloyd, still smiling at her, held up his hands in surrender. “You’ve still got it, Katie. That spark that makes a man want to plug in. Lightning in a bottle.”
Disgusted, Kate let her ex into her home, her private space. But only because he was Callie’s father. Somehow, that gave him a pass.
Kate had to tolerate Lloyd sitting at her table, eating her food and breathing her air. She stared at him, arms crossed, while he ate like a man who didn’t have one care in the world.
“Doggone, kitten.” Her ex had polished off a huge plate of Callie’s famous Polish sausage and sauerkraut. “You have turned out to be one heck of a cook, and that ain’t no joke.”
“Do you want more?” Callie asked.
Lloyd pat his stomach. “No, ma’am. I’m filled to the gills. But I thank you kindly.”
“I—I’m glad you liked it.”
When Callie took his plate to the kitchen, Lloyd leaned over and in a not-so-quiet whisper, he said, “I thought you were gonna do something about that stutter.”
“Shut up.” Kate stood, leaned toward him, put her hands flat on the table. “Shut. Up!”
Callie and Lloyd spent the rest of the day together while Kate buried herself in work. She knew exactly what this was about—her engagement to Liam. What else would bring Lloyd back to Montana after all of these years? He’d enjoyed her self-imposed spinsterhood. He took some pride in the fact that he had managed to spoil her for all other men.
She was hot and sweaty and smelled, as usual, like horse urine and manure. She found Callie and Lloyd sitting on the couch together, and her daughter was showing her father photo albums of when she was a baby and a toddler. It made Kate realize the days of photo albums were over. There were no photo albums of Callie when she was a teenager. All of the photos were cataloged on her computer, but she never looked at them. Not like Lloyd was looking at memories she created—memories he could have been a part of creating.
“How’s it going in here?”
Callie was happy. No matter ho
w much Lloyd made her skin crawl, her daughter was so happy to finally have her father visiting. She did not know, could not comprehend, why he had finally shown up now.
“We’re having such a good time.” Callie smiled at her broadly.
“That’s right.” Lloyd seconded the motion.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
She locked her bedroom door before she stripped out of her dirty clothing. In the bathroom, she shut the door and locked that as well. Paranoid. But better safe than worrying that Lloyd might “accidentally” find himself in her bedroom.
Kate sat on the toilet, towel wrapped around her body, and dialed Liam’s number for the third time. Frustrated that he still didn’t answer, she hung up without leaving a message. She sent him a text: Unexpected visitor. Please call as soon as you can.
In the shower, the horse trainer let the hot water beat down on her muscles, wishing that the water could wash Lloyd down the drain as easily as it was washing the dirt and grime from her skin.
But, alas, when she emerged from the bedroom, Lloyd was still sitting on her couch.
“Well—” he stood “—I suppose I should get going. I don’t have a place picked out for the night.”
“You can sleep here!” Callie, predictably, exclaimed. “On the couch.”
“No, kitten. That just wouldn’t be right.”
His words said no, but his sad puppy dog expression said, yes, I’d love to, thank you.
“He can’t stay here, Callie,” Kate said firmly. “He’s got things to do in town.”
Disappointed, Callie said, “Well, at least stay for dinner.”
Lloyd and Callie both looked at her expectantly. After a minute, she threw up her hands. “Fine. That’s fine.”
That’s when Liam finally returned her call. She stepped outside, away from prying ears, and said, “Lloyd showed up this afternoon.”
“He’s there now?”
“Yes. How soon can you get here?”
Liam blew out a frustrated breath. “I’ve got a few more hours out in the field. Dammit.”
“Will you come out after you’re done? I don’t care how late it is. I need to see you.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Liam assured her. “And Kate.”