HER CALLAHAN FAMILY MAN

by Tina Leonard

  He looked out the window. “The cavalry’s arrived. They must have been in town.” He opened the door, and Galen and Sloan came inside.

  “Hello, Sawyer,” they said, like respectful schoolboys, and then looked down at their uncle.

  “He never learns,” Sloan said.

  Ash appeared in the doorway. “Toss him in the back of the truck with the rest of the trash we need to haul off.”

  Galen looked at Sawyer. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded. “I’m fine.”

  “Your work? I presume my brother didn’t do this,” Galen said, eyeing the pink gun.

  “Yes. Thanks.”

  Galen looked at Jace. “Can I see you outside?” he asked, as Wolf was rolled up in a tarp Ash provided. Their uncle was whisked away, as if he’d never been there.

  Jace glanced at his wife. “I’ll be right back. You take a nap.”

  He followed his brother outside. “What’s up?”

  They watched as Wolf was bundled into the truck bed. “This can’t go on,” Galen said. “Next time, you might not be here. And my understanding of the situation is that Wolf is really aggravated with the Cashs.”

  “He was just trying to cause trouble. He saw my truck, and came in, anyway,” Jace pointed out. “My wife had issues with his mouth. She doesn’t like disrespect.”

  “She was trying to prove she’s on our side.”

  “I don’t know,” Jace said. “Maybe.” He didn’t think Sawyer had time enough to think through the situation. She’d merely reacted. “Anyway, she has nothing to prove. She’s a Callahan.”

  “Ash says Sawyer’s all hung up about the fact that she spied for her uncle.” Galen shrugged. “I don’t want her overcompensating. Wolf’s dangerous. So are his compadres. Tell her.”

  “Tell her what?”

  “Tell her everything is good, that she doesn’t need to prove herself to you anymore.”

  “She doesn’t.”

  “Try to understand the feelings in her heart.”

  Sawyer hadn’t wanted to wear his ring before. Maybe Galen had a point. Jace shrugged. “I’ll talk to her.”

  Galen slapped him on the back. “See you at the ranch later for the meeting.”

  He’d forgotten. He glanced back at the duplex, saw Sawyer’s drawn face peering out at them. “I don’t know if I can leave, Galen.”

  His brother nodded, got in his truck. “I understand. Sawyer might feel better if she wasn’t alone tonight, anyway, considering Wolf’s unexpected visit.”

  Jace nodded, went inside and closed the door.

  “Now what happens?” Sawyer asked.

  “Now you and I go back to where we were.” He sat next to her for a long, sweet kiss.

  “Jace, wait.” She pulled back. “You can’t just act like nothing happened.”

  “What do you mean? Nothing did happen. Not really. My uncle was being rude, you taught him a lesson.”

  “And you’re okay with me shooting him?”

  “You deserve a blue ribbon. My own Annie Oakley.” He put a hand on her stomach. “My uncle got what was coming to him.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  But he sensed she wasn’t. Not really.

  “I’m going to nap, if you don’t mind.”

  “No problem. I’ll nap with you.”

  “No, Jace.” She shook her head. “I think I want to be alone for a while.”

  He hesitated. Galen had just postulated that she wouldn’t want to be alone after Wolf’s visit. She was basically telling him to leave.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  He had the uncomfortable feeling that they were married, but not really together. Wherever she was, that was his home, too, right? Yet Sawyer was kicking him out, like a date who’d stayed too long. “Guess I’ll head over to the family meeting, then. Text me, or call me, if you need anything.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m just going to sleep.”

  He kissed her and left, not feeling good about it all. Every single woman who’d had a bad man walk into her home wouldn’t want to be alone—every single woman except maybe Ash and Fiona. Jace shook his head. He glanced toward the window, but Sawyer wasn’t looking out at him.

  He had the uncomfortable feeling something wasn’t right, but whatever it might be wasn’t penetrating his thick skull. Jace started his truck and headed to Rancho Diablo.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sawyer didn’t call him to come around much, and Jace had the uncomfortable feeling that his wife had separated emotionally from him in some way. For two months, he was an occasional guest at the duplex, only invited every once and again. He got used to carrying a sleeping bag for the nights his wife allowed him to stay over, which wasn’t more than once a week.

  Sawyer said she liked being alone, that as uncomfortable as she was with the aches and pains that kept her awake, she didn’t want to keep him awake, as well. He supposed that made sense, but he’d rather be with his wife. Besides the sofa, there wasn’t a stick of furniture in the house—no bed, no kitchen table, nothing. He’d offered, as had Fiona and Ash, to bring catalogs for her to choose from, but Sawyer shook her head.

  She did, however, let Fiona and Ash and Lu bring over two white cribs from the ranch, and all the baby things their hearts desired for the nursery. He wasn’t sure what to think about that. Apparently Sawyer planned on staying in the little duplex, but she couldn’t sleep on the floral sofa forever.

  He was stuck in serious limbo.

  And then in late April he got the call from Storm, of all people, that they’d taken Sawyer to the hospital. Jace was about to tear out of the meeting that was being held in the upstairs library, where his brothers and sister were arguing about what might have happened to the Diablo mustangs, which hadn’t been seen in months, when Storm said, “And by the way, Sawyer says not to come until she calls you.”

  “What?” He’d just about had it with all the stop signs from his darling wife.

  “She says she’s just gone into labor. Could be hours before she has the babies. She wants you to keep working—in fact, she said she expects you to understand that you’re going to have your fair share of diaper and bottle duty soon, so put your time in at the ranch now, while you can.”

  Jace frowned. That sounded a little better. “I’m coming, anyway.”

  “I thought you’d feel that way,” Storm said cheerfully. “If you wouldn’t mind, bring a thermos of coffee, would you? This stuff here is dreck. If we’re going to be here for a long time, I think you’re going to want something that resembles coffee and not sludge.”

  “Sure. Thanks, Storm.” He hung up, and his family looked at him.

  “Babies are on the way.” As he said it, his chest filled with pride.

  “It’s time! I’m going to be an aunt again!” Ash leaped from the sofa and hugged his neck. “I’ll drive you. Come on.”

  He stared around the room at his brothers, who grinned at him with knowing expressions.

  “It’s your turn,” Sloan said. “You don’t know it, but your life is about to change. It’ll never be the same again. Enjoy these last few moments of rarified pre-daddy air, because you’ll never know them again for the rest of your life. What you’re about to smell is entirely different.”

  His brothers guffawed like asses.

  “No sleep. No silence,” Dante said. “No more navel gazing, which you have to admit, you’ve honed to a fine art.”

  Jace raised a brow.

  Tighe leaned back on the sofa with a grin. “From now on, no such thing as life unplanned. Every moment has a schedule, a routine. You’ll feel guilty if you’re not at ballet lessons, church groups, or being ridden like a pony.”

  His brothers didn’t seem t
o be too unhappy. Rather, they seemed like men who lived in a secret world he had yet to enter. “Anything else?”

  Falcon waved a majestic hand. “We have no more secrets to offer. You’re in the daddy club now. Just be sure you remember that every day that ends in y now starts with baby and ends with baby.” He grinned, proud of his contribution.

  “What a bunch of wienies,” Ash said. “Are you trying to scare him to death?”

  “For me it’s the scrapbooking,” Galen said. “The photo puzzles, the picture files. How to capture all the little moments that don’t seem important to anyone else but you. Like the first time they smile at you.” He grinned at Jace. “And the first giggle—there’s nothing, nothing, nothing better than baby laughter. It’s innocent, it’s delightful, it’s free. And your whole spirit goes straight up like a lightning rod. It’s the gift of the Creator, allowing you another peek at true happiness.”

  They all stared at Galen.

  “Wow,” Ash said, “you almost made me want to have a baby, Galen.”

  Jace’s throat went tight. Everything his brothers teased him about sounded awesome. He couldn’t wait to meet his own children, to hold them. He was a family man, through and through. “I can’t wait,” he said, past the tightness.

  His brothers came over and pounded his back.

  “Congratulations, bro,” Sloan said. “We tease, but only because we know you wanted it from the time you were a kid. Family was always your cause.”

  His other brothers murmured in agreement.

  “Thanks,” Ash said. “He says thanks. He has to go now, as he’s having my niece and nephew. Goodbye, brothers. Try to achieve world peace while we’re gone, okay? Find the Diablos, and other creative things. In other words, be productive.”

  She pulled Jace down the hall, and he let her. “Gosh, they’re windbags,” she said. “I love them, but holy smoke. Always have to stick their scrawny little oars in. Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. I promised Storm a thermos of coffee. He says the coffee there isn’t up to par.”

  “I’ll do it. You go change, and I’ll fill up some thermoses and grab some snacks. Might be a long wait. None of us have delivered in under eight hours, I don’t think.”

  “Us?” he teased.

  “We Callahans. You’re having the last children of the family, Jace, unless the talking heads upstairs become more focused on babymaking. Go change those clothes. You’ve been riding canyon, and you don’t want to insult your new babies’ nostrils with eau de barn.”

  “Ash, you’ll have children,” Jace said, feeling as if he needed to comfort his sister. She had such a broken heart over Xav Phillips. But there was nothing that could be done about it. “You’ll find the right man one day, and you’ll have a baby.”

  “Go,” she said, waving a thermos at him. “Today is your day. And if you stand around yakking like the rest of our brothers, we’ll miss the arrival of my niece and nephew. One thing your little ones are going to always know is that their aunt Ash was right there with a catcher’s mitt, waiting to teach them the ways.”

  He loved his sister. More than anyone, she had his back. She was tough and fearless, and he wished he was better at making the women in his life happy.

  But what Ash said made sense. He, too, was going to be there, from the beginning. When they fell, when they succeeded, his children were always going to know that their father loved them.

  Even if their mother wasn’t in love with him.

  He tore up the stairs, his mind in overdrive. He showered, so fast it couldn’t be called a shower but a rinse, then jumped into fresh jeans, grabbed a clean shirt. Hauled down the stairs when Ash roared up at him that he was slower than molasses at Christmas, and that the babies were going to be going off to college before he pulled his head out. By his watch, he’d been upstairs all of eight minutes.

  He hurried through the house and followed his sister out the door. “Let me carry the picnic,” he said, taking the hamper from her. “What’d you pack? Enough food for the entire hospital?”

  “The nursing staff will want cookies. It’s manners to share what you have with nurses and visitors. Everybody likes a party, Jace, and we want the babies spoiled by all. They’ve had a tough start.”

  “But they’re not going to be eating the cookies,” he said, laughing.

  “You laugh, brother, but when you share your toys, other people like you.”

  He held the door so she could hop in the truck. Then he shoved the hamper in the back and went around to the driver’s side, thinking about sharing his toys. They hadn’t really had toys to speak of in the tribe, but his Callahan nieces and nephews had toys like mad, and maybe he should stop by the hospital gift shop to pick up bears....

  Just then a sting in his chest stopped his thoughts. Jace felt himself falling back from the truck door he’d been about to open, and it was so very strange to be falling, not in control of himself, staring up at the sky, with Ash’s wide eyes staring down at him. Jace was amazed that he couldn’t feel his body. He was floating, and felt strange, like he’d never felt before, light and airy, his mind no longer full of a thousand thoughts.

  The last thing he remembered was Ash’s frantic screams. He wanted to tell her it was going to be all right, that he’d protect her; he always had, he always would. He’d take care of Sawyer and the babies, too, because that’s what he did. He was a guard against darkness and evil, a shield for the good in the world, because Running Bear had told him from the time he was young that he was a warrior.

  But he was so tired. So he went to sleep, overtaken by exhaustion, but comforted by the thought that when he woke up he was going to tell his wife how much he loved her.

  Sawyer was his whole life.

  * * *

  “JACE CAN COME in now,” Sawyer told her uncle and Lu. She’d had an emergency C-section, and the babies were doing well, though they were tiny. Sawyer thought Ashley and Jason were the most beautiful babies she’d ever seen, and before she fell asleep, she wanted to see the expression on Jace’s face when he was introduced to his children.

  He was going to be so proud.

  Ash wore a funny look. “Jace will be by in a little while.”

  Sawyer thought he’d have been breaking down the door by now. In fact, she was amazed that Jace had waited so patiently until after she’d had the C-section to come barreling in. She hadn’t wanted him to worry as she had when the doctor had told her they’d have to perform the emergency procedure. The babies had been stressed, and everything had moved awfully fast.

  “Where is he?” she asked Ash.

  His sister set two adorable teddy bears down in the window. “He got called to do something at the ranch. It couldn’t be avoided.”

  Ash was acting strange. She’d been tickled and joyful when she’d seen the babies, snapping a thousand pictures—but when the newborns were whisked away to the neonatal nursery, she’d turned solemn. Sawyer thought her sister-in-law’s eyes were red, as if she’d been crying.

  That was impossible. Ash never cried.

  “Are you all right, Ash?”

  “Me? I’m fine. Good job bringing my namesake into the world.”

  Sawyer smiled. “It was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to do it again someday.”

  Ash looked pained. “You should sleep now. What do they feed you around here, anyhow? I brought a hamper of goodies to Lu and Storm and the staff. You want me to sneak you something?”

  She shook her head, lay back against the pillow. “No, thanks. I’ll just wait for Jace to get here. I think the nurses do some special candlelight dinner thing for the mom and dad after the babies are born.”

  Ash hesitated. “Tonight?”

  “I think the night of the birth, yes. But I’m sure it could be another night, too. I’ll go home the day after tomor
row, though the babies will stay a little longer. Why?”

  “No reason.”

  Sawyer studied Ash, checking out her pale face and her eyes, which didn’t seem quite as bubbly as they had when she’d visited her at the duplex. And Ash had been a frequent visitor. Almost daily. Like a bodyguard.

  They were all bodyguards and protectors, Sawyer included. Jace was, too—and he wouldn’t have missed the babies’ birth for anything. He would have torn a hole in the wall to get to his kids, if for no other reason than to see for himself that they were all right, that they had everything they needed. The warrior code was strong in Jace. He was more quiet about it than some of the other brothers, and even Ash—but he was a strong defender.

  And he would have been here for his children.

  “Where is he?” she demanded. “And don’t tell me he’s doing something at the ranch, because your face is giving you away. You look like a ghost has infested your grave.”

  Ash burst into tears. “I can’t tell you.”

  Alarm flooded Sawyer’s bloodstream. “You’d better tell me, or I’ll get out of this bed and pull your hair.”

  Ash blew her nose, tears brimming in her eyes. “I want to tell you, but I can’t.”

  Sawyer made a move to get up, which hurt like hell because her stitches pulled, and Ash gasped, put her hands up in surrender.

  “Get back in the damn bed! If the nurses see you moving around, they’ll yell at me.”

  “Since when do you care who’s yelling at you about what? Where’s Jace?”

  “In the operating room,” Ash said. “He had a slight accident.”

  Sawyer blinked. “It’s not slight if he’s in the O.R.” Her heart rate sped up uncomfortably.

  “He’s going to be fine.” Ash swallowed hard, blew her nose on a tissue. “But I have to go now, Sawyer.”

  “If you step one foot out that door, I’m changing Ashley’s name to Bessie Brunhilda Callahan—”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “I would. And you’ll no longer be the namesake aunt,” Sawyer said coldly. “Tell me everything about my husband.”