Callie's Cowboy by Karen Leabo Read Free Book Online Page B

sound of the word, so she said it over and over.
    As Sam helped Deana wash her hands he decided that this dinner with Callie was simply something to be endured. She was right about one thing, though. He should behave civilly toward her. Their breakup was ancient history, and it would be silly of him to hold a grudge. She’d done nothing recently to justify treating her with anything but respect and politeness—unless she was intent on stirring up trouble about his father’s death, and so far that didn’t seem to be the case.
    â€œSo that’s what I’ll do,” he told his reflection in the mirror. “I’ll be polite, I’ll be pleasant.” No more silly conversation burgeoning with sexual innuendo. No more smart comebacks or attempts at one-upmanship.He would treat her with friendliness, but impersonally—the way he did Millicent Jones, for example.
    Once he proved, to both himself and Callie, that the feelings he harbored were nothing but a fond remembrance of a childhood sweetheart, they could move on.
    If he could just get through dinner without saying something stupid … and then what?
    Well, he wasn’t staying in Destiny very long, anyway—just long enough to help his mother push the will through probate, collect Dad’s life insurance, straighten out the bills, and get the farm business back on track where she could manage it. A few weeks at the most.
    If he ran into Callie during that time, he would be prepared. He would handle it.
    But he’d give anything to be back on his ranch, in the saddle, cutting through a keen wind, with nothing more pressing on his mind than rounding up a few strays.

THREE
    Sam washed his own hands and ran a comb through his hair. “Okay, I think we’re—Deana?”
    Apparently, during his lengthy soul-searching, she’d wandered out of the bathroom. Feeling a pinprick of panic, even though he knew she couldn’t wander far, he went in search of her. She wasn’t hard to find. She was in the kitchen, sitting on Callie’s lap.
    â€œLooky, Daddy!” she exclaimed the moment she caught sight of her father. She held up a fuzzy yellow toy that appeared to be a baby chick. “Cal gimme.”
    â€œOh, very nice.” Sam bit his tongue. But if he bit it any harder, he would bleed. So to Callie he added, “That was thoughtful of you. But I thought you didn’t like kids.”
    Callie’s jaw dropped open for an instant, but then she quickly composed herself. “I never said I didn’t like kids. I don’t know much about them, but I still like them.”
    â€œThink you’ll ever have any of your own?” All right,so he was being nosy. Callie’s interest in Deana, though nothing to be shocked about, intrigued him.
    â€œI don’t know. But I have a few more years to decide. Heck, I might not even get married.”
    â€œA few years ago marriage didn’t appeal to you, but I thought maybe your biological clock had kicked in by now.”
    â€œNot even a little,” she said flatly, though the way she cuddled Deana—and the way Deana responded—made him wonder about her self-avowed lack of maternal instincts. “Sam, surely you don’t think that because I brought your daughter a present, I have my sights set on a ready-made family?”
    â€œOf course not. I’m just making conversation.”
    â€œYou’re deliberately provoking me.”
    Okay, so maybe he was. Maybe he’d never gotten over the fact that she’d chosen her career over him. It was his damned male pride, that was all. He didn’t really want Callie. She was way too bristly, too stubborn, and too independent to make a good wife and mother. But she brought out this belligerent streak in him that he couldn’t seem to control.
    Callie’s face went neutral. She gently set a protesting Deana on the floor. “I wanted to be friends with you, Sam,