by Liz Isaacson
“I have things—precious things—” she said. She shook her head. “My mother lives that ranch. Certain aspects of it important to me.”
“I know that,” Liam said. “We didn’t change any of that.”
Callie opened her mouth to retort, but she couldn’t.
“Evelyn and Simone went through everything,” he added. “They didn’t throw away anything they thought you’d want or that they knew was important to you.”
“I’m not even going to recognize my own home.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “Because it’s our home now.”
Callie wanted to ask him what would happen if they broke up. But the thought was ridiculous. His proposal might have started out as a way for her to keep her ranch, but they’d confessed their love for each other. They’d been sleeping together every night. She did love Liam, and she didn’t want to lose him.
You want to share your life with him, she thought, some of her fury fading. Liam put his arm around her, and she leaned into him. She did love him, but she didn’t like how he got to do what he wanted and then tell her to have an open mind.
“We fenced the family graveyard,” he said. “It’s all cleaned up and hasn’t been disturbed.”
Callie looked at him, trying to decide how she felt. “My mother is buried at the church. She said she’d barely lived on the ranch, and it was Daddy’s family land.” Quaking moved through her chest. She hadn’t been out to her grandparents’ graves in a long time. She probably wouldn’t have even been able to find them among the overgrowth.
“Are you mad?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said simply, though some of her anger had started to quiet. “We should’ve talked about it first. It’s not fair to do whatever you want and then tell me I have to abide by the rules, when you didn’t really follow them either.”
“What rule did I break?”
“You said Simone could stay at the house.”
“She came to me and asked for a cabin. We’re housing two of your cowboys at Seven Sons so she can have that cabin.”
“And why didn’t you say anything to me about it?”
“She asked me not to.”
Callie sighed, because this felt like an argument she couldn’t win. Liam wouldn’t see things from her side no matter what she said, and she stood up. “All right. I really am tired.”
“That’s it?” He scrambled to his feet too.
“You said we could talk about what you choose to spend your money on,” she said. “It was your rule. And you didn’t discuss a complete ranch and home remodel with me. That doesn’t just come together in a day.”
He didn’t deny it.
“So that means you spent a lot of time before we got married breaking your own rules.” She turned away from him, something stinging in her chest. And Jeremiah had been in on it. Her sisters. Everyone. Callie felt like a complete and utter fool, and she started back up the beach toward the hotel.
“Callie,” Liam said from behind her, but she kept going. She couldn’t outrun him, and he stepped to her side a few seconds later. He didn’t try to apologize, and Callie wasn’t sure if that made her happier or angrier.
Back in the room, she grabbed her pajamas and went into the bathroom to change. She hadn’t done that once since they’d arrived on the island, and she felt stupid standing in the bathroom while her husband waited in the room. She should be able to change in front of him, but she didn’t even want to look at him right now.
And sleeping with him? Wasn’t going to happen tonight.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Careful, boys,” Jeremiah said. “Liam’s whole life is in that thing.” He wasn’t actually going to touch anything in Liam’s computer setup. But he’d taken a dozen pictures and gotten his brother’s instructions for moving everything and setting it all back up.
The Shining Star Ranch was beautiful, with every blade of grass in the exact right spot. All of the suppliers and deliveries and fixes that Liam had arranged for had come through, and all they needed to do was move and set up the office, and Jeremiah’s work would be done.
Finally.
Evelyn and Simone should be finishing all the finishing touches on the décor by lunchtime, which Jeremiah wasn’t serving at Seven Sons. No, he’d ordered pizza for everyone who’d been working like dogs for the past two weeks, with plenty of garlic knots and soda to go with it. Orion and Dicky should be setting up the tables in a couple of hours, and if it took longer than that to get Liam’s office set up, Jeremiah might scream.
“All right,” Tripp said. “That cord goes here. I need that drawing tablet over here.”
Jeremiah got out of the way as Tripp took over. He knew how to make a command center, though Liam’s was bigger than Tripp’s. The office here was smaller than the one at Seven Sons, and Jeremiah only wanted to be in charge of one thing—the photo Whitney had taken.
She’d sent him several choices a few days after the photo shoot and dinner. Jeremiah had thought that evening had gone so well, but Whitney had only communicated with him about the photos. No more fun, flirtiness from her.
Of course, he knew how to ask out a woman, and he hadn’t done it. He hadn’t seen her at Wilde & Organic, and once he’d chosen a picture, all she’d had to do was order it for him. He’d gone to town to pick up the huge canvas print, and he hadn’t spoken to Whitney in a few days now.
Maybe that was why he was so surly.
No, it’s not, he told himself. He was in a mood because he’d been working so hard for so long, and he was ready to just be back on his ranch, taking care of his own business, and making dinner so everyone could come gather at the homestead. Micah had gone back to Temple, and Wyatt seemed to leave the ranch earlier and earlier each morning, not returning until later and later.
With Skyler off to school in Amarillo now, he only came back to the ranch on the weekends, and Jeremiah had been alone in the homestead since the wedding.
He hated it. He didn’t want to live in that huge house alone, and now Liam’s computer was half a mile away, which meant his brother would be too.
First Rhett, then Tripp, and now Liam.
Micah will be back soon, he thought. And if he’d ask Whitney out, maybe he wouldn’t have to spend his evenings alone, with only Rhett’s cattle dog for company.
His phone chimed several times in quick succession, and he stepped out of the office while Tripp continued to instruct a couple of the cowboys Liam had hired to work the Shining Star on where to put screens so the sun didn’t reflect off of them.
Liam had texted once—Can you please take some pictures of the remodel and send them to me? Callie wants to see them.
Callie had texted a whole lot more than once, and Jeremiah didn’t like the anger he felt in her messages.
I need pictures of my ranch, Miah.
Why did you go along with this crazy plan?
That’s my space, and you knew how much it meant to me.
He could feel her pain in the words, and Jeremiah sighed. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, and he knew that wasn’t Liam’s intention either.
He just wanted it to be a surprise, he tapped out and sent to her.
I don’t need you siding with him, she sent back.
Jeremiah sighed. He wasn’t siding with anyone. He’d been trapped between Liam and Callie for so long, and he’d hoped he’d never have to pick a side.
I’m taking a bunch of pictures, he texted. Give me a few minutes.
He glanced back toward Tripp, but his brother didn’t need him. Jeremiah felt a keen sense that no one needed him, and he slipped out the front door, already trying to change his thought patterns.
All he could think about as he aimed his phone at the new flooring running down the hallway, at the new couches in the living room, at Simone and Evelyn as they hung new curtains over the back door, was Whitney.
Whitney should be here taking these pictures. She’d know how to get the best light and the right angles. Jeremiah went
through the process clumsily, taking pictures of the newly planted shrubs outside, the new trees that had gone in along the line in the backyard where grass met ranch. He walked out to the cowboy cabins and took pictures of them from a distance, as they’d all been newly painted on the outside, each of the six doors a different color.
It would be impossible to go around the entire ranch and show her everything, so he snapped a few pictures of a field that had been dormant that was now ready to be planted, and a barn that had been filled with old tools that had been cleaned out. He returned to the house and took pictures of the new driveway, with the new pebble gravel in it, and he walked down the lane to the gate he rarely saw, because he always came to the Shining Star through the gap in the fences between their properties.
But a bright, shiny, silver star had been added to their gate, with the name FOSTER imprinted on it. Jeremiah actually really liked it, though it didn’t have the Texas colors on it. He stood in the January sunshine and texted picture after picture to Callie, some with explanations and some without.
It’s been a labor of love, he concluded. Everyone has been here for the past two weeks, working and doing their best to make this ranch what I know you want it to be. It’s exactly what you want it to be, and it’s now yours. So please don’t be mad at me.
He didn’t want her to be mad at Liam either, but Jeremiah wasn’t going to say that. Liam could deal with his wife. But Jeremiah couldn’t lose her as a friend, and he once again felt stuck in a really awkward position.
Sighing, he looked up into the sky. “Now what?” He and God were still on shaky terms, that was for sure. But Jeremiah had been trying to open up to the possibility of having a girlfriend.
“Should I call Whitney?”
Before God could answer, Jeremiah’s phone rang, and he swiped on the call from Callie, his heartbeat speeding the moment he saw her name. And not in the same way it would’ve accelerated had Whitney’s name sat on the screen.
“Hey,” he said.
“Miah,” Callie said. “The ranch is beautiful. I—” Her voice cut off, but Jeremiah knew it wasn’t because the line had gone staticky.
“You should thank Liam,” Jeremiah said. “He made a billion phone calls and had everything arranged down to the minute the floors would go in to make sure everything would be ready when the new furniture came. I just orchestrated his plans.”
Sniffling came through the line, and Jeremiah just waited. Crying didn’t really affect him anymore, as his last conversation with Laura Ann had been filled with her blubbering about why she just couldn’t marry him, and how sorry she was, and he deserved better than her.
In that moment, Jeremiah realized something huge—he did deserve better than Laura Ann. Why it had taken him over three years to realize that, he didn’t know, but it felt like the Lord had turned a spotlight on from heaven and was shining it right into his mind.
“Thank you,” Callie finally said, her emotions streaming through the line from so far away.
“Don’t thank me, Cal,” he said. “Thank Liam.”
“I don’t know where he is right now.”
“You don’t know where he is right now?”
“He got up early and said he was going to go running,” she said. “He’s not back yet. I’ve been so mean to him. What should I do?”
Jeremiah could only imagine the state Callie was in right now. He’d seen her distressed a few times over the last several months, but she’d just shutter everything away and keep going. He admired her strength in that regard, because he knew what it took to keep everything he felt and thought stuffed down his throat. Put his head down. Work the ranch. Make dinner. Stay up so late, he could barely function, only so he could finally sleep just a little bit.
Do it all again the next day.
“Have you called him?” he asked. “He texted me this morning too.”
“I’ve tried,” she said. “He texted back and said he needed some time to think.”
Oh, boy, Jeremiah thought, but he’d had so much practice keeping quiet that the words didn’t come out of his mouth. When Liam started thinking too hard about things, he could come to some pretty crazy conclusions.
“Well, call me back if you don’t hear from him in an hour or two,” Jeremiah said. “I can ask Tripp if he’s heard anything from him. The twins talk a lot.”
“Okay,” Callie said, her voice breaking again. “Thanks, Miah.”
“Callie,” he said. “You know we all love you, right?”
“I know,” she said. “I love you too.” Then she hung up, and Jeremiah let his arm drop to his side.
Now what? ran through his mind again. Call Liam? Call Whitney? Go talk to Tripp? Let everything be and pray it would work out?
Jeremiah had spent a lot of months letting everything be, and he was tired of doing that. So he tapped out a quick text to Liam—call your wife, Liam. She’s upset—and started toward the homestead to see if Tripp had heard from their brother.
“Liam?” Tripp asked, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. “Nope. Haven’t heard from him.” He went right back to stringing up the speakers on their brother’s machines, completely unconcerned about Jeremiah’s question.
Back on the front porch, he leaned against the post, his mind still whirring. Then he dialed Whitney’s number, hoping it wasn’t too early to be calling her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Call your wife, Liam. She’s upset.
Liam hated those words with the fire of a thousand suns. They meant Callie and Jeremiah had been talking. “Look who’s breaking rules now,” he muttered to himself. Maybe he’d run away from Callie—literally. Pounding the sand had been good for him, because exercise always helped him see a bit clearer.
And he could see clearly. Callie was mad—not that he’d spent his money, but that he’d changed her ranch and her house without her permission.
“You knew she was going to be mad,” he said, hoping the people at the table next to his didn’t think he was crazy, talking to himself through breakfast.
He hadn’t been able to get himself to go back to the hotel yet. Yes, Callie had called a couple of times. Texted once. He’d responded that he just needed some time to think, and she’d gone silent.
And silence from Callie was never good.
He’d been about to call her when he’d gotten Jeremiah’s text. But now he didn’t want to until his own frustration and anger simmered down. He’d asked her to come to him with her troubles and problems, and at the very first sign of trouble, she’d run right to Miah.
You’re not being fair, he thought, glad the words had just sounded in his mind. She had called him—twice.
Another text came in, and it took all of Liam’s energy to glance at his phone and swipe past the lockscreen to see Jeremiah’s next text. I sent Callie a bunch of pictures. She doesn’t seem that mad.
Liam scoffed and practically slammed his phone down as he turned it over. He didn’t want to find out from his brother that his wife wasn’t that mad. That made him mad, and he reached for his coffee cup again. Just when he’d started to cool down, he had to get that blasted text.
He reached over and silenced his phone so he wouldn’t have to see stupid texts like that one. His heart flailed in his chest, sending out irregular beats. Had he made a mistake in marrying Callie? Would she always run to Jeremiah when she needed to talk something through?
Liam had the strong desire to call Tripp and talk to him. Get his perspective. Being twins, Liam had never really done much on his own. He and Tripp had always been together, through growing up, through college, and even for the last twenty years as adults, as they worked in the same industry.
But he didn’t call his brother. He needed to figure things out for himself.
And that started with calling his wife.
He took another sip of coffee, though he definitely didn’t need the extra caffeine. Even the sound of the ocean couldn’t soothe him, and he realized he only had one thin
g that could. One person.
Callie Foster.
He picked up his phone and tapped on her name in the text string. Then he tapped the phone icon and lifted his phone to his ear. Everything around him seemed to be happening in slow motion, except for his nerves and his pulse.
“Liam,” Callie said, pure relief in her voice. “Where are you?”
“Sitting down the beach at a little coffee shop,” he said. “You want to come down? I’ll order you a cappuccino.” He pressed his eyes closed. As if everything between them could be fixed with specialty coffees.
“Yes,” she said. “What’s the name of the place?”
“Uh.” Liam glanced around, finally catching sight of the menu above the ordering counter. “Liahona Brew.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll be right there.”
“I have a table outside,” he said. “I’ll go get your coffee.” The call ended, and Liam stayed in his seat for an extra moment. He wanted to be with Callie, and maybe this was just a little road bump for the two of them.
He got up and joined the growing line of people. People took their morning coffee seriously, but he finally made it back to his table with a fresh cup of Hawaii’s finest brew for him, and a cappuccino for Callie.
She slid into the seat across from him about two minutes later, and one look at her told him she’d been crying.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted out, because he could not stand the sight of her red eyes and blotchy face. He couldn’t be the reason she was upset. “I just wanted the ranch to be nice,” he said. “And I can’t help you with it any other way than paying for stuff. I have a very busy job when we get back, and I wanted everything to be perfect for you.”
She nodded, her chin quivering slightly. “I know that.”
Then why was her voice so high? Why did she look like she was about to fall apart, right there on this beach-side patio?
