by Tina Leonard
He blinked. “Yeah. Actually, they did.”
“No one knew where they took you. Only Rose figured it out. You would have been long gone and never found, if she hadn’t,” Somer pointed out. “They had a perfect plan.”
She was right. And only he had the information they wanted.
“That means Rose is still a target. A prime target.” Not just because she’d shot Wolf, but because she was the only one who’d gone against Grandfather’s direct instruction that no one was to harm the man. Rose was a Callahan, but not subject to the same rules. If Wolf could get her, things would become ugly fast. Pain hit Galen in the gut as he realized how he’d let his stubborn pride argue with his sensible wife.
“Of course she’s a prime target,” Somer said, surprised. “She’s a direct line to you. Even better, your three sons would be sure to get you talking. Right now there’s no greater target in your family. But I’m sure you’ve got Rose guarded to the teeth. In fact, to make up for my part in what happened, I’d be honored if you’d allow me to be on staff in Tempest—”
“I need to find Rose. Right now.”
They leaped into his truck and Galen took off like a bat out of hell, hoping he hadn’t come to his senses too late.
* * *
ROSE WENT CHRISTMAS SHOPPING and baby shopping. There were a hundred things she wanted for the triplets’ care—and she wanted gifts. Not that they would ever know there were presents under the tree for them, but somehow, a tree needed presents. Little giraffes and soft wind-up bears that played gentle lullabies. The presents were more for her than the babies, but Rose wanted her sons to have something from their parents.
She also wanted something for Galen, even if her wonderful husband was being difficult. And then the perfect gift occurred to her. It wasn’t in a store, couldn’t be purchased.
There were two parts to the gift she envisioned. One part was easy to schedule; the other, she had no idea how to retrieve.
And Galen would freak out if she did.
The second-best option was the easiest. She went into a shop to schedule the appointment.
Then she called Running Bear to ask his help for the other. Galen would be mad—but it was exactly the thing to mark their family’s first Christmas together.
She headed back to her truck, holding two shopping bags full of baby basics, towels and diapers. Mack had already texted her with a report, so she knew everything was fine on the home front.
A tiny teddy bear in a shop window caught her eye, and she thought of little Riley. It was silly and whimsical, she knew; Riley would never know if a teddy bear had been put under the tree to mark his place until he could be home with the rest of his family.
Rose went into the shop to buy the bear anyway, and ended up with three, each dressed in a different plaid vest and beanie. “They’re perfect,” she told the shopkeeper. “Thank you so much.”
“Can I help you to your vehicle?” she asked.
“No, thank you, I’m fine. You’re busy,” Rose said, looking around at all the shoppers anxiously trying to find last-minute Christmas gifts. She went to her truck, bent to open the trunk then turned when she felt a hand touch her arm.
“Galen! What are you doing here?”
“Mack said you’d gone shopping. Thought you’d be here.” He put her purchases in the trunk. “I need to talk to you.”
“Now?”
He nodded. “We could hit the coffee shop.”
“I don’t really need coffee. Can you just tell me what’s on your mind?” He wasn’t smiling, didn’t look like her normally serene husband. Actually, he hadn’t really smiled at her in a while—not since she’d shot his uncle.
He took a deep breath. “I know we’re at cross-purposes on where you’re going to live.”
Rose closed the trunk. “We’re not at cross-purposes. You’re confused as to what a marriage is all about.”
His jaw set. “I never made a secret of what life was like at Rancho Diablo.”
“True. But I can make my own decisions. And I never made a secret about that.”
He glanced around at the many passersby hurrying to choose Christmas presents and decorations. Snow gently fell, and Rose felt sad for the beauty of the moment that wasn’t mirrored in their own lives.
“It’s dangerous here, and dangerous at Rancho Diablo for you now.”
“It was always dangerous. Just being your wife made it dangerous for me.” She looked up at him. “It was you they kidnapped, Galen. They were probably at my dad’s property trying to set a trap for you. Wolf’s man, Rhein, just wasn’t expecting to get in Somer’s and Sawyer’s crossfire.” She smiled. “As a matter of fact, I consider that night a blessing.”
Galen looked uncertain, and maybe a little annoyed. “It was no blessing. You wouldn’t have gone into labor except for what happened that night.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe we both just need to accept that we don’t agree on this matter. Now, I’m going to finish my shopping.” Sadly, she turned and went into the bakery, deciding she’d grab a pecan pie for Mack, and maybe some cinnamon cake for breakfast.
Galen followed her into the bakery and dropped into a chair, looking so unhappy that Rose felt slightly bad about her harsh words. In his brown cowboy hat and sheepskin jacket, boots and jeans, he looked sexy and wonderful—her husband, after all the years she’d waited for him—and the way he was gazing at her put splinters in her heart. “Could we get two cups of coffee and two slices of cinnamon cake at that table?” she asked the girl behind the beautifully decorated counter. It was Christmas—she and Galen should be happy. They had so many reasons to be.
She sat down next to him. “Let me try again, because I don’t mean to come across as uncaring.” She looked into his eyes so he’d know she was completely sincere. “I’m sorry I shot your uncle. I know everything changed when I did that. Although it’s not going to sound like much of an apology when I say I would do it all over again.” She put her hand on his arm. “Galen, Wolf was coming back. He was bringing henchmen, and they were going to move you. My gun had a silencer on it, and it was a .22—just an equalizer, really. Your uncle was being a big baby about a wee piece of lead in his fanny. According to your grandfather, Wolf was back at his mean tricks the very next day. So if you want me to be sorry I did it, I’ll say I’m sorry, because I don’t want you to be upset. But just know that I’m pretty sure if I had to choose again between getting you out of there and burying a small reminder in your uncle’s posterior, I’d let my gun leave a calling card.”
A reluctant smile turned up one corner of Galen’s mouth. “That’s pretty skewed thinking, angel.”
“It’s all I’ve got. It’s how I see it. You don’t think I was going to let Wolf take you off where I might never find you?”
“I would have gotten away somehow.”
“I know that. And part of me thinks that maybe it’s your pride that’s stinging more than anything.”
He shook his head. “What bothers me, beautiful, is that you painted a target on you and my children. He’s not ever going to forget what you did. You can’t do anything else to put the babies in jeopardy.”
“You think I’d do anything to put them in jeopardy?” She frowned. “Those children are my life. All I do from morning to night is think about their health and well-being. And part of that scenario is having their father with them and not held hostage by a rogue freak.” She withdrew her hand from his arm. “For your information, I’ve hired Somer permanently to be the babies’ bodyguard. I doubt you’ll be any more comfortable with that decision, but I hope that when you’ve had time to think about it, you’ll appreciate the choice. Somer and Dr. Brody are marrying the week after Christmas, so she’ll be living locally, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have guarding my children. So you see, Galen, I do think about th
e children’s safety.”
He hesitated. “Isn’t this something we should have discussed?”
“Not while you’re convinced that the only way to deal with the problem is for our family to be separated. If we do that, Wolf wins.” It broke Rose’s heart just to imagine it. “You of all people should understand what it does to a family to be apart from the ones they love. And I know that if I leave, the separation will be permanent,” she said slowly. “Your job is here, your place is in New Mexico. If I’m in Canada or Australia or Hawaii, wherever you decide to hide me, the children would grow up without a father. And that’s what I’m really fighting for—my babies’ right to grow up with you in their lives.”
His mobile rang, interrupting what he was about to say. She waited for him to take the call, surprised when his face lit up. He asked a couple of questions, and she realized it was from someone at the hospital.
He clicked off his cell and stood. “Let’s get the coffee and whatnot to go. That was the hospital.”
Fear flew into her chest. She jumped to her feet, heart pounding. “Is Riley all right?”
“He’s wonderful,” Galen said. “The doctor says Riley can come home.”
“Oh, Galen!” They hugged each other, and Rose thought this was the greatest moment of their marriage. Even though things had been hard lately between them, it felt as if they were close again. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of Galen’s arms around her, then realized tears were streaming down her face. He gently wiped them away. “It’s the best news I could have gotten this Christmas,” she told him. “Let’s hurry!”
She grabbed their coffees and cake. Galen helped her into the truck and they headed to the hospital. Neither one said a thing about the angry words between them. Rose stared out the window, barely able to think about anything but Riley’s homecoming.
Then she realized it wasn’t time for Galen to be here. He was never back in Tempest this early. In the past week or so—ever since she’d shot Wolf—he’d mainly returned at night.
“Why are you in Tempest at four in the afternoon?” she asked.
“I wanted to check on you. Mack told me where I could find you.”
“You could have called. I would have come home if I’d known you were back.” She turned her eyes from the holiday-decorated shops to look at him.
“I could have, but I was hoping to do some shopping with you. I had promised you I would, and I wanted to keep that promise. So I took the afternoon off to spend with you. That was part of why I’m here.”
She hadn’t thought he wanted to spend time with her after she’d broken Running Bear’s one cardinal rule: don’t harm his son Wolf.
“But the real reason you came back is because you were hoping to talk some sense into me. Make me understand why you feel so strongly about me taking the children and going somewhere safer,” she said, her heart sinking. “Not just because you wanted to keep a promise to me.”
“It’s a conversation best had another time, I think.”
It was a conversation best ignored altogether. “Maybe another time we can shop,” she murmured. “I’ve gotten just about everything I need for under the tree, and for the babies.”
When Rose looked out the window again, even the wreaths on the lampposts failed to put any holiday spirit into her heart.
But her son was coming home—and that was Christmas enough.
* * *
GALEN DIDN’T KNOW what to say when his normally chatty wife went quiet. He would have expected her to be jumping for joy that Riley was coming home.
This had to get worked out soon. In a way, he hadn’t ended up in any better a situation than his brothers, who he’d ribbed for putting the cart before the horse in the pursuit of their wives. They’d done baby first, then marriage. He’d done marriage first, then babies—then nothing.
Maybe his way hadn’t been better. There was a good chance Rose finally agreed with Mack’s warning against marrying into the Callahan clan. Perhaps she regretted the decision. Galen was so afraid that was true.
If he were in her cute little winter boots, he’d probably regret marrying him.
He pulled into the hospital parking lot as fat snowflakes began falling. “We may have a white Christmas.”
“That would be pretty.” Rose wrapped her scarf around her neck and got out, and he hurried around the truck to put his hand under her elbow so she wouldn’t slip.
She pulled away, her smile a brief one. “I’m all right. Thank you.”
“Rose—”
“Galen,” Rose said, “I just want to get Riley now.”
She definitely didn’t want to talk about the status of their marriage. It was clear she had no intention of leaving Tempest.
By the set of Rose’s face as she refused to look at him, he knew that conversation was a no-go. He decided it would be best to suck it up and leave that particular topic for another time.
They went to the neonatal nursery, and a nurse came to greet them. “You’re here to take Riley Galen Chacon Callahan home? May I see identification, please? That guard over there insists everyone must have identification, as I’m sure you’re aware, and hospital policy is the same.”
“Yes,” Rose and Galen said at the same time, reaching for their IDs. They glanced at each other, then to Riley’s bassinet.
Galen smiled with pride at his son. “He’s a big boy now, huh?”
“I think so,” Rose said, smiling in turn as the nurse took Riley from his bassinet for a last diaper change. “He looks so strong!”
His son wasn’t strong. He was the smallest, frailest of the bunch. Yet Galen felt hope spring inside him that his child was out of the woods, had time to grow big and tall.
He didn’t want his boys to grow up like the Callahan cousins and his family had. Rose just had to understand that it was better to go away now rather than later. He glanced at the guard, who loomed in the corridor outside the nursery. Galen didn’t recognize him. “I’m surprised hospital staff keeps a guard for the neonatal unit.”
The nurse appeared surprised. “You assigned that guard, Mr. Callahan. He’s here on your orders. In fact, he’s rarely left his post.”
Galen whipped around to look at the man again, but he was gone. Rose glanced at him in surprise, but he shook his head. “I just forgot, with all the hiring at the ranch.”
The nurse brought Riley out, and Galen took the baby in his arms. “Look at you, son,” he said proudly. “Daddy’s Mighty Mouse.”
“Let me have him. You check us out.” Rose could hardly wait to get her hands on their child, Galen noted with pride. He smiled, loving how her face lit with joy, how her fingers eagerly touched their little baby’s cheek.
“Come on, babe,” Galen said a sudden huskiness in his voice. “Let’s take our boy home.”
He glanced back at the hallway, but the guard still hadn’t returned. If a “Mr. Callahan” had assigned that guard, he’d be curious to know which one of his brothers had opted for that particular baby gift.
“Can you hang on a second, Rose?” Galen asked, pulling out his mobile to make a call.
She smiled and went to talk to some of the nurses about Riley, delighted to be taking her son home. Galen watched her, his heart huge with happiness and pride. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on, and she’d given him the dreams of his heart.
Yet the mysterious guard bothered him.
“Jace,” Galen said when his brother answered the phone. “There’s a bodyguard that was assigned to Riley by a Mr. Callahan, supposedly. He’s been out here every day. When we came to take Riley home, he disappeared into thin air. I know for a fact that no bodyguard on the Rancho Diablo payroll was assigned to Riley. Do you know anything about this?”
After a moment, Jace chuckled. “I bet I know who hired that
bodyguard, Galen.”
He blinked. “Who?”
“Think outside the box, way outside the box. See if you come up with the same idea I did.”
Galen turned over possible options in his mind. “A Callahan, of course, because the nurse thought I’d hired him.”
“It would have to be a Callahan. The hospital doesn’t allow just anybody to stand in the hall and say he’s guarding a baby. He has to have credentials, and approval from the administration. Aren’t you supposed to be the brain in the family?”
“I am the brain in the family.” Galen looked at Riley as he lay happily in his mother’s arms, saying goodbye to all the nurses who’d taken such good care of him. “But if not you, then—”
“Didn’t the nurse say it was a Mr. Callahan, bro, who had assigned the guard? How about Chacon Callahan. Our father, Carlos.”
Galen’s eyes went huge. “How can that be?”
“Ask the chief. He won’t confirm our guess but you’ll know by the stoic expression he always wears. But you and I are old enough to remember our father. You know the kind of man Dad was, and I don’t doubt for a minute that protecting the next generation of our family would be second nature to him.” Jace laughed again. “Just call it a Callahan Christmas miracle, and take your family home. Merry Christmas, big brother.”
Shivers ran over Galen as he thought about Jace’s words. Of course. It made perfect sense. Carlos wasn’t going to leave any member of his family behind. They were a team; they were together forever.
In spirit and in heart.
And it was a miracle, a gift from the past that told him the future was going to be wonderfully blessed.
* * *
ONCE ROSE PUT Riley in his bassinet next to his brothers, it was as if the pieces of her heart suddenly fit together again, a puzzle completed.
“This is how it should be,” she whispered. “This is Christmas.”
Galen put his arm around her shoulder. The boys calmed, seemed content to be close together once more. Rose’s heart filled with more happiness than she’d ever known, and tears welled up in her eyes. “They’re perfect,” she said. “It’s a miracle.”
