Made for Marriage

by Helen Lacey

  Rescuing the three neglected horses would be tricky, but it needed to be done. Because Animal Welfare hadn’t been able to trace the horses, Callie and Fiona had found out their location through a mutual friend and horse trainer. They’d planned the rescue for late Wednesday afternoon and would inform the authorities when they had the animals loaded on the trailer. Only Callie hadn’t expected Lily to turn up and insist on helping.

  “Definitely not,” she said. “Get your bike and head home.”

  “Dad will let me go if I ask him,” Lily said.

  Callie looked at her. “No, he won’t.”

  She knew how Noah would react. He was a stickler for doing the right thing. And what they were doing was not exactly protocol—even if their intentions were noble. She’d considered telling him about her plans because she didn’t want there to be any secrets between them. But Fiona talked her out of it, insisting the fewer people who knew the better.

  “But I want to help,” Lily insisted and then said with a pout, “I thought we were friends.”

  “We are,” Callie said, firmer this time. “But your father is—”

  “More than a friend,” Lily said bluntly and pouted again. “Yeah, I get that. I’m not a little kid. I know you guys are into each other.”

  Callie tried to ignore the heat climbing up her neck. She suspected Lily knew about their kayaking trip. Well, not everything. But Lily was smart, she’d work it out, even if Callie was reluctant to come clean and admit she and Noah were together. “I was about to say that your father wouldn’t want you mixed up in this. And neither do I,” she added.

  “I can take care of myself,” Lily said and crossed her thin arms. “And I wish everyone would stop treating me like I’m five years old. I’m thirteen…old enough to…well, old enough to do lots of stuff. And it’s not like I’m about to go and do something stupid. And the way my dad’s been acting lately you’d think I was some sort of glass doll.”

  Callie caught Lily’s resentment. “He’s concerned about you.”

  “No need,” the teenager replied. “I get that he wants a girlfriend,” she said and flashed her eyes at Callie. “But who says it would work out anyway? I mean, people get together and break up all the time, right? Even married people. Especially married people. In fact, I don’t know why adults bother to get married at all. They should just have kids and break up straight away…that way the kids don’t have to get used to the idea that having parents who are together is normal.”

  Once she’d finished her impassioned speech, Lily bit down on her lower lip. Callie’s concerns about Lily’s fragile emotions increased tenfold. For all the girl’s bravado, she wasn’t fooled. Lily was hurting. Lily felt things deeply. And Callie knew the young girl was concerned about her relationship with her father. Noah was all she had, Lily’s rock, the one constant in her life. And Callie had no intention of threatening that foundation.

  “Time for you to go home,” Callie said gently. “I’ll see you on Sunday.”

  Lily begrudgingly accepted her decision and took off on her bicycle.

  “Let’s get going,” Fiona said after they’d filled up the hay nets. “We need to get the horses back here before it gets dark.”

  Callie agreed. She locked Tessa in the backyard and checked the house was secure. The windows all worked now, thanks to Noah.

  She maneuvered the truck and trailer around the yard and headed for the road.

  “So, big date this Friday, huh?”

  Callie concentrated on the driving. The trip was close to thirty kilometers west of Bellandale and would take about half an hour. But she still managed to smile at her friend. “How did you find out?”

  “Evie told me,” Fiona said. “She’s watching the kids and asked if I wanted to drop by for a game of rummy.” Her friend rolled her eyes. “I get a game of rummy and you get a dreamy date.”

  Dreamy? She supposed Noah was a little dreamy. A lot dreamy. And she was looking forward to their date more than she could have ever imagined. She had only seen him during Lily’s lesson on Sunday because the twins had come down with a slight cold. But he’d asked her to dinner on Friday night. Although after what happened by the river, Callie wasn’t sure she was ready for the next step in their relationship. Oh, she wanted Noah. What surprised her was the intensity of that desire. She’d never considered herself all that sexual in the past…her life with Craig had revolved around the horses and competition and hard work. Sex and romance had come last in the list of priorities they’d set for their life together.

  But with Noah…well, she thought about sex a lot. And she felt certain he thought the same. Since they’d almost made love by the river she’d been distracted and unable to think about much else.

  Except now she was thinking about Lily. The young girl’s obvious confusion and pain lingered in the back of Callie’s mind. She needed to talk with Noah before their relationship went any further. She needed to be sure she wasn’t unsettling Lily too much.

  “There’s the turnoff,” Fiona announced.

  Callie slowed down and turned into a long gravel driveway. An old farmhouse came into view behind a row of wild bamboo. The settling dusk set up an eerie mood. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

  “Absolutely. Put the headlights on, will you? It’s getting dark.”

  Callie flicked on the lights and pulled the truck to a halt. “Looks like a gate over there,” she said and pointed to a break in the fence line where an old timber gate was tethered between two posts. Fiona grabbed the flashlight on the seat between them and got out. Callie followed and retrieved three halters and ropes from the back of the truck before tracing her friend’s footsteps.

  “I can see them,” Fiona announced when she reached the fence line. “Look.”

  Callie saw the three horses silhouetted against the diminishing sunlight. “You get the trailer ready,” she said. “I’ll grab them.”

  “Be careful,” Fiona warned and headed back to the truck.

  Callie looked at the chain and padlocks on the gate and tapped the pair of bolt cutters in her back pocket. She slipped through the barbed-wire fence and headed for the trio of horses who were now watching her suspiciously. The closer she got, the more appalled she became. They were clearly neglected. Two bays and one grey, all of them in need of decent feed and veterinary attention. She haltered one of the bays and the other two automatically followed. Once the three horses were secured, Callie grabbed the snips and cut through the barbed wire. Within minutes they began angle loading them on the trailer.

  Fiona suddenly shrieked. “Callie, look. A car’s coming.”

  Sure enough, a pair of headlights turned toward the long driveway. “It could be nothing,” Callie assured her friend.

  Fiona didn’t believe her. She didn’t believe herself. “They must have seen our lights. We have to get out of here.”

  Callie agreed. They quickly secured the horses, closed the tailgate, then jumped into the truck. Callie turned the truck and trailer in a sharp arc and headed down the driveway.

  The car kept coming. Conscious of both their own and the horse’s safety, Callie accelerated fractionally and stayed on the track. With just meters to spare, the car veered to the right with a loud blast of its horn. She kept going, giving the task her full concentration. Fiona told her the car had turned and was now on their tail as they headed out of the driveway. They hit the main road and Callie increased speed. Behind, the car closed in, tailgating them, striking the horn in an attempt to intimidate. The driver didn’t give up, following them down the narrow country road. In the side mirrors Callie could see that the car was in fact a truck with a menacingly heavy-duty push bar out front. And it was getting closer to the back of the trailer with each passing second. At the first contact on the push bar against the rear of the trailer, Callie was
thrown forward. Fiona screamed. Callie gripped the steering wheel and held on, managing the impact by pressing the gas and surging forward. She could feel the horses moving in the trailer and straightened the rig quickly. The truck collided again, harder this time, sending them into the gravel rut on the edge of the road. Callie held her nerve and pulled the wheel with all her strength.

  “Should we pull over?” Fiona asked frantically.

  “No,” Callie said quickly. “Cameron’s a police officer, right?”

  Fiona nodded. “Yeah.”

  “So, call and tell him where we are and what’s happening.”

  “But he’ll—”

  “Just call him,” she insisted. “Hurry.”

  Thankfully Fiona had service on her cell and hastily made the call. Cameron instructed them to keep on their route at the designated speed limit if safe and said a police car would be dispatched immediately.

  They endured a frightening ten minutes until the welcome sight of blue and red flashing lights came toward them. Callie slowed the truck down and pulled over. The truck took one last ram into the back, jerking them around the cab despite their seat belts. Another police vehicle appeared and cornered the truck behind them.

  The offenders were out of their truck within seconds. Two men, hurling insults about how they had stolen their horses, didn’t like having to answer questions about how Callie’s trailer had dents on the tailgate.

  Cameron arrived in plain clothes because he’d been off duty. He was quick to check they were unharmed and asked for a detailed account of what had happened. With the men now in the back of a police car and the horses jittery but in one piece, Callie began to tell her account of the events while Fiona called Animal Welfare to come and pick up the horses. But a sharp rapping sound interrupted them, followed by a shrill voice pleading, “Let me out.”

  Cameron followed the sound, Callie right behind him. He rattled the handle to the storage compartment on the side of the trailer. Callie quickly gave him the key and he opened the narrow door. None of them expected Lily Preston to unfold her gangly legs from the small space.

  “Damn it, Lily,” Cameron demanded as he helped her out. “What are you doing in there?”

  The teenager straightened, rubbed her arms and looked at Callie. “I just wanted to help.”

  Callie’s blood ran cold. “You stowed away when I told you not to. Lily, how can—”

  “Because friends should help each other.”

  “Does your dad know you’re here?” Cameron asked.

  Lily shook her head, guilt written all over her face. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell him.”

  Good idea—but not going to happen. Callie watched as Cameron stepped away and made a quick phone call.

  By the time Noah received the call from Cameron, he was about to start calling Lily’s friends to see if anyone knew where she was. He’d tried Callie several times thinking she’d be there, but she hadn’t picked up. Nor could he get any service on her cell. Not surprising, considering Cameron’s brief account of events that led to both Lily and Callie ending up at the police station.

  He dropped the kids at Evie’s and headed into Bellandale. He scored a parking space outside the police station and headed inside. Cameron greeted him swiftly, minus the regulation blue issue uniform.

  “Where’s Lily?” he demanded.

  “In the break room. She’s okay,” Cameron said.

  Relief pitched in his chest. “And Callie?”

  “She’s just finished making a statement. Room three. You can go in if you like.”

  Noah strode away without another word. She was sitting down when he entered the room. He said her name.

  She looked up, swallowed hard and let out a long, almost agonized sigh. “Noah.”

  He stepped closer. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, fine.”

  “What happened?”

  She took a deep breath and placed her hands on the small table in front of her. “Fiona and I heard that the three horses we’ve been trying to rescue had been moved again. We found out the location and went to get them.”

  “To steal them?”

  She raised her hands and stood, scraping the chair back. “Well, yes.”

  “And what?” he asked, sharper than he wanted. “You thought you’d take my kid along for the ride?”

  “No…I had no idea she’d stowed away in the storage locker.”

  Noah stilled. “She was in the trailer?” Cameron hadn’t mentioned that.

  “Dad?”

  They both stopped speaking and turned their heads toward the door. Lily stood beneath the threshold. “Don’t blame Callie,” his daughter insisted.

  “I’m not blaming anyone,” he said and tried to stop thinking about the danger his daughter had been in. “I’m trying to understand what happened.”

  Lily shrugged. “I wanted to help. I wanted to do something. It’s not Callie’s fault.”

  “I’m not blaming Callie,” he said and tried to push back the kernel of censure rising within his chest. He knew Lily. She was headstrong and impulsive. And Callie couldn’t have known his daughter would be so determined to go along for the ride.

  “Good,” Lily said and raised her chin. “It was my fault. I’m the one who should be blamed. It’s always my fault. That’s what I do.”

  There was so much pain in Lily’s voice that Noah’s heart constricted. “Its okay, Lily. Why don’t you go and wait by the front desk. We’ll go home soon.”

  Lily looked at them both for a moment then let out a pained breath. “So you can do what? Talk about me and work out ways to get me out of your hair so you two can get it on?”

  Noah stepped toward his daughter, but she moved back. “It’s not like—”

  “Maybe you should send me away somewhere,” she said and cut him off. “Like boarding school—that way I won’t be in anyone’s way. Or maybe you should send me to Paris—you could always ask my mother if she wants me.” Lily’s eyes glistened with tears Noah knew she wouldn’t let fall. “But we know what she’d say, right? She didn’t want me four years ago, so she won’t want me now.”

  The pain in his daughter’s voice pierced directly into Noah’s chest. Lily had kept her feelings about her mother locked away for years. And now they were leaching out. He was staggered and anxious and partly relieved. Realizing why, Noah swallowed a hard lump in his throat. In a matter of weeks Callie had somehow become the catalyst for Lily’s stirred emotions.

  “You’re not going to be sent away, Lily,” he assured her gently. “Not ever. Go and wait by the desk. I’ll be with you soon.”

  Before she turned Lily looked toward Callie with eyes filled with apologetic resentment. Noah knew Lily liked and respected Callie, but his daughter was also afraid of the impact Callie was having on their lives.

  Once she left Callie spoke. “She’s in a lot of pain, Noah.”

  That much was obvious. “I know.”

  “She’s confused and frightened.”

  He knew that, too. What he didn’t know was why Callie looked at him with such blatant despair. “I’ll talk with her.”

  Callie let out a long sigh. “I don’t…I don’t think we should do this.”

  Suddenly Noah knew exactly what she was talking about. And he knew what was coming. She wanted out. Before they’d even begun. It cut right through to the marrow in his bones. Perhaps because part of him knew she was right. Lily’s needs had to come first. And whatever his daughter was going through, Noah knew his relationship with Callie would only amplify Lily’s feelings of abandonment and anger toward her mother.

  But…to lose her? Sensing that it was exactly what Callie wanted made him mad. Irrational and unlike him as it was, Noah experienced a deep burst of re
sentment for the fact she could give up on them so easily.

  “So, I guess you get what you want after all,” he said, not liking the way it sounded but too stubborn to stop the words from coming.

  “What does that mean?”

  “No ready-made family.”

  Callie looked at him, all eyes, all hurt. “That’s unfair. I’m only thinking of Lily. She needs—”

  “What about what you need, Callie? Or maybe you don’t need anything. Needing would mean feeling, right?” He pushed past the pain that had settled behind his ribs. “It would mean giving part of yourself to me…and I don’t know if you have the heart for it.”

  She swallowed hard. “Do you think I’m that cold?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied, frustrated and annoyed. “Only you know what’s in your heart, Callie.”

  “I’m trying to do what’s best for Lily.”

  You’re what’s best for Lily. You’re what’s best for me.

  But he didn’t say it. He didn’t push. Didn’t beg her to give them a chance like he wanted to. “I have to go. I’ll see you…sometime.”

  She lifted her shoulders. “Sure.”

  Noah left the room. Walking down the corridor suddenly became close to the hardest thing he’d ever done.

  Callie sat on the sofa, eating ice cream covered in crushed Oreo cookies and copious amounts of chocolate sauce.

  She took a mouthful, anticipating the usual buzz from the sugary sweetness, and sighed heavily when the kick didn’t come.

  Hopeless.

  She tried again and, when disappointed with the same result, plopped the dish on the coffee table and sank back in the sofa. It was Friday night and she was alone. The same Friday night that she should have been out on a romantic date with Noah.

  I should be with him right now.

  Except that everything was ruined.

  Even though she knew there was nothing else she could have done when she realized the extent of Lily’s fears, Noah’s words had hurt her deeply. She did have a heart capable of feeling. A heart that was filled with thoughts of him.