Читать книгу A Callahan Wedding - Tina Leonard - Страница 11

Chapter Three

His brothers would probably say he was a dunderhead for blurting out his feelings—a bad proposal if there ever was one—in a pediatrician’s office. And they’d be right. But holding little Joe sent such emotions washing over Jonas that it was all he could do not to throw Sabrina in his truck and drive off with the both of them. He could convince her on the road—he did his best work on the road.

That was something his brothers had never understood about him. They thought he was just an old fuddy-duddy, steadfast and boring Jonas the heart surgeon. He was that, in some ways, because he was the eldest and he’d felt a strong sense of being a role model when they were growing up. But there was nothing he loved more than to cut loose from the office and hit the road, experiencing the variety life had to offer.

“I can’t marry you, Jonas,” Sabrina said, interrupting his scattered thoughts. He was nervous—nerves akin to waiting for a bull to leave the chute—as he waited for her answer to the proposition he’d blurted.

“Sabrina,” Jonas said, ignoring her statement. She was an adorably prickly little thing, but she didn’t understand that a boy needed his father. A girl did, too, but Jonas had a boy, and right now he was dealing with the obvious. A girl could come later, if he played his cards right. “While you consider what I said, which is really not open to debate because Joe absolutely has to have my name, I want to show you what I just bought.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “What?”

“It’s not here. I’ll have to drive you there to show you. Would you mind taking a two-day jaunt with me?”

“I’m not sure. Based on the marriage proposal you seem to be offering in a rather chauvinistic way, I don’t know if I want to spend much time alone with you.”

He nodded. “You owe it to yourself to find out. We belong together as a family, and that’s the goal we need to work toward.”

He’d hoped to see the light of joy in her eyes, but Sabrina’s brows pulled farther together. “We don’t have any goals, Jonas.”

“I’m aiming to fix that.” Jonas stood up with the baby when the nurse called little Joe’s name. “What the three of us need is time away. See if you don’t agree.”

Sabrina followed him silently, which was unusual for her, because she was a firecracker and given to both opinions and the occasional explosion when put upon. He liked the fire in her. Funny that I ever thought she was all wrong for me. It must have been the gypsy bells and the clairvoyant oogie-boogie that made me think she wouldn’t be happy married to Steady Eddy.

He could fix all that.

“You’re crazy,” Sabrina told him as they put Joe on the scales, and the nurse smiled.

“Big boy,” she said, and Jonas smiled.

“Yes, ma’am. Just like his dad.”

“Oh, brother,” Sabrina said.

Jonas beamed hugely. Now that sounded more like the gypsy who’d rocked his world.

He was so glad to be with her.

He’d have to work on the relationship part. But he remembered how good “Yes, Jonas” sounded, and he was willing to try his darnedest.

* * *

IT TOOK TWO DAYS OF wondering how to politely do it, but Sabrina finally got up the courage to investigate her very attractive rival. “Excuse me,” she said, walking up to the Diablo library desk with little Joe.

The redhead at the counter sent her a wide, welcoming grin. “I know you. You’re Sabrina McKinley, and that’s Joe. Hi, Joe,” Chelsea said, giving his cheek a slight caress. “He sure is a happy baby.”

Sabrina was warmed by Chelsea’s Irish accent and the fact that the woman honestly seemed pleased to see little Joe. She couldn’t pick up any animosity or jealousy from her, either. Sabrina’s curiosity was killing her. Before she accepted Jonas’s invitation to visit what he’d bought, she meant to speak with his supposed ex-fiancée.

Once burned, twice shy… .

“Hi, Chelsea,” she said. “You found a job so quickly.”

“Yes.” Chelsea smiled again. “I’m fortunate. Word got around that I was looking, and someone called me. I’ve got my passport, of course, and I applied for a visa. Then, one day, maybe a green card.”

“That’s a lot of plans,” Sabrina said, holding Joe as he squirmed, trying to reach for a book. Chelsea handed him one, a children’s picture book, and he instantly tried to gnaw on it.

“No, honey,” Sabrina said absently, putting him into his stroller so he could “read” the book. “This is for higher education, not nutrition. You turn the page like this. See?”

Joe observed, but didn’t quite have the motor skills to figure out page-turning. Still, he was happy to pat the page for a moment. “So,” Sabrina said, “I guess what I really want to know is if you…if you’re—”

“If Jonas and I are still engaged.” Chelsea nodded. “No. We’re not. It was Jonas’s plan, to keep him from being embarrassed that he was the only brother without a woman. He was pretty devastated when he thought you’d gone to Washington and met another guy.”

“Oh,” Sabrina said. “That’s not what happened at all.”

“And any woman could have figured that out.” She nodded again. “But Jonas was in full protective mode. I figured the two of you had to work things out eventually.”

“So why did you come to Diablo?” Sabrina asked, wondering what Chelsea’s angle was, if not marrying Jonas.

She began checking in some books that were in the bin. “I’ve been taking care of my mother for a few years. She’s much better now. She told me to go see the world.” Chelsea glanced at Sabrina. “Mom lives next door to Fiona, you know.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Mom’s supposed to be keeping an eye on Fiona and Burke’s place until they get back. Who knows when that will be?”

“They’re elusive,” Sabrina murmured. “So did you tell Jonas you wanted to see the world?”

“Mmm. And he said New Mexico was a great place to begin. That if I’d pretend to be his fiancée, he’d fly me over here and help me get started.” The redhead grinned at her. “I want to do a lot of traveling, but I can tell Diablo is a great place to live. I may stay here for a while. I like family places.”

“Diablo is certainly that.”

Chelsea stopped checking in books for a moment to consider Sabrina. “You know, men think with their hearts more than we give them credit for. And Jonas really was freaked out that you were having another man’s baby.”

“It never occurred to me that he would think that,” Sabrina said.

“There’s the trouble,” Chelsea said cheerfully, going back to her work. “We never know what they’re thinking, and it’s usually nothing that we’d think at all.”

“Thanks, Chelsea,” Sabrina said, feeling immensely relieved. “I really appreciate you telling me all this.”

“Jonas can’t be annoyed with me for telling you the truth, can he?” She winked at her. “Anyway, he’s a nice guy and all, but I’m looking for adventure.”

“You’ll find it here.” Sabrina handed the picture book back to Chelsea, and little Joe let out an indignant squawk. “Oh, Joe, honey…all right,” she said, giving in. “I think he’d like a book to read, Chelsea.” She found her library card and checked the book out, then gave it back to him.

Chelsea looked over the counter at Joe. “Maybe he’s going to be book-smart like his dad.”

Sabrina laughed. “Maybe he’ll get some other kind of smarts from his mother, too.”

“Goodbye, Sabrina. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”

She nodded. “I hope so. Goodbye, Chelsea.”

Sabrina went out, feeling much better now that she had some answers—and still not certain what to do about Jonas’s invitation.

* * *

“SO THIS IS IT,” JONAS SAID proudly the next day, when he’d finally dragged a reluctant Sabrina and little Joe away from Rancho Diablo for what he called “new family togetherness.”

Sabrina wasn’t certain what she thought about “family togetherness” time with Jonas. After her chat with Chelsea, though, she’d decided to give it a shot. Something was bugging her, though she couldn’t put her finger on it. The old “tickle” was back, warning her that something wasn’t quite as it should be.

Jonas was handsome as ever, gorgeous, in fact, yet she couldn’t allow herself to focus only on her emotions. But it was hard to forget what they’d shared, and how wonderful Jonas made her feel when she was in his arms. “What is it?” she asked, caution dampening her enthusiasm.

“This is Dark Diablo,” Jonas said, parking his truck in front of a small, spare farmhouse set among hardy junipers and spiny cacti, and framed by dusky canyons and arroyos. “This is my new home.”

Sabina blinked. “Home?”

“Yep.” He came around to help her out of the truck, then took Joe from her arms when she’d released him from his car seat. “This is Daddy’s new house, son. You get a swing set here, and a pony.”

“Wait,” Sabrina said, following them. “This isn’t home. You live in Diablo, at Rancho Diablo.”

“I’ve always wanted my own place. This is that place.” Jonas glanced around, pride evident on his face. “It took me almost four years to finally pull the trigger and buy this from the owner, but I did it.”

Sabrina looked around at the vast emptiness, her heart sinking. Of course, they were only a few miles from Rancho Diablo, but this wasn’t home. Home was with the people she’d come to know and love. She didn’t want Joe growing up alone.

She shivered. “There’s nothing out here.”

“I know. But I see cattle breeding and horses, and maybe something else. I’m not sure what.” Jonas smiled at her. “I can tell you’re not crazy about it.”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel,” Sabrina said quickly. “It’s your place. But it just seems so lonely.”

“The previous owner was old. He’d sold off most of his equipment and buildings, intending to sell the ranch to a corporation, I think. But when I heard that we might lose Rancho Diablo, I began to think seriously about this place. I knew we could move our operations here, if we had to.”

Sabrina nodded. “That makes sense.”

“So now it’s mine. Come on inside.”

The small farmhouse, with its weather-beaten paint and dust-laden windows, was so different from the seven-chimneyed, English-style manor house at Rancho Diablo. Sabrina walked into a wallpapered kitchen that was large and bright, if not updated. “Where does the water come from?”

“Here we’re cistern. For the cattle, luckily, there’s a couple of good creeks and streams you can’t see from the house, but which I think I can run pipe to.”

She kept walking around the house. “It feels like Auntie Em’s home in The Wizard of Oz.”

“I plan to build my own place one day. This isn’t big enough for a family. And I like what I had growing up.”

“Where are the closest neighbors?”

He looked at her. “I think there’s some a few miles away. This is ten thousand acres, so it’s pretty private.”

“I’ll say.” She went up the staircase, finding three small bedrooms laid out at the top, with one bathroom in between. “All the bedrooms are upstairs.”

“Yes.” Jonas came to stand beside her, carrying little Joe. “Sabrina, everything can be changed.”

She swallowed. “I’ve lived in a lot of places, Jonas, so I think I’m pretty good at adapting. But I suspect you’re going to be very lonely out here. I know I would be.”

He blinked. “Lonely? I was thinking how great the peace and quiet would be. I had five brothers growing up. Solitude sounds like heaven.”

She shook her head. “I only had Seton.”

Sabrina went back downstairs, and Jonas followed her.

“I don’t want to be a wet blanket,” she said, “so congratulations. I’m glad you got what you wanted.”

His proud smile dimmed. “Thanks.”

She nodded uncomfortably. “I guess we’d better head back. Thanks for showing me your new place.”

Jonas looked at her for a long time before slowly nodding in turn. He led her to the truck, handed Joe back to her to put in his car seat, then drove away in silence.

Sabrina looked back at the small farmhouse set in the vast acreage, and wondered why Jonas wanted to be alone so badly.

“Jonas,” she said slowly, “why do you want to run away from your family?”

“I don’t.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure? Because you couldn’t have picked a more isolated place to live.” She looked at him curiously.

He shrugged. “Maybe it’s not for everyone. It’s great for me, though. Nobody around for miles, until you get to the town of Tempest. I don’t go there often. It’s too much like Diablo. Full of well-meaning folk.”

Intuition hit her. “Jonas, you sold your practice. You got a fake fiancée. You’ve bought a property where there’s no one around to bother you.” She gave him a steady stare. “You’re hiding.”

“Hiding?”

She nodded. “It’s your typical pattern. You know what you need to do, but you stick your head in the sand instead.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jonas said. “It’s a piece of land, Sabrina, not a crystal ball.”

She wrinkled her nose at his retort and decided to ignore it. “Perhaps I’m trying to say that I suspect you still have a lot to figure out in your life, Jonas.”

“I’m doing fine. And when you’re not busy trying to make my life a piece of your investigative reporting, you’ll probably notice that I’m doing very well, thanks.”

“You are.” Sabrina knew she was hitting very close to whatever was really motivating Jonas, or he wouldn’t react so sorely. “But you’d do better if you’d finish what your brothers have started.”

Jonas took a long time to answer. “Maybe,” he said softly, “but I’m not going to.”

Not surprised by his answer, Sabrina turned to look out the window as the dry, almost barren-looking land rushed past. “There’s something bugging you at Rancho Diablo, or you wouldn’t be trying to hole up out here.”

“Nope.”

“You thought I was pregnant by another man,” Sabrina said with some heat, “though I can’t imagine what that says about how you really see me—”

“I see that you’re a little different from other women, Sabrina, which I happen to like. It scares me, but I do like it.”

“When you’re not scared.”

“Nervous is a better word. Some people are afraid to try new foods. I’m not. You’re a different kind of female than what we have on the ranch right now. But I need spice in my life, and you’re the cayenne pepper in my chili.” He ran a palm over Joe’s small head, where he was strapped in his carrier between them. “And this is my tiny jalapeño on top,” he said. “Good for me I’ve got the stomach for all this new fire.”

Sabrina wasn’t about to let Jonas pacify her with what he likely thought were compliments. “You went and found someone—”

“More calm, more sedate,” Jonas supplied helpfully.

Sabrina was outraged. “Chelsea jumped on a plane with you to fake an engagement. How sedate is that?”

He laughed. “Okay.”

“Anyway, don’t get me off the subject. What I’m trying to point out is that you run off when you want to avoid things. Just like you ran off to Ireland.” She glared at him. “How would you have felt if, upon seeing Chelsea, I’d jetted back to D.C.?”

“I’m glad you stayed. I’m hoping to talk you into living at Dark Diablo with me.”

“If you don’t put all your skeletons to rest, they’ll pop back up. Contrary to me being the wild and unsettled one, you wear that badge, Doctor.”

“Not me,” Jonas said. “Surgeons do not have a wild bone in their body.”

“Right,” Sabrina said. “Anyway, that’s what I think.”

He sighed. “I won’t deny all of what you say.”

“Good.” She popped the top off a bottle and began feeding the baby. “It’s very important for little Joe to know that his father is a man of deep character, not given to wayfaring.”

“Wayfaring.” Jonas laughed. “Ha-ha-ha. I don’t think I’ve wayfared in my life.”

“Except to Ireland, and you brought back a pretty fancy souvenir.”

“Okay,” Jonas said again. “So what do you suggest?”

“That you do what you’re meant to do.”

He scratched under his hat, then shook his head. “What if I told you that the questions don’t bother me as much as the answers might?”

“I would probably say the monster in the closet isn’t usually what you think it is once you open the door.”

“Ah-ha!” Jonas wagged a finger. “But sometimes it is.”

“The good part is you’ll be rattling those skeletons for little Joe’s sake, and all your nieces and nephews, as well as your brothers. You want to be a hero for Joe, don’t you?”

Jonas sighed. “I’d like to say not especially, but I don’t think you’d believe me.”

Sabrina smiled. “I probably wouldn’t.”

He glanced at her. “Would you be willing to be my shotgun rider if I start opening those doors?”

Sabrina looked into his navy eyes. “I’ll ride shotgun.”

“And then you’ll marry me.”

She blinked. “Was that a proposal or a typical Callahan pronouncement? I always thought if you ever asked, it would be a lot more romantic.”

“Have I not asked you before? Because I have about a thousand times in my mind.”

“You see, Joe,” Sabrina said to the baby, who was contentedly sucking on his bottle and watching her face, “your father just delivered a half-baked proposal because he was afraid I might say no. Your dad protects himself.”

“Not true,” Jonas said. “I assume that a woman wants to marry the father of her child.”

“I might marry you,” Sabrina said, “but with a proposal like that, you can be certain you won’t make it back into my bed.”

“Oh,” he said. “I better up my game.”

“All of it, Doctor,” Sabrina stated. “I hope you can.”

“We’ll see,” Jonas said.

* * *

“SO, BASICALLY,” JONAS told Sam that night, “Sabrina hated Dark Diablo and didn’t accept my proposal. My big moment and I came up zeroes.”

“Not surprising,” his brother mused. “You did kind of half bake the thing. Sabrina’s right about that.”

“Yeah.” Jonas sat in the library drinking a whiskey with Sam, wondering how he’d ended up like this.

“The problem,” Sam said, “is that you always underestimated Sabrina. She’s way too good for you, for one thing.”

“This is true,” Jonas admitted. “She says I have to amp up my game, and I’m not sure how much amp I’ve got.”

“You want her, don’t you?”

“Hell, yes.” Jonas stared at the whiskey in his glass as if it held answers. “But she’s not a gentle and shy dove like your wife.”

Sam hooted. “Seton is not gentle and shy. She’s more like fireworks in my sky, trust me. Let’s do a further checklist. Judge Julie is a smokin’ pistol set to fire. Jackie was a nurse and keeps order like a general. Darla is a businesswoman, and there are days when I can hear the grocer grinding his teeth from the deals she makes him give her. Aberdeen may be a preacher, but she’s got a soul of iron, don’t let that sweet face kid you. Where are the retiring wallflowers in this family?”

“This is different,” Jonas said.

“Only because it’s happening to you this time, you big wienie,” Sam shot back. “Believe me, we all suffered when we fell in love, though we mostly suffered because of our egos. You’re just going to make more noise about it, I’m afraid. We’ll have to resort to earplugs.”

Jonas snorted. “Sabrina says I have to find myself first. She says I run away from what I don’t want to deal with.”

Sam snickered. “Guess she didn’t have to be clairvoyant to know that.”

Jonas looked at his youngest brother. “It’s not true.”

“Of course it’s true. Every word. Did she set a goal for you, a dragon for you to conquer, in this quest for yourself?”

Jonas thought about it. “She says that until I’ve figured out the answers in our family, I likely won’t be ready to make a good husband and life partner. Sabrina says that I’ve been avoiding my responsibility for years, and that it probably all goes back to the fact that I was the oldest. She says her hunch is that our parents leaving affected me the most. It’s all a bunch of psychological nonsense, but I’m humoring her. It’s best to let women think they’re figuring us men out, you know.”

Sam sighed. “That is not a good attitude to take.”

Jonas was satisfied with his non-emotional approach to his chosen lady. “How would Sabrina know what I need to do to make myself into a good life partner?”

“Well, you ran off and got engaged to a woman you didn’t love because the woman you did love was pregnant with your child. Call me crazy, but you may have some issues to iron out, bro.”

He scowled. “Even if I did—and I’m not saying I have any issues at all—I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Sam raised his glass. “We did the spadework for you. All you have to do is put it all together.”

Jonas stared at him. “Not that easy, when you consider that it’s taken all five of you to get this far.”

“Well,” Sam said, easing back into the leather chair more comfortably, “if it’s true what Seton discovered, and our parents are still alive, you have to find out where they are. And why they went away. They had to have left us for some real good reason.”

“They went into witness protection because they’re hiding from a cartel they turned over to the various authorities involved. You can’t find someone in witness protection, no matter how much you might want to.”

“Yeah.” Sam scratched his chin. “But someone knows something.”

Jonas shook his head. “That could only be Fiona—and she would absolutely never tell—only Chief Running Bear might know.”

Sam nodded. “Bingo.”

“But so what if we did find our parents? If they wanted us to locate them, they would have given us a signal, a clue.” Jonas wasn’t sure this particular holy grail had a desirable outcome. “The bad guys, whoever they are, might find our parents, too, then. I don’t think it’s worth taking a risk.”

“You make several good points. Did I tell you, by the way, that Sheriff Cartwright had to release the guy he’d arrested? The one who was living in the canyons, and who rigged Seton’s laptop?”

“No,” Jonas said slowly. “Why did they release him?”

“He got bail from someone. A cash bond. And there wasn’t enough to hold him on.”

Jonas remembered how much trouble the rat had managed to cause over the years for their family. He’d bided his time, waiting for Jeremiah and Molly Callahan to contact the children they’d left behind. “It’s not safe to find them, Sam. We could lead danger right to their door.”

“I think you may be right.” Sam looked at his boots, then crooked a brow at his brother. “So you’ll just have to tell Sabrina you’re probably never going to find yourself.”

“Maybe.” Jonas thought it was a real possibility, anyway. He didn’t have the fire in his belly to know more than he did. Were they really alive?

Maybe finding out more about myself isn’t what I need to quit avoiding the big issues. I’m a surgeon, for God’s sake. I made life-changing, lifesaving decisions, every day of my life. What the hell am I afraid of?

It was simple enough. He was afraid of being abandoned, left behind once again. What had happened to drive his parents away?

As a child, he’d figured he must have done something bad. Something horrible, to make his parents leave and go away forever. God wouldn’t take parents away from a boy who was good.

It had been years before Jonas had understood he had done nothing wrong, that death had come unnaturally early to his parents. The learning process of grief and abandonment might have even stirred his desire to be a saver of lives.

But the habit of backing away from emotional moments stayed with him. He didn’t want to disappoint anyone, hurt anyone, because he or she might leave.

So much easier just to avoid the big issues.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about Sabrina,” he said. “She doesn’t think I’ve got the ability to stick with it for the long haul.”

“She has a right to be a little antsy,” Sam said. “You pretty much shocked the entire town when you brought Chelsea home. And now what are you going to do with her?”

“Nothing. She seems happy working at the library and doing her own thing. She’s making lots of friends. I told her I’d send her back to Ireland anytime she wanted to go, on my nickel, but she said she’s having a blast.” Jonas shrugged. “She and Sabrina seem to get along, too. So I guess I just don’t think about her much.”

“You realize that, out of all of us, you made the biggest boneheaded error of courtship? Bringing another woman home,” Sam said, disgusted. “I didn’t dare even look at another woman when I was trying to catch Seton. I was too afraid she’d head back to Washington. I’m kind of surprised Sabrina hasn’t, actually.”

Jonas sat straight up. “She wouldn’t.”

“She might.” His brother shrugged. “She still keeps an apartment there, and you’re the world’s slowest Romeo. She may get impatient with you. I would.” He drank his whiskey and closed his eyes with sheer contentment. “I think she’s spotted you a couple of forgiveness points because everyone recognizes you’re a little impaired in the love arena, but I wouldn’t push my luck.”

Jonas felt himself go pale. Sabrina was a traveler, and fiercely independent. She did have a job in D.C., but she was on maternity leave.

He had to make like a retrofitted Romeo—fast.

“Anyway,” Sam continued, “Sabrina’s right. You do have a pattern. You would never have bought Dark Diablo if you weren’t looking to get away from all of us. It’s called shirking your responsibilities. How did Sabrina know you’d never change?”

Jonas gawked at his brother, wondering when having a dream had become shirking his responsibilities. “You know, I’m not the bad guy you paint me as.”

“Nothing bad about being terminally uncommitted and unable to participate in a family.” He shrugged. “We got used to it after you went off to college, then med school, then Dallas. But as far as a woman goes, Sabrina in particular, does she have any reason to expect much from you?”

Jonas didn’t reply. What the hell did his brothers know about anything, anyway?

He could be Dr. Commitment.

He could fix everything.

* * *

“I THINK MATTERS ARE pretty much as you’d want them to be, Fiona,” Chelsea said on the phone that evening as she relaxed in the Callahan guesthouse. It was comfortable here. The Callahans were nice, and they never bothered her, just seemed determined that she eat with whatever Callahan brother’s family had an extra seat that night. Altogether, being here was an enjoyable adventure, and the experience would give her a lot of material for the next mystery she was writing. “Jonas has a new baby—”

“A baby!” Fiona’s voice was like an explosion in her ear.

“Yes. His name is Joe. Sabrina’s the mother—”

“Sabrina McKinley!” Fiona chortled. “That is going to be one wily child. I wonder which parent he’ll be most like? Jonas is slow and studious, and Sabrina is quick-witted and adventurous.”

“He looks like Jonas,” Chelsea said thoughtfully, “but I do think he has some of his mom’s mannerisms. Sometimes when he sits in his carrier looking out at the world, I could swear he knows exactly what’s going on.”

“Tell me more,” Fiona said.

“Well, there was some guy here who apparently hacked into Seton’s computer in his effort to find your sister and her husband—”

“What?” Fiona’s voice over the phone sounded strained. “They caught him?”

“I heard they did.” It was hard to listen in on conversations around the ranch and not ask questions. Chelsea tried not to arouse suspicions. The last thing she wanted anyone to know was that Fiona had put her up to coming over with Jonas to “report” on the family. When he had proposed, it had seemed to Fiona like a golden opportunity, and she’d hatched this plan. Chelsea had been fine with it, excited to come to America, but she’d quickly figured out there were a lot of deep currents under the seemingly placid Callahan waters. “They had to release him, though.”

“That worries me.”

“It was strange, because the guy had been living in the canyons for years, biding his time. Sort of a secret cell, waiting for something to come to light.”

“Hmm. I don’t like the sound of this. Chelsea, are you all right in Diablo, or do you want to come home?”

“I’ll be fine for another week or so, I think.” It really was pretty in Diablo, so different from Ireland. Her mother was in good hands at the moment, so an adventure was probably best for all of them.

“Thanks. I’ll talk to Burke and see what he thinks we should do. Call me soon, all right?”

“I will.” Chelsea hung up the phone and looked out the window, where she could see Sabrina and Jonas with little Joe. She smiled at the picture the three of them made. Never had she seen a man more gaga for a woman than Jonas. He really had been fooling himself about not marrying Sabrina.

I’d like having a man so crazy about me. The problem is, I’m too picky for my own good.

* * *

“I CAN’T DO IT,” JONAS told Sabrina as they took a stroll around the ranch that night. Little Joe dozed in Jonas’s arms. “I can’t find myself. You’ll have to choose some other Herculean task for me to perform.”

Sabrina stared at the man who’d fathered her child, and shook her head. “What spooked you?”

“I’m not sure. It was a combination of things. You’ll have to choose a different test.”

Sabrina watched the moon glowing in the New Mexico sky, and thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen besides little Joe. “It’s not a test, Jonas. It’s just giving you time to figure out what you really want in life. And you can’t do that until you know what happened in your past. I think the past determines the future.” She reached up to run her hand across his cheek. “When I first met you, your aunt had hired me to tell you a yarn. I did that, only because I knew Fiona had her heart in the right place, that she was trying to help you Callahans, and not hurt you. I just don’t want you to ever regret that you married a woman who was out to trick you. Remember when I told you that the ranch was in trouble?”

“Yes,” Jonas said, “and it was.”

“Well, that’s the point. It still is.”

He rubbed his chin. “Just from a different source.”

“Exactly.” She knew the sheriff had released the man Sam had caught snooping around Rancho Diablo. And why wouldn’t the spy go right back to doing what he’d been doing—trying to find their parents? After all, that’s what he’d been hired and trained to do. “Maybe you should talk to him again.”

“I don’t think so. He’s not going to give up any more information. Anyway, you’re going about this all wrong. You should marry me, and then let me solve all these issues as they become solvable.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Sabrina said. “But you have a lot to do. You don’t need to be sidetracked right now.”

“There are more important things in life than worrying about the ranch, or about the past. Like watching little Joe pull himself up today. I’d rather focus on the good things.”

“I know,” Sabrina said, “but every marriage has rough patches. Take care of this rough patch first. You’ll thank me later.”

“I don’t know,” Jonas said. “I feel strangely compelled to get into bed with you instead of playing Sherlock Holmes.”

Sabrina smiled. “I never said you couldn’t seduce me, cowboy.”

Jonas’s eyebrows shot up. “You didn’t?”

She shook her head slowly. “No, but maybe I should. You’ll work harder.”

“I was always the guy who worked best with incentives,” Jonas said, pulling her close with his free arm. “Try me with the carrot-and-stick approach and see what happens, beautiful.”

“Jonas!” Sabrina giggled and put up no fight as they stepped through the door of the main house.

Five pairs of eyes stared at them.

“Hi, Jonas,” Rafe said. “Did you forget it’s time for the weekly meeting?”

“Uh…” Jonas carefully untangled himself from Sabrina and looked around at his brothers. “Can I skip this one?”

“Jonas,” Sabrina said quickly, “you have your meeting. I’m going to go give Joe his bath. ’Bye, guys.” She gathered the baby into her arms and stepped back into the night air, taking a deep breath as she went.

It had been a long time since Jonas had held her. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on him.

Yet rushing things wouldn’t help anything.

She drove to Corinne’s and went up the stairs to draw a nice bath for Joe. The house was dark and empty, and Sabrina wondered where her aunt was. She set Joe in the tub, washing him with a mild, lavender-scented shampoo. He splashed in the water, delighted with this playtime.

She didn’t want to rush Jonas, but moments like these were so sweet they were meant to be shared with the father of her child. He’d lost six months of Joe’s babyhood.

It would be easy to accept Jonas’s proposal. But if she hadn’t had Joe, maybe Jonas would have married Chelsea, or some other woman. What did marriage mean to Jonas? Partnership? Companionship?

Sabrina wasn’t certain.

For her, it had to be true love. That’s all she planned to say yes to—true love, the real deal.

“Or it’s just going to be me and you, babe,” she told little Joe, rinsing his hair carefully. “And we’re a pretty good team, anyway.”

Joe looked up at her and splashed the water again. Droplets flew, and Sabrina smiled. He was such a good baby, such a sweetheart. Being a mother was the best part of her life now, even though she’d never imagined how much having a child would mean to her. Motherhood had changed her in so many wonderful ways.

Being a father was going to change Jonas, too. It already had. She could feel him yearning to be with his son, so much so that she wondered if his feelings for her really were all about her being the mother of his child.

Only time would tell. Going slowly would give them both time to be sure, especially Jonas. If she never got to share parenthood with Jonas, that was the way it would have to be.

Life wasn’t always perfect, even if she wished it so.