07 It Had to Be You Read online

  She stood in her office in the big house, looking out at the corral, trying to plan out the day in her head, when Jake appeared in the doorway holding two mugs of coffee.

  “Wow,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

  “Because I can pour coffee?”

  “Because you’re wearing boots.”

  “Yeah. Had to borrow some from Lou.” He handed her one of the mugs, blew into his own, and took a sip. “What do you say, Callie, to making a deal.” He looked right into her eyes. “We start over.”

  “Start over?”

  “Getting to know each other. Since I always seem to be on the wrong foot with you.”

  Shame might have filled her that she’d made him feel that way but a few remembered words stopped it.

  “When I sell this place…”

  “Starting over isn’t going to change anything,” she said.

  “We could at least try.” He started to thrust out his right hand, winced and hissed out a breath, then set down his coffee and offered her his left. “The name is Jake.”

  “Jake—”

  “What’s yours?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Callie.”

  “Lovely name.” He shook her hand, then ran his thumb over her knuckles. “How can I help you today, Callie? I’m here, at your service.”

  “You don’t like anything about ranching.”

  “Ah, but see you just met me. You don’t yet know that.”

  “Right. So you want to move some more cows around, see how the pigs are doing, gather eggs, that sort of thing.”

  “Well…”

  “Yeah, thought so. If I need you, I’ll let you know.”

  He waited until she brushed past him and got to the door before he said her name. She hesitated, then turned back, gasping in surprise because he’d come up right behind her and now her front bumped his.

  Slowly he reached for her face, tilting it up. Smiled. And her heart took off on a race she didn’t want to be in. “Jake—”

  “Shh.” He lowered his mouth to hers in one soft, melting kiss.

  When he was done, it took her a moment to open her eyes. She found him focused in on her, just her.

  “See how nice and simple that was without any baggage?” he asked.

  “Nothing about that was simple.” She had to force her limbs to work, and turned away. “But…it was nice,” she admitted to the door.

  She didn’t see his grin, but she felt it, all the way to her toes.

  The sun was warm, steaming off the dew. Callie and the others spent the morning in the center horse corral leading the guests around on horseback, teaching them to ride.

  Between the language barrier and their innate fear, it took the entire ranch crew. Callie even recruited Marge, Lou, and Amy to come out and lead around a guest or two. Marge had been riding horses all her fifty-some years, and loved getting back outside for a day, having fun telling stories of her wild youth, even though most of the guests didn’t have a clue as to what she was saying. Lou was quieter than usual, his smile rare, and Callie silently hoped a meteor fell on Roger’s garage.

  Amy didn’t say much either, but Callie caught her smiling at little Keito a couple of times as he sat in front of his father on a horse, giggling for all he was worth.

  But even with all of them outside helping, they were still short-handed for this unexpected chore of teaching every single one of their guests to ride. “Call a few friends from town?” Callie begged Tucker at one point.

  “Everyone’s on a three day camping trip to the Cochise Stronghold.” He took off his hat and scratched his head. “How about Michael?”

  “He’s got some big thing today. I’ll go see if Jake—”

  “We can do it without him.”

  “You know he’s here for a while.”

  He shoved his hat further up on his head and scratched his forehead in frustration. “I’m living with him, aren’t I?”

  “I think you should talk to him, try to work out what’s bugging you.”

  “What’s bugging me is his presence. And why are you defending him?”

  She had no idea. “We owe our jobs to him.”

  “So you think he went and bought paint today out of the kindness of his heart?”

  “The place needs some paint.”

  “And when we’re done, he’ll sell that much easier.”

  “He said we’ll keep our jobs, he’ll make sure of it.”

  Tucker let out a sound of disgust. “The guy can’t milk a cow to save his life. And he went green when he fed the pigs.”

  “He’s never done those things before.”

  “And he won’t again, is my guess. We did get him up on a horse though, which was amusing.”

  “Not Moe,” she said quickly, well aware that Moe had taken an instant dislike to Jake, one that seemed eerily personal.

  “I’m not looking to kill him. He rode Molly.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Please. Molly would let a toddler ride her.”

  “Still, he tried.”

  “You’re the most logical, smartest woman I know,” he said, baffled. “Don’t go soft now, just because there’s a pretty face to flirt with.”

  She laughed and hoped she didn’t blush with guilt. “Have you looked in a mirror? Your face is just as pretty.”

  “Callie.” Suddenly he looked very young. “Listen, he walks away. That’s what he does. Know that right now.”

  She remembered how angry and brooding Tucker had been when he’d first come here, a seventeen-going-on-thirty-five-year-old man, looking for a purpose. Her heart had broken for him then.

  And it broke now. This land had given him his purpose. She wanted to be angry at Jake for not doing more, but truthfully, she suspected he would have done anything for Tucker, if only he’d known what.

  She wished she could fix this for them, but she couldn’t. She could only try to get them back together, help them learn about each other, and hopefully, eventually trust each other, too. God, she hoped Jake was worthy of Tucker’s trust. As for herself, plenty of people had walked away from her, or proven unworthy of her heart. Her father, her mother. Matt. It no longer mattered to her. “I’m not looking for another husband here, Tuck, just a spare hand.”

  “Whatever.”

  Without another option looming, she went looking for Jake. She found him lounging in the hot tub, head back, body sprawled out, snoozing. She nudged his arm with the tip of her boot.

  He opened his eyes and smiled. “I knew you’d come to your senses and join me.”

  “Did you mean it?”

  “Are you kidding?” He scooted that long, lean, hard-as-rock body over and made room. Patted the water.

  She shook her head. “I meant about helping.”

  “Are you asking?”

  She let out a breath. “Yeah.”

  He just looked at her, and she let out another huff. “Could you help us out today, please?”

  “Does it involve the pigs?”

  “Nope.”

  “Does it involve Goose?”

  “Nope.”

  “How about rounding up anything with four legs?”

  She lifted a brow. “No.”

  His smile was slow and sexy as hell. “Well, then, I’d love to.” Good as his word, he stood up, water running down his heart-attack-inducing body. She quickly turned her back, and his soft laugh scraped at her belly.

  “You’ve already seen it all,” he reminded her. “In fact, you’ve even touched or kissed most of it.”

  “I’ll meet you in the corral,” she said quickly, and walked away, grinding her jaw when he laughed. She didn’t need the reminder of what she’d done to and with that body. If she didn’t know exactly what she’d missed out on that night, she’d guessed a million times since.

  But the truth of the matter was that he hadn’t wasted time wondering, he’d simply replaced her with another woman, countless times over. Remember that, she told herself.