07 It Had to Be You Read online

  “Isn’t trying to give you a half million dollar property a big enough statement?”

  “I see you with your brother, and there’s such longing in your face. Do you ever tell him? I see you brushing your father’s horse even when it would bite you on the ass if it could, and still, you keep trying with the stubborn thing. I see you look at me, and I’ve got to tell you, Jake, there’s so much in one look that you take my breath, but you don’t say anything. When we’re in bed at night, our bodies sing together, and I…” She closed her eyes and felt a dreamy smile cross her lips. “I’ve never felt happier.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “But you never say a word about how you feel about us.”

  “I’m leaving—”

  “Yes, I know. But as you’ve said, there are planes. Cars. Phones. E-mail.” She touched his face, wanting so badly to reach him. “I just want to hear what you’re feeling,” she said again, more softly, and held her breath. “About the ranch, the people in it. Me.”

  He looked at her, then closed his eyes. “I remember what it was like to have Tucker in my life. I mean really in my life. God, I miss that. And that damn ornery horse over there, my father’s horse…looking at him I feel such regret that it’s like a stab in my chest.” She still had her hand over his heart, and he covered it with his. “How am I doing?”

  Through a veil of tears, she nodded. “Good. Now me.”

  “And you…”

  “Yes? I drive you crazy? I make you mad? I make you want to rip all my clothes off? Pick one, Jake.”

  “All of the above, most definitely,” he assured her. “But there’s something else. A biggie.”

  “Spit it out then.”

  “I love you.”

  Her own heart tumbled. “Oh, Jake.”

  “I know. It’s a complication.”

  “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Really?” He shoved his fingers in his hair and looked nearly destroyed. “How?”

  “Because I love you back. With all my heart.”

  He stared at her. “You do?”

  Poor, poor baby. “Oh, yes. Very much. You’re really not going to sell the Blue Flame?”

  “I want you to have it. You should have had it all along.”

  She took the two pieces of the quitclaim deed back from him, and ripped them into a hundred more, scattering them on the wind. “The only way I want this ranch is to share it with you. Yes, I know you’re leaving, and I don’t care. I have a big fat loan now. I can help you.”

  “Callie, no—”

  “I’ll fly to see you as often as I can.”

  “You’d come and spend part of your time in San Diego?”

  “To be with you, I’d live on the moon.”

  He looked flummoxed, and a little unsteady, and as if his legs wouldn’t hold him any longer, he sank to his knees. “You…really love me.”

  “Yes.” She dropped to her knees as well, and cupped his face. “Think you can handle it?”

  “I can handle it.” He kissed her long and deep, and then pulled back looking very seriously into her eyes. “I have a confession to make. Don’t laugh.”

  “I won’t.”

  “I do love you, and believe me, those words are quite new to my vocabulary, but you’re going to have to share me.”

  “You’re not sleeping with your receptionist—Sorry,” she said at his shock. “Too much of the ex-husband today. Go ahead. You love me, and you also love…”

  He muttered something, and she shook her head. “Sorry, Jake. I couldn’t hear you.”

  “That stupid horse over there. I love that stupid horse.” He pointed to Moe.

  She bit her lip.

  “You promised not to laugh.”

  “I’m smiling. Quite different from laughing.” She hugged him. “Oh, Jake, you’re so sweet.”

  “Sweet?”

  “You are.”

  “Well, then, I should tell you, I also love this land. I can’t believe it. But I actually want to live here, at least part of the time. I was thinking…”

  She trailed a finger down his chest. “What?”

  “Thinking—” He grabbed her finger. “That maybe I could teach every other class of recruits, and be here in between.”

  She went still. “The best of both worlds?”

  “Only if you’re in both of those worlds.” He brushed her hair away from her face, traced her earlobe with his finger. “What do you think?”

  “It won’t be easy.” She stood up, gave him a hand and pulled him up, too. “I’m bossy. And I like to have things my own way.”

  A smile tugged at his mouth. “I’ve noticed. But I have my own bad habits, you know. I can be broody, especially if I don’t get sex once a day.”

  “Hmmm…” Her heart surged with such hope and love, it almost hurt. “Then we’d better make sure to sleep together every night.”

  He stroked her jaw. “That sounds like a commitment.”

  “I’m not the commitment phobe here, Jake.”

  His other hand came up, cupping her face. “I find that particular fear has left me.”

  Her breath caught. “Is that right?”

  He looked down at Richard’s stone and nodded. “Yeah.” He brought her hand up to his mouth. “Do you ever talk to him?”

  “Richard? Sometimes.”

  He touched the stone, then did something he’d never really done before. Talked to his father. “I’m sorry I never told you when you were alive, Dad, because you would have gotten a kick out of this, but you were right. You had it all here.” He opened his arms to Callie. “Right here.”

  She moved right into them, there being no place on earth she’d rather be.

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Jake turned over once, and then again, in a useless attempt at comfort. Max, one of Tiger’s soft brown puppies, took advantage of the moment to lick his face. Laughing, he pushed the not-so-little-anymore puppy away.

  Callie smiled and stroked the excited puppy. “You promised if I made it through your firefighter training course, you’d try camping again.” She spoke patiently, even lovingly, but she had a wide grin on her face, assuring Jake she was enjoying every moment of this.

  This being Jake inside a small tent, inside an even smaller sleeping bag with a wild puppy, trying to get comfortable. “I think there’re a thousand rocks right beneath me.”

  “Big baby,” she teased.

  Back in Arizona after a training session in San Diego, she’d dragged him out here in the Dragoons with far too much glee. With a wicked smile, she picked up Max, set him right outside the tent, attaching his collar to a long lead. “Be good for a few minutes,” she said, and zipped the tent shut. Still smiling, she pulled off her sweatshirt. Her T-shirt went next, leaving her in a leopard push-up bra. While Jake’s mouth went dry, she shimmied off her jeans.

  Her panties matched her bra.

  “I charged them,” she said a little breathlessly, and climbed into the sleeping bag with him. On top of him.

  His hands went on a tour of her body. “I love your Visa.”

  “Actually, it was yours.”

  He laughed. “Why don’t we just get one Visa together, dedicated to your lingerie issues. I have no problem donating to the cause.”

  “One Visa?” She eyed him carefully. “That sounds…serious.”

  “Uh-huh.” He swept the hair from her face and just lay back soaking up the incredible feeling of having her warm, soft body draped over his. “And while we’re at it, why don’t we use the same last name?”

  She looked at him, her eyes huge. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

  He traced her jaw. “How about it, Callie? You’re already my lover, my best friend, and most definitely my better half. What do you say you make an honest man out of me and make me a husband as well?”

  Her eyes shimmered brilliantly, but her voice, when she spoke, was light with teasing. “I’m not sure. I want a