Why the hell was her mother phoning her dad? To Callie’s knowledge, they hadn't spoken in years. But maybe she was wrong. No, obviously she was wrong. She rolled her eyes. She'd tried phoning her mother for a few years after Willow had moved her to California. Finally, she'd just given up. The pain was all-consuming. And this latest betrayal pricked at the vacant hole in her chest that nothing had ever been able to soothe. Nothing until she'd met Ford.
As he drove them under one of the Holder Ranch Est. 1889 signs, a little of the knife-twisting pain eased. She was safe here. Her parents couldn't hurt her here. No one could.
"And what was my father playing at, telling me he talked to Derrick?" erupted from her as they made the approach towards Ford's home.
He squeezed her thigh. "I 'spect he wanted this reaction from you."
"He's such a jerk," she seethed.
"Come on, now. You can do better than that. Where's my country girl?"
That, at least, made her grin. She tried to remember a few of the names she'd heard him and his brothers use when they were discussing someone they didn't like. "He's a shitlicker, isn't he?"
"Of the highest caliber, baby doll."
"He was a shitty dad, I know that. What kind of man just lies to his kids to purposefully provoke them? That's just mean."
"He is that. But my daddy has a saying—never corner anything meaner than you. I want you to stay out of Abe's path. He's pissed about me replacing that barn roof. I don't want him taking out his irritation on you. If he wants to talk to somebody about it, he can come find me."
"When I was a little girl, he generally took his irritation out on me." She made that admittance mostly under her breath. She'd so carefully packed up all of those days and buried them deep. She didn't want to unpack them, and yet, they'd forced their way out of her mouth.
Ford gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles were pale. "Callie, baby, I'm so sorry for what you went through, but I need you not to tell me that. I'll kill him. You understand that. I'd put anyone in the ground who dared lay a hand on you."
Nothing about his demeanor said he was exaggerating. Callie laid her hand on top of his trying to ease his brutal grip. "I'm fine. He's an ass. He's the splinter remember. He'll never be more than that. I don't want to talk about him anymore anyway."
"No. Dammit, I shouldn't have said that. I want you to tell me anything you need to. I just..."
"Never want anything to hurt me?"
"Exactly."
"I love that and you. But I really do not want to talk about my father or my mother or anything at all. I want to get lost with you."
Ford grinned at her. "Now that I can do."
He made quick work of unloading her things into the living room and then grabbed a few quilts, a thermos full of coffee, and her hand.
"Where are we going?" Her heart warmed at his preparations and that warmth brought the smile back to her face.
"We're getting lost, baby doll. If I have my way, no one will be able to find us for several days, so I better grab some more provisions."
"Are you serious?" Nothing in the world sounded as good as that to Callie.
Ford planted a kiss on her forehead. "If that's what you need, that's what we'll do. My brothers would try to whip my ass when I get back for taking off on them with work to do though. Notice I said try." He winked at her.
Disappointment sank through her, but she didn't want to let him see it. He was so good at reading her. "I'll take whatever time I can get. I don't want your brothers to be upset with you."
"Let's see where the day takes us. It's a little chilly to sleep outside at night anyway. No one's going to bother us here, either." He gestured to his home.
Callie glanced around and asked the question she'd been wondering since her first morning there. "I like your house just the way it is, but if you want, I could help you pick out furniture to replace what Meritt took."
Ford nodded. "I've been meaning to get to Tulsa to get new stuff, but I'm shit at decorating. The only things I know I want are a recliner and a bigger TV, which I get probably isn't anything you'd want. If you'd help, that'd be great."
"What makes you think I don't want to cuddle up with you in a big recliner while we watch the Pokes cream the Sooners?"
The utter delight in his eyes made her vow to do that very thing with him at some point. "Pokes have only won Bedlam twice in the last decade."
"I'm telling the universe what I want, remember? Plus, I think Gleeson's going to put on a show with the offensive line in coming years. He was a good hire, and Sanders just needs to get a little more experience under his helmet, so to speak. Next year, we're going to dominate."
"Marry me," he blurted out.
All of the vital organs in Callie's body seemed to freeze at that demand. "What?"
"I'm serious. You're perfect. Just marry me now."
"Ford, I...can't do that."
"Why?"
Oh my god, he was serious. Her mouth gaped open, and it took her entirely too long to remember how to bring her lower jaw back in contact with her upper.
"Wait, never mind," he shook his head, "let me get you a ring first."
"Ford!"
"What?"
"I'm not...ready to get married. I don't think. Maybe. I...don't even...I just...oh my gosh. Are you sure you're serious?"
"Maybe." He shrugged.
"Can we go back to before you proposed because I'm a Pokes fan?"
He chuckled and drew her into his arms, which admittedly made it much more difficult to turn down his semi-proposal. "I know that wasn't a real proposal. I guess I just wanted to see what you'd say. If you'd said yes, I would've driven you out to Tulsa to pick out a ring now, but I don't ever want you to do anything before you're ready. And I don't want to marry you because you like the greatest football team in the history of the sport. I want to because I love you."
"I love you, too. I know I keep saying not to take things slow anymore, but maybe let’s just slow down on this point if you don't mind."
"Done. You ready to go get lost?"
Relief washed over Callie with such force it made her dizzy. She clung to him until all of her bodily functions returned to their jobs.
Okay, so Ford didn't know how not to go after what he wanted. He thought he'd recovered from that slip fairly well. Maybe. If he could just keep his mouth shut and work her into the idea slowly, this would still work. He just had to keep all thoughts of marriage to himself. But god, he wanted it.
He wanted her safe in his bed for the rest of his life. Wanted to see her beautiful body swollen full of his babies. Wanted to be there for every single thing that life would inevitably hurl at them. He just wanted her.
"Whose house is that?" she asked as he drove them slowly across the ranch in a different direction than he’d taken her before. He was determined to let her see all of its glory.
"That's Jamie's house. He wanted the view from the ridge and wanted to be close to the gates in case he gets a call in the middle of the night, so he built it here. That's Charlie Tilson's Chevy parked out in front though."
"Why would he get a call in the middle of the night?"
Ford genuinely loved how curious she was about all things. "He's not just a cattle rancher. He also works for the Holder County Fire Department."
"Oh wow. And who is Charlie Tilson?"
"Friend of his. They've been friends since they were kids actually. Her daddy's the preacher of the Methodist church. He don't much like us, but that never kept the two of 'em from being friends."
"So, Charlie is a girl?" She grinned at that.
"Short for Charlotte. Sorry, I forget you didn't come up here."
"I always used to wish I did. I always felt like an outsider when I visited. Like I was the only person in the whole county who didn't get the inside jokes or something. Plus, it seemed idyllic, until my dad walked in the room anyway."
She'd been fairly adamant that she did not want to discuss her father anymore, so Ford took a long moment to consider, afraid of sticking his boot in his mouth again. "It was a pretty good place to come up, but it had its issues, too. I don't guess anywhere is perfect."
She gave him that grin that eased the jagged edges of their relationship that he'd rubbed raw earlier. "Right here, right now it feels pretty perfect."
"Just have to keep you thinking that way, sugar."
"So, why doesn't Charlie's daddy like you?" Her teeth sank into those perpetually pouty lips, and Ford pressed the truck faster. He needed to get her where they were going so he could get her in the back of his truck and make up for his missteps.
"He thinks the Holder boys run too wild too often. He ain't necessarily wrong. He also isn't the only person with that opinion. Your daddy alluded to it the other night. There's a fair amount of resentment about my family. We've tried to improve our image since my great-granddaddy passed. He encouraged the wrong things both from my grandfather, my dad, all of my uncles, and then us, too. Always wanted his boys to think they were the shit. Now my daddy's in charge of damage control, I guess. Great-granddaddy Holder was destructive."
Callie visibly considered that. "Maybe that's why Nana keeps trying to warn me off."
"Maybe." But Ford doubted his family’s reputation was all there was to it though.
"Is that why you replaced the barn roof?" Disappointment tugged at her tone.
Ford laid her hand on his thigh and squeezed it. "No, baby. That was because it was the right thing to do to help a neighbor out, especially the neighbor who helped bring up my girl."
She grinned at that. "Is it bad that I kind of wish my dad had been wrong? It's like I've always wanted to have him dead to rights on something. I feel like he always skates by, never getting called on all the things he does wrong."
"Nothing wrong with wanting people who did you wrong to pay, but sometimes the peace that comes from just keeping them out of your life is worth more than the payoff from seeing them suffer."
"Is that how you feel about Meritt?"
"Most definitely."
She asked more questions as they drove, and he told her everything he knew about his ranch. Whose families had lived where and when they'd lived there, a few stories his daddy and uncles reveled in, and then a few of the stunts he and his brothers pulled back in their day. “One time when I was about ten or eleven, Jamie and I had the great idea that him and Wes and Dalton could all sit in the loader on the tractor, and I could lift them up on the barn roof. The plan was that they could run to the other side and jump into the hay bales. There ain’t much reasoning with a ten-year-old who just learned to drive a tractor. Anyway, I almost drove them into the side of the barn, which woulda torn up the tractor and my brothers, before my Uncle Wyn caught us.” He shook his head at the memory.
By the time he pulled up to the creek bed on the far side of Holder Ranch, she was beaming. "I love how much you love this land and your family."
"I never wanted to be anything other than a cattle rancher. I'm so damn lucky to be doing what I do, but I didn't think that six weeks ago. All of that came from you."
"Wow," she whispered. "Thank you for saying that."
"Thank you for being here with me."
"What are we going to do here in this extremely romantic spot?"
Ford had hoped she'd think the views from the creek were as pretty as he did. Pleased, he opened his door. "I'm going to spread those quilts out in the back and then I'm going to try to talk you into letting me get to second base."
Her infectious laughter mended so many of his ragged edges. "I might let you get further than that if you're lucky."
He gave her the growl she was after. "Oh honey, I'm about to get that way. Trust me."