The Rancher's Homecoming

“My father is ill, sir. I have my hands full with the ranch. Until my sisters can get here, we need Callie’s help.”

“Get other help.”

“I don’t have time to find other help,” Rex argued reasonably. “And Callie’s agreed to work for us.”

“She’s my daughter, and she’s coming home with me,” Stuart insisted.

Rex widened his stance and folded his arms. It was the very pose that Bo had taken when he’d told Stuart that he and Callie were getting married. Callie had feared that the announcement would come to violence, but Bo had promised otherwise, and he had kept his word.

“You have no legal authority over Callie,” Rex said.

“That’s my granddaughter!” Stuart bawled, throwing out a finger.

“Do you have legal custody of her?” Rex asked.

“He doesn’t,” Callie answered quietly, her voice wavering.

Rex didn’t so much as glance in her direction. He kept his focus on her father and his tone level. “You have no legal recourse here, Mr. Crowsen. I understand that you’re upset, but Callie and Bodie are safe and comfortable. You have my word on it. Moreover, Callie is being handsomely paid.”

That upset Stuart even more, though Rex wouldn’t have understood that. “You stay out of this, Billings! Callie, you’re coming home with me.”

“No, Dad, I’m not,” she said firmly, emboldened by Rex’s support. “I’ve been telling you for a while now that Bodie and I need to make our own way.”

Stuart thumped himself in the chest. He never wore anything but a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled back and dark slacks.

“I provide for you,” he declared. “You have no need to earn money.”

“But I do,” she told him softly. “I’m afraid the price for your provision is too high.”

They both knew she was talking about Ben Dolent. Stuart heaved several deep breaths, considering his next move. She imagined that he was tallying up any loans that he held on the Billings’ properties, any feed bills due, any equipment orders. The amount must have been negligible, for he shook his head and pointed a thick finger at her.

“I just want to take care of you, girl. Why won’t you accept that I know what’s best?”

“Why won’t you accept that I’m a grown woman who can decide what’s best for herself?”

Stuart shook his head. “I’ve worked my whole life to provide for you, Callie. You defied me once, and look what happened. I won’t stand for this a second time!”

“I’m afraid you have no choice,” Rex told him evenly. “My father is ill. I won’t have him upset. Callie’s already done him a world of good, and if she wants to stay, she’s staying. I can make it official and get a protective order to keep you off the property, if you insist.”

“You think a piece of paper will keep me away?” Stuart demanded.

Rex took a step forward, balling his hands into fists. “If it won’t,” he threatened, “I’m not above throwing you off the place myself. You think I can’t, you come here raving like a madman again.”

“I’m older than you by twenty years at least,” Stuart pointed out, backing up a step.

“You are,” Rex admitted, “but you look fit enough to me, and I’ll make good on that threat if I have to.”

Stuart glared, and snarled, “This isn’t over,” and stomped off to his big luxury car. He always drove the most expensive model of Cadillac.

Callie let out a silent breath of relief as he got inside, started the engine and drove away. Rex slid her a look from the corners of his eyes.

“Okay. Now I know why we won’t be going back to his place for anything.”

“He doesn’t mean any harm,” Callie said, tears filling her eyes, “and I don’t want to hurt him. He just...” She didn’t know how to explain her father’s overbearing overprotectiveness. Shaking her head, she carried her daughter toward the ranch house.

Her heart still pounded, and she privately admitted she was thrilled at the way Rex had stood up to her father, but she couldn’t help thinking that Bo would have handled it differently. Quiet, mild-mannered Bo had accomplished with sheer determination what Rex had done with threats and bravado. The thrill she’d felt when Rex had stepped between her and her father confused her. At least Rex hadn’t told her to pack her things and leave with Stuart, though, and he’d made it plain that she was valued at Straight Arrow Ranch.

She wondered just how long Rex meant to remain around War Bonnet. And that she even wondered worried her.

* * *

Stomping into the garage and throwing things calmed Rex somewhat, but he hated nothing more than a blustering bully. He’d had enough of that. When he’d walked away from his marriage and his job, he’d promised himself that he’d never put up with that kind of demanding, overbearing manipulation again.

Dennis Gladden had used his daughter as a bargaining chip. Rex had been foolish enough to believe that Amy loved him. He had married her in spite of who her father was, not because of it. Only later had he realized that Amy was meant to keep him in line, to bend him to her daddy’s will. When Rex had refused to be molded into an obedient yes-man, Amy had transferred her affections to a more malleable candidate within the firm, with her father’s approval. Rex still didn’t know if his discovery of her infidelity had been conveniently orchestrated or if it had truly been an accident. Certainly Dennis had known that Amy was at his house on the river when he’d sent Rex there for a weekend of fishing to “consider the future.” Whether Dennis had known that she was there with another man or not, Rex neither knew nor truly cared.

In a funny way, Amy and her bully of a father had made it possible for Rex to take care of his dad. He’d be hanged if another bully of a father would get in the way of that. He couldn’t help wondering why Stuart Crowsen would be so adamant about his daughter not leaving his household, though. He could understand if he was so fond of her and little Bodie that he wanted them with him, but it wasn’t as if they’d moved across the state. They hadn’t gone half a dozen miles away. And it was only a temporary situation.

Rex knew he was going to have to find out what was behind all this, if only to keep it from impacting Wes, but he didn’t feel sufficiently calm enough for that discussion until after he’d returned to the house, checked on his dad and cleaned up. By that time, Callie had supper on the table.

“Feels like Glory could come walking into the room any moment,” Wes commented, leaning an elbow on the table beside his plate. “Thank you, Callie.”

“My pleasure.”

“But from now on, you sit yourself down at this table with us,” Wes went on. “We take our meals together in this house.”

Rex knew he should have thought of that, but she seemed to be constantly moving about the kitchen. The only time she’d paused had been when Wes had said the blessing over the meal. Callie cast a taut smile at Wes and nodded. A thin wail rose from the second floor of the house, and Callie immediately began to remove her apron. It had been one of his mom’s favorites, sewn from remnants of her handmade clothing.

“That’s another thing,” Wes said to Rex, as she hurried toward the stairs. “There’s an old high chair out in the storage room in the barn. Your mom was saving it for grandchildren, but seeing as none of you kids have been cooperative on that end, it’ll do for Bodie. Probably needs some work.”

“I’ll see to it,” Rex promised.

“You do that,” Wes ordered. “Bringing those two here was a good thing, son.”

“I hope so,” Rex said. But he still had to ask Callie a question.

He got his chance a couple hours later. Wes was better, but he wasn’t up to par. Rex had helped him sponge off, check the bandages on his incisions and dress for bed. Wes’s willingness to let Rex help him was a testament to his exhaustion, which in turn showed that he still had a lot of recovery ahead of him.

Hearing Bodie babbling on the front porch, Rex walked out there to find Callie sitting in one of the chairs, holding Bodie’s hands while the baby jogged up and down around her mom’s knee, which sported a wide, wet spot where Bodie had drooled.

Bodie looked up at him, smiled and clearly said, “Hiii.”

“Hi, cutie.”

“She just started doing that,” Callie informed him with a smile. “She won’t say ‘mama’ yet, but she’s suddenly saying, ‘hi.’ Of course, she has no idea what it means.”

“Mmm,” Bodie hummed against her mother’s leg.

Rex walked around them both and sat down in the metal lawn chair next to Callie. It sagged and creaked ominously. He held his breath, but the chair seemed stable enough. With dusk settling around them, the stifling heat had begun to abate, but the only breeze stirring was that pulled in by the ceiling fan in the living room.