Fated for Love (26 page)

“Okay, truth is…I was never a dater.” He shrugged. “I haven’t had a girlfriend in years. No need to keep a book, because I don’t call for dates.” He shook his head, knowing how that made him sound. He never thought he was a player, but now he wondered if that term was accurate, and it made him feel a little sick to his stomach. He hoped Callie didn’t think of him in those terms.

She narrowed her eyes again and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sleeping with a guy who has never valued relationships. That should make me feel really bad.” She held his gaze, and he clenched his jaw. “Well, I might be naive, but it makes me feel the opposite. It means that no one had this place in your heart before I did.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him—while he recovered from a mini heart attack about her sleeping with a guy who never valued relationships.

“LET ME GET my sunglasses. That lovers’ glow is blinding.” Christine covered her eyes as she crossed the lawn in front of the cabin.

“Shut up.” Callie pushed her playfully.

Wes was waiting for them at the lodge. Callie had no idea what he had in store for them today.

Kathie carried a notebook under her arm, and in her red T-shirt, short white skirt, and boots, she looked like she was ready to sit on a haystack and write for the afternoon.

Bonnie sidled up to Callie’s other side and looped her arm into hers. “So? You look happy.”

Callie sighed. “Yeah. I owe you guys big-time. I am so in love with Wes. I never even imagined that love could feel like this.”

“I could have told you how it lifted you onto a cloud and held you there in disbelief.” Bonnie sighed. “Until real life steps in and kicks you in the ass. Then you spend your life scrambling to find a way back up to that elusive cloud.”

“Talk about a buzz kill.” Callie scrunched her face. “What the heck?”

“Oh, I’m just missing Mark. I called him from the lodge last night, and he has to go to Idaho for a meeting today, which means he won’t be home when I get home tonight.” Bonnie released Callie’s arm as they crossed the bridge.

“I’m so sorry, Bon. How long will he be gone?” Callie asked.

“Just until tomorrow night. I know it’s silly, but it’s been several days, and I miss him. I assumed he’d be home waiting for me. Besides, watching you and Wes made me miss him even more.” Bonnie slung an arm over Callie’s shoulder.

“I know. I’m so sorry.” Callie leaned against the bridge, watching the horses grazing in the field. “This is where it all began. I just want to remember it.”

Bonnie took a picture of Callie, then turned the camera on the horses. “I have so many pictures that you’ll never forget.”

“I know. I love that about you.” Callie looked at her friends, and her heart swelled with gratitude. “Do you think I’m nuts for moving so fast with Wes?”

“We’d think you were nuts if you didn’t. He adores you and you obviously adore him.” Christine shoved her hip against Callie’s. “How was the railroad ride?”

Callie rolled her eyes, but inside, she warmed with the memory of their lovemaking. She never imagined she could be so open and aggressive, but everything she did with Wes felt natural and safe.

Kathie closed in on her other side. “Earth-shattering or sensuous and sweet?”

Bonnie took a picture of the three of them. “Or both?”

Callie thought about the mind-numbing sex they’d had last night and the way they’d made love tenderly this morning. “Both. Definitely both. Can I ask you guys a serious question?”

“Always.” Kathie climbed onto the bridge railing and sat facing Callie and the others.

“He asked me about dating or assuming we’d see each other.”

“Assume,” Kathie said.

“Date,” Christine offered.

“Both.” Bonnie paced the bridge. “You guys remember what it was like. Think back to when you first started seeing Billy and Paul. You assumed. Kathie, you slept at Paul’s place every night after you first did the deed, and, Christine, same with you and Billy. Heck, I’m not sure I ever left Mark’s after we did that either. It seems like it just happens. Your lives meld together, and suddenly you’re engaged and then married. So I think you should learn from us. Assume, because it’s too hard to do anything else when you’re in that ravenous I-must-have-you stage, but this next part is tricky, because
you
have to do it. Guys are clueless when it comes to these things. I think you should throw in a date now and again. A real date, where he picks you up at your place, so you can get that anticipatory shiver and worry about your hair and what you’re wearing.”

“Oh, I do like that,” Kathie said.

“What if we’re spending nights at his place? I just call one day from work and say,
Pick me up at six
?” That sounded sort of silly, although the whole anticipatory shiver thing sounded too good to pass up.

“Sure, or if you guys have an argument or something. It’s just an idea to keep in your back pocket. When you want to spice things up a little or add a reminder of what it was like to fall in love in the first place.” Bonnie put the lens cap on her camera and joined them leaning against the railing.

“Do you guys get bored now that you’re married?” She couldn’t imagine ever getting bored of Wes.

“Nope,” Christine said. “But then again, with the chaps and the whole Tex thing, it’s hard to get bored.” She bumped her hip into Callie’s again, and Callie smiled.

“Bored? Never. But I do love the idea of having Paul pick me up for a date. I think I’ll call him and have him meet me somewhere one night. That’s a great idea.” Kathie opened her notebook.

“You’re taking notes?” Callie asked.

Kathie tucked her hair behind her ear. “No. I’m putting it on the schedule I’m working on. My writing and pay-attention-to-Paul schedule.” She lifted her eyes to Callie’s. “Thanks to you.”

“I sent Mark a key to a hotel room a few weeks ago,” Bonnie admitted with wide eyes and a sinful grin.

“Really?” Christine turned to face her. “Do tell.”

“Yup. Sent it with a courier to his office with a note that said,
Room 612, The Mayflower Hotel. Leave your briefs at home.”

“Oh my God. That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” Callie wondered what Wes would think if she ever did that.

“It was a great night,” Bonnie said. “Hey, look.” She pointed at Cutter riding a horse toward the lodge, wearing leather chaps and a dark cowboy hat. “I don’t think I could ever get bored of looking at handsome cowboys.”

“I’ve got my own handsome cowboy,” Callie mused. “Speaking of Wes, we’d better get in there. I wonder what the surprise is. Maybe I can jump off a cliff today.”

“Not likely, considering the barn dance is this evening. He’d never let you break a leg when he knows you love to dance,” Christine said as they walked up the hill toward the lodge.

“How does he know I love to dance?”

“A little birdie might have told him,” Christine answered.

Bonnie pulled open the lodge door. “A little blond-haired birdie with a big mouth and a penchant for sun visors.”

They walked inside. There was a couple standing at the registration desk and another couple sitting in the lobby.

“It’s so quiet in here,” Callie whispered.

“Not for long, it’s not,” Christine said. She pointed to Sweets running across the hardwood floor toward them. They all dropped to their knees to pet her. Sweets tumbled onto her back, allowing them to rub her belly.

“She’s doing great, isn’t she?” Callie said.

“Yeah. It’s amazing how resilient puppies are.” Bonnie lifted her camera and snapped a picture.

“Wes’s brother Ross is a vet, and he said the webbing in their paws heals fast. I guess he’s right.” Callie heard the familiar cadence of Wes’s boots behind her.

“Sweets gets all the babes.” He reached for Callie’s hand and drew her up for a kiss.

“Yeah, well, I think you got the best babe of all,” Christine reminded him.

“Me too.” He placed his hand on Callie’s lower back. “Are you ladies ready for your surprise?”

“Heck yeah,” Kathie said.

His eyes skidded over theirs, then lingered on Callie. “I know that when you brought Callie here, she thought she was going to a spa to be pampered, not to a dude ranch to be lasciviously loved by a…well, by me.”

Lasciviously loved. There you go with those beautiful words again.

“I’m not sure she minds,” Bonnie said.

“Neither am I, but she’s been such a good sport, and you guys have generously shared her with me. I wanted to give you all a special thank-you. It’s just the four of you for the next few hours.”

The next few hours?
She already missed him.

He took Callie’s hand. “Follow me.”

They followed Wes down the hallway Callie had explored her first night there, to the conference room. “Before I take you in, if you’d rather not do this, it’s okay. Just tell me.” He pulled the doors open and stepped to the side.

Gone was the conference table and chairs. The walls were draped in layers of silk and chiffon in pastel colors. There were four red velvet armchairs set around a fancy wooden table to their left with a tea set in the center, and just beyond, heavy red theater-style curtains hung beside the tall windows, allowing sunlight to bathe the room in a warm glow. Glittery silver stars dangled from the ceiling as if floating in midair.

“Oh my God.” Callie took a step inside the room. Only then did she notice two massage tables and two manicure and pedicure chairs off to her right, and near the far wall there was a table draped in a deep red velvet tablecloth that matched the armchairs, with several leather-bound books between two wooden bookends.

Her eyes welled with tears. With trembling hands, she reached behind her, hoping someone, anyone, would take hold before her knees gave out. Wes’s hands circled her waist.

“I don’t know much about
spa
pampering,” he said against her cheek.

She turned to face him and heard the girls talking, sensed Bonnie taking pictures, but her mind was draped in the elusive cloud of love that Bonnie had recently described—and she didn’t need to scramble to find it.

“Wes.”

He pressed his lips to hers. “Don’t say a word.”

“But how—”

He kissed her again. “If you keep talking, I’ll keep kissing, and you’ll never get pampered.”

Callie had never felt so overwhelmed with emotions. She embraced him, and she would have stayed there for hours if he hadn’t pulled away.

“I think your friends have already figured out what to do.” He nodded at the girls as they removed their boots. “This part killed me, but I know it’s part of the whole girl experience.” His eyes narrowed, but it wasn’t desire that Callie saw. It was something she didn’t recognize, and it was gone in a flash. He lifted his chin and spoke loudly. “Okay, gentlemen, come on in.”

Two tall, handsome, burly men burst through the chiffon, wearing dark slacks, loosely fitted white shirts with capped sleeves that ended just above their bulging biceps, open to midchest and belted with thick leather around their waists. Their faces were chiseled and tan, hair perfectly coiffed and sideswept. They could have been Chippendales dancers.

“Oh baby.” Christine fanned her face. “Forget the mechanical bull. I wanna ride him.”

Kathie stood beside a massage table and reached for the button on her shorts.

Wes put a hand on Kathie’s shoulder. “We have changing rooms for that, and robes.” He shot a look at Callie that clearly translated to
Don’t even think about stripping in front of these guys.

“You ruin all my fun,” Kathie said. She patted him on the back. “I’m a happily married woman. I was just pulling your chain. This is amazing. Thank you.”

He leaned in close to Kathie and whispered, “I think they’re gay.”

Callie laughed.

“You wish,” Christine said. “Want me to do the lick test?”

Callie swatted her.

The men stood with their arms crossed, pecs dancing, eyes smiling. They clearly enjoyed the attention.

Wes lifted his chin. “Ladies,” he called out.

Two beautiful women dressed in sexy pink harem outfits complete with sheer, flowing pants and skimpy panty-like bikini bottoms joined the men.

Callie felt the claws of jealousy prickle her nerves. She glanced at Wes. His eyes were trained on her.

“I have no interest,” he said knowingly.

Promise? Swear to God? Cross your heart and hope to die?
She cringed at how quickly the jealousy hit her. How on earth would she make it through Thursdays with Tiffany Dempsey and the other women ogling him at the library?

“I can’t believe you went to all this trouble. Thank you.” Callie wondered how he could have gotten this all set up without her knowing.

“You deserve full-on pampering after the way you tore yourself from the claws of your fears and saved Sweets.” He slid a worried stare toward the men.

She used her index finger to draw his chin in her direction, as he’d done so many times to her. “Why would I read a notebook when I have a leather-bound classic in my hands?” She kissed him and felt the tension she’d seen in his eyes and in the bunching of his muscles around his shoulders slip away.

BACK IN THE lodge office, Wes paced in front of the window. When they’d returned from the trail yesterday, he’d called and asked Emily to help him set up a spa afternoon and fairy tale evening for Callie, and when she’d asked if it was okay to send masseurs, he’d envisioned men with pasty skin from working indoors. Men who were more into manicures than muscles. What the hell had he been thinking? What man wouldn’t want to massage half-naked women for a living? He eyed Sweets sleeping beneath his desk. If only he could push the jealousy away that easily. He felt like he might burst if he didn’t get the worry out of his head. He needed a distraction, and calling his youngest brother, Luke, would have to do.

Luke answered on the second ring. “Hey, Wes. What’s up, lover boy?”

“Christ. I see you spoke to Ross.”

“Emily. She said you were setting up a
day of pampering and an evening of fairy tale wonder
, whatever the hell that means, for Callie Barnes.”