Fated for Love (31 page)

“Why?”

“I went back into the lodge to say goodbye to Wes, and he wasn’t expecting me. He was on the phone, and…” She pressed the heel of her hand to her tear-filled eyes.

“Callie, take a deep breath and tell me what happened.”

Callie drew in one deep breath after another and sank onto the couch. “I heard him talking to someone about coming down for the night and how he had a surprise for them. He even…” She clenched her eyes shut to try to stop the relentless tears from tumbling down her cheeks. “He…he said,
I love you.
”

“And? Who was he talking to?”

Bonnie sounded calm and rational, which only made Callie feel worse because she knew if she hadn’t been living in some fantasy world fueled by love over the past few days, she would have asked him about the phone call instead of torturing herself. Even if the answer might have crushed her, she normally wasn’t someone who avoided the truth. But then again, her emotions were all-consuming right now.

“I didn’t ask. I just left.” She wiped her eyes and went to the kitchen and opened the freezer.

“Why not, Callie? You can’t seriously think he has some other girl in his life after everything he did this weekend.”

Callie pulled a quart of strawberry cheesecake ice cream from the freezer and snagged a spoon from the drawer, then returned to the couch, where she kicked off her heels and hunkered down beneath a blanket.

“Of course not.” She shoved a spoonful of frozen comfort into her mouth and closed her eyes against the shock of cold. “I don’t think so, but…”

“Oh, Callie.” Her name sounded like an embrace. “Callie, Callie, Callie. What are you eating?”

Callie dropped her eyes to the ice cream carton. “Strawberry cheesecake.”

“Good. At least you have something worth the calories. Now listen to me, hon. You need to talk to Wes. You know there’s a good explanation for this.”

She shoved more ice cream into her mouth. “I know there’s a good explanation! That’s why I’m having such a hard time.” She swallowed the mouthful of ice cream. “Oh, brain freeze!” She clenched her eyes shut until the pain subsided. “Sorry.”

“Why haven’t you called him?”

“I did. But his cell doesn’t work there, remember? And he said he’s staying another night, so that made me worry even more.” Callie shoveled more ice cream into her mouth and tried to talk around it. “You know…” She swallowed the ice cream. “I’m not like this.”

“I know, Cal. Listen. Set your ice cream down long enough to pick up your laptop. Let’s look at some of the pictures. Maybe that’ll knock some sense into you.”

Callie reached for her laptop, knocked over the ice cream carton, and spilled pink ice cream onto her lap. “Darn it. I spilled the ice cream everywhere.” With one hand, she scooped the ice cream from her lap back into the container.

“I told you to put it down.”

“Whatever. At the moment it’s my security blanket, okay? And I’m not giving it up.” Her dress was ruined. She pulled it over her head and brought it into the bathroom, where she set it on the sink. Then she washed her hands, pressing the phone to her ear with her shoulder. “That stupid dress was ugly anyway.” She went to her bedroom wearing her bra and underwear and threw on a T-shirt; then she climbed back onto the couch and put the ice cream container on her lap again.

“Are you all cleaned up?” Bonnie asked.

“Sort of. Okay, my laptop is open, and the ice cream is secure.” She ate a spoonful.

“I thought you spilled it.”

“I did. But I scooped it off my lap and tossed it back in the container.”

“Oh, Cal. You’re in bad shape. Want me to drive over to your place? I can be there in—”

“No. I’m fine.” She shoveled ice cream onto her spoon and clicked on the pictures. Wes’s handsome face lit up the screen, and all her emotions tumbled forward again. She suppressed the urge to cry at the ache in her heart. In the picture, he was standing before her in his princely clothing with one hand outstretched. Callie’s hand went to her heart, tilting the spoon and spilling the ice cream onto her shirt. Mesmerized by the slide show as it displayed one loving picture after another, she felt her heart swell. There were pictures of her and Wes hugging and kissing in various places throughout the ranch and profile shots of Wes gazing at Callie, his sensuous dark eyes filled with love.
How could I ever doubt you?

“Are you still there?” Bonnie asked.

“Yeah.” It came out as one long whisper as the pictures changed from frame to frame. “Bonnie, these are…Oh my God. You took pictures when we rode the horse up the trail together?”

“Girl, you were in your own little world. There are hundreds of pictures on that slide show, and you didn’t even know about half of them. But let’s focus on the important issue here. Do you really think Wes would cheat on you? I have always believed that we should trust our gut instincts, even if we don’t want to, but this? Callie, I cannot believe this.”

Callie shook her head.

“Callie?”

“Yeah?” Another whisper. She pulled the laptop onto the couch beside her and noticed the melting glob of ice cream on her shirt. She used the spoon to put it back in the container, then set it on the coffee table.

“Cal, do you really think he’d do that?”

No
. “Aw.” A picture of Wes kissing Sweets appeared on her screen.

“Callie!”

Callie startled. “What? Sorry.”

“Listen to me. Do you think that he would hurt you like that?” Bonnie’s tone was serious.

“No. That’s the problem. I don’t. There’s no way he could fake the love in his eyes or his voice. Or his touch, for that matter.” She pointed to a picture of Wes on the computer. “Look.”

“Oh my God. You really are messed up. You’re the one friend I have who never spaces out, and you are totally spacing here, Cal.”

“Sorry.” She paused the slide show. “I’m sorry. You know what, Bon? I needed this so badly. I definitely don’t think he’d cheat on me. Thank you for making me see that.”

Bonnie exhaled loudly. “I didn’t do anything, but I’m glad, and I hope you’re right.”

“Oh my God, really? How can you say that?” She sank into the back of the couch.

“No, no, no. I didn’t mean it like that. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Callie looked down at her shirt. “Yeah, but my clothes have seen better days.”

“Okay. Call if you need me, and, Cal, call him. Stop jumping to ridiculous conclusions.”

Callie turned back to the computer and watched the slide show all the way through. Twice. She was already feeling much better and felt like a fool for worrying in the first place. Each time she watched it, she noticed something new, like the way Wes’s smile quirked up a little higher on the left side than the right and how in every picture where they were in close enough proximity, he was touching her. He had his hand on her hip or her lower back, or they were holding hands, or his arm was draped across her shoulders.

She touched his image on the computer screen. “God, I love you.”

A knock at her door drew her attention from the computer. Callie paused the slide show and peered out of the peephole, then fumbled with the doorknob and yanked it open.

Wes stood before her with the easy smile that made her knees weak. His eyes traveled down her body, darkening as they went, and with her next breath, she flew into his arms, sending him stumbling backward over Sweets, who scampered across the hallway with a few sharp barks. Callie pressed her lips to Wes’s. He slipped one hand beneath her. The feel of his calloused hand on her bare thigh reminded her that she wasn’t wearing any pants. Wes deepened the kiss as his fingers slipped beneath the lacy material and cupped her bare ass. She heard Sweets clawing at his legs, whimpering to get to her.

“I’m so sorry,” she said against Wes’s lips.

He kissed her again. “For the goop on my shirt or for greeting me in a way that makes me want to take you right here?”

She tried to pull back to look at his shirt, but he tightened his grip.

“You don’t really think I’m going to let you down, do you?”

Sweets barked up at them.

“What are you doing here?” She kissed him again.

“Kissing you.” He took her in another thought-stealing kiss.

“I think we better go inside before the neighbors complain.” She pressed her lips to his as he carried her inside.

“I promoted Cutter.” He kissed her again. “And I’m yours for the next few days.”

That sounded too good to be true.

Sweets ran from room to room as Wes closed the door, set Callie on the floor, and kissed her again.

She clutched his shirt in her fists. “I…”

He captured her words in his mouth, and when he deepened the kiss, a moan of pleasure escaped her lungs. She had to talk to him about what she’d heard him say, or she would be sidetracked all night. She forced herself to pull her lips from his.

“I have to ask you something,” she said breathlessly.

He kissed her again and backed her up against the wall, pinning her there with his hips and once again stealing her ability to think clearly. She forced herself to draw back again.

“I need to tell you something, and it’s embarrassing. Unless I’m wrong, then…”

When he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her again, her mind went blank. His hands found her hips, and she rocked into him.

Forget talking
.

He drew back on a sigh. “Okay, tell me.” He cupped her cheek and kissed her again, a soft press of his lips to hers. “You’re more beautiful than I remembered.”

She couldn’t think, much less talk.

“Babe? What did you want to say?”

Kiss me again
. She cleared her throat in an effort to clear her thoughts and ran her finger down his arm, then held on tight. “I’m a little afraid to tell you.”

“Hey,” he said quietly. “You can tell me anything.”

She should just forget it, let it rest. She didn’t really believe he’d do anything to hurt her, but there was still the inkling of needing an explanation. She forced the words from her lungs. “The other night when I left, I came back to say goodbye one last time.”

“Came back?” He drew his brows together.

She tightened her grip on his arms. “To the lodge. I went inside and you were on the phone.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have hung up.”

She drew in another deep breath.
I would have hung up
. That was her answer. She wished she could just say
never mind
and go back to kissing, but Callie knew herself too well. She continued with a shaky voice.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop…Well…at first I didn’t, but then I heard you say you couldn’t wait to see whoever you were talking to, and...”

His eyes remained curious, but he didn’t have the look of a man who was caught doing something wrong.

Callie forced herself to continue. “And then you said you had a surprise for them and that you…loved them.” She lowered her eyes to keep him from seeing hers dampen.

“Oh, Callie,” he whispered. He kissed the top of her head. “Have you been worried about this?”

She nodded.

He lifted her chin and kissed her forehead. “All you had to do was ask me who I was talking to. Don’t you trust me?”

“Yes, but...”

He arched a brow.

She tightened her grip on his arms. “I do, but I haven’t exactly been thinking straight lately. Everything happened so fast, and I’m glad it did, but then all of a sudden we were apart, and I heard you say that stuff, and…” She lowered her forehead to his chest.

He slid his hands around her waist and held her close. “Remember when I asked you to have a little faith in me?”

She nodded.

“You can trust me. I will never hurt you.” He kissed the top of her head. “I was talking to my sister, Emily. She came down for the night, and she’s at the cabin now. I did have a surprise for her, because she helped to coordinate your spa day and fairy tale night, and, well, she needs it. She’s been bummed lately, and she’s always done whatever my brothers and I ask her to do—and even what we don’t ask her to do. And my family always says I love you. We just…do.”

“Oh my God. Now I feel really stupid.” Her face was still buried in his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

“Babe, let’s sit down and talk.” He turned toward the couch. “Uh-oh.”

Sweets lay in the middle of the floor, nose deep in the ice cream container. Callie couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sweets,” Wes said in a sharp voice as he slapped his thigh.

Sweets pulled her ice-cream-covered nose from the container, looking adorably guilty. Callie was so glad she hadn’t seen
that
look in Wes’s eyes.

Wes shook his head and shifted his eyes to the pink stain on Callie’s T-shirt.

“You two make quite a pair.”

Callie glanced down at her ice-cream-stained shirt and bare legs. Well, almost bare. There were a few drops of ice cream on them, too.

After they cleaned up Sweets, the coffee table, and the hardwood floor, Callie went into the bedroom to change her clothes. She took off her shirt and heard the bedroom door close behind her. Wes’s hands circled her from behind. His lips grazed her shoulder, and a flash of desire pulsed through her. She leaned her head back against his chest.

“God, I missed you,” she said.

“I’d never hurt you,” he whispered.

“I know.”

“No, you don’t.” He turned her in her arms. “Babe, I don’t blame you for worrying. I don’t have a very good track record for you to put your trust in, but I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

“I’ve never been the type of person to jump to conclusions, but I was so hurt I could barely think. And I know I shouldn’t have jumped to that conclusion, but…”

“I’m sorry you were hurt.” He tangled his hand in her hair and gently drew her head back, just enough to clear her hair from her neck. He settled his mouth over the curve where her neck met her shoulder and sucked, sending a ripple of need between her legs. She sucked in a breath when he drew his mouth away.

“To be honest.” He kissed her collarbone. “I probably would have thought the same thing if the tables were turned…” He kissed her shoulder. “Except I would have stormed into the office and demanded to know who the bastard was on the phone.”