The Circle Eight: Caleb (27 page)

“I heard you’ve been talking to your family. That’s good.”

He shrugged.

“If you don’t want to talk to me, that’s okay. You were very brave yesterday, riding alone and with bad men behind you.” She gave him a small smile.

“I was scared.” His voice was deeper than she thought, on the verge of changing into a young man.

“Me too.” She folded her hands in her lap. “But we all made it back and the bad men are dead.”

“Ellie killed one of them.” Benjy picked at the grass, not meeting her gaze.

“I wondered who had.” She didn’t want to scare the boy by telling him she was glad they were all dead and deserved worse.

They fell silent. The dew was soaking her dress. Unused to anything but trousers, her legs were cold and she started to shiver. Although it wasn’t cold, it was cool enough she was uncomfortable. How had Benjy slept out here without even a blanket?

“You want to come inside and have breakfast? I think Eva is awake.” She got to her feet, hoping the boy would follow her.

“Not hungry.”

“You need to eat sometime and Eva is a good cook.” She walked toward the house and wrapped her arms around her. That coffee was sounding pretty good right about then.

To her surprise, Benjy fell into step beside her. He didn’t say anything but he said a lot without speaking. When they walked into the house, Eva was in the kitchen. She glanced up at them and a wide smile spread across her face.

“
Hijo
, there you are. You need some hot breakfast I think.” She gestured to the table. “I make eggs and ham and biscuits.”

Rory’s stomach growled and Eva winked at her. Now that she had convinced the boy to come back into the house, she couldn’t leave to return to Caleb. Much as her body urged her to, she needed to show good manners to her hostess.

“Coffee, Mrs. Foster?” Eva took a cup from the shelf above the sink.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Ah, call me Eva. I don’t much look like a ma’am.” The housekeeper smiled and poured the coffee.

“Then please call me Rory. I haven’t been a missus in a year.”

“
Bueno
.”

Rory sat at the table and breathed a sigh of relief when Benjy sat down as well. Eva set the cup in front of Rory then turned to Benjy.

“I have fresh milk from Daisy.” She didn’t push or rush the boy. After a minute, while Rory sipped her coffee, he finally nodded.

Eva poured a cup from a cloth-covered bucket by the sink, then set it on the table for Benjy. Rory could see the housekeeper wanted to ruffle his hair or hug him or just touch him to make sure he was real, yet she held back. It was hard for his family to have him back, perhaps harder than having him missing.

“Let me get the eggs cooking.” Eva turned back to the stove and Rory tried to relax.

It was harder than she thought to sit at the table while a sleepy, sexy Caleb waited for her in the other room. In truth, the time here with Benjy and Eva saved her from acting on her impulses with the ranger. She wanted to do much more than sit beside his bed and that was dangerous. Rory had already been married and knew what it was like to be with a man day in and day out.

Was she ready to make that kind of commitment to Caleb? Or was she in love with him because he saved her life and they’d had an incredible experience together? She didn’t know and that worried her.

Eva whipped up eggs quickly and set down plates of food in front of both Rory and Benjy. The boy pushed the food around the plate and ate a few bites. Eva sat down with her coffee and Rory did her best to eat normally although her stomach was tight with emotion.

After ten minutes, Benjy set his fork down. “May I be excused?”

Eva sighed. “
Sí, hijo
. You need to eat more.”

He got up and went back outside, alone in a family of eight siblings. Rory’s heart ached for him and she wished there was something she could do.

“You knew him when he lived with this man?” Eva asked the question casually but Rory heard the underlying emotion.

“A little. He never spoke, and I’m still surprised to hear words come out of his mouth.”

Eva sipped at her coffee. “Was he happy?”

Rory considered her answer before she answered. “I don’t think he was unhappy, but I can’t say if he was happy. He was a shadow of a boy and I think he spent his time finding new places to hide.”

A small sob escaped from the older woman’s house. “
Pobrecito
. If we knew he was two hundred miles from here, I would have crawled there on my knees to get him.”

Rory put her hand on Eva’s, her own throat tight. “Sometimes I wonder why God does things that hurt people but then something else happens. If Caleb hadn’t come to my property, I wouldn’t have climbed the tree and gotten hurt, or gone to Garza’s hacienda for help, or found Benjy.”

Eva was silent for a minute. “You climbed a tree?”

Rory smiled. “It’s a long story. I was trying to show the ranger I wasn’t going to go quietly.”

Eva chuckled and patted Rory’s hand. “I like you. You will be good for him.”

“What if he changes his mind about me?” The question burst out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“I do not think you need to worry about that. He already wants you. I saw it in his eyes when you held his hand.” Eva’s grin grew wider. “Now we need to make him want you more.”

“How do I do that? I don’t know anything about being a woman.” Rory had trouble thinking of herself as something other than a blacksmith.

“Then I help you. Hannah will help too. We will make you irresistible.”

Rory didn’t know what that meant but she was encouraged by Eva’s confident tone. “How do we do that?”

“First we make him sit in there alone until he can’t stand another minute of it. Caleb was the most selfish of the boys growing up. He was so busy thinking about himself, he didn’t see everyone else. For the first time, he sees you.” Eva got to her feet. “Now let me bring him breakfast while you find other things to do.”

“But he’s recovering from a bullet wound.” Rory wasn’t sure she wanted to keep away from him.

“We’ll take care of him. Look in at him once a day but no more. We want him to wonder what you’re doing and why you aren’t in there with him.” Eva put her hands on her hips. “It will be good for him to realize he has to work for the love he has for you.”

“You think he loves me?” Rory’s heart leapt at the thought.

“
Sí, hija
, I know he loves you.” Eva pointed to the plate of half-eaten eggs. “Now eat up. We’ve got some planning to do.”

Caleb was grumpy. It had been three days and he was damn tired of lying in the bed. His stitches itched, his mood was sour and he missed Rory. She’d barely even said hello, letting Eva and Hannah take care of him. Crazy as it was, he had been in her company for a short time, but every minute of every day in that week. They became connected through an intense experience, through death and life, and everything in between.

He was trapped in his childhood bedroom and none too happy about it. Coming home to the Circle Eight had been what he wanted, wasn’t it? However now that he was here, he wanted something else.

It took him two days to figure out that something was Rory. She was the reason he looked to come back. She reminded him of what he’d left behind and he contemplated sharing with her. That was the crux of the problem.

He lay there considering asking her to marry him, which was the craziest thought to ever enter his head, and she didn’t visit him. It was the last nail in his coffin of grumpiness. If anyone came in other than Rory, he snapped and snarled at them. A foolish man with a foolish heart. What he needed to do was tell her how he felt and ask her that question tumbling around inside him.

She had to actually enter the room for that to happen.

When the door opened he snapped to attention, making his side hurt. Matt poked his head in and Caleb growled. His older brother frowned and stepped in, taking his hat off.

“I heard you’re acting like a bear and scaring the children.” Matt sat in the chair beside the bed, apparently not intimidated by the snarling beast in the bed.

“So what?”

Matt raised one brow. “You’ve been gone for four years, with a handful of visits lasting no more than a day or two. Now you show up with Benjy, a lady blacksmith with a deadly hammer and an attitude that could flay the skin off a beeve.”

Caleb told himself not to lower his gaze. He was a grown man, no longer a young ‘un who had to bow his head when his brother chastised him. It was hard, but he kept his head up and his shoulders back.

“I left because I had to.”

“I can appreciate that.” Matt nodded. “I stayed because I had to. But I love it here, the land, the sky, the cattle. Most of all I stayed because of family.”

The implication of Matt’s words were clear but Caleb wasn’t his brother.

“My life had a different path than yours. Not better or worse, just different.” Caleb folded his arms. “Am I not welcome here?”

“Hell, that’s not what I meant.” Matt blew out a breath through his teeth. “I never knew what to expect outta you, Caleb. You were a pain in the ass as a boy and worse as a teenager, then you disappeared at nineteen to join the Rangers. I don’t know who you are as a man.”

The bald truth was hard to swallow but Caleb recognized it as such.

“I didn’t know who I was either. I do now.” He ran his hands through his hair, knowing he probably looked frightening with four days’ worth of whiskers, dirty hair and a snarl on his face.

“Sometimes it takes a while to find your way.” Matt waited for Caleb to continue.

“I won’t regret being a ranger. It was a worthy profession and I did many things to keep Texas safe.”

“Was?” Matt’s mouth quirked up at the corner.

“Yeah, was.” Caleb found a matching grin for his brother. “I decided to stay on one condition.”

“Don’t ask me to call you Mr. Graham.”

Caleb laughed then clutched his side when his wound sang a sad song. “No, you fool. I will stay if Rory stays here with me. As my wife.”

Matt’s mouth dropped open. “Wife? Truly?”

“You have something against her? She’s not a typical female but she’s got so much—”

“That’s not what I said,” Matt interrupted Caleb’s thoughts before he got too far. “I like her. She’s the toughest woman I’ve ever met, and that includes Eva and Olivia. I’m surprised that you want to get married. Weren’t you the boy who said he’d never take a wife?”

Caleb made a face. “I was ten.”

“You never changed your mind.”

“Until now. Until Rory.” Caleb held up his hands. “I can’t explain it but I know I want to marry her, wake up next to her, fight with her, avoid her hammer swings and make beautiful babies with her.”

The very idea of seeing her face every day, her smiles and her scowls, and kissing her each morning and each night was enough to make his heart clench. Oh he had it bad, really bad.

“That’s how I feel about Hannah, except for the hammer part.” Matt smiled broadly. “Well, hell brother, you’re in love.”

“Yeah, I am.” Caleb returned the smile. “Will you help me?”

“Sure I’d be happy to. What do you want me to do?”

“I have no idea.” Caleb’s scowl was back. He more or less had never sparked with a girl. The women in his life were paid for or widows. He’d had no time for proper courting. Now he needed advice on what to do. “How did you woo Hannah?”

“I didn’t. I asked her to marry me when we were strangers, remember?” Matt looked perplexed. “I eventually found my way, bumpy and foolish but I got there.”

“That’s not helpful.”

“I’m not one who had lots of experience with females, Caleb. Maybe we ought to ask Hannah for advice.”

Caleb looked at his brother with horror. “No. No. No.”

“You want her to say yes? Be your wife? Then you’re going to have to ask someone who can actually help.” Matt was right. Dammit.

“Okay, I give in.” Caleb didn’t look forward to admitting to his sister-in-law he needed her assistance. The first time they met, he’d called her a heifer. That memory made him cringe. “I can’t woo her if she’s avoiding me. Maybe Hannah can help get her in the room with me.”

Matt nodded. “Agree with you on that one. She’s been shoeing horses.”

“What?”

“Said your horse had a nick in his shoe so she set up shop for Justice. Next thing you know, folks heard about a farrier on our ranch and started coming by for shoeing.” Matt shrugged. “It’s two hours to town and having a smithy here on the Circle Eight is convenient. She said it made her feel useful, refused to accept any money. Instead people have been bringing food to pay for her work.”

It was Caleb’s turn for his mouth to drop open. “She’s been shoeing horses?”

“Damn good at it too. Keeps complaining she doesn’t have a proper forge or anvil to do anything else, but she swings that hammer with something like grace. I ain’t never seen the like.”