Her Callahan Family Man. Tina Leonard
so very cute of you.” He laughed out loud, pleased with himself. “You put up stop signs, but there’s lots of green lights flashing all over you, Sawyer Cash.”
He was angling for a good hard takedown to his ego. Sawyer told herself Jace had always been a goofball, and ignored him.
“Have you asked Galen to hire you on again at Rancho Diablo?” Jace asked, stunning her.
“No.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shrug.
“We’re always looking for staff we can trust.”
“Are you saying you trust me?” Sawyer asked.
“Are you insinuating I can’t? Or shouldn’t?”
His gaze met hers, and she found herself drawn in, the way he’d always drawn her in. With the memory of his hot kiss still warm on her lips, she’d be lying to herself if she tried to pretend she didn’t want to experience once again what he could do with those wandering hands of his. Experience the sweet satisfaction of what miracles he worked with a mouth that never ceased talking smack, and the to-die-for sexy things he whispered to her during lovemaking.
But she couldn’t allow herself to get caught in the snare of sex. The goal was far more important than the pleasure.
“I’m not insinuating anything. I don’t want you and your family to give me busywork.” Sawyer knew how this story would play out. The moon would be promised—and she’d wind up with nothing but a crash to earth. “I’m not the kind of woman who’ll be happy staying home to wash your socks, Jace.”
He laughed, and Sawyer favored him with a frown.
“My socks?” Jace chuckled again. “You have a problem with my socks?”
“I don’t want to be a Callahan housewife. I intend to keep doing what I do.”
“You’re jumping the mark, sister. No one ever said you can’t work. I encourage it.”
“You do?”
“Sure thing.” He grinned. “In fact, I’ll stay home with the babies. How’s that for a compromise?”
She blinked, not certain where he was going with that. While all the Callahan men stayed close to home once married, she didn’t think Jace would be happy as a Mr. Mom while she earned the family bread. “You’ll do diapers and bath time?”
“Sure.” He shrugged, not fazed at all. “The babies will have organic food I prepare myself, too—none of that jar stuff. Baths with lavender oil, and a nightly de-stress rubdown. I’ll sing lullabies and tell them stories I heard when I was a child in the tribe.” He looked satisfied with that plan. “I’ll have to see if Grandfather Running Bear can add to my collection.”
“I don’t believe a word you’re saying.”
He picked her hand up, brushed it against his lips. “Believe it. You work, and I’ll be the best stay-at-home dad you ever saw.”
“You’re too much of a chauvinist, Jace.”
“I resent that remark, darling. Don’t you worry about a thing. This is going to work out so well, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without me. Be the best five grand you ever spent.”
She raised a brow. “That really wound your ego up, didn’t it? Me spending that kind of money for a date with you?”
“Oh, angel.” He kissed her hand again. “You paid that kind of cash for exactly what you’re getting—a husband.”
She sucked in a breath. “Jace, honestly, I don’t know how you fit in this truck with your ego.”
He laughed. “I bought the biggest truck I could.”
There was nothing else to say to such enthusiastic patting of his own back. Anyway, she’d already gotten two concessions out of him: she could live at Rancho Diablo and she could keep her job.
His ego could take a flying leap.
Jace’s phone buzzed. “Excuse me,” he told Sawyer. “I have to take this.” His gaze slid over to her as he pulled off the road so he could talk on the phone. “Hello, Grandfather.”
Whenever Chief Running Bear spoke, everybody listened. The man said almost nothing unless it was important. Sawyer couldn’t tell much of what was being communicated, but it was clear Jace’s attention was clearly engaged.
“That’s interesting news. I’ll see what I can do.”
He hung up, then steered the truck back onto the highway again. “Running Bear suggests we go into hiding immediately.”
Sawyer gasped. “Hiding! Why?”
“Apparently Wolf’s right-hand man, Rhein, was arrested today on suspicion of smuggling. This means the Feds have decided to clamp down on the illegal operations that are being run across the canyons. Running Bear says this will have the effect of ramping up Wolf’s goal of taking over Rancho Diablo. He says that because of your pregnancy, it would probably be best. Wolf will post bail for Rhein soon enough, and no doubt the sheep will hit the fauna.”
Sawyer shook her head at his attempt to be lighthearted about something that wasn’t funny at all. “I’m not going into hiding.”
“I thought you’d feel that way,” Jace said. “We have another option.”
She didn’t smile at the devilish wink he sent her. “What option?”
“I’ll guard you.”
“You mean I would be assigned to you as a bodyguard,” Sawyer said. “You have no experience.”
He grinned. “However you want to play it, babe. I’d let you guard my body any day.”
“It won’t work. You wouldn’t take it seriously.” She shook her head. “Once I’m on bed rest, you’d drive me insane. The two of us working together would be an unfocused assignment.” She thought about the babies, and what she would do once they were born. They’d be targets; they’d need special protection. She’d worked for the Callahans long enough to know that Running Bear’s words were worth heeding. If he said that Rhein’s arrest would add to the heat at Rancho Diablo, it couldn’t be ignored. “If that was your only option, it wasn’t a serious one.”
“We’re either on the road in hiding, or we stick together like glue. I guess it’s going to depend on how you feel. When will the babies be born?”
“I’m five and a half months pregnant. I’m hoping to make it at least as far as April. But I know your sisters-in-law didn’t carry their twins and trips quite as long as they would have liked. I’m in good shape, and the doctor says I’m on track for a normal pregnancy. So we’ll see what happens.”
“Okay. The goal is keeping you stress-free and resting. Hard to rest if you’re on the run.”
“Are we seriously talking about this?” She looked at him. “It’s not in me to be afraid.”
“I’ll do it for both of us.” He glanced at the rearview mirror. “In fact, we’re being followed, and it’s not by a Callahan. Aren’t you glad you won me now, beautiful?”
Chapter Three
Jace didn’t want to scare Sawyer, but she’d been around Rancho Diablo long enough to know the odds against them were long. There wasn’t time to coddle her into seeing things his way. He was going to have to give her a push; Sawyer and the babies were his number one priority right now. “How are you for train travel?”
“I’m not,” Sawyer said, “going into hiding. I’m not running.”
“We are going into hiding. Take your pick. It’s either a sunny locale or the mountains. What’s your preference?”
“My preference