Colters' Daughter (Colters' Legacy #3)(61)
“Thank God,” Holly whispered.
“Someone want to tell us what the hell is going on?” Seth demanded from across the room.
Max turned to face the forbidding faces of the Colter men.
“Callie tried to give me her meadow. I won’t accept it. I love her. I’m not going to lose her without a fight. You need to accept that. She loves you. You love her. I love her. There has to be room for all of us in her life if she chooses it. I’m here to make my peace with you, but I’m also here because I need your help.”
Silence fell and perplexed looks replaced the anger of just moments before.
“What do you have in mind?” Ryan Colter asked cautiously.
“All Callie’s ever wanted is to build her dream house. She takes ridiculously low-paying, dangerous jobs and she saves. She drives a truck that’s about to fall apart, and she doesn’t even have a home of her own because she saves every penny for that dream.
“She took that money she’s been saving and she left. She gave up on that dream. I’m going to give it back to her.”
“Okay,” Ethan said slowly. “How do you propose to do that?”
“I’m going to build her house in that meadow so that she has it to come home to. Whether she takes me back or not, I want her to have that safe place—a place of her own. Something she can always come back to no matter where she travels or where her path takes her. But I can’t do it without your help.”
Again, heavy silence descended, as they seemed to grapple with what he’d said. Grudging admiration and maybe even respect entered their eyes.
Her brothers eased back into their seats. Lily smiled over at Max. He smiled back and mouthed a silent thank you.
Callie’s dads also settled on the couches, and Holly walked over to sit between Adam and Ethan.
“What can we do to help?” Adam asked.
“I need you to help me build her dream. She’s spoken to me some about it so I have an idea of what she wants. But I need anything you have. Any tidbit of what she’s talked about. What she likes. How she’d want it built.”
“I drew her a picture,” Lily spoke up. “I drew the outside to her specifications. I still have a copy. I can give you that.”
“That would be fantastic, Lily. Thank you.”
“You’re serious about this?” Seth asked. There was a glimmer of doubt, a look of incredulity etched on his brow. “You’re going to give up the meadow without a fight?”
“The meadow is Callie’s,” Max said in an even voice. “I’ll never fight her for it. What I won’t give up without a fight is…Callie.”
“I’m handy with tools,” Dillon said, speaking for the first time. “I built my own place. I’ll do what I can.”
“I appreciate it. I’m going to have a team of contractors up here. No expense will be spared. I can use any input or information you all have.”
“You really do love her,” Holly said in a soft voice.
Max looked from one family member to the next until finally his gaze rested on Callie’s mother. “She’s my life.”
“Well, let’s get cracking,” Ryan said. “We’ve got a house to build.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Callie put her truck into gear and began the drive up the mountain. Autumn had come to the mountains and everywhere around her, aspens burst with gold so vibrant that it hurt her eyes to look at the shimmering leaves.Already there was a chill to the air that bespoke winter’s impending arrival. She turned up the heat and prayed it still worked.
The long months away had taken their toll. In some ways, it seemed she’d been gone a lifetime, but in other ways, it was just yesterday.
She missed her family and she longed to be in the middle of them again.
And Max.
How she’d wanted the passage of time to dim the hurt, but her heart was as torn as it had been the day she left.
She forced her gaze forward as she approached her meadow. No, it wasn’t hers any longer. It was Max’s. She hoped it gave him peace. It had given her none.
Her lips trembled as she passed the turnoff that would wind its way to the valley below. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something that made her brake in the middle of the road.
She whipped her head around, her mouth falling open. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.
Pain shredded her throat and stabbed deep into her soul. He’d built a house in the meadow. He hadn’t wasted any time taking it over and making it his.
Tears burned her eyelids and she closed her eyes, determined to look away.
It was like a train wreck. She was compelled to open her eyes and stare down at the cabin nestled on the banks of the creek.
God, it was her house. Her dream house.
Was there no end to the ways he could make her bleed?
She jammed the gearshift into reverse and accelerated until she got back to the turnoff for the meadow. She roared down the road until she reached the place where she and Max had stopped that night so many months ago. A lifetime ago.
She got out and slowly walked a few feet in front of her truck.
The old wooden fence was gone. Maybe he planned to put up a new one. A separation of Wilder land from Colter land.
She was a fool. How could she ever come back here when she’d be faced with Max at every turn? How could her parents’ house, always a haven—home—be a refuge when she would be forced to face so much pain and betrayal simply by looking out her window?
Maya Banks's Books
- Maya Banks
- Undenied (Unspoken #3)
- Overheard (Unspoken #2)
- Understood (Unspoken #1)
- Highlander Most Wanted (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs #2)
- Never Seduce a Scot (The Montgomerys and Armstrongs #1)
- The Tycoon's Secret Affair (The Anetakis Tycoons #3)
- The Tycoon's Rebel Bride (The Anetakis Tycoons #2)
- The Tycoon's Pregnant Mistress (The Anetakis Tycoons #1)
- Theirs to Keep (Tangled Hearts Trilogy #1)