Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch (Gold Valley #13)(13)

She’d never felt envy that was quite like this, though. Big and expanding and threatening to crack her chest. No. She never felt anything quite like that.

“I need you to come for Christmas.”





CHAPTER FOUR


JAKE LOOKED OVER at Cal. “Excuse me?”

He’d been having a hell of a time keeping a handle on things all day. He had, in fact, been trying to sneak out without her noticing.

And the little sprite had caught him. And then he had to play like there was nothing going on. Like having her sleeping down the hall in his house hadn’t played some kind of havoc on his body.

It was irritating as hell.

And frankly, his ability to hide it from her was suffering. Or maybe his drive to hide it. She was asking a lot of him, and she was as wide-eyed as a cartoon deer when it came to this kind of thing.

He could easily recall how she’d nearly fallen to the ground trying to back away from him when he’d made a move toward her a couple of days ago.

She hadn’t even realized what he was doing.

Yet another reason to never, ever touch her.

He was a man with ample experience with sex and women, and there was no way that Cal should cause the amount of issues inside of him that she did. But the problem was, the distance he had put between them hadn’t solved the damn thing. If anything, it had only made matters worse. He hadn’t truly been prepared for what it was like for her to be here. For her to stay with him.

And now she was throwing all these curveballs into the situation, and it was only making matters worse.

He might not touch her, but he didn’t need to protect her from all signs of his attraction, either. That appealed to his sense of dark humor.

She was telling him that he had to come for Christmas, after all. Suddenly it was bigger than just a marriage license.

It was a family holiday.

“Say that again?”

“It’s only that it’s really important that I have Christmas with my family. And there’s just no way, there is no way in hell, that my father will believe I married a man who didn’t come home for Christmas.”

“And all this... This believability business is a really important part of all this?”

“Yes. It’s really important. Because otherwise he’s going to change the stipulations of the trust fund.”

“Why can’t you just have a chat with your daddy,” he said.

“Have you met my daddy?”

Rhetorical, since she knew full well he had. And had shared a couple of drinks with him at that.

“Cal, he loves you.”

“Yes,” she said, sounding angry. “He does. I know he does. But he lost his mind after I broke my arm. It was just an arm! And all this stuff...he thinks he’s doing it for my own good. And I get that. I do. I really, really do. But the fact of the matter is, it’s bullshit. I am... I’m my own person. And if I have to take control like this for him to understand that, then I have to take control. But I can’t have him knowing that’s what I’m doing. We can... We can figure out how to wash all this out later. I can figure out how to fix it later. But I just have to do this bit first.”

“He’s going to be real pissed off at you.”

“I know,” she said. “I do know that. I do know that I’m going to hurt some things. Damage some pieces of our relationship. I get that. But that’s how worth it it is to me.”

“Callie...”

“Please do this for me. Please. I know it’s not perfect, or good, or... I mean, I know it’s going to hurt people... But I just...”

And he couldn’t tell her no. He really couldn’t. Because life was an absolute asshole. And he knew that better than a lot of people did. And if she saw a way to make hers better, who was he to stand in her way? If he had a way of helping her, why wouldn’t he do it?

“But part of this deal is that I’m training you,” he said. “That doesn’t change. Here, in Eastern Oregon, doesn’t matter. I’m training you, and if I tell you that you’re not ready you’ll listen.”

“You’ll come for Christmas?”

“You agree to my terms?” He took a step closer, some devil inside him pushing him. What would she do if he outright kissed her?

He turned his head and let out a breath.

She fidgeted. “Yes.”

“If I have to come for Christmas to look like a real husband, then I’ll do it. But we better have our own accommodation. We’re not playing some ridiculous sitcom game where we’re running in and out of rooms and hopping into bed to put on a show or whatever the hell.”

He was not going to be playing roommate to Callie Carson. It just wasn’t going to happen. He was only a man, after all. And Callie didn’t even have any idea of the way she made him feel. Of the kind of pressure she put them under physically.

“We will. I told you. There are cabins everywhere. We’ll have one to stay in. Everything will be fine. In my family... They already know you. And they like you.”

“Somehow, I have a feeling your dad is going to like me a hell of a lot less when he finds out that I eloped with his daughter. And then he’s going to hate me once he discovers that it was entirely made up so that you could get your money.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. And anyway, in the meantime... Maybe if you’re training me he’ll see things different. I mean, if you’re my husband I’ll be under your protection, after all.” She made an extraordinary gagging sound.