Rodeo Christmas at Evergreen Ranch (Gold Valley #13)(47)

“Well now, he’s got his ranch, but we don’t mind spending a little bit of time apart.”

“That’s just not responsible,” her mom said. “You have to be there for your husband. Your marriage is more important than riding horses.”

“No,” Callie said. “Riding horses has always been important to me.”

“Callie, you have a husband.”

“And if... If Boone gets a wife, does he have to quit?”

“It’s different,” her mom said. “It’s different, and I think you know that.”

“It’s different,” Callie echoed. “It’ll just always be different for me, won’t it? You’re never going to be proud of what I do.”

“Callie, what you do is nice, but it’s not—”

“They all make their careers out of the rodeo. And nobody questions it. It’s all fine and dandy when it’s them. I thought that at least when Jake and I were married, and you knew that he didn’t mind... Well, I figured you would see that it’s a valid thing to want. That I’m serious.”

“I believe that you’re serious,” her mom said. “I just also believe that I have more of an understanding of what’s really important in a woman’s life.”

Frustration filled Callie, and she let her frosting knife clatter onto the counter, uncaring about the mess it made.

She felt sixteen again. Sixteen and opening a box with a necklace in it, rather than the hunting knife she’d wanted. That she’d been expecting. That all her brothers had gotten.

She’d realized then. That it didn’t matter what she did. That it was all playing to her mom. That she just needed to grow up and be a woman the way she recognized it.

She hadn’t shown her disappointment, not then.

It was what had happened after that that had caused problems, and Callie could regret those, and still be angry at the situation.

“It’s not fair,” she said.

“You know what isn’t fair?” her mom asked. “I want just a little bit of time a year with you, where we do the kinds of things that I want to do. Not just sitting in a dusty arena watching you ride. I want you to frost cookies with me for an afternoon and not have a fight. Can you do that?”

Callie was stricken. Because this was the closest they’d come to that kind of fight they’d had all those years ago. To her mom outright saying she just didn’t like the way that Callie was. The way that she’d turned out.

Totally different to how Sophie would have been, she was sure.

And her mom didn’t have to say that for Callie to know it.

“Fine,” she said, picking the knife up from the counter. She ran her finger through the frosting, wiping it off the granite, and then she lifted it to her lips and licked it right off. “Let’s frost some damn cookies.”



* * *



GOING UP IN the hills with his father-in-law, his brothers-in-law and weapons was something that Jake hadn’t fully thought through. And they all looked at him with a kind of keen interest when the targets were set up and they were all in position. They had driven all the way up to the snow, the white-capped mountains around them majestic, and the sheer cliffs steep, so if they wanted to dispatch him and get rid of his body handily, he could see multiple ways for that to happen.

“Frankly,” Boone said, slinging his gun down from his shoulder. “I’m surprised that somebody was able to tame her.”

Jake chuckled. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“It’s a damn good thing,” her father, Abe, said.

“What is?” Jake responded.

“Callie having something, someone, in her life other than the rodeo. Poor girl feels a little put upon, I know, but there’s a limit to how far women tend to go.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure I did her any favors. I indulged her for too long.”

He felt like a turncoat, standing there listening to that. On some level he realized he hadn’t really believed how deeply Callie was right about her family. He hadn’t really...understood that her father fundamentally didn’t believe she could do this because of her gender.

And it was...

Well, hell, he’d faced a lot of uphill in his life. Had been through enough crap to defeat most people. But no one had ever told him he couldn’t do something because he was a man.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I was doing some reading about a cowgirl with a diamond tooth who did bucking broncos way back in the early days of the rodeo.”

“The sport was different back then,” Abe said. “Now it’s extreme. Everybody always pushing the limits, the animals pushing the limits, the breeders pushing the extremes. Just not the same. Anyway, everybody has to find a life after the rodeo, as you well know.”

It was tough to argue with because he did know that. But the thing was, he’d done his riding. And she hadn’t.

“You’re right,” he said. “There’s more to the rodeo. And there’s life past it. But I got to live my life in it. I got to win a championship. And I got to quit when I was good and ready. But Cal doesn’t feel like she’s done, and I’m going to support her until she makes that decision for herself.”

Her brothers looked at him with a measure of respect that surprised him. Callie might have more allies than she realized.