Home to Callum’s Arms
After the death of her mother and brother in an accident caused by her drunk father, Melanie Evans stayed with neighbors on the Holt Ranch during her recovery. Afterwards, she left Lovell, Wyoming, to get away from her drunk, hateful father. But she still thought of her friend Callum Holt. His kindness had made an impression that she’d never forgotten.
Years later, within days of Mel selling her business in Cheyenne, her aunt suffers a stroke. With no commitments, Mel rushes back home. Already restless, she puts decisions for the rest of her life on hold until her aunt recovers—and after she faces Callum and her father again.
Callum, however, has other ideas. He takes Mel and her aunt into his home, making it clear that he has intentions toward her, some honorable, some a little…darker.
Excerpt
Exhausted and almost numb with fear, Mel walked into the hospital, unsurprised to find Callum waiting for her.
Her breath caught at the sight of him. The handsome young man just growing into his skin had filled out in a way that left her mouth dry and her stomach doing strange little flutters.
Still handsome, but with a maturity and hardness to him that hadn’t been there in the past, he was all muscle. She knew how hard he worked at the ranch and suspected those muscles would be hard as iron.
She took a deep breath and made the mistake of looking into his eyes.
She didn’t know how such dark eyes could be warm. She only knew that the chill that had gone all the way to her bones seemed to ease somewhat. “Callum.”
He stepped closer, close enough for her stomach to knot, and opened his arms. “Come here, baby.”
Remembering that he had a girlfriend, who could be his fiancée by now, Mel shook her head and took a step back. “No. I’ll fall apart. How is she?”
Callum dropped his arms. “She’s still in ICU, but she’s stable. Just like the doctor told you, they’re going to keep her in the ICU for a couple of days. If everything goes okay, she should be able to go home in a week.”
“Home.” She didn’t relish going to her father’s house.
Callum took her hand in his. “Come on. Betty’s waiting for you.”
Her hand felt so small in his large rough one. It reminded her of another hand, a rougher one, a hand that hadn’t held hers since the accident. “Where’s my father?”
“He left about an hour ago.”
“He knew I was on my way?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “He knew.”
When they turned another corner, Mel’s knees buckled at the sight of Betty, stretched out on a padded bench, her head on a hospital pillow and a hospital blanket tucked under her chin.
When Callum released her hand to walk over to Betty, Mel caught his arm and shook her head. “Let her sleep.” Setting her purse and coat on one of the chairs, she gestured toward the nurses’ station, barely visible in the distance. “I’m going to go see if they’ll let me see her.”
“They will. The doctor already approved it.”
Mel couldn’t help but smile at that. “Your doing?”
Callum shrugged. “He knew you were driving from Cheyenne in this weather. Go see your aunt so we can all go back to the ranch.”
Instead of taking the time to argue with him, Mel started toward the nurses’ station, anxious to see her aunt.
Callum stared after her, still trying to recover from the punch to the gut he’d felt when he first saw her.
Before, she’d been beautiful.
Now, she was absolutely stunning.
Even tired and scared, she took his breath away.
Her dark brown hair, secured at the back of her head, shone with good health and made his fingers itch to loosen it and run his fingers through it.
Her eyes, a brilliant green, had appeared darker under the harsh hospital lights and held a sadness and exhaustion that he vowed to himself to fix.
The sweater dress she wore clung to curves that made his mouth water.
Scraping a hand over his face, Callum sighed and turned at the rustle behind him. “We’re going to keep her here.”
“Yes.” Betty sat up and touched his arm. “This is where she belongs. She needs people around her who love her.”
“But we don’t know what kind of life she has in Cheyenne. I’m not taking her from a good life.”
Betty rose and folded the blanket. “She can have a better life here.”
Amused by Betty’s automatic defense, Callum smiled faintly. “That’ll be for her to decide. Right now we just have to worry about getting Jean better. They’ll both have to stay on the ranch. After hearing what her father’s done, there’s no way I can allow her to stay with him.”
Keeping one eye on the hallway in anticipation of Mel’s return, Callum clenched his jaw. “Has he been abusive to Jean?”
“No.” Betty pressed her lips together and shook her head. “No. She didn’t take her brother’s shit. After Mel left, he’s the one who asked Jean to come live with him. He needed someone to cook and clean, and she was tired of living alone. Plus, she thought she was safer with a man in the house and she appreciated having a man in the house, especially since her brother knows his way around tools. You know for yourself how often Jay has to fix things around the ranch house.”
“Hmm.” Hearing the truth in Betty’s tone, Callum turned his attention to Mel as she came toward him. As he slipped on his coat, he watched her, wondering if she was aware of the tears streaming down her face.
Without a word, he held out his arms again, but this time instead of stopping, she kept coming closer until she pressed her face against his chest and began to sob, her cries ripping his heart to shreds. “It’ll be okay, baby. I’ve got you.”
He lifted her high against his chest while Betty gathered her coat and placed it over her before slipping into her own and gathering their purses. “Everything’ll be all right.”
He pushed down his anger at her father.
Dealing with him would have to wait.
Right now, the precious bundle in his arms and soaking his shirt needed him.
This time, he would be there for her.
He took her coat from Betty and bundled her into it.
“Come on, baby. Let me take you home.”