Maya Banks - Colters’ Daughter

He didn’t have to wait long. The door opened and Adam Colter stood there unsmiling, his steady gaze brewing with anger.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Knowing he wouldn’t get through the door without a little shock value, Max thrust the document that Callie had signed at her father.

“We need to talk about this.”

Adam took the paper and scanned the contents. His expression grew darker and darker until he resembled a black cloud of fury.

“You son of a bitch,” Adam seethed. “I’ll fight you on this. It will never hold up in court. She signed this under duress and great emotional strain. When I’m through with you, the entire world will know what a calculating bastard you are.”

Max held up his hand. “I don’t give a shit what that paper says or whether it will hold up in court. I never intend to sign it or pursue ownership.”

Adam paused and then looked back up at Max, open speculation in his gaze.

“Like I said, we need to talk. Preferably without violence, although after three weeks of searching all over Europe for your daughter, I’m about ready to shed some blood. Yours will do just fine.”

Adam continued to stare at him for a long moment, and a glimmer of a smile shadowed on his lips. “You love my daughter.”

“Yeah, what was your first clue?”

“You can cut the sarcasm, son. Your actions haven’t been those of a man who loves a woman.”

“Just let me in so we can talk about this. I want things to be perfect if and when Callie comes home.”

Adam hesitated a moment. “I didn’t take advantage of your mother, Max. I can show you the letter she sent me. I can show you the bill of sale. I paid her more than a fair price. The last thing my brothers and I wanted was to take advantage of a young widow with two children to raise.”

Max swallowed and then slowly nodded his acceptance. He had to let go of his anger. These were Callie’s dads. The past couldn’t be changed. He’d been a boy when his mother had sold, and he’d viewed the transaction through the eyes of an angry child. It was time to consider that he’d been wrong. He’d been wrong about so many other things.

“I owe you and your brothers an apology,” Max said in a low voice.

“If you make my daughter happy again, that’s all the apology we need.”

“Thank you, sir. I plan to do exactly that.”

Adam stepped back and then motioned Max inside. Max walked past him and into the living room where all of Callie’s family was assembled.

Lily met his gaze and shot him a look of sympathy about the time the rest of the room exploded into chaos.

It took a full five minutes for Adam to calm everyone down. Even Holly stood to the side, her face drawn into tight lines of anger—and grief.

He went to her first, wanting to ease her fears, her worries, even when he didn’t have any information to do so.

“Have you found her?” Lily asked just as he approached Holly Colter.

Max turned to look at Lily’s hopeful face, his own drawn into an unhappy grimace. “No, I haven’t.”

Then he turned back to Callie’s mother. “I want to apologize to you for all the hurt I’ve caused. I love your daughter. I love her more than I’ve ever loved anyone else. I’ve done nothing for the last three weeks but try to find her. I’ve come to the realization that she’ll come home when she’s ready, and when she does, I want things to be…right.”

Adam handed the paper to Holly. “He brought this.”

Holly scanned the paper and then her eyes filled with tears. “No. Tell me this isn’t real.”

Max took the paper from her shaking hand and then calmly ripped it into a dozen tiny pieces. “I don’t care if it was real or not. It doesn’t matter because I won’t sign it.”

“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.”

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?

No, she couldn’t come back here.

“Callie.”

She froze as Max’s soft voice slid over her ears like a warm, comforting blanket. She closed her eyes and squeezed her fingers into tight balls. Not this. Anything but this. Hadn’t she bled enough?

She hadn’t heard his approach. But then she’d been too ensconced in the agony of seeing her dream belong to someone else.

“Callie, please. Look at me.”

The soft entreaty was nearly her undoing. Despite the fact that the last thing she wanted was to confront Max again, she found herself slowly turning, responding to the command layered into his quiet request.