“How could I help it?” she said. “You were the golden boy of Everett County Regional High. I shouldn’t tell you this since you’ve got a big enough ego already.”

“Golden boy?” Callum refused to take offense at the comment about his ego. “I was simply one of the guys.”

“That was your greatest asset,” she said. “You weren’t stuck on yourself.”

“You just said I have an ego!”

“That isn’t precisely right.” She took a seat on the piano bench. “What you have is a self-assurance that I envy. I’ve always been more of a shrinking violet.”

“Is that anything like a wallflower?” Callum deadpanned. “In any case, you’re neither. You could teach assertiveness classes in your sleep.” He stopped talking while adjusting the trumpet mouthpiece.

“Only when I’m defending someone or something I care about,” Jody said. “Now are we going to jam or not?”

“You’re calling the shots,” he said.

After a couple of false starts, they launched into some old favorites. “Tijuana Taxi” and “The Lonely Bull” segued into “Hello, Dolly” and “Mack the Knife.” They were completely in synch by the time they tackled, and more or less conquered, “The Flight of the Bumblebee.”

When they were finished, Callum set down the trumpet. “My lips are going numb.”

“We can’t have that.” Jody gazed up at him from the piano bench, the angle of her face and neck alluring. He cupped her chin with one hand.

“Care to help them heal?” Without waiting for an answer, he brushed a kiss across her full mouth and couldn’t resist its sweetness. Sinking onto the seat beside her, Callum caught Jody’s shoulders. She leaned toward him.

He kissed her again, lingeringly, his eyes drifting shut as the contact linked them in a hundred ways.

It came as a shock when Jody drew away. “What’s wrong?” Callum asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said. “I just got an idea.”


SHE KNEW that if she gave herself time to think, she would change her mind or lose her courage. It was an outrageous idea, worthy of some stunt Callum himself might pull. But she had to take action before the kiss dissolved the last of her willpower.

As they jammed, Jody’s spirits had soared with every note. She could never return to the way things had been before he arrived, she realized. He’d stirred up too many emotions.

Yet she had to cut off his courtship, or pseudo-courtship, or whatever it was. Callum was too mercurial to be the man she needed, and she was too much herself to fit into his high-flying existence in California. At the same time, she didn’t want to deprive the boys of their father.

When he kissed her, Jody’s soul had ignited in a pure blue flame. No other man would ever be enough for her. Any chance at the marriage she’d always dreamed of had been ruined.

That was when the solution had hit her. It solved almost everything, including the fact that, subconsciously, she’d been waiting five years to hear words Callum would never speak. So she decided to say them herself.

“Let’s get married,” she said.

He stared at her blankly. For once in his life, Callum Fox was speechless.

“I can be the respectable Mrs. Fox and you can give the boys your name,” Jody went on. “When they start school, they’ll be able to look any bully in the face and say, ‘I do so have a father.”’

“Of course they do.” He clearly had no quarrel with that point.

“You can fly home to L.A. and tell your friends anything you like,” Jody went on. “I don’t care how you act as long as you don’t create a scandal that reaches Everett Landing. You can visit me every now and then. As far as anybody else is concerned, we’ll have a long-distance marriage.”

“What about as far as we’re concerned?” Callum asked.

“If we try to act like a real man and wife, we’ll end up hating each other.” She’d resigned herself to that fact long ago. “You’ll try to argue me into giving up the ranch and I’ll get jealous if you escort other women to movie premieres.”

“Why would I escort other women if I’m married?” He was sitting so close, she could have buried her nose in his neck.

Jody held herself rigidly straight. “Because it’s going to be a marriage of convenience.”

Callum ran one hand through his hair. “I thought those only existed in Victorian novels.”

“Not true,” Jody said. “You’ve heard of green card marriages, haven’t you?”

“Neither of us is a foreign citizen.” He appeared to be taking her seriously, at least, or maybe he was in shock.

“There’s a rancher on the outskirts of town who married a widow because they were both lonely,” Jody added, seeking ammunition. “Of course, we’d be doing the opposite, getting married and living apart, but it will take care of our problems.”

“How’s that?”

“I won’t have to worry about men pursuing me. No one will ask me out if I’m married,” she said. “Of course, you can date if you want to.” I don’t really mean that, do I? “I mean, taking actresses to openings and things like that.”

“I’d rather take my wife,” Callum said.

“You don’t have a wife.”

“If memory serves, you just proposed to me,” he said.

“I’d be your wife legally, but not in other ways.” She figured she’d spelled that out plainly enough.

From his seat beside her, Callum ran one hand up her wrist and caressed the inside of her elbow. Jody gave a delicious shudder.

“It isn’t going to work,” he said.

“It has to work!” Irked at her own vulnerability, she slid away on the bench.

“Be reasonable,” Callum said. “We can’t have a platonic marriage when your scent alone gets me aroused.”

“It does?” She could hardly breathe. She’d had no idea he felt that way.

“Come closer and I’ll demonstrate.”

Jody shook her head. “You react that way to lots of women! There’s nothing special about me as far as you’re concerned.”

“That’s not even remotely true,” Callum said. “Nobody compares to you. No one ever has.”

“It’s taken you five years to figure that out?” she demanded. “Let’s not forget that, during that time, you failed to visit me or even call. If I hadn’t entered your contest, you wouldn’t be here now. I think it’s safe to say that out of sight is out of mind as far as you’re concerned. Right?”

Although she could tell by his expression that Callum wanted to argue, he didn’t. “I’ll admit, I’ve tended to live in the moment. Five years ago, I was barely scraping by running a Web site and writing ad copy part-time for a hotel chain. I asked you to move to L.A. because I knew we’d have fun together, but when you turned me down, I figured I had to move on.”

“And I let you,” Jody conceded. “I can’t blame you for something that’s partly my fault. Still, fundamentally, the only thing that’s changed is that we have two sons.”

“That’s a pretty big change,” he said. “Tell me why our getting married in name only would be good for them.”

“It will placate the town gossips, for one thing.” Jody’s attachment to her idea grew as she spoke. “Also, it should make it easier for them to trust that you’ll come back, if they know you care enough to marry their mother.”

Callum considered. “Why couldn’t we be a real husband and wife even though we live apart? Other couples do it.”

“I told you, we’d be wretched. At least, I would be,” Jody said. “I’d miss you too much. I’d pester you and mope around and then I’d get mad. If I know up front that it’s simply an arrangement for the boys’ sake, I can get on with my life.”

“It’s important that we stay on good terms.” He sounded thoughtful. “Let me mull this over, all right?”

“Sure.” That was only fair, since she’d sprung this idea on him without warning. Besides, Jody was in no hurry, in case his answer happened to be no. If so, it would most likely be followed by “adios” and a quick exit in that ridiculous convertible. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a full afternoon ahead.”

When she returned from throwing on her grubby clothes, Callum was dishing out leftover apple pie for the boys. “Hey, Mom, are we going to buy jeans?” Jeremy said.

“It’s Saturday,” Ben reminded her.

She’d promised to take the boys shopping at Banyon’s Clothing Store. “Oh, darn, I forgot.” Jody had gotten behind in her chores since Callum arrived. She had to prepare for next week, when she, Gladys and Freddy planned to vaccinate the spring calves.

“I’ll take them,” Callum volunteered.

“You don’t need to.” Her protest sounded weak.

“I want to.” He made a shooing motion as if to herd her toward the door. “It’ll be fun to spend time with my sons. Besides, I’d like to talk to Ella Mae at the café. She’s a finalist, too, you know.”

Jody had been amused to hear about it. “All right. Have a good time.”

“You bet.”

As she turned to go, the sight of the three males standing close together, their silver-blond hair and supple bodies so much alike, tugged at Jody’s heart. She hoped Callum would go along with her idea. She wanted this relationship tied up neatly with a bow so it wouldn’t keep tearing at her heart.


RIDING IN AN OPEN CAR thrilled the boys, who whooped and chortled from their booster seats. Thank goodness they had no idea the decrepit vehicle was nothing short of a fashion felony, Callum thought wryly.

Everett Landing hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen it. The grocery store had been re-painted white with blue trim and the hardware store displayed computers and DVD players alongside tools in the window. Otherwise, there was a lazy 1950s feel to the sprawling main street that even the presence of a few late-model SUVs failed to dispel.

Although Callum knew that being stuck here after high school would have chafed him beyond endurance, he relished the small-town pleasure of walking into Banyon’s and greeting the salesclerk and two customers by name. All welcomed him warmly, although there were startled looks as they saw him with the boys. From the way their glances trailed between him and his sons, he knew they were noting the similarities.