Megan's Hero (The Callahans of Texas Book #3): A Novel (9 page)

The crew headed back to work while the Callahan clan discussed their plans for the day. Curious to see the inside of the house, Megan started toward the building. Will tagged along. Not exactly what she’d planned, but she couldn’t deny that she liked his company.

“Checking to see if my brother does good work?”

“I’m sure he does. I like to look at houses under construction, see if I can figure out what goes where.”

“He’ll show you the plans.”

“That takes away the challenge.” Smiling, she stepped up onto the block that served as a temporary porch. Will instantly rested his hand against her back to steady her even though there was no need. The block was on flat, solid ground. His concern was touching, even if she didn’t want it to be. She’d never had anybody treat her with such gentle care, not even the man she’d hoped was going to marry her.

“This is the entry.” She made a sweeping motion with her hand and met Will’s twinkling gaze. “And a guest closet.”

“I never would have guessed.”

“This part is easy. A great room, dining area, and kitchen combination.” She studied the framed-in walls and pointed to a smaller room. “Den or office. Maybe a TV room.” She led him down a hallway. “Master bedroom and bath. Nice size too.”

When she looked up toward the second floor, Will laid his fingers on her arm. “Don’t even think about going up that ladder.”

Frowning, she drew her arm away. “I’m not stupid.”

“Sorry. I know you aren’t, but if you weren’t pregnant, I bet you’d be zipping up that ladder faster than a kid climbing up a waterslide.”

“How’d you know?”

He smiled that lazy, enticing smile of his. “You have a very expressive face. For a second you were tempted to go up there for a better look, then you decided against it.”

“Wrong. I wanted to go up there but knew better from the get-go. Wanting to do something and actually being tempted to do it are two different things.” She was talking about more than going up a ladder, and he knew it.

“I stand corrected.” He tipped his head slightly to the side. “You’re good at this.”

“I was a good agent, and I enjoyed it. But I don’t think I’ll go back to it until Sweet Baby is in school. Maybe not even then. It’s not easy to sell real estate when you have a baby or small children. One of our best agents tried it, but she soon gave up. You have to be flexible and fit your schedule around your clients’ needs. If someone you’ve been working with comes to town to look at houses, you can’t leave them hanging because you have a sick baby. Sometimes another agent might fill in for you, but they aren’t always able to do it.”

“I have a friend from college who went into real estate after we graduated. He works long hours, as many as I do on the ranch. He’s done well, but he doesn’t have nearly as much fun as I do.”

“How do you know that?”

“He doesn’t get to ride a horse.”

They went back outside. “Not everyone thinks that’s fun.”

“Have you ever ridden a horse?”

“No, and I don’t intend to start now.”

He chuckled as they walked back to rejoin the family. “I’m not recommending it. But you should give it a try sometime.”

“I’ll put it on my someday-adventures list.” Near the bottom since she’d never been around a horse and wasn’t sure she wanted to be.

“What do you think of the house?” asked Chance.

“It’s a great floor plan. How many bedrooms upstairs?”

“Three and two bathrooms. I’ll show you the drawings tonight if you want. Can’t do it now because I have to get back to the office for a meeting.”

“I’d like that. Thanks.” Megan turned to Sue. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

“Not at all. Though we should head on home and put the groceries away.” She looked at Chance. “Will we see you at dinner?”

“Sorry, not today. Too busy. But we’ll come over tonight.” He glanced at Emily, who nodded.

As they strolled back to their vehicles, Will once again walked beside Megan. They didn’t talk, but as he opened the car door for her, she noticed Sue watching them with a tiny frown.

Busted.

After dinner, Will was about to stretch out on one of his folks’ big red leather sofas for a short afternoon snooze when his mother asked him to join her and Dub in their office. Megan was lying down in her room. The rest of the family had scattered after they ate, heading back to their respective houses.

He followed his mom into the office. His dad looked up from the computer and motioned for Will to shut the door. After he sat down, Dub said, “I heard from Peters. He confirmed what Megan told you about being in real estate. He didn’t find any marriage or divorce records. Got the scoop on the boyfriend from a former co-worker. He’s married and already has four kids.”

Will’s heart sank. She’d had an affair with a married man? It happened all the time, but somehow he hadn’t expected her to do something that sleazy.

“The woman didn’t think Megan knew he was married, but she wasn’t positive. Megan was friendly enough at work but didn’t do anything with the people from the office any other time. So her associate didn’t know too many details of her life outside of work.

“The manager of her apartment building said she kept to herself. Though he saw her talking to a few other tenants occasionally. Never had anybody over except for one guy several months ago. He was there four times for dinner and stayed the night once.”

“Good grief, was the manager spying on her?”

“That was my reaction too, but Peters thought he was equally nosy about all of the tenants. It’s a small building.”

“Life in the big city.” Will grimaced. “No thanks.” It didn’t sound to him like she’d had a long-term affair. Which meant she might not have known he was married. Some guys were experts at that kind of deception. “Anything else?”

“He also confirmed that she’d worked at a restaurant before going to the real estate office. She’d been there about eighteen months. But he didn’t get any leads on where she worked before that, if she did. You said she’d lived in Austin since she was sixteen?”

“That’s what she told me.”

“He hasn’t been able to find any school records.”

“Does that mean she didn’t finish high school?”

“Not necessarily. He’s still working on it. Though he did say that a high school diploma or GED isn’t required for a real estate license. All you need is to be eighteen, take all the required real estate classes, and pass the exam.”

“Does he know where she’s from originally?”

“No. In fact, so far he hasn’t been able to find any earlier info on her. The trail goes cold at the restaurant. Evidently they’ve had a big turnover from management on down. There was only one waitress that remembered her, but she started working there right before Megan left and didn’t know her well.”

“So no obvious family to turn to for help.”

Dub nodded. “Things are going to be mighty tough for her to keep going on her own.”

“She won’t have to,” Will’s mother said. “God put her in our care, and here she’ll stay.”

“I don’t know if she’ll go along with your plan, Mom. She has an independent streak a mile long and doesn’t like being indebted to anyone. It took the promise of Ramona’s leftovers just to persuade her to come out here for a few days.”

Sue stared at him. “Leftovers?”

“I told her that Ramona still cooks like she’s feedin’ a bunch of single cowboys. So unless all the family is here, she winds up with a lot of leftovers.” He shook his head. “You should have seen Megan’s face. She looked like a little kid longing for a special treat.”

“Bless her heart. That settles it. She’s staying. We’ll convince her.” Sue’s eyes narrowed. “You’ll have to help, but it’s going to be tricky. You don’t want to give her the wrong impression.”

Her tone made Will uneasy. His mother didn’t miss much where her kids were concerned. Sometimes she saw things they didn’t know they were revealing. Or maybe hadn’t realized yet. Occasionally she also read them wrong. “About what?” he asked cautiously.

“Your feelings for her.”

He caught his dad’s quick frown and lowered his gaze, buying a few seconds to think. His brother had fallen in love with Emily the first day they met, and his mother had thought it was wonderful. Did she think he’d done the same thing? If so, she didn’t look at all happy about it.

“Like you, I’m concerned about her and know that God led me there to find her.” He met his father’s concerned gaze. At one time Dub hadn’t thought Nate was good enough for Jenna. Did he or Sue have the same idea about Megan? That wouldn’t sit well with their oldest son. He didn’t believe they were any better than anyone else, even if they had a lot of money.

“I like her and admire her spunk. I want good things for her. But I’m not in love with her.” He focused on his mother, expecting to see relief in her expression. Instead, she appeared even more concerned. “Could I fall in love with her? Maybe.” He sat up a little straighter. When he spoke, he kept his voice calm but firm. “Does that bother you?”

His dad twirled a pen around on the desk. He glanced at his wife. “I learned my lesson about judging people with Nate, but there are different things to consider with Megan.”

“Like the baby.” Will had spent a lot of time thinking about that during the night. “Care for the woman, care for her kid. It’s a package deal.”

“I don’t have anything against Megan,” his mother said quietly. “Of course, none of us really know her, so our opinions may change. You have a tender heart, son. I’m worried that you may mistake compassion for love. Or that she might. For someone in her situation, you’re the knight in shining armor who can make all her dreams come true. I don’t want to see either of you hurt.”

“We need to help her. To take care of her until after the baby is born, and she gets back on her feet financially,” Will said. “Show her she’s not alone in the world, that she has friends. With the whole family involved, she won’t focus on me.”

His mother laughed softly. “That’ll be the day. You’re the last eligible Callahan. Why should she be any different than every other single female in the county?”

“I’m no expert on women”—that drew an unladylike snort from his mother—“but given how her boyfriend apparently abused her trust, I doubt she’s all that interested in finding another man.”

“You have a point there.”

“I’ve never met any woman who is so blasted determined to take care of herself. I’m sure she appreciates having a place to stay until she gets her bearings, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she takes off as soon as she can.”

“We’ll have to show her that there are good people in the world.” His mother’s eyes twinkled with a hint of mischief. “I have a couple of ideas that may make staying here more palatable to her.”

Will relaxed back against the chair. “What do you have in mind?”

“With Dalton moving out of the camp house, we can offer her a choice of places to stay, either there or here with us.”

“That’s a good start. But I’m not sure she has enough money to buy food if she has a place of her own.”

“She can take most of her meals here, especially if she’s working for us. Jenna, Emily, and I have decided we need a personal assistant.”

Will didn’t laugh, but he couldn’t hold back a grin. The women in his family were busy, but they always managed to get everything done on time.

“I’d also love to have someone prepare nice desserts for the luncheons at the museum. If she’s willing, that would be part of her job. We don’t plan on having her work full time. She needs to get plenty of rest too.”

“I should have known you’d come up with something.” Will stood and leaned down to drop a kiss on his mom’s forehead. “Thank you.” He looked back at his father. “Anything else?”

“That’s all Peters had. If he finds anything else, I’ll let you know.” Dub stood too. “Are you goin’ over to Red Ridge this afternoon?”

“That’s the plan. I need to check the cut on that heifer’s leg. It looked pretty good day before yesterday, but nobody’s made it over there since then. Nate’s going with me. For some reason that silly cow refuses to stand there peacefully and let me doctor her leg.”

Dub laughed and walked around the desk toward the door. “Wouldn’t it be nice if they were that cooperative.”

Megan slept all afternoon. She and Will shared a quiet supper with his parents, then he invited her to walk out to see her van and to show her what Chance and Nate had recovered from the pasture. He had helped them set up several tables in the old bunkhouse the night before and spread her things out to dry.

It was a pleasant stroll from the ranch house, past flower beds vibrant with roses of all colors and numerous other flowers, as well as the large vegetable garden.

“Who takes care of the grounds and the garden?”

“Ace.” Ace was Ramona’s husband. She’d met them at dinner, but his dad had simply introduced him as their jack-of-all-trades. “He grows the vegetables and fruit in the orchard, and Ramona and Mom freeze or can what we don’t eat fresh. He takes care of a lot of things around here, which frees up Dad and me to run the ranch.”

She looked across the garden to the three other houses in the family compound, each an acre apart to give them some breathing room. “Who lives where?”

“Jenna, Nate, and Zach live in the older house. It was built in 1910 and served as the ranch house until Dad built the current one. After my grandparents passed on, Mom converted it into a guest house. When Chance and I moved out, she wound up having visitors stay in the ranch house, and the old place sat empty for a while. She kept it furnished and clean in case it was needed for overflow if we had a crowd. Jenna and Zach moved into it a few months before she and Nate got married.” He glanced at her, noting a tiny frown. “Jenna was married before. Nate isn’t Zach’s daddy by birth, but he is in every other way.”

“They sure seem to love each other. That’s what counts.” She motioned toward the other two houses. “Which house is yours?”

“The one with the wraparound porch. I’ve always enjoyed the one on the ranch house, so it was at the top of my want list. Second was an open floor plan with the kitchen, dining area, and living room all combined. Chance’s house was the first he ever built. Mine was second. He was learnin’, so they aren’t perfect. But it’s still a good family-sized house.”

“So you aren’t set on being the town’s most eligible bachelor forever?”

“Reckon you picked up on the eligible bachelor part at the hospital.”

“Hard to miss when the handsome bachelor alert went off and every single woman on the premises happened to wander by.”

Will laughed and leaned down to pull a weed from the edge of the otherwise meticulous garden. “I’ve always suspected there was such a thing.”

“Guys have a girl alert too.”

“Yes, ma’am. We go through a special initiation in the seventh grade and promise to never, ever reveal the secret to a female.”

She laughed and started walking along the path again. “Oh yeah, the old elbow nudge and ‘check her out, dude’ is such a big secret.”

“Oh, man! Who betrayed us?”

“Half the guys in any group.”

All of whom would notice her when she walked into a room. She wasn’t a stunning beauty like his sister-in-law, but she was more than pretty enough to catch any man’s eye.

No one had talked to her yet about working for them. Emily spent the afternoon at the museum, and Jenna had been at the Mission, receiving a shipment of goods for the food bank. His mom had gone to a planning meeting for an upcoming luncheon at the museum. His mother quietly told him that she and the girls wanted to talk to Megan together, hoping if one couldn’t persuade her to stay, then the three of them could.

When they reached her van, she sighed heavily. “There are more dents than I remembered.”

“About a gazillion. And the right side got pretty banged up when it flipped over.”

“Can they hammer out the fender so the front tire will turn?”

“Should be able to. But the only way to get rid of the mold and musty smell will be to completely gut the interior.”

“It already stinks, and it will only get worse.” She tugged on the front passenger door but couldn’t get it open. “Did y’all get everything out of the glove box and console?”

“Yep. Even checked under the seats. Found one ballpoint pen and two rock hard French fries.”