“How do I know I can trust you?”
“That’s something you’ll just have to take on faith,” Hunter said, lifting his cup. He almost laughed out loud when Culbertson quickly took an ink pen from the inside pocket of his sports jacket and hastily scrawled his name on the designated line of the document before Hunter could take the last sip of the coffee.
Shoving the paper back at him, Culbertson glared at Hunter as he folded it and put it in his pocket. “You’re welcome to Callie and her brat. Now where’s my money?”
Hunter removed a check from a zippered pocket on his flight suit, then, before he could stop himself, he reached across the table and grabbed Culbertson by the front of the shirt. Pulling him forward until they were nose to nose, he made sure there was no mistaking the menace in his voice. “Don’t ever let me hear you use that tone of voice again when you refer to my wife or our baby. You got that?”
“You really love her, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.” When Hunter realized what he’d said, he released Culbertson’s shirt and shoved him away. Then, sliding out of the booth, he tossed the check on the table. “Now get the hell out of Devil’s Fork and don’t let me see you again.”
As he walked out of the café and got into his truck, Hunter’s heart pounded hard in his chest and he had to force himself to breathe. He loved Callie.
When he’d lost Ellen, he’d vowed never to love another woman and run the risk of losing her. But as much as he’d cared for his fiancée, his feelings for her couldn’t compare to the depths of what he felt for Callie. In the past couple of weeks he’d felt more alive than he had in his entire life and he knew for certain that if he lost her he’d never survive.
How the hell had he let himself get in so deep? When had it happened? And why hadn’t he seen it coming?
Somewhere between that wild ride from the airfield when she’d picked him up the day he’d arrived in Devil’s Fork and yesterday when they’d exchanged wedding vows he’d let go of the past and reached for the future. A future with Callie and her son.
Steering the truck out onto Main Street, he shook his head. He wasn’t fool enough to think that just because he realized he loved her they could work things out and make a go of their marriage. At the time he’d suggested they get married, she’d had just as many reservations, if not more, than he’d had. And the sole reason they’d married in the first place was to keep Culbertson from taking her baby away from her. Now that he was no longer a threat, their reason for staying together was gone.
He took a deep breath as he turned onto the drive leading up to the Life Medevac hangar. He knew that Callie cared for him. Her response to his kisses and the passion they shared when they made love was proof of that. But did she love him?
She’d told him that she trusted him, but that didn’t mean she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life. And he distinctly remembered her telling him the first day they met that she was quite content to remain single.
He also recalled Callie had a problem with anyone who had money. How would she take it when she discovered that she was married to a man with a multimillion-dollar bank account and who stood to inherit a sizable portion of Emerald Inc., the multibillion-dollar enterprise his paternal grandmother had built from the ground up?
As he parked the truck, got out and walked toward the hangar, he wasn’t sure how things would turn out for them. But he had every intention of finding out. He’d tell her how he felt, explain everything about himself and pray that she understood and loved him anyway.
“I was just about to page you,” Mary Lou said, hanging up the phone.
“There’s been an accident on the Thompson ranch and they need us there as soon as possible,” Callie added as she breezed past him on the way out the door.
“Where’s Corey?” he asked, following her.
“Right here, boss,” Corey called, running after them.
When they were all strapped into their seats, Hunter revved the helicopter’s engine and took hold of the stick. He wasn’t happy about having to postpone his talk with Callie, but it couldn’t be helped. They had an accident victim waiting on them and that took precedence over matters of the heart.
After stabilizing the compound fracture on Carl Thompson’s leg and transporting him to the hospital in El Paso, Callie was more than ready to get back to base. It had taken everything she and Corey could do to convince the man that he wasn’t on a joyride and couldn’t sit up to look out the window during the thirty-minute flight.
“I hope old Carl isn’t overly accident-prone,” Corey said as they climbed back into the helicopter.
Callie nodded. “If it had taken much longer to get here, I would have radioed for a doctor’s order to give him a sedative.”
“Well, that’s something you won’t have to give me,” Corey said, taking off his headset and settling back in his seat. “I intend to catch a few winks on the flight home.”
When Corey closed his eyes and fell silent, Callie turned her attention to Hunter. As she watched, he put on his headset and flipped switches on the control panel. Her heart skipped a beat and she had to remind herself to breathe. If she lived to be a hundred, she didn’t think she’d ever see a man look as sexy as he looked in his flight suit and aviator sunglasses. But then, she thought he was sexy no matter what he did or didn’t wear.
She took a deep breath. As hard as she’d fought to keep from loving him, he’d managed to get past her defenses and fill a void in her life that she hadn’t even known existed.
Unfortunately that didn’t mean they could have a future together. He’d made it quite clear that he was only marrying her to help her retain custody of her son and that once the threat from Craig was over, so was their marriage. Besides, pretending to be happily married and anticipating the birth of a child was one thing. Permanently accepting the role of loving husband and expectant father was something else entirely.
Her chest tightened as she thought of her life without Hunter. She didn’t want to think about not being able to see his handsome face every day, hear his hearty laughter or feel the warmth of his touch. But did she have the nerve to tell him how she felt and that she wanted to stay married after her current problems were resolved?
“Damn!” Hunter’s vehement curse coming through her headset broke through her disturbing introspection.