Kate Hoffmann - Paris or Bust!

“Now? There’s so much going on.”

“I’ll take my laptop and my modem,” he said. “Trust me, I’ll be completely plugged in.”

“This isn’t like you,” Tisa said.

“I’m always jumping on planes,” Callum corrected. “I’ll fly into the airport at San Angelo, hook up with a rental car and maybe scout some stories along the way. You know how I hate to waste time.”

“So it’s a working vacation?” The editor shrugged. “You’re the boss. Just don’t stay away long.”

“Do I ever?” It was a rhetorical question, but Tisa replied anyway.

“I hope not,” she said. “I’m good at my job, but we all need you.”

“Thanks.” The vote of confidence buoyed Callum.

The trip might not be so bad. The boys’ father would turn out to be lurking in the background, Jody was going to jump at the chance of a guaranteed trip to Vegas and Callum would be back in L.A. before he knew it.

“I KNOW ADOPTION CAN WORK. Give it a chance, Elsie.” Jody called all her cows Elsie on those occasions when she addressed them directly.

Elsie stood glumly in her stall, trying to ignore the calf pulling at her udder. The baby, called Half-Pint like all calves on the Wandering I, had been one of a pair whose mother didn’t have enough milk for two. Since Elsie had lost her own spring calf, Jody had decided to pair her off with Half-Pint.

Jody had a strong sympathy for babies and mothers. According to her forewoman, Gladys, it should take about two weeks for Elsie to bond.

“You’ll thank me for this,” Jody told the cow. “On the other hand, maybe you’ll turn out to be as stubborn as I am. Lots of people gave me advice, but did I take it? No. And I’m glad I didn’t.”

The prevailing sentiment in town had been that Jody Reilly was out of her mind to keep the twins. It had been tough enough standing up to the censure of those people who wanted to fire her from her teaching job for having loose morals.

Complicating matters had been her refusal to name the father. Some people had suspected her ex-boyfriend, Jim, a fellow teacher who, after he and Jody drifted apart, had decided to join the Peace Corps. Others suspected a blond cowboy who’d visited the school when he was in town with a traveling rodeo. In fact, Jody had discreetly spread a rumor about him herself. As far as she was concerned, she had a right to keep her personal business private.

Despite the gossip, she’d slowly put her life in order. Her mother had volunteered to baby-sit while Jody worked. Restaurant owner Ella Mae Nickerson had trumpeted the fact that many of the town’s other children had been born less than nine months after their parents’ weddings. Tongues had fallen silent after she threatened to post a list in her café window.

Four years later, the kids fit seamlessly among the youngsters at Sunday school. The same people who’d scowled at first now joked about the fact that she’d named the pair after their grandfathers without realizing that, together, Ben and Jerry could open their own ice-cream stand.

Leaving Elsie and Half-Pint in the stall, Jody strolled through the barn to a normally unused stall from which came the sound of barking. On this rainy Saturday, the boys were amusing themselves by playing with a mongrel puppy that had wandered onto the ranch a few days earlier, most likely abandoned on the highway. Jody always did her best to find homes for strays.

“Can we keep him, Mommy?” asked Benjamin. “We’re going to call him Lassie.”

“Lassie is a female name,” Jody said. “Besides, we’ve already got enough dogs.”

“They’re always working,” Jeremy piped up.

“If Lassie sticks around, he’ll have to work, too.” Animals, like people, had to earn their keep on a ranch.

“We’ll take good care of him!” That was Benjamin.

“Children need pets,” added his brother. “It says so on TV.”

“Does it? Well, I’m not making any promises. Where’s Louise?” Gladys’s daughter had been baby-sitting the pair.

“She’s getting us a drink.” There was a refrigerator in the tack room for storing animal medicines and cold drinks.

“Well, great.” Jody leaned down and ruffled the two blond heads. Despite being twins, the pair had distinct personalities. Jeremy was stubborn like her, and Ben a smooth talker like his father.

Oh, darn. She didn’t want to think about Callum Fox. For a long time, she’d pushed him out of her thoughts, but entering the Family Voyager contest had reawakened memories and longings. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea, although she doubted the publisher of such a fancy magazine would read the entries himself.

She’d been surprised yesterday when Ella Mae called to report that they were both finalists. That proved Callum hadn’t done the picking, because Jody knew he never would have chosen two people from his hometown.

He probably didn’t give his old friends a moment’s thought. Judging by the photos she’d seen of him and his many girlfriends in People and Us, his social life rivaled that of a prize bull. No wonder he hadn’t even bothered to show up for their tenth high school reunion last year.

Her heart was safe enough. Safe from everything except her daydreams of a man with a smile to die for and a lean body that drove her crazy, even in memory.

From outside the barn, Jody heard the swish of tires on the muddy driveway. She hoped it wasn’t one of her would-be boyfriends, racing over after the morning’s downpour to make sure her ranch hadn’t washed away. Although she always needed help, sometimes she could hardly bear to look at eager men, none of whom were the one she wanted.

She’d loved Callum enough to let him go. Sure, she’d hoped he would come back, but she’d understood five years ago that having to take responsibility for a wife and children would destroy his dreams. He’d just been getting his magazine started and had been working a part-time job to make ends meet while he poured his energies into Family Voyager.

If he’d married her with two kids on the way, he’d have had to work full-time. The magazine would have lost its window of opportunity. By the time Callum came up for air, someone else would have seized the chance he’d let slip.

Although she sometimes wondered if she’d been a fool, Jody was glad she’d avoided a marriage that, under the circumstances, would have made them both miserable. She just hoped Callum would understand if he ever found out the truth.

Shrugging off her reflections, she stepped through the barn’s double doors and blinked as a shaft of sunlight broke through the parting clouds. Who on earth could be driving that aging boat of a convertible with the top jammed half-open?

The light must have dazzled her, because she could have sworn the man parking in front of the big house had Callum’s shaggy good looks. He bore little resemblance to his glitzy photographs, however, with his silver-blond hair hanging wetly and his clothes plastered to his body.

Jody’s pulse speeded. This wasn’t possible. Yet-being ruthlessly honest with herself-she’d known there was a chance he might read her essay and wonder about the twins. Was that why he’d come? Suddenly she wished she’d never entered the darned contest.

Feigning nonchalance, she strolled toward the car. Not yet aware of her, Callum got out and surveyed its sopping interior ruefully.

No other man could match him for broad shoulders and slim hips, or for the expressiveness of his sharply defined face. Jody remembered how he’d moved when he was on top of her, and beneath her, and most especially inside her. To her dismay, her body rippled with the memory.

“You forgot to put the top up!” she called.