Tina Leonard - A Callahan Wedding

“Thanks, Chelsea,” Sabrina said, feeling immensely relieved. “I really appreciate you telling me all this.”

“Jonas can’t be annoyed with me for telling you the truth, can he?” She winked at her. “Anyway, he’s a nice guy and all, but I’m looking for adventure.”

“You’ll find it here.” Sabrina handed the picture book back to Chelsea, and little Joe let out an indignant squawk. “Oh, Joe, honey…all right,” she said, giving in. “I think he’d like a book to read, Chelsea.” She found her library card and checked the book out, then gave it back to him.

Chelsea looked over the counter at Joe. “Maybe he’s going to be book-smart like his dad.”

Sabrina laughed. “Maybe he’ll get some other kind of smarts from his mother, too.”

“Goodbye, Sabrina. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”

She nodded. “I hope so. Goodbye, Chelsea.”

Sabrina went out, feeling much better now that she had some answers—and still not certain what to do about Jonas’s invitation.

* * *

“SO THIS IS IT,” JONAS SAID proudly the next day, when he’d finally dragged a reluctant Sabrina and little Joe away from Rancho Diablo for what he called “new family togetherness.”

Sabrina wasn’t certain what she thought about “family togetherness” time with Jonas. After her chat with Chelsea, though, she’d decided to give it a shot. Something was bugging her, though she couldn’t put her finger on it. The old “tickle” was back, warning her that something wasn’t quite as it should be.

Jonas was handsome as ever, gorgeous, in fact, yet she couldn’t allow herself to focus only on her emotions. But it was hard to forget what they’d shared, and how wonderful Jonas made her feel when she was in his arms. “What is it?” she asked, caution dampening her enthusiasm.

“This is Dark Diablo,” Jonas said, parking his truck in front of a small, spare farmhouse set among hardy junipers and spiny cacti, and framed by dusky canyons and arroyos. “This is my new home.”

Sabina blinked. “Home?”

“Yep.” He came around to help her out of the truck, then took Joe from her arms when she’d released him from his car seat. “This is Daddy’s new house, son. You get a swing set here, and a pony.”

“Wait,” Sabrina said, following them. “This isn’t home. You live in Diablo, at Rancho Diablo.”

“I’ve always wanted my own place. This is that place.” Jonas glanced around, pride evident on his face. “It took me almost four years to finally pull the trigger and buy this from the owner, but I did it.”

Sabrina looked around at the vast emptiness, her heart sinking. Of course, they were only a few miles from Rancho Diablo, but this wasn’t home. Home was with the people she’d come to know and love. She didn’t want Joe growing up alone.

She shivered. “There’s nothing out here.”

“I know. But I see cattle breeding and horses, and maybe something else. I’m not sure what.” Jonas smiled at her. “I can tell you’re not crazy about it.”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel,” Sabrina said quickly. “It’s your place. But it just seems so lonely.”

“The previous owner was old. He’d sold off most of his equipment and buildings, intending to sell the ranch to a corporation, I think. But when I heard that we might lose Rancho Diablo, I began to think seriously about this place. I knew we could move our operations here, if we had to.”

Sabrina nodded. “That makes sense.”

“So now it’s mine. Come on inside.”

The small farmhouse, with its weather-beaten paint and dust-laden windows, was so different from the seven-chimneyed, English-style manor house at Rancho Diablo. Sabrina walked into a wallpapered kitchen that was large and bright, if not updated. “Where does the water come from?”

“Here we’re cistern. For the cattle, luckily, there’s a couple of good creeks and streams you can’t see from the house, but which I think I can run pipe to.”

She kept walking around the house. “It feels like Auntie Em’s home in The Wizard of Oz.”

“I plan to build my own place one day. This isn’t big enough for a family. And I like what I had growing up.”

“Where are the closest neighbors?”

He looked at her. “I think there’s some a few miles away. This is ten thousand acres, so it’s pretty private.”

“I’ll say.” She went up the staircase, finding three small bedrooms laid out at the top, with one bathroom in between. “All the bedrooms are upstairs.”

“Yes.” Jonas came to stand beside her, carrying little Joe. “Sabrina, everything can be changed.”

She swallowed. “I’ve lived in a lot of places, Jonas, so I think I’m pretty good at adapting. But I suspect you’re going to be very lonely out here. I know I would be.”

He blinked. “Lonely? I was thinking how great the peace and quiet would be. I had five brothers growing up. Solitude sounds like heaven.”

She shook her head. “I only had Seton.”

Sabrina went back downstairs, and Jonas followed her.

“I don’t want to be a wet blanket,” she said, “so congratulations. I’m glad you got what you wanted.”

His proud smile dimmed. “Thanks.”

She nodded uncomfortably. “I guess we’d better head back. Thanks for showing me your new place.”

Jonas looked at her for a long time before slowly nodding in turn. He led her to the truck, handed Joe back to her to put in his car seat, then drove away in silence.

Sabrina looked back at the small farmhouse set in the vast acreage, and wondered why Jonas wanted to be alone so badly.

“Jonas,” she said slowly, “why do you want to run away from your family?”

“I don’t.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure? Because you couldn’t have picked a more isolated place to live.” She looked at him curiously.

He shrugged. “Maybe it’s not for everyone. It’s great for me, though. Nobody around for miles, until you get to the town of Tempest. I don’t go there often. It’s too much like Diablo. Full of well-meaning folk.”

Intuition hit her. “Jonas, you sold your practice. You got a fake fiancée. You’ve bought a property where there’s no one around to bother you.” She gave him a steady stare. “You’re hiding.”

“Hiding?”

She nodded. “It’s your typical pattern. You know what you need to do, but you stick your head in the sand instead.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jonas said. “It’s a piece of land, Sabrina, not a crystal ball.”

She wrinkled her nose at his retort and decided to ignore it. “Perhaps I’m trying to say that I suspect you still have a lot to figure out in your life, Jonas.”

“I’m doing fine. And when you’re not busy trying to make my life a piece of your investigative reporting, you’ll probably notice that I’m doing very well, thanks.”

“You are.” Sabrina knew she was hitting very close to whatever was really motivating Jonas, or he wouldn’t react so sorely. “But you’d do better if you’d finish what your brothers have started.”

Jonas took a long time to answer. “Maybe,” he said softly, “but I’m not going to.”

Not surprised by his answer, Sabrina turned to look out the window as the dry, almost barren-looking land rushed past. “There’s something bugging you at Rancho Diablo, or you wouldn’t be trying to hole up out here.”

“Nope.”

“You thought I was pregnant by another man,” Sabrina said with some heat, “though I can’t imagine what that says about how you really see me—”

“I see that you’re a little different from other women, Sabrina, which I happen to like. It scares me, but I do like it.”

“When you’re not scared.”