Today's featured backlist book is one of my favorite westerns. Why? I love Callie's spunk and directness, but her vulnerability shines through, too. How she overcomes that vulnerability, is a critical part of the story.
If you like cowboys, second chance romance stories, paired with lots of family angst and drama, all leading to a very satisfying happy ending, then give Callie a read!
CALLIE
Leaving her job behind and heading home to Montana for a family emergency is worrisome enough, but when Callie Rankin’s New York future collides head-on with her Montana past, she is faced with making a life-, and perhaps, love-altering decision.
The security light illuminated the area between the porch and barn. Parker kept the place up nice, just like he did the rest of the ranch—the part he managed, anyway. She wasn’t sure how much he did anymore with the part of the ranch her father and Abby ran—the dude ranch side of Rankin’s Rock Creek Ranch. Parker was all cowboy, through and through, and dude was nowhere in his vocabulary. She knew Parker and her father kept both businesses separate.
Inhaling deep, she steadied herself. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed a face devoid of makeup except for dark-smudged eyes. Dead tired, she pulled at the clasp in her hair and let the length fall to her shoulders with a tumble.
She shook out the mess. Better.
Exiting the SUV, she dropped the keys into her jacket pocket and removed her small carry-on from the rear seat. She’d not brought much with her because she didn’t expect to stay long. She might have to backtrack on that idea. Her father didn’t look like he was getting well any time soon.
Good gracious, she hoped they were ready for bed. She didn’t feel like talking. Not right now. But as she approached the porch off the kitchen, picking her way across the gravel drive in her red crocodile slings—which incidentally were not the best shoes for travel—she knew what she wanted would not matter much. It was her family, after all, and her father was gravely ill.
There would be talking.
Bracing herself, she tugged on the back door, stepped inside the room, and with her hair falling over her shoulder, set her bag against the wall.
There they were. Her siblings. Her younger half-sister, Finn, sat on the far side of her mama’s oak kitchen pedestal table. Stepbrother, Luke, sat to her right. Parker sat to the left.
Waiting. Lovely.
And here she was, the lost sheep. Home, again.
Let the shit show begin.
“Damned if Daddy didn’t get his wish after all,” Callie said, moving forward and shrugging out of her jacket. She placed it over the back of a kitchen chair. “We’re all under one roof again. Dysfunctional, or not.”
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Finn smirked.
“And hello to you, too, sweetheart,” Luke added.
“Not your sweetheart,” she fired back.
“Damned straight about that. Hello, Callie.”
“Calandra,” she countered.
Finn snorted and looked over her coffee mug, then took a sip. Parker shifted in his chair.
Luke went on, “Hell fire. That fancy name, and those New York clothes and sassy salon hair, and high-class attitude…” Luke turned to Finn. “I think she’s too good for us. What do you think?”
“Damned straight.”
He turned back. “What do you call that hair color of yours now, anyway, Callie?”
Hell, if he couldn’t still get her goat. “It’s brown, Luke. Just plain brown.”
He shrugged. “Looks different. Fancier than a plain ol’ barrel racing cowgirl deserves, if you ask me. You’re looking mighty high-class now. Not sure you’ll fit in around here.”
“Too bad you’re still looking like some dumbass bull rider. Got a real job yet?” She hated starting things off like this. Dammit. They all regressed into adolescence, and she’d fallen right into it. Hell, she probably started it.
“And don’t worry about me not fitting in because I promise you, I won’t be here long.”
She hadn’t meant to go there.
“Well, let’s pretend like that’s news.”
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