extent if she had a problem with two-legged vermin in the future. Or maybe he’d just deal with Kincaid himself and save her the anguish. Clay had intimate knowledge of things in Callie’s life that he shouldn’t know. He’d snooped long ago, and more recently as well. Lately, he wished he hadn’t gained so much personal information. He wondered how she planned to get past the stipulations in her father’s will to even sell the land that had been in her family for so long. If already married, she would have to get permission from her husband for a land sale. Although Clay had a couple of suggestions to get around those other terms, if she hadn’t thought of them herself. The other information had to do with even more complex issues regarding the sizable trust she could possibly inherit. But she’d gain that considerable chunk of dollars only if she agreed to follow more demanding rules. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to pursue that avenue. Callie Warren had lots on her plate. Clay wished he could find a way to help her more. If an opportunity presented itself, he’d take it.
Chapter Eight
Callie spent the next three weeks in a regular pattern. She spent too much time on the ranch because there was always a bunch of chores to do. She spent any spare moment she had with either Bo or Rafe or the two of them together. More often than not she spent her evenings there for dinner and then drove back to her ranch in the predawn mornings. They had offered to come to spend time at her ranch so she could get more sleep, but Callie didn’t want her few remaining cowhands to know she was keeping the company of two men. So she drove back and forth. She’d gained quite an appreciation for the benefits of their unruly and totally sexy lifestyle. They’d mentioned a building called the Stadium and given only the barest of hints for what that experience entailed. She wanted to see a show there sometime as even the mention of watching others have threesome sex had given her some lusty fantasy dreams. Perhaps they could have their farewell fuck there. Never seeing them again caused a hiccup and tears to swell in her eyes. She shook it off and forced different thoughts into her head. Landon had come out a while back and found some amazing loophole so that she didn’t have to pay any further quarterly taxes until the final bill came due next year. By then she’d have the money needed to pay the entire balance. He mentioned some hard-to-hear words like hardship case and resulting destitution . But she didn’t care. Her plans were in motion. Her cattle were all inseminated. The next news of benefit was the rate at which the purchased straws of semen had impregnated her best cows. She needed a good percentage. It was the next item on her long to-do list of what it would take to sell this ranch. She hoped she was doing the right thing. Every step in this long process was fraught with guilt over her ultimate goal. The sale of this property would hopefully be easy when the time came. Callie often wished she’d been bitten with the ranching bug. Or maybe even half-bitten, so she wouldn’t feel so resentful over her current life. Her father had let this land consume him. And so had his father and his father before him, if the stories were accurate. If she’d had a sibling, things might also have been much different. She might have been able to leave long ago. But instead, she was the only child of an unforgiving man who’d wanted a son, and saddled with a ranch she barely tolerated because it was the only livelihood she had. Her time with Rafe and Bo was the only joy in her life these days. And even that wouldn’t last forever. They never spoke about her eventual departure, but every so often, she caught it in an expression they couldn’t hide when they looked at her. They already missed her and she wasn’t even gone yet. Perhaps they regretted ever getting started. She couldn’t blame them. And she would miss