Again, heavy silence descended, as they seemed to grapple with what he’d said. Grudging admiration and maybe even respect entered their eyes.
Her brothers eased back into their seats. Lily smiled over at Max. He smiled back and mouthed a silent thank you.
Callie’s dads also settled on the couches, and Holly walked over to sit between Adam and Ethan.
“What can we do to help?” Adam asked.
“I need you to help me build her dream. She’s spoken to me some about it so I have an idea of what she wants. But I need anything you have. Any tidbit of what she’s talked about. What she likes. How she’d want it built.”
“I drew her a picture,” Lily spoke up. “I drew the outside to her specifications. I still have a copy. I can give you that.”
“That would be fantastic, Lily. Thank you.”
“You’re serious about this?” Seth asked. There was a glimmer of doubt, a look of incredulity etched on his brow. “You’re going to give up the meadow without a fight?”
“The meadow is Callie’s,” Max said in an even voice. “I’ll never fight her for it. What I won’t give up without a fight is…Callie.”
“I’m handy with tools,” Dillon said, speaking for the first time. “I built my own place. I’ll do what I can.”
“I appreciate it. I’m going to have a team of contractors up here. No expense will be spared. I can use any input or information you all have.”
“You really do love her,” Holly said in a soft voice.
Max looked from one family member to the next until finally his gaze rested on Callie’s mother. “She’s my life.”
“Well, let’s get cracking,” Ryan said. “We’ve got a house to build.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Callie put her truck into gear and began the drive up the mountain. Autumn had come to the mountains and everywhere around her, aspens burst with gold so vibrant that it hurt her eyes to look at the shimmering leaves.Already there was a chill to the air that bespoke winter’s impending arrival. She turned up the heat and prayed it still worked.
The long months away had taken their toll. In some ways, it seemed she’d been gone a lifetime, but in other ways, it was just yesterday.
She missed her family and she longed to be in the middle of them again.
And Max.
How she’d wanted the passage of time to dim the hurt, but her heart was as torn as it had been the day she left.
She forced her gaze forward as she approached her meadow. No, it wasn’t hers any longer. It was Max’s. She hoped it gave him peace. It had given her none.
Her lips trembled as she passed the turnoff that would wind its way to the valley below. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something that made her brake in the middle of the road.
She whipped her head around, her mouth falling open. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.
Pain shredded her throat and stabbed deep into her soul. He’d built a house in the meadow. He hadn’t wasted any time taking it over and making it his.
Tears burned her eyelids and she closed her eyes, determined to look away.
It was like a train wreck. She was compelled to open her eyes and stare down at the cabin nestled on the banks of the creek.
God, it was her house. Her dream house.
Was there no end to the ways he could make her bleed?
She jammed the gearshift into reverse and accelerated until she got back to the turnoff for the meadow. She roared down the road until she reached the place where she and Max had stopped that night so many months ago. A lifetime ago.
She got out and slowly walked a few feet in front of her truck.
The old wooden fence was gone. Maybe he planned to put up a new one. A separation of Wilder land from Colter land.
She was a fool. How could she ever come back here when she’d be faced with Max at every turn? How could her parents’ house, always a haven—home—be a refuge when she would be forced to face so much pain and betrayal simply by looking out her window?
No, she couldn’t come back here.
“Callie.”
She froze as Max’s soft voice slid over her ears like a warm, comforting blanket. She closed her eyes and squeezed her fingers into tight balls. Not this. Anything but this. Hadn’t she bled enough?
She hadn’t heard his approach. But then she’d been too ensconced in the agony of seeing her dream belong to someone else.
“Callie, please. Look at me.”
The soft entreaty was nearly her undoing. Despite the fact that the last thing she wanted was to confront Max again, she found herself slowly turning, responding to the command layered into his quiet request.
He looked different. Haggard. He’d lost weight. There were lines of fatigue etched into his brow and dark shadows rimmed his eyes. He looked…terrible.
“Thank God you’re home.”
“How did you know?” she demanded. “How could you possibly have found me this fast? I only just got into town.”
His lip curled, and a blaze of anger flashed in his eyes.
“Because I’ve waited every goddamn day for the last three months for you to come back. I’ve had the entire goddamn town on alert. Everyone has been watching for you—waiting. I got a phone call as soon as your truck was spotted in Clyde. I came as soon as I got the call. I was only a quarter mile behind you.”
“Why?” she asked helplessly.
“Because you’re mine, Callie, and I’m not letting you go.”
She whirled around so that her back was to him and she stared out over the meadow again. “It’s beautiful,” she managed to grind out.
“I want you to see it,” he said, closer this time as he walked up behind her.
She shook her head. Even Max couldn’t be this cruel.
“Yes, Callie. You’re going to come with me and you’re going to see the house.”
He took her hand and pulled her toward the path leading down the hillside. His fingers were like iron digits around hers. No escape. No choice but to follow him.
She walked stiffly, each step making her want to cry out for him to stop.
“Why are you doing this?”
Max paused only for a moment as he turned back to stare at her. “This is yours, Callie. It’s all for you. Every last piece of wood. Every nail. Every coat of paint. Every flower planted in the boxes out front. It’s all yours. Your dream. Just the way you wanted it.”
Her mouth fell open and she stumbled after him as he continued dragging her closer to the house.
As they neared, she took in the large log cabin. Tears swam in her eyes, making the house go blurry. God, it was exactly what she’d designed in her head. How could he know? She’d told him a little about her house. Odds and ends. But how could he possibly have built something that was straight out of her heart?
They stood in front of the stone steps leading to the front door. He gestured toward the exterior. “This was taken straight from the picture that Lily drew for you. Every inch down to the planters and the species of flowers. Even the cedar porch swing and the welcome sign. Read it, Callie. Tell me what it says.”
Her gaze drifted to the words on the worn piece of wood—just as she’d imagined it—standing on an old post just beside the steps to the front porch.
“Welcome to Callie’s Meadow,” she whispered.
“That’s right, Callie. Your meadow.”
She glanced up at Max, so flabbergasted, so utterly undone, she couldn’t even form the words. “I don’t understand.”
“Come inside,” he said.
He pulled at her hand and they trudged up the steps. He unlocked the door and swung it open into a large living room with a giant stone fireplace that took up the back wall.
Everywhere she looked, she saw her dreams come to life. All the daydreams. Every detail was carefully rendered. It was her dream house.
“It’s yours, Callie. The whole thing. The land. The house. It all belongs to you.”
She swallowed the growing knot in her throat only to choke and cough as emotion swelled and took a stranglehold. How could she be happy with her dream when it wasn’t complete? How could she be happy here without the man she’d imagined at her side, in her bed, holding her in front of that gigantic fireplace on cold nights?
Tears slipped down her cheeks. Tears she hadn’t shed in months. Tears she didn’t think she had to shed anymore.
“Why, Max? Why did you do this?”
He turned to face her, his eyes so tormented that she caught her breath.
“Because I love you, Callie. I love you so damn much I can’t even breathe. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. All I can do is work on this house and hope like hell that you’ll come home and see how much I love you and give me another chance.”
He took her hands and held them so tight her fingers went numb. But she didn’t pull them away. She stared, so afraid to hope, so afraid to believe that her head hurt.
“I never got to tell you everything, Callie. I never got to explain. I told the truth—a truth that forever damned me in your eyes. But I didn’t get to tell you the rest.”
“What’s the rest?” she whispered.
“It’s true that I tracked you down in Europe. Hell, I don’t even know what my plan was. I was frustrated because I was getting nowhere with your fathers, and so I was going to go straight to the source. Meet you, let you put a face to the name, tell you my story and hope to hell you’d agree to sell. It was absolutely my intention to do whatever it took to get you to agree.”
She closed her eyes and tried to look away, but Max’s hands tightened around hers and he pulled so she’d look back at him.
“But then I met you, Callie. I met you and fell so hard for you that I never knew what hit me. I only knew I wanted to make you mine. I forgot all about the meadow. About my promise to my stepfather that I’d keep it in our family and hand it down to my children so they could hand it down to theirs. I forgot all about my honor or what I felt like my obligation was to my family.”
He paused and then took a deep breath before continuing.
“Then I got that call from my sister that my mom was dying. I was so conflicted. How could I have allowed myself to become so distracted, so utterly involved with you that I’d ignored everything else in my life? I pulled back. I pulled way back. I didn’t call you. I didn’t return. My mom died and her last words were an apology to me and my sister for selling our legacy. She begged me to get it back, and I felt so guilty because I made her a promise I never had any intention of keeping.
“And then I knew I had to find you again. For me there was no other option. I was going to do whatever I had to in order to get you back, and I’ll be honest, I never wanted you to know the real reason we’d met. I would have never told you because I never wanted to hurt you so badly.”
He lifted her hands and looked deep into her eyes, his own blazing with sincerity.
“I never intended to coerce you or even ask you to sell the land. I had to make a choice between having you or keeping a promise I’d made to my family. I chose you, Callie. I chose you.”
She stared back at him, her mind in such turmoil that she didn’t even know what to say. How to respond. How could she tell him that she wanted to believe him? Oh God, she wanted to believe him with everything she had. But how could she? How could she risk everything…again?
Max watched the obvious conflict cross her face. How could he be blind to it? He sucked in his breath and then he lowered her hands, gently letting them go.
Then he backed away, just a few steps, enough that there was space between them. And then he slowly sank to his knees on the polished wood floor.
She stared in shock—in absolute horror—as he went to his knees in front of her, his hands turned up, resting on the tops of his thighs. He bowed his head in front of her and simply waited.
Then he spoke. His voice trembled. There was such emotion clogging his throat that she could barely hear him.
“I’m begging you, Callie. Give me another chance. I’ll never ask for more than you’re willing to give. I’ll take whatever you’re capable of giving me.”
“Oh Max. No. Oh no, no, no,” she whispered.
She fell to her knees in front of him, pushing at him with her hands, trying to force him back to his feet. Max was never a man to kneel, to submit, to beg. Not this man. Not her Max.
Tears streamed down her cheeks and sobs tore from her throat, the sound so anguished that it made her wince.
“Don’t do this, Max. Stand up. Please. Not on your knees. I don’t want this. Don’t do this to yourself. To us.”
He lifted his haunted gaze to meet hers. Then he reached for her shoulders and pulled her to him.
“Don’t you understand, Callie? I belong to you. Only you. You gave yourself to me before, but now I’m giving you myself. I just want you to say you can love me again. Maybe not today. Or even tomorrow. But one day. Until then, I’ll love you enough for both of us.”