Sweet Callahan Homecoming
by Tina
Leonard
BLURB:
Will Ashlyn Callahan finally find her magic? The last Callahan rides in the exciting
conclusion to the bestselling series, The Callahan Cowobys!
Four Babies—and Her Whole Family—to Protect
Ashlyn Callahan has always known that her fate can only bring
danger to those she loves. That's why she flees Rancho Diablo—and the ornery
cowboy she loves—to hide out in Texas Hill Country. But all hell breaks loose
when Xavier Phillips finds her…and her four newborn babies.
Xav finally tracks down his warrior woman—only to discover she's
the mother of two perfect little boys and two perfect little girls. And he's
the father! Now Ash has to marry him. With the future of Ash's entire clan at
stake, Xav is ready to lay his life on the line to safeguard the family legacy.
Not to mention create a homecoming—and a wedding!—worthy of his Chacon Callahan
bride!
Excerpt:
Two squad cars pulled in front of
the house, and the next thing he knew, a couple of Wild’s finest were yelling
at him to put the little lady down.
“I forgot to call and tell the
sheriff it was a false alarm,” Ash said, apologetic, as he set her gently on
the ground. She was breathless and a bit tousled from being upside down. “You’d
better go.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you
agree to go with me.” He could be just as stubborn as she. “Go tell the sheriff
and his friends that their services aren’t needed.”
“It would be better if you go.”
She gazed up at him, and he caught a
funny bit of desperation from her. “Nope,” he said, still wearing stubborn like
a badge.
“Ash, is there a problem?” the
sheriff asked, and Ash looked at Xav.
“Is there a problem?” she asked Xav,
and he realized she was holding him hostage to her demand that he leave.
Well, he’d never been one to go down
without a fight.
“Hell, yeah, there’s a problem,
Sheriff. This woman won’t accept my marriage proposal. I drove all the way from
Rancho Diablo in New Mexico to propose to her. Xav Phillips,” he said, shaking
the sheriff’s hand.
The sheriff and his deputies
snickered a little at his conundrum. Then the sheriff perked up. “Xav Phillips,
Gil Phillips’s son, from Hell’s Colony?”
“Yes, sir,” Xav said politely.
“I knew your daddy before you were
even a twinkle in his eye,” the sheriff said, drawing a groan from Ash. The
sheriff turned to her.
“Ashlyn Callahan, you hit the panic
button because some man has proposed to you? Again?” The sheriff shook his
head. “He drives a nice truck, comes from a great family, practically Texas
royalty. If Santa brings you a father for those four children of yours, you
might treat him a little nicer than calling the law on him.” He tipped his hat
to Ash, shook Xav’s hand again, and he and his deputies got back in their squad
cars. “Good luck,” the sheriff said to Xav through his open window. “Probably
five men in the county have offered to marry this lady, and she’s turned them
all down flat.”
He nodded. “Forewarned, Sheriff.
Thanks.”
“Are all of you through enjoying a
manly guffaw at my expense?” Ash demanded. “Because if you are, I need to get
back in the house. I have children who need me.”
“Good night, Sheriff.” He followed
Ash back inside, his mind niggling with discomfort and alarm. Five men had
proposed to her? Ash picked up a baby that was sending up a gentle wail and sat
down on the old-fashioned sofa situated across from the Christmas tree.
He sat next to her. “Hey, Ash,” he
said, “the sheriff said something about you needing a father for your children,
that Santa had sent you one for Christmas. It was a figure of speech, right?”
He looked at her, surprised but not displeased in the slightest that she was
undoing the pearl buttons on her white sweater. She tossed a baby blanket over
her shoulder, obscuring the baby’s face—and suddenly, it hit Xav like a
thunderclap that Ash was nursing that baby.
Which would not be the slightest bit
possible unless these were her children. He stared at Ash, and she looked back
at him calmly, her denim-blue eyes unworried and clear.
“You’re a mother,” he said, feeling
light-headed, and not from the crack Mallory had landed on his skull. “These
are your babies?”
She nodded, and he got dizzy. The
woman he loved was a mother, and somehow she’d had four children. This perfect
four of a kind was hers.
It wasn’t possible. But he could
hear gentle sucking sounds occasionally, and he knew it was as possible as the
sun coming up the next day. He felt weak all over, weak-kneed in a way he’d
never been, his heart splintering like shattered glass.
“Damn, Ash, your family…you haven’t
told them.”
“No, I haven’t.”
A horrible realization sank into
him, painful and searing. “Who’s the father?”
She frowned. “A dumb ornery cowboy.”
“That doesn’t sound like you. You
wouldn’t fall for a dumb ornery cowboy.”
“Yes, I would,” Ash said. “I would,
and I did.”
AUTHOR Bio
and Links:
USA Today bestselling and award-winning
author Tina Leonard writes with humor, sexiness, and fun. With nearly three
million books sold, she plans to keep writing the stories readers enjoy. Her
schedule keeps her very busy creating independent heroines and the irresistible
heroes who love them.
