LITMIR.BIZ

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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.”

       “Nervous is a better word. Some people are afraid to try new foods. I’m not. You’re a different kind of female than what we have on the ranch right now. But I need spice in my life, and you’re the cayenne pepper in my chili.” He ran a palm over Joe’s small head, where he was strapped in his carrier between them. “And this is my tiny jalapeño on top,” he said. “Good for me I’ve got the stomach for all this new fire.”

       Sabrina wasn’t about to let Jonas pacify her with what he likely thought were compliments. “You went and found someone—”

       “More calm, more sedate,” Jonas supplied helpfully.

       Sabrina was outraged. “Chelsea jumped on a plane with you to fake an engagement. How sedate is that?”

       He laughed. “Okay.”

       “Anyway, don’t get me off the subject. What I’m trying to point out is that you run off when you want to avoid things. Just like you ran off to Ireland.” She glared at him. “How would you have felt if, upon seeing Chelsea, I’d jetted back to D.C.?”

       “I’m glad you stayed. I’m hoping to talk you into living at Dark Diablo with me.”

       “If you don’t put all your skeletons to rest, they’ll pop back up. Contrary to me being the wild and unsettled one, you wear that badge, Doctor.”

       “Not me,” Jonas said. “Surgeons do not have a wild bone in their body.”

       “Right,” Sabrina said. “Anyway, that’s what I think.”

       He sighed. “I won’t deny all of what you say.”

       “Good.” She popped the top off a bottle and began feeding the baby. “It’s very important for little Joe to know that his father is a man of deep character, not given to wayfaring.”

       “Wayfaring.” Jonas laughed. “Ha-ha-ha. I don’t think I’ve wayfared in my life.”

       “Except to Ireland, and you brought back a pretty fancy souvenir.”

       “Okay,” Jonas said again. “So what do you suggest?”

       “That you do what you’re meant to do.”

       He scratched under his hat, then shook his head. “What if I told you that the questions don’t bother me as much as the answers might?”

       “I would probably say the monster in the closet isn’t usually what you think it is once you open the door.”

       “Ah-ha!” Jonas wagged a finger. “But sometimes it is.”

       “The good part is you’ll be rattling those skeletons for little Joe’s sake, and all your nieces and nephews, as well as your brothers. You want to be a hero for Joe, don’t you?”

       Jonas sighed. “I’d like to say not especially, but I don’t think you’d believe me.”

       Sabrina smiled. “I probably wouldn’t.”

       He glanced at her. “Would you be willing to be my shotgun rider if I start opening those doors?”

       Sabrina looked into his navy eyes. “I’ll ride shotgun.”

       “And then you’ll marry me.”

       She blinked. “Was that a proposal or a typical Callahan pronouncement? I always thought if you ever asked, it would be a lot more romantic.”

       “Have I not asked you before? Because I have about a thousand times in my mind.”

       “You see, Joe,” Sabrina said to the baby, who was contentedly sucking on his bottle and watching her face, “your father just delivered a half-baked proposal because he was afraid I might say no. Your dad protects himself.”

       “Not true,” Jonas said. “I assume that a woman wants to marry the father of her child.”

       “I might marry you,” Sabrina said, “but with a proposal like that, you can be certain you won’t make it back into my bed.”

       “Oh,” he said. “I better up my game.”

       “All of it, Doctor,” Sabrina stated. “I hope you can.”

       “We’ll see,” Jonas said.

      * * *

      “SO, BASICALLY,” JONAS told Sam that night, “Sabrina hated Dark Diablo and didn’t accept my proposal. My big moment and I came up zeroes.”

       “Not surprising,” his brother mused. “You did kind of half bake the thing. Sabrina’s right about that.”

       “Yeah.” Jonas sat in the library drinking a whiskey with Sam, wondering how he’d ended up like this.

       “The problem,” Sam said, “is that you always underestimated Sabrina. She’s way too good for you, for one thing.”

       “This is true,” Jonas admitted. “She says I have to amp up my game, and I’m

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