She spoke softly. “I’m leaving tomorrow, even if I have to use the police to get me out. Good-bye, Cal.” She turned away and walked inside.

He squeezed his eyes shut as despair washed through him. He was weak-kneed and aching, just as if he’d taken a career-ending hit. Except he wasn’t going to give up. Not ever.

As much as the idea of public declarations upset his sense of privacy, he couldn’t think of anything else to do but take his case to the people. Clenching his jaw, he followed her inside.

Chapter Twenty-Two

A nnie had her eyes glued to VH-1, where a Whitney Houston video mutely flickered. His parents sat on the couch holding hands and gazing at each other as if they were posing for a DeBeers anniversary ad. Ethan and Kevin had pulled kitchen chairs up to the gateleg table in the corner and were playing cards. All of them looked up at Cal as he walked in. Jane had already disappeared.

He felt foolish, but he knew that reaction came from pride, an emotion he couldn’t afford right now when he needed the entire team behind him. He struggled to compose himself. “Jane doesn’t think I’m serious about loving her.”

Ethan and Kevin regarded him over the top of their cards. His mother’s forehead creased. “Do you know that she likes to dance? Not those country and western line dances, but rock and roll.”

He didn’t exactly see how that was going to help him right now, but he filed it away.

“I’m sick of all this commotion!” Annie slapped the remote on the arm of her chair.“Jim Bonner, you go get Janie right this minute and make her come out. It’s time things got settled around here, so I can have some peace and quiet.”

“Yes, ma’am.” With a flicker of a smile at his wife, Jim rose from the couch and headed toward the spare bedroom.

Jane looked up from the suitcase she’d been packing and saw Jim standing in the doorway. “What’s wrong?”

“You have to come out in the living room now and face Cal.”

“I already faced him, and I don’t want to do it again.”

“You have to. Annie says.”

“No.”

One eyebrow shot up. “What did you say?”

“I said no?” Unfortunately, it came out as a question instead of a statement, but there was definitely something intimidating about this man and his raised eyebrow.

“Right now I’m the closest thing you’ve got to a father, and I’m telling you to get yourself out there!”

Bemused, she watched as he jabbed his hand in the general direction of the living room. She couldn’t help comparing the authoritarian look in his eyes with the way her own father had always regarded her, as if he were vaguely repulsed.

“No arguments. March!”

She thought about asking him if he intended to ground her if she disobeyed, but decided that wasn’t a good idea. “Jim, this isn’t going to work.”

He walked over and pulled her into his arms for a reassuring squeeze. “He needs to have his say. He deserves that.”

She rested her cheek against his shirt front. “He already had his say on the front porch a few minutes ago.”

“Apparently he didn’t finish.” He gently pushed her away and gave her a nudge toward the door. “Go on now. I’m right behind you.”

Cal looked even more dangerous in the living room than he’d looked on the porch, where the light had been dimmer. She noted his narrowed gunslinger’s eyes and cattle rustler’s expression. She wanted to believe that the three other men present would come to her rescue if he proved to be completely unreasonable, but she suspected that they were on his side.

Cal ignored her as she made her way to stand near the television, the farthest point in the room from the place he occupied near the kitchen door. As if she were invisible, he addressed the room’s other occupants.

“Here are the facts… I love Jane, and she loves me. I want to stay married, and she wants to stay married. All of you are standing in the way.” He fell silent.

Seconds ticked by. One after the other.

“That’s it?” Ethan finally asked.

Cal nodded.

Kevin tilted his head toward her. “Hey, Jane, he says we’re in the way. If we weren’t here, would you go off with him?”

“No.”

“Sorry, Bomber. You’ll have to think of something else.”

Cal glared at Kevin. “Will you get the hell out of here? This doesn’t have anything to do with you. I mean it, Tucker. I want you out of here. Now!”

Jane saw that Kevin was only prepared to defy Cal so far, and he’d reached his limit. But as he began to rise, Annie’s words forced him back in his seat.“He’s part of this, and he stays!”

Cal turned on her. “He’s not family!”

“He’s the future, Calvin, the same future that you don’t want to look at.”

Her words seemed to infuriate him. He reached into his pocket, drew out a set of keys, and fired them at Kevin, who came slowly to his feet as he caught them.

“Sorry, Mrs. Glide, but I just remembered a previous engagement.”

Jane rushed toward him, finally seeing a way out of this mess. “I’ll go with you.”

Everyone in the room seemed to stiffen.

“That,”Kevin said, “… is a really bad idea.”

“Sit down, Jane.” Jim spoke in his firm paternal voice. “It’s too late for you to get a plane out tonight, anyway, so you might as well hear Cal out. Kevin, thanks for your concern.”

Kevin nodded, shot Jane a sympathetic smile, gave Cal a worried look, and left.

She sank down into a chair near Annie’s. Cal stuck his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat, still addressing his family instead of her. “She thinks I only want her because she’s playing hard to get, and that once the challenge is gone, I won’t be interested. I told her that’s not true, but she doesn’t believe it.”

“You do like a challenge,” Lynn pointed out.

“Trust me… living with somebody who’s trying to discover the Theory of Everything is more than enough challenge. Do you have any idea what it’s like to see mathematical formulas scrawled on the front page of your newspaper first thing in the morning, or on the bottom of a grocery list when all you want to do is remember to buy beer? Or how about all over the lid of your cereal box before you even have your eyes open?”