Free Callie's Cowboy by Karen Leabo

dating.” Until now. Callie could almost hear the unspoken words reverberating in the car.
    â€œWe separated a year ago, but she was gone long before that—in her mind, anyway. I never loved her, not the way I loved you.”
    â€œSam, I don’t want to hear this. It’s none of my business.”
    â€œI’m making it your business, in case you think I’m reeling from a broken heart. I latched onto Debra because she reminded me of you. She was funny and interesting and smart, and so involved in life. But she was fundamentally different in one way.”
    Curiosity got the best of Callie. “And that was …?”
    â€œShe let me talk her into leaving her hometown andmoving to Babcock, Nevada, with me. She was every bit as miserable there as you would have been, I expect.”
    â€œI never said I’d be miserable on the ranch, Sam,” she argued. “If I had made the decision to live there, I’d have found a way to keep busy and develop interests. But I chose to stay here and follow my own dream. Can you imagine what it would feel like if someone took your ranch away from you? Told you you couldn’t ride a horse again?”
    He didn’t answer, but she could tell from the expression on his face that he didn’t like the prospect.
    â€œWithout your ranching and your riding, you wouldn’t be Sam Sanger anymore. And without my writing and reporting and editing, I wouldn’t be Callie Calloway anymore. I’d be … someone else. And back then, when I refused to marry you and move to Roundrock, I was desperately afraid of losing that identity.”
    Amazing, she thought. Eight years ago she’d been so close to the situation, she hadn’t been able to understand or explain her dread of leaving Destiny and abandoning her career plans. Now, with a little distance and maturity, she could see things much more clearly.
    â€œYou never explained it like that before,” Sam said.
    â€œI wasn’t able to before.”
    â€œAnd do you still feel the same way? Like if you quit being editor of the
Daily Record
you would lose yourself?”
    She sighed. “Not exactly. I used to think being an editor would be all I needed, whether here or in some bigger city. But I’ve been doing that for a while, and …” She couldn’t quite put it into words. She was feeling dissatisfied. She’d watched her friends, one byone, get married and start families, and she’d realized that she wanted more than to be an editor in Destiny, Texas. It didn’t completely fulfill her.
    â€œMaybe you need a change.”
    She’d already come to that conclusion. “I’ve been sending out résumés to the
Dallas Morning News
, the
Houston Chronicle
, even
The Washington Post.
Might as well go for the brass ring.”
    â€œYeah, I reckon you’re good enough to work for any paper in the country.”
    She couldn’t detect any strains of sarcasm in his voice, so she thanked him for the compliment. That was the first time she could remember him saying anything nice about her work. “You’ve been reading the paper, then?”
    â€œI’ve been reading the paper for years. Mom always sends me the Sunday edition. With your byline highlighted.”
    â€œOh.” That tied a knot in Callie’s tongue.
    Sam gave an evil laugh. “Used to drive Debra nuts.”
    Callie gasped. “Your mother did that even when you were married? Debra had a right to be angry, having her husband’s old girlfriend shoved in her face like that.”
    â€œOh, I don’t think it was the fact you were an old girlfriend that bothered her. It was the fact that you were doing what she wished she could do. That you’d been the smart one by turning me down, and she’d been stupid to give everything up and move to the edge of nowhere.”
    â€œShe was stupid for leaving you,” Callie blurted out