A Bride For Liam Brand

Callie nodded seriously. “That is true. I-I have saved us from starving.”

Liam sat at Kate King’s counter, watching the horse trainer interact with her daughter, while he gulped down grape soda, which he hadn’t had since he was a kid. This visit to the Triple K Ranch was an unexpected blast into his past.

Every time he emptied a can of soda, Callie would put another cold can of it in front of him. He didn’t even have to ask. It had been a long time since Liam felt like he was part of a family; he’d been separated for several years, and the divorce had finally been settled the year before. The judge had granted full, physical custody of their two children to his ex-wife and liberal visitation to him; now he was a long-distance father to two teenagers. His son and daughter lived in Seattle, Washington, with his ex-wife and her new husband. Although he had known that his ex-wife, Cynthia, had been dating during their separation, it had still been a shock when she remarried so quickly after the divorce had been finalized. He hated being a video-chat father and a “see you on your next school break” dad. But, that fight was over and he had lost—big time.

He’d always been the kind of man who wanted to be married, to have kids, to make a home with a woman. But it hadn’t worked out that way. Liam had his work—his salvation—and a big family with lots of siblings, yet he always went home to an empty house. He liked being in Kate King’s house, chitchatting and laughing about nothing in particular while Calico stirred the chili and put an extra place setting on the table.

Once Callie announced that she was ready to serve, Liam joined them at their little square table, wobbly on its legs, and hungrily dived into the large bowl of chili. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so shocked at how good the chili was—perhaps he underestimated Callie because of her disability—but Callie’s chili was incredible.

Two bowls later, Liam was completely stuffed and wishing he hadn’t been so greedy. He felt more like curling up on Kate’s old plaid couch than driving forty-five minutes back to his family’s ranch, Sugar Creek.

“That was the best chili I’ve ever had,” he told Kate’s daughter. “Hand’s down. The best.”

Callie smiled shyly with pleasure, sometimes finding it difficult to look him in the eye.

As she picked up his bowl to take it to the sink, Callie said, “I-I’m making steak and garlic mashed potatoes tomorrow night.”

Liam smiled at her. “I’m sure that’s going to be another masterpiece of a meal, Calico.”

She stood by his chair, his bowl in hand. “Do you want to come for dinner tomorrow?”

Liam saw Kate’s expression, fleeting as it was; she had no idea Callie would invite him for a second dinner, and she wasn’t on board with the idea. Kate sanitized her expression quickly as she said, “Callie, I’m sure Dr. Brand can’t come out all this way just for dinner.”

“Actually—” he didn’t plan it; the words just popped out of his mouth “—I think that steak and garlic mashed potatoes are definitely worth the drive. What time’s dinner?”

Chapter Two

“I still don’t know what possessed you to invite Dr. Brand for dinner tonight, Callie!” Kate said as she was attempting to stuff a family pack of paper towels onto the top shelf of her pantry.

“He likes my cooking.”

Kate had been irritated all day about their dinner guest. She was annoyed with her daughter for extending the invitation, and she was even more annoyed with Liam for accepting.

“Everyone loves your cooking.” She shoved the paper towels hard with both hands.

Callie put her hand over her mouth and giggled. “True.”

No matter how hard she shoved that stupid pack of paper towels, it refused to fit into the space. Kate stared at the offending paper towels before she sighed, grabbed ahold of the plastic encasing the paper towels and yanked on it until she pulled it free and dropped it onto the floor.

“We don’t have company during the week.” She picked up the paper towels and put them on top of the refrigerator.

“I—I know.” Her daughter was busy gathering the ingredients she would need to make dinner. Callie always needed help with measuring, but she could follow her list of ingredients and then double-check after she was done. “B-but,” her daughter said as if she were the parent, “you’re gonna need someone to eat dinner with when I—I’m living in New York.”

This had been a conversation that had been going on for years. In spite of her disability, Callie was a very goal-oriented young woman. She wanted to live in New York City on her own, go to culinary school and then open a restaurant. Kate had always supported Callie’s dreams, but there had to be limits.

“You know that New York isn’t an option, Callie. Our life is here at the Triple K.”

“That’s why I—I’m going without you.” Her daughter put her armful of ingredients on the counter. “You stay here, and I—I go to New York.”

This was said with another giggle.

Kate walked up behind her daughter, wrapped her arms around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, sweet girl.”

Always affectionate ever since she was a baby, Callie turned in her arms and hugged her tightly. “Don’t be afraid, Mommy. I—I’ll be okay.”

“If you want to move out, Callie, you know I support that. But you’ve got to take baby steps. Get a place in town.”

“I-I’ll live in New York first.”

This wasn’t the first, or last, discussion about New York. Down syndrome hadn’t quelled Callie’s ability to dream big for herself; she was goal-oriented and ambitious, dreaming of attending culinary school in New York City. For someone born with Down syndrome, Callie was on the higher end of the spectrum as far as her IQ was concerned, but there would never be a time when she could live independently in a small town like Bozeman, much less in the largest city in the country. Her daughter was so full of life, so full of dreams, but simple, daily tasks, like taking money out of an ATM machine, stumped Callie.

It was important to Kate that her daughter gain as much independence as possible; they had often spoken about Callie finding an apartment in town. Kate had even been in touch with a local, non-profit organization that supported individuals with disabilities to review options for transitional living in Bozeman. But every time they discussed moving, Callie inevitably circled back to her goal of moving to the Big Apple.

“You may move out and hate it,” Kate teased her daughter.

“No.” Callie said, emphatically. “I-I know what I want.”

She waited for Callie to slowly go over the ingredient list, check each item off as she doubled-checked to make certain she had everything she needed. Her daughter leaned her elbows on the counter, her face very close to the enlarged print on the recipe card, talking aloud to herself as she went along. It had taken years to develop this routine, this step toward independent life, and Kate was proud to watch Callie make continued progress. Her daughter had gotten the King stubbornness and determination quite honestly.

“I—I’m ready,” Callie told her.

Kate stayed with Callie, making sure all of her measurements were accurate, before she headed back to the barn. The barn, the ranch, was both her albatross and her solace. When she was angry or upset, there was nothing better for it than mucking out stalls. But the work was never ending and there was always something that needed to be fixed.

“Well, Visa.” She had ended hours of work back at the injured horse’s stall. Now that he was stall bound, she spent more time with him. He was a young horse and to be stuck in a twelve by twelve space for months was going to be tough for him.

Kate rubbed the space between Visa’s eyes, then twirled his long, black forelock around her finger.

“Guess who’s coming for dinner?” The horse trainer frowned at the thought.

Halfway through her work, she had thought to call Liam and give him a chance to get off the hook. But in the end, she thought better of it. Liam was a smart man; he’d figure out that she was trying to revoke her daughter’s invitation. No, if he wanted out, he’d let her know. She knew that she had a reputation in Bozeman for being private and a bit standoffish, but no one could legitimately pin rudeness on her and she’d like to keep it that way. All she could really do was hope that Liam’s schedule would prevent him from coming all the way out to the Triple K. The rest of the afternoon, while she paid bills in the office above the barn, Kate hoped that her phone would ring. But often times, hoping wasn’t enough to make something happen.

* * *

“Howdy!” Liam Brand had been looking forward to heading out to the Triple K all day.

In fact, the day didn’t seem to go by fast enough.

“Hi, Dr. Brand.” Kate was kneeling at the front of the barn, surrounded by a pride of ragtag barn cats who had seen better days.

Liam sensed that the horse trainer was still in the process of warming up to the idea of him having dinner at her ranch for the second night in a row; even when she wasn’t smiling, with the light of a smile reaching her eyes, Liam still thought she was mighty pretty.

“I’d appreciate you callin’ me Liam.” He stopped a few feet away from her. “We go back an awful long way.”

Instead of responding, Kate finished feeding her barn cats. “I have to have the oldest barn cats ever. I’ve got to feed them now—they’re too old to catch mice anymore.”

Liam laughed. Kate’s cats were bony from old age, with noticeable cataracts, scraggly fur and weak meows. One brown tabby cat with narrow shoulders, curled white whiskers and a barrel belly broke away from the group to greet him. Her scratchy meow touched his heart as he knelt to pet her.

“Sissy.” Kate glanced up from her chore. “She’s the flirt of the barn.”

The old feline rubbed her face and body against Liam’s knee, purring hard and loud, before falling onto her side at his feet. Sissy gave him a slow blink, a sign of love from a cat, while her paws curled under happily.

“Love has always been more important to her than food.”

Liam petted the retired mouser until the feline decided it was, indeed, time to fill her belly. Kate stood and he joined her. They watched the ex-mousers make short work of the food she had put down for them.

“I can’t seem to get her eyes cleared up,” Kate said after a minute or two. “They’re always so swollen. Allergies, I suppose.”

“I’ll give you one of the ointments I like to use with cats before I leave.”

“Thanks.” She seemed surprised when she said, “I’d really appreciate that.”

Liam wanted to check on his patient, swinging by Visa’s stall before he strode beside Kate back to the house. It occurred to him, as he walked next to the horse trainer, that he didn’t have to measure his stride. She had some long legs of her own, and it was nice to walk beside her.

“Look who I found!” Kate said to her daughter when they entered the small ranch house.

“Hi, Dr. Brand!” Callie immediately met them just inside the door and hugged him in that friendly way of hers.

“It smells mighty good in here again, Calico,” Liam told the young lady.

“She’s been cooking all day.” Kate shut the door.

“I’ve been thinking about your cookin’ all day,” he said.

“I hope you brought your appetite,” the pretty rancher said. “I think my daughter cooked for ten.”

“Trust me.” He took his place at the kitchen island. “I brought my appetite.”

For the second night in a row, Liam sat in the King home and felt right at home. He liked watching the mother and daughter, so close in their relationship, work together to get ready for dinner. Now that it was his second time sitting at their dinner table, Kate handed him a stack of plates with the silverware so he could help set the table. That gesture alone made him feel even more “a part of it.”

They sat down together, held hands for a prayer, and then Liam dug into the incredible fare Callie had prepared. He didn’t stop eating even when he began to feel stuffed. The only time he got this kind of cooking was any Sunday he made it out to the family ranch for breakfast. Home-cooked dinners were far and few between for him. So was the conversation they had during dinner. It had been a long time since he had someone to share his day with, talk about his passion of caring for animals. Kate got it. They weren’t exactly in the same business, but the animals on her ranch were more than just part of her business—they were part of her family.

“I’ll have Callie fix you some leftovers,” Kate said with a laugh. She must have noticed him still eyeing the food on the table after had already filled his plate twice.

“Are you sure?”

The horse trainer smiled at him again, and this time the smile reached her eyes. “I’m sure. It’ll give the chef an excuse to cook something new tomorrow. Isn’t that right, Callie?”

The young woman nodded, but her attention was distracted by the sound of a video call coming in on a tablet on the counter. Kate’s daughter jumped up, ran to the counter looked at the screen and then squealed with excitement.

“I-it’s Tony!” Callie snatched the tablet off the counter, accepted the call and hurried down the narrow hallway leading to the three small bedrooms at the back of the house.

Kate sighed, staring after her daughter.

“Tony?”

She stared down the hallway a moment longer before she responded. Kate’s shoulders lifted ever so slightly. Was it a sign of frustration or resignation? He couldn’t be sure.

“Callie’s boyfriend. They met in an online support group for young adults with Down syndrome. If I had known this was going to happen, I’m not sure I would have been so excited to sign her up.”

That shocked him. Just like Callie’s amazing talent in the kitchen, it hadn’t crossed his mind that she would have a boyfriend.

They began to clear the table with the sound of Callie’s laughter and excited talking drifting down the hall.

“Serious?” He put the last dish on the counter.

Kate breathed in deeply and sighed again. She tucked a couple of wayward hairs behind her ear, a gesture he’d seen her do many times that night. “I think she’s taking it way too seriously. She thinks she’s in love.”

Liam stood at the sink, turned on the water and waited for it to get hot.

“You don’t have to do that.” She frowned at the running water.

“I’ve got this.” He wasn’t ready to get kicked out just yet.

While he rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher, Kate fixed him containers of leftovers, giving him the lion’s share of the rest of the food.

“So, you think being in love is a bad thing?” He asked his hostess.

“No.” Kate frowned at the question. “I don’t. But Callie doesn’t always see the big picture. She thinks that what she sees in the movies is what love is all about. That’s not real life.”

“No. It’s not. Marriage is hard work.”

And he was living proof that hard work wasn’t enough to sustain a marriage.

Kate sent him what he assumed was a sympathetic look, dispelling any notion that news of his divorce hadn’t spread all over the small town.

“Relationships, in general, are hard,” she said.

“Well, Calico is mighty lucky to have you to help her navigate through life.”

Kate laughed as she snapped the Tupperware lid into place. “Trust me. My daughter has grown weary of my advice.”

“That’s about as typical as it gets, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” That made Kate smile. “I suppose it is.”

They didn’t talk much after that, and that was okay with him. Kate wasn’t chatty—she was quiet, inward in her thoughts, and even though he’d like for her to open up to him, he wasn’t in any hurry. He had a feeling that if he wanted to get to know Kate better, he was going to have to work the long game.

“Coffee?” she asked him. “For the road?”

He knew that was her not-so-subtle way of letting him know that it was time for him to begin to be on his way.

“I could sure use a cup. I’m fighting the desire to take a nap on your couch.”

He’d gotten her to smile more than once tonight—he was making some progress. Kate had always been focused, determined and serious, even when they were in high school, but she seemed to have lost some of her joy. Had he even heard her laugh?

“Mommy!” Callie came bounding into the kitchen clutching the tablet to her chest. The young lady, her brown eyes shining, her round cheeks flushed, spun around in a circle, giggling happily.

“Do I even need to ask how the phone call went?” Kate brushed back her daughter’s hair and then put her hands on her Callie’s shoulders.

“He asked me to be his date for the dance!” Callie told her mom excitedly, giving a little jump. “I can’t wait!”

“Callie,” Kate said gently, but seriously, “you know we can’t go this year. We talked about this.”

The young woman’s face fell. “You can’t go. Why can’t I—I go? I—I’m old enough. I—I can go b-by myself.”

Callie started to cry; Kate brushed her daughter’s tears away with her thumbs, her eyes soft with understanding and something else—sadness.

“Callie, we have company,” she said. “We’ll talk about this later. Okay?”

“Okay.” Callie frowned. “B-but I-I’m old enough to go b-by myself!”

The young woman stomped out of the living room, down the narrow hallway, and slammed the door to her bedroom.

Liam and Kate took a cup of coffee out to the porch and sat on the porch swing, with the warm summer air filled with the sound of crickets and a night owl howling in the distance.

“I appreciate you indulging me.” He held up the coffee cup. He was actually too tired to think about driving the nearly hour home.

Kate nodded as she took a sip of her own coffee.

After a moment of staring after her daughter, Kate said with a sigh, “Sorry about earlier. It’s the annual Down syndrome conference. I try to take her every year. Now that Tony is going, missing it is going to be tough for her.”

“No need to apologize.” Liam tried to reassure his hostess. “Love is serious business.”

“That’s true. But Callie’s disability makes all of this so much harder to navigate.” Kate tucked her hair behind her ear. “I never even thought about a boyfriend when she was growing up. Now she wants to get married. Have babies.”

“I suppose that’s natural,” Liam said after a second of thinking it over. The fact that Kate was talking to him so openly about her daughter was a welcome surprise. He didn’t want to screw it up by saying something stupid or unintentionally insensitive. He wanted to find a way to be a part of Kate’s and Callie’s lives.

“Yes,” she agreed, holding her warm cup with both hands. “But Callie is never going to be able to live on her own.”

“She seems really independent.”

Kate sent him the smallest of smiles. “She is. Everyone with Down syndrome is different, just like the rest of us. We were lucky—Callie’s intelligence is higher on the range. But...” Kate frowned into her coffee cup. “She’ll never be able to live without support, and no matter how many times we talk about it, I just can’t get her to understand. She wants to move to New York City and go to culinary school and open a restaurant. She also wants to move to California, marry Tony and start having babies. In her mind, it’s possible to do both, at the same time.”

“I wish my daughter were that ambitious,” he interjected, and he meant it.

“Callie is ambitious.” Kate nodded. “She has so many dreams and goals—none of them here in Montana.

They finished their coffee, and when they went back into the house, Callie, seemingly recovered from her outburst, gave him a big hug when he came into the kitchen to put his coffee cup in the sink and pick up his leftovers. This time when Callie asked him to dinner for the next night, he declined. He couldn’t keep on accepting the daughter’s invitation to be able to spend time with the mother.

“I appreciate you letting me come on out tonight.” Liam put the containers in the front seat of his truck.

“Callie invited you.”

He shut the door to his truck and then stood in front of the trainer; her arms were crossed in front of her body.

Liam chuckled. “I was waiting all day for you to uninvite me.”

The half-moon was putting off enough light for him to see a fleeting expression of guilt flash across her face.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

Liam ducked his head, putting it just a little closer to hers. “Admit it, though. You thought about it.”

Kate turned her face away from him, her lips pressed together as if she wanted to stop herself from admitting it. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.

“I’m sorry.” She looked into his face then. “I’m not much on company.”

He didn’t say anything, because he sensed she had more to say.

“Callie wants me to start dating again...”

Their eyes met and Liam felt a spark. He felt it, and he was pretty sure that Kate felt it too.

“Are you saying I’m part of some evil plan to get you back into the dating game?”

A nod.

“Calico doesn’t know, then, that you’ve already turned me down once before?” he asked in a lowered, private voice.

Kate took a small step back, but he wasn’t going to let her get off the hook that easily. He took a small step forward.

“It’s not that I don’t like you, Liam.” Kate, usually so sure of herself, sounded off balance with a shake in her voice.

“That’s good to know.”

In that moment, in the soft moonlight, Liam acted on instinct instead of listening to his head. He reached out, took Kate’s face in his hands and kissed her on the lips.

It was a short kiss—sweet, gentle, instead of romantic or sensual. But that kiss was a kiss full of promise. It was a kiss that could be his future.

Surprised, Kate stepped backward again. His hands fell away from her face and they stood there, quietly, staring at each other.

“That’s good to know,” he said again, “because I like you, Kate. A whole heck of a lot.”

Chapter Three

“He actually kissed me,” Kate whispered into the phone. She was in bed, but she wasn’t ready for sleep. She had brushed her teeth and then stood in the bathroom staring at the lips that Liam Brand had just kissed without any warning or invitation.

“Good for him,” her friend Lorrie told her.

Lorrie also had a child with Down syndrome, a little girl much younger than Callie. Lorrie had started an organization to connect parents in Gallatin County and ever since they had worked together to establish an annual, one-mile Buddy Walk in Bozeman to raise awareness and inclusion for people with DS.

“Good?”

“Yes,” Lorrie reiterated. “Good. He listened to my advice.”

Now Kate sat upright in bed. “What advice was that?”

Lorrie stopped to say something to one of her kids before answering. “He was here to give Dude and Max their shots. He might have mentioned that he was interested in you.”

“And?”

“And I told him that he’d have to be unconventional. That’s all.”

Kate couldn’t think of a response right away. Her mouth popped open, and she shook her head before she said, “So, you encouraged him to assault me?”

“Okay—now that’s way dramatic. All he did was give you a kiss. Tell me you didn’t enjoy it. Liam is handsome, smart, nice and he’s one of the most eligible bachelors in Montana.”

“That’s not the point.” Kate flopped back into the pillows. “I have Callie and the ranch.”

“I do know.” Lorrie said kindly. “I do. But, just because we have children with special needs doesn’t mean we can just put our lives on a shelf. Callie is an adult now, Kate. She needs your help—she’ll always need your help—but you’re going to have to find something else to do with your life other than focusing all of your attention on Callie. Why not shift some of that focus onto someone like Dr. Brand?”

Quiet for a moment of thought, Kate couldn’t deny her friend’s logic. Had she been holding Callie back, in part, because her daughter had always been the center of her world? Was she holding Callie back for her own sake? Part of her, deep down, knew that it was, at least, possible.