Callum's Promise

Callum Ashford drew a slow, steady breath, asked quietly for guidance, and then stepped outside to join his Aunt Liza on the terrace outside their Texas ranch house. Liza gazed blankly over the lovely valley spread out below them, and Callum had no idea how to ease what she was carrying. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and gathered her in when she leaned against him with a sniff. "I can't believe he's really gone. I can't believe I'll never see his face again or feel him hold me again," Liza said through a sob that shook her whole body. That morning they had buried her husband, Ronan Keane. He was taken so fast that none of them could quite accept he was gone. For the rest of the family, it almost seemed as though he were only in the next room or off on one of his endless business trips, but Liza felt the loss deep in her bones. She knew he was truly gone, and that made her look as if she had aged in a single night. Callum lowered his head to hers and squeezed her shoulders. "I'm sorry you hurt this much, and I'm sure Ronan would be too," he murmured. "I am sad, but I am also furious!" Liza shook her head. "Your Uncle Ronan threw away eight years that should have been ours. I never begrudged that lost time until now. Now that he's gone, all I keep thinking is that we might have had eight extra years together. Eight more years we should've had, but his stubborn ass had to do whatever your father said!"