The Circle Eight: Caleb Read Free Page A

tortilla made him groan aloud.
    They all laughed and rolled their eyes. He didn’t care. The food was damn good. He might dream about it later it was so delicious. He ate in restaurants occasionally, but most days his food was whatever he had in his saddlebags and could cook up over the fire. Once in a while he got a rabbit or squirrel to eat. Once in a blue moon, a rancher treated him to a steak dinner.
    But this food was the ultimate treat. He stuffed himself until his stomach was nearly bursting. Then he scooped up the leftover beans on his plate, sat back and belched loud enough to shake the walls.
    Meredith and Margaret rolled their eyes. “Ewww.” Meredith seemed to be the outspoken sister.
    “It’s how I compliment the cook.” Caleb grinned and caught the tortilla in mid-air that Rebecca had thrown at his head. “I see nothing has changed here.”
    “Things change every day.” Rebecca got to her feet and Caleb noticed she had grown breasts. Well, damn. He sure as hell didn’t want to notice that. “You are too busy to be here and see it.” She stuck her nose in the air and started clearing the table, apparently done telling him what she thought.
    Elizabeth got to her feet and looked at him, her green eyes very much like Matt’s. She was the old soul in the family, the one Graham who seemed to see everything the rest of them missed. He didn’t imagine the disappointment in her gaze though. She didn’t have to say a word to tell him what she thought.
    “You are not nice to your sisters.” Eva mused. “Wait until Olivia gets here. She will do more than throw a tortilla.”
    Caleb shook his head. “I can’t stay.”
    Eva’s expression fell. “Will you stay for longer than a meal?”
    “I only have a few hours. I have orders, Eva. I shouldn’t have even stopped but I wanted to see you all.” Caleb’s tongue nearly tripped over his lies. Guilt gnawed at him but he pushed it aside. He had nothing to feel guilty about. Life was not centered on a small ranch in eastern Texas.
    She stared at him, her gaze all-knowing and assessing. He forced himself not to squirm in his seat. For God’s sake, he wasn’t an eight-year-old boy in trouble for filching cookies.
    “One day you will realize the importance of family, hijo . And then you will know what you have lost by running from here.” With that piece of wisdom, she rose and helped the girls clear the table.
    Nicholas, Matt and Hannah watched him, their expressions a mixture of curiosity and excitement. He sipped at his coffee, waiting for the inevitable questions. He remembered being Nicholas’s age and having the same insatiable need to know more about Ranger Brody Armstrong, his brother-in-law, now retired to live life on a farm with the impossible Olivia.
    “You killed any men lately?” The question burst from Nicholas’s mouth and both Matt and Caleb laughed. Hannah smacked her husband.
    “That’s not an appropriate question for the dinner table,” she admonished with a sideways glance at the twins, who were watching the adults as though it were the most interesting puppet show ever.
    “Why don’t you two go check on the kittens in the barn? We want to make sure they don’t wander away and get lost.” Matt’s suggestion energized the girls into motion and in a blur of three-year-old energy they raced out the door. He grinned at Caleb. “The barn cat had a litter a couple weeks ago. They’ve been watching over it like a couple of mother hens.”
    “Now can I ask about the killing?” Nicholas sounded impatient.
    Caleb shook his head. “Sorry, Nick, I ain’t had occasion to kill anybody since the last time you saw me. Sometimes I get to knock them around a bit though.” The critters he dealt with were usually too stupid to put up much of a fight after the first punch. More than a few occasions, he had to put them out to finish the job but he got it done, no matter what.
    “Boring except maybe the punching part. I can do that anytime