The first thought that crossed her mind was that engaging in a business meeting was the last thing she was in the mood for today. But then she quickly realized that she couldn’t let what Niecee did keep her from handling things with her company. She still had a business to run.
“When would you like to meet, Callum?”
“How about today for lunch.”
“Lunch?”
“Yes, at McKay’s.”
She wondered if he knew that McKay’s was her favorite lunch spot. “Okay, that’ll work. I’ll see you there at noon,” she said.
“Great. See you then.”
Gemma held the phone in her hand, thinking how much she enjoyed listening to Callum’s deep Australian accent. He always sounded so ultrasexy. But then he was definitely a sexy man. That was something she tried not to notice too much, mainly because he was a close friend of Ramsey’s. Also, according to Jackie Barnes, a nurse who worked at the hospital with Megan and who’d had a bad case of the hots for Callum when he first arrived in Denver, Callum had a girl waiting for him back in Australia and it was a very serious relationship.
But what if he no longer had that girl waiting for him back in Australia? What if he was as available as he was hot? What if she could forget that he was her oldest brother’s close friend? What if…
Dismissing all such thoughts with a wave of her hand, she sat back down at her computer to figure out a way to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Callum Austell leaned back in his chair as he glanced around the restaurant. The first time he’d eaten here had been with Ramsey when he first came to Denver. He liked it then and now this would be the place where he would put into motion a plan some would think was way past due being executed. He would have to admit they were probably right.
He wasn’t sure exactly when he decided that Gemma Westmoreland was destined to be his woman. Probably the day he had helped Ramsey build that barn and Gemma had arrived from college right after graduation. The moment she got out of her car and raced over to her older brother’s arms for a huge hug. Callum had felt like he’d gotten hit over the head with a two-by-four, not once but twice. And when Ramsey had introduced them and she’d turned that wondergirl smile on him, he hadn’t been the same since. His father and his two older brothers had warned him that it would be that way when he found the woman destined to be his, but he hadn’t believed them.
That had been almost three years ago and she’d been just twenty-two years old. So he’d waited patiently for her to get older and had watched over her from afar. And each passing day she’d staked a deeper claim to his heart. Knowing how protective Ramsey was of his siblings, especially his three sisters, Callum had finally gotten up the nerve to confront Ramsey and tell him how he felt about Gemma.
At first Ramsey hadn’t liked the idea of his best friend lusting after one of his sisters. But then Callum had convinced Ramsey it was more than lust and that he knew in his heart that Gemma was “the one” for him.
For six months, Ramsey had lived with Callum’s family back in Australia on the Austell sheep ranch to learn everything he could so he could start his own operations in Denver. He had hung around Callum’s parents and brothers enough to know how dedicated the Austell men were once they fell in love.
His father had given up on falling in love and was on his way back to Australia from a business meeting in the United States to marry an Australian woman when he’d met Callum’s mother. She was one of the flight attendants on the plane.
Somehow the already engaged Todd Austell had convinced the Detroit-born Le’Claire Richards that breaking off with his fiancée and marrying her instead was the right thing to do. Evidently it was. Thirty-seven years later the two were still married, remained very much in love and had three sons and a daughter to show for it. Callum was the youngest of the four and the only one who was still single.