by Sophie Oak
“Very mature, Jennifer,” Stef murmured as he gestured for her to go first.
She felt her spirit sag. That was the crux of their problems. He thought she was too young for him. It wasn’t like he was some old guy. He wasn’t even ten years older than she was. It also wasn’t like she’d asked him for marriage. She’d been in love with him. That didn’t necessarily lead to marriage. She’d seen her mother fall in and out of love many times. She’d never pushed Stef for anything more than friendship and some sex. He seemed to think she was too young even for that.
Jen stood at the top of the stairs and looked down. One lone figure stood on the tarmac holding a handmade sign that said Welcome Back, Felon.
Callie Sheppard grinned as she held her sign up, and Jen felt tears fill her eyes.
“She missed you,” Nate said from behind her.
For the first time she thought about what she’d done when she’d snuck away from Bliss. She had meant to leave behind Stef and all their problems, but she’d done more than that. She’d left Callie and Stella and Rachel and Laura. She’d walked out on Mel and the Harper twins, and Zane and Nate. Tears flowed freely now as she took her wobbly first step down the staircase. She’d left the only place that had ever felt like home because she’d been too embarrassed to see Stef again.
Maybe he was right. Maybe she was too young. And maybe, just maybe, it was time to grow up.
Jen took hold of herself and rushed down the steps. She didn’t stop until she threw her arms around Callie.
“Hey!” Callie dropped her sign. Her arms quickly enveloped Jen. “Hey, it’s okay, sweetie. It’s going to be okay. Don’t you worry about a thing. You’re home now.”
Jen felt Callie smooth down the back of her hair, and she cried. She didn’t care that everyone was watching. Now that she was standing here, she knew Callie was right. Everything would be fine because she was home. Bliss was home.
“I’m sorry,” she managed after a moment. “I should never have left the way I did.”
“It’s okay,” Callie said softly. “You’re back now. That’s what matters.”
And that was Callie in a nutshell. Callie would never hold it against her. She would never withhold her affection. Jen could have been gone for ten years and Callie would have stood there waiting for her. Callie’s heart was a mighty thing.
She felt another hand on her back, and she looked up at the sheriff. Nate Wright’s eyes were far softer now, and he nodded down at her.
“Callie’s right. It’s going to be okay. We won’t let you go back to jail. Stef is already working on getting the charges dropped. Let’s hop in the car and get out of this weather.”
Callie had changed that man. He’d been closed off and unwilling to love. Callie’s heart had been enough.
Could she do that for Stef if she was brave? If she was as strong as Callie, could she change both their lives?
Jen took a step back, and Callie went on her toes trying to press her lips against her husband’s. Nate’s gloved hand came out to stop her. Callie’s lips made a little O.
“No can do, baby.” Nate shook his head as he stared down at her.
Callie pouted. Her hands went to her hips. She was drowning in a parka, her small, curvy body completely covered by her coat. “What did I do?”
“It wasn’t you. It was Stef,” Jen supplied, saving Nate the trouble. “He needs his fake girlfriend again, and he doesn’t care that she’s already double married.”
Callie’s brown eyes widened. “What are you talking about? Oh my, Sebastian! And Stef! Why didn’t you call? And what are you doing without a coat?”
Callie stalked toward the plane where the Talbot men were disembarking. Jen stared at Nate. He had some explaining to do because she’d already figured out what all that texting had been about. Nate hadn’t smiled and accepted his fate. He’d been planning something with Zane.
“Okay, where’s the big guy? I know you two have something awful cooked up for Stef.” There was no way Nathan Wright allowed his wife to be used in some cover-up.
A little smirk crossed Nate’s face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, darlin’. I’m just helping out an old friend. I am a very patient and tolerant man.”
“Since when?” The only person less patient than Nathan Wright was Max Harper. Nate was a notorious hard-ass, and the last thing Jen would expect him to do would be to allow his wife to pose as another man’s girlfriend.
One shoulder came up negligently. “You know this whole threesome thing works on several levels for us. It takes two men to keep Callie out of trouble, but more than that, I can always count on Zane to do the right thing.”
Jen listened to Nate talk, but her eyes were on Stef and Callie. She felt a sick pit of jealousy form in her gut as Stef wrapped his arms around Callie. She knew that it was all for show. She could see Stef whispering to her, probably begging her to play along, but it still hurt. Callie was good enough to show off. Callie was sweet enough to bring home with him. She doubted Stef had told anyone about the night they had shared. Callie might be a fake girlfriend, but Jen doubted it hurt worse than being the dirty little secret.
Stef was talking to his father, his arm firmly around Callie’s waist as she twisted her head around slightly. Her brown eyes were questioning as she looked back at Nate. The sheriff merely gave her a hearty thumbs-up, and she shrugged and turned back around to talk to Sebastian Talbot.
It was at that moment that Jen noticed big, gorgeous Zane walking down the tarmac, two Styrofoam mugs of coffee in his hands. Zane Hollister was roughly six and a half feet tall—a massive, glorious beast of a man. His beautiful face bore some scars from his time as a DEA agent, but he was heavenly-looking to Jen. She’d always wanted to paint him. It would be a challenge to get his spirit right. He was an intoxicating mix of rough man and vulnerable boy. But now he looked like an angry bull. He stopped in the middle of the tarmac, and his mouth dropped open. Jen followed his line of sight back to where Stef was leaning over, placing a light kiss on Callie’s lips.
Nate sighed, satisfaction plain in his stance. “You see, I can be the good guy in this situation. I can say, sure, use my wife the way you have for years. Don’t worry about me. I don’t mind. I can say all of that because I know that Zane will do the right thing.”
Apparently, in Nate’s mind, the right thing was to toss down his coffees and run toward the man horning in on his wife. Stef turned around in time to get tackled. Jen rushed toward the fight.
“Zane, you get off of him right now!” Callie shouted at her husband.
“You fucking overgrown ape, stop hitting me!” Stef tried to push Zane off.
“You get off my son, sir!” Sebastian’s back stiffened, and he looked at Callie. “Call the police, dear.”
“The sheriff is standing right over there laughing his ass off, Mr. Talbot.” Jen looked down at Stef, who was trying to give as good as he got. For a rich boy, he knew how to fight dirty.
“Zane Hollister, stop beating up my best friend.” Callie’s booted foot stomped in the snow.
Zane got Stef in a chokehold. “Not on your life, babe. He kissed you. We took sacred vows to never allow another man to get close enough to kiss you. Right, Nate?”
Nate was all smiles now. “That’s right, buddy. You do what you have to do.”
“Asshole,” Stef managed to wheeze out. He pulled his elbow out and caught Zane squarely in the gut. “I won’t forget this when your next contract is up. Don’t think I won’t talk to the mayor about finding a new sheriff.”
Nathan Wright was totally not intimidated by his threat. “Good luck with that, Stef. No one wants the job except Nell. She’s threatened to run against me. Other than that, you got nothing.”
Callie pulled at her dark-haired husband. “Zane, you get off him right this instant. I’m invoking the note clause in our marriage contract.”
Zane popped up in an instant, his face a storm of pent-up rage. “Fine. I’ll go bring the car arou
nd, but his ass is walking, and if you ever touch my wife with your lips again in a non-brotherly fashion, I’ll kick your ass even harder.”
Zane stomped away, leaving Callie shaking her head as she lent Stef a hand.
Jen brushed the snow off his back. “Note clause?”
Nate frowned. “Yeah, every time we do something she doesn’t like she points to the note we wrote when we left her all those years ago. She saved it. She framed it and put it on the wall by the door, and she’s threatened grave bodily harm if we take it down. She uses it like a sledgehammer filled with guilt.”
“I merely remind the boys of the poor choices they once made.” Callie turned to Stef. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” His gray eyes narrowed as he looked at Nate. “You planned that.”
“I have no control over Zane’s actions, man.” Nate turned and followed his partner.
“So, Callie isn’t your girlfriend anymore?” Sebastian was looking between them all as though desperately trying to figure out what was going on.
“I was never really his girlfriend, Sebastian,” Callie said, her voice a sad sigh. “I’m sorry I misled you. Stef has always been more of a brother to me than anything else.”
Sebastian glanced over to where Nate and Zane had gone. “And now that…large, rather brutish fellow is your husband?”
“His name is Zane.” She sighed again, this one a dreamy sound. “Stef introduced us. He introduced me to Nate, too. They are the best husbands a girl could have. Don’t let their rough exteriors fool you. They’re sweeties. I should probably go and make sure they don’t leave Stef behind. It’s a long way to Bliss.”
Sebastian’s eyes stared at a place right below Stef’s face. “So you hid this from me? Callie got married, and you never mentioned it?”
“I didn’t think you would ever find out,” Stef admitted. His whole body was shaking. It appeared the adrenaline from the fight was gone and he felt the cold again.
Jen got close, and he shoved his arms under hers, wrapping himself under the coat she was wearing and rubbing his body against hers. “Hey!”
“It’s my damn coat. You can share.” His beautiful face was stark, and his lips were turning a nice shade of blue.
Damn him. She couldn’t resist that slightly quivering lip. She pushed her body against his, sharing her warmth. But she wasn’t going to lie down and give it up for him. She’d done that and it hadn’t worked. She wrapped her arms around Stef but turned to Sebastian. “He’s been lying to you because he didn’t want you to find out the truth.”
Stef’s father’s face fell, and a chalky whiteness took over his skin. “Stefan, you have to know that you’re my son no matter what. I’ll still love you.”
“I never knew you loved me in the first place,” Stef managed to chatter.
A slight flush permeated Sebastian’s skin. “Of course, I do. You’re my son. Just because you’re…well, nothing changes that.” There was a long pause. “Is it, well, is it one of those boys?”
Stef shivered in her arms, and he planted his face in her shoulder. “What is he talking about, and can you make him stop?”
She had an idea, and it made her giggle. “Which boys are you talking about, Mr. Talbot?”
He pulled his wool pea coat around his slender frame. “Those Harper boys he was always around. I suppose I always knew deep down. He talked about them all the time. I couldn’t get him away from those two. I thought it was about Callie, but now I can see the truth. I don’t see why he wouldn’t admit it. I’ve never been one to hold a person’s sexuality against them. Talbot Industries offers life partners insurance and benefits. Why would my own son lie? Unless…oh, no, it’s that Max fellow, isn’t it? Oh, my son, you can do better than him.”
Stef’s head came up, and he stared down at Jen. His eyes closed briefly as though in terrible pain, and then those gorgeous gray orbs were piercing into her. “Does he think what I think he thinks?”
A bit of glee lit her heart. “I think he thinks you love Max.”
Stef turned to his father, his face turning red despite the cold. “Damn it, Dad! I am not Max’s lover. Max is married.”
Sebastian sighed, his relief a palpable thing. “Okay. I can handle Rye. He’s a nice young lad.”
“I’m not with Rye, either! He’s married, too. I am straight.”
Jen tried to contain her giggle, but it was hard when his whole body was quivering and he seemed to be trying to crawl into her. He looked like a little boy arguing with his dad. She’d never seen Stef look so open. “I can vouch for the straight part, Mr. Talbot. I know for a fact that Stef Talbot is one hundred percent capable of sleeping with a girl. He simply needs to tie her up and spank her a little bit first.”
“Jennifer!”
She shrugged. “Do you deny it?”
“TMI, Jennifer. TMI.” He frowned down at her before burying his face in her hair. His breath was warm against her ear. “You’re under my authority now, love. I have the papers to prove it. I’ve been indulgent to this point, but now you’re racking up the punishment time.”
Now she didn’t need the coat. Her whole body flushed with the memory of what it felt like to be punished by Master Stefan. Then he shivered again, and the moment was lost.
“Where the hell is Zane with the car?” Stef asked.
Sebastian’s mouth was open as he watched his son. “Perhaps I should have come much sooner. We’re going to have to talk about this, Stefan. I didn’t raise you to spank people.”
Stef groaned in her ear and burrowed further, as though he could escape into her skin.
When Zane pulled the SUV around, Stef pushed her into the back, making sure she was in between him and his father. The two men stared at each other over her head the whole hundred miles from Alamosa to Bliss.
* * * *
Two hours later, Stef was back in fighting form, and Jen sort of wished they could go back to that delicious moment when he needed her body heat and her support. The minute Zane turned into the Talbot estate’s drive, he’d sat up and held himself away from her. He’d gone from needy little boy to the distant Dom she’d tried so hard to get to know. He’d neatly and efficiently packed everyone into separate rooms as he and Nate filled Zane in on what was going on with her.
She figured she should have been in on that meeting, but apparently her voice wasn’t required. She heard them in the study talking to someone over the conference phone. It sounded like Finn Taylor explaining what legal maneuvers he was planning and the other guy, the security dude, providing sarcastic commentary. Jen simply let Callie lead her to a big, brightly decorated room that contained all the stuff Stef had packed up from her apartment. There was a suitcase of her clothes and some of her sketchbooks.
“He was upset when you left,” Callie said as she opened the drapes and let in some of the most beautiful light Jen had ever seen.
That light was soft and seemed to caress everything it touched. She’d forgotten how much she loved the light here.
“Really? Because the way we left things, I thought he would be thrilled.” Jen didn’t like to think about the morning she’d left. Sometimes she couldn’t help it and it played over and over in her mind like a bad movie. Of course at night when she was asleep, she dreamed about making love with Stef. She couldn’t help it. In her dreams he took her over and over. He spanked her to warm her up and then made love to her like a starving man.
Callie blinked behind her glasses. “I don’t know what happened between the two of you. I only know he was upset. I know Stef. He was far too quiet, and he retreated into his studio for two weeks after you left. He barely said a word to anyone.”
She couldn’t imagine Stef being upset. He’d told her it had been a mistake. She’d actually thought she’d done him a favor and saved him the embarrassment of having to see his “mistake” around town. “He was probably feeling guilty. And annoyed. I guess I didn’t react the way he thought I would.”
“I don’t th
ink so,” Callie said. “But I’m not going to be able to convince you.”
There was a brief knock on the door that saved her from Callie’s further explanations. Jen opened the door expecting to see Stef. She was surprised at the large, lovely man inhabiting her doorway. His hair was cut startlingly short, but Jen could see it was reddish. His face was an intriguing mixture of craggy lines and lovely features.
“Hello. Did Stef send me a toy?” She wasn’t going to let anyone see how much being here again upset her. Not upset, actually, but she was definitely in midst of all the feels.
He frowned, his brows making a neat V in his forehead. “No. I’m a doctor.” He looked past her to Callie. “Is this one of those patients, Callie?”
Callie laughed. “No, Caleb. She’s just extremely sarcastic. Jen, this is Dr. Caleb Burke. He’s the new town doctor. Stef brought him in for Rachel’s birth.”
He was carrying a large, battered leather bag. The man strode into the room like he owned the place. He set his bag down and shrugged out of the thick parka he was wearing. The doc worked out. That much was plain.
“Don’t forget all the people who get shot around here. For such a small town, you deal with a lot of trauma. I wasn’t here for the last two shootouts, but I have an emergency plan for the next one.”
Jen had seen the effects of the last emergency that happened in Bliss. Mel and Nate had gone to the hospital. Before that, both Max and Rye had been injured when they faced down a man stalking Rachel. “Hopefully we’ve seen the last violence for a while.”
The doc slapped his hands together. “Nope. Place like this is a magnet. Bad things will always happen, and I’m going to be ready for it.”
Callie nodded and gave the doc a smile. It was the same smile she gave Mel when placating him. Bliss was a magnet for sure. “Caleb is a great believer in preparedness. He made the whole town act out a scenario where the town was taken over by armed gunmen. Nell and Henry decided to protest and…”
“Nell and Henry got shot. Protesting won’t stop an armed gunman,” Caleb insisted. “Kevlar. That’s what you need, and a damn fine plan of action.”