Broke Down in Bliss
Serena Dean-Miles felt the car shake an instant before she saw the lights come on in the rearview mirror.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She never should have tried this. She’d known before she’d left Dallas that this little writers’ retreat was a bad idea. There was too much going on in her life, too much to leave behind. She had two kids now and her husbands were busy starting up their own business. They were a month away from opening and they had a million and one things to do. They did not need her out of touch.
Gripping the steering wheel of her rental that damn straight should be able to handle ninety miles an hour, she started to pull over to the side of the road.
Freaking police. Nope. The police were amazing. She loved all the cops she knew, wrote about them all the time, but some of them were overly concerned with traffic laws. There was no one on the road. No one at all. Who cared if she was a little over the speed limit?
Small town cops with speed traps built to bilk poor, unsuspecting, just- trying-to-get-home-because-everything-sucked-right-now tourists.
She put the rental in park and felt it shudder and go still. What the hell?
She was not going to cry. She would take her ticket and call the rental company. They had to come and get her. Her flight wasn’t until tomorrow anyway. She would still get to her Santa Fe hotel in plenty of time to lay awake in bed thinking about it.
It. Was that what one called a non-thing, a thing that wasn’t going to happen again, a lost chance?
Nope. She wasn’t going to think about that now because she wasn’t the woman who cried when she got a ticket. Of course she wasn’t usually the woman who got a ticket.
Deep breath. This was a blip in the road. She would be back to her life and she would move on.
“License and registration, please,” a laconic voice said.
She smiled her most brilliant smile and turned to look at the officer. And stopped because she was married, not dead. Even though she was married to two men. She glanced down at his name tag. Sheriff Nathan Wright was one gorgeous hunk of man, but he had a fierce frown on his face. “I’m so sorry, Officer. I’m afraid I’m in a hurry to get to the airport. This is a rental. Should I show you the rental agreement?”
“First you can show me your driver’s license, ma’am,” the gorgeous cop said. “And there was no reason to turn off your vehicle.”
“I didn’t actually turn it off. It just kind of died.” It was obvious this man was not going to be charmed by her smile. She scrambled for her license, digging through her monstrosity of a purse. “I’m so sorry. I guess I wasn’t really looking at the road signs. I was thinking about how time moves differently on different planes, so if someone gets stuck in a painting that leads to a different plane, when you get back, how much time has actually passed? It’s a really difficult subject, but trust me, if I don’t have a mathematical equation that explains exactly how that goes down, someone will complain and loudly.” Where the hell was her license? She had to have it. She’d gotten on a plane and rented a car. She couldn’t have done that without a license. What if she couldn’t find it? What if she’d left it back in Creede? “They’ll do that shouty caps thing that makes me crazy.”
“Ma’am, I think I’m going to need for you to exit your vehicle.”
She stopped. “Excuse me?”
He’d taken a step back, his mirrored aviators hiding his eyes. “I asked that you exit your vehicle, ma’am. I need to know what kind of drugs you’re on.”
Drugs? Holy shit. She shook her head. “No. No. No drugs. Not even ibuprofen. I had a couple of glasses of wine, but that was last night. This morning it’s been nothing at all but coffee. Some of the other writers might have dosed theirs with Kahlua, but I can’t handle that in the morning and I’m trying to lose my baby weight. Not that she’s still a newborn. No. I wouldn’t leave my newborn to go on a boozy writing weekend. Not me.”
“Ma’am, are you going to exit the vehicle?” His hands went to his hips, not quite on the hilt of his pistol, but close enough that her heart rate ticked up.
And it had been racing already. What the hell kind of trouble was she in? Cautiously, she reached over and opened the door, easing out of the vehicle. She held her hands up, trying to show him she was neither on drugs nor packing a weapon. “What would make you think I’m on drugs, Officer?”
“It’s sheriff, and all that stuff about time and dimensions makes me wonder. Stand away from the vehicle, please.” He started to make a slow turn around the sedan. “You were going thirty miles over the speed limit. You can’t produce valid identification and you mentioned different planes, and I don’t think you were talking about aircraft, were you, ma’am?”
“No, but I can easily explain that.”
The sheriff held up a hand. “No need for explanation. You think I haven’t worked enough Woo Woo Festivals that I can’t tell your kind?” He peered into the backseat window. “It’s not Woo Woo Fest time and the sasquatches don’t mate until spring, so I’m going to need to know what you’re really here for, ma’am.”
She could answer him but she wasn’t sure she appreciated what he was doing. Yes, she’d been going a little fast, but she still had rights. “I don’t think you can legally search my vehicle, Sheriff. I know my rights.”
His head came up, his jaw tightening. If he hadn’t obviously been the bad guy of the piece, she would have sworn he was the heroic all-American type. He pulled his aviators off and his gorgeous blue eyes narrowed. “Are you a lawyer?”
Somehow she sensed being a lawyer might be worse than being on drugs. “No. I’m not a lawyer. I’m a writer.”
He eased back. “Good, because we already have one of those. Gemma got the only exemption. You know there’s a town law.”
“A law? About lawyers?”
“Yes. No lawyers here in Bliss. Cause too many problems. We work our problems out like real people. The only reason Gemma can practice in Bliss is Nell protested until we gave her an exemption. That worked out real well for Nell, because when I tried to propose a limit on miming protests, Gemma fought it in court and now Nell and Henry are at it all the damn time.”
“They protest mimes?” She was starting to get confused.
“No, they use the art of mime as a way to protest man’s inhumanity to man or some shit. It’s annoying as hell, if you ask me.” He looked back into her car. “You sure you aren’t on drugs?”
He was big on the drugs. “I’m sure. What exactly are you looking for? Drugs? Because I don’t have any. Like I said, I was at a writers’ retreat in Creede. My name is Serena Dean-Miles. I know I have identification somewhere. I’m trying to get to Santa Fe where I’m going to catch a plane to Dallas. That’s where I live. I think my car is broken down so if you would just give me a ticket, I promise I’ll pay it and call the rental company and I’ll be out of here ASAP.”
He was staring into the window, one hand over his eyes. “You say you’re a writer?”
What was that man looking for? “Yes. I write romance novels.”
He opened the back door and reached inside.
“Hey, I seriously don’t think you have a right to search my car.” It was the principle of the thing.
He pulled out a copy of Love After Death, with the new cover to match the movie that had recently come out. He looked down at it, studying it and turning it over in his hand. “Tell it to the judge, Ms. Dean-Miles. Wait. We don’t have one of those either. We’ve agreed as a town to have all legal disputes settled by a tribunal once a quarter, unless you’re Max Harper and then it’s all about the fight club. You wrote this? This picture looks like you.”
He held it up as though studying it to make sure it was a match.
She’d only brought a few copies to trade with some of her writer friends for giveaways. She’d come back with exactly one copy. “Yes, it’s me.”
“This was that movie all the ladies went crazy about,” he said, turning it over in his hand again. “The one where the really smart-ass CIA guy’s wife comes back from the dead?”
“Yep, that was it.” A cautious optimism flooded her system. If she could get out of this by signing a book for this guy’s wife, she would call it a win. “I could sign that for your wife if you like.”
“And then you’ll head out of town, won’t you?”
“Yes, then I’ll be totally out of your hair.” Some small towns didn’t like strangers.
He straightened up and seemed to come to some conclusion. Serena got ready to sign and then run as far as she could. She could call a cab. She would go back to Creede. It couldn’t be too far. She wasn’t even sure where she was now.
“Turn around and put your hands on the vehicle, ma’am.”
She felt her eyes go wide. “What?”
“Turn around and place your hands on the vehicle.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you’re under arrest.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Not sure, but I’ll come up with something. Now turn around because I don’t want to have to use a taser on you.”
A taser? She turned, placing her hands palms down on the hood. It was completely surreal. What the hell was happening? The sheriff gently pulled her arms behind her back and she found herself in real, not cute and kinky, handcuffs. They snicked into place and she was caught.
“Now, don’t worry about a thing, ma’am. I’ll have Long-Haired Roger come out and take a look at your car. He’s a real fine mechanic. Even better since he lost his hair, or so I’m told. By the time I got here, he was already bald. Don’t go confusing him with Roger, though. Roger does have longish hair, but he’s what I like to call a crazy. Thinks he’s going to separate from the States and form his own country. Being as all he owns is ten acres and a trailer, I don’t know how he’s planning on negotiating for resources, but he tells me I think too small.” He started to lead her back to his big SUV. “When we get to the station house, I’ll make sure you have your own cell. I got Max in there for being a general asshole. Don’t be scared. He’s actually a teddy bear but he’s got a mouth on him, and sometimes he plays practical jokes that aren’t funny. Helping the Farley brothers fly a homemade drone over Mel’s place was not a good idea. Mel is our resident alien enthusiast, and by enthusiast I really mean he’s a nut job who thinks the Reticulan Greys are on their way. Do you know what he did when he saw that damn drone?”
“Something bad?” This was a dream. A weird dream. She was still sleeping in her little room in the cabin in Creede, and she would wake up and write all this down. It could be a new small town series. The strangest town in the country.
“Damn straight something bad. Watch your head, ma’am. You are precious cargo.” He helped her into the back seat. “He launched an all-out assault and ended up not only murdering the drone that was supposed to be the twins’ science fair entry, he hit the damn cell tower again. No service at all for weeks. And that’s why Max can sit his butt in jail. No pie for him. What kind do you like? I think Stella’s got apple and chocolate cream today. Hell, why not go for both?”
She found herself nodding and praying she wasn’t about to be murdered in some weird ritual. “Sure.”
He gave her a smile that could have lit up a movie screen and then shut the door, hopping into the front and picking up his radio. He pushed the button to talk. “Cam, this is Nate. There’s a broke down sedan on the highway coming in from Creede. Can you have Long-Haired Roger haul that into the shop for me? No hurry. I’m coming in now. Get the second cell ready.”
Cell. She was going into a jail cell. She wasn’t even sure what she was being arrested for except that maybe sanity had been outlawed along with the lawyers.
As the sheriff started to pull away, she glanced around.
“Where am I?”
He looked at her in the rearview mirror, grinning. “You’re in Bliss, Colorado, Ms. Dean-Miles. Don’t be surprised when Mel or Cassidy shows up and asks you to take the beet. It’s no big deal. Just drink a little beet juice and everyone will be so much happier.”
“Beet juice?”
“To prove you’re not an alien.” He pulled out onto the road. “Aliens can’t stand the taste. It’s a law here that everyone new to town has to take the beet. Don’t blame me for that one. The town council planned that meeting during the middle of the Broncos game and no one contested it. I think it’s a conspiracy of the big beet farms, but I’m only the sheriff. Now if you’re allergic to beets, you can get a medical exemption from the town doc, but be careful. Doc Burke is quick with the colon exam, if you know what I mean.”
He kept chatting on about aliens and pies and something about that time the Russian mob invaded, but Serena stared out the window.
Bliss? She didn’t know about that. Nothing in her life had been very blissful in months, and a trip to jail wasn’t going to change things.
And she really, really hated beets…
An hour later Serena found herself in the second cell of the Bliss County Jail, which was located in the sheriff’s office and was as weird as everything else this day had been. One cell was perfectly normal. Bench and nothing else. That cell currently harbored the apparently often- incarcerated Maxwell Harper, another gorgeous man who was wearing Wranglers and a tight black T-shirt. He hadn’t stopped complaining about his current predicament or the fact that he wasn’t in the second cell.
The cell she’d been shoved into was a veritable paradise, with a cushioned chair, table, and several books and magazines. There was a small bookcase and she was shocked to find ten of her books sitting there amongst the Lee Child and Steve Berry thrillers, and the oddly large amount of books that described how to stop both alien invasions of the world and one’s private parts.
There had been a welcome kit waiting for her when Nate Wright had locked the cell, told her to write down her dining preferences, and then stepped away even though she hadn’t been fingerprinted or anything.
If she was fingerprinted, then she would go into some online database, and no one in the world was better at finding people via computers than her husband. Adam would find her and then Jake would kick some ass.
How long would it be before they noticed she was missing?
“Hey, lady. Whatcha in for?” Max Harper asked.
She wasn’t sure she should talk to him. After all, he was apparently a crazy man who dealt with drones and led teenaged boys into messing with the mentally ill.
Who thought aliens were coming.
And thought beets could stave off the invasion.
She looked down at the menu the sheriff had left behind. There were two, one featuring lunch that would be catered in from someplace called Stella’s, and another dinner menu from Trio Bar and Grill.
Was she still going to be here for dinner? And when did she get her phone call?
“I’m not as bad as Nate probably told you,” he was saying. “I’m just a misunderstood hero when you really think about it. Whatever you do, don’t pick the special. Hal’s been experimenting with sushi. It’s been a boon for the people doc, if you know what I mean.”
Serena sat back, her hand on her belly. It was a force of habit. She’d spent two of the last four years pregnant, a baby growing inside her, feeling him and then her kick and wiggle and thrive. Someone was always touching her belly when she was pregnant. Adam or Jake or sometimes both would sit or lay beside her, big palms covering their child.
She forced her hand away because she wouldn’t feel that again. There were no more babies for her.
“Hey, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Max Harper’s voice had gone low, apologetic. “Please don’t cry. I can’t stand it when pretty ladies cry. And don’t think I mean anything flirty by that. I’m a married man and my brother would kick my ass if I ever disrespected our wife like that. I just… All my life I hated to see women scared or crying, I guess. Whatever happened with Nate, once Gemma gets here it’ll all get cleared up and you’ll be okay. And if Nate’s an asshole, then I’ll pound on him myself. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do. Work’s slow right now and Rye can handle the horses, so I’ll deal with Nate for you.”
Serena reached up. She was crying? Sure enough, her cheeks were wet. “I’m all right.”
She wasn’t. She wasn’t even close to all right and she hadn’t been for the whole eighteen months since she’d given birth to her last child. Brianna. Her gorgeous daughter who should be enough.
“It’s okay. We don’t have to talk, but if you have any questions, I know this jail like the back of my hand.” The big cowboy sat down on the bench and sighed. “I spend a bit of time in here. It’s way better when Rach is here with me though. Jail cell loving has its advantages, but then my brother gets pissed that he gets left out, and Rach gets pissed because when Rye gets nasty, we tend to fight. So maybe it’s not so good.”
What the hell was wrong with her? She was sitting in a jail cell. A fucking jail cell. When, for the rest of her life, would she be sitting in a cell talking to some cowboy who had said…
“Your wife? Your wife and your brother’s wife?”
“Yes,” he replied simply. No further explanation.
She needed more information. “So your wife is named Rachel. And your brother’s wife is?”
“Rachel.”
Frustration welled, but she wasn’t about to give up. She would get it out of him. “You both married women named Rachel?”
Max nodded, as though happy she’d finally gotten it. “We both married a woman named Rachel.”
Serena bit back a groan and decided to get to the heart of the matter. “Are you trying to tell me you’re involved in a marriage where two men share one woman?”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you the whole time,” Max replied. “Now it’s not as sexy as it sounds. Not according to my Rach. She doesn’t think I hear her, but sometimes she tells her friend Jen that two men means twice the soreness. But I’m real gentle. It’s Rye who sometimes doesn’t treat her right. But I will say when it comes to that kind of thing, it’s Callie I feel for.”
Oh, she had to know where that went. “Who’s Callie?”
Max leaned forward. “Callie’s married to Sheriff Asshole, but she’s also married to the man who runs Trio, and let me tell you I’ve seen Zane Hollister nekkid and I have no idea how that man has any blood at all in his brain. Not that I’m a slouch in that department. I do quite nicely there if I do say so myself. I’m just saying there’s a limit to what will fit up there and I think Zane’s stretching it.”
“Maxwell Harper, do you have any discretion at all?” A lovely woman with blonde hair strode in, a cup of coffee in her hand.
Max shook his head. “Not an ounce. Rye got all that discretion stuff and I got the good looks.”
The blonde’s eyes rolled as she looked over at Serena. “They’re identical twins and please ignore Max.” She frowned his way. “You know we’re not supposed to scare the tourists.”
“She’s not a tourist,” Max shot back. “She’s another one of Nate’s victims, and she’s way more scared of jail than she is marital ménage. I’m trying to make her feel better by talking about the town’s least well-kept secret. We have the most polyandrous marriages in the country. We also hold the record for most murders per capita in the world.”
“I thought that South American town passed us,” the blonde said.
“We shot back up after what Henry and Logan did to those drug dealers a while back. I swear that Colombian town probably sent them up here just for that purpose,” Max continued. “So after the murdering thing, we’re known for our nudist colony and our happy threesomes. Should I have started with the murders or the big hairy nekkid dudes running around? I rather thought I was doing a good job, Gemma.”
Serena stood up. Maybe she was still dreaming, but it was a good one. There was an awful lot of material here.
The woman named Gemma turned to her. “Ms. Dean-Miles, I have no idea what you did that got Nate so excited, but I need to explain your rights as one of the many woefully jailed in Bliss County. I can sue the shit out of this county for you, but all the last person got out of it was a lifetime membership to Teeny’s Fudge of the Month club. You’re better off going with what I like to call the Don’t Sue Us package. It includes a night’s stay at the Movie Motel, dinner and drinks at Trio, and a bottle of Mel’s tonic, which you might not want because it’s rotgut whiskey.”
“It’s the damn finest moonshine you’ve ever had,” Max explained. “Don’t listen to Big City over there. She’s got fancy schmancy tastes in everything but men. Her husbands are pure blue collar. They’re mechanics.”
“Husbands?” Did everyone have two husbands here?
Gemma shrugged. “You know what they say, when in Bliss…”
Serena picked up the little pencil that had been left for her order. The sadness that had enveloped her seemed to lift as she took stock of where she was and what was actually happening here. This was weird. Weird town. Weird people. Weird was awesome. “How about I don’t sue if you get me a notepad and keep right on talking. Mr. Harper, how did you meet your wife? Is she from Bliss? Did she come here looking for two husbands?”
Gemma brought over a yellow legal pad and handed it through the bars. “You’re easy to please.”
How long had it been since she’d genuinely found herself curious? Like super excited to meet someone new and hear their unique stories curious? Probably since the surgery. But now, far from home, she felt that old excitement. There were stories here. So many stories.
“Start talking.” She sat down and began making notes.
Max leaned in, his voice deep and rich as he started his tale. “Now that’s a real interesting story and I think you’ll find I’m the hero. The answer is no. Rach did not come to town looking for two husbands. I think she was a bit surprised by how all that worked out for her. You see, it all started when this waitress walked in the door of Stella’s Diner and decided she was in love with me…”
The stationhouse door opened with a little crash. Serena looked up from the notes she was taking about how Max’s twin brother Rye had been easily taken out with a child’s toy, and Max and their dog, Quigley, had been forced to save Rachel from her evil ex. A petite brunette strode in, followed by the sheriff, who had a stack of books in his hand.
Familiar-looking books.
“I can’t believe you, Nathan Wright,” the brunette was saying.
A woman with strawberry blonde hair and a baby on her hip strode in right behind the sheriff. “Really, Callie? You can’t believe that Nate illegally arrested someone because he thought you would want to meet her? Because if you can say that then you have not met your husband.”
“I’m just saying that my husband barely notices what I read,” Callie said. “Much less remembers who wrote the books.”
“How can I not notice, baby?” The sheriff looked way less arrogant as he fumbled behind his petite wife. “These books are all over the house. You’ve always got your nose in one.”
Callie put a hand on her hip, facing her husband. “Well, Pierce Craig lost his brother to an evil doctor who used a laser to make him forget that he’s a Craig. How am I supposed to even breathe until they find him? Pierce hasn’t even figured out he’s still alive. He’s out there all alone and at the mercy of that nasty old doctor.”
Yeah, she hadn’t even been subtle about that one. It had been far too good a story to not tell. Not that she’d started that storyline until Theo had been home alive and well and finally remembering his place in the world. Erin had even come to her, sat down over some margaritas, and told Serena to just make her look like a badass and they would be okay.
The women of McKay-Taggart knew the power of a good story, too.
“See, I know it’s been bugging you and that’s why I kept her safe for you,” the sheriff explained. “She was going to drive right through and not even stop to say hello.” He snapped his fingers. “Gemma, I figured out what I’m charging her with. Cliffhangers. Leaving her readers hanging and making them cry. There’s gotta be a law against that. We can hold her here until she frees that character person Callie’s worried about.”
Yep, she was getting Miseried. They always joked about it, she and Chris and Bridget. They teased each other over margaritas, but she was going to be held in a cell and forced to write.
The brunette turned, pointing her husband’s way. “You are not going to Misery anyone, Nathan. And it doesn’t matter because there’s zero chance that you have my favorite author in a holding cell.”
While the sheriff and his wife started to argue, the woman with the strawberry blonde hair walked up to the cell with a frown on her face. The cherubic baby reached out, grinning and calling for Dada.
“No, Paige, Daddy’s in a time-out.”
Rachel. This was Rachel, the woman who’d had to go on the run, who’d had to change her name and leave her life behind, who’d found the strength to reach out and take her life back.
Of course if she was stuck here for a while, maybe she could write more than one story.
“Now, Rach, you know how prickly Nate gets when he’s hormonal,” Max replied.
“There is no such thing as male menstruation, asshole,” Nate shouted.
“It’s the only thing that explains you,” Max shouted back.
The little girl clapped her hands as though fascinated by everything going on around her.
Yeah, Serena felt a little like that girl. “Ian calls it mansies.” Max’s face lit up. “Mansies. I like it. Nate’s got his mansies.” “Gemma, charge her with a 509,” Nate said, his mouth a flat line.
Gemma sighed and turned to her computer, but not before tossing back an explanation. “Unfortunately, Ms. Dean-Miles, that is an actual law. Helping Max Harper or Zane Hollister be more sarcastic than they already are is punishable by a thirty-dollar fine.”
“Stop that, Gemma.” Callie was staring into the cell.
Serena looked behind her, trying to figure out what had Callie transfixed.
“It’s you.”
Serena gave her a smile. Somehow sitting and talking to Max, hearing his crazy story, had eased something in her soul. “If the books you’re talking about are the Soldiers and Doms series, yes, I write them.”
Callie stepped forward, tears in her eyes. “But you also used to write Happiness, Montana, right?”
“That was years ago, but yes.” They were her first books, the ones where she wrote out all her fantasies of ménage, before she’d found her two perfect men. Before she’d failed them. She tried to shove the thought aside.
Callie stepped up and put her hands on the bars of the cell, her eyes gleaming with tears. “Those books got me through my mother’s cancer. They got me through being left alone for six years. They helped me know what I wanted out of life. Even now when the world gets to be too much and I need a safe place to go, I open up your books. Your characters are like a second family to me. I hope you understand what you mean to me.”
Now Serena was the one who was teary. “Thank you. I think I needed to hear that today.”
Rachel moved beside Callie. “You’re really her?”
Callie nodded solemnly. “She is. You look just like the picture on the backs of your books.”
Rachel suddenly frowned. “How could you do that to Rio Craig? And his girlfriend, Angel? And I blame the CIA guy. You know, if Tex Jones hadn’t gotten caught with his pants down by that senator, none of it would have happened. None of it.” Rachel walked over and handed her baby to the sheriff. “You locked up Max. You get to watch our kid, and do not put my precious baby girl in that cage with him or we’re going to have a problem, Nathan Wright. I have to go home and get my books for her to sign.” She turned, her green eyes narrowing. “Unless you’re really going to keep Rio and Angel apart forever, and then maybe we should have a talk.”
Rachel was obviously one of those fans. The kind who just might really kidnap an author and hold her in a remote place until said author rewrote the story to Rachel’s satisfaction. “No, ma’am. Rio and Angel are absolutely going to be back together. Eventually.”
Rachel stared. “Very soon.”
The woman with the strawberry blonde hair made Serena super happy Erin was laid back when it came to her literature. “Good, then. I’ll be back. And I’ll call the club. They’ll all want to come.”
“The club?”
Callie grinned. “The ‘I Shot a Son of a Bitch’ club. We meet twice a month to share information and work through the problems we have because we shot a son of a bitch. We also have a book club and read your stories. You’ll like it. There’s pie.”
“Callie, baby, I think this child has pooped herself.” The sheriff was holding Paige out in front of him.
“That’s right, baby girl. You’re an outlaw. Crap on the sheriff,” Max encouraged.
Callie simply walked past him to Gemma and held out a hand. Gemma pressed a key into it. “Nope. You heard Rachel. You incarcerated half her husbands. You get baby-watching duty, and Zane will be here soon so you’ll have our twins, too. I’m busting my favorite author out of jail so she can come and meet the women of Bliss.”
The sheriff followed after her, still holding the baby at arm’s length, but then he had some serious upper-body strength going. “Now, Callie, I did all of this for you.”
Callie winked her husband’s way. “I know you did and you’ll get your reward later. After I’ve spent some time with my surprise.” Callie stopped in front of the cell, using the key like it was something she’d done a million times. The cell door creaked open. “I was only joking, you know. If you need to go, you’re free to. I’m very glad I got to meet you. If you’ve got some time before you need to be on your way, I would love for you to sign my copies. And I sincerely apologize for my husband’s illegal jailing of your person.”
She could call someone to take her to the airport. It would be an easy thing to do. She could probably bump her flight up and be back in Dallas by this evening.
Or she could try to shove this veil of sorrow aside and find herself again. She could go and meet with women who apparently shot sons of bitches, and then find this Mel person and learn about the aliens. She could stay at a movie motel and see how other trios worked things out.
She’d been dropped in a weird version of paradise and it just might save her.
“I was promised a package that included a night’s stay,” she found herself saying. “I think I could look around town a bit. And as long as I have some time, I might as well meet your friends.”
Callie’s smile became brilliant and she reached for Serena’s hand. “Come on. I’d love to show you around.”
“I have to call my husbands first,” Serena said. “Can I use your landline?”
“Husbands? Like a Bliss girl?” Nate asked, his brows rising.
“I told you she’s the real deal, and she’s in the lifestyle, too. Like Stef and Jen,” Callie said.
Gemma pointed to the phone. “Use Cam’s. He’s out on a call. A bear scared two of the naturists up a tree and they can’t get down. I could have told them the bear can climb, too. Dumbasses need a bear kit, that’s what they need.”
Serena picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number. When Adam’s phone went to voice mail, she tried Jake’s. His went to voice mail immediately.
This was what they did now. They worked and missed each other’s calls and passed their children around. They said I love you to machines because it was too hard to stop down and answer calls. She’d done this. She’d been the one who didn’t want to talk about the problem she was having. She’d pushed them away.
“Hey, Jake. I’m in this town called Bliss. My car broke down and the sheriff arrested me, but it was okay because the cell was super nice. My rental is being fixed by Long-Haired Roger who’s actually bald, so I’m staying for a while. I love you and I promise when I come back I’m going to be better than I have been in a while and we’ll talk. Tell Adam I love him, too, and kiss the kids for me. I’ll try to make my plane tomorrow, but it might be the day after. I’m sorry I’ve been…distant. Bye, babe.”
She hung up as Max was refusing to come out of his jail cell.
“Nope. I gotta do my time or I won’t be rehabilitated,” he argued.
The sheriff was having none of it. “Get your ass out here and change this baby your sperm made.”
“How do you know it was me and not Rye?” Max asked.
“You’re fucking identical twins. You share sperm,” Nate argued back.
“Language, Nate.” Callie shook her head and reached for Serena’s hand. “You boys have fun. Now where should we start?”
Serena wasn’t sure. She wanted to see everything. She walked out into the sun and started to learn about Bliss.
Hours later she sat in a pretty little tavern called Trio, surrounded by a few of the women who had shown up at the impromptu signing. Many of the people of the town had come out. She’d met Marie Warner, who had explained that she did not read Serena’s books, but she supported her fully because she’d heard the heroines often shot sons of bitches, and that was good with her. Laura Niles had been a fan, but more of Serena’s husband than herself, and that had been a bit of fun, too. Apparently Adam’s new facial recognition software was already famous and it hadn’t made it to market yet. Laura had explained that she had been an FBI agent at one point and she admired what Adam was doing with his skill. She’d even asked after Alex and Eve, who she’d known briefly when she worked in the BAU.
Serena had more notes than she knew what to do with. She’d met Holly, who was married to an über-wealthy doctor and an ex-Russian mobster. Ex on the mobster part. Alexei Markov was definitely still Russian, and she wasn’t entirely certain he wasn’t related to Nick Markovic because the two looked an awful lot alike.
Hope Glen-Bennett was married to a rancher and a vet who’d grown up as brothers when their fathers had fallen for the same woman.
And Beth had married a rancher named Bo and one of the NFL’s most scandalous players. Serena didn’t follow football, but even she knew Trev McNamara’s story. The ex-addict had sat in the back waiting for his wife with a cup of coffee in his hand. At one point he’d come up and introduced himself and thanked Serena for all the joy she’d brought Beth.
Why couldn’t she feel the same joy?
“I’m simply saying she wasn’t the first writer to write a ménage story,” Nell Flanders explained. “I wasn’t saying they weren’t good. Just there are other writers out there.”
Nell Flanders had a cup of tea in front of her. Of all the women who had shown up, the pretty brunette with wide eyes and obviously granola tastes had been the only one who’d held herself back. She’d asked a couple of questions about the publishing world and pointed out that not everyone had Serena’s wild success.
Serena was pretty sure Nell was a writer, too.
“There are so many out there,” Serena said with a smile. She wasn’t about to argue with the woman. She’d been told Nell was pregnant, but she couldn’t tell from her slender figure. She’d also been told that Nell was having problems with her husband. That Serena could tell. It was there in the dark circles under the woman’s eyes. “You can always find someone who speaks to you.”
“I don’t need anyone else,” Jennifer Talbot said, taking a sip of her martini. “You’re the bomb, Serena.”
“She is. And I can’t believe we got to meet you.” Callie had shown her all over town, introducing her to the unique residents.
The bar they were in was owned by her family. Her other husband was a massive slab of masculinity named Zane Hollister. He was one of the loveliest men she’d ever seen, and watching him with Nate, bickering like the found brothers they were, made her miss Jake and Adam.
Were they disappointed, too? Did they wonder if one of them hadn’t drawn the short stick?
“Oh, there’s Rachel.” Callie nodded toward the door. “Jen, come with me for a minute. I’ve got a surprise for Serena I need some help with.”
Another surprise? She wasn’t sure she could handle much more. “There’s no need. I’m actually pretty tired. I was thinking about going to the motel.”
But Callie and Jen had already walked away. Leaving her alone with Nell, who didn’t seem to like her very much.
Quiet descended, and not the comfortable kind.
“I hear you are very politically active.”
Nell’s lips curled up in a faint smile. “I am. Well, not as much as I used to be. I can’t be chained to trees right now. I rather miss that and some of the things Henry would do before the police got there. He gets very excited at the thought of being discovered by the authorities. But that’s neither here nor there. It’s not good for the baby so I can’t climb up in trees either. I’ve found that’s a useful protest. Well, it was until Max simply cut the tree down from underneath me.” She waved a hand. “It was all right. Rachel and Rye caught me in one of those life net things. Apparently the town bought one just for me.”
Because the town was crazy…and they seemed to genuinely love and care about each other. Rather like her husbands’ work family. Ian Taggart could be the most sarcastic man alive, but he would do anything for his people.
“How far along are you?” Small talk was needed until the others got back. Then she could go to the motel and try to make some sense of her notes. All day as she’d walked around the town, she’d felt more like herself than she had in months. Now she’d slowed down and her doubts were creeping back in.
Especially since they were talking about babies.
Nell put a hand on her still-flat stomach, her skin going a little pale. “Not far along at all. A little over three months.”
“Your first?”
Nell was silent for a moment. “I don’t know how to answer that. Sort of. It would be my first child if he or she comes to term. I’ve had two miscarriages, so I don’t know if this one will take either.”
Serena felt tears pierce her eyes at the hollow tone in Nell’s voice. Was she really the one who should talk to her about this? Nell had been pretty negative the whole time she’d been around her. If Charlotte or Grace had been here, one of them would have taken over. She was better at sitting back and observing.
Nell shook her head as though trying to clear it. “You can’t write about Bliss.”
Serena sat up a little straighter. “You have to admit it’s an interesting town. I’m not trying to be hostile or anything, but I can write about whatever I like. I’m sorry if that bothers you. I don’t mean to make fun of anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about. I would honor all the love stories here. I think they’re important.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Nell said, biting her bottom lip. “I’m sorry I’ve been rude. I’m jealous. I hate admitting that. Can I please tell you something that I would prefer you keep a secret? There’s a reason you can’t write the Bliss stories.”
“Because you already wrote them?” Serena thought she had that writer look about her. She’d read a lot of ménage. Listening to Max’s story today had seemed familiar, but he’d made himself the hero of the story to the exclusion of all others. Oh, crap. She had read it. “You’re Libby Finn.”
Libby Finn had started out writing pure ménage set in a fictional Western town. She was still with her small press publisher, but lately had shifted toward more romantic suspense. But those first few books…
“I’m sorry I was bitchy,” Nell was saying. “It was hard to listen to my friends talk about how awesome someone else’s work is. Especially since when they read mine they were very critical. Not that they knew it was mine. It’s a secret I hope you’ll keep. Rachel thought Rene from Her Two Cowboys was too hard on Mac and too easy on Ty. She was very upset that Rene hadn’t stayed behind in Dallas and taken out her stalker. She asked me why the character would give up her whole life to go on the run. Which is exactly what she did in real life. I can’t win.”
Serena knew that well. “Some people aren’t very self-aware. And it’s far easier to like a book that doesn’t hit so close to home. But oh, how I loved your books. I don’t know what brought me here, but I know it wasn’t just an alternator. You were the first romance I picked up that showed me what I wanted in a relationship.”
“I wasn’t looking for praise,” Nell began, blushing.
“But you’ll get it from me.” Sometimes gratitude felt even better than praise. Sometimes thanking the people who helped you opened something up inside that was knotted and coiled. “I was in a bad marriage, and your books not only helped me escape when I needed to, they reminded me that I liked telling stories, too. I would think about your characters and would find some of my own. It was like you reached out through the pages and offered me a hand up, so thank you, Nell Flanders. You might not have some major movie deal, but you have people who need to hear your stories. I should know because I was one of them.”
Nell reached for a napkin, wiping her eyes. “Thank you. I think I needed to hear that today. And despite my earlier behavior, I love your books. Even my husband has read a few of them. He said Pierce Craig reminded him of someone he worked with a long time ago. Tex Jones, too. I haven’t written in a while. I’m too preoccupied with the baby.”
Serena reached over and put a hand on Nell’s. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I had trouble getting pregnant when I was married to my first husband. Now, of course, I think it was a blessing because he was a horrible man, but at the time I felt useless and empty.”
She wasn’t about to spout platitudes like don’t worry, this one will be fine because she couldn’t know that. Nell couldn’t know that, and there was no way she wouldn’t worry.
Nell’s hand flipped over and Serena found herself holding it, threading their fingers together like they were old friends—or simply strangers who found a tendril of a bond and wanted to hold on. “But you have children now, right? It all worked out and you’re happy?”
Serena went silent. Happy? Had she been truly happy since that moment she’d realized what was going to happen? It had been a blur. One minute everything had seemed fine and the next there had been shouting and Jake and Adam’s panicked faces looking down at her before they wheeled her away.
Had she been happy when she’d seen her tiny baby girl, or had she wondered if this baby would cost her everything she had?
So much pressure on a tiny infant.
“I have two, a boy and a girl. I thought I would have more. I thought there would be plenty of time, you know.” She shouldn’t be talking about this. This was something she kept buried deep and never vocalized because if she did, if she said what she was afraid of, then it could be real.
“You’re still young.” Nell’s hand tightened around hers as though she knew how much Serena needed the support.
“But I can’t have more babies. Something went wrong with my daughter’s birth and I can’t… They took my uterus. I only have one ovary left. I can adopt, but…” The words were shaky. Somehow when she’d talked to Kai—the resident therapist—she’d been able to smile and say all the right things. She’d been able to tell him that she was satisfied with the family she had and she didn’t need more. She hadn’t cried and Kai had praised her for her rationality.
And told her that when she was ready, when the pain couldn’t be held off a second longer, that she should let it go. Anytime, anywhere, he’d said. If she needed him, he would be there.
What she’d been able to keep from Kai, from her husbands, she couldn’t hold back now. She’d breezed through it right after Brianna had been born. She’d said if they wanted one more kiddo, they could adopt. And they could. Adoption didn’t solve her problem. Adoption couldn’t make things right and fair.
The dam was breaking and she was going to look like such a fool. Walking around town, seeing all the happy trios with their kids had softened her up, had made her long for more.
“Nell, what did you do?” Rachel was standing with Jen and Callie, all three women looking concerned.
“Serena, are you all right?” Callie asked. She put down what she’d been holding. “It’s a lemon icebox pie. Pierce Craig’s favorite. I thought you would like it, so I had Stella make one special, but she’s got chocolate, too.”
“This isn’t about pie, Callie.” Jen slid in beside her while Rachel and Callie took places across the table. Jen put a hand on Serena’s free one. “I remember when I broke down. It was four days after I got here and I’d just moved into the tiny apartment above the diner. I’d come off a shift and Stella had taken me aside to make sure I had everything I needed upstairs. She’d noticed I didn’t have many clothes or possessions at all really. Just what was in my backpack. The town had gotten together and gave me a three hundred dollar gift certificate so I could buy some new shoes and jeans and stuff. I walked upstairs and I cried for hours because this town was kind enough to care about me.”
“For me it was day one,” Rachel said quietly. “I was on my last ten dollars and I blew out a tire at the base of the mountain. Mel found me and I didn’t have a spare so he brought me to Stella’s and arranged to have one sent down and put on my crappy car. By the time I knew what was happening, I had a job and food in my belly and I was home. I sat down in that café and I cried for an hour. I was so worried Stella would tell me she’d made a terrible mistake, but she just patted my hand and told me everyone who comes to Bliss breaks down at some point. She said it was because Bliss was the place to go when you had nowhere else. Bliss is the end of the line, the place where you decide to stop running from your problems and face them so you can start living again.”
Face them. Look at her problems because she wasn’t alone with them. She hadn’t been alone in Dallas, but somehow it was easier here. “I can’t have any more babies.”
Two hands squeezed hers.
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” they murmured. No one told her she should be happy with the ones she had. They seemed to know she was, but allowed her to mourn what she’d lost.
“We didn’t plan,” she said haltingly, getting to the heart of the problem. “We didn’t think we had to. We wanted nature to take its course and…”
Callie leaned in. “What do you mean?”
“I think both my kids are Adam’s and Jake is going to feel so betrayed when he realizes I didn’t give him a child.” There it was. Out in the open, the ghost that had been haunting her.
Callie’s eyes went wide. “Did you talk about it? Did they want to make sure?”
She shook her head. “We thought we had all the time in the world. We wanted four or five kids, so we didn’t do DNA tests or make sure one of them wore a condom so they each had a child of their blood.”
Callie’s hand went over hers, over Jen’s and Nell’s, and she was surrounded by feminine caring. “There is no blood. Not in this kind of relationship. There’s only found family, and it’s so important that blood doesn’t matter. We have talked about it, Nate and Zane and I. The first pregnancy was hard on me. I don’t know if I want another one.”
Rachel’s eyes went wide. “Callie? Are you sure?”
She shook her head. “Not at all. I know I want to wait, and that means every year that goes by hurts our chances. Not once has Zane complained that he didn’t get his kid. Do you know why?”
Tears streamed down her face because she was looking at everything from her standpoint and not theirs. She was viewing herself as some thing they always got an equal piece of or they behaved like children who couldn’t share a toy, and that so was not her men. She wasn’t giving them credit, wasn’t giving them the chance to comfort her and to talk about what was wrong because she pretended like there wasn’t anything. She was holding back.
“Because I already have two kids, baby,” a deep voice said. “I don’t need more. I’ll take them. If you change your mind, I’ll take any child we have. Hell, if we find one somewhere, I’ll take that one, too. Who knows? It’s Bliss. Weird shit happens here.” Zane Hollister was standing at their table, his beautiful face solemn. “Ms. Dean-Miles, I don’t know your husbands, but I know the kind of men who need the relationship you’re in. They aren’t selfish. They care more about the love they’ve found than any traditional child you could give them. And they love their wives more than anything. They love her so much, they’re willing to share her. And their children are theirs no matter who they look like. Charlie and Zander are ours and I’m their dad no matter whose DNA was used to make them. My love will be imprinted on them and that’s what counts. But you won’t believe it until you hear it from them.”
She had to talk to them, especially Jake. She wasn’t sure, but neither child looked like Jake and she would bet her life Tristan was Adam’s.
“Let me take you out to the Movie Motel and you can call them on the landline,” Callie said. “When you’re done you can either be alone or we can watch the movie of the night and eat lemon pie, if you feel like company.”
“It’s Harry Potter,” Jen said.
Lemon pie and Harry Potter. Some things were different and others so close to home.
“Yes, I think I would like that.”
Twenty minutes later, she was alone, her new friends sitting in lawn chairs and watching Harry meet Ron and Hermione.
She picked up the phone and dialed, her hand shaking.
“Baby?” Jake’s voice came over the line, his worry apparent in his tone. “Serena, baby, are you all right? I got your message and we’ve been going insane. What do you mean you got arrested? I can have Mitch there in the morning.”
“Calm down, Jake.” She hadn’t meant to scare them. “I’m fine. I’m… Jake…”
His voice lost the panic. “Baby… Serena, talk to me. Tell me what’s happening. Fuck. I know what’s happening, but I can’t talk about it until you do. I can’t… I just want you to know how much I love you and our kids. We’re complete, Serena. You and me and Adam and our kids. We’re whole. There’s nothing missing. Nothing else I would want.”
“You knew?”
“I knew the hysterectomy bothered you.”
“What if…”
“What if what? What if neither of those babies I love so fucking much don’t have a drop of my DNA?” Jake asked softly. “I was there when they were conceived and if that’s true then they’re the combination of the two people I love most in this world, and that means everything to me. I don’t say it to him because it’s not physical between us, but I love Adam. He’s one-third of my soul. One-fifth, because our kids took their part, too, and I don’t want it back. I want those pieces of me held in the people I love most, and dear god, I need my wife to know how grateful I am with the family she gave me. You made us a family, Serena. I don’t need some uterus to make me love you. We don’t need more. We need this. Us. You and Adam and our kids, baby, you aren’t just enough. You are my whole world.”
She sobbed as his words finally broke through to her.
“What’s happening? Is that Serena?” Adam’s voice was saying over the line.
“She’s fine. Our wife is fine,” Jake said, his voice patient, but she could hear the emotion behind it. “She’s perfect and when she comes home to us, we’re going to prove it to her.”
He loved her. It was enough. “I’m sorry I’ve been so distant.”
“No, baby. You needed time, but never think that I wasn’t going to be right here waiting for you because I was merely waiting for you to come home to us.”
Waiting. They’d been waiting and she’d felt alone. She should have known that she was never alone. Not with two husbands who loved her, who understood her.
Who would never let her go too far away.
She cried and knew no matter what came her way, she wasn’t alone.
Serena opened the door to the Movie Motel, surprised to see Nell standing there. It was ten in the morning and she wasn’t due to leave until this afternoon. She’d managed to change her flight and Zane Hollister had offered to drive her to the airport and take care of her rental when it was ready to go back. She was meeting Callie and the others for lunch in a couple of hours.
She was seriously thinking of buying a cabin here. It would be good for her kiddos to see they weren’t the only ones in the world with two dads.
“Hi, Nell. How are you?”
“I was wondering the same about you,” Nell said. “I was hoping I could show you this place I know. I realize that you called your husbands last night and worked things out with them, but there’s another layer I think you’re neglecting.”
“What’s that?”
Nell held a hand out, her face solemn. “I know that every time I lost a baby I would feel…like less of a woman. Let me take you somewhere amazing. Somewhere you’ll know how special your body is no matter what you’ve lost.”
Damn it. She wasn’t through crying yet. She took Nell’s hand and let her lead the way.
Was she doing this? She was totally doing this. She was on a mountain and she was naked and she was going to walk outside with all the other naked people.
Nell had driven her up to a place called the Mountain and Valley Naturist Community. She’d promised it was a magical place.
“It’s okay,” Nell said, not seeming to care that she was totally naked and about to walk outside. “Think of it like a club for people who don’t get the spanking thing. Not any kinder, but a little gentler. Walk outside. Feel the sun on your skin and let it make you feel young and vital. Let it remind you that you’re alive and whole and loved.”
The woman had a way with words.
Serena stepped into the sunlight and let it hit her skin, felt the grass beneath her toes, and heard the soothing chatter of people all around her. She lifted her face to the sun.
She was alive and whole and loved. It was enough. “Now that is a beautiful woman,” a familiar voice said. “The most beautiful woman,” another agreed.
She opened her eyes and Adam and Jake were standing there, gloriously naked.
“This place really is magic,” Nell whispered. “But there’s no magic quite like a happily ever after. I called them yesterday and told them they should come up here for a few days. You’re booked in a suite. Enjoy your men, Serena. Welcome to Bliss.”
Serena ran to them and as their arms surrounded her, she knew she was whole again.