One to Keep

Chapter Seven

Jen pushed through the glass door of Stella’s diner and was welcomed by a nice blast of heat. She shook off the cold, dragging the parka over her shoulders and hanging it up on one of the hooks on the wall. A sense of nostalgia nearly overwhelmed her. She’d worked in this little diner for a year and a half. Though she’d had a ton of jobs before she’d waitressed at Stella’s, this was where she had been the happiest. Jen was shocked at the way tears filled her eyes.

Why the hell had she left?

Two arms wrapped around her, enfolding her in a sympathetic embrace. Callie was always quick with a hug, always seemed to know when she needed one and never held back. “Oh, sweetie, it’s all right.”

“I left her.” Jen’s heart clenched. She bit back a sob. She was in the middle of the diner. It was after the lunch rush, but the place was still packed. And she didn’t care. “She gave me a job and took care of me, and I didn’t even say good-bye.”

A throaty voice broke through Jen’s misery. “Well, I figured Stef did something to make you run, baby girl. I just wish you would have written to let me know you were okay.” Jen turned to see Stella Benoit standing at the counter. She was a forty-something bottle blonde who wore far too much makeup. She was entirely beautiful to Jen’s mind. Stella had given her so much more than a job. She’d given her a home and a place where she could be who she wanted to be.

“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing Jen could think to say.

Stella’s eternal helmet of blonde hair nodded. “All right then, sweetie. You come and sit down. I’ll get you a nice cup of coffee.

You want some food?”

“I would love a burger. I haven’t had a decent burger since I left,” Jen said, a huge weight off her shoulders. Stella wasn’t tossing her out. She had Callie at her side. She might be able to come home after all.

Suddenly Dallas seemed so far away, and the fight she’d had with Stef seemed a silly reason to have left her home. She’d done what she’d been taught to do. She left when the going got a little rough. It was what her mother had done. Every time her artist mother had broken up with a boyfriend or gotten into financial trouble, she would move on to the next city. It would be better in Denver or Cleveland or Miami, she would say.

Life would never be better than she’d had it in Bliss, Jen knew.

She could run as far as she liked, but this was her home.

“You have to stop, or you’re going to make me cry,” Callie said, her hands brushing along Jen’s cheeks as she slid into the booth across from her.

“I’m just happy to be back.” A great sense of calm came over her.

She took a deep breath, enjoying the familiar smells of frying burgers, the piney scent of the cleaner Stella used on the floor, and slightly mangy dog. Jen felt a smile cross her face as she looked down at an old friend. “Hey, Quigley.”

The enormous dog shoved his head under her hand, his not-so-subtle request for attention. Jen obliged and looked around for his owner.

Rachel Harper stood by the dog she’d taken on when she’d married the Harper twins. Rachel was a lovely woman in her early thirties with strawberry blonde hair, pretty green eyes, and a wry smile that let the world know she didn’t take it too seriously. Jen’s eyes caught on the biggest change since the last time she’d seen Rachel. She appeared to have swallowed a beach ball.

“Don’t even say it,” Rachel said with a shake of her head. “Damn, you’re just what I need, another skinny thing in town. Scoot, Callie.” Callie snorted sweetly as she made room for Rachel and her soon-to-be-born kiddo. “Yeah, ’cause you’re not glowing and gorgeous.”

“It’s hard to feel that way when I waddle like a penguin,” Rachel said. She snapped her fingers gently at the dog. “Q, take a load off.” The big mutt lay down on the floor by her feet, his head settling onto his enormous paws, and an audible sigh came from his chest.

“Is there a reason Q is following you around?” Callie asked.

Rachel’s head shook. “Max. He’s making me and Rye crazy, Callie. He’s got Dr. Burke on speed dial, and he watches me like a hawk. You would think I was the first woman to ever give birth.”

“He loves you,” Jen said with a little sigh of her own. Max had been the baddest man around until the day he’d met Rachel.

“Rye loves me, too, but he doesn’t feel the need to know where I am and what my blood pressure is twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I swear Max wouldn’t let me drive until Rye had it out with him.”

Callie had gone a little white in the face, and suddenly she was staring out at the street.

“Rye is the reasonable one. If I didn’t have him, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Jen shook her head and pointed to Callie. “I don’t think so. She knows something.”

Now Callie’s face flushed, and Jen had to stifle a laugh because her glasses went just the slightest bit foggy. Rachel swung her head around like a predator sensing an easy kill.

“What do you know, Callie Hollister-Wright? You tell me right now.”

Callie’s fingers drummed nervously, and she shot Jen a stare.

“Thanks a lot. Now I’m going to get in trouble. Fine. Rye’s not as reasonable as you think, but he is way sneakier than Max. The reason he’s okay with you driving is that he had a GPS installed on your vehicle. It tracks you, and Nate and Rye both have the codes so they know where you are all the time. That’s why Max backed off.”

“That son of a bitch. I swear if I could get my foot more than three inches off the ground I would shove it up his ass. Reasonable?

He’s…” Rachel’s eyes got watery. “He’s so sweet.” Tears began to fall. “And Max. I love them so much.” Rachel buried her head in Callie’s shoulder and started to cry.

Quigley got off the ground, and suddenly his head was in Rachel’s lap. He whined a little as though he couldn’t stand his mistress’s tears.

“Hormones,” Callie mouthed as she patted Rachel’s hair. “She’ll be fine.”

“Max says I can’t go anywhere without Q. He’s trained the dog to come find him if my water breaks. I spilled a glass of water on the floor the other day, and ten minutes later Max was trying to take me to the hospital. Do you know how crazy you have to be to train your dog like that?”

“Crazy in love,” Callie said soothingly.

Max was crazy in love with his wife. There was no question about that. For Max and Rye, Rachel was the sun in the sky. It didn’t come as a surprise that they felt the need to watch over her every minute of the day. They wanted to know what happened to her. They wanted to be there if she came to harm, to love and protect her. If Rachel had been arrested like Jen had been, they would have been right on the case. Like Stef.

“How did Stef know?” Jen asked. It suddenly struck her that Rye wasn’t the only sneaky bastard. “Nate said something about a PI. I thought someone called because they found his number in my phone.

I didn’t know who to use as next of kin.” Callie continued to soothe Rachel, but her eyes flared briefly before she answered. “I believe he set an army of private investigators on your ass the minute he found out you had left town. He knew you were going to Dallas before the bus stopped in Tulsa.” Damn him. He was so confusing. “Why?”

Rachel’s head came off Callie’s shoulder, and both of them turned to her before glancing back at each other.

“Is she really that stupid?” Rachel asked, her voice going husky.

She picked up a napkin and wiped at her eyes. Q settled back down.

“Yes,” Callie replied, “but I have hope for her. At least she’s finally asking the question.”

Jen shook her head. “He was a jerk to me. He told me he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t have a relationship with me.”

“Yeah, and he probably chose to tell you this after he slept with you.” Rachel’s face was still blotchy from her crying, but a sympathetic look took over. “Men are dumb. So dumb. Not that Max and Rye were. I mean, they’re dumb in other ways, but they knew their hearts. Stef is just dumb.”

Jen looked to Callie. Callie was Stef’s best friend. She had stood by him for years. She was as close to him as a sister. Surely she would defend him.

“He’s also a bit of an ass at times, and Rachel’s right, he’s just dumb as a post when it comes to this.”

“Are we talking about my boy?” Stella asked as she set down three mugs of what looked like hot chocolate. “He’s always behaved like an idiot when it comes to Jennifer. He’s so smooth around those other women he brings into town, but he practically falls all over himself over one of my waitresses. I always knew he had good taste.”

“How can you say that?” Jen asked, completely at a loss. Her world was spinning on its axis and stopping in a completely foreign place. “He ignored me for eighteen months. I begged. I pleaded. And he just said no.”

“And the minute you turned your back he stared at you like a lovesick puppy dog,” Stella explained. “I know that boy. Hell, after his father left I practically raised him. Love him like he was my own.

You are the only woman he’s ever really fallen for, and it scares the crap out of him.”

“Why? It wasn’t like I was playing hard to get. I walked in and practically fell at his feet. I found out about all the pervy things he liked and said, hey, I can do pervy things, too. I bought BDSM books.

I learned the lingo. I was the easiest lay he was ever going to get, and he turned me down. So one of you has to explain how all this rejection equals true love.”

“Do you know Lana O’Malley?” Callie asked.

Jen felt her heart drop. Sure she knew her. Lana O’Malley was gorgeous and loaded. She was a stunning, curvy blonde bombshell.

She was everything a man could want. She never had a hair out of place. She would never be caught dead with oil paint under her fingernails. She was Stef’s sub. God, how could she have forgotten about Lana? Was she still around? Was she the reason he didn’t want his dad in the guesthouse?

“I can see you do,” Callie said with a nod. “He had a training date with her twice a month for the last three years. He hasn’t seen her since the day you walked out.”

Jen felt her mouth drop. Stef took his Dom role seriously. “Why?” Callie’s shoulders came up in a little shrug. “He won’t talk to me about it, but if you ask me, it’s because he was committed elsewhere.”

“Damn it, I’ve never told that man no. Why would he push me away? I slept with him. I gave him everything I had. I told him I loved him. Why did he dump me?”

“His mom,” three voices said in perfect harmony.

“Thanks, that clears up everything.” Jen wanted to pull her hair out. “One of you explain, now.”

Stella scooted in beside Jen, her hand running soothingly across Jen’s as she urged her to take a sip of the cocoa. “Stefan’s mama was very young when she married Sebastian. She was twenty-four, and she wasn’t ready to be a wife or a mother.”

“She was older than me,” Jen said, more to herself than anyone else.

“Yes,” Callie agreed. “I never met her, but I saw a picture of her.

She was really beautiful, a pageant queen. She was Miss Oklahoma or something. She met Stef’s dad and married him within six weeks.”

“And had Stef a year later,” Stella explained, her voice even, though Jen could see her eyes tightening. “I have all of this secondhand, but she didn’t like living in Dallas. She wanted to go to LA and become a movie star. Sebastian wanted a wife. She wanted a sugar daddy. When Stef was five, she left. Sebastian was devastated.

He left Dallas and ended up here for a couple of years. When he went back, Stef stayed. But I think his parents’ divorce wrecked him. It’s not you he’s scared of. It’s the fact that you’re twenty-three, hon. He doesn’t think you know your mind yet.” A whole bunch of things fell into place. Every fight and argument she’d ever had with Stef suddenly had a sheen of clarity. He’d spent time claiming she needed to work on her art rather than chasing around a man. He’d claimed he didn’t have time for her. He’d pushed her away and then pulled her back when there was the slightest hint of danger.

God, he was a dumbass.

And yet she couldn’t be too intelligent since her heart, her stomped-on and busted-up heart, was already softening. It had been burst and broken, and at the slightest sign of hope, it perked up and held out its stupid hands and wanted a hug from the same man who’d damaged it in the first place.

She hadn’t learned anything from her mother, and she never would. Not ever. She’d just keep trying, like her mom had.

“He missed his mom?” Jen couldn’t stand the thought of it. In her mind’s eye she could see him as a child, alone and abandoned. She knew the story. Sebastian had left, and he’d been raised in Bliss. It had turned out fine, but the vision of a lonely boy caused her eyes to water and her mind to race. She remembered all the times she’d told him she just wanted a fling. She’d been lying. She’d thought that once she had him in bed, she could convince him that she was girlfriend material. When he’d turned her down, she’d pouted and ranted and made an ass of herself.

“He would never admit it, but yes, he missed her terribly,” Stella said softly. There was a gleam of moisture in her eyes, but she sniffed it away. “His father made a mess of things because he couldn’t commit after she left. Stef had made friends and wouldn’t go back to Dallas. Sebastian let him stay. He fell for you. You walked out at the first sign of trouble.”

Jen turned quickly. “I left after he told me it would never work. I left after he told me how much he regretted what was the best night of my life.”

Stella nodded. “Yes, you left rather than fight for him or for your life here. You left because you were mad.”

“I left because I was embarrassed.” The truth hit her like a ton of bricks. She hadn’t left to spare him. She hadn’t run out because there was nothing for her in Bliss. Everything she cared about was in this little mountain town, and she’d left it behind to spare herself some momentary embarrassment.

“What were you embarrassed about?” Stella asked, her tone grave, as though the next answer really meant something to her.

Jen felt the tears begin to roll down her cheeks. “I was embarrassed that he couldn’t love me back. I was embarrassed because I knew I would never stop loving him, but I couldn’t make him love me.”

“Oh, baby girl, that is nothing to be embarrassed about.” Stella pulled her close. “Every woman in the world has loved some man who didn’t deserve her. That’s no reason to give up your home and your friends.”

“And it’s not true,” Callie said. “I don’t care what he said. He missed you. Look, Jen, I don’t know what happened that night. He won’t talk about it. I do know that he bought a dozen red roses from Marie and Teeny the next day, and he tossed them in the garbage outside your place when he realized you had left.”

Rachel had tears streaming down her cheeks, too. “Max said Stef has been very enthusiastic in their fistfights since Jen left. It’s a sign that he misses you. So much.” Rachel sobbed into her napkin. “Sorry.

I can’t help it. I don’t care what the doctor says. I think I’m having a litter. There has to be more than one baby. I’m a whale.” Jen couldn’t help it. She laughed through the watery mess of her tears. Something heavy had lifted from her, and it felt good to cry and laugh and just be with these women. It didn’t matter that every tourist in the place was watching them like they were crazy and all the locals were on their cell phones telling the people who weren’t there about the waterworks.

“So Stef is dumb,” Jen said in a rush of joy.

“Very, very dumb,” Callie agreed with a smile.

Dumb she could handle. Jen reached out to pick up her cocoa, but she met Stella’s hand, and the mug spilled off to the side, dripping to the floor.

Q was up and running for the door, his big body hitting it with a force that sent it flying open. Jen got a glimpse of the dog as he ran through the snow.

Rachel pointed to the street beyond the window. “We’ve got about five minutes before Max gets here. He’s at the feed store. Ever since Dennis bought it and turned it into a church on Sundays and started only giving discounts to those who attend services, Max has been on his ass. Better order him a burger, or better yet, call Zane. He might need a beer.”

“Don’t worry about it, hon.” Stella got up and started mopping up the mess. “Hal keeps a bottle of whiskey in the back. If that doesn’t work, we can call the doc. I’ve heard he keeps tranquilizer darts around for Mel. I figure they’ll work on Max, too. I like that doctor, I tell you.”

Stella walked off, her boots clanging lightly on the floor.

Callie leaned forward, her elbows on the table. “So, you going after Stef?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? How much did she want him? A whole, whole lot, her heart replied. It was pounding at the thought of going another couple of rounds with Stef.

“I can’t change how old I am.” It was a barrier she would have to find a way around.

Rachel put a hand on her stomach. She looked more peaceful than before. “You just have to push him. He’ll get it through that thick skull in the end. You’re his woman. You just have to prove it.” That, Jen decided, might be easier said than done.

Alexei had to move quickly to get out of the way of the enormous animal that burst from the small diner’s doors. He thought it was a dog, but it might have been a small bear. It wasn’t the strangest thing he’d seen this afternoon.

This was an odd place, but friendly. The people were very talkative and open. He’d spent much of the hours since he’d left Ivan walking around the town. He’d browsed through the stores with their odd combination of ticky-tack tourist merchandise and gorgeously made works of art. All around him the mountains climbed their way to a gloriously blue sky. Was it any wonder the people here seemed so happy? They were surrounded by beauty. He’d found himself wandering. Up and down Main Street people were out decorating and putting up small booths for the festival that was set to begin the next day. There was a happy hum of energy from the tourists who grabbed ski wear and fuzzy socks with bears on them. This was a good place.

“Hi,” a breathy voice said.

Alexei looked down at the small woman with dark auburn hair.

She was petite with a curvy body that had Alexei’s eyes roaming. His flare of attraction was shoved aside as he read the tight shirt she was wearing. Stella’s Café.

His stomach churned as he remembered he had a job to do.

“Would you like a booth or a table?”

His eyes briefly skimmed her name tag. Holly. Holly was a lovely woman. Luckily, she was not the woman he was looking for.

“I will sit at counter, thank you.” He felt a bit weary as he took a seat at the counter. He’d briefly forgotten himself. He sent Holly a tired smile and ordered a cup of coffee.

“Anything else?” she asked. Her bright green eyes were wide with expectation.

Alexei found he couldn’t disappoint her. She was sweet, and if circumstances had been different, he would try to seduce her. How long had it been since he’d taken a nice girl out? Never, he realized.

His brother had died when he was a teenaged boy. All he had thought about since was revenge. As he climbed up through Pushkin’s organization, the women he’d had access to had mostly been prostitutes or the sort to couple with gangsters. Not a one of them saw past his wallet or his position. Not a one of them had looked at him with wide eyes and a truly soft smile.

“You pick for me?”

Her head cocked a little to the side, and she bit at her bottom lip, causing Alexei to shift uncomfortably in his seat. She was so beautiful.

“Savory or sweet?” Holly asked.

“Sweet.” Definitely sweet. She would be sweet. She would be sweet in his arms. She would make sweet sounds. And her taste, that would be sweet, too. He would bury his face between her legs and lap up all the sweet cream he would draw from her cunt.

She clapped her hands together. “Excellent. Stella makes the best chocolate pie ever! Be right back.”

Alexei took a long, deep breath and tried to get his dick under control. He was always in control. He was on a mission, and that mission had nothing to do with a woman named Holly with soft breasts and wavy auburn hair that would look beautiful spread across a pillow.

There was movement to his left as someone sat down next to him.

Alexei turned to see a man with reddish hair settling into the last chair left at the counter.

“Cup of coffee, please?” the man said.

Alexei sized him up immediately. This man oozed authority.

There was a hard line to his jaw and a stiffness to his bearing, as though he was always ready for something to go wrong, and he would be the one to fix it. Alexei knew it well because he saw it, felt it, every day.

“Sure thing, Caleb,” Holly said, turning around. “You need a menu or just the regular?”

And just like that, the man named Caleb turned into a sputtering mess. “I…yeah, great. Great. Regular sounds good.” Holly shook her head. “I have no idea how you can eat the same thing every day, Doc.” She placed a big piece of pie in front of Alexei. “There you go, big guy. You make sure you tell me how you like that pie. There’s more where that came from, you know.” Alexei bet there was. Holly turned, and Alexei admired the way her ass looked in a pair of jeans. She was not skinny. Those cheeks of hers were round and curvy. He’d like to get his hands on her.

He turned to grab some sugar for his coffee. Cold green eyes stared right through him. The man named Caleb wore a frown that would have intimidated a lesser man. Alexei had sat with a gun at his head, not knowing whether he would live or die on more than one occasion. He found the man’s jealousy amusing.

“I am not trying to steal girl,” he assured the man. “But I am not blind.”

“You could be,” Caleb shot back.

Alexei shrugged. He dug into the pie. Holly had been right. It was excellent. “I don’t see ring on her finger.” Now the man was staring at his coffee. “I didn’t say she was mine.

She’s just a nice girl. She doesn’t need some tourist pawing at her.”

“I will attempt to keep paws to self, but if you want girl, you should take her. She is too lovely to be alone for long.”

“Thanks for the advice, but I think I can handle it.” Caleb turned away, his part in the discussion obviously over.

The door to the café swung open, and Alexei turned to see two boys walk in. They were twins, with dirty blond hair, oversized coats, and hockey sticks. Neither boy looked like he could handle a hockey stick. They were slender, with not an ounce of muscle between them.

They shrugged out of their coats and took a seat in one of the empty booths. Their heads sagged as though the weight was too heavy to carry. Each boy had sad brown eyes. They stared at the tabletop as though it was the only thing in the world.

Holly set Caleb’s mug in front of him. She was staring at the boys as she walked around the counter. She got to one knee, and Alexei knew if the booth hadn’t been so close, he wouldn’t have heard her soft words.

“They wouldn’t let you play again, would they?” Both heads shook.

“Little pricks,” Caleb muttered under his breath.

Alexei was curious enough to risk the man’s wrath. The boys, though American and twins, somehow reminded him of himself at that age. There was something in the way their heads hung in disappointment and the way they clutched those sad hockey sticks.

“Those young boys?”

Caleb’s eyes flared as though he’d forgotten he wasn’t alone and was pissed to be reminded. He shook his head as though to clear it, and his voice got low. “Nah, those are the Farley brothers. They’re twelve and flat-out geniuses when it comes to school, but they can’t get the boys from the next town to let them into their hockey game. It must be lonely for them. They’re the only kids their age here in town.”

Alexei turned back, and the kids were accepting comfort from Holly. An older woman with frothy blonde hair and cowboy boots was serving them hot chocolate and ruffling their hair. They seemed like nice kids.

“They are not picked for team?” Alexei asked. “Perhaps they were too many players?”

“Nah, they’re just not very good,” Caleb said with a little snarl.

“Those other kids are jerks because they think Will and Bobby are nerds. They have genius-level IQs and have photographic memories.

You know what a nerd is?”

Alexei searched his brain. “Yes, this is smart person. I do not understand why your country does not like the smart persons. In Russia, these boys will one day make all the money and get all the women. Why does this mean they cannot play hockey? How will they get better if no one will let them play?” He would never have learned if Mikhail had not taken the time to teach him.

“They won’t,” Caleb replied. His mouth became a stubborn line.

“I swear, sometimes I’d like to take those other kids by the throat and teach them what it means to be a bully. But I’m not supposed to do that anymore.”

Alexei slapped him on the back as an idea occurred to him. “Then we should put your anger to the management.” One reddish-brown brow rose. “Excuse me?” He searched for the words. Sometimes English was hard. “We should teach the boys. If they learn, then they play. No one will call them nerd when they learn to put their asses on other boys.”

“God, I hope you meant to say put the other boys on their asses,” Caleb said with a shake of his head.

“If that mean to hurt them in an entirely legal fashion, then yes.

This is what I mean. I am good hockey player. Do you play?”

“Yeah,” Caleb said, his lips curling up a little. “Actually, that sounds like fun. I wouldn’t mind a little practice.” He turned and slipped out of his seat. “Holly, can you get us a thermos of coffee?

Come on, Bobby and Will, the big Russian guy and I are going to teach you how to put the older kids on their asses—I mean butts.” Alexei paid his tab quickly and was rewarded with the twins’

shining faces, and Holly, who looked at him like he was the nicest man alive.

She could never know the things he’d done.

But maybe he could help a couple of kids out.

He followed Caleb and the boys out the door just in time to dodge two men in cowboy hats running for their lives. The large dog he’d seen earlier ran behind them.

“Sorry, mister,” one of them said. “We gotta move. Our wife’s having a baby.”

His English must be really bad, Alexei decided. It almost sounded like they shared a wife. He found that idea entirely entertaining.

“You coming, mister?” one of the young twins asked.

“Sure,” he replied and followed his new friends.