Sophie Oak - Found in Bliss

Alexei didn’t smile, but he felt a little joy in his chest. Caleb wouldn’t respond by offering him affection, but not fighting him was the way the man gave acceptance. For all that the confrontation with Logan hurt, Caleb’s lecture on English warmed him.

“Are you going to come with me?” Caleb asked. “I’m supposed to meet Holly at the clinic in fifteen minutes.”

He should go into Creede. He should continue his job hunt. But the thought of being with Holly again, of watching Caleb preparing her…He needed to see her. “Yes, I will join you.”

Alexei stepped out into the street. The clinic wasn’t far away. He could consider it his lunch break. After he’d spent some time with Holly, he would feel better about finding a job.

Caleb stepped out with him. “I had Wolf tell me what to buy. I don’t know what kind of training the SEALs give out, but it obviously covered sex toys.”

He heard the squeal of tires just before he felt a sharp shock of pain and the whole world went black.

“I can’t believe how big you got!” Stella stared down at Nicky while she poured coffee into Holly’s mug.

Holly’s boss was dressed in her typical uniform of jeans, a ridiculously over-the-top Western shirt, and white boots embroidered with loud red roses. She had left off her cowboy hat, but her helmet of blonde hair was on full display.

Nicky grinned up at her. He’d taken everything in with an eager embrace. “Well, I couldn’t stay a kid forever, Ms. Stella. I just had to go and turn into a whole heap of man. I hear you just got married. That’s a shame because I’ve had a crush on you ever since that day I tried your butterscotch pie.”

Nicky might like boys, but he knew how to butter up a woman, too. Holly remembered that day well. It was one of two times Nicky had been allowed to come to Bliss. He’d been twelve.

“Don’t even try your flirtatious ways on her, baby,” Holly said with a smile. “She just got married to a billionaire.”

Nicky laughed. “Seriously? Yeah, you probably don’t want little old me. Tell me something, Ms. Stella, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be off jet-setting?”

Stella waved him off. “Sebastian likes it here. He waited a long time to come home. Now I can’t get that old man out of Bliss. Oh, we took a nice long honeymoon, but in the end, this is home. And I wouldn’t stop working. What would I do with myself? And who would feed these people? Zane Hollister? I don’t think so. He thinks his wings and bar food beat my waffles. He is wrong. And the man has no idea how to make a chicken-fried steak.”

Stella walked off to serve another table, vowing revenge on Zane. The two had gotten into a friendly rivalry. There was talk of a chili cook-off.

“This place is different, you know.” Nicky finished off the coffee in front of him.

“I know.”

He shook his head. “No. You’ve been here too long. You don’t see it anymore. I’ve wanted to live here all my life. At first it was just because it seemed simpler, and I missed you so much. But I found Great-Granddad’s diary one day. It was stuffed away with some other papers in Dad’s office. Did you know Great-Granddad built the cabin you live in with his own hands?”

“I know your grandmother thought he was crazy.”

“He built it back in the forties. It was just a fishing cabin, but the community started in the sixties.”

“Yes, I’m sure the venerable Judge Lang adored all the hippies moving in.”

“See, Dad being an asshole made you prejudiced. Judge Albert Lang was my great-grandfather, and he had a lot to say about this place. He was retired by the time the commune, as he called it, came to town. He loved it. He loved the people. He loved how the cowboys and the hippies somehow got along. He used to go to the weekly protests with a lawn chair and a beer and cheered on the craziest sign. And the protesters courted his vote. He said this place was magical. He was a judge for thirty years. He saw horrible things come through his courtroom, but he would come here and he would feel clean again.”

She would love to read that diary. But she also didn’t want Nicky to have misconceptions about Bliss. “Terrible things happen here. It’s not paradise.”

“I know. It wasn’t back then, either. And what’s with all the alien sightings? Granddad talks about him and some young vet putting down an alien invasion back in the sixties. I think he might have been going senile by then.”

Not the way Mel told it. “We have some characters around here.”

“Yes, and I want to be one of them. I want to be who I am and not apologize for it. I want someplace where I’ll be accepted and relied on not because of who I am, but what I’m willing to do to help out.”

She loved his enthusiasm, but couldn’t help but think about his future. “Nicky, baby, I don’t know how much of a future there is for you here. It’s hard to find a job. There aren’t a lot of opportunities.”

“There’s a college in Alamosa. After that, we’ll see. I just know that I don’t want to go back to Denver or Washington. I want to figure myself out. I want the world to be big and small at the same time. Big enough that I can lose myself in it, and small enough that I can find my way home. Here, Mom. With you.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand. She’d had so many dreams for him. From the moment he’d been laid in her arms, she’d seen big plans for his future, and now she saw clearly that he dreamed better than she ever had. Happiness. Family. A place to call home. Those were what mattered.

It was all in reach. It was past time to grab it.

“I’ll support whatever you want to do, baby.”

“Oh, god, that man is hot. And there’s two of him. Support me in finding my own crazy, hot cowboy ménage. Please, Mommy. Buy me those two.”

And he was slightly demented. “Nicky, please remember, I’m your mom. I do not want to hear about your sex life. I wouldn’t want to hear about it if you were straight, either.”

He had the most mischievous look in his eyes. Holly was well aware he played it straight around his father. Now he was indulging in being himself. Way too much. “That is the hottest cowboy ass I have ever seen.”

Holly winced. She knew Nicky was enjoying his newfound freedom, but this was still a small Western town. She turned to see who the recipient of her son’s admiration was.

Everyone in the café had stopped as though waiting to see if the bomb was going to go off. Stella’s mouth sort of hung open, and she stood very still. The whole café reminded Holly of a possum in the presence of a very large predator. They held still in hopes that the predator wouldn’t eat them.

Max Harper turned and stared at Nicky, his eyes narrowing. Rye stood beside his brother.

“Did you hear what that kid said?” Rye asked.

Max frowned. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

Oh, fuck. The baddest-tempered man in town was staring at her sweet, little, apparently way-too-sexually-precocious baby boy. Max liked to start fights. He really liked it. Max was at least two hundred twenty pounds of pure muscle. And Nicky was right. He had a great ass, but Holly wasn’t sure he wanted to hear that from another man.

Max started to stalk toward their booth.

Holly stood. Fuck, how would Rachel handle this? Rachel was the only one really capable of handling her husband.

“Now, Max, he is seventeen years old. You can’t beat him up.”

Max ignored her. “What did you say to me, young man?”

Nicky turned a very nice shade of green, proving that he had a healthy sense of self-preservation. Holly tried to get in between her baby and the tiger whose tail he’d pulled.

“I said you had a nice backside, sir.” Nicky sounded like he gulped a little between words.

“Nicky, you are not helping.” Holly sent her son what she hoped was an intimidating stare.

“And you’re of a homosexual persuasion?” Max asked, his voice low.

“Yes, yes, sir.”

“Max Harper, I swear, if you touch my son, I will cut off your balls.” That sounded a little Rachel-like.

Max finally looked to her, his handsome face a mask of confusion. “Why would I beat him up? He complimented me.” Max swiveled and showed off his backside. “Rachel never compliments my ass. Do you know how hard I work for this? I try to keep myself attractive for her, but she never even mentions it. It makes a man wonder.”

He turned back and around, and the whole café seemed to deflate with the knowledge that no one was going to be murdered.

“It’s not right,” Max said, shaking his head.

Rye groaned behind him. “She’s not ignoring you. She’s tired because Paige has had an ear infection, not because she doesn’t think your ass is pretty.”

“See, if you were with a gay guy, he would worship you for that ass. Nothing would get in the way.” Nicky was right back to grinning.

Holly could see he was going to be a handful. She might need to start a “sarcastic gay teen” support group.

Max crossed his arms over his chest and smiled, smug satisfaction evident in his stance. “I told you I would play well with our homosexual brethren. This is one hot piece of man meat. It plays across all sexual orientations.”

Rye slapped at his brother. “He wasn’t talking about you, idiot. It was obvious he was talking about me. No gay man is going to put up with your shit.”

“Oh, I could find some,” Nicky assured them, putting his chin in his hand and enjoying the show. Max and Rye argued over who had the better butt.

They were identical twins. Rachel would one day be nominated for sainthood. Two men were twice the work. Twice the laundry. Twice the cooking.