“And no one cares what I do?”

“Damn it, Cam. What do you want me to do? I can’t force society to accept what we want. I’m willing to sit down and work it out.

There’s not a place in the world where we could live openly. It probably doesn’t matter anyway since she’s made it plain she doesn’t want to have anything to do with either one of us.”

“Damn, brother. This is some entertaining shit.” Cam turned and saw two cowboys walking toward them with a red-haired woman in between them. One cowboy wore a black T-shirt and the other had on a denim Western-style shirt, but other than that they were perfectly identical.

“Nate said they were going to be trouble, Max.” The one in the western shirt shrugged. “I find trouble very entertaining. Hey, you think I could get one of those boys to fight?”

“Maxwell Harper, you promised me you wouldn’t try to start another fight until after Stef and Jen’s wedding.” The redhead with a baby in her arms gave the one named Max a dirty look. “I am serious, Max. I do not want Jen’s wedding pictures marred by you having a black eye. If that happens, I’ll substitute Rye in with Photoshop. And we will have a conversation, you and I.” The redhead started to stomp off.

“But I like our conversations, baby!” She turned and stared at Cam for a moment as though assessing him. “If you hit him, you go for his gut. If you touch his face, I will find you. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cam said immediately. Everything the redhead said had an air of southern authority. Cam responded. He backed off of the cowboy who he had zero intention of fighting. It had the added effect of making him back off Rafe, whom he had kind of been planning to fight.

The cowboy in the black T-shirt smiled. “You’re going to sleep on the couch tonight, brother.”

“Damn, Rye, I wasn’t really going to fight. I promised Rach.

You’re just trying to get our wife all to yourself. When this little edict of Rachel’s is no longer in effect, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Not if I kick yours first, Max.”

“Stop, both of you,” Cam commanded. That was the second time some dude in this town had mentioned sharing a wife. “What do you mean by ‘our wife?’”

Identical faces turned to him. Cam felt Rafe move beside him. All thoughts of beating the shit out of Rafe fled in a rush of curiosity.

“Rachel, that hot redhead with the gorgeous little baby, is our wife.” The man in the black T-shirt whom Max had called Rye crossed his arms over his chest. “And before you start calling in Johnny Law, you should know we do things differently in Bliss.” Max snorted. “What’s the sheriff going to do? Arrest us? How is he going to lock the cell door from the inside?”

“Stop. Are you two talking about polygamy?” Rafe had a hand on his hip. It was his cop stance.

Rye Harper didn’t seem scared. “The technical term for what we do is polyandry. And we’re perfectly legal. Max married Rach legally, and we’re not defrauding the government. We’re not illegal, just a little on the fringe of what society finds acceptable.”

“No one cares in Bliss,” Max said with a questioning look aimed at his twin.

“Yeah, well, Bliss isn’t exactly society,” Rye returned. “If we left Bliss, people would think we’re freaky.”

“There’s no reason to leave Bliss anymore. Not since we got cable.”

Rye turned to his brother. “I have a reason. Reliable cell service. I spent two hours on the landline trying to lodge a complaint with the company. Seriously, how long does it take to fix one tower?”

“I don’t care about that,” Max said. “I don’t really want to talk to anyone outside of Bliss. Hell, half the time I don’t want to talk to people inside Bliss. It’s all gossip. Rach spent thirty minutes on the phone with Callie talking about some weird plan Laura’s cooked up where she marries Wolf so two dudes don’t know she’s been alone for years.”

A sly smile crossed Rye’s lips. “Yeah, now, I did hear about that.

I heard those men had been looking for her for a real long time. It occurs to me that two men who spent all that time looking for a lady must have some pretty strong feelings for her, and a woman who hasn’t dated in a long time usually is hung up on a man—or two.” Cam went very still. “Laura hasn’t dated anyone?”

“Well, she did go out with Wolf,” Max replied. “But as far as I can remember, no one else. We were all a little surprised she said yes to him.”

Rye shook his head. “Rachel wasn’t. Rachel told Jen that any woman in her right mind would be after him.” Max whistled. “Is that why you spanked her?”

“Damn straight. But she knew I was listening. She even winked at me when she said it and slapped her own ass.” Rye adjusted his Stetson.

Everyone in this town wore a hat. Cam’s own head was starting to feel bare. Damn, he hadn’t worn a cowboy hat in years, not since he left Arkansas.

“She is just getting saucier with age,” Max said with a grin. “Oh, well. There’s no way around it, Rye. She’s the boss of our little family. What she says goes. We need to be careful. She told us not to give up Laura’s little secret.”

“I won’t tell. Now let’s get going, brother. That damn bear won’t eat himself.”

Max elbowed his twin. “He damn near ate you. You were lucky the rangers came along when they did or Rach would be down a husband and little Paige would only have me for a dad.” The twin cowboys sauntered off talking about all the weird shit they planned on eating this evening.

Rafe turned his head, a little grin crinkling the corner of his mouth. “She’s not really engaged.”

A light happiness threatened to take over Cam’s body. She wasn’t engaged. She wasn’t even sleeping with him. According to those two cowboys, she hadn’t really dated for a very long time, maybe since she’d left DC.

“There’s only one real reason for a woman to lie like that,” Rafe continued.

“She still has feelings for us,” Cam said, feeling a smile spread across his face. She’d lied to protect herself. “She still gives a damn, and we just landed in a place where no one is going to blink an eye if we share her. Hell, now I have to wonder how many of these people are in weird-ass relationships. I saw a girl wearing a collar in town.” Rafe shook his head. “Yeah. I’m still not sold on this place, but at least we can go after her without any shame. We can do it completely in the open.”

Cam suddenly wanted to get started on that little project. It was time to show Laura that he wasn’t going to wait another five years to get inside her again. He turned to his partner, all previous anger gone.

They might have to revisit that little fight, but not tonight. “What’s the plan?”

Rafe leaned in and started to speak.

* * *

Everyone was looking at her.

Wolf twirled her around the dance floor, his big hand leading her this way and that in time to the music, but her focus was on the multitudinous eyes that tracked her.

“Congratulations, you two!” Hank Farley said as he danced by with his wife. “You should know our barn is available for the reception.”

“We’ll think about it,” Wolf said with an easy smile.

He steered her toward the middle of the dance floor. Right where she didn’t want to be.

“Laura, Wolf.” Stef Talbot held his fiancée in his arms as they swayed to the music. “Jennifer and I have talked about this, and we want to offer to include your own nuptials in our wedding. It can be a double ceremony. I’ll cover all the costs.” Jen Waters had a smirk on her face. “And Brooke said she can put together a dress in no time flat. We want to make this as easy on you as possible.”

No they didn’t. They were being righteous bastards. It was the whole damn town’s way of letting her know they disapproved of her lying. She wasn’t stupid. No one in Bliss would blink twice if she was lying to save a friend or protect herself from real harm, but the minute her heart got involved, everyone became a shrink.

“They’re going to give you hell, you know,” Wolf said as he led her off the dance floor.

“I’m beginning to see that. I’ve already received lectures from Marie and Stella on how I need to face my past if I ever want to move on.” Getting married had turned Stella into the world’s biggest authority on love. She was madly in love with Sebastian Talbot and wanted everyone in town to be just as happy as she was.

It was annoying.

Even Mel had thrown his two cents in. Apparently lying left her open to alien death rays or something. And Cassidy had called to let Laura know that she didn’t appreciate her son being used as a beard and offered her other son’s counseling services. Laura wasn’t sure, but she might actually have an appointment with a man named Leo Meyer in Dallas to discuss her relationship issues.

It wasn’t what she’d had planned. It was supposed to be a simple little deception. Nothing was simple in Bliss.

“You could come clean,” Wolf offered.

Laura frowned. “They seem to be pushing me that way.” Wolf leaned against an empty picnic table. “That’s the trouble with family, isn’t it? They always think they know what’s best for you.”

“And they think it’s best that the men who broke my heart know that I haven’t really been with anyone since I left them? They think it’s best that I look utterly pathetic?”

“I think they want you to not think of yourself as pathetic. I think these people love you, and they want you to love yourself. Whatever happened to you hurt you deeply. That’s not pathetic, Laura. They want you to see yourself the way they do. Do you know what they say about you?”

Damn, tears were pricking at her eyes. “No.”