“I’m sorry, Callie.” He was. He was sorry about all of it. He was sorry he’d left her, and he was sorry he’d just about assaulted her in the middle of the woods. And he was pretty damn sure it would happen again. Now that he’d touched her, he knew he wouldn’t be able to leave her alone. Damn it. What was he going to do? He had nothing to offer her, and it would break Zane if he waltzed off with the girl. A little voice whispered in the back of his head. Max Harper didn’t lose his brother when they fell for the same girl. Why did he have to lose his best friend? Callie wanted them both once.

“You left me and I thought it was because…” She stopped and dropped the remote. She shook her head and turned on those little heels. Her hips swayed as she walked away from him, and Nate did what he’d wanted to do since she pushed at him. He let himself fall to the ground.

Holy shit, was he really thinking about it? Was he really thinking about sharing Callie Sheppard with his best friend on a permanent basis? How would it work? Who would marry her? Would either one of them marry her? Would Zane even think about going for it?

Then he just had one question running through his head as he heard tires screeching. How was he going to get back to the station? His little honey had just left him high and dry. The whole threesome thing might be a moot point since Callie didn’t seem like she wanted to talk to him, much less join him in an alternative lifestyle.

“You look like you have a headache, Sheriff.” Mel stood over him with a sympathetic nod. “That’s what happens when they probe you. That and the other stuff.”

This was his punishment. He was stuck relying on a man who thought the sky was falling. Nate got up as gracefully as he could manage with a raging hard-on. His erection hadn’t gone away. In fact, it was only worse now that he was thinking about the possibilities. He reached into his pocket to pull out his…damn it. He’d left his cell in the car that was currently flying down the mountain. They were going to have a little talk about her reckless driving.

After he managed to get her in bed, he decided. “Mel, do you think I could use your phone? Um, maybe I was a little hasty about the whole alien thing.” He picked up the only slightly destroyed Detector 4000. “I’ll get this fixed.”

Mel slapped him on the back and smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Sheriff. It was time to upgrade, anyway. Alien technology changes fast. We gotta keep up. Come on up to the house. I have a tonic that’ll help get rid of the aftereffects of the probe and a helmet to wear that’ll keep them from reading your thoughts.”

Nate shook his head. He was definitely going to pay for that note he’d left her all those years ago.

* * *

The door to her cabin slammed behind her, and Callie immediately dragged the sweater over her head. She tossed it to the side and unhooked the hated bra. Her skirt was next, and then she kicked her shoes to the side. She sighed, feeling slightly free for the first time that day. The feeling was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety as her fight with Nate replayed itself in her head in brilliant 3-D, with the volume too loud.

Callie ignored the guilty little whisper in the back of her head that told her stealing a county vehicle and leaving the town sheriff behind was a bad thing. She’d parked the Bronco at the station and hadn’t bothered to wake up Logan from his nap to go get Nate.

Jerk. Nate deserved a long walk back into town. She wasn’t going to feel bad. He had made it plain. He didn’t need help from a hick like her. He didn’t need anything from her, except maybe a little cheap sex.

She couldn’t buy the whole “I’m crazy about you” thing. It wasn’t possible. It was just a man saying what he thought she wanted to hear to get what he wanted. Wasn’t it? She would have to be a fool to believe him.

Callie walked straight to the back porch and out into the warm afternoon. The sunlight and mountain breeze kissed her skin. It was quiet here. The cabin she’d shared with her mother was isolated from the rest of the valley. Callie walked down to the river. The Rio Grande ran through Bliss, splitting the town through the valley before it wound its way south and east. Callie sank onto the soft grass and stared at the water as it flowed. The river flowed by the cabin Nate had bought, too. Was Zane here? Was he staring at the same river she was? She smiled slightly. He probably wasn’t naked.

She had to face facts. Nate was right. She was a hick. She’d been born in Bliss, and she’d lived her whole life here. This was the only place where she felt at home. What was she going to do in an apartment in Denver? Fade. That’s what she’d do, and yet the thought of staying here when she could see the future seemed awfully dim. She’d end up being everyone’s favorite aunt. Max and Rye’s kids would run wild through town, and she’d wish her own were right there with them. Eventually Stef would get a clue and see what was right in front of him. He wouldn’t be able to ignore Jennifer Waters forever.

She’d be the one on the outside, but then she always had been. Everyone in town loved her, but she wasn’t an intimate member of any family. She could have a hot affair with the sheriff, but in the end, he would find something better and move on. As for Zane, well, he hadn’t even shown his face around town. That was how much he didn’t want to see her.

“Hey, anyone home?”

Callie turned and saw her friend, Jen, trudging down the small hill her cabin sat on. Jennifer was an artist who worked at the diner while she was trying to make a living off selling her work in the galleries. She was very good, and Callie had often thought she could be big if she went to New York. There was no denying what kept her in Bliss. She had come to convince Stefan Talbot to teach her and ended up falling in love with the man. Callie smiled up at her. “I’m at the river.”

“Well, hello, nature girl. I stopped by the station, but it was just Logan. I decided not to wake him up.” Jennifer was a cute brunette, her hair in a perpetual pony tail. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo from the diner she worked at. She plunked herself down beside Callie. It was only a minute before she’d shucked her clothes and lay back in the soft grass wearing only her undies. Jen might have been born in a conservative Southern town, but she fit right in. “I figured you would be here. Is the jerk giving you hell?”

Callie let her head find her knees, pulling her legs up as though the mere mention of Nate made her want to protect herself. “He’s decided to bring us all into the real world.”

Jen frowned. “The real world sucks. I grew up in it. I like it better here. What was Stef thinking? Why did he need to bring that guy in? Logan would have been fine. Or you. Why don’t you just put on some polyester and take over? Everyone goes to you anyway.”

“Not going to happen.” Though the very thought made her smile. She wasn’t much of an authority figure. Neither was Logan, for that matter. “And Stef was right. We do need someone who knows what they’re doing. Just maybe not someone as hard-core as Nate Wright.”

Hard. He’d been ridiculously hard when he shoved her up against that tree. Why had she pulled back? Oh yeah, a little thing called self-esteem. Did she really need that more than she needed an orgasm? And how long would she be able to hold out if he tried it again?

Jen came up on her elbows, her pretty face scrunched up in disgust. “Well, we’ll just vote him out of office if he keeps it up. Did you know he warned me not to jaywalk? I was crossing Main Street to go from the diner to the Trading Post, and he stopped me. He told me next time I would get a ticket. I’m supposed to walk all the way to the Gallery and then wait for the stop light to turn red. Seriously? Doesn’t he have anything better to do?”

Yes, he did, and that was why Nathan Wright wouldn’t be here two years from now. He would get some time under his belt and move on. His family money might be gone, but Callie doubted his connections were. Nate would move on, and she would be alone again. She didn’t think she could handle it. Everywhere she looked, the road led out of Bliss.

Callie sat back up. If she was really leaving Bliss, maybe she should go out with a bang. Nathan Wright wasn’t the only who could scratch an itch.

“I don’t like that look.” Jen stared at her. “I see that look a lot in the mirror, and it always gets me in trouble.”

Trouble sounded like fun. Maybe it was time for everyone’s favorite aunt, who never cursed or threw a fit, to cause a little scandal of her own. She’d spent thirty-one years easing the lives of the people around her, smoothing the way for temperamental Max, listening to Rye’s love problems, being the girl on Stefan’s arm at family events because he didn’t “do” long-term relationships. And that was just the boys she grew up with. She was the one Stella called when her fry cook decided French fries and burgers didn’t soothe the inner artist in his soul. She was the one who listened to Mel’s latest alien theories. She was the one who sat through the Repertory Theater’s dress rehearsals and gave notes and went to every artist in Bliss’s gallery show. And who listened to her? What would they listen to, even if they were willing? She was Callie Sheppard, doormat of Bliss.

“Seriously, sweetie, whatever you’re thinking, don’t.” Jen got up, picking up her clothes as Callie rose to her feet. She followed behind her as Callie turned toward the cabin. “The naked thing is really a great way of thumbing your nose at society. You should stick to that.”

Callie glanced back. “I’m not thumbing my nose at society. I just like the way it feels. And whatever I’m about to do tonight isn’t about society. It’s about me. It’s about…” It was time to be a little vulgar. “It’s about getting laid. Callie Sheppard is on the prowl. What do you know about that bar on the far side of the mountain?”