Jesse looked over at the small party in the back of the bar. Laura and Holly and their men were all smiling and having a great time. He could take a wild guess at what was about to happen and why they would need champagne. It seemed to be a theme going around Bliss. Hope McLean and her men had just gotten back from eloping in Las Vegas. There had been a huge party out at the Circle G not two weeks before. It looked like either Laura or Holly would be next.
“I’ll take another beer, sweetheart,” he told Lucy, handing her his empty mug.
“Me, too.” Cade finished his off.
“I’d like the usual,” Ty said.
Jesse and Cade both snorted. Ty’s usual was a piña colada.
Ty frowned. “I like sweet drinks.”
Lucy simply winked his way. “I know you do, Ty. Be right back.”
Lucy walked off, Ty’s eyes following her every move. His eyes went hard when she stopped in front of Michael McMahon and her whole body took on a flirtatious air. McMahon simply continued frowning. Jesse looked at the man with his thick beard and longish hair and hoped he bathed regularly. If McMahon hadn’t hit rock bottom yet, he couldn’t be far away.
“What the fuck does she see in him?” Ty complained. “I heard he nearly shot two people who walked on his land. He said he thought they were bears, but I don’t believe him. I think he’s a damn powder keg waiting to go off.”
Cade leaned back against his seat. “I heard they were nudists on a nature hike.”
The gossip mill was one of the best things about Bliss. “I heard it was aliens. Mel tried to talk to him, but Mike apparently doesn’t believe in them. Mel’s been leaving him pamphlets.”
You’ve Been Probed. What to do Next…was Jesse’s favorite of the recent rash of pamphlets the town’s citizens had been putting out. Just today, Nell had come by Long-Haired Roger’s auto shop and left a flurry of Eat Vegan or Die Horribly flyers. Jesse thought Nell was getting a little desperate.
“I don’t care who they were. That man is on the edge. Why the hell is he still here?” Ty complained.
As far as Jesse had heard, the former US Marshal was here because he didn’t have anywhere else to go. He’d lost his fiancée when she’d turned criminal and sold out the man they’d been charged with protecting. Michael’s fiancée had been willing to let Alexei Markov die, and she hadn’t cared if the town doc and Holly Lang had gone down with him. According to the gossip, Michael had quit his job the next day and rented a cabin, and he hadn’t been seen for a month. When he’d emerged, he’d grown a beard and a paranoid attitude. And Lucy had promptly gotten a crush because, it seemed, she liked a little bit of crazy.
Yeah, Jesse understood that.
His little bit of crazy walked in. The door to Trio swung open, and Gemma Wells entered with her swaying hips and crazy, bee-stung lips and that surly attitude, and fuck all, his cock did a little dance in his pants.
She was here.
“Have you actually asked Lucy out, Ty?” Cade asked. His back was to the door, but he watched Jesse. Jesse nodded toward the wretchedly hot blonde as she moved through the crowd.
“No. I don’t actually ask women out. It just kind of happens,” Ty said, defending himself.
Jesse spoke, though he was really busy drooling over Gemma. She took off her coat and revealed a tight V-neck sweater and skirt. “So you just fall into their vaginas? Do you trip or is it a controlled fall?”
“Dude,” Cade said with a laugh, holding up his hand. “Nice one.”
Jesse high-fived his partner and nodded again, trying to force Cade’s attention to where it should be focused. Gemma had entered the bar on her own. And she walked right past the jukebox. What the hell was that supposed to mean? “She’s alone, man, but I think she’s going to give us a little hell.”
Cade turned, his eyes widening as he caught sight of Gemma. “Damn, look at that. But she’s not alone.”
“I don’t fall in. I am very careful about what vaginas I enter. Wait. That sounded bad.” Ty shook his head.
“No, it sounded like Ty.” Lucy put a beer in front of Jesse. “And who’s the gorgeous girl with Gemma?”
Ty turned, looking toward the bar where Gemma and her friend were settling in. “Oh, that’s Naomi Turner. She’s a nurse.”
“She’s been coming into Stella’s with Lynn almost every day. She seems really nice.” Lucy glanced around the bar.
Naomi was her shield. No doubt about that. Even as Jesse stared at her, Gemma’s eyes slid his way and then she turned as quickly as she could when she realized he was watching. Nervous. She was a pretty little deer who really wanted to be fed by hand but wasn’t sure she was safe.
Cade sighed. “You’re the one who is always telling me to be patient.”
He didn’t want to be patient. He wanted to walk right up to her, grab her, and take her right back out the door. He’d been patient all week, giving her time and space and now he wasn’t sure he could stand another minute of it.
But she was sidling up to the bar and not the jukebox. She’d brought a friend with her in case she needed an out.
All he could do was wait and watch and hope she was brave enough to take that step.
Ty shook his head as he sipped his frou-frou drink. “I’ve heard that girl is trouble with a capital T.”
Yep, Gemma was trouble, and Jesse figured they were the solution. He and Cade. It would be different if they were the kind of guys to fall into a girl’s vagina and then fall right back out like Ty, but Jesse had changed. Jesse wanted to get in a vagina he cared about and spend a really long time there. They could be good for her.
He just had to convince her of that. And then he had to convince Cade. Yeah. He might need another beer.
“Is he looking this way?” Gemma tried to not look back. It was hard. Her eyeballs seemed to have magnets, and those two hot mechanics were pulling her sight their way. The minute she’d entered the bar, she’d glanced their way and her heart rate had tripled. She’d debated all day, but in the end, she couldn’t stay away.
It was just natural. They were ridiculously gorgeous. One of them had stark black hair and piercing green eyes, and a deep abhorrence of shirts. She still couldn’t forget seeing Bare-Chested Ape Man shirtless, showing off one of those chests that really should only exist in the movies because it wasn’t fair to females across the globe.
And then there was Jesse—the sweet one. He had light brown hair that brushed the tops of sculpted shoulders.
She shouldn’t have come out. She wasn’t going to that jukebox. No way.
Naomi turned slightly, as though she was looking for something just behind her. When she turned back, there was a little grin on her face. “Oh, yeah, he’s looking your way. So is his friend. Where are my two hot men?”
Naomi might envy her, but she wasn’t thinking about all the complexities. It was far too complicated. Jesse wanted a relationship. Cade wanted a little sex, but he didn’t really like her. She liked them both, but she wasn’t going to hang around.
Maybe she could just play around. Not for forever. Forever was an idiot’s dream. But she still had needs. Lots of dirty, filthy needs.
And some not-so-dirty needs. She needed time away from thinking about how she’d screwed up her life and how her mom had a second chance. Would Gemma get a second chance? She’d almost lost her mom. It had been easy to forget all about her own personal horror story when she’d been concentrating on her mom and the rounds of chemotherapy she’d been through.
“Are you okay? You just went very pale.” Naomi put a hand on her arm, feeling for her pulse. Naomi took her job very seriously.