“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.