Sophie Oak: Chasing Bliss

She took the sheriff’s hand. “Deal.”

The doors to the station house opened, and Stella blasted through followed by none other than Gemma’s victim, Max Harper, a second Max Harper, and a woman carrying a wide-eyed baby.

“You let my waitress out of jail this instant, Nathan Wright!” Stella’s purple boots with embroidered stars rang across the floor.

“Now, we should talk about this, Sheriff. She did nearly kill me.” Max Harper held the spot on the back of his neck where she’d touched him with the Taser. The big bull hadn’t gone down quietly. And he’d seemed awfully surprised.

“Maxwell!” The pretty woman with strawberry-blonde hair gave Harper a look that could freeze the balls off a man.

Cool blue eyes rolled. “Damn it, Rach, Stella and I were just having a little fun.”

Stella turned on the cowboy. “You called me a senile old woman.”

The blonde gasped. “Max!”

Harper practically hid behind his second self. “I didn’t say it like that, baby. I told her she was losing her damn mind if she couldn’t see the burger was bleeding.”

The second Max Harper smiled Gemma’s way. “Hi, there. I’m Rye Harper, the sane half of us. Could you memorize this face so you don’t forget it the next time you get a hankering to shoot a couple hundred volts of electricity through a man?”

Max frowned. “Well, if I had known she was going to use a goddamn stun gun on me, I wouldn’t have agreed to this in the first place. I thought my eyes weren’t going to uncross there for a minute. That wasn’t worth the babysitting night, Nate. That shit hurt.”

Stella turned on the sheriff. “You set this up so you could steal my waitress. You manipulative son of a bitch. Are you the one who set the Farley boys on her so she had to leave the Trading Post?”

Those boys had been past obnoxious, asking questions for four hours straight. They never let up. She’d finally broken down, cursing, and was shocked that two teenage boys could cry like that.

Nate Wright let loose a big, shit-eating grin. “I had to promise not to arrest them for their latest ‘rocket into space’ experiment. Though I think it might have worked. I feel bad for that frog.”

Gemma turned to the asshole who had been making her life hell. “You are a manipulative, sneaky son of a bitch.”

“That’s ‘boss son of a bitch’ to you.” Nate Wright looked very pleased with himself as the phone rang. “Now, you need to take the spare Bronco over to Long-Haired Roger’s because the brakes are squeaking. The keys are in your desk.” The phone rang again. Wright pointed to it. “And that’s for you, Gemma. Welcome to Bliss.”

The Harpers were arguing over Max’s willingness to risk his body for a night of babysitting. Stella yelled at Nate.

And Gemma sat down at her desk. It was stupid. It was a little mean. It was the most trouble anyone had gone to over her in a long damn time. Nate Wright had plotted and planned and brought half the town into his machinations. She totally respected that.

“Bliss County Sheriff’s Department.” She used her most professional voice. And then listened in complete shock. “What do you mean aliens are attacking?”

“I’ll be fishing,” Wright said, grabbing his pole.

“I have to go set up that new speed trap. I’m going to call it Gemma’s Trap. And I’d love a tall one of those frothy coffee things with all the caramel. Thanks.” Briggs practically ran out the door.

She was left with a huffing Stella, a bickering Harper clan, and a pending alien invasion.

If her friends could see her now…

“Hey, Cade, something’s up with one of the county vehicles. I think Cam is bringing it in this afternoon. Do you mind taking a look at it? If you can’t fix it quick, he’ll need a ride back to the station.”

Cade looked up from the Chevy he was working on and gave his boss a nod. Long-Haired Roger was known for his courteous demeanor and his lack of hair. “Sure thing, boss.”

His boss was a gentle man who knew just about everything there was to know about the way engines worked. And he had a new friend. The town vet had recently brought Roger a rescue…dog. They told Cade that Princess Two was a dog, but it really looked more like a rat that had maybe been thrown up by a poodle. Princess Two had weird bug eyes and a pink bow attached to her head. And she shook. A lot.

Jesse walked in from the street, a bag in his hand. “Lunch is here. We missed all the fun. The new girl at Stella’s pulled a stun gun on Max Harper, and Nate hauled her off to jail. Did you hear about the way she made the Farley boys cry? What kind of a woman makes two boys cry?”

A fairly mean one, he bet. Cade hadn’t gotten a look at Gemma Wells, but he knew the type. He’d already heard her story. Big city lawyer. Some of the women had been talking about her shoes and the purses she carried. She probably looked down on everyone and everything. And sure Harper could be an ass, but what the hell kind of woman just stunned a man like that?

“She’s a tourist.” Cade walked to the small sink and washed his hands. He was covered in motor oil, but the smell was soothing. Even all these years later, the smell reminded him of his father. He shook off the feeling and the crushing guilt that threatened to overwhelm him any time he thought about his dad. “She won’t hang out for long. Hey, do you mind looking at the seal on that radiator?”

Jesse nodded and headed to the little sedan they were working on. The owner was supposed to pick it up in an hour or two, but damn, it was giving Cade hell.

Long-Haired Roger shook his bald head. “Naw. She’s not really a tourist. Her momma was born here. I remember Miss Lynn Griffin. What a pretty thing she was. I even went out with her for a while, but then a musician named Donald Wells came into town and she was gone. She always wrote, though. Nice lady, Lynn. She’s come back home. I heard Don died a long while back, but she’s been travelling. A bit of a gypsy, that one.”

“And she brought her problem child with her?” Cade grabbed his burger and hopped up on the counter after tossing his oil-stained shirt to the side. Despite the beginnings of a chill in the air, he felt more comfortable without it on.

“Lynn was real sick from what they say,” Roger explained. “I think her daughter was helping to take care of her. Do you have a problem with shirts, son?”

Cade shrugged. “Don’t like ’em.”

Jesse came back up, a wrench in his hand, eyes rolling. “He would be happier up the mountain, if you know what I mean.”

Roger gave him a blank stare for a moment and then gasped a little. “Oh. Like up the mountain and off with the clothes. Well, that’s just fine, son, but you have to keep your pants on in here. I can’t have a naked mechanic. Those boy parts dangle. You remember that.”

Roger walked off, the tiny poodle-looking thing yipping away.

Jesse snorted a little, putting the wrench down. “It’s done. Just needed a jimmy. Boy parts dangle. Damn, I love that man. And I heard she didn’t really have much choice about staying in New York. The word is she got fired and had some sort of trouble. I have to admit, I’m a little intrigued.”

Cade stared at Jesse. The man had become a wretched gossip since they’d settled into Bliss. He’d always been a little like that. Even when they’d lived in big cities, Jesse always found a way to build a little community around himself. Jesse genuinely liked taking care of the people around him, and he particularly liked having a woman to take care of. And Cade liked to join them for sex. He sighed. It was starting to sound pathetic even to his own ears. “Who have you been talking to?”