Sophie Oak - One to Keep

“Callie’s right. It’s going to be okay. We won’t let you go back to jail. Stef is already working on getting the charges dropped. Let’s get the car and get out of this weather.” Jen took a step back, and Callie went on her toes trying to press her lips against her husband’s. Nate’s gloved hand came out to stop her. Callie’s lips made a little O.

“No can do, baby.” Nate shook his head as he stared down at her.

Callie pouted. Her hands went to her hips. She was drowning in a parka, her small, curvy body completely covered by her coat. “What did I do?”

“It wasn’t you. It was Stef,” Jen supplied, saving Nate the trouble.

“He needs his fake girlfriend again, and he doesn’t care that she’s already double married.”

Callie’s brown eyes widened. “What are you talking about? Oh my, Sebastian! And Stef! Why didn’t you call? And what are you doing without a coat?”

Callie stalked toward the plane where the Talbot men were disembarking. Jen stared at Nate. He had some explaining to do.

“Okay, where’s the big guy? I know you two have something awful cooked up for Stef.” There was no way Nathan Wright allowed his wife to be used in some cover-up.

A little smirk crossed Nate’s face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, darlin’. I’m just helping out an old friend. I am a very patient and tolerant man.”

“Since when?” The only person less patient than Nathan Wright was Max Harper. Nate was a notorious hard-ass, and the last thing Jen would expect him to do would be to allow his wife to pose as another man’s girlfriend.

One shoulder came up negligently. “You know this whole threesome thing works on several levels for us. It takes two men to keep Callie out of trouble, but more than that, I can always count on Zane to do the right thing.”

Jen listened to Nate talk, but her eyes were on Stef and Callie. She felt a sick pit of jealousy form in her gut as Stef wrapped his arms around Callie. She knew that it was all for show. She could see Stef whispering to her, probably begging her to play along, but it still hurt.

Callie was good enough to show off. Callie was sweet enough to bring home with him. She doubted Stef had told anyone about the night they had shared. Callie might be a fake girlfriend, but Jen doubted it hurt worse than being the dirty little secret.

Stef was talking to his father, his arm firmly around Callie’s waist as she twisted her head around slightly. Her brown eyes were questioning as she looked back at Nate. The sheriff merely gave her a hearty thumbs-up, and she shrugged and turned back around to talk to Sebastian Talbot.

It was at that moment that Jen noticed big, gorgeous Zane walking down the tarmac, two Styrofoam mugs of coffee in his hands. Zane Hollister was roughly six and a half feet tall. His beautiful face bore some scars from his time as a DEA agent, but he was heavenly looking to Jen. She’d always wanted to paint him. It would be a challenge to get his spirit just right. He was an intoxicating mix of rough man and vulnerable boy. But now he looked like an angry bull.

He stopped in the middle of the tarmac, and his mouth dropped open.

Jen followed his line of sight back to where Stef was leaning over, placing a light kiss on Callie’s lips.

Nate sighed, satisfaction plain in his stance. “You see, I can be the good guy in this situation. I can say, sure, use my wife the way you have for years. Don’t worry about me. I don’t mind. I can say all of that, because I know that Zane will do the right thing.” Apparently, in Nate’s mind, the right thing was to toss down his coffees and run toward the man horning in on his wife. Stef turned around just in time to get tackled. Jen rushed toward the fight.

“Zane, you get off of him right now!” Callie shouted at her husband.

“You fucking overgrown ape, stop hitting me!” Stef tried to push Zane off.

“You get off my son, sir!” Sebastian’s back stiffened, and he looked at Callie. “Call the police, dear.”

“The sheriff is standing right over there laughing his ass off, Mr.

Talbot,” Jen said. She looked down at Stef, who was trying to give as good as he got. She had to give him that. For a rich boy, he knew how to fight dirty.

“Zane Hollister, stop beating up my best friend.” Callie’s booted foot stomped in the snow.

Zane got Stef in a choke hold. “Not on your life, babe. He kissed you. We took sacred vows to never allow another man to get close enough to kiss you. Right, Nate?”

Nate was all smiles now. “That’s right, buddy. You do what you have to do.”

“Asshole,” Stef managed to wheeze out. He pulled his elbow out and caught Zane squarely in the gut. “I won’t forget this when your next contract is up. Don’t think I won’t talk to the mayor about finding a new sheriff.”

“Good luck with that, Stef. No one wants the job except Nell.

She’s threatened to run against me. Other than that, you got nothing.” Callie pulled at her dark-haired husband. “Zane, you get off him right this instant. I’m invoking the note clause in our marriage contract.”

Zane popped up in an instant, his face a storm of pent-up rage.

“Fine. I’ll go bring the car around, but his ass is walking, and if you ever touch my wife with your lips again in a non-brotherly fashion, I’ll kick your ass even harder.”

Zane stomped away, leaving Callie shaking her head as she lent Stef a hand. Jen brushed the snow off his back.

“Note clause?”

Nate frowned. “Yeah, every time we do something she doesn’t like she points to the note we wrote when we left her. She saved it.

She framed it and put it on the wall by the door, and she’s threatened grave bodily harm if we take it down. She uses it like a sledgehammer filled with guilt.”

“I merely remind the boys of the poor choices they once made.” Callie turned to Stef. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” His gray eyes narrowed as he looked at Nate. “You planned that.”

“I have no control over Zane’s actions, man.” Nate turned and followed his partner.

“So, Callie isn’t your girlfriend anymore?” Sebastian was looking between them all as though desperately trying to figure out what was going on.

“I was never really his girlfriend, Sebastian,” Callie said, her voice a sad little sigh. “I’m sorry I misled you. Stef has always been more of a brother to me than anything else.”

“And now that…large, rather brutish fellow is your husband?”

“His name is Zane.” She sighed again, this one a dreamy sound.

“Stef introduced us. He introduced me to Nate, too. They are the best husbands a girl could have. Don’t let their rough exteriors fool you.

They’re sweeties. I should probably go and make sure they don’t leave Stef behind. It’s a long way to Bliss.” Sebastian’s eyes stared at a place right below Stef’s face. “So you hid this from me? Callie got married, and you never told me you broke up?”

“I was never with Callie,” Stef admitted. His whole body was shaking.

Jen got close, and he shoved his arms under hers, wrapping himself under the coat she was wearing and rubbing his body against hers. “Hey!”

“It’s my damn coat. You can share.” His beautiful face was stark, and his lips were turning just a little blue.

Damn him. She couldn’t resist that slightly quivering lip. She pushed her body against his, sharing her warmth. But she wasn’t just going to lie down and give it up for him. She’d done that. Jen wrapped her arms around Stef, but turned to Sebastian. “He’s been lying to you because he didn’t want you to find out the truth.” Stef’s father’s face fell, and a chalky whiteness took over his skin.