by Jane Jamison
“Believe it or not, I’m a native. Born and raised in Shady Creek. I wish I could entertain you with thrilling tales from my childhood, but it was pretty ordinary.”
“And you grew up wanting to be a country music star?”
“Naw, I always wanted to be a firefighter.” Stone took a sip, darting his gaze at her, then sweeping it around the room.
“And I wanted to be the Lone Ranger.”
Wyatt had a great sense of humor. She’d always found that attractive in men. “I can see it. You in a mask sitting on top of a white horse? Oh, yeah. No doubt about it. You’re the hero type, all right.” She couldn’t help but take it to the next step. “Which would make you his Tonto, right?”
Stone scoffed. “Not a chance. He’d push me in front to take a bullet meant for him.”
“Well, we know why Wyatt didn’t become a hero on horseback, but why didn’t you become a firefighter?”
Stone took another swig of his beer. “I don’t know. Just didn’t like the idea of getting my fur singed, I guess.”
“Your fur?”
Stone shrugged, then darted his gaze away.
Wyatt chuckled. “Instead, we became cowboys like one of Stone’s dads.”
“One of his dads?” Did that mean Stone’s mother had married more than once? “Stepparents can be hard to handle, so I guess it’s a good thing that you looked up to him.”
Stone grabbed his mug for another drink. “Yeah. It was.”
Why did he act like he was trying to hide something? “How many stepdads did you have? If you don’t mind me asking.”
She was digging, but the more she dug, the more certain she was that he was holding something back.
“No stepdads. Just more than one dad. Three, in fact.”
She started to laugh. Although Wyatt was more of a jokester, Stone had to be playing a joke.
“Three dads? At the same time?” Her grin grew. It was definitely a joke. “You mean like a polygamist family? Except that instead of one man with two or more women it was your mom with three men?”
“Kind of.”
Stone shrugged, acting like it was nothing out of the ordinary, but suddenly she no longer believed he was kidding around. She didn’t know whether to probe harder or to let it go. Her curiosity, however, made that decision.
“Are you saying it was a ménage kind of thing?”
She’d heard of others living that lifestyle, and had, in fact, thought that it made sense. Why not have more than one husband? If nothing else, more household chores would get done. Plus, it would mean extra fun in the bedroom.
His gaze met hers, testing her, weighing whether she’d judge him. “It was. We’re a close-knit, large family and multiple unions are the norm for us. Shady Creek is a refuge for our kind of people.”
His kind of people? Did he mean the sort of people who lived that kind of lifestyle? Or was it more than that?
“Now that you know, does it bother you?”
She didn’t hesitate to tell him the truth. “It’s unusual. That’s for sure. But does it bother me? Not in the least.”
Surprise and pleasure brightened his face. “That’s good to know.”
“So did you grow up around here, Wyatt?”
He finished swallowing his drink. “Nope. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma that only had two streets. I used to joke that one road led into town and the other out of it. I took the one that led out of it.”
“Now that is a small town.” And here she’d thought her hometown was small.
“It’s a good, safe place to raise kids. But my music called and here I am.”
“Did you have more than one dad, too?”
“Nope. Pure middle of the road America here.”
She took a drink then caught the time on the phone that Wyatt had placed on top of the table. “Hey, thanks for the drink and the talk, but I need to get going. It was good meeting you guys.”
They stood along with her, showing that they’d been raised with manners. “We’ll see you again, right?”
Was it her imagination or was there an added eagerness to Wyatt’s voice? She hoped so. “Yeah. I guess now that Ruben’s changed his mind, I’ll try getting on another set.”
“You can sit in with us anytime you want.”
“That’s really nice of you, Stone, but I wouldn’t want to take a third of your time.”
“You can take anything you want.”
Stone’s expression left no doubt that he’d meant what he’d said. It was unexpected and unnerved her a little. “Including the contest?”
He caught her joking tone and threw it back at her. “Only if you promise to share the money.”
Wyatt jumped in. “Along with the fame.”
She laughed and started for the holding area to get her guitar. “Are you suggesting we form a trio? Our own kind of musical ménage?” She smiled at Stone, hoping he’d take her joke the right way.
Just as they’d sat with her, they each took a side. Wyatt put his palm on the small of her back, and in that instant, she knew she’d have to get away fast. Either that or wind up with her legs wrapped around him.
“Hell, yeah. I’d love to have a threesome.”
“Damn it, Wyatt. Do you ever think before you let crap fall out of your mouth?”
She shook her head, dismissing Stone’s attempt to carry her guitar. Hefting it in her hand, she faced Wyatt and placed her hand flat against his chest. The energy, the electricity, the whatever the hell it was, burned outward then doubled back and raced up her arm. She’d meant to make a flippant remark, but her mind suddenly went blank.
It was a minute, maybe longer, before she stepped away. “Good night, guys.” Trying not to look back, she hurried to the door as fast as she could without breaking into a run.
* * * *
Stone sat in the passenger side of Wyatt’s old pickup. They’d spent the past week showing up at The Dive either to watch Rae sing or to invite her to sing with them. She’d accepted the invitation to join them once, but had turned them down since then. But they’d kept trying. They’d even done the unthinkable and let her sing more than her third of the songs in the sets, hoping that would convince her to sit in with them again.
Afterwards, they’d offer to buy her drinks, but she always turned them down. Hell, they’d even asked her out on a date with the pair of them and she’d refused, saying she had to work.
She hadn’t left them any other choice but to track her down at her other job. They’d called a few people, and since Nashville was a big city that often acted like a small town, it hadn’t taken long to find out more about Rae Barnes.
They hadn’t doubted her when she’d spoken about her past, but she hadn’t told them much about her present. As luck would have it, a friend of a friend of a friend who knew a girl who worked with her had finally filled in the details. It was telling that they’d gone to so much trouble to find out about her, and their friends had noticed. Questions came their way, but they hadn’t cared that so many of their friends were wagging their tongues about “the woman who brought Wyatt and Stone to heel.” They’d let the people talk as much as they wanted as long as they got what they needed.
Tonight they’d watched her perform again to thunderous applause, including theirs, then had tried to get to her before she left. If they hadn’t gotten waylaid by a couple of girls they’d dated once before, they would’ve caught Rae before she’d slipped out the back way.
“This is going to catch her by surprise.”
Wyatt propped his feet on the dash. “No doubt. You still want to go through with it?”
Stone had asked that same question several times since they’d decided to make their move. “We’ve got to try something outside The Dive. Maybe that place is jinxing us.”
Wyatt checked his text messages. “You never know, but at least now we know she was working the night she turned us down.”
“Yeah. Doesn’t make it feel any better.”
“Well, tonight’s the n
ight. I can feel it in my gut.”
“Crap. Like your gut’s that reliable.”
“Are you saying you’re not sure she’s the one?”
“I admit I wasn’t sure before, but I am now.” Stone was surer of his feelings with every passing minute. “Still, I’m worried that she hasn’t felt the connection. If she had, we’d already have claimed her by now.”
“She’s human, man. Give her time. Me? I’ve never doubted it for a minute.”
Wyatt was flinging bullshit, but that didn’t mean Stone would let it stick. “Yeah, right.”
“Come on. You felt it the second we saw her.”
“Yeah, I did. And once I touched her…”
What more could he say? They’d spoken of the connection that werewolves had for their mates. They’d both seen it in action numerous times. And yet, they hadn’t dared to hope they’d get lucky enough to find her, much less that she’d want them in return. Was that why she acted like she didn’t want anything to do with them? Did she not feel the connection between them? Or was the sensation scaring her away?
“So what’s the plan?” Lacy Lou’s House of Barbecue was a mainstay of the town, drawing not only tourists, but locals as well. The food was savory, the service great, and the atmosphere one of continuous fun for singles and family alike. The only thing the place lacked, in Stone’s opinion, was a stage. Lacy Lou’s piped in music was okay, but not in keeping with Nashville’s rich tradition of live performances.
“Look, we know she’s working tonight and I could eat a horse. Let’s go chow down.”
Like the majority of the city’s musicians, Rae had to hold down a job that provided a regular paycheck. Paying gigs were few and far between with so many singers willing to sing for free just to have an audience hear them. Wyatt and Stone were two of the lucky ones. They’d earned enough working on the pack’s ranch to take a few years off to make their real dreams come true. The fact that their other dream, the one where they found the right woman to share, had come along was like picking the right lottery numbers after a winning trip to Vegas.
Wyatt led the way into the restaurant and came to a stop behind a large group of what were obviously tourists with cameras strung around their necks and sporting I Love Nashville T-shirts. The restaurant was split into halves with a large bar area in the middle. “Do you see her?”
Stone didn’t answer until he leaned around the big, blue-haired lady standing in front of him. “Yeah. There she is.”
The hostess managed to get the tourist group seated on the other side of the restaurant. “Is it just the two of you?”
Stone returned her smile, noted the way she’d batted her eyes at him then Wyatt, and decided it was best to make the most of her apparent attraction. “It sure is, sweetheart.”
She preened under the term of endearment. Sometimes it was just too easy, but he didn’t make a habit of using his looks to get women to do what he wanted. As far as he was concerned, he’d gotten lucky with his body and face and wasn’t about to trade on it. Unless he had to.
“Right this way.” She picked up a couple of menus, but kept them instead of handing them off to the waitress who was there to lead them to their table. “That’s okay, Cindy. I’ll take care of them.” She flipped her hair away from her shoulder and winked. “Real good care.”
She stuck out her hand. “I’m Sandy.”
“It’s good to meet you, Sandy.”
He beat Wyatt to taking her arm as she tried to lead them to the wrong side of the restaurant. “Uh, sweetheart, if you don’t mind, could we have that table over there? We’ll wait until it’s cleaned up.” He pointed to a group of four people that Rae had just handed their check.
Sandy wasn’t anyone’s fool. Her gaze jumped from the table to Rae. “Oh. Yeah. Whatever. You can stand over there and wait.”
Stone grabbed at the menus she tossed at them as she stomped back to the hostess stand. “Was it something I said?”
“More like someone you wanted.” Wyatt jerked his chin toward the table. “Come on. They’ve almost got it ready.”
Stone and Wyatt took a seat and he let his gaze follow Rae around the room as she checked with her customers, her smile warm and genuine. The loose waitress uniform of gold and purple didn’t do her body justice, but he was almost happy that it didn’t. Maybe that would keep the men from drooling over her.
Nope. Not a chance. Too many of them were already checking her out.
“Stop staring, man.”
He forced himself to look at the menu. But she was the only thing he was interested in. “It’s hard not to.”
“Yeah, but we don’t want to spook her.”
Wyatt was right. “You never said. Do you think she felt it, too?”
He saw Wyatt catch a large man leering at her bottom as she pivoted around and headed to her next table. Wyatt’s lips drew back, signaling that his wolf was clawing at the surface. “Push it back down, bro. Nothing will spook her more than to see your fangs.”
Wyatt blinked then dropped his gaze to the table. “Yeah, I know. And to answer your earlier question? She felt it. She had to. She’s our mate.”
“Not all human females feel it, you know.” He hated to say it, but he had to. As much as a warning to himself as it was to his friend. “And not all accept their mates. Especially after she finds out what they are.”
“She’s coming this way.”
Stone gritted his teeth. “Smooth, man. Real smooth.”
“Hi, you two.”
He brought his head up and tried to act like he hadn’t seen her before. “Hey, there. So you work here, huh?”
“Yeah, smooth. Real smooth.”
Stone ignored Wyatt’s jab knowing that he’d spoken too softly for human ear’s to pick up the sound.
“Yeah.” She waved her hands over her uniform. “Either that or I have really bad taste in clothes.”
“Good one.” All at once he’d gone brain dead, unable to come up with anything interesting to say.
Rae fisted a hand on her hip. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you guys were stalking me.”
Chapter Four
“Are you?” Judging by their startled expressions, Rae had thrown them a curve.
“Naw, that’s not what we’re doing.”
Wyatt’s indignation was almost comical. In fact, they were just plain cute in their horrified reactions. Even Stone, who was the less reactionary one, looked like she’d just sucker-punched him.
“Rae, we’re here for the same reason all these other folks are here. For the good food. The fact that we get to see you again is icing on the cake.”
“Uh-huh.” She didn’t want to let them off the hook too fast. Why not let them squirm a little more first? “So you’re saying that out of all the restaurants in the city, you just happened to waltz into the one where I’m working the late shift. Is that what you expect me to believe?”
“It’s the truth.” Wyatt raised his right. “So help me God.”
“Wyatt Montgomery, you’d better not be swearing to God and lying. He’ll strike you down right here and now, with all these tourists watching.” She was pleased to see that he believed enough in a higher power to glance skyward with trepidation.
“Whatever reason brought us here, God, fate, luck—”
“A little detective work.” She almost laughed at Stone’s grimace.
“Whatever the reason,” added Wyatt. “Does it matter? We’re here now and glad of it.”
It was time to let her game drop. “Okay. I have to admit it’s nice to see you. I’ve had some of the worst customers from hell tonight. Wow. We’re really getting on a biblical slant.”
“Show me who was giving you a hard time and we’ll jump them in the alley.”
She laughed then paused and studied Wyatt, wondering if he wasn’t half-serious. The sizzle of lust she’d experienced at The Dive was back stronger than before. Would that always be the case? Would it get stronger every time she saw them? If
it did, she wasn’t sure she could handle it. She was already wet between the legs and under the collar of the awful uniform.
“Let’s not do that. I’d more than likely end up getting canned and having to bail you out of jail.”
“It’d be worth it if we got to spend time with you.”
She started to laugh at Stone then saw how serious he was. They were as hot for her as she was for them. She wiped her palm on the side of her dress then adopted the professional waitress demeanor.
“Talking about getting canned… See that little skinny guy over by the entrance to the kitchen. Don’t look!”
“How are we supposed to see if we don’t look?” Stone still tried to act nonchalantly while getting a glimpse of him.
“Never mind. That’s Sam, and unless I get back to work pronto, he’s going to fire my butt.” She put her pencil to the pad. “So what’ll it be?”
“You on top of my bed, spread-eagled.”
Her knees wobbled, and she gaped at Wyatt. “Whoa, boy.” And yet she had no intention of telling him to go to hell. In fact, she could imagine herself as he described, spread-eagled with Wyatt between her legs and Stone pumping his cock as he played with her breasts. It had been a long, long time since she’d had a thought like that. No, that was wrong. She’d never had a thought like that. At least not while awake.
“Damn, Wyatt. Take it easy. Rein the animal in.”
But Wyatt didn’t look a bit contrite. If anything, the intense gaze, his eyes filled with amber, burned through her, taking hold of her as surely as if he’d thrown a lasso around her.
“Tell me the truth. How did you find me?” She had to know. Had to know if she’d gotten lucky that they’d come into where she was working, or if they really had cared enough to track her down. Her new friends had told her that Nashville was like a small town in many ways, and she was beginning to believe them. But if the men had meant to find her, then she wanted to know. That answer would help her know if they were for real or not.
“Okay, we confess.” Stone gave Wyatt a pointed look, then kept on going. “We asked around and found out that you worked here. But don’t go thinking it’s a stalker kind of thing because it’s not.”
