“What do you want, Eli?” He didn’t want to sit here and talk about his life with his brother. There was too much between them. Eli was from a different time. Eli was from “before.” Everything was
“before” or “after.” It was the way he divided his life.
“Fine. I was calling to see if you could come home for Thanksgiving.”
And be reminded of all the ways he’d failed his family? No. “I have patients here. I can’t leave.”
There was a long sigh. “All right. It’s still a couple of months away. We would love to see you. If you change your mind, you know the way home.”
Eli hung up. Caleb wouldn’t go home for the holidays. He would spend them alone. He would try to ignore the whole season. Colorado winters were different from winters in Chicago. Chicago winters were brutal, but there was a softness to the season in Colorado. A beauty that didn’t exist outside the mountains. And Holly always looked adorable bundled in a parka.
“Are you going to continue talking to me?”
Caleb looked up and saw Wolf’s massive form taking up all the space of his doorway. The big cowboy stood there staring at him. He wore his typical uniform of dark-washed jeans and a T-shirt. His boots were worn, but the hat was new. It was still a little odd to see Wolf out of uniform. “Why wouldn’t I talk to you? Oh. You heard me talking to Eli. I don’t care if you tell my brother I’m alive. It’s fine, Wolf.”
Wolf walked in, his eyes going immediately to the plant. “He just wants to know you’re okay, you know. Did you make a friend?”
Caleb took a long breath as he zipped up his bag. “It was a present from Nell. She’s trying to liven up the clinic. Or she’s planning on using it to kill me. I don’t know which.”
“Interesting.” Wolf turned his keys in his hand. “So, why exactly do you need a ride? Something wrong with your truck?”
“I loaned it to Holly. There was a diner emergency.” Caleb closed his files and shoved them into the proper folders. He grabbed his keys and led Wolf out the door, locking it behind him.
“Oh, did that matchbox of hers finally give up the ghost?” Wolf asked.
“No. She loaned her car to Alexei. I need to run Alexei’s blood work and all the other samples in to the hospital for testing. If I’m lucky, he picked up your mom’s Ebola.” That was a pleasant thought. Alexei’s organs liquefying before his inevitable, painful death put Caleb in a much better mood.
Wolf’s lips pursed. “So Alexei has Holly’s car and you gave her yours. Very interesting.”
“No, it’s not.” He took the steps quickly, eager to get out to the hospital and get back. He had rounds this afternoon.
“Yes, it is interesting. The man is only in town for a day, and you’ve already been pulled into a three-way.”
Caleb rolled his eyes and prayed for patience. He hoped that rumor wasn’t going around. Bliss ran on gossip, and the citizens lived to get in each other’s business. “It’s not a three-way. It’s a friend helping out another friend who happens to have horrible taste in men. I didn’t advise Holly to let Alexei borrow her car. Now are you going to help me out? I promised Holly I would get these in today.”
Wolf opened the driver’s side door and got in. “Hey, I got nothing better to do, and now it’s a four-way. Awesome.”
Wolf’s sarcasm was one of his flaws. Caleb let it go as he buckled his seatbelt. “Thanks, man. It shouldn’t take too long. I already talked to the lab. They’re waiting on me. Are you sure James can spare you?”
Wolf had been working with his childhood friend, James Glen, at his huge spread. James had inherited the ranch and herd from his father, but Caleb had heard he was struggling. Wolf couldn’t have come home at a better time.
“James is getting to know his new partner. Some ex-football player from Texas bought into the Circle G a couple of weeks back. The paperwork is all done now, and he got into town a little while back. He has a wife and brought a friend with him, too. He seems nice enough. Big son of a bitch. James wasn’t thrilled about taking on a partner, but taxes nearly killed him. Trev McNamara’s his name. He bought in for something like ten million. And it works out for me. I have to go to Texas.” He said it with a grimace. There was only one thing in Texas that would make Wolf frown like that.
“You’re going to see your brother.” Wolf loved his brother, but apparently Leo Meyer made Wolf a little crazy.
Wolf turned the truck onto the street toward the highway and the mountain road that led out of Bliss. “I’m going to see a man about a job in a club. Unfortunately, it happens to be the same club that my brother works at. If I had a lick of sense, I would find something else to do, but I was never known for my smarts.”
Caleb couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re finally going to do it, then? You’re going to work as a professional Dom? Spanking girls for a living?”
Wolf’s massive shoulders moved up and down in a negligent motion. “Well, I shot people for a living, and they won’t let me do that now. My request to be reinstated was denied. Apparently a SEAL has to be able to make it past a metal detector, and the plate in my head makes me an automatic pat down. James doesn’t need me anymore. I don’t think Mom and Mel really need me hanging out at their place. Dear god, I don’t need that.”
“James doesn’t need another hand?”
“Well, James’s new partner is bringing a built-in hand with him. Some cowboy with a lot of experience. Apparently his brother runs a big spread in Texas. Julian, the man who owns the club I’ll be working at, knows him. I’m the one who introduced James to Julian. I got rid of my own damn job.”
Wolf hadn’t planned on punching cattle for the rest of his life. At least he’d never told Caleb he’d planned it. “Why isn’t this cowboy back on his brother’s ranch?”
Wolf groaned. “Why would you think? Because he’s this Trev guy’s partner. They share a wife.”
Caleb couldn’t help but laugh. “I swear this place is a magnet. We’re crazy threesome central.”
“Nah,” Wolf said. “I heard there’s this place in Oklahoma that blows us away. However, there’s always room for one more. I think Holly wouldn’t mind.”
Caleb felt his mood sink. “It’s not going to happen.”
Wolf turned and started the climb up the mountain. Delicate aspens and stout evergreens were thick along the road. “I don’t see why not. Look, I get that you don’t want to be alone with her. You think she couldn’t handle your problems. You don’t want to start a relationship with her when you can’t move in with her or have a normal life.”
At least someone got it. “It wouldn’t be fair to her. She should have a man who can be with her all night. Who doesn’t just fuck her and get up and walk out, or worse, who gets up and goes to sleep in her closet.”
“But what if she had someone in bed with her? What if she had someone who could be there at night? Relationships here in Bliss are serious, but the people are a bit more open-minded. You want Holly to get what she needs. You think she doesn’t want the same thing for you?”
The idea played at the edge of his brain. It had been playing there ever since Alexei had put it there. He hadn’t really meant it. He couldn’t have. He’d said something about Holly being more woman than any one man could handle, but that didn’t mean anything. “I think Alexei might have something to say about sharing.”
Alexei would never go for it. And he shouldn’t. But what if he did? What if Alexei could be the normal, happy boyfriend? What did that make Caleb? The guy who showed up for sex? What good would he be?
And what the hell had poor Holly done that the normal, happy boyfriend was a former Russian mobster?
“I think Alexei might be more open-minded than you think.” Wolf handled the turns and curves of the mountain road with the ease of a native.