Back in Bliss

Prologue

Bliss, Colorado

Fifteen Years Ago

“Please don’t tell his moms.” Seth had to talk for Logan because his teeth hadn’t stopped chattering yet. And his lips were just the slightest bit blue.

Seth took a seat at the bar, the smells from the kitchen making his stomach growl. It was stupid. He always ate more here even though he lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His mother liked to tell him that the world revolved around Manhattan, but he never got mac and cheese there. Ellen Glen-Bennett always made mac and cheese.

And chocolate chip cookies. Gosh he liked cookies even though his parents thought carbs were the devil. He lived for the three months he got to spend in Bliss.

Ellen frowned his way as she placed a steaming mug of hot chocolate in front of Logan. “I do not understand boys. I swear. What on earth got into Logan’s head? The river is still very cold even during the summer. Did he fall in? Were you boys horsing around?”

He and Logan looked at each other. No horsing around. Just Truth or Dare. Jamie had bet Logan that he couldn’t last two minutes in the cold waters of the Rio Grande, and Logan had decided to jump into the river rather than tell Jamie how often he masturbated.

Seth would have just told him. Not the total truth, of course, but some approximation of it. But not Logan.

Ellen shook her head as though she knew she wouldn’t get an answer out of them. “I’m going to get another blanket and throw his clothes in the dryer. Boys?”

Logan trembled in the seat beside him, his head swinging toward Seth. His teeth chattered as he spoke. “Don’t tell Ellen about the dirt bike. We can fix it up.”

It was a summer of what his mother would likely call “very bad choices” and what Seth just labeled as fun. The week before, Jamie had taken their friend Max up on the bet that he couldn’t drive their brand-new dirt bike up the mountain. He’d gotten it up, but he’d come back down really fucking fast. Like way faster than the bike. The bike had kind of smashed into Jamie’s head.

It had been cool and funny, and Logan was right. Ellen would be pissed. She might not let them stay out at the man cave again. He loved the man cave. Sure, it smelled bad, but even that was kind of cool.

“How did you do it, man? That water was so cold.” Logan had just stood there and took it like a man while Jamie had counted down the seconds and Noah held a lasso ready to catch Logan in case the current swept him away.

Maybe they hadn’t thought through that plan as thoroughly as they should have.

“The key is to just survive ten seconds, man. You can survive anything for ten seconds. And then you go for another ten seconds and another and before you know it, you’re done. I use it when my moms are lecturing me on getting my school work done, too.” His voice was almost back to normal, but his hands were still shaking.

A heavenly aroma hit Seth’s nose as Ellen returned with another blanket. She opened the oven and took out the cookies after tossing the blanket around Logan’s shoulders. Noah and Jamie joined them, looking at their stepmom with worshipful eyes.

Ellen frowned as she opened a jug of milk and poured four glasses out. “So now that we know Logan is going to survive, would anyone like to explain why Jamie looks like he went through a meat grinder?”

She was so calm. If Seth had walked in like that, his mother would have had a conniption fit, not because she loved him and was worried about him, but because she would have been deeply concerned about what the neighbors would say.

Jamie shrugged. “I fell. It’s cool.”

He’d fallen down a mountain and they’d spent days trying to heal him.

Ellen sighed. “All right, but next time call me. I’ve got to start dinner.”

She turned away and disappeared into the pantry. The tension deflated and everything was normal again because everything was always normal in Bliss. He felt normal in Bliss.

“Way to deflect the mom unit, man.” Noah held up his hand for a high-five.

Jamie slapped his palm against his brother’s. “That’s the way we do it, brother. I learned from our dads. That’s how you handle a mom. It’s how we’ll handle Callie one day.”

Noah’s eyes rolled. “We’re not marrying Callie. She’s like our sister.”

“She’s the most devious thing ever. We should totally marry her,” Jamie said.

Callie had been the one to come up with the plan to fix Jamie up. Sure, he was going to scar, but he was alive. Seth had to admit, Callie was pretty cute, but she had a thing for Max and Rye.

Noah gagged a little. “Not happening.”

Jamie sighed. “But I like Callie.”

Seth looked over at Logan. “Who are we going to marry?”

It was said with the trepidation of a boy who wasn’t sure of his place. He’d always been at the top of his class, but that wasn’t where he’d wanted to be. He wanted to be here. With his best friend and his family.

Logan shot him a grin even as he pulled the blankets tighter. “Do you really think we can find someone to marry us? I don’t know. It’s a tall order.”

But it was everything he wanted. A family with his best friend. In his town.

“Damn, man. I think any woman would want to marry you after she finds out how long you can stand in the river,” Jamie said with an admiring glance Logan’s way. “We’re going to call you River Man from now on.”

“No, Captain Freeze because his balls didn’t drop off,” Noah offered and then frowned. “Tell me your balls didn’t drop off, man.”

And then they were all joking and laughing and downing chocolate chip cookies.

He only had twenty-two days until he had to go back to New York, and then a whole year would pass until he could come home again. He would count every single day off, marking it on a calendar. But one day…

“Yeah, we’ll find someone.” Seth was sure. It was his destiny. His and Logan’s.