Chapter 14
I fear hope will make a fool of me.
Flynn was such an early riser, it really was irritating. But she got to climb up into his truck with a thermos full of coffee and ride around Lonesome Ridge with him, having a look at his ranching spread. And best of all, at his elk herds.
They parked on the edge of one of the fields where the elk liked to hang out, and she looked out at all the majestic animals, her heart beating hard.
“They’re beautiful,” she said. There was a large bull lying in a patch of grass, his massive rack of antlers branching out high above his head.
Elk really were preposterous creatures. They had long faces, long necks with dark shaggy hair, and large bodies, with a light tan patch on their rear shaped like a heart.
“When you hunt for them, that’s what you see,” he said, gesturing toward one cow that had her back turned away from them. “Those heart-shaped butts.”
“They’re so majestic. It’s kind of sad to think about hunting them.”
“Don’t worry. They’re smarter than most hunters. There’s actually a reason they call it hunting and not catching.”
She laughed. “Did your dad take you hunting?”
“Sometimes. Not here. There are rumors that there’s a wild elk herd out here, but I’ve certainly never seen it.
We would go over to the coast mainly. Did it a few times.
When Dad could get all the paperwork done and get his shit together for the license.
I can still remember standing in the woods, and suddenly there was all this crashing going on around us, and the little whistling noise the elk make.
And then there they were. Thirty of them, running through the trees.
And just like that”—he snapped his fingers—“they were gone. Completely silent. No evidence that they were ever there. It’s like magic.
There’s a reason elk used to be called the Ghosts of the Forest.”
“Wow.”
“My dad used to say that elk are where you find them.”
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly.”
She shook her head. She felt a strange, expanding sense of pride that this place belonged to Flynn. That he had taken up a different sort of ranching. That he’d set himself apart from his brothers.
“My brother is going to ranch,” she said. “Apparently he bought a plot of land.”
“No kidding,” he said.
“Yeah. I … I had no idea. But it’s something he wants to do. I mean, I did always have the sense that the Wild West Show wasn’t his one true love or anything, but I never thought he would leave.”
“It seems like the two of you don’t really share much with each other.”
It was an observation devoid of judgment, but it felt painful anyway. Because he wasn’t wrong. She and West didn’t share that much with each other. And she didn’t really know why.
“I wonder if it’s a side effect of hiding the reality of our life.
We never wanted our parents to get in trouble for anything.
And I think also we never wanted to really say anything bad about them.
Because we love them. I don’t think they could function outside the life they’ve made for themselves, and when you really think about it, it’s brilliant.
To fashion a different life for yourself when you can’t fit.
They did so much well, so much right. It feels disloyal to complain.
And still, in my heart, I find it all really complicated. ”
“You’re both practiced at keeping up a barrier so that you never have to talk about your parents’ shortcomings.”
“That’s exactly it. We’re just too good at it. We’re both … trying to protect them, trying to protect each other. Not burden each other, but then it all comes out in weird ways. Like him telling me he’s doing this without there being any lead up to it.”
“You’ve got a good family,” he said. “And I’m not saying you have to be grateful for them all the time. You can have complicated feelings. I’m just saying, they do love you an awful lot, and that’s obvious. I think your dad is really proud of you; I think your mom is proud of you.”
“She’s maybe a little bit prouder of all the different spurs she’s collected.”
“Maybe. But I suspect you are equal to the spurs. She said a lot of nice things about you. She also said you never brought a man home before, so she was surprised to meet me. She understood maybe I was special.”
Those words made her chest feel as if it was caving in on itself.
“Well, I guess that is true.”
“Nice to be somewhat special,” he said.
“Somewhat,” she said, elbowing him in the side.
“You’re ruthless.”
“Very. But you should take me to get a sweet coffee.”
So then they drove down into town, making Scallywag’s their first stop.
It was crowded, but she didn’t mind. They found a table in the corner, and she had a different variety of coffee and a croissant.
She took a deep breath. “I hardly ever come here or buy fancy coffee because I still have this really intense scarcity mindset. I have money squirreled away. Enough for a down payment on a house. I could start a business; I could do a lot of different things.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really. But I just stay at the Wild West Show because I don’t know what else to do with myself.”
“You’re running for mayor.”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s really the first big thing I’ve done. I want to make a difference. I want to change things. I want to matter. I don’t want to be the girl everybody laughed at. I want to prove to them that they were stupid to do that. By doing an amazing job as mayor.”
“You already have my vote. But if you didn’t, you’d have it again.”
“Thanks.”
They finished up at the coffee shop and then walked out onto Main Street, committed to going up and down both sides and visiting all the shops.
They went to The Pot Rack, where they chatted with the owner of the store about the handmade knives in the display case, and then about the upcoming debate.
Then they moved on to The Laughing Bison.
“Jessie is very much keeping in mind all the concerns of the local business owners. So if you can think of any …”
“That damned dining tax,” the owner said.
“It’s going to keep people from coming out here.
We are already so far off the beaten path, and if it’s more expensive to come out here than it is to eat other places, no one’s going to make the drive.
Remember, Jacksonville tried to do something like that, and the ordinance got shot down.
Well, now we’ll be next to them, farther up the road, and with higher prices.
No one will ever bother to make the rest of the trip. ”
Jessie couldn’t deny that.
“Well, don’t worry. What I’m mayor, that proposal is gone. I’m killing it at the outset.”
“Then you definitely have my vote.”
They were met with similar enthusiasm by a lot of different business owners.
They were worried about changes that affected them.
Changes that could cost them their bottom line.
And any policies that weren’t compatible with running a small business were deeply unpopular.
But of course, Danielle hadn’t imagined that someone would oppose her, so she hadn’t been paying attention to what was popular.
“It would be different if it was for schools or something like that.”
They were in Perry’s florist shop, watching her make a bouquet.
“I could get behind that. Something that really benefited the community. But she’s earmarked some of the money for landscaping?
And that still leaves a lot of what we can theoretically assume we would get in revenue from that tax unaccounted for.
Particularly since she wants to cut some of our programs and services, what is it even for? ”
“Well, it might make sense for another kind of town,” Jessie said. “One that gets heavier traffic. But it’s so much work to drive to ours.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Perry said. “People have to drive an hour out of Medford to get here. And there’s a lot to distract them along the way.”
“Come to the debate. And you can hear me challenge Danielle on all of this.”
“I will. Happily.”
By two thirty, they were at The Watering Hole. It wasn’t as crowded as usual, but some of the regulars were there already.
“I just need to make sure you all know that there’s a debate coming up at town hall between Danielle LeFevre and myself.”
“They don’t want us there,” said Richard, one of the more ragtag regulars.
“I don’t care what they want. I want you there. I want you there to raise the issues that you care about. You can force Danielle to engage with them. And ask me nicely to do it. And I promise you I will.”
“That was amazing,” she said, buzzing as they drove out of town.
“Agreed.”
“I bet you are ready to have me get out of your hair.”
“Not at all. Come up for dinner tonight at Austin’s.”
“Oh.”
His family would know. That was the thing. They would figure it out immediately, because she and Flynn had been honest with them from the start. So they would see the difference.
“I don’t care if they know,” he said.
“Really?”
She was amazed that he had read her quite so accurately.
“Yes. Really. Anyway, Carson and Austin are going to harass me no matter what my circumstances are. So they might as well harass me for this.”
“What about Cassidy?”
“Well, she’s the worst.”
Jessie smiled. She liked Cassidy a lot.
“I’m going to have to go back up to my place and get some clothes.”
He nodded. “Fair. Maybe you should bring a bag down?”
He was inviting her to stay with him.
“I mean, I have rehearsals, and … Yeah. Okay.”
He laughed. And he didn’t tell her how much to bring.
Didn’t put any parameters on her stay. So when they got back to his place, she climbed in her truck and made the trek back to her house.
She went inside and grabbed her little turquoise carry-on-size suitcase and began to fill it with some of her favorite things.
She wished she had sexier underwear. Not that he had made any complaints.