Chapter 2 #2
Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she would start to feel it again.
“I can tell Cassidy and Dalton the truth, right? Because they’re not going to believe …”
She lifted a brow. “They won’t?”
She was banking on the fact that his family must have noticed there was …
There was something between her and Flynn. Always. She could never decide if it was dislike or something a whole lot sparkier.
Maybe it was both.
But she found that pondering the mysteries of the universe never got her anywhere. It was best if she acted like she knew everything. It made other people think they were confused. Made them question themselves instead of her.
“Fine. Fine. We’ll discuss the details later.”
“You should buy me a drink,” she said.
He took a step toward her. “Sure.”
And then he did something that made her feel like her skin was on fire.
He put his arm around her waist as if she belonged to him, and started to propel her back into the bar.
His brain was screaming that this was the worst idea in the entire world. The worst idea anyone had ever had. Yet, for some reason, he was going along with it.
He had to admit that the idea of messing with Danielle’s life appealed to him. Messing with her family’s sense of power, comfort, and superiority. Oh, it really, really appealed to him.
If he helped Jessie Jane beat Danielle in the race …
Oh, the LeFevre family would be just furious. They’d melt down. They would have lost their seat of power in the community for the first time in generations, and he would feel … better.
Better than them.
They had always thought they were so much better than Flynn Wilder.
His mother, Connie, had married Don LeFevre when Flynn was two; before that her last name was Parker. The Parker family had often held political positions in town, but they’d been a mixed bag.
His grandfather had been a great man. James Parker had served Rustler Mountain as mayor with total integrity. In Flynn’s opinion, Danielle made a mockery of their grandfather’s legacy.
Jessie Jane was correct. His mother’s family went around acting as if they were the good people.
While they stabbed people in the back. He knew for a fact that Mike was skimming money off the payments for those insurance policies.
He knew that Danielle was lining her pockets with town money.
People didn’t see it, because this town was so …
So damned narrow-minded about whom they labeled good and whom they labeled bad.
He didn’t have patience for it anymore.
Normally, he didn’t fight it. Normally, he just leaned into it.
But hell … Jessie had served him this opportunity on a platter, and he wasn’t above taking it.
Except the problem was, now he had Jessie Jane pressed up against the side of his body.
Now he could feel her curves. The roundness of her hips, those firm breasts, pressed up against his chest. He was no green, inexperienced boy, but she was making him feel a touch out of control.
He walked up to the bar, past Cassidy and Dalton, who was busy chatting up the redhead, while Cassidy looked like a sad puppy. “Gus,” he said. “Can I get a drink for the lady?”
“Lady,” she said. “What an upgrade.”
“Well. A man can admit when he’s made a mistake.”
“Can he?” she asked, lifting a brow.
Her hair slid over her shoulder, a glimmering river of chestnut gold.
God, she was so hot.
He had to remember that this was a game, and not in fact a pickup.
He could’ve asked. He could have asked her if maybe …
since they were pretending, there was some merit in not pretending.
But that was another thing he just flat out refused to do.
Because there was tension between them, and he was absolutely certain that she felt it too.
He would be damned if he’d be the first one to acknowledge it. He would be absolutely damned.
Which meant he wouldn’t even ask.
“And what would the lady like?” Gus asked with far too much mirth in his voice.
“I am a lady, Gus,” she said. “And I would like a motherfucking beer.”
She looked at Flynn and smiled. He smiled back. And then he became aware of his sister’s presence. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey yourself,” he said.
“Are you and Jessie hanging out tonight?” Cassidy looked at him far too meaningfully. If he were actually picking Jessie up, and if she weren’t … well, her, Cassidy would have likely messed this whole thing up. His little sister really was a menace.
“Maybe,” he said.
She grinned. “Okay. I need to call Austin—he owes me money.”
Cassidy walked away, and he stared after her, his jaw practically on the floor.
Jessie nearly howled. “Does your family bet on … Seriously?”
“It’s news to me,” he said. “They never told me that they had a bet going.”
“How wholesome.”
“Yeah. Well, my family never claimed to be wholesome. But you realize this is going to cause issues for me.”
“Look, if you need to tell your family, that’s fine. But keep it on the down-low. We can’t have everybody knowing. West will know. I mean, he would never believe … Sorry, but my brother is not taking bets on us.”
“Yeah. Well. The only bet I have that concerns West is whether or not Carson would punch him if he had to interact with him again.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you hear about the whole thing where Perry went on a date with him?”
Jessie Jane blinked. “No.”
“Yeah. They kissed, in this very bar. Carson took a dim view.”
Carson Wilder and Perry Bramble had been best friends since they were children and had spent most of their adult lives trying to outrun their attraction to each other.
They had stopped running about a year ago.
But there had been a lot of drama on the way there, and West had gotten tangled up in it.
Jessie put her hand on her chest. “Well. I’m a little bit offended that West didn’t tell me about that. He knows I love drama.”
“You clearly do. You clearly do.” Gus slid a beer across the bar, and Jessie grabbed it, nodding, before taking a sip. “Drink quickly,” he said.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “Feeling impatient, cowboy?”
“Very,” he said.
He was gratified when he saw color rise in her cheeks. She wasn’t unaffected by this. By him. By them.
She swallowed the beer down. “All right, Wilder. Let’s get out of here.”
And then she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him toward her.
He chuckled, grabbed her hand and twisted it behind her back, pulling her body up against him.
And he was almost sure he was going to die of heat stroke. But he didn’t let her see that. “Behave yourself,” he said, their faces a scant inch apart.
Fistfight. Fuck. The jury was out.
“Well,” she said, and her voice was breathless, as he had never heard her sound before.
“Do you need me to be the designated driver?”
“Yeah. I can pick my truck up in town tomorrow.”
“Perfect.”
He released his hold on her but then took her hand in his. He turned toward Dalton and tipped his hat. Dalton was staring at him, his mouth open. Cassidy was in the corner, texting wildly.
Dalton probably had a ride home with the redhead, and Cassidy was going to have to get a rideshare.
But then, that was sort of the way these things went.
And by the time he was out on the street with Jessie, he wasn’t thinking about them anyway.
His body was on high alert, his heart pounding hard, and he had to keep on reminding himself that he wasn’t actually taking Jessie Jane home. He was just … taking her home.
He was still holding her hand, conscious of how soft her skin was. That surprised him, considering she was such a devoted horsewoman. He had expected her to have some calluses. When he had thought about it. Which was a couple of different times.
Just a couple.
“I can take you back to your place, but it might be beneficial for us to meet up in town tomorrow morning.”
“Hey, whose scheme is this?” she asked.
“It’s yours. But you roped me into this, so now I’m going to be mouthy.”
“Lord. I should’ve enlisted Cassidy to pretend to be my girlfriend. She’s probably less of a hassle than you.”
“She isn’t. On that you can trust me.”
“Anyway,” Jessie said, “I do agree. I think we should be seen having coffee together tomorrow, and then in the afternoon I’m going to file the paperwork to enter the mayor’s race.
And I’m going to have to … I’m going to have to set up a social media page, but I’ll start with the Wild West Show’s page, and I’ll do a live video. ”
“Wow. You have to actually … do things like that.”
“I’m great with people, Flynn,” she said, her voice sounding overly cheery.
“I’ve heard that.”
They were still holding hands. As soon as they got far enough down the block, he let go of her. “I’m just right there,” he said.
She began to walk a little faster ahead of him. Then she opened the truck door and climbed inside. He hadn’t bothered to lock it; there was no reason to in Rustler Mountain. He was the trouble. And these days, he caused a lot less trouble.
Back in their teen years, he and his siblings had been hellions. Until Cassidy had shown up.
He opened the driver’s side and got in, jamming his key into the ignition and turning it over. “I live like twenty-five minutes out of town,” he said.
“I don’t live any closer,” she said.
“Right. I forgot. You still live up at the Wild West Show.”
She shifted beside him, and he tried to ignore the movement of her body. Tried to ignore how aware he was of her.
“Why wouldn’t I? That’s my family property.”
“Didn’t y’all end up with that land because you scammed some guy back in the day?”