Chapter 4 #2
“Because she’s going up against people that you don’t like. Not everybody here has a personal vendetta against Danielle.”
“Fair enough. But maybe enough of them do. Or maybe enough of them are just tired of the way things work. Jessie’s a wild card.”
“My wife is going to enjoy this way too much.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. Millie is a secret anarchist.”
Flynn laughed. “It’s actually not that secret. She’s a little contrarian. But I feel like librarians usually are.” He paused for a second. “Are you … are you uncomfortable with this because it relates to the Millie/Michael-who-is-not-my-brother/Danielle thing?”
Austin made a huffing sound. “I … no. I’m not … no.”
“You are a little bit.”
“No. I don’t think Millie cares about that anymore.”
“I know she doesn’t,” Flynn said. “Though it doesn’t mean she wouldn’t enjoy seeing Danielle and Michael endure a little hardship.”
“It’s not about Millie. I just … I want you to be careful,” Austin said. “Because playing with the Hancocks feels a lot like playing with fire. Maybe you think that’s small minded of me or something. I like to think of it as taking the appropriate amount of caution.”
He huffed a laugh. “What exactly do you think I’m vulnerable to?”
“There’s always been something between the two of you.”
“There has not been. Nothing that I don’t feel for any number of women. Jessie’s hot—I’m not disputing that. But the idea that I’m vulnerable to her in some specific way is ridiculous.”
“I’m your older brother. It’s my job to look out for you.”
“You’re not that much older than me.”
“I’m older enough,” Austin said.
He paused for a long moment, and his eyes rested on Emma.
“The thing is, life has been pretty brutal to all of us. Carson and I experienced one kind of parental abandonment. You … Your mom left, but she was still here. I don’t know how you dealt with that.
I got to pretend that my mother never existed.
Hell, I guess even Cassidy got to do that.
She moved in with us, not knowing us, which was its own whole drama, but her mom wasn’t around anymore.
Yours is. Along with Danielle and Michael. Children that she did raise.”
“I get that,” Flynn said, ignoring some of the tightness in his chest. “But time has definitely revealed to me that I was better off. I don’t respect the people that Michael and Danielle turned into.
I’m glad I wasn’t raised in that house. With those people.
I would rather be on this side of town. I guess it’s the same side that Jessie is on.
I know we have a tendency to make it the Wilders versus the Hancocks, and who can blame us?
But the truth of the situation is that we are the outsiders.
Why? Because the insiders insist on making us that. Jessie wants to change it.”
“I guess.”
He looked at his older brother, at the lines that bracketed his mouth.
The lines around his eyes. He wondered if he was the reason for some of those lines.
Austin had had a bigger part in raising the younger siblings then he should’ve had to.
“I know that you’re the reason I turned out as well as I did. ”
“There’s a weird compliment,” Austin said.
“Come on. We’re all good people. Learn how to accept praise. You’re the father figure. That’s why it’s so easy for you to be a good dad to Emma. You were already that guy.”
Austin shrugged his shoulders up, and Flynn slapped his older brother in the center of his back. “You’re ridiculous, dude. You’re a good guy. But you don’t need to worry about me. I’m going to do what I feel like I need to do.”
“Revenge is what you feel like you need?”
“Yep. I don’t know if it’s even really revenge. I just want to see the score settled a little bit. Like you said, it’s strange to have to sit back and watch your other family be a whole thing without you. I don’t want in. I never really did. But that doesn’t mean I feel neutral about them either.”
“Fair enough. So what are we supposed to do when people ask about you and Jessie Jane?”
That did worry him a little bit, especially considering the two people most likely to be asked were his sisters-in-law since they worked in town.
Perry would smile vaguely and say something benign and dreamy.
But Millie was not a liar. Not even when it came down to telling little white lies, and he also knew that Austin wouldn’t lie to his wife about what was happening between him and Jessie.
“If Millie could just play coy about it, that would be great. Just say that I don’t kiss and tell,” he said.
“I mean, I suppose that is true. Primarily because you don’t actually have relationships.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“You know this is going to create a lot of buzz. Neither of you is really the relationship type.”
“Indeed.” He shook his head. “And she’s not the run-for-mayor type. This whole thing is going to be a spectacle. Maybe a shit show, but a show nonetheless.”
Austin laughed. “I mean, whether you win or lose, it’s going to give Danielle hell.”
“That’s good enough for me.”
It was. For once, everybody in his mother’s family was going to have to pay attention to him.
He really liked to think that he didn’t much care about the way he had been excluded from his family.
But the truth was a little bit more complicated, he reckoned.
Because these weren’t the actions of a man who didn’t care.
No, he wouldn’t want to be part of that family as they were. But if they’d been different …
Well, they weren’t. That was all that mattered.
“You can talk to everybody else, but they’re going to have to be circumspect.”
“I can’t control your sister.”
“No. I guess not. But I really need her to get on board.”
“We’ll see, I guess.”
“That we will. That we will.”
By the time Jessie finished filing her paperwork at the courthouse and placed an order for campaign signs and flyers at one of the local print shops, she was late for rehearsal.
She drove straight from town to the family homestead, which was a few miles east of the Wild West Show venue.
Their living quarters were comprised of a circle of trailers with a gazebo and firepit in the center.
Jessie’s trailer was pink, with string lights that extended out along the walkway to the front door—which had a wreath of fake sunflowers on it.
She had a little white bistro table and chairs positioned out front, and a porch goose who had seasonal costumes, along with a bright green alligator who was holding a fishing pole and wearing waders.
It was whimsical, and she liked it.
She changed into her rehearsal clothes at record speed and hopped back into her truck, driving back toward the show venue.
The food trucks were shuttered, as were the game booths, but when the show was open, food and drink flowed freely, and there were carnival games that included a pop-gun range and Whac-a-Mole.
There was a large fence painted with stars, stripes, and cartoon interpretations of the showdown in the street between Lee Talbot and Austin Wilder.
There he was again on horseback carrying bulging bags full of money, along with a Western Union coach on the run, and some cheeky drawings of cowgirls that always set Jessie’s teeth on edge.
The fence served to hide all the RVs that were parked behind it; this was where the employees of the Wild West Show lived. It was a mini town in and of itself.
Their employees ran the carnival games, and some of them were also performers, playing small parts in various routines.
The more skilled performers had larger residences farther away from the show itself. A few team members were literal acrobats, and while Jessie and West were pretty close, their expertise was in rodeo and trick riding.
The rodeo events were held sporadically, and there was a rotating roster of riders who participated in them. Their mom still did barrel racing, and some minor tricks, while their dad was the MC. He was the face behind the Wild West Show, the magnetic force that drove it all.
Like his father before him.
The center of the show was the massive arena, surrounded by bleachers, which they routinely filled, particularly during the summer. But even this time of year, they were busy.
In addition to the shows, games, and food, there were blacksmithing demonstrations around a forge, which was one of Jessie’s favorite jobs. It was how she’d gotten into doing farrier work on the side, another way she made sure they were able to pay the bills year round.
She was a Jill-of-all-trades, so to speak. But that was the life her family had always lived. A sort of patchwork existence requiring expertise in any number of random skill sets, most of them decidedly left of the mainstream.
All through the fall, they ran rodeo events, and then around Christmas there was always a seasonal performance. The weeks of January through February were pretty dead, but they were accustomed to that now and had figured out how to weather the low times, even if it meant some white-knuckling.
She parked right at the front gates, which she would never normally do, but this was just rehearsal, so no one else would need the space.
She tumbled out and ran through the front entrance.
West was already out on his horse, standing while the animal ran in a circle around the arena.
He spotted her and jumped back down into a sitting position, using his upper body strength to keep himself from crashing onto the saddle and injuring both horse and man.