Chapter 6
I had my sixteenth birthday on the trail and by the time I arrived in the Willamette Valley, Ma was dead and my future was decided. The men are not different out West. Men are all the same.
Dalton was leaving the valley for a few weeks for rodeo events, and Cassidy had wheedled him into going out with her and his best friend for drinks tonight—clearly the only way Cassidy was going to get to spend time with Dalton.
Not that he really needed to be coerced into spending time with his best friend, but he was in his head a little bit about everything with Jessie.
“Nice of you to buy me a drink,” Dalton said, clicking his glass against Flynn’s.
“I didn’t say that I was buying.”
“I can pay,” Cassidy said.
They both looked at her. “No,” they said in unison.
“It was my idea,” she said, looking at Dalton from beneath her lashes.
“Thank you,” he said. “But I’m not going to have you buying me a drink. Your brother can do it. Especially since he’s involved in politics now.”
“Only by extension,” he said.
Jessie’s online announcement had gone viral locally, and it was the talk of his family all day, along with Flynn’s involvement.
He’d been transparent about the fact that he was going to be seen with Jessie as a show of solidarity, demonstrating that even someone who shared DNA with Danielle had more faith in her opponent.
And also to create more buzz around the whole thing.
They were still … getting used to the idea.
“If you can’t make campaign promises directly to me, why should I vote for Jessie Jane Hancock?” Dalton asked.
“Would you vote for Danielle?” Cassidy asked seriously.
“Well, no. And I didn’t the first time she ran either. Because I have loyalty.”
“I appreciate your loyalty,” Flynn said. “I didn’t vote for her either.”
“Neither did I,” Cassidy said. “And I never would.”
“Well, thank you. I do appreciate the loyalty.”
“I do think it’s insane that your …”
Cassidy trailed off and looked behind Flynn.
Flynn turned and saw Jessie walk through the bar in her characteristic tight tank top, though she had a flannel shirt thrown over it.
Her jeans looked like they had been painted onto her curves, and she had the ready smile on her face that she often wore when she was about to run a bit of gambling on one of the fights.
But notably, West walked in behind her.
He also frequented The Watering Hole, though not as often as his sister.
But when he did, all eyes turned to look at him.
Flynn watched as his sister’s eyes moved up and down over the imposing figure that was West. A strange, sort of hollow look appeared in her eyes.
He really had no idea what he was looking at, but it was definitely something.
Cassidy’s response to West was not neutral, not in any way.
“You good?” he asked.
“Fine,” she said, her voice sounding scratchy. “But your girlfriend is here.”
“Yeah. I see that. Thank you.”
“Your girlfriend,” Dalton repeated, shaking his head. “Ludicrous.”
Flynn didn’t mention that Jessie was aiming for fake fiancée in the coming weeks.
“Is it?” he asked.
“Yes. You’ve never had a real girlfriend to speak of.”
“Neither have you,” said Cassidy. “You are two of the most commitment-phobic men around these parts. Especially now that Austin is married.”
“What about West?” Dalton said. “I’ve never heard of him having a relationship.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about West,” Cassidy said.
“Ah, right, he’s from the other side of the other side of the tracks,” Flynn said. “The Wilders don’t have anything to do with the Hancocks.”
“You do always act like that,” Cassidy said. “Which is the real reason this is weird. But hey, I totally get doing it to spite the LeFevres. I hate them.”
“Yeah. Well, it would be simpler if I did.”
“Don’t you?”
“Sadly, kid, I don’t. They’re my family. I mean, I don’t think Danielle is good at her job, and I don’t like her.”
He hated his stepfather. He disliked Michael and Danielle. His mother … That was different.
“I dunno. Seems silly,” Cassidy said. “I think you should just write them all off.”
“If your mom came back,” he said, looking directly at Cassidy now, “and she said that she loved you, it was just that things were complicated for a while, but she wants to have a relationship with you, what would you think?”
Cassidy blinked, and he regretted the question when he saw his sister’s eyes go glossy.
But just as soon as the sheen of tears appeared, it was gone.
“Well, it’s irrelevant. Because that’s never going to happen.
She’s never contacted me, not once since bringing me here.
So I doubt that she would suddenly get a hankering to hang out with me after all this time. ”
“Right. Well. That’s terrible. But my mom is here. And she hasn’t just cut me off. That makes it …”
“Oh, is it harder?” she asked. There was a hard edge to her voice that Cassidy never used with him. “Must be nice, actually.”
He felt like an asshole then, because maybe it was.
Maybe he was the lucky one. It didn’t feel lucky.
It felt like having two junkyard dogs fighting over you.
Neither of them worked as pets, neither of them had any idea how to be what you needed them to be, and yet they tore violently, one at each arm.
That was his childhood. His whole experience with his mother and his father, or rather his feelings for them.
He looked back at Jessie, who was ordering a beer. And he realized he couldn’t stay seated any longer. “I’ll be right back.”
He stood up and walked over to her. He stopped just short of invading her personal space, but he could feel that people in the bar were watching them.
As was West. Flynn looked up and met his gaze. “Howdy, West,” he said. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“No,” West said. “It has been a time. Good to see you. Tell your brother I said hi.”
He knew exactly which brother West meant.
“Sure.”
“And his wife.”
“Now, now,” said Flynn. “Why don’t we avoid having a bar fight.”
“Why? Bar fights with the Wilders used to be my favorite part of high school.”
“Yes. I know you all used to punch each other up when you were in here with fake IDs. But I was too young.”
“Just a spring chicken. And apparently seeing my sister.”
Jessie turned sideways and shot West a deadly glare. “Is that what we do now, West? We comment on each other’s sex lives? Because if so, I do have some opinions.”
“No thanks,” he said. “Not at home to opinions. Which means I’ll be keeping mine to myself.”
“A blessed day indeed,” said Jessie. “Should we join you at your table?”
“You have some nerve, Jessie Jane, you really do,” Flynn responded.
“You already knew that. I’m here because I just announced my candidacy, and what better place to be than The Watering Hole. These are my people. My constituents.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that.”
The eclectic crowd tonight was definitely her crowd, and it didn’t surprise Flynn totally that this was her first stop after her online announcement. What did surprise him was that she hadn’t told him.
He hadn’t anticipated having to wrangle Jessie Jane today, but the truth was, he had been foolish for thinking he might be able to get around it. She had announced her candidacy today. And he was now roped into all this.
“Yes,” he said, a little bit more decisively, now that he was getting his bearings. “Come on back to the table. We have so much to celebrate.”
West looked from one to the other. Well, if Jessie hadn’t told her brother that her interest in Flynn was all for show, it wasn’t really his place to disabuse him. The Wilders knew the truth, but it seemed Jessie and West weren’t in each other’s business quite as much.
When they sat down at the table, Jessie looked decidedly nervous. Which was a funny thing to see, because generally speaking, she didn’t get rattled. Ever.
“You good?” he asked.
“Just great,” she said, smiling.
He lifted his glass and clinked it against hers. “To Jessie Jane. Who has announced a historic candidacy today. And who will no doubt wipe the floor with her competitor.”
“Amen to that,” said West.
“I’ll toast to that,” Cassidy said, and Dalton raised his glass too.
“Right on,” said Dalton.
“Well,” said West. “Now that we have toasted my sister, I’ll leave you to it. I’m meeting somebody.”
West stood, squared his shoulders, and began to walk to the back of the bar, where a pretty redhead saw him and smiled wide.
Cassidy turned her head and stared at him for a while, and Dalton looked at Cassidy.
Flynn turned his focus back to Jessie Jane. “You aren’t actually taking bets tonight, are you?”
“No,” she said. “I am doing the gambling myself.”
She took a drink of beer and then took a deep breath. She stood up, then walked over to the bar, where she got up onto a bar stool, and stepped onto the counter. “Hey now!” She stomped twice on the bar top.
Gus was howling with laughter from his position behind the bar, doing nothing to stop the spectacle. It was like the days of yore come into the present. Jessie Jane acting like this place was an outlaw bar, with no rules.
But then, maybe that was good. Maybe it fit. “I want everyone’s attention. Just this afternoon I declared my candidacy for mayor. You heard it here first. I’m going to be campaigning around this place, and I trust you lowlifes to do some canvassing for me.”
There was a lot of indistinct hollering.
“I know we don’t normally bother ourselves with this kind of business, but I think it’s high time that we did.
This town is ours. Just as much as it belongs to anyone else.
For too long it’s been outlaws versus lawmen.
Danielle LeFevre thinks she knows what sort of person ought to be here in Rustler Mountain, and hint: it’s not us.
” That brought a round of jeers from the crowd.
“But I like us. I like this town. So tonight I’m buying everybody a beer.
All of you. You heard me, Gus. It’s going on my tab. ”