Chapter 7 #3
Oh, Cassidy. She drove him nuts, but she was so resolutely on his side.
The truth was, he was the only one, and so was she.
Carson and Austin were full brothers. Danielle and Mike were full siblings; Flynn was the half.
And Cassidy was in much the same boat. She was one of the halves.
Cut from a slightly different cloth, and never really quite sure what to do about it.
He had really needed her when she had come to the house, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he had ever communicated that to her.
But her arrival had upended things in the best way.
Having a nine-year-old girl to look after had taken the focus off his own pain.
And it had made him feel a little bit less alone.
And hell, her loss had been a lot more important.
A lot fresher, and it had given him a purpose.
“Thank you,” he said. “You know I don’t hate them.”
Did he? It was complicated. Sometimes the LeFevres felt like strangers. But strangers didn’t have their hooks in you, he supposed. Strangers didn’t have complex scaffolding that they had built inside you, residences that made you feel a certain way about yourself and everything else.
“Well, I don’t like them,” he said.
Danielle and Mike, anyway. His feelings for his mom were more complicated and always had been.
His stepdad could die in a fire. He didn’t even think of him as his stepfather but as his mom’s husband.
“What I really want to know,” Jessie said as they all moved into the kitchen to eat, “are your primary concerns as ranchers.”
That question opened the gate, and Carson and Austin were off to the races. They had plenty to say about the nuances of water rights and other issues affecting ranchers.
“I fear there’s probably not much I can do on a local level about some of that stuff.
But what I would be committed to doing is having a quarterly meeting with the ranchers to find out how we can better serve different agribusinesses in the community.
It’s important. Tourism isn’t all Rustler Mountain is, even if it has historically been my family’s concern. ”
He watched her closely, trying to tell if she was being genuine, or just a genuinely good politician. It was hard to say with her.
There was always a cheeky grin on her face, and that swagger in her step. He had no idea if that was who she was, or if it was a bit she was doing.
But when she was talking about ranching, there was a light of real concern in her eyes.
He watched as she charmed everybody, complimenting each and every dish, and even managing to make Austin smile.
She was a force of nature. She didn’t charm people by being bland or saying things that were easy to digest the way Danielle did.
Danielle was expected. Exactly the kind of person that you would think would be mayor of a small town.
Well, until the sex scandal. But even then …
Even that scandal seemed pretty on brand for a politician.
He was only surprised that as a woman, she had managed to slide around most of the judgment.
Jessie was a maverick. She was unlike … well, anyone.
“I’m shocked that you’re trusting us with the fake-dating story,” Cassidy said, breaking open a dinner roll and slathering it with butter. “I mean, there are a lot of loose lips over here that could sink your ship.”
Jessie laughed. “It’s better than trying to maintain a lie with the people who know us best. Better to have you all on our side. And in the know. I don’t know if Flynn wants me bunking at his place every night.”
He cleared his throat. “No,” he said shortly.
“What’s the story?” Perry asked. “I mean, the official story of how the two of you got together.”
“We hooked up,” he said. “That night at the bar.”
“Really?” Perry asked, squinting at him. “That’s the best you can manage, Flynn? Making the woman you’re dating no more special than anyone else you’ve ever been with?”
“That’s what everybody saw,” he said. “I’m just keeping it simple.”
“Nobody wants simple,” Perry said.
“Oh, but if the story’s too elaborate, I might mess it up,” Millie said.
“No, you won’t. Because you know what makes a good story, Millie,” said Perry. “You love books. Is this a satisfying romance?”
Millie wrinkled her nose. “I guess not.”
“So what should the story be?”
“Maybe the story should be that they were friends, and then she almost hooked up with someone else, and he got mad and took her out back behind the bar and kissed her.” Cassidy said this deadpan, staring at Perry, and Flynn wanted to give his sister a high five.
Perry bared her teeth at Cassidy. “You know, I think that story might be taken.”
“Sorry for plagiarizing your life,” she said, stuffing the roll into her mouth.
“Yeah, I’m good. I think if this is going to be a really satisfying enemies-to-lovers type story, then there needs to be a dramatic culmination,” Perry said.
“Oh indeed,” said Millie. “A lot of will they, won’t they?”
“You’re describing the last three years of all of their interactions,” Austin said.
Flynn felt like his brother had hauled off and punched him. And Jessie Jane, being Jessie Jane, just laughed.
“Well there,” she said. “There’s the story.
We did hook up that night at the bar, but there were years of denying it.
Years and years.” She laughed as though it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, as if she wasn’t resisting a damn thing.
As if the heat between them was entirely a by-product of his siblings’ imaginations. And his.
He didn’t like that. He didn’t like it at all.
“Fine,” he said. “Great story.”
“I think so,” said Jessie.
“And,” he added, “I encouraged you to run for mayor. Because I knew that you had a lot of great ideas for the town.”
“Excuse me, why am I giving any of my power over to a man?”
“You quite literally asked me to pretend to date you in order to help validate your candidacy?”
“Still. It was my idea to run for mayor.”
“I get that. But you’ve involved me, and the current mayor is my half sister, so don’t you think I ought to be involved?”
“He has a point,” said Carson.
He had the feeling that his family was enjoying this way too much.
“I do have a point,” he said.
“I’ll think about it,” said Jessie. “We’ll see how it goes. What I really want is for you to wear a flannel shirt and carry an ax, like you’re about to chop down some firewood. It would be the perfect vibe.”
“It isn’t Christmas.”
“No, but it would give you that wholesome vibe.”
“I am not wholesome,” he said.
She shrugged.
He had lost control of the conversation. His family was bantering back and forth about all the ways in which he and Jessie could be the most convincing Hallmark movie the town had ever seen. And he was not into it.
Finally, when dinner was over, Jessie excused herself because she had to go home to make her cinnamon-roll dough.
“What time are we meeting tomorrow?” he asked, standing and preparing to walk her out, because, goddammit, he actually was kind of a gentleman.
“Ten. I want to get there before Danielle shows up. Since apparently we are sharing the parking lot.” He opened the front door for her and held it. “You don’t have to walk me out. My car is right there.”
“Consider it practice. You know, you’re telling this whole story like it’s kind of funny, but the reality is, we have to have one, because people are going to ask. And frankly, I think Danielle is going to be suspicious.”
Because their getting together was a little bit too neat, and he could see that. Looking at it from above, explaining all of it to his family, and constructing the story of how the two of them had gotten together, he could see it clearly.
“It’s just … people will believe it,” she said. “Your brother even made that comment about us. About … I don’t know, whatever nonsense he was on about.”
“Nonsense?”
“Yes. I know people think that just because we … banter on occasion, there’s something between us.”
“And there’s not?”
“No,” she said, tilting her chin up toward him. “Not on my end, anyway.”
“Really?”
He shouldn’t let her push him. Hell, it shouldn’t matter.
Because he had done his level best to ignore the attraction between the two of them for years.
Why it should make him mad that she was denying it, he couldn’t say.
Except that she tormented him. But then, she had waltzed up to this ranch and asked Carson to fix that historic Conestoga wagon for her family, and had practically acted like he wasn’t here.
And it had made him feel … decidedly bent out of shape.
Because hell, he had always kind of thought that if one day they crossed that line, that threshold between his family and hers, it would be the two of them.
And for a moment it had seemed as if it was maybe going to be her and Carson, and he hadn’t particularly appreciated it.
It had felt like years of foreplay between them.
Years. Starting somewhere around high school, in fact, and now she was just acting as if it was all in his head.
“Yes,” she said. “Really.”
He took a step toward her, irritation fueling him, and grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him.
“Let me tell you something, Jessie Jane. My family—hell, everybody—seems to be pretty damn charmed by your carnival barker schtick. It’s bullshit.
I don’t buy it. Everything about you reads like an elaborate bit to me, and I don’t believe for one second that half of what comes out of your mouth is genuine.
Yes, I want you to beat my half sister in this election.
But that’s because of my own feelings about them, and nothing to do with you. I’m suspicious of you.”
“Why? Because you’re suspicious that a woman isn’t gagging to get into your pants?”
He moved nearer to her, and he could smell her. Vanilla and lemons. Probably just because she’d been making lemon bars. That made it even worse. “No, because a woman wants to, but is lying about it.”
“Well, maybe think about this,” she said, pulling away from him. “Maybe consider that to some women it’s worth resisting you either way. I’ve got pride. And standards.”
“Apparently not. Because you’re more than happy to use me when you need me.”
“Well, maybe I am. And maybe I thought we were even close to getting along, but your ego is getting in the way.”
“Your lying is getting in the way.”
“What difference does it make? Nothing is going to happen between the two of us.”
“I don’t want you to pretend.”
“The whole thing is pretend, Flynn. Deal with it.”
“You’re a coward, Jessie.”
She didn’t look back at him.
She headed toward her truck and got inside, closing the door with an exaggerated slam.
That was stupid. There was no point in starting a fight with her, and the two of them had to meet tomorrow morning to do this whole political thing.
Maybe he had been stupid to think that it could work between them.
That they could get along even for a limited chunk of time.
Now, they were going to have to pretend to be a couple. And that meant …
That meant touching her. Maybe even kissing her.
Well. He supposed there were only two potential outcomes to that. Either she would prove her point, which might be better for both of them, or they would spontaneously combust. And set this whole fucking place on fire.
And hell, given the way wildfires spread in the West these days, he had legitimate fear about what that could mean.
He just needed to get a grip on himself. Get control. But the other issue with pretending to be Jessie’s boyfriend right now was that he wasn’t going to be doing any hooking up.
Nothing to relieve the growing tension inside him, the disastrous consequence of being around Jessie more than he ever had been.
If there was one thing Flynn was good at, it was not letting people get the better of him.
He had let her do that tonight.
It wasn’t going to happen again.