“Who?” asked Perry, poking her head around Jessie to look at him.
“My stupid half brother. He’s a dick. There’s no reason to get wound up about it.”
Even if he did feel wound up.
“What did he say?” Jessie Jane asked, looking at him with sympathy. Well. Jessie looking at him so softly … It made his chest ache, and he didn’t need his chest to ache right now.
“Nothing. Just the usual kind of vitriol you expect from people like him.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she said.
Which was maybe the most relationship thing the woman had ever said to him. Soothed, he turned his focus back to handing out flyers, buttons, and other Jessie Jane–related paraphernalia. Until the street started to get less and less crowded, and darkness began to fall, and a chill settled in the air.
Perry had sold almost all her dried flower bunches, and there was very little to clean up except the booth itself, which was being handled by some volunteer organizers for the event.
Jessie had given out most of her literature, and they started packing up what was left.
“You’re an idiot, you know.”
Flynn turned sharply, and there was his brother again, right in his face.
“Here you are. Obsessed with me. It’s very weird.”
That seemed to enrage Michael. He took a step forward, his chipmunk cheeks red and his eyes glittering. “They’re not going to vote for some woman trying to use her rack to get votes.”
Jessie looked down at her shirt and then back up. And Flynn saw red. He was beyond himself. He stepped out of the booth and punched his younger brother in the face.
“Don’t you ever, ever talk about her or any other woman like that.”
Michael was holding his face, down on the ground, shouting and cussing.
“I’ll … I’ll ruin you,” he said.
“Ruin me how? I’m already at the bottom of the well in this town. You can’t get mefired—I work for myself. You, on the other hand, might lose some clients.” He reached down and lifted his brother up, bringing him back onto his feet. “Maybe some of this is my fault. Maybe I wasn’t the older brother you should’ve had. So let me tell you something, but it’s not man-to-man, because you’re no kind of man. If you ever talk about a woman like that, you should expect to get hit. Because no real man is going to stand by and let it happen. And you’re sure as hell not going to win any points with it. Not with anyone who has a shred of integrity. You can critique the policies that Jessie is running on, but the minute you start talking like that, you’ve already lost.” He shook his head. “I don’t envy you. Because whatever happened in your life, you came out like this. And I would rather be me every day of the goddamned week.”
He shoved his brother back. Michael stumbled a little but righted himself.
“I should call the police,” Michael said.
“Go right ahead. You’re going to look like the biggest crybaby in the world. You called the cops because your big brother punched you in your ugly mug for running your mouth about his girlfriend. You know what the real problem is, Michael? You envy me. Because you’re stuck being whatever it is you are. And I’m me.”
He felt hands on his shoulder, and then Jessie wrapped her arms around him. “You really didn’t have to do that. You know men have said way worse things to me.”
“Not in front of me,” he said. “And I’m not going to stand for it.”
The incident had drawn a small crowd, and as Michael slinkedaway about three-quarters of the people stepped forward and started to take brochures out of the box Jessie had been packing up.
Everyone had heard what had been said, and certainly no one seemed to think that the punch was unjustified. “Anyway, that was probably good for my campaign,” she said.
“He’s disgusting,” Flynn growled.
“Well. People often are. Why was he harassing you today?”
“He feels threatened. He’s such a small man, anything that threatens his power enrages him. But really, all the power belongs to Danielle. It doesn’t belong to him. He’s always felt insignificant. I could have been there for him, but they never wanted me. That’s what he said. My mom never wanted me there.”
“Flynn …”
“It makes sense. She felt guilty, so she kept inviting me, but she didn’t actually want to deal with me. It would’ve been more convenient for her if I could’ve just disappeared from her life. I’ve always felt that, but it … Yeah. It’s something to get confirmation.”
