“Oh. Thank you.”
She took a plate, and Jessie served her a cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee. “Good luck balancing everything,” she said.
The woman went into the library, and Jessie looked at Flynn. “What was that?”
“I don’t know—oh.”
“What?”
“I think I slept with her.”
“For God’s sake,” said Jessie. “I did not consider that.”
“You wanted the outlaw ticket.”
“She’smarried.”
“She wasn’t. It was like five years ago, I think.”
“Oh, Flynn.” Jessie tried to project disgust and disappointment, but in truth, she felt a raging, twisting jealousy.
A feeling that she ignored often when she saw Flynn doing his thing at The Watering Hole. Because the reality was, he was everything she pretended to be. Not that she had consciously pretended to be the kind of person who engaged in casual hookups. It was just that people looked at her and made assumptions. Based on her parents, based on her manner. And people had spread rumors, which had done a whole lot of work she had never done. Even her brother thought it was true. Her reputation didn’t bother her. She would have to think there was something wrong with hooking up in order for it to bother her, and anyway it made her seem more interesting than she was. It gave her a mystique.
It covered her vulnerability. The vulnerability that she for some reason felt keenly right now with Flynn standing there eating her cinnamon roll, being Flynn.
“Well, we can’t exactly claim to be running as the paragons of Rustler Mountain society.”
“That’s true. We are the dregs,” she said.
He huffed a laugh and took another bite. “This really is good.”
Half a dozen more people came through in the next few minutes, and thankfully, Flynn hadn’t hooked up with any of them. They took cinnamon rolls and lemon bars and cups of coffee, and chatted with Jessie. They were considerably busier than Danielle and Michael, and Jessie felt totally smug about it.
There was a slight lull in foot traffic when storytime ended, and the book club hadn’t yet started, and Danielle walked across the parking lot to their table. “Flynn,” she said. “I haven’t seen you in a little while.”
“Nope,” he said.
Jessie was aware of the tension beneath their smiles.
“I didn’t realize that you and Jessie were in a relationship.”
“Well, that would be because you and I haven’t seen each other in a while.”
“I’m not convinced—”
Jessie Jane waited for Danielle to finish the sentence. As if she wasn’t convinced that Flynn would have told her even if they were close. But there was no more to the sentence.
“Excuse me?” Jessie asked.
“I don’t think the two of you are in a relationship,” she said. “I think this is some weird thing where you’re conspiring against me.”
“Danielle,” Flynn said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Oh. He was a liar. And he was a smooth one. She shouldn’t find that hot, except he was doing exactly what she needed him to do, so she did find it hot.
“It’s too coincidental. You’re suddenly with her. She’s suddenly running for mayor.”
It was exactly what he’d said. That Danielle was going to be suspicious. Well, apparently he knew his half sister better than Jessie did. And maybe on some level Jessie Jane had been a bit deluded. Because generally, with sleight of hand, she could impress people enough that they didn’t ask a lot of questions.
