Page 93 of Hunter or Hunted

In the rearview, I saw Junie rub a balled fist against her eye. “He’s a good guy, Mommy.”

Simone glanced at him out the window. “He is.”

“You should be nice to him,” she said. “He just wants to be nice to you.”

Simone’s nostrils flared, and her lip swelled. “Yeah. You’re right, baby.”

Sebastian rounded the corner of the house in a jog. He exchanged a few words with Edwards, they did one of those boy handshakes that wasn’t really a handshake, and he hopped in. “Lizzie’s gonna stay back for a while. Wants to see the ball drop.”

“Could we do that at home?” Junie asked. “In town? We’re dropping a ball too.”

Simone grabbed the side of her daughter’s head and pressed a kiss to her forehead, gazing out the window. “Sure. We’ll watch the ball drop from the balcony, kiddo.”

We drove in near silence. Junie dozed off a few minutes after we left the Jacobs’ home. Once she was out, Sebastian said, “I get it. I would’ve wanted to leave too.”

“Thanks,” Simone said.

“Can I give you some insight, though?” He gazed out the window, voice calm, but not doting. Direct, but not blunt. “As a regular Black Pines pariah myself?”

She huffed. “I’ve never heard anyone call you a pariah.”

“Maybe you should get your ears checked.”

She let out some breathy sound I didn’t have words for. “Alright. Enlighten me, pariah.”

“They love the drama,” he said. “When an Angela shows up, or a belligerent Mr. Everett, or a half nodded-off Mrs. Everett, they’ll talk about it. Because their lives are empty. They hate their wives and husbands and kids. If they’re shitting on you, or me, or my dead parents, or my dead sister, it’s because it makes them feel better about the mistakes they’ve made.”

Another one of those indescribable sounds. “You think Mallory hates her husband and kids?”

“She hates that she had them right out of high school,” he said. “She hates that she didn’t move to the city. She hates that she didn’t finish college until her mid-thirties. She hates the girl whose panties she found in Chris’s truck a few years back.”

Both mine and Simone’s eyes widened. I glanced from the double yellows ahead to meet his gaze. “No shit?”

“She was talking to her mom about it on the phone when she brought her cat in for vaccines right after I opened.” He gave a half smile, raising a shoulder. “Look, I’m just saying. Everyone around here is performing. All their shit stinks too.”

“Nature of small-town America, I guess,” Simone said.

“When we were kids, and it was my dad making a scene like Angela just did, everybody talked. No one offered to help. They ran their mouths about how dysfunctional my family was so they’d feel better about how dysfunctional their family was,” he said. “But one person always asked if I was okay.”

Ah. Now I saw where he was going with this.

Judging by Simone’s sigh, so did she. “If you’re trying to tell me Edwards is a great person, I know that, Sebastian. That’s the problem.”

“Why? Because you don’t think you’re good enough?” he asked. “He’s got his shit too. It might not be as heavy as yours, but he’s not perfect either.”

“No one is,” she said. “But he’s close enough. And one day, he’ll get sick of it. My drama, my chaos. And it’s not just mine, either. Junie’s got issues too. He doesn’t wanna deal with us.”

“He stood up for you.” Sebastian looked out the window again, that calm directness returning to his voice. “He ran after you. I dunno what happened when he caught up, but if he said something wrong, it’s because he doesn’t have years of Rhiannon’s therapy language in his head. Not because he doesn’t want you.”

Silence set in again.

I didn’t have anything better to say, so I nudged the stereo up a couple notches. We drove the rest of the way in silence.

When we got to the ranch, I headed down to the apartments first. Main Street looked busier than usual in the distance, but only the dull sound of voices and music carried. Now, I wished we would’ve rung in the New Year here.

I got out to help Simone, but she already had the sleeping child in her arms. Junie stirred, but her eyes stayed shut. “Do you want to get a drink? Watch the ball drop on the balcony?”

She shook her head. “I just wanna lay down.”