by Lucy Score
So when the library faced closure, the hippies decided to show their support of the library and Mrs. Manypenny in the way they knew best. They staged a sit-in at the library with the highlight being two young lovers, Sheldon and Lenore Fitzsimmons—Fitz’s parents— who handcuffed themselves to a shelving system of Nancy Drew books. The entire town showed up to see what all the fuss was about and someone started passing a hat. The five o’clock news did a brief clip on the protest and eleven hours after the sit-in started, the protestors had raised enough money to fund the library’s operating budget for another year.
The townspeople had so much fun they decided to do it again. And so every year since, they staged a sit-in for a different cause. And every year, the town chose a “lucky” couple to be handcuffed together as the Cuffed Lovers. Thankfully, the town had voted in favor of reducing the cuff time to two hours to better accommodate things like bathroom breaks.
This year, Furever Home Animal Rescue would be the recipient of the funds raised. The sit-in had outgrown its humble beginnings over the years. The library could no longer hold the crowds that invariably showed up, so the event was now hosted at the high school where booths, dancing, and food stands spilled over from the gymnasium into cafeteria and, in unseasonably warm years, the parking lot.
Joey had no intentions of attending this year’s sit-in. Not since everyone in town knew she and Jax had imploded yet again. And especially not since there was barely a whisper of their breakup on Facebook. The Beautification Committee was probably hoping to cuff Moon Beam Parker to Jax to finally set their diabolical and horribly misguided plan into action.
Unsure of what her feelings actually were, she’d yet to reach out to Jax after reading his screenplay. She felt a softening around the edges of her anger. And he’d continued to give her space, staying out of her way. She hated that she missed him. On her couch, in her stables, in her bed. His absence was noticeable and uncomfortable. Jax might live in Blue Moon, but it was as if he had vanished from her life again. And this time it was at her request.
Jax would be there at the sit-in, she was sure of it. And as much as she missed him, she still wasn’t ready to face him. She couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t take out the metaphorical frying pan and bean him with it in front of witnesses. Nope. There was no way she was showing her face at the sit-in. At least, that’s what she thought until Mrs. Penskee of Furever Home called her personally to invite Joey and Waffles to be their special guests of honor. Well, Waffles would be the guest of honor; Joey would hold the guest of honor’s leash.
“It would be such great publicity for the rescue,” Mrs. Penskee had told her. “And you and Waffles are one of our happiest stories. It would mean the world to us if you’ll be there.”
Joey had grudgingly agreed and then ordered Waffles a fire hydrant print bowtie for him to wear for his big day. And since the dog was dressing up, Joey thought she should take a little extra care with her appearance. It had nothing to do with the fact that Jax would probably be there. She didn’t need to look extra good for him. She was doing this for herself. At least that’s what she told herself as she traced eyeliner over each lash line. She pulled part of her hair back from her face so her dark curls fell down her back and she chose a soft scoop neck sweater in a deep plum to go with her jeans and suede boots.
Armor in place, she gave a nod to her reflection in the mirror and marched out the door. At the high school, Waffles hopped out of the truck and pranced down the sidewalk with her as if he was walking the red carpet.
Several people called out greetings to her and Joey realized she’d been avoiding town for quite a while now. It was kind of nice to be back around people…as long as none of them brought up a certain Pierce’s name.
Gia and Summer flagged her down at the entrance.
“Hey! You came,” Gia said, leaning down to pat Waffles.
“Waffles, I’m going to say hello from up here,” Summer said, patting her belly. “I haven’t been near my own shoes in weeks so take a rain check on the petting.”
“Are you okay?” Joey asked. Summer looked exhausted and uncomfortable.
“As okay as eight-plus months pregnant with twins can be,” she said with a pained smile. “I’m here for the food and then I’m going home to work from my couch.”
“Where are the husbands?” Joey asked, hoping that the answer would be “on the farm with Jax.”
“Oh, they’re around here somewhere,” Gia said, waving at the crowd around them. “I assume they followed Jax and the kids to some kind of deep fried lard and sugar-by-the-ton stand.”
Great. There was the J word. Well, at least she looked good.
She and Waffles followed the girls inside the school’s gym where it looked like the entire town had congregated. The diehards dressed for the occasion in a rainbow of tie-dye, a sea of bellbottoms, and a mountain of fringe. There were retro Lennon sunglasses and faded bandanas everywhere.
Fran’s band was playing again, this time without Gia’s ex-husband, and Joey recognized nearly every couple on the dance floor. Games were set up carnival style all over the polished gym floor. A giant inflatable obstacle course took up half the basketball court and looked like it was raking in the bucks.
“Fitz, isn’t that just for kids?” Joey called out. Bill Fitzsimmons was finally in style. His strict adherence to sixties fashion worked for him one day of the year. He was wearing patched bellbottom jeans and a yellow, skintight Peace Love Music t-shirt. Both looked like original pieces, as was his scraggly rattail. Fitz was standing in line with a dozen kids under the age of seven. He was counting quarters in his hand.
“Grown-ups can play too,” he yelled back. “Besides, I need a rematch with the Delroy boys.” Two little blonde boys taunted him by sticking out their tongues.
They continued on, giving wide berth to the Higgenworth Communal Alternative Education Day Care stand that was selling what looked like hand woven leashes. A script handwritten sign listed the prices for the colorful “child safety tethers.”
Joey thought back to the annual daycare field trip to Pierce Acres and shivered. “There’s something wrong with those kids,” she whispered to Summer.
“Yeah, guess where these two aren’t going to daycare,” Summer whispered back.
There was no sign of Mrs. Penskee or the Pierce men in the gym so they followed the long hallway of lockers to the cafeteria.
“There’s Phoebe and Franklin with the kids,” Summer said, pointing to a fried cauliflower stand. Phoebe and Franklin were both sporting colored sunglasses and matching tie-dye.
Gia grimaced. “Well, at least it’s a vegetable. There’s the rest of them,” she said, pointing to the vegan eggroll stand.
Joey hazarded a guess that they were in line for Carter’s lunch seeing as how no one else in their right mind would willingly put that crap in their mouth.
Except maybe Jax who had just bitten off half of one of said eggrolls. Well, if he was eating garbage that meant he too was suffering from their latest break up. That made her feel marginally better.
God, he looked good. And the three of them together made quite the picture. Jax in his fitted long sleeve t-shirt. Carter in his flannel. And Beckett sporting his usual crisp button down.
Joey realized Gia and Summer had stopped next to her to admire the picture the Pierces presented.
“Damn,” Summer sighed happily.
“Yeah, we have really excellent taste,” Gia agreed.
“I’m gonna go find Mrs. Penskee,” Joey said, pulling Waffles with her before she could be drawn in by Jax’s sexiness like a tractor beam.
She finally found the woman in front of the stage. Mrs. Penskee was wearing some kind of bellbottom pantsuit decorated with paisley pineapples and a matching headscarf. She was barking orders into a headset.
“I understand that he crawled under the bleachers himself, but that doesn’t mean we can just leave him there…Well, then send a skinny ten-year-old in after him.”
“Those Higgenroth kids,” Mrs. Penskee sighed. “Little Wahlon crawled under the bleachers and won’t come out. There’s got to be an easier way to raise money than this.”
“Sounds like Wahlon’s parents should have invested in one of those handy child safety tethers,” Joey said.
“Next year we should handcuff all the kids together and give their parents two hours of peace and quiet.”
Joey was fairly certain Mrs. Penskee was joking, but the woman made a “hmm” noise and pulled out a little notebook from her back pocket. “Handcuff the children,” she muttered to herself as she wrote.
“So, where would you like Waffles?” Joey asked, distracting Mrs. Penskee from a potential felony.
“Oh, up on stage, please.”
“Now?”
“We can do our little announcement and ceremonial kickoff now and distract everyone’s attention while someone fishes Wahlon out from under the bleachers.” Mrs. Penskee ushered Joey and Waffles up the stairs onto the raised stage. Joey instantly felt conspicuous and she could tell the exact second that Jax spotted her by the way her nipples came to attention. She saw him making his way through the crowd toward her, a shark scenting blood in the water.
Her pulse ratcheted up another notch as their eyes met. Waffles’ tail thumped happily on the stage. Traitor, Joey thought. Jax climbed the stairs and Joey’s heart was thudding out of her chest. Shit. This wasn’t just anger. This was deep in the bone, ‘til the day I die love. And it hit her like a well-placed hoof to the heart.
She loved Jax. But when in their history had that ever been enough?
“Hey,” he said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“Hey yourself,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Waffles did his seated wiggle so he could lean lovingly against Jax’s leg.
“Hey, buddy,” Jax said, leaning down to ruffle Waffles’ fur. The dog dissolved into a puddle of happiness and flopped over onto his back so Jax could rub his belly. “I missed you and your mom.”
“He may have noticed your absence,” Joey said grudgingly.
“What about you?”
Joey shook her head. “No, it’s been party, party, party for me. Didn’t even realize you weren’t around the past few days.”
His gray eyes warmed at her sarcasm. “Same with me. Too busy partying to miss you.”
“You’re missing me right now,” she shot back.
“Okay, if the rest of you can just fill in behind them,” Mrs. Penskee interrupted with a clipboard and a microphone. She directed Phoebe, Franklin, Carter, Summer, Gia, Beckett, and the kids to line up behind Joey and Waffles.
“Great. That’s perfect. Ladies and gentlemen, if I can have your attention?” She tapped the microphone, which let out an ear splitting shriek. Waffles buried his head in his paws and gave a short, sharp yip.
The crowd quieted.
“Whoops! Sorry about that. Anyway, I’d like to welcome you to the 45th Annual Blue Moon Sit-In and Good Cause Carnival. This year’s proceeds are going to a very worthy cause if I do say so myself,” she said, pointing at the Furever Home Rescue banner behind them.
Mrs. Penskee chattered on about the work her rescue had done over the years and Joey tried to stay tuned in, but having Jax next to her, his shoulder resting against hers. The back of his hand brushing her arm. Joey stared hard out into the sea of time-forgotten hippies as she tried to hold on to the hurt, the anger. Those feelings would protect her against future pain. Keeping her safe and separate.
But safe and separate left no room for Jax.
“As you all are well aware, thanks to the Pierce family, our little rescue had its most successful day ever with the adoption of six of our pets, one of which is on stage now.”
Waffles seemed to understand that they were talking about him. He sat up straight with his ears perked and a happy doggy smile above his bowtie.
“We at the rescue couldn’t think of a better way to thank you for your kindness and generosity than this.”
Joey didn’t even realize Donovan Cardona was on the stage until she felt the cold metal close over her wrist with a snap.
“No!” Joey’s arm recoiled and she stared in horror as Jax’s arm went with it. They were cuffed together and the crowd was cheering.
“Let’s give a warm welcome to this year’s Cuffed Lovers, Joey Greer and Jackson Pierce.”
The applause drowned out Joey’s expletive-laden gasp. She stared at Jax who didn’t look remotely surprised. “You son of a bitch,” she growled.
Jax grinned and raised their cuffed hands to wave to the crowd. Joey tried to yank her arm down to no avail. Anthony Berkowicz pushed through the front row and snapped a picture of them with an oversized digital camera. Between the camera flash and rage, Joey was temporarily blinded. Jax dragged her off stage and handed Waffles over to Mrs. Penskee.
“How about you take the guest of honor around?” he suggested to her.
Mrs. Penskee and Waffles happily trotted off into the crowd.
“I am going to murder you,” Joey hissed at him.
“Then you’ll be cuffed to my rotting body,” Jax said amicably as he weaved a path through the crowd.
Joey accepted the congratulations with less enthusiasm than Jax, who was waving and shaking hands left and right like he was Beckett.
He dragged her into a relatively quiet corner behind the goat milk soap booth.
“What’s the plan here, Jax?” She held up their cuffed hands. “Kinky sex in public to win me back?”
The slow, knowing smile that spread across his face had her mouth going dry and her underwear going damp. She smacked him in the chest with her free hand. “Very funny. Why the hell am I handcuffed to you? There’s a town-wide vote that picks the ‘lucky’ couple. And we’re not even a couple.”
“Congratulations, you guys,” Ellery waved cheerfully from the front of the soap stand.
It hit Joey like a bolt of lightning. “You!” She pointed at Ellery, dragging Jax’s hand up with hers. “This was all you!”
Ellery’s purple lipstick spread into a wide grin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She skipped away before Joey could find anything to throw at her.
“Oh, my God. Moon Beam,” Joey paced, bringing Jax with her. “All of this ‘you two are a huge mistake’ crap was all a set up.”
“Diabolical, right?” Jax laughed.
“What about Facebook? No one ever mentioned us in the group.”
“Not in the Blue Moon group, but in the secret Jax and Joey Forever group there were a few mentions.”
“I hate everything. I hate this town. I hate these cuffs. I hate your face.”
“God, I love you, Jojo,” Jax swiveled in front of her in mid-stride and brought his mouth to hers.
“I hate kissing,” Joey muttered against his lips.
Jax brought his hands up to frame her face and succeeded in slapping her in the face with her own limp hand. “Oops. Sorry.”
“You can’t kiss me. We’re broken up.”
“We’re fighting. That’s different from breaking up,” he corrected. “Tell me you read it,” he said suddenly serious.
Joey raised her chin. “I read it.”
“And?”
“How do you feel?”
“Pissed off and hungry.”
“I’ll feed you in a minute, but Joey, we have to start talking sooner or later. Our entire relationship can’t happen in bed.”
“You’ve been talking to your mother.”
Jax grimaced. “I don’t want to know what that segue is about. Focus on us right here, right now. Tell me why you’re mad, right now.”
“Besides the cuffs?” she asked, sarcastically jiggling the metal around her wrist.
“Besides the cuffs.”
“I�
��m furious because you and my father made stupid decisions about my future without bothering to consult me.”
“Let’s talk about that,” Jax said. “Put yourself in my shoes. If I do the only thing that I want to do, which is stay by your side, I’d be opening my family up to a lawsuit and forcing you to kiss your dreams at Centenary good-bye. Imagine how that felt. You’d lose everything you’d been working toward. My family would lose their home and their livelihood. And it was all because of me.”
She shook her head, started to deny him.
“Just picture it, Jojo. How long had you spent researching schools, applying for scholarships, plotting out your courses? I knew what that school, that program meant to you. There’s no way you could have afforded it on your own if your dad had cut you off.”
“He wouldn’t have actually done it—”
“And then imagine how scared I was thinking about my parents having to say good-bye to the land they’d worked for years. The house they’d raised their family in. Carter wouldn’t have had a home to come back to. Would Beckett have stayed in Blue Moon if it wasn’t for the farm? I saw all of that vanishing. Because of me. And I thought it would be selfish if I stayed.”
Joey’s eye was starting to twitch.
“When the father of the girl you love—a man she loves and respects—tells you that you’re not good enough, a truth you’re already wrestling with?” Jax shook his head. “It makes you want to be better. To be good enough. I never intended to leave permanently. I knew I would come back when I was good enough to be with you.”
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Joey snapped. “You were always good enough.”
“I didn’t feel like I was,” Jax countered. “And neither did your father. I felt like a teenage screw up compared to my brothers, to my dad. They were out doing things, trying to make the world and Blue Moon a better place. And I was skipping school and fantasizing about a certain brunette knockout who would come over and swim in our pond in a tiny red bikini.”