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CHAPTER 30
Violet
That night, we picked up Forrest and the five of us crashed on the couches in the main house with the dogs. Forrest thought it was amazing, having a sleepover with the guys. I needed a bit of extra support after facing off with my parents. I’d never been so blunt with them and I knew that without the guys at my back, I would’ve continued to take their crap. It made me want to stick close to them, just in case my parents went on the offensive again.
Once my head hit the couch, I was out. If the guys thought I might be up for sneaking around in the middle of the night, they were sorely disappointed because I didn’t move until an alarm went off the next morning. I jerked awake and looked up to see the guys shoving their shoes into the boots they’d kicked off the night before. They were moving faster than I’d ever seen them and just that sight gave me a spike of anxiety.
“What’s going on?” I sat up, clutching a blanket to my chest. “Is everything okay?”
Ben hurried over and kissed the top of my head. “Go back to sleep. We have a work thing.”
I frowned at the spaces they’d occupied because they were gone just that fast. I heard a truck speeding away from the house a few seconds later. There was no way in hell I was going back to sleep after that. I grabbed my phone and saw that it wasn’t even five o’clock yet.
Yawning, I looked over and saw Forrest had slept through their exit. I knew I couldn’t just stare at the ceiling until it was time to wake him up, so I rose and quietly folded the blankets we’d used and rested them on the back of the couch. I straightened everything I could and then walked around the first floor, curious to see everything.
In a hallway towards the back of the house, a space no one would typically go, there were framed photos on the walls. The story of Mason, Ben, and Justin played out through the pictures and I followed along as best I could. I saw pictures of them as kids, all playing in a lake while several adults watched over them. I saw prom pictures of them looking awkward and lanky, their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders while their dates stood off to the side, making faces. There were pictures of them hugging their families as they wore military gear. There were even a few of them somewhere in a desert, looking sweaty and dirty, still with their arms around each other.
I followed their journey until the photos stopped with one of them outside of an office building. Justin held a key in the air and Mason looked like he was telling the contestants of a game show what they’d won. Ben stood in the middle, his face serious and his hands full of a case of beer. A sign behind them read, Harmony Valley Security.
They’d traveled the world through their service and they’d experienced so much more life than I had. For some reason, they still thought I was good enough.
I stood there for so long, staring at their life in pictures, that it was past time for me to wake Forrest up and get him ready for school. We both ended up rushing through getting ready and we both looked a little rough around the edges when we got to our destinations that morning. Forrest was still groggy as he went into the school and I felt like I was slowly melting into a lazy puddle when I went into Doll’s.
Coco let me in and her face was pinched in a way that made me nervous. I’d never seen her show any sign of emotion, so her expression seemed a portent of something bad. She looked me over and nodded to the back. “You look as panicked as the rest.”
I frowned but as soon as I was in the back room with the rest of the Dolls, I understood what Coco meant. The place was chaos. Women were all over the place, raising their voices and shouting at no one in particular. Margaret stood on top of a coffee table and pumped her fist in the air, riling everyone up.
“We’re not putting up with this! He’s gone too far this time!” Margaret looked at me and pumped her fist in my direction. “We’re tired of people telling us what to do, aren’t we?”
I stammered and saw everyone turn to face me. “I… Yes?”
“Mayor Stevens threatened to pull my business license! He threatened to shut me down permanently! He’s power hungry. This battle has gone to his head! He’s even wagered that whoever wins gets to set the new town motto!”
Everyone gasped and then started talking all at once. I just stood there and tried to imagine what the motto would end up being if either side won. Crazy, I was sure.
“He said he was going to pull my license for being a crazy woman! That fool.”
I scoffed. “If that was reason enough to pull a business license, no one in this town would own a business! He can’t do that to you.”
Joanie had finally inched her way over to me and she slapped my arm. “Not nice! I’m not crazy.”
I shrugged. “Are you sure?”
“We should march over to his office and give him a piece of our minds!” Brenda looked out the window and nodded to herself, pumping herself up. “Let’s protest. I can make a few signs really fast.”
Joanie shrugged. “As much as I don’t want to admit it, Violet’s right. If Mayor Stevens is going to start pulling business licenses for being crazy, we’re all fucked.”
I slowly grinned to myself. I’d gone to a few protests at college, but I had a feeling a protest in Lilyfield was going to be different. Sure enough, in half an hour, we were marching out of Good, Clean Fun, and across the street to city hall. Brenda and a few other women had made signs and they were hilarious.
Mayor Stevens is afraid of pussy…cats. Touch Good, Clean Fun and we’ll touch you. You’re going down, Mayor Stevens! If you mess with Margaret, we’ll give you a real battle!
“Wow.” I looked up at Joanie and motioned towards the signs. “They were ready for all of this, huh?”
She grinned. “The way I hear it, they control themselves much more these days. I think the use of cameras all over town really slowed down a lot of their stuff. After Sheriff Micheals arrested a couple of old ladies for vandalism, everyone realized he was serious. The illegal stuff slowed down after that.”
Outside of city hall, we positioned ourselves and started marching back and forth. It felt like one of the silliest things I’d ever done, because I doubted anyone really thought Mayor Stevens would pull Margaret’s business license, but we were all committed to the act.
Margaret pulled a megaphone out of her giant bag and turned it on with a squeal. Putting it to her mouth, she started chanting towards the front doors of the building. “Hey! Ho! Mayor Stevens’ got to go! Hey! Ho! Tell that man he’s just too low!”
