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It didn’t take her long, however, to see what a sweet deal it was for not just the women, and the children, but for the men, too.
Finally, Jenny set her tray back on the bar, took her sweet tea, and made her way over to the back corner—or Benedict Central, as it was sometimes known.
Ari, who was sitting beside Cord and Jackson, looked up and smiled. She moved a bit closer to Cord, and he and Jackson helped, making room for Jenny. Sitting with Cord, Jackson, and Ari were Laci’s husbands, Trace and Lucas, and their cousins Chase and Brian and their wife, Carrie. Benedicts all, four from Montana and two from Lusty, they were three sets of cousins—the two Montana sets related to each other more directly by the blood.
Jenny wasn’t surprised not to see Jesse, Barry, and Shar. These days, they stayed home more often than not.
“Damn, guys. I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say,” Brian Benedict said. He sent a grin to Jenny, and Carrie waved.
“This is so far out of our wheelhouse,” Chase said. He nodded to Jenny then turned his attention back to Ari and her men. “What the hell are you going to do?”
Jenny had no idea what they were talking about, and she’d never ask. She figured that she’d either eventually figure it out or they’d tell her.
Jackson met her gaze. “Our cousins Parker and Dale called a couple of days ago from Billings. Apparently, they were in a restaurant when Norah and her best friend, Liz, came in. The women didn’t even see them. Long story very short, Norah was telling Liz about her new sure-fire plan to, in her words, ‘beggar’ our father. She planned to tell her lawyer that Dad sexually abused four of his six children.”
Jenny’s mouth dropped. “Oh, my God, that’s a horrible lie to tell! Someone accuses you of that, and you’re innocent, there’s almost no way to escape the fallout!”
Jackson gave her a small smile, and she realized it was because she hadn’t even questioned their father’s innocence.
“I’ll second Chase’s question. What are you going to do?” Trace asked. He shook his head. “This is too much, even for Norah.”
“What we’re going to do is already done,” Cord said. “We had a conference call—Dad, all of us here in Lusty, and Veronica and her husbands over in Divine. Parker had been on the ball and actually got a video of Norah revealing her grand plan, including her admission that it was all a lie, along with Liz offering to find some teenage girl and pay her to say Dad abused her, too. She even offered up her own sons as past victims.” Cord shook his head. “Parker forwarded the video to us so we’d all be able to see it. After some discussion, we decided to ask Parker to release the video on YouTube.”
“That was asking a lot of him, and Dale,” Jackson said, “because they’re there, and that would no doubt put them in the middle of a shitstorm they don’t deserve to be in. But they agreed as soon as we asked, no hesitation at all. They said they didn’t care about the fallout. They just wanted to do what was right and to discredit Norah. The video was posted yesterday, and it’s already gone viral.”
“You’ve mentioned those cousins before, haven’t you?” Jenny said.
“Likely,” Cord said, “because they’re about the only ones left up there that any of us even speak to.”
“How are your cousins handling the fallout?” Brian asked.
Laci came to the table, handed Jenny a plate with a personal-sized pizza cut in four and a green salad. Then she scooted around the table and kissed her own husbands before heading back to work.
Ari made room for the plate and grinned at Jenny. “You ever eat anything else, girlfriend?”
“Not while working, no. I can get up and let this sit for a bit if I’m needed, and it’ll be just as good when I get back to it—because I like my pizza cold or hot, my salad cold or warm, no difference.”
“Jenny Collins, I think you’re the most practical person I know.” Ari shook her head.
Jenny grinned, used her fork to stab some salad, and returned her attention to the conversation. She smiled down at her plate because this was a comfortable rhythm for them. She couldn’t count the number of times she and Ari had inadvertently—or not—interrupted larger conversations. Tonight, as usual, Carrie snickered, and the guys waited until they were done with their back and forth to continue.
