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“Oh no, here we go,” Liam muttered. “Don’t get him going, love,” Liam leaned in, bumping his shoulder against Isobel’s. “Nobody loves telling yarns more than this one.”
Isobel smiled. “Okay, how about something in between the long and short version?”
“Well, you’d have to start at the beginning, back when Jeremiah and I were just eight years old and our mother decided she wanted to join the circus.”
Jeremiah shook his head but Reece ignored him. Isobel nibbled on a piece of celery while she listened.
“Mom decides she wants to join the circus. She was really good at gymnastics when she was younger, she says, and she’s sure she’ll be able to get a job. It’s something she’s always dreamed about doing and carpe diem! Seize the day!” Reece jabbed a fist in the air, his face enthusiastic and full of amusement.
“So she packs me and Jeremiah up in the car and we drive through the night and then all the next day. We get to this carnival right at dusk. I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s a giant ferris wheel they set up, all covered in lights.” Reece gestures with his hands, his face animated. “A man on stilts juggling. People selling candied apples and cotton candy and popcorn and hot dogs. I mean, to a little boy, this was heaven on earth.”
“Mom gave us twenty bucks and Jeremiah and I spent the whole night riding every ride and getting so stuffed on funnel cake I threw up after riding the tilt-a-whirl.” He grins nostalgically. “God, it was the best night of my life up to that point.”
Reece’s enthusiasm was infectious and Isobel couldn’t help smiling along. “So what happened then? Did your mom get a job at the circus?”
“What? Oh, God no,” Reece barked out a short laugh. “Mom was batshit. Totally nuts. She was lucky someone caught her before she took a flying leap from the trapeze. They called the cops. We didn’t know until the carnival was being shut down for the night and went looking for her.” He shook his head, still chuckling.
Isobel just stared at him, her mouth dropped open. “I’m so sorry,” she finally managed to say. “That’s horrible.”
Reece waved a hand like it was nothing. “It was fine. We went to live with our Grandma Ruth then.”
“So she raised you?”
“Oh, no,” Reece laughed again, like the very idea was ludicrous. “Granny Ruth was a raging alcoholic. No, we only lived with her for about six months before we went into foster care.”
“Oh.” Isobel took another long sip of water.
“Now this is where the story really gets interesting. Jeremiah and I got to see all different ways of life over the next few years. I’ve never met anyone who had a more colorful childhood than we did.”
Jeremiah let out a loud huff. “That’s one word for it,” he muttered.
Reece ignored him. “I mean, just the number of religions we got to personally witness was amazing. You can’t really get to know a religion by just visiting a church or a temple on Sunday, you know. But to get to see a family living out their faith,” he let out a low whistle, “You can really see where the rubber meets the road.”
“Okaaaay,” Isobel said, drawing out the word.
“Like, we lived with this really strict Baptist family first. Strict being the operative word.” Reece shook his head with a little shudder. Considering how he described his crazy mom and alcoholic grandma with such fondness, Isobel hated to think what would actually make this guy shudder.
He brightened the next second. “But then came the Unitarians, and after them there was a family who wasn’t very religious at all. But then we got to stay with the Hausers, who were Buddhists. They were these old hippies who showed us how to meditate and everything. They were very open souls.”
“Too bad about the pot dealing that landed Mr. Hauser in jail our Junior year,” Jeremiah cut in. He sounded less than amused but Reece just nodded sagely.
“It really was.”
“So what’d you do then?” Isobel ate more of the vegetables and even a little bit of meatloaf, so interested in Reece’s bizarre story that for once she’d stopped obsessing over the calories going in her mouth.
Reece shrugged. “Jeremiah and I figured we’d go it on our own at that point. We worked odd jobs. We were in San Francisco at that point and it’s pretty chill there if you want to do the outdoor alternative living situation thing.”
Alternative outdoor—? Did he mean… homeless?
He moved on before Isobel could ask, though. “That got old after a while so we headed east doing different jobs that included room and board. That was when we hit Texas. We worked a ranch there for about a year but then we,” his eyes flicked toward his brother and for the first time in his disastrous tale the slightest shadow entered his eyes, “we wanted a new scene.” It sounded like the vague non-answer Isobel had given about why she’d come here. Hmm.
But then Reece smiled again. “Jeremiah saw the notice online for this place and we hopped on the first bus headed north. And here we are.” He held his arms out.
“And here we are,” Isobel echoed. She looked down at her plate, startled to find she’d eaten almost half of her food. She was full but not stuffed and she didn’t feel guilty or like she’d binged. She felt… well, normal.
She looked around the table. “I’m really happy to be here. It’s great to meet you all.” She hoped they could hear the sincerity in her voice.
She’d come here looking for an escape and if she read between the lines, it sounded like she might not be alone in doing so. She didn’t know anyone else’s story other than the twins, but Liam was obviously rich and not from around here, so what could have tempted him to come live out in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming? Then there was Mack, tattooed from head to toe. He didn’t exactly look like a rural farm setting was his natural habitat. Even Nicholas—why had he abandoned his home down south that he seemed to have so much love for to come here?
