“Okay. Can I film it?”
“No.”
Pepper meekly closed her mouth and didn’t ask again. A list of rules probably wasn’t the kind of thing her followers wanted to see anyway.
“You’ve all been allocated one of my brand-new cabins. I expect you to do your absolute utmost not to damage them. Okay?”
“Okay,” we answered in unison. It seemed like a reasonable request to me.
“Now, at the moment we are not connected to the electricity grid. I will turn on the generator from sunset until 11 PM. After that, you’re on your own.”
Rachel Hardwick’s mouth opened wide in shock at the thought of no electricity.
“Babe, it’ll be okay, babe,” whispered Hunter in his wife’s ear.
“You. With the dog.”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward me. Bridget looked up at me, head cocked. I gave her a rub and a reassuring smile. “Yes?”
“We’ve got coyotes around here. And they like nothing better than eating city slickers’ dogs.”
“Right. Abner already warned us.” I glanced around to confirm with him but realized he and his horse had disappeared. “Where’d he go?”
“Hiding, probably. He doesn’t like big crowds.”
If we constituted a big crowd, I couldn’t imagine how he’d cope in a real city.
“We’ll be sure to keep Bridget inside the cabin with us. Thank you for the warning.”
Horrible Nanna slowly nodded as if pleased that I’d understood her straightforward advice.
“She should be okay in the daytime. The coyotes don’t bother us none ‘til after sunset. Just don’t tie her up outside all night. You’ll wake up to an empty leash.”
“She’ll be staying inside with us,” Nanna said firmly.
The near-silence of the desert that had been filled only with the voice of Pepper’s grandmother was interrupted by the sound of a vehicle engine approaching. I took a step to the side so that I could see the access road, and saw a big cloud of dust hanging in the air as a large black SUV made its way toward us.
Everyone else turned around to stare.
Mrs. Watson put a hand on her hips and glared in the direction of the car.
“What’s this? Simone, I take it?”
“That’s right,” Pepper said. “Trust her to arrive in style!” Pepper held out her phone to film her friend’s arrival. “She’s got a new boyfriend too. She met him in Argentina. He’s a tango teacher.”
We all watched as the large vehicle approached us, finally pulling up next to the minivan in a cloud of choking dust. We stared at the back door, waiting for it to open. But it didn’t. Instead, the front door opened and the driver began making his way toward it.
Typical rich people, I thought. Can’t even open their own doors.
The driver, after opening the door, did not stand back to let the occupants emerge. Instead, he reached inside, and pulled out two large leather suitcases and carried them over in our direction. He arrived and stood in front of Mrs. Watson.
“The luggage for Simone Kress and Antonio.” He placed the luggage on the ground.
The rest of us peered over his shoulder back toward the vehicle.
“It appears that you forgot to deliver the luggage’s owners,” Horrible Nanna said.
“Ah, no. They should be arriving shortly.”
“They got a chauffeur just for their luggage?” Ian asked, astonished. Although he was wealthy himself, he wasn’t into large displays of extravagance.
“Yes. They’re arriving by airplane.” The driver put one hand to his brow and peered up at the sky. He pointed with his other hand. “There, that should be them.”
“I don’t have a runway,” Horrible Nanna said in amusement.
“That shan’t be necessary. Look…”
As we continued to stare, two dots came out of the airplane and began to descend in our direction. After a few seconds, each of the dots bloomed as parachutes opened.
We gaped up at the sky.
“Now that’s s’cool.”
Chapter Four
An hour later, Nanna and I had finished unpacking in our one-room cabin and were taking a moment to relax in the wake of Simone’s dramatic entrance.
Simone and her boyfriend, Antonio, had arrived in a crowd of billowing parachute material and a flurry of coughs at the dust they kicked up on arrival. Their chauffeur had then packed away their parachutes and driven away, disappearing in yet another cloud of dust and leaving us with the last two guests to arrive.
“They were just showing off,” Nanna said as we finished our verbal replay of what had happened.
“Maybe. But I got the impression that showing off is more Pepper’s thing. I think they may genuinely have just thought it would be fun.”
“Hello? Did I hear my name?” The voice came from right outside our door.
Trying to stop my cheeks from flushing in embarrassment, I opened the door to reveal Pepper. And her phone.
“Hi, Pepper,” I said, ignoring the question she’d called from behind the closed door. “What’s up?”
“We’re all going outside for some pictures. I think something cool, I mean s’cool is going to happen. You have to come and join us.”
“Have to?” Nanna asked from beside me. “Well, if we have to, then we will.”
With Bridget happily hopping around beside us, we followed Pepper outside. I had a feeling pictures and videos were going to be a big part of our Wild West weekend thanks to her.
As we trailed behind Pepper, Nanna tapped the side of her head. “I wish more people would try and use their memories instead of taking pictures of everything.”
“Me too. But people take so many so they can share them—or show them off. I don’t think it’s because they’re worried they’ll forget. It’s basically Pepper’s job to take pictures all day long. Unfortunately.”
We found the whole big group, except for Horrible Nanna, who was inside her cabin, gathered in the middle of Main Street. On either side of the gathering were boarded up old grocery and feed shops, as well as a cart with a broken axle that had been abandoned decades before.
Dylan was strumming away on his guitar, practicing several different riffs and frowning down at the strings. Ian and Sally were talking to each other quietly, both of them with smiles on their faces. It was nice to see them getting along again after the troubles they had. Pepper began pacing up and down, peering at different angles, crouching down and then standing up again, as if assessing the location and all of its different angles.
“I just love what you do,” Simone said, following behind Pepper as she examined the scene.
Simone was the same age as Sally’s other friends, the daughter of a casino magnate, and from what I could tell spent her entire life swanning around doing whatever she wanted without bothering with mundane concerns like work. She was plump and energetic, never seeming to stop moving except when she was being held in the arms of Antonio, her Argentinian boyfriend and ex-tango instructor who she met in Buenos Aires while learning to dance.
“It’s just amazing,” Simone continued, “inspiring so many people. It must be a really rewarding lifestyle.”
Pepper stopped for a moment and gave Simone a serious look. “You know, it is. I live to give.” Her eyebrows shot up. “Whoa, that’s good. Let’s do that again, and let me film it. Try and look impressed when I say it.” Pepper stood beside Simone and filmed the pair of them together. “I live to give.”
“Wow.” Simone took a moment to pause and shake her head in wonder. “You’re amazing, Pepper,” she finished almost breathlessly.
“She lives to give,” Dylan sang, playing a little riff on his guitar as he sidled up behind them. “She’s a-mazing… that bit doesn’t quite work.” Dylan stared down at his guitar and began mumbling lyrics to himself.
“Thank you, Simone. The thing about the way my mind works, is that I’m constantly coming up with these little morsels, these nuggets of absolute wisdom
, so I have to film myself so I don’t forget them. It’s hard when you’ve got a creative brain like mine. In a way, I never stop working—if I’m awake, I’m working!”
“It’s a pain… When you have a creative brain… Like Pepper Loveslife…” Dylan sang, strumming again.
Pepper turned and beamed at him.
“Are you ready?” Dylan asked.
“If I’m not ready now, I never will be. Okay, I’m going to stand just over there. Simone, Tiffany, you come with me.”
“What are we doing?” I asked as I trailed a step or two behind her as she walked over to an innocuous-looking patch of dusty road.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Pepper answered, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
She clearly had something planned but I was just going to have to wait and see what it was.
“Sally! Rachel! Get over here!” When we were gathered around Pepper, she gave us our next instructions. “Now, we’ve got to pretend we’re just casually talking.”
“We could just actually talk,” I suggested.
“I couldn’t when I was in Argentina,” Simone said, “because I didn’t speak Spanish. I was lost until I met Antonio. Then he became my interpreter.” She leaned in toward us, her eyebrows raised high. “And lover.”
“How romantic.”
“You should hear how Tiffany and I met,” Brad said, appearing by my side from nowhere. “Do you know Seven—”
Nuh-uh, no way. He wasn’t getting away with embarrassing me again. Especially since he remembered it all wrong. The time in the closet had been our third meeting, not our first.
“I caught him stealing stuff from his co-workers and then I nearly got him to jump out of a fourth-story window,” I said briskly.
“Hey! I meant the closet thing, not—”
Brad didn’t get to finish his failed story before we were being ordered around again.
“Right! Everyone else, gather around Pepper, please,” Dylan said, the guitar now hanging loosely from the strap around his neck, his hands being used to point people in different directions. He had set up a tripod for yet another camera that was now pointing in our direction. Were we going to film a skit of some kind?
Nanna, Ian, Hunter, and Antonio joined our crowded group.
“What’s happening?” Nanna asked.
“I have no idea,” Pepper said, clearly lying. “It’s a surprise. For me.”
“This is so exciting,” Simone said, clapping her hands. She clearly knew what was coming up.
“Do I look okay?” Sally asked.
“You look better than okay,” Ian answered. “You look… q-kay. That’s two more than o.”
Sally giggled and squeezed Ian’s arm.
“Everyone! I want you to chat naturally. And don’t look at the camera. Except every now and then, as if you’re just glancing around. Don’t stare. Okay?”
“Q-kay,” Sally whispered loud enough for us all to hear.
I hadn’t realized I was signing up to be an actress when I agreed to go to this ghost town, but I murmured my assent along with everyone else.
“And three, two, one…”
Pepper let out a loud laugh, dropping her head back into the air and clutching her stomach with apparent mirth. She clapped me on the shoulder. “Amazing!” Before I could try and find out what it was she was talking about, she turned her head and put on an exaggerated, puzzled frown.
“What’s he doing?”
We all looked to see. Dylan was coming toward us, his hands back on the guitar, threatening to begin strumming again at any moment.
“Pepper!” he exclaimed in a loud, achingly breathless tone.
“What, Dylan?” Pepper’s voice was alight with excited curiosity.
“Pepper, my dear, you are the spice in my life, the chili in my sauce, the pepper on my aura. Pepper, you are my pepper.”
Pepper placed both of her palms on the side of her cheeks, pushing her mouth wide open, and raised her eyebrows.
“Dylan… What are you…”
He dropped to his knees in front of us, ran his hand over the guitar, and began to strum, “Pepper Loveslife… You are my guide… You are my life… And I want you to be… My wife.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Sure, it was tacky, and staged, but he sure did have a way with words. Perhaps not the way with words that he thought he had, but certainly a way with words.
I wasn’t ready for the shriek that came next though. The way Pepper opened her mouth and screamed it sounded like someone was being murdered. If that was what her scream of delight was like, I was afraid to hear any other kinds of screams she might be able to produce.
Dylan stared up at Pepper. “I am but a humble musician, not yet sold out and broken by the corporate music industry, so all I can offer you is this. A simple, silver ring from the very earth that we stand on. Silver Bend Silver. Pepper Loveslife, will you be my wife?”
“Oh! Dylan! Yes! Yes, yes, yes! A quintillion times yes.”
Pepper held out her hand, and Dylan slipped the simple silver band around her finger.
“Congratulations!” Simone shouted.
“Woo!” Sally shouted.
“Right on!” Brad yelled.
The rest of us began offering our congratulations too, which broke into a semi-spontaneous round of applause initiated by Simone.
When we finished clapping, Dylan stood up, interlinked his arm with Pepper’s, and the pair of them turned to face us.
“That was romantic, right?” Pepper asked.
“So romantic,” Simone said.
“It was perfect,” Sally said.
“It was a wonderful proposal,” I said to her.
“Good. Thank you, everyone.”
I smiled happily at the thought of being dismissed. It was a cute scene, but I didn’t come out here to pretend to be the friend of some girl I’d never met before. At least, I didn’t want to spend too much time doing that.
“Now, that was pretty good for a practice run. Let’s do it again for real. This time, I want you all to cheer louder, clap harder, look more surprised, and see if you can’t stand a little more… attractively. No offense, but some of you were slouching. Okay?”
I looked around, mildly confused. Had I misunderstood? Apparently not. We were going to have to do the whole proposal again.
“How many times are you going to do this?” Nanna asked.
“As many as it takes to make it perfect. You see, we’re not just doing this for me, we’re doing it for everyone who’s going to come after me. Everyone I influence. I want them all to know that they can have a proposal as magical and spontaneous as mine.” Pepper took a couple of steps back. “Okay, everyone back into position. But this time, Sally, I want you to stand somewhere else. You and Ian are looking a bit too romantic next to each other, and that detracts from my special once-in-a-lifetime moment. Simone and Antonio, you two break apart too. And…”
“Once in a lifetime?” Nanna whispered in my ear. “It’s going to be twice in an afternoon at least!”
But it was, apparently, her big day. We weren’t going to ruin her fun so, dutifully, we got back into position.
The Wild West isn’t what I expected, I thought, as I forced another fake smile of friendship onto my face for our second run-through of Pepper’s wedding proposal.
In the distance, I saw Abner atop his chestnut horse, looking curiously in our direction.
Okay, maybe there was one little part of this Wild West trip that was what I’d imagined. We did have ourselves a genuine cowboy, after all. Not one that was likely to get into a shootout though, thank goodness.
“And three, two, one… action!”
Chapter Five
It was a beautiful late afternoon out in Silver Bend. The air was still, the sky was cloudless, there was none of the rumble of cars or trucks or other human invention, and the world was at peace. At least it would have been if it weren’t for the battle that was being fought inside Horrible Nanna’s cabin.
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br /> Nice Nanna—my Nanna—and I heard the commotion from inside our cabin and went to see what was going on. But we weren’t the only ones. Like moths to a flame, it seemed just about everyone had been drawn to the heated discussion.
I like to think it was because we wanted to make sure no one was going to get hurt. It was partly that, but the real truth was that we were nosy. We could guess what the argument was about, but we wanted to hear all the gory details. Just to make sure everyone was safe, of course.
Nanna and I joined Ian and Sally, Simone and Antonio, Brad, and the Hardwicks outside of Mrs. Watson’s cabin.
“… Him? Dylan? Him?”
“I don’t think her Nanna likes him very much,” Sally said in a quiet voice. She sounded embarrassed on her friend’s behalf.
I had to stifle my laughter. Not liking him very much seemed to be a huge understatement.
“…He doesn’t have a job! Nor do you!”
“He does have a job—he’s a musician. And I’m an influencer!”
“And you make money from that, do you? You have a nice income? You’re not just spending the inheritance you received from my late husband?”
I found myself rooting for Pepper. While her personal life didn’t necessarily seem ideal, I really believed she wanted to marry Dylan. And her Nanna was landing some low blows.
“It takes time,” Pepper said, audibly sighing between phrases, “I’m still building, Nanna.”
“Me too,” Pepper’s future hopefully-better-half said. “I need to make sure I don’t sell out.” Dylan’s voice was much more subdued than his fiancée’s.
“Sellout? Sell? Out? Is that what you call a musician who makes money? I wish you would sell out. Then you might have a hope of supporting yourself instead of leeching off my granddaughter.”
My fellow eavesdroppers all seemed to be holding their breath and bending their heads toward the cabin to catch every detail. I almost wanted to walk away and stop listening. None of us were a part of this fight, other than the roles we’d played in the proposal.
“He’s not leeching! We support each other!”
“No, your inheritance is supporting you, and it’s going to run out, isn’t it?”
Just Deserts in Las Vegas Page 3
