Page 24 of The Brave and the Reckless

“Oh, sweet summer child.” She checked over both her shoulders, narrowed her eyes at the other three people in the room, then grabbed my hand. “Come with me. Let Aunty Adriana tell you about the birds and the bees.”

We settled on a bench outside. This small corner of the park had been closed off for the day, and a photographerhad set himself up a short way down the street.

“Richard, daddy mayor, started the whole thing by posting actually educational content. You wanna be on his team on trivia night,” Adriana explained, and opened Richard’s profile on her phone. I’d met him earlier because he plays Annie Lou’s father. Online, however, he seemed to explain the Old West in full costume. “Heather kind of blew up, well… because she’s hot and can do stunts in a leather corset.” I’d not met Heather yet. She played the female bandit in Ace Ryder’s gang. But her profile was one thirst trap after another. “Vivi does a lot of behind-the-scenes things, but she only posts once in a blue moon. But still, so many park fans just want to know how the machine runs.” The most recent video on Vivi’s account was the makeup tutorial. Even the other few had a decent number of views. “Lucas’s account is the biggest, and it’s where things get interesting for you. How do I say this without you losing faith in mankind?” Adriana grimaced as she brought up Lucky Luke’s profile– which boasted hundreds of thousands of subscribers. “People wanna bone Annie. People wanna get boned by Kit, as well as Ace. And more than anything, they want Kit, Ace and Annie to bone. In any constellation, really. Kit and Ace is probably the most popular ship. There’s fanfiction. Don’t read the fanfiction. Lindsey– she was Annie before you– said it really fucked with her head.”

“Don’t sugarcoat it or anything,” I muttered as I reached over and scrolled down dozens upon dozens of videos. He had to be posting multiple times a day.

“Sorry, but I figured you’d discovered the Bravetown fandom by now. That Bravetown show from like fifteen years ago only had three seasons, but it’s turned the wholepark into a cult classic.” She brought up her browser and had a fanfiction window open with a single bookmark click. It brought up hundreds of results. “Noah also has socials, but it’s just him in costume reacting to fan videos. Lindsey had an account, too. Mostly singing musical numbers in Annie Lou costume though. You could totally start one. As far as I know, there’s a couple of rules Renee makes people follow, but it’s a good side hustle. Do you have any special talent?”

“I can recite the Hippocratic oath in three la—” I cut myself off when her words finally registered. “I’m sorry. Hold on. Noah has an account where he actually posts videos and engages with his fans?”

“Yeah, people get a kick out of being roasted by Ace Ryder. Here.”

Adriana switched apps again and handed over the phone, opened to Noah’s profile. A familiar dark-hat-and-bandana combination greeted me. All the videos were split-screen, one half Noah-as-Ace and the other half a different video. Some of those showed random women’s faces as they yelled at their phone cameras, others were videos of Noah filmed in the park. It was like a Brad Mondo cowboy special. Ace Ryder barely reacted. He raised his brows, crossed his arms, shook his head in disapproval and tsk-ed at the videos. At the very most, he pulled the bandana off his face and smirked in a way that made even my stomach clench– so his fans were probably fainting.

“Wow. Thank you. Oh, this is brilliant. Do you think he’d hate being called an influencer? A thirst trapper?”

“You know, your job would probably be easier if you tried to get along with him,” Adriana giggled. We’d textedextensively the last couple of days, so she was all up to speed.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“That’s the spirit. That’s why we’re best friends already.”

“Oh, okay.” My chest seized at those two silly little words. I blinked. I’d never really had a best friend. Fuck, I’d barely had friends. First I’d been in and out of hospitals, and then I’d been too focused on school. Since dropping out, I hadn’t really stayed in one place long enough to even make friends. “Am I getting a friendship bracelet with that title?”

“Sure.” She grinned. “I’ll get you one.”

“Ez, you’re up!” Sanny waved his cowboy hat at me as he walked over from the photo set. “Hey Adriana!”

“Hey Helper Carl!” she called back, offering him a big smile. “Did you serve face?”

“Oh, I served,” he laughed and did a strange vogue-esque hand move around his face. Goofball.

“Sanny, we’re friends with Adriana now. Get on board,” I said.

“Okay, cool. Pals. Amigos. Besties.” He gave us both a thumbs up and slipped back inside.

“Thank you,” Adriana mumbled, a rare heavy note in her voice. “You didn’t have to.”

“I know a thing or two about needing a fresh start,” I said. “I got you.”

“Shoo! Go, before I lose all my hard-earned goodwill by keeping you.”

I handed her phone back and headed over to where the real Ace Ryder and Kit Holliday were already posing. A couple of lights and reflectors had been set up to createa brightly lit area outside a nondescript building. A gray horse stood tied to one of the posts. Barrels and crates were arranged for sitting, leaning, posing…

One of the photographer’s assistants guided me by the elbow to stand between Luke and Noah, and plucked the plastic coffee cup from my hands. Noah’s eyes narrowed at the stain on my skirt, and he scoffed. I stuck my tongue out at him in response.

“Very mature,” he uttered behind his bandana.

“Better immature than a jerk,” I replied.

“Okay, quiet, please,” the photographer yelled over while she fumbled with her camera. A minute later, she was all over us. My bubble of glamorous photo shoots in costume burst instantly. She moved us around like dolls, fixing my arm, nudging my shoulder and tilting my chin, even positioning Luke’s hand around my waist inch-perfectly. The guys had to glare at each other. All I had to do was smile into the camera. Easy enough.

At least for a few minutes.

Then my cheeks started to twitch painfully from smiling. And with the way my weight was all on one leg, the dull throbbing in my hips reminded me of too many hours in the saddle this week. I hated this kind of pain. It lurked on your mind just enough for the discomfort to nag at your every thought. Especially when you had nothing to do but stand still and look pretty.

“Okay, thank you!” the photographer called out, waving her hand at us. All three of us let out a sigh, muscles relaxing, shoulders sloping. Nowthatwould have been a funny video to post.

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