Storm Warning (Broken Heartland) Page 11

  “Naw. Just a friendly discussion.” Truth was, Hayden wasn’t proud of the last words he’d said. Not that he’d take them back. Joe was a thorn in his side and he wanted to rip it out and crush it to dust. But something was nagging at the back of his mind. He knew if Ella Jane had heard him say that, she would’ve been disgusted by him. Jesus. He actually cared what a girl thought about him. What the hell was the world coming to?

  “Oh yeah? What about?” His grandpa cut his sharp gaze from the back window to him.

  “Nothing, Pops. Guy stuff.”

  “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, Pretty Boy. Guy stuff my old ass. I’d bet my life savings that was about girl stuff.”

  Hayden couldn’t help but laugh. “You still got it, Old Timer. I don’t know. I guess Joe Dirt back there is jealous because Ella Jane pays more attention to me than him. Who can blame her?”

  “Damn straight I still got it.” His grandpa’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as he continued. “You listen to me, Hayden Tanner. The Coopers are good people. They’re hardworking and they know the meaning of family, of loyalty. More than I can say for your folks half the time, and one of them’s my own blood. And I like you, son. I do. But I’d give two of you for one Brantley Cooper any day.”

  Hayden felt like he’d been slapped across the face. The high he was on from telling Joe off evaporated instantly. He swallowed his wounded pride, but it didn’t go down easily. “Wow, Pops. That’s nice to hear.”

  “Just shootin’ straight. Now, you stop worrying about which one of you is getting more grins from little EJ Mason and buckle your ass down and work? Then I might change my position. We clear?”

  “Yes sir,” Hayden choked out.

  “COME on, Belle. We aren’t on house arrest. Or wait…are you?” He smirked at the girl sitting with her feet in the pool. He wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight. Not for work anyways.

  “Maybe I am. What’s the matter?” Cami lifted her chin in defiance. “Bored of me already?”

  Kyle rolled his eyes and stepped over to her. Crouching down, he stared into her warm gaze. “Never.” He kissed her softly on the mouth while pulling her hand to his. “It’s the Fourth. I finally have a four-day weekend. And I want to show you something. Something special.” Brushing his lips across her knuckles, he gave her his best pleading puppy-dog face. “Please? If anyone deserves special, it’s you.”

  “You and your lines. One day they’re going to stop working on me,” she informed him. Leaning a few inches out of reach of his mouth, she took a second to check out what he was wearing. Khaki shorts and a blue button-down. With his sleeves rolled up the way they were, she could see just enough of his forearms to make her want to feel his arms around her. It was a lot different from what she usually saw him in. She didn’t think it was possible for him to be any more appealing to her and yet…Kyle Mason in nice clothes was pretty hot.

  “Is today that day?” he asked, jutting out his bottom lip.

  Cami had to think for a second to remember what he was asking about. “No, probably not,” she answered, taking his hand as he helped her to stand up. “So where are you taking me?”

  “It’s a surprise. You’ll like it. Promise.”

  Her stomach twisted with worry. Where in the world did he want to go? The thought of possibly seeing any one of the dozens of people she’d bragged about going to St. Tropez to made her feel sick.

  “Don’t make that face. It’s a date, Cami. It’s the Fourth of July. This is what couples do.” Kyle knocked his forehead gently against hers.

  “I can think of something else couples do,” she said softly in her best seductress voice. Letting her hands drop to Kyle’s waist, she let her intense stare bore into his.

  “You’re something else, you know that?” He grinned and shook his head. Before she could answer, he kissed her on the mouth. The kind of kiss she was beginning to think only he was capable of. The kind that tingled its way from her lips to her toes.

  “You keep doing that and I’m going to show you something else,” she purred against his mouth.

  “Come on, Belle. Your chariot awaits,” he said as he pulled her away from the pool and toward his black new-ish looking truck.

  Reluctantly, and with a silent prayer that no one who thought she was thirty-five hundred miles away from Summit Bluffs saw her, Cami allowed him to lead her out of the safety of her backyard.

  “WOW. Pinkberry. And we’re going through the drive-thru. You must really like me,” she deadpanned as Kyle drove slowly toward the giant order screen.

  He turned and gave her his trademark grin. The one she dreamt about when he was away at camp. “I can’t help it that your lame-ass town doesn’t have a regular ice cream place. But this isn’t the date. This is pre-gaming.”

  “Pre-gaming?”

  Kyle nodded. “Yep. You know, warming up before the real thing.”

  Cami tilted her head to the side. “Warming up with frozen yogurt?”

  “Geez, Belle. Give a man a break, will you? If you’re disappointed at the end of the night, I’ll—”

  “I doubt I could ever be disappointed. Not with you, anyways,” she admitted so he’d stop torturing himself trying to think of a way to make her happy. She’d pretty much spent her whole life being disappointed by people. Her parents let her down like they were trying to gold medal in it. Hayden was so self-involved that he never paid attention to a word she said unless she was naked—and even then he seemed like he was on a schedule and had to be somewhere else. Even Sophie was destined to walk away sooner or later. But Kyle Mason was different. He seemed to know what she needed before she even did. It actually was pretty nice to finally get out of the house.

  “Good,” Kyle breathed out from beside her. “Because the last thing I ever want to do is disappoint you, Belle. It’d be off with my head if I did, right?”

  She couldn’t help but giggle. “Something like that.”

  “What flavor?” he asked, glancing at the glowing menu next to his window. “Looks like they have a whopping five to choose from. Baskin Robbins it ain’t.”

  “Yeah. But this is much better for my figure.”

  Kyle stopped to let his eyes roam from her face all the way down to her bare legs. Thank God for sundresses. She nearly melted from the heat in his appreciative gaze. “I’m a big fan of your figure. But I definitely wouldn’t have any complaints about there being a whole lot more of you.”

  “Oh more lines,” she said, putting her hand to her forehead and pretending to swoon. “If you keep using them up on me, you’ll run out soon.”

  He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Nope. Never. And you’d miss them if I did.”

  Shaking her head at his crazy self, she leaned over to glance at her menu options and got a whiff of his cologne. Clean, sweet, and sharp all at once. She fought the urge to inhale as hard as she could. Don’t be a weirdo, Cami. “Um, coconut is fine.” Settling back to her side, she enjoyed his lingering scent as he ordered hers and a chocolate banana protein shake for himself.

  She twirled a strand of her hair as he paid at the window. “Here you go, Belle,” he said, handing her a cup and a spoon. Just as she turned toward him to take it, she heard a voice that had her blood running colder than the frozen yogurt.

  “Oh my god,” a girl’s voice squealed. “Like seriously? Um, you work at a yogurt shop and wear a stupid paper hat. Puh-leeze. I mean, let’s get real.” The over-exaggerated drama queen’s voice grated on Cami’s nerves as it made its way through the open windows.

  “That was freaking hilarious. He totally thought you were serious. You are such a biotch, Raquel.”

  The three girls walking out of the yogurt shop and in front of the truck broke into a fit of wild laughter.

  “Oh shit,” Cami mumbled under her breath. She wanted to hide. To turn invisible instantly or something. If any one of them, Raquel or either of her two stupid minions—Trista and Jen, who were a year younger than them—turned even
a quarter of the way to their right, they would see her. Right there in Summit Bluffs. Not in St. Tropez like she’d just been discussing with Raquel on the phone a few hours ago. A cold sweat broke over her skin and she couldn’t swallow.

  “Friends of yours?” Kyle asked from beside her, but she could barely hear over the ringing getting louder in her ears.

  This was bad. This was ruin-her-life, get-nicknamed-the-girl-who-goes-on-a-fake-vacay, have-to-admit-to-Raquel-that-she’d-lied bad. Raquel was the kind of girl who fed off the pain and misfortune of others. Like a succubus. And that was putting it politely.

  The girls took their sweet time crossing the parking lot so Kyle couldn’t drive forward. A horn honked from behind them and Cami didn’t think, she just reacted. Letting the cup of yogurt fall from her hand, she ducked down to retrieve it before it even hit the floormat.

  “Oops. Clumsy me. Um, no. Just a girl from school who drives me nuts. If she sees me, she’ll want to know where we’re going and then she’ll invite herself. You know the type.”

  “Here, I got it, babe,” Kyle said, reaching down with a handful of napkins to clean up the tiny smidge of yogurt that had actually fallen on his interior. “It’s not a big deal. It needs a good detail anyways.”

  “Okay, it’s just…I don’t want it to stain or anything.” She knew she sounded like a complete idiot, and the fact that she was still ducking down made matters worse. “Um, are they gone?”

  Kyle cleared his throat. “Yeah, they’re getting into a red convertible.”

  Shit. So they were in Raquel’s car. And if the top was down, which she had no doubt it would be, they’d be right there.

  “Okay, um, sorry. I know this is lame. They’re just kind of…annoying. And I’ve managed to not have to deal with their immature crap this summer so I’m trying to lie low.” There. That sounded convincing. Didn’t it?

  Much better than, My parents abandoned me and I didn’t want everyone to know that I was an unloved loser so I lied my ass off. Kyle was the kind of guy who didn’t care what anyone else thought. She loved that about him, but she also knew it meant he just wouldn’t get it.

  “Literally, in this case,” Kyle muttered under his breath as he finally pulled out of the parking lot. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were ashamed to be seen with me. It’s no Mercedes, but this truck is practically brand new, you know. Worked my ass off to pay for it.” She was so distracted she almost missed the hurt in his voice. Almost.

  Rising as slowly as she could manage with her half-ruined cup of yogurt melting in her hand, Cami glanced around and saw that Raquel’s car was out of sight.

  Whew. Crisis averted. The tight ball of nerves in her stomach finally eased up. But her sigh of relief caught in her throat when she saw that Kyle was gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white.

  “Hey,” she said, setting her yogurt in the cup holder between them. “I’m not ashamed of anything.” Except my parents. And my lies. And my stupid friends who would’ve acted like total bitches.

  He huffed out a breath and shot her a forced smile. “If you say so.”

  Cami’s chest ached at the wounded expression that lingered in his eyes. She wanted to say something to fix it, to let him know she’d acted a fool because of her own screwed up issues, not because of anything to do with him.

  But the words, the truth about why she was in hiding, were just too humiliating.

  Cami Nickelson did not do humility.

  “HEY, you busy? I need advice.” Ella Jane stood in front of her open closet in her room, wrapped in a towel. She held the phone to her ear with the help of her shoulder.

  “I’m heading out to the beach to watch fireworks with my lame-ass parents. Why, what’s up?”

  Ella Jane breathed a sigh of relief. She was in the middle of a major freak-out and needed Lynlee’s expert opinion. “So I think I’m going on my very first date tonight. And I have no idea what to wear.”

  Lynlee squealed into the phone, prompting Ella Jane to pull it a few inches from her ear. “You finally did it! You finally made a move on Coop. Go you!”

  “Um, no, I didn’t.” Ella Jane paused as she held a red dress up in front of her and faced the full-length mirror. “Actually, that guy I told you about? The cocky one from Summit Bluffs? He kinda asked me to watch fireworks with him tonight.” Or did he? More like he just agreed to join her. Now Ella Jane was even more confused. Was this a date or wasn’t it?

  “Nice. That’ll show Coop.”

  Yeah, it had started that way. But now she wasn’t so sure she even wanted Coop to know about her and Hayden.

  Coop had a girl in his life apparently, and she didn’t want him thinking everything she did was because of him. “I don’t really care anymore what Coop thinks. He’s got a girlfriend, I think. I don’t know. Whatever. The point is, I’m meeting Hayden in an hour at The Ridge and I need to know if I should wear a dress or just keep it casual. I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard, you know?”

  “What does he normally see you in?” Lynlee asked.

  “Um, work clothes. And church clothes. That’s really it.”

  Lynlee blew out a breath. “Okay, so you need something that looks casual like you just threw it on to watch fireworks but shows enough skin to be distracting. How about your denim dress with the cute pockets? It’s short enough to get his attention without being obvious. Throw a red cardigan over it and boom, you’re patriotic.”

  “Um, okay. Let’s see if I can find it.” Ella Jane found it near the back. It actually showed a lot of skin in her opinion, which was why she hardly wore it. “Here it is.”

  “And for God’s sakes, leave your freaking hair down. Ponytails are not sexy.”

  EJ yanked the elastic band out of her wet hair. “Hair down, got it. Anything else?”

  “Oh, and wear cute underwear. And a matching bra. Just in case.”

  Whoa. Ella Jane’s eyes widened at her own reflection. “Just in case what? A spark falls and my clothes catch fire?”

  “No, Virgin Mary. In case you decide to let anyone see them.”

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to be an issue. Ella Jane had only kissed one guy—or rather, one guy had attempted to kiss her. Until Kyle jacked his jaw. And that was like almost three years ago. “Um, okay. Have fun with your parents.”

  “Doubtful. I’ll be ditching them ASAP. Enjoy your date. Maybe we can compare stories later tonight.”

  “Right. Thanks for the wardrobe help.”

  EJ was one hundred percent positive her evening would pale in comparison. Lynlee was the furthest thing from being a virgin and EJ was the poster child for abstinence. Her friend had given her graphic tutorials on blow jobs, hand jobs, and the kinds of noises she should make when a guy touched her. It was pretty much a ton of useless advice she wouldn’t be able to put to use until long after Kyle was away at college and boys got bold enough to risk their lives to date her. So possibly never.

  And if she was being honest with herself, she’d only ever pictured one boy doing any of those things to her. Only wanted to do those things to one guy.

  She closed her eyes and tried to wipe the image of herself wrapped in Coop’s arms out of her head.

  She let the word incest take its place. Then his smug smile when he’d rubbed it in about his favorite girl. The one he’d be with tonight.

  Suddenly, the image in her head shifted. He was citified to the core, obnoxious, and utterly full of himself, but Hayden Prescott was the one meeting her tonight. The one who’d laughed with her all summer, teased her, watched trains with her. He was the one who’d showed when he’d said he was going to, been there to make her laugh when she’d cried. He was the one who made her nervous and unsure and crazy. He irritated her to death and excited her just as much.

  Maybe Coop was right. Maybe different could be good and not all changes were bad.

  AS she pulled her truck up to The Ridge, a small seed of nervousness began to grow. She tu
gged at the sleeve of her white cardigan as she got out of the truck. She hadn’t been able to find the red one because it was dirty. She’d forgotten she’d worn it to church last Sunday.

  She wanted to kick herself. She’d put on a pink bra and teal panties and then stripped at the last second and put on matching red ones. She really was patriotic. And stupid, apparently, because the fireworks were starting and Hayden was nowhere in sight.

  As she laid the blanket she’d brought across her rickety tailgate, the seed of nervousness became a vine of worry, which was rapidly growing into a thriving tree of full-blown panic. Maybe Coop had warned him about her brother and he’d decided not to show. Or maybe he’d forgotten. Or she was a complete idiot and he’d been messing with her all along.

  Either way, it was hot and humid and she was sweating. She pulled her hair to one side, wishing she’d just ignored Lynlee’s advice and worn it up. Her heart grew heavy in her chest. Telling her friend she’d been stood up was going to suck. Lynlee wasn’t the kind of girlfriend who would be sympathetic. She was the kind who would laugh. Hysterically.

  Glancing down, Ella Jane saw a few red specks on her white sweater. She’d helped her mom unload the salsa she’d made for the Founder’s Festival before coming here. Apparently some had splattered on her.

  This night was off to a swell start. She began pulling her arms from the sweater sleeves. A low whistle interrupted her.

  “I just got here and already you’re stripping. Should I give you a few more minutes and come back?”

  As much as she wanted to glare at him, she grinned up at Hayden as he approached. “Why do you always do that?”

  “Do what?” he asked as he hopped up on the tailgate beside her. He offered her a brown paper sack so she took it.

  “Make stupid comments like that. Like you’d really be okay with me taking my clothes off out here.” She peeked in the bag. “Oh, never mind. You can be an ass all you want. Grandma Prescott’s caramel apple pie is my favorite.”

  Hayden laughed, but it was a short laugh. Then he cleared his throat. “For starters, I have no problem with you taking your clothes off up here. Pretty sure I’m the only one who can see. And secondly, I made the pie for the festival because my grandma wasn’t feeling so hot.”