Storm Warning

1 Cameron

“I’M not saying that we should break up exactly.” Cameron Nickelson glanced in the mirror at the reflection of her boyfriend of two years, who was still lying shirtless across the bed in his room. She applied a thin layer of slick gloss to her perfect pout before adding, “I just think with you going to stay with your grandparents for the summer and me going to St. Tropez, we should take some time apart. You know, like a break. Not a break up.”

She studied the feigned look of concern on Hayden’s face. A part of her wanted him to reject her suggestion because the idea of being important to someone was a driving force in her way of life, but she knew he’d agree to the break.

Sure, she loved Hayden. But she knew as well as he did that they weren’t in love. They were together because that was the way it was supposed to be. Popular guys and popular girls from the same financial standing were supposed to be together. At least that’s what her parents had raised her to believe.

So, when they were freshmen in high school and their peers were pairing off into couples, Hayden and Cami—as she was known as by those closest to her—decided it would be in their best interest, and most beneficial to their reputations, to become the it couple at Summit Bluffs High School. They had based their relationship on the friendship they’d developed growing up in the elite circle their parents forced them into, complete with built-in wealth, status, and popularity.

Cami and Hayden understood the pressures that came with being expected to be perfect. Both of them had parents that pushed them to excel and achieve even when they didn’t want to—Cami with pageants and Hayden with lacrosse—not to mention the 4.0 GPAs they were expected to maintain while climbing the social ladder.

“Okay,” Hayden finally answered. “I mean, if that’s what you want,” he added. She could tell that he was just saying it to soften the blow to her ego and that he would be just fine without her this summer. She smiled, noting that Hayden Prescott did have a sweet side, despite his arrogant façade. She also admired the way his chiseled stomach remained tight as he sat up and scooted to the end of the bed. “How about one more round for old times’ sake?” Before she could say a word, he grabbed her thighs and pulled her back into his lap. The popularity and reputation boosts weren’t the only benefits to their relationship.

They’d been each other’s firsts and definitely enjoyed the benefit of each other’s company. Or at least, she was pretty sure she’d been his first.

“Well,” Cami began, turning in his lap to face him. “If you insist.”

He ran his thumb across her lips, removing the gloss she’d just applied. “Oh, I insist.” He chuckled before kissing her, giving her the cocky smirk that had practically every girl she knew eager to be in her place.

But as nice as kissing Hayden was, even though he definitely had mastered making out and more, Cami had yet to feel the spine-tingling, stop-you-in-your-tracks, leave-you-breathless type of kiss she had seen in the movies and read about in the romance novels she’d snuck from her mom’s secret stash. Which was one of the main reasons she’d suggested the whole break thing.

She was off to the sunny beaches of St. Tropez for the summer, and the idea of having a whirlwind fling that actually left her breathless was all she could think about. Even though she knew she’d start the next school year back on Hayden’s arm, three months of doing what she actually wanted for once sounded nice.

“WHAT do you mean I’m not going?” Cami asked as she watched her mother walk toward the front door. Right outside that door was the town car that was waiting to drive them to the airport. The one Cami was supposed to be loading her Louis Vuitton suitcase in at that very moment. Instead, her father wheeled it back toward the staircase that led up to her second-floor bedroom.

“Exactly what I said,” her mother answered shortly.

“But you said this was a trip for us. You said if I placed in the Miss Teen Oklahoma pageant that we’d go celebrate. I don’t understand why you suddenly decided that I don’t get to go. This isn’t fair,” she pleaded.

Theresa Nickelson—or as she preferred to be known, Former Miss Oklahoma—placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and painted on the fake smile she’d perfected over years of being on the pageant circuit.

“Cameron,” she said in a sugary sweet tone. “I said that you could go to St. Tropez with me if you won Miss Teen Oklahoma. Not placed. Perhaps you should use the summer to figure out why exactly you didn’t take home that crown. Tighten up a little for the swimsuit competition.” She paused to give her daughter’s hip a harsh pat. “Maybe next year we’ll actually have a reason to celebrate.” With that, her mother was out the door and on her way to the island vacation Cameron had been dreaming about for months.

Two tears escaped the overflowing pools in her eyes. She let them fall onto her cheeks before turning to run up the steps to her room.

She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised by her mother’s decision to leave her behind. It was kind of their thing. The only time her mother actually acknowledged her existence was when she had a crown on her head and sash across her chest. That was when her mom brought out the big guns, making immense promises she never followed through on.

Cami threw herself on the queen-sized bed in the center of her bedroom and cursed herself for actually thinking her mother wanted to spend time with her. Then she cursed herself again for falling for her mother’s promise of “a mother-daughter getaway.”

Her mother was nothing if not consistent. Every summer she would get Cami’s hopes up by planning something fun for the two of them only to pull the rug out from under her unsuspecting daughter. As much as she hated to admit it, this year she’d been stupid enough to fall for it. Again.

Cami’s dream of finding summer love on the beach seeped into her pillow along with her tears. She had a pretty good idea that her mother had the exact same idea and didn’t want her daughter tagging along to complicate things with the cabana boy or whatever unsuspecting guy she preyed upon. Cami swore to herself that this was the last time she would believe a word that came out of her mother’s mouth. She let her sobs drown out the little voice inside her that said this would not be the case.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

She unburied her face from her damp pillow and watched her father wheel her suitcase back into her room.

“You know how your mother is,” he tried to reason with his daughter, his brown eyes crinkling as he forced a smile. “You shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up.”

“Yeah. I know.” The emptiness she felt at his words hollowed out her stomach. No matter how hard she tried to make it seem normal, the relationship she had with her parents was anything but.

Mothers were supposed to want to spend time with their children and fathers were supposed to offer love and support, not rationalize their wive’s immature behavior.

Just as she began to write both of her parents off, her father stepped over to the edge of the bed and offered Cami a comforting pat on her back.

“You’ll still have a good summer,” he began, and for a brief moment, Cami actually thought he was going to suggest that the two of them spend some time together. A tiny hopeful smile crept across her face.

She didn’t see her dad on a regular basis. Between his busy work schedule and her social one, they spoke only in passing. She saw her mom at dress fittings, hair appointments, and pageant practice. Her dad, not so much.

“Why don’t you call the girls and have a pool party tonight?” he suggested. “I’m going into the city to get a head start on all the work I’ve got this week.”

She let out a breath as her heart grew heavier in her chest. The weight of it felt like too much in times like these. Cami’s father was much more transparent than her mother. His affair, which he usually referred to as ‘work,’ was something her mother knew all about and turned a blind eye to. Cami knew this from the many phone conversations she’d overhead her mother having with women in her inner circle.

According to her mom, Derek Nickelson justified deserving a girlfriend because he provided a lavish lifestyle for his wife and daughter, maintained a high profile in the community they lived in, and pretended to be interested in his child’s well-being. He even served as the School Board President. And because his own infidelity kept him too busy to notice hers, Theresa Nickelson didn’t really mind.

From the outside, the Nickelsons looked like they had it all together. Which couldn’t be any further from the truth.

“Okay, Daddy,” Cami agreed. “That sounds like fun.”

He placed a kiss on the top of her head. “Let Sophie know if you need anything,” he added as he backed toward the door. Sophie was their maid and the only person in the house that Cami saw daily. “I’ll leave some cash on the counter, and you have your Visa.”

Once he was gone, Cami returned her face to the quiet comfort of her pillow and silently thanked her mother for forcing her into the pageants she hated so much. If nothing else, she’d learned how to lie and paint the picture of perfection everyone expected her to be.

She heard her father’s car pull out of the garage and closed her eyes. There was no way she was having a party tonight. She couldn’t deal with letting her girlfriends know that her mother had ditched her once again. She’d used every excuse in the book for that woman and she had run out of ideas. Just the thought of having everyone talking about “poor Cami” behind her back made her want to puke.

She had a reputation to uphold. This summer, Cami was going to hide out, protect the lie her sorry excuse for a family had forced her into. When the school bell rang, she was going to fill her friends’ ears with the details of the wild summer romance she had promised them she was going to have. Even if she had to make the whole thing up.

2 Hayden

“THIS is a joke, right? You’re pissed I wrecked the Bentley so you’re screwing with me.”

He watched as his mother rubbed the bridge of her nose and then widened her hand to grip her temples. His dad just stood there, checking his phone for the fiftieth time. One of them needed to cut the bullshit and soon or he was going to lose it.

“Hayden, honestly. It’s a car. We were just glad you weren’t hurt. This wasn’t even our idea.” His mother sighed as she looked to his father for some assistance. She didn’t get any. The man couldn’t even glance up from the device he held. Hayden knew why. It was baseball season. People were still placing bets. If his mother knew about his dad’s shady side business, she ignored it.

“Okay, so if it’s just a car, why send me to the middle of nowhere? I’m seventeen years old. I don’t need summer camp, dammit.”

“Watch your mouth,” his dad scolded, finally looking up. “It’s not summer camp. It’s your grandparents’ farm in Hope’s Grove, and they have some friends who could use a hand. The Masons’ son left for college early or something and is only helping out part time. I’m pretty sure Brad Mason is living here in Summit Bluffs with Valerie Darden. So it’s just a single mother and her daughter running a somewhat successful landscaping business. You could use a summer of hard work.”

Hayden gritted his teeth together and glared at his father. “Oh yeah, Dad? I thought I had been working hard? Or doesn’t what I’ve been doing count?”

His mother scrunched her brow and her imploring gaze swung from him to his father and back again.

Before she could ask any questions, his father stepped toward him. “Enough. Pack your bags. Your grandfather will pick you up first thing in the morning.”

AFTER he’d received the shitty news of being sent to Camp Townie Inbred for the summer, his girlfriend had come over. To add insult to injury, she’d announced she wanted to take a “break.” Normally he wouldn’t have cared. He had a few things going on the side. Cami was just the main course because his parents said so. But knowing he’d be stuck out in the middle of nowhere without even the hope of a conjugal visit since she’d be in St. Tropez with her mother, probably tag-teaming cabana boys, sucked hairy balls.

At least he’d gotten lucky one last time.

But he doubted that would hold him over all summer long. He was pretty sure none of the toothless townies were going to be his type.

The drive to Hope’s Grove wasn’t even an hour. But it might as well have been in another time zone. Summit Bluffs had a high-end mall, a movie theatre, and a high school home to the three-time state football and lacrosse champs. Hope’s Grove had…dirt. And corn. So far, that was all he’d seen.

“Well, here it is. Downtown,” his grandfather announced like they’d entered Times Square.

“Jesus.” Hayden barely kept himself from letting out a few words he knew might get him backhanded by the old man. Hope’s Grove was the town that time forgot. Time must have downright hated it. Everything was faded. Stop signs—the two they had—storefront displays, all of it. He counted a hardware store, a grocery store, a gas station, a church, a bar, and a video store. For God’s sakes, have these people never heard of Netflix?

“Used to be the Logans’ Dairy Farm,” Pops told him, pointing a bony finger at a huge empty field as they turned down a back road. “We went there a few times when you were younger. They went under last year.”

Great. Even the cows were smart enough to get the hell out of this godforsaken place.

How in the world was he supposed to entertain himself all summer? He glanced down at his phone only to see that he had zero service. No signal whatsoever. Big shocker. He’d bet the odds of his grandparents having Wi-Fi weren’t too great. And he knew plenty about betting.

One thing was for sure. This summer was going to be pure hell.

3 Ella Jane

“IT’S not like I’m moving to the moon, EJ. Relax.” Lynlee Reed soothed her friend as she folded her last skimpy tank top and stuffed it into her suitcase. “There’s Facebook and Skype and Snapchat and a ton of other ways to keep in touch.”

Ella Jane Mason sat at the end of the bed with tears stinging the backs of her eyes. “You might as well be. California is a million miles from here. It’s practically on another planet.” She stared down at her hands. Everything was changing. She hated change.

First, her dad had moved out and her parents were in the middle of destroying each other in every way possible in the divorce. Her brother had received a full scholarship to OSU and had left for football camp last week. He’d be home on weekends but it wasn’t the same. Nothing would ever be the same. And now her best friend was moving to California because her dad’s job had closed the Oklahoma City office location and transferred him to Los Angeles.

Lynlee huffed out a sigh. “Don’t be so dramatic. I’ll come back as much as I can. Mom said we’d visit Gram and Gramps before the end of summer, so I’ll be back before you know it.”

Ella Jane forced a smile and nodded as she choked down the lump rising in her throat. The two girls lugged Lynlee’s suitcases down the stairs to where her parents were waiting. She tried to focus on each step through the moisture gathered in her eyes so she wouldn’t trip and break her neck.

After the bags were loaded in the car, Lynlee turned to her and rolled her eyes. “God, you’re such a sap. Toughen up, chick. We’re not five years old anymore.”

Ella Jane twisted a long strand of her blond hair between her fingers. “Y-yeah. I know. You’re right. It’s just…” Pulling in a lungful of air, she glanced at the now empty house where she’d spent summers learning to swim and gossiping about boys until all hours of the night. Where she’d finally confessed her lifelong crush on her brother’s best friend. “Lots of changes this summer.”

Lynlee gave her a sympathetic smile. “Yeah, some of those changes are good though. Like you’re finally in a C-cup and I’m off to hook up with hot California surfer dudes.”

“I’m still a 34-B, thank you very much,” Ella Jane whispered, feeling the blush creep up her neck to her face.

Lynlee had always been the daring one. The bold one who said whatever was on her mind. Ella Jane, not so much. She usually let her older brother Kyle or Lyn do the talking for her. Without them, she had no idea how she was going to survive the summer, much less her junior year of high school.

Hope’s Grove was small. Everyone knew about her parents, and she was already dreading facing them since the news of her dad’s affair had hit. But facing them without her brother and her best friend would be her worst nightmare.

After the girls had said their goodbyes and she’d watched her friend’s taillights fade down the drive, Ella Jane scuffed her boots along the winding dirt road that led her home.

She was about halfway there, watching the sun sink low in the evening sky, when the unmistakable rumble of a pickup truck came barreling down the road behind her. She stepped aside to let it pass without looking back. But it didn’t pass. It slowed practically to a stop right next to her.

She turned, wondering what the heck the driver’s deal was. There was more than enough room for him to go around. But the smiling face beneath the backwards trucker hat sent the words on the tip of her tongue swirling away with the dust the truck had riled up.

She bit her lip and grinned. Warm brown eyes gleamed in her direction. “Hey there, Ellie May. Need a ride?”

She rolled her eyes. Why Brantley Cooper couldn’t call her by her actual name was beyond her. But as long as he was talking to her, she really didn’t care much what he called her. He can call me ‘flower’ if he wants to.

He was a year older than her and a year younger than her older brother, Kyle. Smack in the middle of their ages and grades in school and usually smack in the middle of their arguments. Coop kept the peace. Balanced them out perfectly.

The three of them had met at the same time as kids but Coop and Kyle had become like brothers instantly. She’d always tagged along wherever they went. Kyle had whined about it when they were younger but Coop always made her feel welcome. He held doors open for her so she didn’t get left behind, made sure to invite her despite her brother’s protests, and lately he’d even stopped by and hung out even when Kyle wasn’t home. And this year, she’d be a junior and Coop would be a senior. With her big brother away at college, she couldn’t help but fantasize about what might happen if she and Coop spent time together alone.

“Hey, Coop. Lynlee just left so I was just…” She glanced toward home. Kyle wasn’t back from football camp yet, and her mom was baking herself to death, trying to keep her mind off of everything.

“Yeah, I heard the Wicked Witch was moving west. You up for some fishing? I have to drop my bike off at the house but we could swing by the lake after.”

She should get home. She knew she should. Should order a pizza and convince her mom to take it easy for a night. Except…it was Coop. And in all her sixteen years, he was the one boy she’d never been able to say no to.

“Yeah. Yeah I’m up for it.”

4 Cooper

THAT’S Kyle’s little sister, man. Remember, your best friend? The one who’d kick your ass if he knew what was running through your mind right now? Oh yeah. Him.

But when Ella Jane Mason climbed into his truck, she wasn’t anyone’s little anything. Her cut-off shorts were just short enough for the tips of her pockets to peer out the bottom. And damn, those legs. Toned and tan and went on forever.

He swallowed hard and took a quick swig of the Dr. Pepper in his drink holder. Sure it was warm as piss but at least it was wet. Oh God. Wet. Not a word he should be thinking about when the most beautiful girl in Hope’s Grove was riding shotgun.

“You race today? I would’ve come and watched if I’d have known.” The windows were down since his piece of shit didn’t have a working air conditioner. EJ didn’t complain though. She just grabbed a faded John Deere hat from his dash and pulled it on over her hair. Backwards. Day-um. His mouth went instantly dry again.

“Naw, just practice,” Coop told her, adjusting himself in his seat. “But I have a few races coming up. I don’t know if Kyle will be in town for you to tag along with, but you know you’re still welcome to come.”

Something flashed in her eyes when he glanced over at her. Excitement, maybe? Was she glad that her brother might not be there to chaperone?

Because if he was being honest with himself? He was sure excited about it. Way too excited for comfort.

“You know I’ll come.” Ella Jane’s words stirred a part of him he knew he shouldn’t be thinking about.

“Awesome,” he blurted out with a little more enthusiasm than he’d planned. “I mean…” He cleared his throat. “That’s cool. I have a race next Saturday over at Hillside.” Gripping the steering wheel tightly, he trained his eyes on the road he could’ve driven blind.

“I’ll be there as soon as I get off work.”

“Great.” The idea of having Ella Jane cheering him on from the pits at Hillside made him smile. A win there was a sure thing. He’d worked his way up on the local circuit, and there wasn’t a track in the state of Oklahoma he hadn’t dominated at. There were a couple sponsors courting him—nothing big yet, but still. Someone wanted to give him money to do something he loved because they believed in him. The same way the pretty little blonde next to him did. EJ and Kyle were Coop’s biggest fans. The two of them had been his unofficial pit crew since he’d started racing as a kid.

He’d always be a farm boy, first and foremost, but if there was an opportunity to make something out of himself in motocross, he was going to try his damnedest to do it. Having EJ there in a tight little T-shirt with his name and number across the back was just the boost he needed. He made up his mind then and there. He’d impress the sponsors and her. He was determined now more than ever to win the race and the girl.

“Promise I’ll keep my distance and not interfere with your groupies,” Ella Jane informed him as she popped open his glove box in search of gum the way she always did.

He handed her the pack of Spearmint from his console. “Please do. I’ve got a reputation to uphold with the track bunnies.” He nodded, trying to convince himself that her keeping her distance was a good idea. The truth was he couldn’t give two shits about those other girls. He was too wrapped up thinking about the blonde within arm’s reach. He’d let Ella Jane ride on the handlebars of his bike if she wanted to.

The barking dogs announcing his arrival at home greeted him. Ella Jane was out of the truck before he was, petting Roscoe and Blue, his two Australian Shepherds. When she kissed each of them on the nose and bent down to rub their bellies, he found himself oddly jealous of the old dogs.

“I’ll unload the bike and grab the rods if you want to run inside and say hey to Mama,” he told her.

She nodded and headed toward the house. As he watched her skip away, Roscoe and Blue close on her heels, he wondered exactly how mad Kyle would be if he actually made a move on his little sister. He was just about to talk himself out of it for the umpteenth time when she glanced over her shoulder as she was pulling open the screen door and offered him a small smile.

Maybe it would be worth the ass kicking.

5 Cameron

THERE was something to be said for living in hiding—it sucked. It had been six days since her mom left for St. Tropez without her, and her father was shacked up with his assistant in the apartment he kept in the city.

Cameron had given herself a manicure, a pedicure, facial and every other beauty treatment Sophie could find for her at the drugstore. To say that she was bored was an understatement.

She decided it was time to rid herself of the tan lines she’d acquired this week while lying out by the one saving grace of her family’s home—the pool.

“It’s beautiful here,” Cami said into her cell phone as she made her way across the patio. She tossed a stack of magazines down on the lounge chair she was planning on taking over for the rest of the afternoon. “The beaches are gorgeous,” she gushed, knowing she had to really sell it if she was going to convince her friends that she was actually on vacation.

“I’m so jealous,” Raquel huffed through the phone. “Your mom should have totally let you take a friend. I have the hottest red bikini. Would have looked amazing in pics of me on the white sand.”

“Totally.” Cami rolled her eyes as she agreed. Raquel managed to turn every situation around to be about her. Even hypothetical ones. “I’ve had quite a few guys check me out today and I’m just now heading out to the water.” She continued her charade as she kicked her flip-flops off and dipped her toe in the water. Not the salty ocean water her friend thought she was in front of, but the pool that was located only a couple blocks from Raquel’s house.

“So things with Hayden are officially off?”

“For now.” Cami shrugged as if her friend could see her. Thank God she couldn’t. “I mean, I’m sure when the summer’s over we’ll be back together. But for right now, we’re just doing our own thing.”

“I didn’t actually think you’d go through with it. Hayden Prescott is kind of a big deal.”

“Well, so am I,” Cami replied with the false confidence she feigned for her friends.

“Oh, I know,” Raquel backtracked. “I just thought you might’ve changed your mind. You could’ve had a summer fling without telling him, you know. Aren’t you worried someone is going to snake him out from under you?”

“Like who?” Cami fought back a laugh. She knew exactly who Raquel was talking about—herself. Raquel had been not so silently waiting in the wings, hoping that Cami and Hayden would part ways so that she could try and sink her hooks into him. And if Cami had told her “friend” about any of the flings she’d had behind Hayden’s back, she knew exactly who would be the first one to run give him all the juicy details.

It was no secret that Raquel wanted Hayden. She’d even gone as far as to send him a couple suggestive texts. And one night when she’d gotten way too drunk at a party, she’d whispered in his ear all the things she’d do to him if she were his girlfriend. Because she was classy like that.

Of course, Hayden told Cami all about it. She might have been okay with Hayden fooling around with other girls she didn’t know, but Raquel was out of the question and Hayden knew it.

“I don’t know,” Raquel said evenly, playing it as cool as she could. “Anyone.”

“I’m not worried one bit,” Cami answered. “Besides that, he’s out in some little Podunk town for the summer with his grandparents. Doubt anyone there is worth a second look.”

“You’re probably right,” Raquel conceded. “If he was back home that might be a different story.”

“Might be,” Cami replied. Raquel could think whatever she wanted. “I’m not going to worry about Hayden this summer. This summer is about me and the hot guy walking across the beach right now. I’ve got to go, Raquel. Talk later!” With that, Cami hung up the phone, letting Raquel think she had more important things to worry about. Which she did. Tan lines.

She walked over to the small pool house, where the fresh towels were kept, and pulled her bikini top from around her neck. She had never been modest—she wasn’t raised to be—but she knew that Sophie was out running errands and the solitude of her private backyard retreat allowed her to walk out into the sunlight without worrying that anyone would see.

With her shoulders back and her face turned up toward the warmth of the summer sun, her mind conjured images of the beach she was supposed to be on. Daydreaming, she made her way, towel in hand, toward the lounge chair that was calling her name.

When her nearly naked body collided into something solid, she was pulled back to reality. He stood nearly a foot taller than her and the look of surprise in his sky blue eyes matched that of Cami’s.

“Who are you?” she demanded, propping her free hand up on her hip. The fact that she was topless barely even crossed her mind. She was more concerned with the stranger standing in front of her wielding a pair of hedge clippers.

Her eyes wandered from his hands up his strong forearms to the rippled muscles of his stomach peeking out from under the T-shirt he’d cut the sleeves off of.

“What are you doing back here? How’d you get in?” She threw the questions at him while snapping her fingers in front of his face in an attempt to pull his eyes from her body.

Once he finally closed his mouth, he shook his head, wiping off the awestruck look she was used to seeing on boys’ faces when she talked to them. She glared at him while he cleared his throat.

Cami was the first to admit that she loved the attention members of the opposite sex gave her. In some way, it made up for the lack of it she received at home. She didn’t mind the fact that he was staring at her, so it nearly blew her mind when he pulled the earbuds blasting music from his ears, placed the clippers on the ground, and turned his head.

“Easy, girl,” he said, holding his hand up to block her in his peripheral. “I’m supposed to be here. Don’t be such a drama queen.”

“Is that a fact?” she demanded, somewhat insulted that he was actually avoiding looking at her. She knew she looked good, despite the comment her mother had made about her weight earlier. And who the hell was he? Telling her calm down. He obviously didn’t know who she was. People didn’t talk to her like that.

“Yes. It is a fact,” he told her as he reached out to grab the towel from her hand. His eyes found hers as he took a step toward her and her breathing stopped. She looked up into his gleaming eyes. A small voice in her mind cautioned her to be careful.

She had no idea who he was or what he wanted from her, but some instinct she didn’t know she had told her that she was safe. She could feel the warmth radiating off his body against her skin as he wrapped the towel around her back. He pulled it closed, covering her chest. She contemplated reaching out and touching him, but his nearness had her frozen in place.

“I’m Kyle Mason.” He stepped back after she took the towel with her own hands. “With Mason Landscaping. We’re scheduled to do lawn maintenance here on Sundays. I have a passcode for the gate.” He moved his hand up and took the bill of the ball cap he was wearing in his hand. As he moved it back enough to scratch the top of his head, Cami could see his blond hair shimmer in the sunlight. “I can come back another day if you want.”

”Don’t worry about it,” she snapped, shaking off his suggestion, not wanting to admit that it was nice to see someone other than Sophie for a change. Didn’t hurt matters that he was hot. “I’m just going to grab my top and then you can get to work.”

She made her way over to the pool house and grabbed the pink bikini top she had left on the floor. A thought dawned on her as she made her way back into the sunlight and stood where Kyle could see her.

Perhaps my summer fling is still a possibility.

She already knew by the way his jaw dropped when he laid eyes on her that he found her attractive. And he had muscles in every place she was interested in. Sure, he was the hired help, but if she wasn’t leaving the house this summer, she didn’t have many other options.

He would suffice in a pinch, and she was already feeling a little lonely. She dropped her towel, giving him one more look before she propositioned him. Much like before, as the towel left her body, he turned to face the other direction.

She felt a frown cross her face and her mother’s words rang in her ears. “Frowning gives you more wrinkles than no expression at all.” She removed it from her lips and secured her top.

“You can look now,” she called out. “I’m covered.” His reaction confused her. Most guys would jump at the chance to see what she had under her top, but this guy either was gay or had something wrong with him.

He turned back around slowly. Cautiously. Cami was determined to figure out what his deal was. Wasn’t like she had anything else to do. She’d ditched her boyfriend, and her pride refused to let her tell her friends she was stuck at home for the summer.

She walked toward Kyle, exaggerating the sultry swing of her hips. “Why’d you look away?” She playfully twisted a lock of her chocolate-colored hair. “Didn’t like what you saw?”

“No,” he snickered, biting back a smile. “I mean, yeah,” he backtracked when he saw the surprised look on her face. “I did, but the thing is, I’m sure your boyfriend wouldn’t appreciate you flashing yourself to some stranger.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she informed him.

“Well, in that case.” He stepped toward her with a new air of confidence. Now that he knew she was available, the trepidation in his eyes had vanished. “Not that I mind looking at you, but I prefer having to actually win the prize. If it’s just handed to me, it kinda takes the fun out of it.”

The devilish little grin he gave her told Cami two things. One, he was even better looking than she’d originally thought. And two, he was different from any guy she had ever talked to.

Not only was he an actual gentleman, he was willing to put some effort into getting to know her. It was a first for her. Her relationship with Hayden had always been a given. There wasn’t any actual wooing or first date. They were just together. The other guys, the ones she casually hooked up with, wanted one thing and one thing only, just like she did. But this guy, this Kyle Mason, was different. And Cami liked it.

“Good to know.” She felt her cheeks heating as he stared at her. For once, she felt like someone was staring at her for all the right reasons. She extended her hand to him and felt a tingle of warmth shoot up her arm as he raised his to meet hers. “I’m Cameron.”

“Nice to meet you, Cameron.”

6 Kyle

WHEN he caught his reflection in the rearview mirror, he tried to wipe off the stupid smile he was sure he’d been wearing since he left the Nickelsons’ house to make the twenty-minute drive back to Hope’s Grove. He ran his hand over his face and chuckled to himself as he thought about the girl who had just rocked everything he thought he knew right off its foundation.

To start with, she’d been nearly naked standing in front of him and he was sure there was drool dripping off his chin by the time he realized he’d been staring at her bare chest like an idiot. Damn, she was beautiful.

From her deep brown-nearly-black hair to her sun-kissed skin, right down to the tips of her little pink toes. Wasn’t every day a girl like that stepped out into the sunlight and took his breath away. Nope. He’d seen his fair share of naked girls, but Cameron Nickelson was different. The fact that she was a knockout was only half of it. She had more confidence in her little finger than all the girls he knew put together. And he liked it. A lot.

When he’d finished up pruning the hedge that ran across the back of the Nickelsons’ property, he turned around and caught her staring at him.

There she was, laid out across a lounge chair in a swimsuit that did a piss-poor job of covering up her body. Not that he needed it to. He’d already seen how amazing she looked without it.

She’d turned her head when he caught her ogling him and dove back into the magazine she was holding in front of her. He had to remind himself that he was Kyle Mason—football golden boy and small-town superstar—as he walked over to her and sat down on the edge of her chair. He was the kind of guy who usually got what he wanted. Decent grades, football scholarships, and pretty girls.

“What are you doing?” she asked, shifting her legs to the side of her lounge chair and giving him room to sit down. She might have been trying to play it off as if she wasn’t interested, but the simple act of allowing him to sit down was all the go-ahead Kyle needed.

“Just coming over to tell you goodbye,” he told her, giving her his best boy-next-door smile.

“You needed to sit down to do that?” She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked in what looked to him like a failed attempt at fighting back a smile.

“I did this time,” he answered. “Guess you make my knees weak.”

She giggled and it was just about the cutest thing he’d ever heard.

“So, will I be seeing you next week?”

“I got no place else to be,” she replied, sitting up and leaning a little closer to him. He’d have bet money that if he’d leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips she wouldn’t have protested. She was nothing if not forward. As much as he wanted to do just that, he placed his hand on top of hers instead and smiled.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you then.” That should have been the point where he said goodbye and left, but something about sitting there, touching her, and staring into her big brown eyes seemed so right that it took a second for his body to get the memo from his brain. “It was sure nice to meet you, Cameron,” he said when his feet finally decided to work and he stood up.

“It’s Cami,” she called out as he was walking away.

“Cami.” He turned and smiled, letting her name roll off his lips. “See ya next week.”

“Yeah you will,” she answered, biting her bottom lip and causing him to forget what he was doing.

He bumped into one of the potted plants that surrounded the gate. Thanking God for his quick hands, he managed to steady it before it crashed to the ground. When he looked up and saw her laughing at his clumsiness, he was sure glad for it too. He didn’t want to have to spend the next week repotting some stupid plant. Not when he had a Cami to talk to. Nope. This girl was his audible. The one who was about to change the play. Or maybe even the whole damn game.

“I was starting to wonder if you were going to make it home,” Kyle’s mom said when he finally floated through the door. “Thought maybe you decided to stay up at college instead of coming home and spending time with your dear old mother.”

“Well, hello to you too, Mama.” Kyle snickered as he pressed a kiss on her cheek. “Camp’s going great, in case you were wondering. And yes, I checked up on the Nickelsons this afternoon.” He knew the routine when he finished a day of work. Millie would have inevitably asked her son about his first week at football camp and if he’d managed to work in the job she’d asked him about last week. Mason Landscaping didn’t normally do jobs on Sundays, but with Kyle being gone most of the week, they had to rearrange the schedule to keep the money coming in.

“Well you answered all my questions.” She laughed and brushed the top of the fresh rolls she’d just pulled out of the oven with melted butter.

Kyle hopped up on the counter and snagged a hot roll, taking a bite and earning a stern look from his mother.

“Dammit,” he mumbled with a mouthful of steamy goodness. “That’s hot.”

“Serves you right.” His mother smirked. “You should have waited for dinner like everyone else. Speaking of everyone else, why don’t you go down to the canyon and get your sister. I need to talk to her about the Rogers’s account. Tell Coop he’s welcome, too.”

“They went without me?”

“You were late.” She shrugged and her mouth turned down slightly. “They didn’t want to wait around.”

“Hmm.” That stung a little. He knew that going away to college was going to mean missing out on all the things he loved about home, but he didn’t think his best friend would replace him with his sister so soon. Sure, EJ usually tagged along, but he and Coop had found that fishing hole while she was still carrying a baby doll around. Plus he didn’t love the idea of the two of them alone together. He’d caught Coop whispering things to EJ that made her giggle and blush more than once.

“What exactly took you so long?” his mom asked as he jumped down off the counter.

“Nothing,” he answered, feeling that same goofy smile he’d been wearing the entire ride home take over his face. Cami. That’s what took me so long. “Just tired from practice. Took me a little longer than usual.”

“Whatever you say,” Millie Mason answered with that all-knowing smile. He could fight back his grin as much as he wanted, but she’d seen it. She was good at figuring her kids out. She could tell when they were lying, sad, and excited, and she could tell when they’d met someone. She didn’t announce her observations, but Kyle knew she could tell. “Go get your sister.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

7 Cooper

ONCE Ella Jane and Coop reached Red River Canyon, he unloaded the gear like he’d done a million times. They had been coming here since they were kids. It had always been the three of them, but with Kyle gone, they were down to two.

“You’re unusually quiet this evening. What’s up?” he asked the girl stretched out on the bank next to him. Something was wrong, he could tell. Surely she wasn’t this upset over her crazy-ass friend leaving town. He’d been more than happy to see that psycho chick go.

“Just feels weird,” she admitted with a heavy sigh. “Kyle not being here.”

He let his eyes drift away from her and across the smooth surface of the water. A few ripples caused by bugs or fish or whatever made him nervous. He was thinking about making some ripples of his own.

The three of them had always been in perfect sync, each knowing when the other needed a late-night fishing trip or a beer or just to sit and be pissed off. Kyle would’ve killed him if he’d known the few times he’d let Ella Jane drink a beer. She was a lightweight though, so he never let her have more than two.

“Weird? As in bad?” he asked, pulling a can out of the cooler.

“Just weird as in different,” she informed him, baiting her own hook like the champ that she was.

“He should be home anytime, right?” It was Sunday. Coop knew the answer to the question. Kyle was his best friend so he knew that he had OSU training camp during the week and came home at different times on the weekend. He just really hoped that he’d be late this particular day.

She smiled back at him, her perfect mouth curving in a way that made his mind go blank. “Yeah. He worked today. Some house where the family is out of town. He should be back any minute now.”

“Ah. You know, sometimes different can be a good thing.” Coop gave her shoulder a slight nudge and left his arm resting close to hers. Either he was imagining things or she was holding her breath. “Seriously. You okay?”

She nodded and bit her lip. He watched as she fidgeted with her reel. “Yeah. I am. Just lots of things changing this summer.”

“Like your dad moving out?” He knew Brad Mason had ditched his family a few weeks ago, leaving her and her mom to deal with everything alone. Dude needed a swift kick in the nuts as far as he was concerned. “Heard anything from him?”

When her eyes met his, they were shining with the promise of tears.

“Shit, Ellie May.” He reached for her, resting his hand on her arm. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.” Now he kind of wanted to kick himself in the nuts.

“It’s fine. You’re fine. I’m…” She waved a hand between them before she lied one more time about being fine. He raised his hand to wipe away a tear she’d let slip with his thumb and then palmed her cheek gently.

The way she was looking up at him, like she needed him, gutted him, and it didn’t help matters that she’d leaned her face into his hand. He’d held back for so long. Want and need twisted inside of him, demanding that he pull her closer.

He wanted nothing more than to claim her sweet mouth as his. He was pretty sure she’d only been kissed by one guy. Actually, he knew it. He’d been there when Kyle gave Seth Milner a black eye two years ago.

It might not have been Seth’s fault that the bottle landed on Ella Jane, but he was the one who had spun the damn thing. Personally, he was going to wear whatever wounds her brother gave him with pride. Because he knew it was going to be so worth it.

His other hand found her cheek, and for the first time, Coop felt a sense of confidence. She wasn’t pushing him away or pulling back. No. Her blue eyes were inviting him to continue. Her lips parted as he slowly inched his way closer.

“Coop,” she said softly, the ache in her voice bringing him to the present and stopping his forward motion dead in its tracks. He didn’t want to take advantage of her, but he’d held out as long as he could.

The roar of an ATV behind them cut off whatever else she was about to say.

Coop closed his eyes and swore. “What the—”

“Kyle! You’re back!” Ella Jane scrambled to her feet as her brother exploded out of the timber behind them.

Coop leaned back and cast his line out, as if the only thing Kyle Mason had disturbed was the fish.

“I am.” He chuckled as his sister jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Damn, EJ,” he managed to get out despite the fact that she was cutting off his air supply. “You miss me or what?”

Ella Jane stepped back, releasing her brother and shrugging. “Eh, maybe a little.”

“Mom is looking for you back at the house. Something about the Rogers’s account.” Kyle handed her the keys to the four-wheeler and stepped over toward Coop. “Y’all fishin’ without me now?”

Cooper propped his pole in the dirt and stood. “You snooze you lose. What, no hug for me?”

“Get over here.” Kyle reached for Coop, pretending to go in for a hug before landing a backhand right between his legs. “Still want a hug?”

“Naw, man,” Coop grunted out, trying to avoid the indignity of bending over in pain. “I’m good. So glad you’re back.”

“So, um, I’ll see y’all back at the house?” Ella Jane asked, ignoring the boys’ obnoxious antics. “Coop, you coming over for dinner?”

“Yeah, Coop,” Kyle chimed in with raised eyebrows. “You coming over for dinner?”

“Er, probably not tonight. Lots of work to do at the farm. Matter of fact, I should probably be heading back about—”

“Stay a minute. I need to talk to you about something,” Kyle said as he cracked open a beer.

Coop swallowed hard and his eyes shot to Ella Jane. He knows. He must have seen us. He was tempted to ask her to stay so there’d be someone to witness the murder. Once she was out of sight, he turned to his best friend. “What the hell, man? That shit hurt.”

“Oh, did it? My bad, dude.” Kyle took a long pull on his beer and let his eyes rake over his friend. “You know I trust you, right, Coop?”

Before he could answer, Ella Jane barreled right through the middle of them and gave Kyle one last hug. “I’m so glad you’re home,” she whispered, barely loud enough for Coop to hear. “Okay, now I’m going for real. Behave yourselves, boys.” A quick smile in Coop’s direction and she was gone.

“Jesus. What’s up with her?” Kyle set his beer down and stared intently at Coop.

“What do you mean?” Coop blurted out. “Nothing’s up with her, that I know of. Why would something be up with her?”

Kyle arched a brow. “She usually just greets me with a list of shit I need to do around the house. Suddenly it’s all tackle hugs and she’s so glad I’m home? I was gone four days, not four years.”

Coop cleared his throat and glanced over his friend’s shoulder. “I don’t know. I guess she’s having some issues with all the changes. First your dad, then you, and that crazy-ass friend of hers left town today. So, it’s a lot for her to deal with I guess.”

“That’s one hell of an analysis, Dr. Phil. How long were y’all down here before I came?”

“Like five minutes,” Coop lied, before changing the subject. “Where the hell have you been? I know it doesn’t take you five hours to check one lawn.”

“No it doesn’t.” Kyle gave him a smug grin before taking another swig from the silver can. “That part only took about twenty minutes.”

Coop knew the look in his buddy’s eyes. He could tell when Kyle Mason was smitten. “How’d you manage to meet a girl at college already? You’ve been there for like three seconds.”

“Didn’t meet her there.”

Coop wondered if the love-drunk look on Kyle’s face as he shook his head was the same one he tried to hide around Ella Jane. And if he did as shitty of a job of hiding it as his buddy did.

“Don’t tell me some bored, rich housewife threw herself at you again.” Coop laughed.

“That happened one time, and if her face hadn’t been full of Botox, I might have taken a crack at her,” Kyle joked, sitting down and leaning back to rest his forearms on the ground. He glanced up and then let out a sigh of contentment. “This girl was not some bored housewife. Not even close.”

“No? So no pissed off husband will be hunting you down anytime soon?”

“Nope.” Kyle smirked. “No boyfriend either. She made that perfectly clear.”

Coop grinned. “Was this before or after you bagged her?”

Kyle sat up straighter and turned to face Coop. “Before, considering that hasn’t happened…yet.”

“Aw man, you like this one? What happened to living it up at OSU? And what about all those college girls you and I were gonna—”

“Hey, jackass, just because you bag ’em and tag ’em doesn’t mean I have to. I can’t help it if you haven’t found one worth getting to know.” Kyle shrugged and polished off his beer.

“Oh and you have?” Coop asked, still suspicious. “Just last week you were trying to get Mackenzie Watson to go for a ride with you.”

“Things change. I may have found one I want to do more than take a ride with.”

Coop didn’t respond right away. Just opened another beer and stared at the water. “So tell me about your weekender? She worth the ninety-mile drive home? And here I thought you came all this way to spend time with me.” He faked a hurt look at his friend.

“She might be,” Kyle admitted.

Coop could see it all over his friend’s face that there was something different about this one. Because whatever was going on, Kyle was keeping it to himself.

“Don’t worry, buddy.” He reached over, patting Coop on the back. “You’ll find a girl like that someday.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna hold my breath.” Coop snorted. His chest tightened at his own lie. He’d found one all right. He’d spent his entire life getting to know her. He just also knew he couldn’t have her.

He’d always been honest with his best friend. Well, except for last summer when Ella Jane accidentally hit her brother’s truck when he was teaching her how to drive. He’d taken the blame then, said it was his dumb ass not paying attention. And here he was, lying again.

“I’m just glad my sister isn’t dating,” Kyle confessed. “Not that I don’t want her to be happy or anything. There’s just a bunch of assholes out there, you know?”

“Yeah,” Coop agreed. “Like us, right?” He forced out an uncomfortable laugh.

“Hey, I know we screw around a lot and all that, but in all seriousness. I need to know something.” All traces of humor were gone from Kyle’s voice.

Cooper sat completely still and waited. This was it. He braced himself for the blow to his face.

“You’re going to look out for her, right? When I’m gone? I need to know that somebody is gonna be here to take care of her. And you’re the only person I actually trust.”

Normally, Coop would’ve made a joke. Rolled his eyes or told his friend he should consider applying for a drama scholarship. But he knew that Ella Jane was right. Things were changing. And he could feel the heavy waves of tension and worry rolling off of his friend and slamming into him.

And you’re the only person I actually trust. He knew what he had to do.

“Yeah, man. You know it. Always.”

Kyle’s expression smoothed, and Coop was glad to have taken that off of his friend’s shoulders. But now? Now it was on his. And he could feel every single bit of it.

8 Hayden

“NICE to meet you, Mrs. Mason,” Hayden Prescott said as he shook the middle-aged woman’s hand. He grinned his meet-the-mom smile at his new employer. It was all a show for his granddad. Surely his parents would come to their senses soon enough and he wouldn’t actually be spending his entire summer in this godforsaken hellhole.

“Nice to meet you as well,” the woman responded, eyeing him as if she were making up her mind whether or not he was really nice to meet. “I’m not going to lie to you. We need a lot of help around here.” She paused to nod at the sprawling yard. “We’ve got a small crew handling clients, but it’s here that needs the most work.”

Hayden glanced around at the overgrown land surrounding the two-story Victorian home that doubled as a family business.

“Probably doesn’t say much for our work ethic that our own yard looks pretty terrible.” She smiled, but Hayden had seen his own mother faking enough polite smiles to know when someone was full of it.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m happy to help out wherever you need me.” And he was. She was pretty fine, actually, for someone in her forties. He wouldn’t mind having a Mrs. Robinson for the week or two he actually had to be here until his parents gave up the charade.

His grandfather clapped him on the back. “Right. Like I said, Millie, he’s able-bodied and needs a summer of hard work. Put his nose to the grindstone. I noticed the weeds around the barn are gettin’ pretty thick. Where’s that boy of yours?”

Mrs. Mason forced another smile. “He got a scholarship to State, Edwin. He has football camp and workouts this summer. He’s home on the weekends though. Takes care of some of the properties out in Summit Bluffs.”

“They grow up fast,” his grandfather said, jerking his head in his direction. “This one’s seventeen already. Seems like just yesterday he was knee-high to a grasshopper and actually enjoyed spending a summer with his poor ol’ granddad.”

Hayden had to fight to keep from snorting out loud. His granddad definitely wasn’t poor. Far from it. He owned half of the land in Oklahoma. Why he chose to live in the middle of nowhere when he could buy and sell Summit Bluffs ten times over, Hayden would never understand.

Mrs. Mason nodded. “Ella Jane’s sixteen. Can you believe that?”

Hayden’s grandfather whistled low under his breath. “I can still remember busting her catching lizards down by the train tracks when she was missing two front teeth.”

Dear Lord. What kind of name was Ella Jane? Hayden immediately pictured a toothless fatty in overalls and pigtail braids.

Mrs. Mason laughed. “Yep. Soon Kyle will be away at school and EJ will graduate and probably head off as well. Then it will just be…”

When she didn’t finish her sentence, Hayden returned his gaze to her. There were tears in the woman’s eyes. What the hell?

“Millie…” his granddad began, but she wiped her eyes and then rubbed her hands roughly on her khaki shorts.

“Ignore me.” She forced out a laugh that made Hayden wince. He had no idea what was going on, but something was up. For sure. “Listen, why don’t you show Hayden here around the property and I’ll see if I can round up EJ? You can check her pockets for lizards.”

“Yes, ma’am,” his granddad said with a grin and a nod. “Come on, son.”

As his obviously emotionally unstable boss made her way in the house, his grandfather gave him the grand tour. Dilapidated barn, moss-covered pond, storage shed for lawn care equipment, a dozen different types of trees and flowers growing around the house that had to be cared for. Blah, blah, blah. He half-listened as the man rambled on.

Hayden checked his phone when the old man’s back was turned. He actually had two bars of cell reception on the Mason property. Thank the freaking Lord. Well, at least this job would be good for something. Maybe he could at least get Cami to Snapchat him some photos of her sunbathing topless in St. Wherever the Hell.

After the tour wrapped up, they headed back to the truck. Just as they were about to leave, Mrs. Mason came jogging out of the house. “I almost forgot to give you this,” she said, handing Hayden a folded up square of paper. “Kyle went to get EJ but he’s not back yet. I was hoping you’d get to meet them. They could show you around town.”

Pretty sure I’ve seen all there is to see, lady. He nodded and tried to look disappointed. “That’s too bad. Maybe next time.”

“Kyle will head back up to school before you start work, but EJ will be here to help you learn the ropes on Monday,” she informed him.

Great. The hillbilly princess would probably show him the ropes with her man hands. “Can’t wait, ma’am.” He nodded and tucked the square of paper, which he assumed was a list of job duties he had no intentions of doing, into his pocket. “Looking forward to it. Pleasure meeting you.”

She smiled but gave him that same look, like she was still making up her mind about him. “See you bright and early Monday morning.”

When he got into the truck, his granddad was chuckling to himself.

“What’s so funny, Old Timer?”

“You think you’re really something, don’t you, boy? I bet you think Millie Mason was eating out of the palm of your hand.”

Actually he didn’t. He saw that look, that don’t-bullshit-a-bullshitter look she was pinning him with. Like he was amusing to her somehow. He huffed out a breath but said nothing.

“Can’t wait for you to see little Ella Jane again. I’d pay money to see her face on Monday.”

Again? “What do you mean, again?”

His granddad glanced at him as he backed the truck out of the dirt driveway. “You don’t remember? Naw, I don’t guess you would.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Pops.” Under his breath he added, “Probably time to up your dosage.”

His granddad put on the brakes hard enough to make his body jolt forward. He barely stopped himself from cursing out loud.

“You used to think I was something. Used to beg your daddy to let you go places with me.” The sad smile on the old man’s face sent a sharp pain through Hayden’s gut.

He vaguely remembered the summers he’d spent with his granddad in hillbilly hell…except it hadn’t seemed so bad back then. But now, trying to remember anything specific about it was like grasping at the vapors of a dream after waking up too soon.

His granddad continued. “You came over here with me to pick up mulch on Saturdays, and one time—you musta been around six or seven—you tripped over the shoelaces I’d just told you to tie. I’d no sooner got the words outta my mouth when you went ass over head. Skinned your knee pretty good. You squealed like a wounded heifer and Ella Jane ran out of the house like it had caught fire. She nursed you back to health with a washrag and a pink band-aid with a cat or something on it.” His granddad’s jowls shook as he chuckled at the memory. “You wouldn’t take that thing off for two weeks. I finally had to rip it off in your sleep.”

Hayden watched the old man’s eyes glaze over as he spoke. “I think she might’ve kissed it and that’s why you wouldn’t take it off. Think you might’ve been a little sweet on her back then.”

Jesus. He’d been joking about the meds earlier, but now he was really starting to wonder. “Okay, Pops. If you say so. Might’ve been your other grandson though.” He rolled his eyes, and the old man startled him by popping him in the back of the head.

“You’re my only grandson.”

“Hey, whaddya know? Maybe you’re still kinda sharp after all.”

“I’ll show you sharp,” Pops muttered under his breath. But as they headed toward home, he grinned and shook his head. “Actually, I think I’ll let Ella Jane show you on Monday. That girl’s sharp as they come.”

“LET’S go, son. Up and at ’em. Daylight’s a-wastin’.”

Hayden groaned and rolled over. Blinking his eyes into focus, he turned toward the window. “What daylight?” he croaked out. For the love of everything holy, it was still dark outside. It was official. The old man had lost it.

“It’s 5:30. Didn’t you check the schedule Millie gave you?”

“Schedule?” He sat up and rubbed both fists through his eyes. Glancing down, he noted gratefully that he didn’t have morning wood. Even his dick was still asleep.

He struggled to stand as his granddad produced the paper he’d folded up and forgotten.

Monday through Thursday, it said in small, neat print. Six a.m. to six p.m. Saturday: Seven a.m. to noon. Oh, no. Hell no.

“No way.” He backed up, putting as much distance between himself and that piece of paper as he could. “That’s not a summer job, Pops. That’s slavery.”

“It’s eight dollars an hour and it’s honest work. Which you will do. With a smile on your face. So get moving. You’re not downstairs and ready to leave in five minutes, I’ll sic your grandmother on you.”

If there was one person on earth harder on him than his granddad, it was Gran. The woman would be sweet as pie one minute, telling him what a handsome man he was becoming, and then yanking his ear half off because she’d caught him rolling his eyes the next.

“I’m coming. Give me a minute.”

“I’ll give you five. Not one minute more.” His granddad turned and disappeared down the steps.

Hayden threw on the khaki shorts and gray Mason Landscaping T-shirt he’d been told to wear to work. As he tied his brand new Air Maxes, he tried to figure out what in the world he’d done to deserve a summer of slave labor.

His granddad handed him a mug of steaming bitter coffee when he made it downstairs.

“Gran didn’t make breakfast?” he asked, eyeing the empty kitchen table. It was the one thing he’d actually looked forward to about this summer. His gran made the most amazing pancakes. That he did remember.

His granddad didn’t meet his gaze. He just opened the screen door and held it as Hayden followed him out. “Son, about your gran… She’s got…arthritis and such. We ain’t exactly spring chickens—as you might’ve noticed. I can’t remember the last time she made breakfast, to tell you the truth. We’ll be roughin’ it this summer. You’ll live. I’m still kickin’.”

TWO hours into his first shift at Mason Landscaping & Lawn Maintenance, he was ready to quit. Past ready.

He’d weeded, watered, and rotated. Cut, trimmed, edged, and a whole bunch of other shit that required getting his brand new shoes filthy. Mrs. Mason had tossed him some gloves after his granddad had dropped him off and they were already black and had several holes in them. His hands and back and legs ached. Lacrosse workouts were cake compared to this.

He was ready to call his mommy and tell her he’d learned his lesson. He’d dip into his trust fund to pay to fix his Bentley. Happily. Whatever it took.

But just as he was ready to toss aside the shovel he held and pull out his phone, the door to the house opened. And she walked out. Or marched out, rather.

“Yes, Mama. I know,” she hollered back over her shoulder. “I will. I said I would and I will. It’s handled.” The slamming of the screen door would’ve caused him to jump if he weren’t struck dumb by the sight of her.

Hayden felt his jaw drop just as the shovel he was holding did. It landed on his toe so hard he figured he was probably bleeding. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

She zeroed in on him standing there, gaping at her like an idiot. His heart pounded so hard he could hear the blood it pumped rushing into his ears, could feel the vibration of it against his ribs.

The thin straps of her tight white tank top didn’t even cover the tan lines on her shoulders. His mouth went dry and he wondered briefly if he’d had a heat stroke, died, and gone to Heaven. Until the tan-legged, blond-haired angel in cut-off shorts in front of him spoke. “Well, you workin’ out here or what?” she drawled, glaring at him with her bright aquamarine eyes and a hand on her hip. “We ain’t payin’ you to be a lawn jockey.”

Her voice was sweet and harsh and turned him on so hard it hurt. And just like that, a summer in hell turned into a summer in heaven.

9 Ella Jane

HER mother said they’d played together as kids. But Ella Jane knew she must’ve been mistaken. No way was this arrogant jerk the same boy who used to make mud pies with her when Kyle and Cooper left her out.

“Hayden Prescott, EJ,” her mother had prompted. “You remember. Edwin and Netta’s grandson.”

Right. She kind of remembered a dark-haired boy with greenish eyes who came around with his grandfather and chased her around the backyard.

But standing across from her was a male model wannabe who clearly didn’t know an irrigation system from his ass.

“So you gonna actually do some work today or should I just tell Mama you’re headin’ on back to Pretty Boy Town?”

She watched barely contained restraint tighten his facial features. “I’ve been here since six a.m., thank you. Nice of you to roll out of bed and help out.” He bent down and picked up the shovel at his feet. “Now if you don’t mind, how about you run along and grab me something to drink. I’m dehydrating out here.”

Heat rose up inside of her until she could practically feel steam coming out of her ears. “You’ve been half-assing it out here since six a.m. I’ve been watching you from inside while I answered the thirty-two phone calls for work orders, thank you.”

“You’ve been watching me, huh?” Hayden smirked at her reddening face as he lifted the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. “Well, in that case, might as well give you something worth watching.” He slung his shirt aside and went back to digging the holes for the new flowerbed her mom wanted around the elm tree.

Ella Jane felt her eyes widen without permission. So she concentrated on narrowing them at him. She took a deep breath and stormed back toward the house. Where she grabbed the water hose. And sprayed Hayden Prescott right in the face.

“Holy shit…what the hell?” he sputtered, dropping the shovel for the second time and backing up. “Jesus Christ, that’s cold! Are you insane?”

She released her hold on the nozzle trigger and gave him the most innocent grin she could manage. “Can’t have you dehydratin’ out here, now can we?”

She pulled the trigger once more, giving him a satisfying blast of water on his bare chest before dropping the hose.

“Relax on those holes. You’re probably halfway to China,” she said as she sauntered past him toward the barn. “Surely you know the meaning of shallow wells.” She paused to smirk at him one last time. “And be careful using the good Lord’s name in vain. Don’t want him strikin’ you down. Not on our property, anyways.” She didn’t look over her shoulder to watch him use his shirt to dry off his face or his perfect body. But as much as she hated to admit it?

She wanted to. She really, really wanted to.

THE two weeks since Hayden Prescott had started working at Mason Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance had flown by. She tried hard not to think about why that was. Much as Ella Jane tried to pretend otherwise, she lost time thinking about him. Watching him weed eat—or try to weed eat anyways, since it was pretty obvious the boy hadn’t done a day of hard labor in his life—kept her busier than she would ever admit.

Her mother had walked in on her peering out the window at his shirtless tan self more than once.

“Close your mouth, Ella Jane, or you’ll catch flies,” her mother said that Saturday afternoon.

EJ jumped, startled by having been caught, and resumed updating the payroll sheet she was working on. “No idea what you’re talking about, Mama,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Mmhm,” her mother said, pausing in the doorway. “He seems nice enough. Lord knows he’s trying his best to impress you.”

She snorted. “Uh, no he’s not.”

Her mother sighed and cocked a hand on her hip, a trademark gesture of both the Mason women. “Oh he is. Looks like Coop might finally have some competition.”

Her face reddened at the mention of Coop. Sure, their parents and grandparents liked to tease them about one day getting married, but her mother had never brought it up one on one like this. EJ forced an eye roll. “Did you take up smoking crack as a hobby recently?”

“Oh yes, it’s lovely. Just a shade less hazardous than the meth.”

“I can’t believe you just referred to crack as lovely. Wait, no, yes I can.”

Her mother had always been unshakable. EJ and Kyle often practiced straight-faced speeches involving admitting to being pregnant or gay in hopes of seeing her lose her cool. Her response to Kyle’s false claim that he and Coop were secret lovers barely earned a raised eyebrow and an “I suspected as much.” Which made Kyle freak out instead.

EJ’s big pregnancy news received a chuckle and a “I hope you kissed the father goodbye because Kyle is going to murder him.” Yeah, the woman had nerves of steel. Or titanium. Or whatever was tougher than steel.

She even delivered her own “kids, your father moved out today” speech with a straight face. EJ had hoped she was kidding—giving them a taste of their own medicine. But no, he’d moved out last month and only called once to say he was sorry he didn’t get to say goodbye but figured this way was easiest on everyone.

Sure didn’t feel easy to her.

Kyle hated him. He’d told his little sister more than once that a man—a real man—didn’t run out on his family. And she certainly felt like she was supposed to hate him—solidarity sister and all that on her mom’s behalf. But EJ just couldn’t bring herself to. She’d wondered for a long time if her parents were in love. They barely spoke, never kissed, and had always seemed more like business partners than a married couple.

EJ wasn’t twelve years old anymore. She got it. She knew love wasn’t all hearts and flowers. But surely if two people were really in love they acted like it. There had to be some romance involved, didn’t there?

She hadn’t missed the fact that she’d never seen her mom cry over her dad leaving. But lately she had noticed her once unflappable mother sleeping later than usual. And baking like her life depended on it. There were enough frozen casseroles in the deep freezer to feed all of Hope’s Grove every Sunday for the rest of summer.

“Big plans tonight? Showing Mr. Prescott around Hope’s Grove perhaps?” Her mother’s question pulled her back to the present.

“Um, no. Definitely not. Actually, I thought I might go with Kyle and Coop over to Hillside. If that’s okay, I mean. I hate leaving you here all alone.”

Her mother raised her hand and waved it as if her concern were silly. “Please. I enjoy the peace. I’ve got smutty romance novels to catch up on.”

“Oh God.”

Her mother winked. “Everyone’s got to have goals for the summer.”

As if he’d been conjured by their conversation, Brantley Cooper pulled up in the driveway. Speaking of goals. EJ had one. A big one. She was sixteen. Since she was nine years old and had learned what a boyfriend was from a babysitter, she and Lynlee had been saying that as soon as they turned sixteen they were going to get them. Honest-to-God, kiss-you-on-the-mouth, hold-your-hand-in-public boyfriends. And her fantasy boyfriend back then was the same one she wanted now. No matter how good City Boy looked with his shirt off.

Coop would always be the guy for her. Always.

And judging from their almost kiss a few weeks ago, he was finally starting to realize it too.

“Kyle and Coop are here,” she announced, practically skipping toward the door.

“Tell your brother to come in and hug my neck before y’all head to the track, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she promised, only half-paying attention. Her thoughts were already on the brown-eyed guy with the adorable dimples when he smiled walking toward their barn.

She nearly ran over Hayden as she hopped off the porch. “Whoa, easy there, angel face.”

She gaped at him as he caught her by the upper arms. “You did not just call me that.”

“Oh I did. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” He smirked as he released her.

Ella Jane had only felt this conflicted once before. To hate her father or not to hate him. Hayden Prescott summoned a similar burn in her belly. And her skin was on fire where he’d touched her. “No, I don’t think.”

“You don’t think? Funny, you seem pretty intelligent, for a country bumpkin anyways.”

The warmth of attraction flared to a scorch of irritation. “Oh I think plenty. And right now I’m thinking you’re an asshole.”

“Nice. You kiss your mama with that mouth?”

Now it was EJ’s turn to smirk as he glanced at her lips. “It’s really not any of your business what I do with my mouth.”

“What if I wanted to make it my business?”

His words caught her by surprise. Almost as much as the hunger in his gaze did. She felt like Little Red Riding Hood being eyed by the Big Bad Wolf. Except…he was kind of a hot wolf. Hayden took a step closer, and even though everything in her screamed for her to back up, to go back in the house and hide where she was safe, she just couldn’t talk herself into moving from where she stood.

“EJ, you coming to the track with us or what?” Coop called out from over by the barn, effectively breaking the trance Hayden had somehow put her in.

She released the breath she’d been holding as discreetly as possible. “Be right there,” she hollered back.

“You like his groupie or something?”

Her neck nearly snapped from all the abrupt emotional changes Hayden caused. Irritated. Embarrassed. Turned on. Nervous. Back to irritated. She pinned him with a glare as she passed. “You like jealous or something?”

He shrugged as he pulled the screen door open. “Or something.”

With one last huff of obvious annoyance, she left Hayden to go inside and clock out. Her expression eased into a familiar smile as she walked toward Coop. This was the boy she was supposed to be walking toward, instead of the jerk who’d distracted her on the porch.

“You gonna keep time for me tonight?” Coop asked as she approached.

She nodded, trying her best not to get all beside herself just because he was paying attention to her. “You know it. Try not to suck.” She winked as they walked to the barn, where her brother was unloading bags of mulch and pallets of brick pavers.

“I almost beat my record last week. What do I get if I beat it tonight?”

“I don’t know.” Anticipation fluttered in her belly. He’s flirting with me, isn’t he? She took a deep breath and nudged his arms with hers. “What do you want?”

“Oh I’m sure you can think of some—”

“What the hell, EJ? I thought you were going to Hillside with us?” Her brother’s questions interrupted whatever Coop had been about to say.

“I am,” she answered. “I’m ready when y’all are.”

“Like hell you are. Get your ass in the house and get some real clothes on. And hustle up. We need to get moving.”

EJ fought the urge to glance down. She knew what she was wearing. A navy blue Mason Landscaping tank top that was just tight enough to hug the new curves she was so proud of and cut-off shorts she wore all the time. She raised a hand to her hip and stared her older sibling down. “I’m not changing. You’re being an idiot.”

Kyle took a step in her direction. “Then you’re not going with us. Plain and simple. Throw on some jeans and a T-Shirt and you can come. Otherwise, you can stay your ass here.”

“Get a grip, man,” Coop said barely loud enough to be heard.

“What’s your freaking problem?” EJ asked her brother, shamed by the tears stinging in her eyes. Coop was never going to see her as anything but a kid sister if Kyle kept insisting on treating her like one in his presence.

“My problem is—”

“Hey, sorry to interrupt. Uh, Mrs. Mason asked for whichever one of you is Kyle to come in the house. She said she’s posting your naked baby photos on Facebook if you don’t make it in there in the next two minutes.”

Kyle turned the force of his angry laser beam stare from EJ to Hayden.

Hayden grinned and held his hands up. “Just passing the message along. I’m Hayden by the way. Your shitty stand-in according to most people around here.”

Kyle’s glare relaxed into a grin and EJ felt the tightness in her chest relax. “Hey, man. Yeah, Mom mentioned you. Hope they’re treating you decent around here.”

“Eh, I can take it.” Hayden’s eyes flickered toward her. She wondered if Coop noticed. He was standing off to the side with his fists clenched.

Kyle didn’t seem to notice, which made her wonder if she’d imagined it. Usually he got all ’roid ragey if a guy so much as nodded in her direction. But he shook Hayden’s hand and thanked him for passing the message along.

“EJ, when you go inside to change, tell Mom to give me a few minutes to unload the rest of this mulch.”

“I’m not going inside to change.”

She watched as Coop stepped between her and her brother. “Dude, relax. She’s not dressed any differently than any of the other girls that will be there. It’s ninety damn degrees out here.”

EJ was torn between watching Hayden leave and the interaction between Coop and Kyle. Maybe this was it. Maybe Coop was finally going to man up and tell him they were into each other. She sucked in a breath, praying she was right. She’d already named their kids—it was probably time for some forward progress.

And this was good. They could tell him together, present a united front and all that.

Apparently, her brother was ready to press the issue. “Oh yeah? What’s going on, Coop? You got something to tell me? Like maybe that you enjoy seeing my sister nearly busting out of her clothes?”

Coop took a step back. “No. For God’s sakes, Mase, she’s like a sister to me. I’m not into incest.”

He might as well have grabbed a bag of mulch and swung it at her with all of his might. The force of his words hit her just as hard.

Incest. He thinks of me as a sister. Incest is repulsive. The thought of us together is repulsive to him.

Now she knew why he’d looked so conflicted about kissing her not so long ago. Maybe he hadn’t been about to kiss her at all. Maybe he’d just been comforting her and she’d let her imagination run wild.

The contents of her stomach threatened to rise into her throat. A far away ringing sound began to drown out whatever else was being said.

“You know what? I’m going to skip the track after all. You two have fun.” Backing up so fast she nearly tripped over her own two feet, EJ beat it out of there as quickly as she could manage without full-out sprinting.

She hated that she was in flip-flops instead of running shoes, but the tears were coming hard and falling fast. No way she could suck it up long enough to go inside and change shoes without her mother asking a million questions.

Thankful that she had the path to The Ridge memorized, she made her way there, blinded by the moisture in her eyes.

Dropping herself down onto the edge of the cliff above the steep incline to the railroad tracks, she let loose one loud sob before swiping at her tears with her hands.

All these years she’d been dreaming of the day when Coop finally saw her. Finally looked at her in that way. And now it was never going to happen.

She cursed herself for the hours upon hours she’d spent fantasizing about what it would be like to kiss him, to call him her boyfriend. God, Lynlee was going to laugh her ass off at her. A million times her friend had told her to grow a pair and make a move. While EJ was pretty sure she never wanted to “grow a pair,” she had been putting serious thought into making a move.

She glanced over at the setting sun. If there was any type of silver lining to having her heart splattered all over the barn, it was that she hadn’t followed Lynlee’s advice. Because how horrifyingly humiliating would that have been? She shuddered at the thought.

“You cold?” a deep male voice asked from behind her.

For one stupid second, she let herself imagine that it was him. That he’d followed her to comfort her. To say he didn’t mean it.

But a quick glance over her shoulder was enough to put the final nail in the coffin of any fantasy she’d ever had about being anything more than friends with Coop.

“H-how long have you been here?” she asked the boy standing behind her.

“Long enough to hear you imitating a wounded animal.” Hayden took two steps before he plopped down beside her. She was strangely reminded of a nursery rhyme her mother had read her as a kid. Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet…along came a spider and sat down beside her…

He’s not a wolf and he’s not a spider, she told herself. He’s just a guy. She cleared her throat and took one last swipe at any remaining evidence that she’d been crying. “And you have a hard-on for damsels in distress or what? Because I honestly came out here to be alone.”

She watched him flinch at her words. “See, normally I would make a rude comment about you being interested in what gives me a hard-on. But since I know you’re upset about your brother’s wuss of a friend acting like such a douche back there, I’m going to give you a pass.”

“Gee, thanks.” She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

“So what’s the deal? You and your brother’s friend a thing or what?”

She sniffled. “Didn’t you hear? That would be like incest as far as he’s concerned.” She tried to ignore the painful stab to her heart that word caused.

“Yeah, I heard. I also heard enough to know he’s full of shit. And he’s given me enough dirty looks any time I get near you to let me know he’d like for me to back off. Too bad I don’t much care what he’d like.”

“What? Coop doesn’t give anyone dirty looks. He’s like the nicest guy on the planet. Everyone loves him.” Some of us more than others.

“Oh yeah? Well what does that make me? ’Cause I gotta say, I’m not all that impressed.”

EJ bit her lip. Maybe Hayden was onto something. Maybe Coop thought of her as a sister now, but maybe, just maybe, a few well-placed interactions with Hayden would make him realize what he was missing.

Hayden must’ve taken her contemplative silence for something else because he moved to stand up. “Hey, it’s cool if you want to be alone. I’ll leave you be.”

“Um, wait.” She reached out to him without thinking. “Stay?”

Darkening green eyes took in the sight of her hand on his arm. “Whatever you say, angel face. I got nowhere else to be.”

10 Cooper

WAY to go, dumbass. Coop cursed himself for not just telling Kyle the truth right then and there before Ella Jane took off like a bat out of hell. That would’ve been the best thing he could’ve done—just put all of his cards on the table. But nope. He had to go and make some stupid, completely false statement about him not even noticing how she was dressed. He’d noticed. He always noticed, and he didn’t mind it when her tank top was a little tight or her shorts a little too short.

And then for the grand finale of his asshole show—the fact that the word incest had come out of his mouth. The last thing he pictured Ella Jane as was a relative. He saw the look on her face when he’d said what he’d said and it was comparable to the reaction a kid had when they found out their favorite pet died.

He’d panicked and he’d crushed her. Especially after their almost whatever it was at the canyon the other day. He really wanted to backtrack, tell her he didn’t mean it, and tell his best friend that he was in love with his sister. But the don’t-you-dare look on Kyle’s face stopped him from following her like he’d desperately wanted to.

“That girl needs to quit being such a big baby,” Kyle said as he and Coop climbed into the cab of Coop’s truck. “Everything is end of the world with her these days.”

“She’s just having a rough time.”

“So you’ve said,” Kyle replied, side-eyeing his friend with an accusatory look. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were hot for my little sister.”

“Hardly,” Coop replied, baffled as the words came out of his mouth. Why can’t I just tell him the truth? He knew exactly why. Because he was stuck between a rock and hard place. When your best friend asked you not to do something, you didn’t do it. Bro Code. Plain and simple.

“Better not be.” Kyle chuckled and punched him in the arm as they drove down the gravel and dirt drive and pulled out onto the road.

It didn’t matter anymore anyway. The look on Ella Jane’s face told him that he had royally blown any shot he had of making any moves anytime soon. Maybe once he could explain to her—how he hadn’t meant it—she’d forgive him.

Yeah right, he thought to himself. And maybe on the first day of school I’ll tell the guidance counselor I want to go to college after all so I can major in wishful thinking.

“GRAB me a Coke,” Kyle said as they pulled into the gas station. He turned his hat around and gave his buddy a stern look. “Quit moping around and make it quick. We’re never gonna have your slow ass ready for the next race if you don’t pick up the pace.”

“Ha-ha,” Coop deadpanned. “I can be around the track ten times before your slow ass makes it through the whoop section, and that’s on my worst day.” He headed into the station to pay but turned around to dig into Kyle one more time. “You need me to pick you up a couple wedding magazines, too?”

The look on Kyle’s face told Coop that he had no idea what he was talking about.

“I mean, I just figured as whipped as you’ve been lately with your secret girlfriend, surely wife-ing her up is the next step.”

Kyle shook his head. “Go get me my Coke,” he said, fighting back a smile and pointing at the station.

Coop laughed his way to the counter. He was still trying to figure out Kyle and his new girl. He didn’t mind that his best friend had been ditching him lately for the mystery chick, but she was just that—a mystery. Kyle hadn’t even told Coop her name. All he knew was that she was some rich girl from Summit Bluffs and that Kyle was batshit crazy about her. His best friend’s eyes got all dopey and glazed over any time she was mentioned.

Coop knew the feeling, which was exactly why he didn’t ask any more questions about her. When Kyle was ready to talk, he’d talk. Just like Coop. Someday he’d tell Kyle how he felt about Ella Jane…right after he told her.

“Hey, George,” Coop greeted the grizzly looking guy behind the cash register. “Can I get five gallons of the high octane?” He pointed at Kyle, who had climbed into the truck bed, ready to fill the gas cans.

“You paying with cash?” George asked.

“Something wrong with the farm account?” Coop was confused. He had always just charged his gas to his family’s line of credit.

“Well, yeah,” George replied gruffly. “Ain’t been paid in over a month.”

“I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding,” Coop reasoned. His parents had never been late on a payment for anything. In fact, he quite often got the “how to be financially responsible” speech from both of them. He pulled out his wallet only to find it empty. Should have listened to their spiel. He’d spent all his cash when he bought lunch for Kyle and Ella Jane yesterday.

“Go ahead and fill your tanks this time, kid.” George offered a sympathetic smile as if he knew more than he was letting on. “But tell your old man to stop in and see me.”

“Will do.” Coop thanked him and rushed out the door before George had a change of heart. He was in the truck before Kyle had the tanks full.

“Where’s my Coke?” Kyle asked as he hopped back into the truck.

“Long story.”

“DAD,” Coop called out as he walked through the screen door of the old farmhouse he called home. “Where you at?”

“Hey.” His mom did her best whisper-yell as he walked into the living room. “Your brothers are asleep.” She wagged her finger, warning him to be quiet, and sat down the tablet she was undoubtedly reading some romance novel on. He would have bet money that by the time he came downstairs for breakfast the next morning she’d be on the phone with Millie Mason talking about how hot and bothered some love scene in whatever fifty-shades-of-mommy-porn book they were reading had her. It was beyond disgusting.

“Sorry.” He tossed his hands up. He hadn’t realized it was so late. Well, late by farmer standards. Nine o’clock on a weeknight was like midnight for the people in his house. Especially when five a.m. rolled around. He flopped down on the sofa and put his hand behind his head.

“How was practice?” his dad asked, switching off the television and giving Coop his full attention.

“Ehh.” Coop shrugged. “I’ve had better.” He usually did great at practice, but today his mind had been racing instead of his bike. EJ was mad at him and he couldn’t quit thinking about what George had told him at the station. He’d looked like an amateur out there. He had actually rolled a tabletop jump and that was not like him. He was eight the last time he had done that.

Kyle had roused him the entire drive home. “See ya tomorrow, chicken shit,” he’d teased when he dropped him off. “Maybe Saturday you can actually jump the jumps.”

Coop stared up at the trophies on the fireplace mantel and hoped that he’d have another one to add on Saturday.

“I probably won’t make it to the race this weekend,” his dad informed him. “There’s twenty miles of roadside that need mowing and my favorite farmhand has been too busy chasing the Mason girl all over the county to get them done this week.” Coop looked over at his dad, whose eyes were creased in the corners. He could tell by the twitching mouth that his old man was barely fighting off a grin.

“Quit it, Jim. Wasn’t that long ago you were doing the same thing. I swear, you used to camp out on my front porch,” his mom said in his defense.

“I don’t recall it quite like that.” Jim chuckled. “I’m pretty sure you were the one seducing me with jugs of sweet tea and fresh baked cookies.”

“However you want to remember it.” Penny Cooper laughed before turning her attention to her oldest boy. “So, Brantley,” she said, calling him by his first name. His mama was just about the only one who called him that. Well, her and the teachers at school when he was clowning around in class. “How is my future daughter-in-law?”

“Doubt that’s gonna happen,” Coop mumbled under his breath. His parents had teased him mercilessly about liking Ella Jane for as long as he could remember. “She and I are friends. That’s it.”

“Okay, buddy,” his dad condescended with a smirk. “Whatever you say.”

Coop huffed out a loud breath. “Let’s just say I’m not her favorite person right now.”

“She’ll get over it,” his mom said. “I always forgave your father for acting like a jackass.”

“Who said I was acting like a jackass?” Coop sat up, grabbing a throw pillow off the couch and folding his arms around it.

“You are your father’s son.”

Coop and his dad exchanged smiles as they shook their heads. They really couldn’t disagree with her. She was the only woman in the house and knew her four boys inside, outside, and upside down. Speaking of knowing things, Coop remembered there was something he wanted to know about.

He decided it was as good a time as any to relay the message George had sent that afternoon. “Hey, Dad, George Harwell said that you need to stop in and see him at the station. Something about a missed payment on the farm account.”

“Oh, yeah.” Jim straightened up in his chair, obviously surprised by what Coop had just said. “Yeah, I’ll, er… I’ll take care of that tomorrow.”

He watched his parents trade a look. A look that told him they were hiding something. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” his mother said, her tone patronizing him even though he knew that probably wasn’t her intention.

“I’m seventeen. I can handle whatever it is. Is the farm in trouble?” For months Coop had been trying to get his parents to give him more responsibility. He’d been on this farm since birth. In fact, he was pretty certain that any past lives he had lived had been as a farmer. It was in his blood and he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Well, maybe racing dirt bikes. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

“You’re right,” Jim agreed. “Here’s the deal. Costs have gone up, income has not. We’re just a little behind on a few things. We’ll get caught up when the crops come out this fall.”

“No need to worry though,” his mother continued, sugarcoating the truth until it shined. Coop knew she just couldn’t turn off her protectiveness.

“What can I do?” he asked. “I can get a part-time job or cut back on racing.” He offered up two ideas that he really didn’t want to do, but his duty as a son outweighed his desires as a teenager.

“You can get on up to bed and let us worry about it,” his mother replied. He should have known his mother would say that. She was always harping on Jim to give Coop a break when it came to work. “Let him be a boy. He’s got the rest of his life to work,” she would say when he wanted to take a day off to race or “jack around” as his dad called it.

Coop nodded as he headed toward the stairs. “Well just let me know if there is anything I can do. Kyle’s gone most of the week and Ella Jane isn’t speaking to me at the moment.” His parents both offered him heartfelt smiles as he went up to bed. “I got nothin’ but time.”

After taking a shower, he had one more thing he had to do before tossing and turning all night over the crap day he’d had. So he picked up his cell phone.

I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.

He typed it out and hit send, hoping he’d get a reply. Maybe she’s over it. By the time he finally fell asleep, two hours later, it was abundantly clear that she was definitely not over anything…except maybe him.

THE next morning, Coop was trying to wrestle his brothers, Will and Sam, into the truck.

“Get in the truck, punks.” He was supposed to drop them off at the Masons’. Millie had a fence that needed painting, and between the workload and Kyle being gone for football most of the week, she was desperate for workers. Obviously, if she was settling for the two pain-in-the-ass pre-teens that were slap-boxing their way to the truck.

“Don’t jack around today,” he warned them as they pulled out of their driveway and headed toward the Masons’. He realized how much he sounded like his father as he lectured his little brothers about getting their work done and respecting authority. “I’ll pick you up at five, and Millie better not tell me you didn’t finish that fence today.”

“Relax,” Will replied with an eye roll he didn’t miss. “We’ll get it done.”

“Yeah, it’s a fence, not brain surgery,” Sam added. “Plus, Mom said we couldn’t go to camp next week if we didn’t.”

It weighed heavily on Coop that his brothers were having to earn the money for them to go to camp. Of course, they didn’t know that. As far as they knew, it was going into a savings account for them. Coop had overheard his parents discussing what he’d asked them about the night before when he’d gone downstairs for breakfast.

“I’m going to go and talk to Edwin Prescott about an advance on the cash rent.”

“I hate for you to have to do that,” Penny had said, the heaviness of her voice weighing on Coop’s chest as he eavesdropped. “You know how they feel about me. Maybe we could sell some of the equipment we don’t use.”

“We use it all, Pen,” his dad noted. “We’re already down to the bare minimum. We get rid of any more and we might as well go apply for new jobs at Walmart.”

He’d heard his mother’s forced laugh. She was trying to play it off, but he could still hear the ache in her voice.

As Coop came to a stop in front of the Masons’, he hadn’t expected to see Ella Jane sitting on the porch swing, her long, tan legs stretched out across it, with her computer propped on them. She waved at Sam and Will as they jumped out the truck and ran up to greet her. First she’d stolen his dogs, now his brothers. Was anyone not in love with her? The answer to his question was painfully obvious.

Coop watched his brothers joking with her. Thankfully, she appeared to be in a great mood. Now was as good a time as any to start groveling. He loosened his grip on the steering wheel and climbed out the truck.

“Morning,” he called out cautiously as he approached.

“Hey,” she replied, the smiles she was sharing with Will and Sam vanishing as she turned her eyes on him.

“So, I, um, told these two that they better be on their best behavior today,” he said. Ella Jane stared at Coop with a blank expression. Her eyes told another story. One that said she was still as mad as a hornet that’d been swatted at on a hot day. “Give me a call if you need me to come back and help supervise.”

She giggled, and not in the sweet way he loved to hear. More like a no-chance-in-hell kind of giggle.

“I’ll have no problem managing these two.” She winked at Sam and Will. “I’ve got lots of experience with brother types,” she told him, taking a blatant jab at him for his asinine comments yesterday. “Plus, I’ve got Hayden to help me out.”

Coop watched her eyes direct him to the barn, where he got his first look at the city kid Ella Jane’s mom had hired for the summer. The guy looked up from raking and gave EJ a wave. Coop saw the little smile creep across her face as she waved back.

“Kinda nice to have someone around here who is nothing like my brother. Finally.”

She can’t be serious. Is she trying to make me jealous? Coop would have bet money that Richie Rich didn’t have one callus on his delicate little hands. The way he was holding on to the rake made it clear that he didn’t know the meaning of hard work. Ella Jane wasn’t actually into this tool, was she? That was not the type of guy that could take care of her. He couldn’t handle a girl like Ella Jane Mason.

“Don’t be like that, Ellie May,” Coop said.

“Like what?” she asked, slamming the lid of her laptop down and shooting him a challenging look. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I’m not in the mood to get into this with you right now. I’ve got about a hundred work things to do.”

He stared at her intently, trying to figure out a way to break through the wall she’d put up since he’d been a jackass.

He needed a game plan. Knowing nothing he could say at that moment would make Ella Jane happy, Coop considered dropping down to his knees right then and there and begging her to forgive him. But his brothers were staring at him, probably wondering what in the hell was going on, and he didn’t want to cause a scene in front of them. Or the douchebag he could feel staring holes through him.

It would have been embarrassing enough to bare his soul to her in front of a live audience, but to make matters worse, he was pretty sure she was going to tell him to go straight to hell. Which his brothers would never let him live down.

“Okay,” he conceded. She was still pissed at him and he knew it was going to take more than an I’m sorry text message. On top of that, now he had to deal with whatever was going on between EJ and the Masons’ new employee.

Ella Jane ignored him as she put his brothers to work on the fence. He got the message loud and clear. Dis-missed.

As he was driving down the lane, watching EJ fade in his rearview, rich boy made sure to lock eyes with him as he drove by. Looks like I’ve got a little competition. That cocky bastard is actually staring me down.

Coop decided that he was done sitting on the sidelines. He was going to tell her exactly how he felt, and he knew the perfect time and place to do it. With his sudden burst of confidence, he wasted no time flipping the bird to the Masons’ new Bitch Boy.

Keep raking, dick. And stay the hell away from my girl.

11 Cameron

“I’LL be fine, Soph,” she reassured the housekeeper, practically shoving her out the front door. “Go enjoy your week off with your real kids.”

“Why don’t you come with me?” Sophie asked her. Again. “You need to get out of this house.”

Cami shook her head. “Everything will be okay. I promise.” Even though she knew that she’d be beyond bored without Sophie to talk to all week, she was hoping that the social interaction she had planned that afternoon would be enough to tide her over. Cami didn’t want to tell Sophie, who was standing there generously offering to take her with her, that she had big plans. Plans that involved one extremely attractive landscaper who was due to arrive within the hour. Cami had every intention of making it more about her and less about the grass this week.

This would be the third week in a row that he had come over. The first week was interesting to say the least. The second week, he’d been so busy that they didn’t have much time to talk. Instead, she’d spent the afternoon watching him sweat over her mom’s rosebushes. This week she was going to make damn sure he paid attention to her. She’d even pulled a couple weeds she’d seen sneaking out the flowerbeds the day before to make sure he had plenty of time to talk to her.

“Okay. If you insist.” Sophie leaned in and placed a kiss on Cami’s cheek. It wasn’t the first time she’d done this. In fact, Sophie had probably kissed and hugged Cami more than anyone else. Sophie’s sincere gesture only reminded Cami of the times her parents faked admiration for their only daughter.

When her dad had been campaigning for school board president, he kept her pressed firmly to his side as he convinced voters that his platform was “taking care of our children.” Cami wasn’t stupid. She knew the real reason her father wanted to run for school board was to make sure that the unoccupied lots surrounding the school were sold to Prescott Development Industries. She and Hayden had overheard their fathers’ scheme to procure the land.

If the voters of Summit Bluffs had half a brain in their heads, they would have looked into Prescott Development. Not only was her dad best friends with Kevin Prescott, he was also one of the shareholders that was going to benefit richly off the acquisition. Not that she’d complain, despite how shady it was—and it was shady. Because there was now a Starbucks and Pinkberry within walking distance from her high school. And thanks to her dad’s push for the off-campus lunch period, she was able to walk her happy ass right on over there each day.

And her mother. She was as transparent as glass. When she’d win a pageant title, her mother would be the first one to wrap her arms around her and shed a few happy tears of pride. Theresa Nickelson was living vicariously through her daughter. Her tour on the pageant circuit had been cut short, thanks to Cami’s untimely arrival. Though Cami would lie to the masses and tell anyone who listened that she loved being in pageants, it was really just her guilt of being born that kept her in them. She actually felt as if she owed it to her mother.

Cami shut the door as she watched Sophie pull down the driveway and turned her attention to the full-length mirror in the foyer. She smoothed the wrinkles out of the sheer white tunic she was wearing over her swimsuit and ran her fingers through her dark hair. She looked at the clock. Thirty minutes. Just thirty more minutes and he’d be there.

As she walked through her big, empty house, she looked up at the family photos the interior decorator had strategically placed around each room. She briefly contemplated ripping them all down. The one with her mother in all her pageant glory. The one of her father and Hayden’s dad’s crew breaking ground on the new Rec center. The one of Cami and Hayden at last year’s senior prom, which should have been a fun memory, but it only reminded her that her parents had pushed her into that relationship too.

Then there was the obnoxiously large portrait centered above the fireplace. The one that pushed their charade to the extreme. The one with her father sitting in the center with his airbrushed wife and daughter on each side of him. The one that said “Look at us! We’re the perfect family! Feel free to be envious!” She rolled her eyes and pulled open the French doors that led out to the backyard. The cool blue water of the pool sparkled in the sunlight, and for just one second, she imagined what it would be like to dive in and never come up.

As the thought flickered in her mind, the rationalization that her parents would probably spin her death into some sort of PR campaign to boost their social status outweighed her inclination to drown herself. She could see the headlines now: TRAGIC DEATH OF A BEAUTY QUEEN. Her father would hire the best obituary writer in the state of Oklahoma and probably announce his candidacy for State Senator in the closing paragraph while her mother would inevitably start some foundation in her name that gave pageant dresses to underprivileged children.

She smirked sadly as she shook her head. Not going to give them that satisfaction.

And then there was the fact that the one person who actually cared about her—Sophie—would be left to clean up the mess. She wouldn’t do that to her. It’d be days before Sophie returned, and Cami wouldn’t scar the one person who would actually miss her. She wouldn’t leave that sweet woman with the images of her floating in that water.

Even though she knew she wouldn’t do it, not really, the water called to her. Promised to ease the clawing ache inside, the one that whispered, No one would really even care.

“What I wouldn’t give to know what you’re thinking right now…” a familiar voice called out across the lawn.

Cami pulled herself from her disturbing thoughts. Looking up, she saw sweet blue eyes staring back at her. She couldn’t drown herself. Not today anyways. Not when there was someone worth living for walking toward her.

“You don’t want to know,” she replied.

“That’s not true.” He smiled as they came face to face. “I’m pretty sure I want to know everything there is to know about you.”

She’d thought all day about the things she wanted to say to him, but as he stood there and she stared up into his eyes, she forgot them all.

“It was nothing,” she mumbled. “Just a stupid thought.”

He eyed her cautiously, as if he could see right through her. Her heart raced as she imagined him seeing what lay beneath the shiny surface. To all her heartache and self-pity. She didn’t want him to feel sorry for her. She didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her. Plenty of people certainly had it worse. Poor little rich girl, her own self-conscious sneered at her.

She waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his chest. As tightly as he was holding her, her head resting on his chest, she felt like she could breathe. Deeper than she had in a long time.

Kyle reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Sliding his finger across the screen, he pulled up the camera app and held the phone at arm’s length.

“What are you doing?” Cami asked as he rested his head against hers. She saw his lips curling into a smile.

“Capturing a moment. That’s what photos are all about, right?” He chuckled, looking at her as if this were common knowledge.

She’d never really thought about it like that. Every photo she’d ever been in was staged. A way of showing she was the perfect daughter. Perfect beauty queen. Perfect girlfriend. Like evidence. Or proof her parents needed to impress their friends and constituents. In all her seventeen years, she’d never thought about capturing a moment—or any moment she wanted to capture for that matter.

Kyle lined up the camera and snapped the picture just as Cami turned and placed her lips on his cheek. Being hugged by Kyle in the backyard of her house where she’d just contemplated ending her miserable life had become a moment she wanted to capture.

“Got it.” Kyle grinned, turning his head. His nose brushed against hers, their gazes locked on one another’s.

“Good.” She nudged her nose back against his. She wanted to thank him for reminding her that life wasn’t all bad. She wanted to tell him everything she was thinking. That she wanted to know everything about him, too. But more than that, she wanted to kiss him. Badly. Or maybe she wanted to be kissed by him. The very moment she thought it she realized she’d never wanted anything more.