Last Good Man: A Crown Creek Novel

by Theresa Leigh

  The door thudded against my foot and she looked down like it was something separate from me. "We definitely are."

  "I'm not leaving until you tell me you're going back to the hospital."

  "Well, I'm not, so..."

  "You need to be."

  "Who says? You?"

  "Yeah. Your fiancé says so."

  She rolled her eyes. "It's over now. I kept your secret like I said I would, but I'm done." She glanced at the ring that was still on her right hand. Then winced as she tried to use her shattered left one to yank it off.

  "Stop it." I reached out, then caught myself, then said fuck it and touched her good arm. "Don't try to take it off." I don't know why, but I like it there. "You're gonna hurt yourself."

  Tears were gathering in her eyes. "Leave me alone, Cooper." With a frustrated yelp, she gave up trying to pull the ring off. I reached out, meaning to help her.

  She shut the door instead.

  Right in my face.

  I stood there on the porch, too stunned to even move. Slow anger simmered along my bloodstream. My heart thudded loudly in my ears, but not so loudly that I didn't hear her calling to her brother inside. She crossed in front of the window, silhouetted against the drawn curtains. Her right arm moved in wide, animated circles as she gestured to her brother. I stepped back, down one step, then another, still staring at her shape as she stood there. She gestured again, and the curtains swayed.

  Wait, was it the curtains that were swaying or...

  I leaped forward just as she went down. In two steps I was through the front door and down on the floor next to her.

  "Willa!" her little brother was screaming, and for a moment it was a terrible echo of the night I'd found her on the side of the road. "Willa? Willa come on, wake up."

  But this time her eyes opened. "Wha - ?" She sat back up again. "What am I doing on the floor?"

  I wanted to throttle her. I wanted to burst out laughing in relief. I wanted to kiss her again.

  But more than anything, I wanted to grab her and sling her over my shoulder and carry her out of here like a caveman so I could keep her safe from herself.

  But she had a broken arm and had just fainted, so I settled for shouting at her instead. "You can't do this. You can't act like nothing has changed, because it has. You need to take care of yourself for once, Willa." My voice broke on her name and I coughed and looked away.

  "Cooper."

  I turned back when she said my name. So soft and gentle. I have no idea what it was that I thought I'd see in her face when I met her eyes - what I wanted to see in her eyes when she said my name - but it wasn't the bored, patronizing smile she was now wearing.

  "I'm fine. I appreciate you worrying about me and I really do appreciate," she paused, swallowed, "everything else you've done for me too, but I'm really okay now, so... please... just..." She trailed off and looked at her brother. "Hey bud?" she called, suddenly bright and cheerful again. "Go grab your backpack, okay? We have to get your math homework done."

  I stood up. Stepped back. It was such a clear rejection that I didn't need her to say it in words.

  "So can I go to Brycen's party?" her brother badgered her, not even waiting until she'd gotten all the way to her feet.

  "To a PG-13 movie, bud? I don't know if that's such a good idea. You know how you get nightmares."

  "You are so mean!" he shouted and stomped away down the tiny hall.

  Willa glanced back in my direction one more time. Opened her mouth. Then closed it.

  Then followed her brother.

  She had to know I was watching her, which was why she was walking so carefully. Holding her head so high. She was mistaken in thinking I didn't see how carefully she was moving. How much pain she was in.

  And she also had to know that I'd noticed she was still wearing the ring.

  * * *

  Chapter

  Chapter Twenty

  Cooper

  And on top of everything else, the FaceTime alert on my phone chose that exact moment to start ringing.

  I grunted and slapped my hand over my pocket, then yanked the thing out with a growl, only catching myself at the last second before I inadvertently lost my shit on Liam.

  "Hey, man." His face materialized on my screen, and his big smile fell the second he saw me. "This a bad time?"

  I grabbed the back of my neck and spun around to face Willa's house again. The sun beat down on my shoulders but had nothing to do with the boiling rage inside of me. "Yeah, no. Not a good time, man."

  "I thought..." he paused, and the screen changed as he slid his phone down, then brought it back up again. "It's eleven thirty. We're supposed to be FaceTiming, right? You said you'd be at the hospital by now."

  I gripped the back of my neck harder. "Yeah, well, I'm not."

  "I can see that," he observed drily. "Hospital rooms usually don't have trees in them, and I know for a fact they're too small for you to park your ridiculously big truck in them either." He furrowed his brow, wary recognition in his eyes. "Wait. Where are you?"

  "At her house."

  Liam looked as confused as I felt. "Are you getting Mrs. Harlow or something? Wait, why are you -"

  "Because she's here," I exploded.

  "She's...?"

  "Here, Liam. At her house. Instead of at the hospital where she belongs." I wanted to reach through the screen and shake him. This feigned confusion... what the hell was he surprised about? Didn't he know her? Of course she'd pull a stunt like this. It was just like her to choose to make things as hard for herself as she could. "She checked herself out..."

  "Discharged," Liam corrected numbly.

  * * *

  "Whatever. Whatever it is, she did it, and now she's back in that trailer with a broken arm and a gash in her head that's still bleeding in spite of the fact that she's the most thick-headedly stubborn person I've ever met."

  * * *

  "Cooper, slow down. Listen to me."

  Slowing down was out of the fucking question. "She fainted! Passed out and fucking fell down right there in front of me and still had the nerve to say she didn't need to go back to the hospital." Blood thumped hot in my ears. I paced a stiff-legged circle as I struggled not to lose it completely, then gave up and brought the flat of my hand down hard on the hood of my truck. "Fuck!"

  "Cooper." The louder I got, the quieter Liam got. It'd always been like that. His voice was barely above a whisper now. "Cooper. Listen."

  I took a breath and held it, then nodded. Waited for him to tell me what to do next.

  Whatever I was expecting... walk away. You did all you could, I absolve you, you're right she's crazy for rejecting a great guy like you... it wasn't what he said next.

  "You have to get her out of there."

  I stared straight ahead, unseeing, unaware of the world around me, frozen to the spot as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. "What?" I finally managed to croak.

  "I mean it. She's not going to get better if she stays there. You want her better, right?"

  I looked away and wished like hell we were on the phone instead of FaceTiming so he couldn't see my face. I could feel how red I was getting. I could see it in the little window on the top right of the screen and that was bad enough. "Sure," I mumbled, half into my shoulder. Why was the connection so crystal fucking clear way the hell out here in the boonies anyway?

  "So you have to get her away from her house."

  "You want me to kidnap her?"

  "Don't be dramatic. I want you to get her somewhere she can get better. Where she won't feel like she has to take care of anyone else but herself."

  The thought danced through my head, a filmy gauzy thing of pure fantasy, a picture of Willa sleeping peacefully in a huge white bed, her hair splayed out in a halo around her head. And then me lifting the snow-white sheets so that I could slip in next to her.

  I banished that idea with a laugh. "Where the hell is that? You want me to take her to my parents' house? No one is gett
ing better there, and you know it." But even as I was saying it, I remembered, "If only it was the end of the month..."

  His eyes widened. "Wait. You found a place?"

  I was suddenly flooded with guilt when I realized he didn't know. I hadn't told my best friend yet. But I had told Willa. "Sort of."

  "What's sort of?"

  "I mean, it's a piece of shit.”

  "Where is it?"

  "The place on Mill Street, by the jewelry store."

  "Nice," he said. He did a good job of masking his horror. I'd expected it. Liam couldn't help coming from money. Couldn't help he grew up the mayor's son, couldn't help that his mom kept the house so elegantly perfect that you'd be understood for mistaking their living room for a museum. He couldn't imagine living in a dump, and he couldn't imagine why I'd think it was preferable to the nice house I was living in now. I got why he reacted the way he did.

  But Willa had been thrilled for me.

  "But the first of the month isn't for another three weeks," Liam went on.

  "No shit." I really wanted to set my phone down and just go walking straight into the woods. Never see another human being again. "So where the fuck do you figure I should take her, huh?"

  He was right there with an answer. "My cabin."

  I blinked. Let my hand drop. Looked at the woods and considered. Then exhaled and picked my phone back up. "What?"

  "Take her there."

  "Your family's place?"

  "I'll tell you where the spare key is. Nobody is there right now, my dad's gotta stay home, be at all the Fourth of July parades and barbecues and shit. He's not going to be up there until, well, the first of the month, actually."

  Slowly I turned away from the woods and back to my phone. "You're seriously asking me to take Willa to your big, fancy cabin in the mountains?"

  He looked at me levelly. "I am."

  I got that squirming hot feeling I used to get when my dad would catch me in a lie. I had the strongest desire to drop the phone and make good on my woods fantasy, only instead of walking, I would straight up run. "Me," I repeated. "Take her to your cabin and take care of her. Alone. Liam, you know how I feel about her."

  Yeah, but do I? a small voice inside of me wanted to know.

  Liam looked away. I heard the nervous tap of his fingers on the tabletop as he seemed to weigh something very heavy in his mind. Then nodded and looked back at me. "Do for her what you'd do for me."

  It was like he'd reached through the phone and punched me in the gut. "Aw, what the fuck," I protested.

  "Cooper. Please."

  I looked at my phone. And looked at the trailer.

  "Goddammit." I started back up the steps.

  * * *

  Chapter

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Willa

  I shifted a pen, so it was parallel to the edge of the table. I grabbed a stack of already straightened papers and straightened them some more. I leaned over my brother's shoulder until he grunted and shifted away. Then I looked out the window again.

  He was still in the driveway.

  I angrily batted the tears away from my eyes and tried to concentrate on the scratching of Jake's pencil as he plodded his way through his math homework.

  What the hell was Cooper doing out there? I wanted to rush out the door and demand to know just what he thought he was doing. Sitting in my driveway... I told him to leave. Or I didn't, not really but I was about to, dammit. He needed to back off and leave me the hell alone.

  I twisted the ring on my finger and swore under my breath when it refused to budge. Goddammit, if I could just get this thing off myself, I would march right out there and throw it in his face. I twisted it again, then pulled. But not too hard. I... couldn't. Because I was hurt and all. But I was getting better really fast, so he needed to...

  I squirmed in my seat and deliberately turned my back to the window. I didn't care. I didn't care one damn bit what he was doing. In fact, I deserved to keep this ring just as payment for having to put up with him. Damn straight. He could go fuck himself, thinking he had any right to tell me what to do. And kissing me like that? Just what the hell was he up to?

  My fingers had strayed to my lips as I fumed, and I slapped my hand back down onto the table so hard it made Jake jump.

  "Hey!" he protested.

  "Sorry." I twisted around to the window again. "Did you hear that?"

  Jake furrowed his brow. "What?"

  "I thought I heard..." I turned away again and hoped like hell what I'd heard had been the sound of Cooper's engine - that ridiculously over the top pickup of his that was so stupid it made me want to laugh in his face - as he finally drove off. Then I turned to the window, filled with dread that that's what it had been.

  My stomach dropped. My heart leaped. My whole body flushed hot.

  He was still there.

  "What the hell is he doing?" I hissed.

  Jake bounced up in his seat. "He's doing something? I want to see!"

  "Sit back down," I barked.

  "You kissed him."

  "He kissed me," I corrected. "And he had no business doing that. His mama must not have raised him to respect women." He saved your life, my conscience pricked. And he visited you in the hospital more than anyone. And you wanted him to kiss you again when you fell, you hoped he would. You're like some damsel in distress and he's your shining white knight in a black pick-up truck.

  "Stop!" Jake looked up when I shouted aloud, stricken. I scrambled for an excuse for my outburst. "Check your work," I admonished him. Could my brother tell I was blushing? Was he old enough to know that everything was a lie?

  He tapped his pencil eraser on the paper. Tap tap tap. He frowned. "It's fine." Tap tap tap. "That's the right answer, Willa. Right? Isn't it?"

  I glanced out the window again. Did I hear a door slam? Tap tap tap. "Jake, stop tapping your pencil," I hissed irritably.

  He held it under my nose. "I'm not."

  "Then what's that?"

  That was the creak of footsteps on the porch and I was moving before I could stop myself. I flung open the door, catching him in the act of raising his hand to knock again. Tap tap tap. "What do you want?" I barked, breathless, sounding more accusatory than I wanted. What? What do you want? Is it what I want? Do you know what I want?

  I'd never seen him look so furious. The corners of his mouth were turned down in a ferocious scowl, and his blue eyes were stormy. The white scar blazed a lightning strike on his thunderous brow. He was pissed.

  But so was I. "What?" I demanded again.

  He glared at me for half a breath. Silent. I felt a flutter of fear in my belly and quickly banished it. I opened my mouth to demand to know what he wanted for a third time when he finally moved his hand. I stepped back a little, and a shadow passed across his face. I realized he was showing me something he was holding.

  His phone.

  I startled back to see Liam's face on the screen. He stared right at me with an unreadable expression. "Will."

  My gaze ricocheted from him to Cooper and then back again. "What the hell?"

  "Go with him," Liam said.

  "No," I stepped back farther, bumping up against my chair. "Are you kidding?" I looked at Cooper, who just pushed the phone back into my face before looking away.

  Liam was still talking there on the screen. The sound of his familiar voice made me miss him with a sudden violence that brought tears to my eyes. Or maybe I was crying because of what he was saying. "Willa you know I can't ever repay you. But Cooper's gonna help me try. So get in the fucking truck with him. You owe me a chance to make it right."

  I blinked. And ducked past the phone to look at Cooper.

  He was staring down at his shoes, his ears an angry, flaring red. I knew he'd heard Liam. But did he know what Liam was talking about?

  "Go where?" I asked the man on the screen, but all my attention was on the man on my porch.

  * * *

  Chapter

  Chapter Twenty-T
wo

  Cooper

  In the end, it took four of us to convince her. Liam did the heavy lifting of course, with a couple of shouts of encouragement from Jake who seemed thrilled at the prospect of getting out from under his sister's watchful eye again.

  Then Mrs. Harlow rolled up, dropped off by a friend of hers from the diner at the end of the dinner shift.

  She took one pinched, white-faced look at her daughter - the daughter who she had thought was still resting in a hospital bed - and pulled rank. In less than two minutes, she was practically shoving Willa into my truck. I actually had to awkwardly stand in the way and explain that I wasn't prepared for this either. "I have to grab a few things," I told Mrs. Harlow, deliberately avoiding Willa's glare. "I'll be back, uh." I made the mistake of looking in Willa's direction.

  She was glaring at me. Like this was somehow my idea. I didn’t want this. Not one fucking bit and the fact that she was eyeing me like I’d had this stupid idea up my sleeve the whole time - even arranged her getting mowed down by a phantom driver to facilitate it - had me instantly pissed. She didn’t like it? Well fuck her, it was happening anyway. "I'll be right back,” I announced. Loudly. Then jumped into my truck before I let loose and started answering in front of Willa’s mother.

  What the hell was Liam thinking, ask me to do this? And, more importantly, what the hell was I thinking actually going through with it? I didn't have to do this. It was the worst possible idea. There was no question. If I took this girl into the woods, one of us was going to leave in handcuffs. And from the look on her face, she intended it to be her. With her mother, her brother and Liam all wearing her down, she couldn’t say anything. But I knew what that look meant.

  And it served her right.

  Honestly, it would be fucking fun thwarting her pain-in-the-ass self for a few days. The worst thing you could do to this girl was make her feel grateful, and I intended to go beyond the worst. She hated having to ask for help? I would be the most helpful fuck on the planet. Mother Teresa had nothing on my Eagle Scout ass.