She shuddered as Hayden backed her truck out of the Prescotts’ driveway.
“You cold?” he asked, turning on the heat before she even answered.
“How bad is it?” Ella Jane whispered. She watched him take a deep breath. Guilt and despair filled the small space in the cab of the truck. Hayden stretched an arm over the back of the bench seat. She decided to take it as an invitation. And after what she’d seen, she needed…something. Closeness. Contact. Sliding over on the worn leather seat until she was nestled in the crook of his arm, she sighed. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have asked. You don’t have to tell me.”
With her head so close to his neck, she could feel him swallow. “She’s dying.”
Her intake of breath was so loud she was embarrassed. “No,” she said, her eyes filling as she sat up straight and shook her head. “She can’t be. Gran and Pops are—”
“They’re in their seventies,” Hayden said softly. “Doctors give her a month or so. She doesn’t eat. She doesn’t always know who we are. Who she even is.”
Her head began to shake back and forth. No. No more of this. She couldn’t take any freaking more.
Her dad, her brother, her best friend—who she was starting to think wasn’t much of a friend at all—and now Gran. The woman who’d taught her to make pie, who’d told her it was okay to be a tomboy, who’d told her she was special and perfect just the way she was.
“Pull over. Now,” Ella Jane practically shouted at him.
“Okay, hang on. We’re almost—”
“Now!” she screamed, suffocating from the lack of oxygen in the cramped space.
Her body jerked forward as he slammed the truck into park. Bailing out the door, she saw that a train was coming through, its headlight cutting into the darkness the way the pain of change was cutting into her soul.
Once upon a time, she’d been young and innocent. Childhood had been a magical place where nothing changed, no one left, and no one died.
That time had ended without anyone asking her if she was ready. Racing into the wide-open darkness toward the train, she didn’t think about what she planned to do once she reached it. She just knew she had to.
The sound of Hayden calling her name was lost in the wind behind her.
Tears streamed down her face, hot trails of her refusal to accept what the world had decided shone in the moonlight. She cried for Gran, for her mom, for herself.
“Dammit, Ella Jane.” Strong arms wrapped her waist, lifting her from the ground and turning her away from the rickety boxcars flying past her face.
She screamed into the night, releasing everything that had been building inside of her since the day her daddy left. The train’s horn blared, drowning out her pain.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” Hayden’s deep voice thrummed low in her ear. She didn’t fight the shiver it sent tingling through her spine.
“It’s not,” she whispered. “My dad quit our family. My mom is practically in denial. Gran’s dying. You’re leaving in a week. Nothing’s going to be okay.” She choked over the last few words.
He released his hold around her waist to grip her shoulders and turn her to face him. “I know, okay? She’s dying, and I’ve spent the last ten years being a selfish ass.” She watched him run a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to do. God, I wish I did. Tell me how to make it better. How do I get that time back? How do I make up for not being there for the one person who was always there for me?”
Wetness soaked her cheeks but it wasn’t tears. Well, not just tears. Rain had begun to fall in the midst of her breakdown. She looked up into his bright green eyes gleaming in the darkness, and for the first time all summer, she remembered. Really remembered.
Him chasing her when they were kids, the way he smiled at her back then. Like he looked forward to seeing her. He didn’t so much as flinch when Coop and Kyle had made fun of him for spending time with her instead of them. She’d cry when they left her out, and he would…he would make it better. Now he was hurting and she wanted to do the same.
She didn’t think, didn’t consider the consequences of what she wanted—or what it would lead to. Taking a page from the universe’s do-as-I-damn-well-please book, she launched herself recklessly into the arms of the boy she loved.
SOMEHOW they’d made it back to her truck without separating. Hayden’s breath was ragged as he held her to him, kissing her with the same heated need she was attacking his mouth with.
The groan of the metal door protesting as he jerked it open barely registered in her mind. Rain slapped against her bare skin as he lifted her higher on his waist. She fought to stay in the present, to memorize every single touch, every flick of his tongue against hers, the warmth and the wetness of it.
But the heady sensation of him possessing her, gripping her tightly and pressing hard against her, sent her floating into outer space somewhere.
“Hayden,” she breathed into his mouth as the tumbled clumsily into the cab of the truck. “I want you.”
A low tortured sound escaped from somewhere deep in his chest. “I want you too, angel face. But—”
“But nothing. Everyone else gets what they want. Because they take it. I’m taking it. I want you.”
Yanking his white T-shirt over his head, she paused her violent ravaging of his mouth to admire his body. He was lean and muscular, hard in all the right places. Running her hands over his firm pecs and then down to his rippled abs, she thrilled with pleasure at being able to touch him in such an intimate way.
“Ella Jane.” Her name was a plea, but she didn’t know if he wanted her to stop or proceed. The hardness beneath her answered that question. His head lolled back when she pressed her hips down against his. As his warm, wet tongue lashed against hers, she gave in to the urge to slip her hand down his pants. Gripping the thick, hard length she’d felt pressing into her, she pulled back and met his intense stare.
He closed his eyes for just a moment. When he opened them, they burned into hers.
“Wait. Stop for a second.” He gripped both of her wrists in one hand and tugged them upwards.
Ella Jane couldn’t help but pout. Wasn’t this what boys wanted? It was dang sure what she wanted. She was throbbing with need to the point of actual physical pain. He was panting, so she was pretty sure it was what he wanted too.
“Hayden, this summer…this summer I needed someone. Everything was so…” She stared into his handsome face as she tried to find the words to say what she needed to. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m doing something right. Something no one else can judge or ruin. Or take away.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said so low she barely heard him.
Leaning into the hand he used to brush the hair from her face, she pressed her lips to his palm. “So don’t.”
Leaning back to give him the choice, she held her breath and waited. Both of their hearts beating fast, in time together, measuring the seconds that passed as they stood on the edge of the unknown.
“We’ll go slow. If you want to stop, at any time, just tell me, okay?”
She smiled as he submitted to her. Nodding, even though she knew what she wanted and that she’d never want him to stop, she leaned in and kissed him again.
“I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you,” he said between kisses. His words burned into her heart, imprinting themselves onto her soul—where she planned to keep them forever.
They were the last ones she heard before she gave her innocence to a boy she loved in the middle of a dark Oklahoma night under a starless sky.
“CAMERON,” Sophie called from the doorway leading into Cami’s room. “Your mother is going to be home today. You might want to actually get up and take a shower. You know how she feels about wallowing in self-pity.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Cami answered with zero enthusiasm. Sophie was right though—she did need to bathe. She almost felt bad for Sophie when she came over and sat on the edge of her bed. She
had to reek of sleep, sweat, tears, and regret.
“I don’t understand what’s gotten into you, Cameron Nickelson, but I don’t like it.” Sophie moved her hand up and tucked a piece of Cami’s greasy hair behind her ear. “Last week you were over the moon and this week you’re acting like OPI just discontinued your favorite color of nail polish.”
She forced a half-assed smile and shrugged. She wanted to tell Sophie exactly what had happened, but she was still reeling with guilt for letting her shallow, egotistical upbringing rear its ugly head again.
“It’s nothing,” Cami told Sophie, trying to appease her. “I’ll get up.” Maybe if she took a shower Sophie would drop the interrogation. She really didn’t feel like talking about what she’d done. As she rolled herself to the edge of the bed and dropped her feet the floor, Sophie kept prying.
“Is this about the landscaper? If he makes you happy then don’t let anything stand in your way.”
Cami looked over her shoulder as she walked toward the bathroom door. The fake smile she’d perfected took its place and she nodded. Oh, Sophie, you romantic fool. If only it were that easy.
As soon as she was alone in her bathroom and the hot water was raining down on her from the showerhead, Cami thought about how everything had gone to hell faster than a sinner running to church on Sunday.
She’d woken up in the pool house wrapped up in the arms of the boy she’d just spent the better part of the night completely consumed with and then she remembered the piece of mail sitting on the nightstand that was going to change everything for them. And hopefully solidify her happy ending.
“I’ve got something exciting to tell you,” she’d told Kyle the morning they woke up together in the pool house. Exciting didn’t even begin to describe what she felt that morning waking up in his arms. That’s when she handed him the letter from OSU. The letter that stated she’d been accepted early and guaranteed that if she and Kyle could make it work for one year as a long-distance couple they could be together at college next year.
She had watched Kyle’s blue eyes scan the paper and saw the smile creep across his face as he deciphered what the words on the paper meant for them.
“This is great, babe,” he said, sitting up to pull her into his arms. He may have thought he was playing it cool, but Cami saw the smile fade as quickly as it had appeared.
“I thought you’d be more excited,” she confessed, pressing her head to his chest and tracing a pattern across his skin with her fingertip. She was nervous and she could tell by the heavy sigh he let out that she had a good reason to be. She was certain he was about to tell her that things between them were not going to work out the way she’d hoped.
I’m just a summer fling. He doesn’t want me joining him at school. He’s probably already got a girlfriend there.
“Quit it.” He pressed his hand on top of hers. “I can tell what you’re thinking and it’s not like that.”
“Well, I thought you’d be a little bit more excited about us being at OSU together. I know it’s still a year away, but we can make it work. I really want to try.”
“I really want to try, too.” He turned her in his arms and, with his finger under her chin, lifted her face to his. “It’s just…” He stopped short of telling her and pressed his lips to hers. The calm before the storm.
“Just tell me,” she demanded, pulling back from his embrace. She couldn’t take the not knowing.
“I’m going to turn down the scholarship,” he blurted out.
“What? Why?” She didn’t understand. He’d had his future handed to him on a silver platter, complete with a girlfriend, and he was just going to throw it all away.
“I want—” He shook his head. “I need to stay home and help with the landscaping business.”
“No,” she disagreed, for more selfish reasons than she wanted to admit. “You need to go to college and get a degree.”
“I’m still going to go to college. I already applied at the junior college in Oklahoma City. It’s only thirty minutes away and I can go at night. My mom and my sister need me more than the Cowboy football team. I thought you’d be excited that I was going to be home. We’ll get to see each other all the time now, not just the weekends.”
As nice as seeing Kyle all the time sounded, deep down she knew this was the moment that they would have to be just a summer fling. After he’d told her he was staying home, she knew that there was no way she could introduce him to her parents with ‘junior college attendee’ and ‘blue collar worker’ as her lead-ins.
They would never understand and they’d make sure she knew it. At least when he was going to OSU his future had been bright. Not to mention the ninety-mile drive would’ve provided a buffer between her and her parents.
She had told him that morning that she understood his decision because she really did, even if she hated it. Then she did what she always did when things didn’t go her way. She ignored it.
She ignored the text messages and calls from Kyle. The ones that started: Hey Belle. Can’t stop thinking about you. And more recent ones that said: Please call me back. I need to talk to you.
When her mother called from the airport in Dallas to tell her that her flight was delayed due to bad weather, she tried to ask her for advice.
“Mom, I got my early acceptance letter to OSU.”
“That’s great. That’s where Hayden is going too, right?”
“I don’t know,” she lied. She knew Hayden was going there—or at least he’d planned on it. She didn’t want to talk about Hayden though.
“Mom, what if Hayden and I aren’t together anymore?”
“Since when?” Her mother sighed on the other end of the phone. “Well, I mean, I guess if you two aren’t together it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I’m sure there are some very nice pre-med or pre-law students at college that would be suitable. Though it would break your father’s heart.”
She wanted to tell her mother that she was in love with Kyle, but before she could muster the courage to do so, she heard her mother’s fake pageant voice call out. “Oh my goodness! Rebecca Freeman! I’ve got to go, Cameron. I just ran into an old friend.”
“Thanks for your advice, Mom,” Cami said into a dead receiver. “Great chat, as always.” She rolled her eyes and tossed her phone on the bed willing herself not to cry. It really pissed her off that after all this time she still held out a tiny sliver of hope that one day her mother would actually give a shit about her.
Her laptop chimed from across the room. A new Facebook message. From one of Hayden’s douchebag friends. Prescott’s Back to School Bonfire Tonight @ 8 p.m.
Hayden threw a party every year in one of his grandparents’ fields that bordered Summit Bluffs. Maybe this is exactly what she needed.
Maybe it was time to get back to her old life, old friends, old boyfriend, and forget about the summer—and more importantly, Kyle Mason. The landscaper, since that’s all he was ever going to be.
Before this summer, she wouldn’t have batted an eyelash at blowing a guy off for not doing things the way she wanted. But now it stabbed her deeper than any of her parents’ hurtful actions ever had. She fought off the pain, the feelings, and searched for the shield of numbness she usually wore.
It was just about time to channel the old Cameron and get back to her regularly scheduled life. The one that didn’t include Kyle Mason.
“YOU’RE coming tonight, right?” Hayden asked Ella Jane as they finished cleaning the shed out on his last day of work at Mason Landscaping. Well, half the day they’d cleaned out the shed and reorganized. The other half of the day they’d spent consumed with kissing and touching and being as close to one another every stolen moment they could manage.
“Hmm, am I?” Ella Jane raised an eyebrow and then winked at him from much too far away. Her innuendo made his knees weak. He shot her a wicked grin as he steeled himself. Turned out his angel had a little bit of devil in her. He loved it. He loved her. All of her.
“
Oh you are. Most definitely,” he said, reaching out a hand to pull her to him. He inhaled her sweet honeysuckle scent and claimed her mouth with his. “Every weekend will never be enough. Can I sneak in your window every night?”
“Maybe I’ll sneak in your window. I’m squirrely like that,” she mumbled against his lips.
“That you are.” Kissing her beautiful bee-stung lips one at a time, he shook his head and pulled back. “You’ll get me fired on my last day if we keep this up. What if I need a reference?”
“Oh, I’ll give you a glowing reference, Hayden Prescott. Good with your hands, works well with others, always gets up, and never quits.”
Yep. He was a goner. Falling back under her spell, he kissed her until he had to come up for air or risk passing out.
A horn honked in the distance and she let out a little growl that had his dick standing at attention immediately.
“That would be Pops. I need to get going so I can help get everything ready.” He huffed out a breath. The absolute last thing he wanted to deal with was this party. He wanted to have his girl over for pizza and a movie and enjoy what time he had left with both of his grandparents. But Pops was dead set on doing everything as they’d always done it.
He placed one last chaste kiss on her mouth and pulled back, as much as he hated to. “Remember what I said, babe. I’m warning you—some of my friends are complete jackasses. And the rest of them are worse.”
Ella Jane giggled, a sound that made his whole day brighter. His whole life maybe. “Hmm, I remember thinking you were kind of a jackass at one point.” She hopped up on her tiptoes and gifted him one last kiss. “If I can handle you, I’m sure I can handle them.”
“Will you think about my request? Pretty please?” he pleaded as they left the shed and began the painfully slow walk to where his granddad was parked.
He’d asked Ella Jane to spend the night with him. His gran slept downstairs and Pops slept like the dead. He needed one entire night of her before he went back. Needed to leave her with something to remember him by so she wouldn’t forget him and fall into the arms of his least favorite farmer while they were apart.
Storm Warning (Broken Heartland) Page 17