Autumn (8 page)

Cooper didn’t need a lot of experience with women to know Lou Whittaker was going to be trouble for him.

Chapter Ten

It was evident where all the money went at Poisonfoot High School. Lou’s old school hadn’t been poor by any means, but football wasn’t nearly as big a deal there as it was in Texas. The benches in the stadium back home had been old and made of wood, and she’d gotten more than her fair share of splinters in the butt from nights spent on those bleachers.

Here the seats were sleek metal, and in the early September sunshine they were warm to the touch. She couldn’t imagine sitting on them during the height of summer.

Lou fiddled with her cell while she waited for Cooper, an anxious hum bubbling through her. She thought at first it was because she was doing something everyone had warned her against, but the longer she waited, the more she realized the truth. Lou was just excited to spend one-on-one time with Cooper. It had nothing to do with the forbidden aspect.

She liked him.

As much as she could like a person she barely knew who usually refused to speak to her.

A shadow fell over her, blotting out the sun. “That was fast,” she said, looking up.

A boy who wasn’t Cooper was staring back down at her. He had the vague familiarity of someone she knew she’d seen before, but she had no idea who he was. A surprising number of students attended Poisonfoot High, and she was still working on figuring out the names of people she shared classes with.

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

He smiled at her, the white-toothed, too-broad grin of someone who had a lot of confidence in himself. “You’re the new girl, right? I saw you sitting over here alone, figured I’d come say hi.”

The boy was handsome in a way that made her uneasy. He seemed too relaxed to be real. No teenager she’d ever met was as self-possessed as this guy. He had blond hair so light it was almost white, and blue eyes that rivaled the Texas sky in their hue.

When he smiled, dimples showed on his cheeks.

He looked like the
after
photo in an orthodontist’s office.

He was also the walking personification of what she imagined a boy in Texas should look like. His voice had a masculine, honeyed drawl, and he wore a plain red shirt tucked into his well-fit Levi’s. Lou gave him a once-over. He was wearing cowboy boots.

She wanted to find this hilarious, but something about him was oddly charming.

“Hi,” she said, belatedly returning his greeting. “I’m Lou.”

“Elle Whittaker’s granddaughter, right? My family goes to church with your grandma. Haven’t had the pleasure of seeing you there, though.” Coming from anyone else she’d have taken this as an accusation of her morality. This guy just seemed to be making an observation.

“No. Not yet.” And not ever if she could help it, but Granny Elle was already threatening to wake her at the ass crack of dawn the next morning to make her go. Lou was worried her grandmother might have the upper hand.

“I’m Archer.” He held out his hand. “Archer Wyatt.”

She got to her feet and shook his hand, since it seemed to be the thing kids at this school did, and was impressed he didn’t hold back on his strength because she was a girl. “Nice to meet you, Archer. What brings you to the school on a nice, sunny Saturday?”

Archer pointed to the field. “I’m on the team. You tellin’ me you watched that whole practice and didn’t notice me out there at
all
?” He winked. “I must be losing my skills.”

Lou decided not to tell him she’d been otherwise distracted. “It’s sort of hard to tell who’s who. You know, with the helmets and everything.”

“Ah, true. Well, I’m the captain. And the quarterback. Easy to remember that.”

What little Lou knew about football told her that this information was Archer’s way of bragging. Again, she wanted to be put off by his bravado, but he was so damned
charming
.

“Noted.”

“You need a ride home?” He put a hand on her shoulder and applied a small amount pressure, as though he was trying to move her in the direction of the parking lot. It was subtle, but Lou caught it.

“I’m actually waiting for someone.” She pulled her shoulder back and reclined on the metal bench, not wanting to be rude but wanting to let him know she wasn’t leaving with him.

Archer either missed the hint or chose to ignore it, because he sat next to her, kicking his long legs out in front of him and leaning against the bench behind them. He looked like the freaking Marlboro Man. Someone needed to take his picture and put it in the dictionary beside
All-American
.

His perfection made Lou all too aware of her own flaws. Suddenly her tangled hair and ripped jeans were taunting her, and she felt self-conscious in a way she didn’t when she was around Cooper. Archer, for his part, seemed blithely unaware of his effect on her and had tilted his face up to the sun, basking in the warmth like a cat.

“Tell me about yourself, Lou. There’s no need to be a stranger. Your grandma told my mom you weren’t meeting any new people in your first week.”

Lou bristled. Granny Elle was so dead set on keeping Lou away from Cooper she’d started trying to
find
her friends? It might have been a nice gesture, except Lou was certain it wasn’t meant as a simple kindness. Archer was talking to her because her own grandmother was trying to force friendships on her. What the heck was up with that?

“I’ve made friends,” Lou protested. “I’ve been spending time with Marnie Jackson.”

Archer nodded, still not opening his eyes. “I don’t think you’re here waiting for Marnie, though.”

“I wasn’t waiting for you either, but you seem to have invited yourself to stay.” Lou was inwardly appalled at her own rudeness, but she wanted to get rid of Archer before Cooper came back. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed of being seen with her lab partner, but she had a feeling Cooper spooked easily. He’d been hesitant to agree to hang out with her in the first place, and if he saw Archer lounging around, he might reconsider their plans.

Archer cracked his eyelids and looked at her. Rather than being offended by her response, he appeared downright amused. “You’re sparky,” he told her. “I like that.”

Lou had never in her life been referred to as
sparky
.

“I
am
waiting for someone,” she reminded him.

“I know. I’m being a gentleman. It’s not nice to make a lady wait alone.” He covered his brow with one hand and met her gaze, grinning boldly. “Be honest now, Lou. Do you really mind the company?”

She squirmed uncomfortably under his attention. “I guess not.”

“Good.”

Cooper stopped next to the bottom of the bleacher and cleared his throat. Archer turned his focus from Lou to the new arrival, and his expression changed instantly. Instead of being calm and relaxed, his jaw tensed and a stormy look clouded his eyes.

“Reynolds.”

“Wyatt.”

“Don’t tell me you’re who this lovely young lady is waiting for.”

Lou tried to express her apologies to Cooper with only a glance, but he was too busy staring at Archer to see her.

“I thought I was.”

“He is,” Lou announced. “You are.” She got to her feet and put some distance between herself and Archer, moving closer to Cooper as if to prove her point.

“You think that’s a good idea, Reynolds? Lou here is new.”

Cooper’s face mirrored Archer’s, jaw tight, expression serious. “I think Lou is capable of making her own decisions.”

“Lou is also standing
right here
,” she said.

Neither of them looked at her, they were too busy glowering at each other. The tension between the two of them was so tangible, Lou thought she might be able to reach out and touch it.

“All right.” After a loaded silence, Archer hopped up. “Lou, it was a pleasure to meet you. Hope to see you at church tomorrow. You let me know if there’s anything at all you need, okay?” He tipped an imaginary cap at her and strode off the field without so much as a backwards glance.

“Maybe I should just take you home,” Cooper said once Archer was out of sight. “This was a bad idea.”

But with Archer gone, Lou only had eyes for Cooper. He wore a long-sleeved gray Henley over a pair of dark jeans, favoring Chuck Taylors to cowboy boots. His brown hair—freshly washed—was a tousled mess and still a little wet. He smelled like soap.

“I don’t want to go home.”

A small smile flickered, gone so abruptly she thought she might have imagined it, but the thrill it sent through her was like liquid fire, making her pulse quicken and causing something inside her belly to fizz like Mentos in Diet Coke.

“Okay, you don’t want to go home.” He hiked his gym bag up on his shoulder. “What do you want to do?”

“Show me all the glorious sights, Cooper Reynolds. Give me the grand tour.”

“And what do you want to do after those five minutes are over?”

Lou laughed, jumping off the bleachers to stand beside him, feeling small but safe next to his tall frame. “Do you have a car?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll find a way to kill some time.” She was impressed by her own boldness. But where Archer had made her nervous, Cooper brought out a fearlessness she hadn’t known she possessed. It made her silly and brave, and more willing to say things she never would have before.

She liked it.

Cooper made her feel like she could do anything.

He hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her the tour of Poisonfoot would be a brief one. After leaving the high school parking lot in Cooper’s beat-up Ford pickup, they went down Mulberry—a quiet, idyllic residential street—and met up with Main. Lou hadn’t had much of a chance to see the shops on Main Street yet since her walking path home took her in the opposite direction.

The storefronts looked straight out of a 1950s movie set, with white gables and shutters, all painted in cute shades of teal, cream, and barn red. Cooper pointed out the barbershop, the post office, a few small clothing stores, and the doctor’s office. As they continued down the street, the surroundings became more modern, with a squat brick apartment complex, a McDonald’s and then the Poisonfoot shopping center.

The mall wasn’t much to look at, just a low concrete structure with a giant blue-and-white Walmart stuck on the end, but at least Lou knew she’d have a place to find five-dollar nail polish and trashy magazines. A Walmart meant she was still somewhat connected to the real world.

A block past the Walmart the streets became more quaint and peaceful again, though the houses weren’t as classic as the ones nearer the school. These ones were seventies-style bungalows with large swaths of front lawn, all being watered in unison by sprinklers sending arches of water droplets into the air, which caught the afternoon light in a way that made them look like sequins.

Lou had her window rolled down, and the wind smelled like fresh-cut grass and dust.

After the houses was a long span of bare horizon, then before the woods picked up was a tall, ominous building with a wide, empty parking lot. Cooper pulled into the lot and stopped the car.

“This is the paper mill,” he told her, glancing up at the building through the windshield. “Employs about seventy percent of the adult population in town. Behold the majesty of our economic overlord.” He leaned on the steering wheel, and Lou followed his gaze up, staring at the big emission stacks and seeing absolutely no beauty in the hulking structure.

“It’s…great.”

Cooper smiled. “It’s a hideous monstrosity. Uglier than the Walmart, even. But it keeps the town alive.” He started the truck again and backed out of the lot. Turning down the first side road they met, he went one block over until they were on Starling, and started back in the direction they’d come from. They passed the elementary school, where a few kids were making use of the outdoor play structure even on a Saturday, and beyond that was a red brick fire station, side by side with a brown brick building labeled Sheriff’s Department.

“That’s where my mom works.” Cooper pointed to the row of patrol cars parked out front.

Lou wasn’t sure if she was supposed to say anything, so she just nodded. Her own mother hadn’t begun to search for work in town, making it impossible to compare notes on parental jobs. Sounded like the paper mill was looking likely, which was a heartbreaking idea since her mom was more the creative type than the worker-drone type.

Cooper didn’t stop at the station, continuing their brief tour of her new hometown. They drove past an outdoor basketball court, a library and a small, sad-looking bar, then last but not least was the big white church. Aside from the school, it was the most impressive building she’d seen in Poisonfoot. The paint was brilliant and white, and the flowerbeds were neatly organized with red and white petunias.

The truck turned away from the church and back towards Main Street. Cooper glanced at her and gave a small shrug. “I told you it wasn’t very impressive.”

“It’s nice,” she said. “I think I might like it.”

He laughed, a bright, warm sound. “You think?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, it’s a start. What do you want to do now?”

Lou shrugged, her flirtatious bluster lessened by his closeness to her. “What do kids do for fun around here?”

“Leave.”

She chuckled at him, but his serious expression stopped her. “Leave where?”

“If you’re not old enough to vanish completely? There’s a little lake about twenty minutes from here.”

“Is it, like…the parking spot?” She put some extra emphasis on
parking
, hoping he wouldn’t make her spell out what she meant.

“Yeah, I guess. But it’s a lot of things. Swimming hole, picnic place. There’s a nice gazebo. In the summer you can rent canoes and stuff, but they shut that down the last week of August.”

“Oh, so it’s an actual hangout.”

“Did you think I was going to drive you up to the make-out spot after knowing you less than a week?”

She hoped he was too focused on the road to notice the slight choking sound she made when she forgot how to swallow. Her cheeks felt hot, so she leaned towards the window to let the fresh air waft over her. “No, of course not.”