Path of Destruction (19 page)

What the hell is happening here?

“Brantley?”

Her concerned tone snapped him from his reverie. “Sorry. Did you say something?”

“I asked what you were doing there. I didn’t stay long, so I didn’t see you. But you can’t stand Hayden. Why were you at his party?”

He took a deep breath the clear the blurred haze of jealousy. “Buddy of mine drug me there actually. He was looking for some chick. She blew him off, but he wasn’t taking the hint. Mase was stubborn like that.”

“Mase?” she inquired softly.

“Kyle Mason,” Cooper said, the shock of saying his full name out loud for the first time since his death jolting his heart like jumper cables. “Ella Jane’s brother. He had some mystery fling that summer. Before…before he was killed.”

Cameron didn’t speak for so long that he was afraid whatever ailment had led her to the Doc in a Box had made her go mute. When he cut his eyes to her, she appeared several shades paler than usual.

“Cameron? You all right?”

“You were friends? You and Ky—the guy who was killed in the storm?”

Either Cooper was hallucinating or she was trembling. “Nah.” He shrugged, able to push aside his own discomfort at discussing Kyle long enough to focus on whatever was going on with her. “More like brothers, actually. We grew up together. He was good a guy. You would’ve liked him. He was going to play football at OSU. Had that all-American golden-boy thing going for him. Unlike me.”

Cameron looked like she was about to pass out any second.

Cooper considered pulling the truck over but they were less than a block from the pharmacy.

“You know what? Hayden is in town and he can pick me up. You can drop me here and I’ll just have him come here to get me.”

The instant rush of anger was beginning to feel strangely familiar. “Prescott, huh?”

Cameron nodded, avoiding his eyes.

“So, what? I’m just your closet make out buddy? But Prescott’s the one or something?”

“Don’t be dramatic. He drove me into town, so he should take me home. I don’t want him to worry.”

Had she just seriously accused
him
of being dramatic? “The only person Hayden Prescott worries about is himself.”

Cameron looked over just long enough to glare at him. “You’re wrong. He’s a good guy, a really good one. And until you actually get to know him, stop with the snap judgments. It’s annoying.”

Cooper sucked in a much-needed breath and worked her over with his eyes. “Is that so?” When she didn’t answer he nodded and leaned back in his seat. “Well, maybe you should stay away from me so I can stop annoying you.”

“That what you want?” The girl looked like she was being slapped repeatedly by conflicting emotions while she waited for his response. Anger. Confusion. Sadness.

The sadness really struck him. It was the deep, perpetual kind he hadn’t felt himself until his best friend died.

“Let’s just get these filled,” he said, nodding to their prescriptions as he parked the truck. “Place closes in an hour.” He practically grunted the last line. He hated talking about feelings almost as much as he hated how Hayden Prescott seemed somehow linked to every female he cared about.

Do I care about her?

He hadn’t known her that long, and sometimes he felt like he barely knew her at all.

She didn’t wait for him to open her door this time. She got out of the truck and marched into the pharmacy. He reached to open the door to Ross’s for her, but she took care of that herself as well. Cooper frowned as she continued on without looking back to see if he’d followed.

It felt as if she’d tied a piece of twine to his heart and was tugging it along as she went.

So I do care then.

Now it was time to see if she cared about him.

Casually retrieving a box of condoms from a nearby shelf, Cooper smirked to himself. Sure, it was kind of an underhanded move, but if she cared, she’d want to know who the condoms were for. And she wasn’t very good at hiding her feelings, though he could tell she prided herself on being able to.
Not from me, Prom Queen
, he thought to himself, his pride swelling as he realized she only let that vulnerable part of herself show around him. He’d seen her panicked and on the verge of hysteria. More than once.

Cameron was moving up in line at the prescription drop-off window when he sauntered up behind her. He heard the pharmacist’s assistant, Jenny Fisher, a girl who’d graduated from Hope’s Grove a few years before Kyle, ask Cam a few odd questions. One being did she drink alcohol and another being if she’d ever attempted self-harm.

Self-harm? What the hell?

All he’d ever been asked was if he was allergic to any medications. His protective instinct surged as he watched Cameron shrink into her oversized shirt.

He stepped up in front of Cameron and handed his prescription to Jenny. “Hey, Jen. Any chance I can get this before the places closes tonight? I don’t think I’ll have time to come by tomorrow and my arm is stinging like crazy.”

The girl in the white coat grinned and shook her head. “I swear, Brantley Cooper, one of these days you are going to seriously hurt yourself on that bike of yours.”

“Until then,” he said with a shrug and a smile. “Thank goodness I have you.”

“Be right with you,” she told him with an eye roll.

When she disappeared behind the elevated counter, Cooper turned to Cameron.

“You okay?”

Her eyes avoided his. “I’m fine.”

She definitely wasn’t, but he hated to pry when she was obviously already uncomfortable.

“Okay. Well, do I get to give you that ride home or did you already call for reinforcements?”

“I have a ride,” she said almost under her breath.

Cooper huffed out a breath. Clenching his fist he nearly forgot his stitches and his box of prophylactics. Cameron, however, seemed to be taking in both.

“Ribbed for her pleasure. My, aren’t you considerate.”

“That part of our arrangement now? Inquiring about each other’s sex lives?”

Her pretty little mouth twisted into a scowl at her words being thrown back at her, but there was genuine hurt in her eyes.

Cooper swallowed thickly. “Cameron, I didn’t—”

“Prescription ready for Cameron Nickelson,” Jenny called out from the other end of the counter.

Cameron stalked away from him and paid for her prescription. Setting the condoms aside, Cooper followed her like a puppy eager to make amends for chewing up her favorite shoes. Damn, the things this girl did to him. He’d rather punch himself in the face than have to see that wounded look darken her eyes again. Knowing he’d put it there was killing him.

“Cameron,” he said, practically growling her name and letting his good hand catch her upper arm as she walked past. “We should talk.”

“Now there’s one thing that
definitely
isn’t part of our arrangement.” With that, she jerked free of his grasp just as Callie called his name.

“She’s pretty,” Jen said, handing him his white bag of medicine. “She your girlfriend?”

Cooper signed his name where she indicated and handed her the cash he owed. “She’s something,” was all he said.

Carrying his meds, he exited the pharmacy. Because the universe was clearly against him, he stepped outside just in time to see Cameron climbing into Hayden Prescott’s Jeep.

“Christ,” he muttered under his breath as Prescott closed her door and glanced over at him. His face made it clear he wasn’t expecting to see him.

“What are you doing here?”

Cooper sneered. “I live here, remember?”
You’re on my side of the line, jackass.
“What you’re doing here might be a better question.”

“I’m working on the rebuild with the church.”

Cooper noticed that Prescott was drenched in sweat. Cameron didn’t seem to mind. She sat in her seat staring straight ahead as if deaf to the conversation happening right beside her. He wondered if he were all sweaty if she’d let him that close to her.

“Rebuilding Hope’s Grove won’t make Ella Jane Mason forgive you. Or give you another chance or whatever the hell you’re thinking.”

Hayden regarded him silently for a moment. Cooper held his ground, wondering what Hayden’s motives were exactly.

“I know you don’t think much of me. And honestly, I don’t care much about what you think, but I care about this town because my granddad cared about it.” They stared each other down for what seemed like an hour before Hayden added, “And I care about her.”

Cooper’s eyes narrowed and he lifted his chin toward where Cameron sat still avoiding them. “What about her? You care about her?”

Hayden glanced over his shoulder. “Cameron? I’ve known her my whole life. Of course I care about her.” His eyes brightened with interest. “You got a crush on Cami, Joe? I gotta tell you, she’s pretty far out of your league.”

No shit.

Cooper recognized the relief Hayden tried to hide. Coop knew that he was probably glad that Cooper liked Cameron, most likely because that meant he wasn’t involved with Ella Jane. Cooper recognized that twisted, confusing look of relief because he knew he had worn it when he’d realized Hayden wasn’t pursuing Cameron.

“Believe me, I know this.” Hayden had the decency to look surprised that Cooper agreed with him. “Whatever. Look, talk to her about what’s in that bag. I think she…” Every cuss word he knew flitted through his head. How many girls was Cooper just going to hand over to Hayden Prescott before he took a stand? Two, at least, from the looks of it. “She needs someone. And it isn’t me.”

Done with the sharing portion of the evening, Cooper turned and made his way to his truck. No, Cameron didn’t need him.

It was time he stopped trying to get her to admit that she did.

“W
hat time is Hayden picking you up?” Cami’s mother asked as she hung up a garment bag on the back of her daughter’s bedroom door. “You have a hair appointment at three thirty. Oh, and I told the Prescotts they could come over at around six to snap a couple pictures out back.”

“Of what?” She shook her head. “Hayden isn’t picking me up because we aren’t going together,” she informed her mother.

“What do you mean? This is your senior prom, Cameron. Of course he’s picking you up.”

“No. Actually, he’s not even going. And I have to help decorate, so I’ll just do my own hair,” she said as she walked over and unzipped the garment bag.

As she slipped the vinyl cover off her dress, the memory of picking it out came back to her. It was a couple of days after her call to Kyle’s phone was answered by Ella Jane. She was in such a fog that week that when her mother had shown her a selection of dresses, she’d basically just pointed and nodded.

Lucky for her, even in a haze of depression and worry that Ella Jane was going to tell the whole world about her summer, she had managed to blindly choose a dress that was flattering. A little part of her reveled in the fact that Raquel would at least be jealous at how fantastic Cami would look—the silky, red fabric clinging to her curves with its backless design. A bigger part of her wondered if Kyle would have liked it. The air quickly left her lungs when she realized she didn’t even know what his favorite color was. They’d shared so many things, but there were still so many more she would never know about him.

Maybe Hayden had the right idea.

“I’m not even sure if I’m going to go,” she admitted much to her mother’s dismay.

“Excuse me?” Theresa was flabbergasted. “You most certainly are.”

“But—”

“No. I gave in and let you drop out of the pageant circuit this year. To give you some time to come to terms with what you went through. But I’m drawing the line, Cameron. Your father and I have tried to be supportive, we really have, but it’s time for you to stop acting like a victim and start being a survivor.”

Her mother’s words struck a nerve. She was a victim. Of the tornado and of heartbreak. It wasn’t like she could explain that to her mother though. She could already hear her saying something like, “He wasn’t the guy for you anyway” or “You’re going to end up with Hayden anyway. You need to let your summer fling go,” which would only push her even closer to the edge of insanity. She was walking a tight rope as is without her mother’s two overbearing cents.