Path of Destruction (28 page)

Cooper felt like two-ton bricks were stacked onto his chest as they made their way inside. Cameron was destroying Sam at Halo and talking trash when they entered the living room. Cooper couldn’t help but smile. As different as they were, she fit into his life, into his world, and that made him happy. He tried not to think about what would happen when and if he tried to fit into hers.

“Mom, Dad, this is Cameron.”

Cameron leapt up from the floor, her cheeks pinking in a blush Cooper found endearing and adorable. He hoped his parents did too, not that it would make much difference if they liked her or not, but it would be nice if they did.

“Nice to meet you, Cameron,” his parents said almost in unison.

“You can call me Cami,” she said, shaking each of their hands.

“Well, Cami,” his dad began, “would you like to stay for dinner? It’s nothing special but we stopped and got pizza on the way home.”

“Pizza sounds great,” she responded, beaming at Cooper in a way that made his heart falter.

After they’d set the table together, Cameron pulled him aside. “Is it okay that I’m here? Were they mad?”

Coop shook his head. “Of course they weren’t mad. A little surprised is all. My brothers told them I was hiding you in the barn.”

Cameron laughed. “Well, I’ve been hiding you in a closet, so I guess we’re even.”

Before dinner, they said grace and Cooper snuck glances at her while everyone prayed. His mom caught him twice. During dinner, his parents informed everyone that the money from the stock auction and a small family loan had secured the next two months’ payments and they would be able to hang on to the farm a little longer. Cooper felt strange about Cameron hearing his family’s personal business, especially since he himself was rarely privy to it. But when she squeezed his knee under the table, he decided he’d divulge any secrets she wanted to hear, even his mom’s secret breakfast casserole recipe.

When dinner was over and his parents had gone to bed, Cooper whispered to her that she should head to the loft and he’d be out soon. He’d loved having her around his family, enjoyed the open conversation and how at ease she’d seemed among them. When he’d seen her face while his parents had been laughing and joking and even during Will and Sam’s obnoxious antics, she hadn’t looked annoyed or bored or even judgmental. She looked…happy. Maybe even a little wistful. He doubted her family had many family dinners together that included pizza, but she seemed to enjoy it. It was the most he’d ever seen her eat. But now he was ready to be alone with her, to kiss her all over and show her just how much he liked having her there.

“I thought we weren’t hiding anymore?” Cameron asked as they walked outside.

“Aren’t we?”

She shook her head. “No more hiding. Not here and not at school or anywhere else.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him thoroughly on the mouth. “That okay with you?”

“More than okay,” Cooper agreed against her lips. “But it’s going to get awkward if I do the things I want to do to you here in this creaky old farmhouse. Thin walls, you know.” He shrugged. “Everyone here knows my name, but hearing you moan a reminder most of the night couldn’t hurt.”

Cameron leaned backed and slapped him playfully on the chest. “Brantley Cooper. That was not a gentlemanly thing to say
at all.
”

He kissed her once more, leaving his forehead on hers. “Poor naïve Bluffs girl. You seem to have mistaken me for a gentleman. Guess I need to show you how incorrect that assumption is.” He gave her backside a rough squeeze, causing her eyes to widen up at him.

“See you in five,” she said, turning toward the barn. “Hurry up, farm boy.”

E
lla Jane woke up to four missed calls from Hayden. Six months ago, that wouldn’t have been unusual. But as of late, he seemed to have finally accepted that she was someone else now, someone who preferred escaping reality with guys like Devon and Jarrod to sitting on the tailgate in the woods with him or on a pier with Cooper. Or at least she pretended that she preferred it. The only real preference she had was blissful, numb obliteration versus raw red raking across her soul every second of the day. Sighing, she texted Hayden a quick message asking what he wanted. It wasn’t long before she had an answer.

I need you to call me. Now.

Another followed closely behind.

Please. It’s important.

She stared at the phone for a full minute before deciding she could handle whatever he had to say. Maybe it was that he was finally done with her and had moved on. Maybe it was one last plea for her to try and be someone she never would be again.

Slowly, she scrolled to his name on her list of contacts. He answered on the first ring.

“Is your dad home?”

Ella Jane snorted. “That’s literally the absolute last thing I expected you to ask me.”

“Is he? Did he say anything to you about me or my dad?”

Ella Jane’s dad hardly spoke to her anymore. He focused on rebuilding the family landscaping business and bossing her mom around for the most part.

“Um, no and no. We don’t exactly have a lot of heart-to-hearts these days.”

“Okay. Well, that’s all I needed to—”

“What’s going on?”

Silence answered her. Then an audible sigh. “The cops were here this morning,” Hayden said carefully. “A detective. With a search warrant related to something my dad is involved in…stuff your dad knew about and threatened me with.”

“What? What are you even talking about?”

“It’s honestly better if you don’t know the details. Trust me. Just…I don’t know. Maybe ask your dad to call off his dogs. Tell him nothing is going on between us so he’ll back off.”

“I don’t think my dad called any ‘dogs’ on you or your dad. Besides, I’m past the age of consent. What could he really say?”

A female voice in the background interrupted whatever Hayden had been about to say. Ella Jane tried not to care who it belonged to. She failed.

“Look,” Hayden began with his voice lowered, “there are things you don’t know about me, about my family, and it’s better if we keep it that way. But somehow your dad did know and he threatened me the day he caught us on your porch. I thought he forgot about it, but judging from the two uniformed officers who ransacked my house today, he didn’t.”

She couldn’t help but want to know more about this. The thought of her dad causing Hayden’s family trouble because of her was unsettling.

“So, let me get this straight. You want me to talk to my dad about a situation with you and your dad that I don’t know about but he apparently does? One that you won’t elaborate on so I at least know what I’m referring to? And I should tell him to call off metaphorical dogs that he may or may not have sicced on your family. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I’ll get right on that.”

Hayden’s response came out harsh and angry. “Do you know what a book maker is? How about a point spread? Better yet, do you know what it means to shave points in sports?”

Ella Jane searched the chip in her brain for these terms. “No. Am I supposed to?”

“No. You’re not. Look, I have to go. I have to take my grandmother to an assisted-living facility today. And I have to do it alone because my parents are at a meeting with their lawyers. If my dad didn’t keep everything in a safe that wasn’t covered by the search warrant, he and I would likely both be in jail right now. So do me a favor and ask your dad to back the hell off.”

She still didn’t completely understand, but the urgency in his voice combined with the profound sadness when he mentioned his grandmother made her compliant. The old her would have offered to go with him to take his grandmother, but she knew that would only be confusing for both of them.

“Okay. What should I say? Just tell me what to tell him and I will.”

Hayden let out a harsh sound that almost sounded like laughter. “Convince him there’s nothing between us and that it’s all in the past and didn’t mean anything. Make him see there isn’t a chance in hell you’d ever have anything to do with me again. I mean, you convinced me. Surely you can handle him.”

“Hayden—”

“And maybe tell him that, if he’s so concerned with his precious daughter being involved with law breakers, perhaps he should have his cop buddies run a check on the company she’s currently keeping.”

Before she could argue, could defend why she behaved the way she did, Hayden disconnected the call.

“T
here’s nothing between us and that it’s all in the past and didn’t mean anything.”

Hayden’s words had struck a lot deeper in her chest than anything had in a long time. The hollow hurt from the wounds she’d inflicted were clear even over the phone. She sat in her room staring at her phone for a solid hour trying to think of what she could possibly say to make it better. She came up empty.

I never meant to hurt you.

I was trying to protect myself.

I was scared.

I was angry.

I was confused.

None of them felt like a worthy apology. That summer had meant a lot to her and so had he at one time, but so much had changed. She had changed. Looking into the hopeful face of someone who knew you as someone else, who had a whole set of expectations you couldn’t meet, had overwhelmed her in her early stages of grief. Even now, she didn’t know if she would ever again be the kind of girl who could be in a relationship. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Hayden to provide a happily ever after. It was that she didn’t trust herself or the universe to allow it.

Looking up into the mirror across from her bed, she studied her face. She didn’t even recognize herself anymore. She looked older, wiser, and none the better for it. Dark rings still lived beneath her faded blue eyes. A permanent crease had settled itself between them. Her lips were dry and cracked from constantly biting them.

I’m a mess,
she thought to herself.
A complete and total mess.

After a long, hot shower, she went to Kyle’s closet out of habit. She pulled a faded, long-sleeved Hope’s Grove High School T-shirt down off a hanger and pulled it over her head. The hanger dropped from the bar onto the floor. Reaching down to pick it up, her hand found a wide shoebox instead.

Belle
, it said on top in his handwriting.

He’d never called her Belle. But judging from the designs on the outside of the box there were women’s shoes inside. She flipped the lid open and saw an expensive pair of never worn leather cowgirl boots. A small white square of paper was tucked between them. Reading the words on it caused her to gasp and drop the box.

She knew exactly who they were for. The one girl at Summit Bluffs that surprisingly hadn’t run out and bought a pair of boots when the Hope’s Groves students had made them strangely trendy.

Ella Jane wanted to confront her, but she knew she had to talk to Cooper first. He and her brother had a pact, one she knew neither of them would ever break knowingly.

So it was time for Cooper to know.

E
lla Jane hadn’t been to the Coopers’ farm in months. It had once been her second home, but it felt strangely foreign now. Most of the barns and stables were still half rebuilt with tarps over parts of roofs. A decrepit old tractor sat to the far corner of the driveway. Cooper’s dad’s truck sat beside the house, parked at an angle that she assumed meant Cooper had driven it last.

She knew he was likely in his loft so she decided to check there first. Walking over to the barn, she practiced what she was going to say.

Cameron was with Kyle last summer. She was the mystery girl.

Blurting it out seemed kind of harsh.

Cooper, I know you really like her and I’m happy for you. Or at least I’m trying to be. But there’s something you should know…

She climbed the ladder to the loft still contemplating the best way to break the news. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would even care. Kyle was gone after all. The Cooper she used to know would’ve cared, would’ve dropped
Cami
in a heartbeat. But what she saw when she topped the ladder confirmed her suspicions. She wasn’t the only one who’d changed. And she didn’t know Brantley Cooper at all anymore.

“Oh God,” she blurted out when a naked Cooper came into view.

His left side was almost as exposed as Cameron Nickelson’s bare right leg and breast. Cooper’s blue plaid comforter and a navy sheet tangled in a knot between them, covering parts Ella Jane did not care to see.

Cooper sat up, startled, before she could move deftly back down the ladder.

“Ellie? What are you doing—”

“Nothing. I’m going. I’m sorry. Forget I was ever here.” She squeezed her eyes shut. But some things you just couldn’t un-see.

Her foot missed the second rung and she slipped most of the way down. Unable to grab anything substantial, she got a fistful of splinters and landed hard on the barn floor. It hurt. God it hurt. But she didn’t have time to process just how much so she stood and bolted to her truck.

Tears hit her eyes as if it were windy out, but it wasn’t. She told herself it was dust from the barn and the driveway.