Path of Destruction (22 page)

“Mm-hm,” he murmured with a grin. Damn it if she didn’t know how to get right under his skin.

What he really wanted to do was
tip
her in his arms and
plow
his tongue into her smart mouth. But he wouldn’t because that wasn’t part of their arrangement. He wouldn’t rock the boat and risk losing what they did have. She was willing to look past his asinine behavior at the pharmacy once, but he didn’t want to push it.

“Have fun at your dance tonight, Prom Queen.”

H
e repeated the mantra to himself several times. He wasn’t a prom sort of guy. He didn’t dance, not really. Maybe he’d twirled his mama around the kitchen a time or two in jest, but he didn’t play dress up and choke himself to death in some suit for the viewing pleasure of his classmates. There was work to do. Work he needed to be at home doing.

Except…she’d made it official. Cameron Nickelson and Hayden Prescott weren’t a couple. Sure looked that way sometimes, the way she paraded up and down the halls with him. But he knew they couldn’t have been too serious since it sure as hell wasn’t Prescott in that closet with her.

And the way she’d said, “You’re not coming tonight?” as if she were disappointed. Like she’d expected him to be there for some crazy reason. Did she need him to be?

He remembered the way her social committee “friends” had dismissed her upon her return, how they’d sided with Raquel so easily, a bunch of sheep following the new world order because Cameron didn’t really matter to them.

Tonight, she’d have to stand under the color spectrum of vomit as she’d called it, watch her friends dance, and laugh and have a good time. Would she have a good time? He shook his head as he drove past the mall beside the banquet hall for the fourth time. The real question was, would she have a better time if he was there or if he wasn’t?

Two hours later he was staring at his reflection as he put on his dad’s nicest tie. Granted, it wasn’t a tux, but he couldn’t afford that and he couldn’t afford the hit his dignity would take if he went all out and showed up to find her with someone else. So black jeans with a white button-down and a black silk tie would have to do.

He looked like a fucking waiter.

Sighing at his reflection and deciding this was the best it would get, he realized this was why he’d always been a one-time hook up guy. Driving back to the hotel where prom was held, he contemplated his sadly lacking sexual history. He’d lost his virginity to a random girl at a party he’d attended with Kyle. Nicole something. He couldn’t even remember. He wasn’t sure he’d ever even known her last name. Then there was Courtney Billings, a track bunny that hung around, offering up sexual favors after each race. A few others had tried to vie for head track bunny when he’d had a winning streak, and a few had gotten a go at him. But each time, he’d found himself wishing they were someone else. Someone he wasn’t allowed to want.

“Coop?”

The familiar voice caught him by surprise and he turned to see Ella Jane standing between two of his least favorite Bluffs lacrosse players. Where their leader was, he wasn’t sure.

“Hey, EJ.” He loosened the stiff collar of the shirt he’d changed into. Jarrod Kent had an arm wrapped around her waist, just above where a dangerously short dress ended. “You ready to go in?”

Ever since he’d left the hotel that afternoon, all he could think about was Cameron. Better yet, Cameron all dressed up and at the prom—alone. But now, he was conflicted, because here was another girl he cared about—one he sure as hell had not expected to see here.

Ella Jane raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I thought this was lame and you’d rather be caught dead than at prom?”

That was pretty much exactly what he’d told her when she’d asked if he was coming. Cooper gently cleared his throat while trying to figure out how to explain something he didn’t even completely understand himself. He knew what he was thinking on the ride over, but was he really going to tell Ella Jane that he was about to go make a significant play for the girl she seemed to hate?

“Yeah. Still true. I just had to help set up, and then Cameron was all alone, so I—”

Ella Jane put a hand up. “No need to explain.” She took something from the guy on her left and waved Coop off. “Enjoy the prom. Tell
Cameron
hello for me.”

Cooper frowned at her, trying to make up his mind about whether or not he should throw her over his shoulder and drag her away from Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumbass.

He sighed and stepped closer. The sweet sting of alcohol assaulted his nostrils when he did.

“Don’t leave with either of them, okay? I’m only going to be a few minutes. Then I’ll drive you home.”

“We can handle her,” Kent said. “We’ll make sure she gets home safe and sound.”

Cooper smirked at the little twerp. “You so much as try and I will show you exactly how we
handle
shit where I come from.”

“Easy there, buddy. She’s a big girl.”

“Yep, I’m a big girl,” Ella Jane said, lifting a flask as if making a toast. “And I can handle myself, thank you very much.” She took a big swig and swayed slightly to the left. Cooper groaned. “Ooh, let’s take a picture. Group selfie time!” She turned away from Cooper and pulled out her phone. Jarrod and his sidekick started posing with her.

Cooper stood and watched for a minute to make sure that all they were doing was taking stupid pictures of themselves before heading back into the hotel. He’d find Cameron, dance with her so she didn’t have to stand there alone, then get Ella Jane the hell home. Seemed like a simple enough plan.

Walking through the hotel lobby behind a couple he didn’t recognize but seemed to be hammered, the guy laughing as he held the girl as upright as she could manage, he had a strange twinge of jealously. What if Cameron wasn’t still alone? What if, in the time it had taken him to load his truck, change into his dress clothes, and check on Ella Jane, Cameron had found someone else to occupy her evening?

He didn’t know why that bothered him so much. It should’ve been a relief. If some other chump had asked her to dance then he wouldn’t have to. But the possibility actually made him feel the opposite of relieved.

When the couple ahead of him opened the door to the ballroom, he saw her first. That red dress standing in a gorgeous silhouette near a side exit. She was smiling and talking with a small group of people, so he hung back. But once they’d paired off, leaving her alone again, he started to make his way over to her.

“Hey there,” a nasally wine of a voice called out as a body stepped in front of him. He took his sights off Cameron to look down into a pair of eyes that he assumed were exact replicates of the soulless pits of hell. “You look like a man on a mission,” Raquel stated the obvious, but it certainly didn’t stop her from blocking his path.

“Yeah,” he answered, trying to move past her, and giving another glance in Cameron’s direction. “I kind of am.” If someone asked her to dance while he was being held captive by Raquel, he was going to be seventeen kinds of pissed off.

“Oh I see how it is.” Raquel smoothed her hand down his tie before wrapping her hand with it. “I don’t know why you’re so into her when you have the new and improved model standing right in front of you. How about you and me get out of here and have a party of our own?”

“What in the hell are you talking about?” He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was pretty sure Raquel had just referred to herself as an upgraded model of Cameron. In her wildest dreams maybe.

“I mean, if you want to ditch your dirt road ways by going after the “it” girl of Summit Bluffs, I’ve got news for you. It isn’t Cami anymore.” Raquel looked up at Coop like she was handing him the golden ticket. He felt his brow crease as he looked at her with confusion. Raquel took his silence as him not understanding what she was offering. “Look, you’ve got to be bored of feeling up the ice queen in the janitor’s closet by now. How about spending time with someone a little…hotter?”

Coop took in a deep breath and fought back a handful of comebacks that he knew would have Raquel running to the bathroom in tears. Lucky for Raquel, his mama had raised him better. And it wasn’t just her comments about Cameron that had him seeing red, it was everything else that Raquel stood for. It didn’t bother him one bit that Raquel knew about the closet. If he ever made it over to his intended destination everyone in that damn ballroom was going to know exactly how he felt about Cameron.

“While I appreciate the offer, Raquel, you’re just not my type.” With that he removed her hand from his chest and started to walk away, but he couldn’t just walk away without adding one more thing. “And for the record, Cameron Nickelson is not one of you. She’s better than anything you will ever be.” He wasn’t just raised not to be rude to women, he was raised to stand up for what—or who—he believed in.

Cameron was grinning faintly at the dance floor and didn’t see him immediately. He was thankful she hadn’t seen his interaction with Raquel. Cameron was too busy watching the couples in the middle of the room. She wanted to dance. Glancing around the perimeter he saw that, strangely, he had no competition. Coop figured half the guys were probably assuming she was dating Hayden and waiting for him, and those who knew better were likely intimidated. He could relate. When her eyes finally found his, he was glad to see not only shock but also pleasure in them.

“I thought you weren’t a prom sort of guy?” she asked gingerly as Coop took her hand in his.

“I’m not,” he said, leading her onto the dance floor. “But sometimes that doesn’t matter so much if you find yourself unable to stop thinking about a prom sort of girl.” He winked. “Anyway, I thought we should talk. About some…things.”

“What things?” she asked, putting her arms around his neck and letting him sway her to the slow, steady rhythm of the music.

“I’m gonna tell you,” he promised. “But first, I need a minute to just dance with you, okay?” What he needed was a minute to collect his thoughts and not just ramble off all of the things that were running through his mind. “You look beautiful, by the way,” he said, letting one thought slip out.

“You clean up pretty well yourself.” She smiled as she let one hand smooth down the front of his shirt.

As they held each other on the dance floor, Coop became blatantly aware of the fact that several nearby couples were watching them. He didn’t care and she didn’t seem to mind either as she rested her head on his shoulder.

If neither of them was scared of what everyone else thought, there was no reason he shouldn’t tell her that they should give more meaning to what was happening between them,
right
?

“Cameron,” he said, his voice shaking a bit. “I... I came tonight because—”

She leaned her head back to look up at him. He couldn’t think straight when she was looking at him like that. Like she wanted nothing more than for him to kiss her.

So he did. In front of everyone. And it felt really good.

Her lips parted and welcomed him as he swept his tongue through her mouth. Her arms synched around his neck as he pulled her body tightly to his. He didn’t want to stop. But suddenly there was an outcry near the door in which he’d entered and the news rippled toward them like a tsunami.

Before he could tell her how badly he’d needed that, they found themselves being stampeded by several students rushing out the door. Cooper looked around to see where the fire was. All he saw were people coming toward them. Then he heard it. Someone shout Prescott’s name followed by, “Getting his ass handed to him in the parking lot!” A crowd of people made a rush toward the doors. The whoops and hollers that followed the crowd pulled his and Cameron’s attention from one another. Their eyes flickered to one another’s—hers with a hint of panic and his with a realization.

There was only one reason he couldn think of that would cause Hayden Prescott to pick a fight in a parking lot.

One blond-haired, blue-eyed reason.

“Damn it.” He released his arms from Cameron’s waist, pretending he didn’t see the hurt look that washed across her face. “I gotta go.”

He’d explain everything to her later, about Kyle, about EJ, and about how he felt the need to look out for his best friend’s little sister, while with Cameron he felt the need to stake a claim and be more than a closet make out buddy. But right now, he had to see just how big of a mess the other girl he cared about had made.

Raquel: Been on Instagram lately?

Hayden glanced down at the text again. Raquel. Now there was a girl he wished didn’t have his phone number.

He’d seen the flyers about the hashtag, #SBProm, and how they were supposed to use it for any pictures they took. But since he cared about neither prom nor Instagram, he hadn’t bothered to look. Just as he was about to text ‘no, why?’ back to Raquel, a photo came through. From her.

His eyes narrowed in on the three smiling faces in it. Devon, Jarrod, and in between them holding up a flask as if saying ‘cheers,’ Ella Jane Mason.

“Son of a bitch.”

Turning his Jeep around, Hayden aimed it toward the school instead of toward home. He knew his parents were out and that he needed to get home to check on his grandma, but knowing the kind of company Ella Jane was keeping made her the current priority.