Storm Warning (5 page)

“They went without me?”

“You were late.” She shrugged and her mouth turned down slightly. “They didn’t want to wait around.”

“Hmm.” That stung a little. He knew that going away to college was going to mean missing out on all the things he loved about home, but he didn’t think his best friend would replace him with his sister so soon. Sure, EJ usually tagged along, but he and Coop had found that fishing hole while she was still carrying a baby doll around. Plus he didn’t love the idea of the two of them alone together. He’d caught Coop whispering things to EJ that made her giggle and blush more than once.

“What exactly took you so long?” his mom asked as he jumped down off the counter.

“Nothing,” he answered, feeling that same goofy smile he’d been wearing the entire ride home take over his face.
Cami
.
That’s what took me so long.
“Just tired from practice. Took me a little longer than usual.”

“Whatever you say,” Millie Mason answered with that all-knowing smile. He could fight back his grin as much as he wanted, but she’d seen it. She was good at figuring her kids out. She could tell when they were lying, sad, and excited, and she could tell when they’d met someone. She didn’t announce her observations, but Kyle knew she could tell. “Go get your sister.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

O
NCE
Ella Jane and Coop reached Red River Canyon, he unloaded the gear like he’d done a million times. They had been coming here since they were kids. It had always been the three of them, but with Kyle gone, they were down to two.

“You’re unusually quiet this evening. What’s up?” he asked the girl stretched out on the bank next to him. Something was wrong, he could tell. Surely she wasn’t this upset over her crazy-ass friend leaving town. He’d been more than happy to see that psycho chick go.

“Just feels weird,” she admitted with a heavy sigh. “Kyle not being here.”

He let his eyes drift away from her and across the smooth surface of the water. A few ripples caused by bugs or fish or whatever made him nervous. He was thinking about making some ripples of his own.

The three of them had always been in perfect sync, each knowing when the other needed a late-night fishing trip or a beer or just to sit and be pissed off. Kyle would’ve killed him if he’d known the few times he’d let Ella Jane drink a beer. She was a lightweight though, so he never let her have more than two.

“Weird? As in bad?” he asked, pulling a can out of the cooler.

“Just weird as in different,” she informed him, baiting her own hook like the champ that she was.

“He should be home anytime, right?” It was Sunday. Coop knew the answer to the question. Kyle was his best friend so he knew that he had OSU training camp during the week and came home at different times on the weekend. He just really hoped that he’d be late this particular day.

She smiled back at him, her perfect mouth curving in a way that made his mind go blank. “Yeah. He worked today. Some house where the family is out of town. He should be back any minute now.”

“Ah. You know, sometimes different can be a good thing.” Coop gave her shoulder a slight nudge and left his arm resting close to hers. Either he was imagining things or she was holding her breath. “Seriously. You okay?”

She nodded and bit her lip. He watched as she fidgeted with her reel. “Yeah. I am. Just lots of things changing this summer.”

“Like your dad moving out?” He knew Brad Mason had ditched his family a few weeks ago, leaving her and her mom to deal with everything alone. Dude needed a swift kick in the nuts as far as he was concerned. “Heard anything from him?”

When her eyes met his, they were shining with the promise of tears.

“Shit, Ellie May.” He reached for her, resting his hand on her arm. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.” Now he kind of wanted to kick himself in the nuts.

“It’s fine. You’re fine. I’m…” She waved a hand between them before she lied one more time about being
fine
. He raised his hand to wipe away a tear she’d let slip with his thumb and then palmed her cheek gently.

The way she was looking up at him, like she needed him, gutted him, and it didn’t help matters that she’d leaned her face into his hand. He’d held back for so long. Want and need twisted inside of him, demanding that he pull her closer.

He wanted nothing more than to claim her sweet mouth as his. He was pretty sure she’d only been kissed by one guy. Actually, he knew it. He’d been there when Kyle gave Seth Milner a black eye two years ago.

It might not have been Seth’s fault that the bottle landed on Ella Jane, but he was the one who had spun the damn thing. Personally, he was going to wear whatever wounds her brother gave him with pride. Because he knew it was going to be so worth it.

His other hand found her cheek, and for the first time, Coop felt a sense of confidence. She wasn’t pushing him away or pulling back. No. Her blue eyes were inviting him to continue. Her lips parted as he slowly inched his way closer.

“Coop,” she said softly, the ache in her voice bringing him to the present and stopping his forward motion dead in its tracks. He didn’t want to take advantage of her, but he’d held out as long as he could.

The roar of an ATV behind them cut off whatever else she was about to say.

Coop closed his eyes and swore. “What the—”

“Kyle! You’re back!” Ella Jane scrambled to her feet as her brother exploded out of the timber behind them.

Coop leaned back and cast his line out, as if the only thing Kyle Mason had disturbed was the fish.

“I am.” He chuckled as his sister jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Damn, EJ,” he managed to get out despite the fact that she was cutting off his air supply. “You miss me or what?”

Ella Jane stepped back, releasing her brother and shrugging. “Eh, maybe a little.”

“Mom is looking for you back at the house. Something about the Rogers’s account.” Kyle handed her the keys to the four-wheeler and stepped over toward Coop. “Y’all fishin’ without me now?”

Cooper propped his pole in the dirt and stood. “You snooze you lose. What, no hug for me?”

“Get over here.” Kyle reached for Coop, pretending to go in for a hug before landing a backhand right between his legs. “Still want a hug?”

“Naw, man,” Coop grunted out, trying to avoid the indignity of bending over in pain. “I’m good. So glad you’re back.”

“So, um, I’ll see y’all back at the house?” Ella Jane asked, ignoring the boys’ obnoxious antics. “Coop, you coming over for dinner?”

“Yeah, Coop,” Kyle chimed in with raised eyebrows. “You coming over for dinner?”

“Er, probably not tonight. Lots of work to do at the farm. Matter of fact, I should probably be heading back about—”

“Stay a minute. I need to talk to you about something,” Kyle said as he cracked open a beer.

Coop swallowed hard and his eyes shot to Ella Jane.
He knows. He must have seen us.
He was tempted to ask her to stay so there’d be someone to witness the murder. Once she was out of sight, he turned to his best friend. “What the hell, man? That shit hurt.”

“Oh, did it? My bad, dude.” Kyle took a long pull on his beer and let his eyes rake over his friend. “You know I trust you, right, Coop?”

Before he could answer, Ella Jane barreled right through the middle of them and gave Kyle one last hug. “I’m so glad you’re home,” she whispered, barely loud enough for Coop to hear. “Okay, now I’m going for real. Behave yourselves, boys.” A quick smile in Coop’s direction and she was gone.

“Jesus. What’s up with her?” Kyle set his beer down and stared intently at Coop.

“What do you mean?” Coop blurted out. “Nothing’s up with her, that I know of. Why would something be up with her?”

Kyle arched a brow. “She usually just greets me with a list of shit I need to do around the house. Suddenly it’s all tackle hugs and she’s so glad I’m home? I was gone four days, not four years.”

Coop cleared his throat and glanced over his friend’s shoulder. “I don’t know. I guess she’s having some issues with all the changes. First your dad, then you, and that crazy-ass friend of hers left town today. So, it’s a lot for her to deal with I guess.”

“That’s one hell of an analysis, Dr. Phil. How long were y’all down here before I came?”

“Like five minutes,” Coop lied, before changing the subject. “Where the hell have you been? I know it doesn’t take you five hours to check one lawn.”

“No it doesn’t.” Kyle gave him a smug grin before taking another swig from the silver can. “That part only took about twenty minutes.”

Coop knew the look in his buddy’s eyes. He could tell when Kyle Mason was smitten.
“How’d you manage to meet a girl at college already? You’ve been there for like three seconds.”

“Didn’t meet her there.”

Coop wondered if the love-drunk look on Kyle’s face as he shook his head was the same one he tried to hide around Ella Jane. And if he did as shitty of a job of hiding it as his buddy did.

“Don’t tell me some bored, rich housewife threw herself at you again.” Coop laughed.

“That happened one time, and if her face hadn’t been full of Botox, I might have taken a crack at her,” Kyle joked, sitting down and leaning back to rest his forearms on the ground. He glanced up and then let out a sigh of contentment. “This girl was not some bored housewife. Not even close.”

“No? So no pissed off husband will be hunting you down anytime soon?”

“Nope.” Kyle smirked. “No boyfriend either. She made that perfectly clear.”

Coop grinned. “Was this before or after you bagged her?”

Kyle sat up straighter and turned to face Coop. “Before, considering that hasn’t happened…yet.”

“Aw man, you like this one? What happened to living it up at OSU? And what about all those college girls you and I were gonna—”

“Hey, jackass, just because you bag ’em and tag ’em doesn’t mean I have to. I can’t help it if you haven’t found one worth getting to know.” Kyle shrugged and polished off his beer.

“Oh and you have?” Coop asked, still suspicious. “Just last week you were trying to get Mackenzie Watson to go for a ride with you.”

“Things change. I may have found one I want to do more than take a ride with.”

Coop didn’t respond right away. Just opened another beer and stared at the water. “So tell me about your weekender? She worth the ninety-mile drive home? And here I thought you came all this way to spend time with me.” He faked a hurt look at his friend.

“She might be,” Kyle admitted.

Coop could see it all over his friend’s face that there was something different about this one. Because whatever was going on, Kyle was keeping it to himself.

“Don’t worry, buddy.” He reached over, patting Coop on the back. “You’ll find a girl like that someday.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna hold my breath.” Coop snorted. His chest tightened at his own lie.
He’d found one all right. He’d spent his entire life getting to know her. He just also knew he couldn’t have her.

He’d always been honest with his best friend. Well, except for last summer when Ella Jane accidentally hit her brother’s truck when he was teaching her how to drive. He’d taken the blame then, said it was his dumb ass not paying attention. And here he was, lying again.

“I’m just glad my sister isn’t dating,” Kyle confessed. “Not that I don’t want her to be happy or anything. There’s just a bunch of assholes out there, you know?”

“Yeah,” Coop agreed. “Like us, right?” He forced out an uncomfortable laugh.

“Hey, I know we screw around a lot and all that, but in all seriousness. I need to know something.” All traces of humor were gone from Kyle’s voice.

Cooper sat completely still and waited. This was it. He braced himself for the blow to his face.

“You’re going to look out for her, right? When I’m gone? I need to know that somebody is gonna be here to take care of her. And you’re the only person I actually trust.”

Normally, Coop would’ve made a joke. Rolled his eyes or told his friend he should consider applying for a drama scholarship. But he knew that Ella Jane was right. Things were changing. And he could feel the heavy waves of tension and worry rolling off of his friend and slamming into him.