Elizabeth Lee - Storm Warning

“Hope the Good Lord doesn’t strike you down for lyin’,” Ella Jane said quietly to him.

Joe ignored his greeting but gave a curt nod to his grandma. “Come on, Ellie May. Mama’s makin’ your favorite lunch. She’s expectin’ us.”

Hayden cut his eyes coolly to Brantley Cooper. So Joe wanted to play this game? Tough. He’d seen the way he wussed out on her and made her cry. Missed your shot, buddy. Hate that for ya.

He opened his mouth to invite her to have lunch with him and his grandparents instead, but his grandma beat him to it. “EJ, I see you have lunch plans already. Won’t you join us for dinner tonight? Hayden and his grandfather are firing up the grill. And I’ll make that caramel apple pie you love so much.”

Hayden raised a brow and waited for her response. Joe Dirt was breathing a little more heavily, but what could he do? They were at church, and no one argued with his grandma. Not even him.

“Yes, ma’am, I’d like that. Can I come early and help with the pie?”

With her cat-ate-the-canary grin, his grandma nodded. “Of course. Tell your mama she’s welcome to join us.”

“Yes, ma’am. Um, see y’all this evenin’, I guess.” Her voice was soft, sweeter than he was used to, and it did something to him. Something he couldn’t understand fully. He tried to figure it out as she walked away. Yeah, he wanted her. As in, wanted to get her naked or just get under that dress with every body part she’d allow. He’d even let her leave the boots on. But this feeling, this was…something else.

The clear blue in her eyes was brighter in the sun. He wanted to kiss that sweet Sunday girl with eyes shining in the sunlight. He wanted to hold hands with the wild, free version of her as she ran alongside the night trains she loved.

But she made him hungry in a way he’d never felt. He wanted to claim her, punch Joe Dirt in the face, and grab her up, sling her over his shoulder, and carry her away to their own private island where no one would ever interrupt.

Most girls, even the hot ones, bored him. Or maybe who he pretended to be around them bored him. Ella Jane Mason electrified every nerve ending in his body until he felt raw and exposed. Just her very presence sent his heart pounding, pumping testosterone and adrenaline through him so hard he couldn’t think straight. He could spend every day with her and never get bored, never feel like he knew everything about her there was to know.

He wanted to know what she looked like when she first woke up, what movies she liked, what made her laugh, what made her cry. Well…he already knew what made her cry. But the rest of it, he was determined to find out. Joe Dirt could deal with it.

“You’re welcome,” his grandma said as he opened the truck door for her. “Don’t make me regret being your wingman.”

A hard jet stream of freezing cold water on his back snapped him out of the fantasy he’d been having about kissing Ella Jane Mason. Whirling around, he saw her feigning innocence as she watered the flowers up near the front porch.

Since dinner with his grandparents Sunday night, things had been different between them. He’d walked in the house and found her bare legs swinging from his grandma’s countertop as the two women made pie.

Hit with an image he hadn’t been prepared for, he’d nearly lost his breath. She and her mother had chatted easily with his grandparents all through dinner. He’d answered questions when asked, but he couldn’t even concentrate on the food or the conversation with Ella Jane’s knee brushing against his under the table. He’d spent most of the night trying to figure out if she was doing it on purpose.

When she left, she’d given him a shy smile and a hug goodnight. A hug. If any other girl he was interested in had tried to hug him, he’d have been checking his text messages behind her back. But the subject of her dad had been briefly mentioned, and he knew from his grandfather that he’d run out on them earlier that summer.

She needed that hug, and the fact that she wanted it from him instead of Joe? Well that pretty much made his whole life. So he’d wrapped his arms around her, inhaled her sweet honeysuckle and clean, girly scent, and squeezed as hard as he could without hurting her.

“I’m glad you came, angel face,” he said low in her ear. He didn’t miss the fact that she looked a little dazed when she stepped back.

“Um, me too. See you at work tomorrow?”

He didn’t know why it was a question. There wasn’t anything that could keep him away. “Not if I see you first.” He gave her a wink, stepping back so he didn’t pull her into his arms and give into the urge to press his mouth to hers. Not with her mom getting in the truck four feet away, anyways.

He’d spent the rest of the evening thinking about kissing her. Judging from the way she’d watched his mouth as he told her goodnight, he was willing to bet she’d done the same.

The past four days they’d both been edging around doing something about it. He was going in-freaking-sane. She consumed his every thought, something no other girl had ever done.

On Monday, he’d been sent out with the crew to help with a mowing job, and when he came back, she had been waiting on the porch with a glass of sweet tea. Tea never tasted so good.

Tonight was the Fourth of July celebration in Hope’s Grove, and they were going to watch fireworks on The Ridge. Well, she was going to watch fireworks and he was going to watch her. Until she turned his way and they made some fireworks of their very own.

“OF course it would be Bitch Boy’s granddad who holds our fate in his hands,” Cooper mumbled to himself. He was still burning over the fact that his Sunday lunch with Ellie May had been tainted by the knowledge that she’d be having dinner with him later that night. She’d seemed distracted and just…different somehow ever since.

He and his dad were headed over to the Prescotts’ to discuss getting an advance on the crops this year. Last year’s crop hadn’t paid out very well, and according to Coop’s dad, they were running short on money already this year.

As his dad pulled in front of the old farmhouse the Prescotts called home, it was no surprise to find Edwin and Netta sitting in the two white rockers on the front porch.

If he wasn’t at Harwell’s drinking coffee or out driving by the fields the Coopers farmed for him, you could bet your paycheck the man the whole town called Pops was sitting on the porch with his wife. And it was the Fourth of July—Harwell’s was closed, along with every other business in town.

They’d sit there all day and wave at the cars, trucks, and tractors that drove by. Coop often imagined him and Ellie May doing the same thing one day—reflecting on the life they’d built together. Of course, a future with her would mean he’d actually have to make a move and fess up to his feelings.

“Mornin’, Edwin,” Jim called out as he and Coop made their way up to the porch. “Netta,” he added with a nod and a smile.

“Hope you’re coming to tell me the crops are looking good,” Edwin asked in his down to business fashion as his wife gave a quiet smile and wave.

“Absolutely,” Jim confirmed. “We’re looking at a solid haul this year. Weather’s cooperated and harvest should come early.”

“Good to hear.” Edwin nodded before leaning back. “Something on your mind, Jim?”

Coop could tell his dad was nervous about asking for the advance. He watched him dig his hands into his pockets and rock on his heels the same way Coop did when he thought about confessing his feelings for EJ. Netta Prescott must have had the same observations, because before Jim could say a word, she excused herself to the house.

“I’ll let y’all talk business,” she smiled sweetly, letting the screen door fall shut behind her.

Jim leaned up against the porch railing and took in a deep breath. Coop looked up as the screen door creaked and the one person he was hoping like hell wasn’t around stepped out.

“Gran asked if I’d bring this tea out,” Hayden said as he set the tray down on the small table between the rockers.

“Thanks, kid.” Edwin grabbed a glass of tea and took a drink.

Coop couldn’t help but roll his eyes when Hayden sat down in the empty chair beside his grandfather. This was just freaking perfect. It was bad enough that his dad had to ask for a handout, but now Hayden was going to witness the entire thing. The two Prescotts sitting on their high and mighty thrones.

“Out with it,” Edwin said to Jim.

“I was wondering if there was any way we could get an advance on the crops this year. Like I said before, we’re looking at a solid profit, and it seems I’ve hit a bit of a rough patch. I wouldn’t be asking if I had another option.”

Edwin rocked in his chair and nodded, letting Jim’s proposal sink in. Coop held his breath, right along with his dad. The cocky little smirk that crossed Hayden’s face when he looked from his granddad to Jim made Coop want to put his fist through a wall. Or at least bust up that pretty little face of his.

“I wish there was something I could do to help you out, Jim, I really do, but my funds are pretty tied up,” he finally said.

“Yeah,” Jim sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Recession’s hit us all hard. Thanks anyway.” He started to walk away with the first answer he was given.

Thanks anyway? He couldn’t believe his dad was just going to let it go that easily. Coop stepped forward and words started coming out his mouth before he even had a chance to think it through. His dad might have been okay with Edwin’s answer, but Coop sure wasn’t.