Elizabeth Lee - Storm Warning

“Who do you think she’ll call when she really needs something? If she’s stranded on the side of the road and needs someone to tow her out? I’ll give you a hint. It probably won’t be you.”

Hayden forced a cocky grin he wasn’t really feeling. “Yeah well, at least if she calls me I’ll actually show up. You’ll have to check with her brother first, right?”

He watched as Cooper tried to murder him with his stare. “Let me guess, you’ve never been a decent friend to anyone? Screwed all your best friends’ girls behind their backs?”

“Don’t act like you know me,” Hayden said through gritted teeth. He’d done some shady stuff in his past, but he was different now. And Joe was walking a fine line between speculation and sore subjects.

“Fine. Then don’t act like you know her. Because no matter what happens between the two of you this summer, you won’t ever really know her like I do.”

Hayden’s brows dipped in confusion. What the hell was Joe talking about? Had he and Ella Jane been sneaking around behind Kyle Mason’s back? Was she maybe not as innocent as she seemed? He almost shook his head at his own stupid thoughts. No way. He’d kissed her, tasted her sweet innocence on her lips.

Coop huffed out a harsh laugh. “I can tell where your mind is going, and that’s exactly why I don’t like your ass. There’s more to knowing her than the way you’re thinking.”

“You’re a mind reader now?”

“I’m a dude, and I know you’re wondering if maybe there isn’t more to my friendship with Ellie May than meets the eye.” Cooper smirked. “Have fun wondering.”

The slamming of the screen door jerked both boys’ attention back toward the porch.

“What are y’all talking about?” Ella Jane asked as she practically skipped down the stairs to stand between them. Hayden smiled at her carefree expression. She was a much-needed breath of fresh air easing the tension that had built up in his chest.

Glancing over, he saw her appearance had the opposite effect on Cooper. The guy’s eyes darkened, and he narrowed them at Hayden for a full minute before speaking. “Nothing,” he said, clenching his jaw as soon as the word was out of his mouth.

“You, angel face. What else?” Hayden said, wishing she were standing closer to him instead of equally close to him and Coop.

“Must be a slow news day if all y’all can talk about is little ol’ me.”

“Something like that,” Coop grumbled, shooting Hayden another dirty look before nodding toward the boxes by the porch. “Get your boyfriend to carry those in. If he can lift them. Mama sent them over.”

“Tell her thank you. And Mama said to let her know we’d pay for them. She wanted to give y’all a cut of the money she made at the market anyways.”

Hayden watched as Cooper’s expression clouded over. “Don’t sweat it. I need to get back to the farm. Some of us do actual work for a living.”

Dropping his arm across Ella Jane’s shoulders, Hayden fought the urge to wink at Cooper as he got in his truck. His stomach turned at the thought that this might be temporary. Ella Jane might only be his for the summer, and then what? Would Joe make a move once he was out of the way? It gave him a headache to think about. So he didn’t even look back at the other guy and focused all of his attention on the beautiful girl at his side.

Dust and gravel flew behind him as Cooper tore out of the driveway.

“Wonder what his problem is?” Ella Jane wondered out loud.

Hayden shrugged as if he had no idea. “Who knows.”

IT was nearly seven and his grandpa still hadn’t shown up to pick him up. Hayden was exhausted from working harder than he ever had in his entire life. Covered in dirt and sweat, he sat on the Masons’ front porch and sipped the glass of tea Ella Jane had brought him. Through the open door, he could hear her sweet voice placing orders for sod and fertilizer. She used her professional voice on the phone. He’d bet money the person on the other end couldn’t tell she was only sixteen.

A breeze blew and he watched the tall grass in the field across the road bend and sway with the wind. Finishing off his drink, he stood and took in the view from the Masons’ front porch once more. There was something about this place.

A peacefulness settled over him here. No so-called friends constantly up his ass about what the plans were that weekend, which girls they were hanging out with, or whatever. No dad hounding him about drumming up more business for whatever scheme he was currently involved in. Just long days, sunshine, cool breezes, and the most beautiful girl in the world.

Deep down he hoped summer would never end. Maybe he’d talk to his parents about moving in with Gran and Pops for real. They were getting older. Surely they’d be happy to have some help.

Before he had time to really formulate a proposal, Ella Jane burst out of the house. “Hayden, your grandpa just called.”

The panicked expression she wore made his head throb. “Okay. What’d he say? Where is he?”

She swallowed hard and turned her round, bright blue eyes up to his. “He’s at the hospital. He had to take your grandma to the emergency room.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Cami looked up into Kyle’s eyes, hoping he’d drop it. She smoothed her hand down his chest, trying to distract him from his new favorite subject—convincing her to go on a real date with him. He’d been tossing the idea around for a while now, but ever since the close call at Pinkberry, Cami was more committed to hiding out at home than ever.

“You really are ashamed of me, aren’t you?” he teased, grabbing her hand in his. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she still saw a trace of wounded concern in his beautiful blue eyes. “We’ve been seeing each other for what…” He squinted, calculating their time together. “Nearly two months now. And we’ve only been on one date.”

“I like having you all to myself back here in our little oasis.” She grinned, turning in his arms to face the pool. The deck-side lounge chair they’d claimed as theirs barely fit both of their bodies. Neither of them minded the close proximity it forced.

“Yeah, but I want you to meet my friends and my sister and my mom. What good is a beauty queen for a girlfriend if I can’t show her off?” He winked to let her know he was kidding but she sighed.

“It’s complicated.” She attempted to beg him to drop it with her gaze, hoping he wouldn’t ask her to explain. “Can we please just wait a little while longer to announce us to the world?”

Cami had yet to tell Kyle everything about herself. He knew that her mother had left her home while she gallivanted around a sandy beach in a swimsuit that was better suited for someone half her age. And she’d filled him in on her father’s extramarital affair.

The two of them had bonded over the fact that their fathers couldn’t keep it in their pants. The one detail she’d left out was that she had been lying to her friends all summer. She’d even gone as far as posting beach pics of St. Tropez she’d found online to her Instagram account.

At first she was worried that Kyle would see her online fibs, but when she checked his Facebook page and saw that his last status update was eight months ago, she knew he was not a social networker. Thank goodness.

While she really did want to go out in public with Kyle, the thought of running into someone she knew and having to come up with some excuse as to why she was home—or have them expose her for the kind of person she was in public—outweighed the excitement of announcing she’d finally found a guy who made her feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

She’d found a guy who wanted her just the way she was and was proud of her even when she wasn’t wearing a tiara or winning a title. One who she could actually be honest with. Well, minus the part about her pretending to be on vacation or that up until she met him she’d been a raging bitch.

All she wanted to do was make it through the next two weeks without anyone becoming wise to her white lie of being out the country.

“I promise you’d have a good time.” He twirled a piece of her hair around his finger. “I’m an excellent date planner. Remember how much fun we had on the Fourth?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

“Oh, I remember. I don’t doubt that.” She’d loved watching the fireworks on the Fourth from the back of his truck. Even if the night had gotten off to a rocky start, it had ended sweetly when he asked her to dance and twirled her around to the lyrics of a sappy love song in that field on the edge of town he’d picked out just for them.

She remembered the way he’d held her close to his chest and made her feel like every word of that song had been written for them. And the way he’d kissed her lips and let her know he felt the exact same way.

She tilted her head back to look at him again. She was a sucker for his blue eyes. He could have asked her to go to the moon at that moment and she would have packed a bag.

“I was thinking I’d show you what us country kids do for fun.”

“Go on.” She was intrigued. She’d confessed to him in an earlier conversation that she’d never even been on a farm, and once he’d stopped laughing, he promised he’d take her to one.

“Well for starters, I’d come over and you’d actually walk out the front door.”

“Ha-ha,” she deadpanned. He tightened his arms around her, forcing a giggle from her lips.