“CAMERON,” Sophie called from the doorway leading into Cami’s room. “Your mother is going to be home today. You might want to actually get up and take a shower. You know how she feels about wallowing in self-pity.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cami answered with zero enthusiasm. Sophie was right though—she did need to bathe. She almost felt bad for Sophie when she came over and sat on the edge of her bed. She had to reek of sleep, sweat, tears, and regret.

“I don’t understand what’s gotten into you, Cameron Nickelson, but I don’t like it.” Sophie moved her hand up and tucked a piece of Cami’s greasy hair behind her ear. “Last week you were over the moon and this week you’re acting like OPI just discontinued your favorite color of nail polish.”

She forced a half-assed smile and shrugged. She wanted to tell Sophie exactly what had happened, but she was still reeling with guilt for letting her shallow, egotistical upbringing rear its ugly head again.

“It’s nothing,” Cami told Sophie, trying to appease her. “I’ll get up.” Maybe if she took a shower Sophie would drop the interrogation. She really didn’t feel like talking about what she’d done. As she rolled herself to the edge of the bed and dropped her feet the floor, Sophie kept prying.

“Is this about the landscaper? If he makes you happy then don’t let anything stand in your way.”

Cami looked over her shoulder as she walked toward the bathroom door. The fake smile she’d perfected took its place and she nodded. Oh, Sophie, you romantic fool. If only it were that easy.

As soon as she was alone in her bathroom and the hot water was raining down on her from the showerhead, Cami thought about how everything had gone to hell faster than a sinner running to church on Sunday.

She’d woken up in the pool house wrapped up in the arms of the boy she’d just spent the better part of the night completely consumed with and then she remembered the piece of mail sitting on the nightstand that was going to change everything for them. And hopefully solidify her happy ending.

“I’ve got something exciting to tell you,” she’d told Kyle the morning they woke up together in the pool house. Exciting didn’t even begin to describe what she felt that morning waking up in his arms. That’s when she handed him the letter from OSU. The letter that stated she’d been accepted early and guaranteed that if she and Kyle could make it work for one year as a long-distance couple they could be together at college next year.

She had watched Kyle’s blue eyes scan the paper and saw the smile creep across his face as he deciphered what the words on the paper meant for them.

“This is great, babe,” he said, sitting up to pull her into his arms. He may have thought he was playing it cool, but Cami saw the smile fade as quickly as it had appeared.

“I thought you’d be more excited,” she confessed, pressing her head to his chest and tracing a pattern across his skin with her fingertip. She was nervous and she could tell by the heavy sigh he let out that she had a good reason to be. She was certain he was about to tell her that things between them were not going to work out the way she’d hoped.

I’m just a summer fling. He doesn’t want me joining him at school. He’s probably already got a girlfriend there.

“Quit it.” He pressed his hand on top of hers. “I can tell what you’re thinking and it’s not like that.”

“Well, I thought you’d be a little bit more excited about us being at OSU together. I know it’s still a year away, but we can make it work. I really want to try.”

“I really want to try, too.” He turned her in his arms and, with his finger under her chin, lifted her face to his. “It’s just…” He stopped short of telling her and pressed his lips to hers. The calm before the storm.

“Just tell me,” she demanded, pulling back from his embrace. She couldn’t take the not knowing.

“I’m going to turn down the scholarship,” he blurted out.

“What? Why?” She didn’t understand. He’d had his future handed to him on a silver platter, complete with a girlfriend, and he was just going to throw it all away.

“I want—” He shook his head. “I need to stay home and help with the landscaping business.”

“No,” she disagreed, for more selfish reasons than she wanted to admit. “You need to go to college and get a degree.”

“I’m still going to go to college. I already applied at the junior college in Oklahoma City. It’s only thirty minutes away and I can go at night. My mom and my sister need me more than the Cowboy football team. I thought you’d be excited that I was going to be home. We’ll get to see each other all the time now, not just the weekends.”

As nice as seeing Kyle all the time sounded, deep down she knew this was the moment that they would have to be just a summer fling. After he’d told her he was staying home, she knew that there was no way she could introduce him to her parents with ‘junior college attendee’ and ‘blue collar worker’ as her lead-ins.

They would never understand and they’d make sure she knew it. At least when he was going to OSU his future had been bright. Not to mention the ninety-mile drive would’ve provided a buffer between her and her parents.

She had told him that morning that she understood his decision because she really did, even if she hated it. Then she did what she always did when things didn’t go her way. She ignored it.

She ignored the text messages and calls from Kyle. The ones that started: Hey Belle. Can’t stop thinking about you. And more recent ones that said: Please call me back. I need to talk to you.

When her mother called from the airport in Dallas to tell her that her flight was delayed due to bad weather, she tried to ask her for advice.

“Mom, I got my early acceptance letter to OSU.”

“That’s great. That’s where Hayden is going too, right?”

“I don’t know,” she lied. She knew Hayden was going there—or at least he’d planned on it. She didn’t want to talk about Hayden though.

“Mom, what if Hayden and I aren’t together anymore?”

“Since when?” Her mother sighed on the other end of the phone. “Well, I mean, I guess if you two aren’t together it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I’m sure there are some very nice pre-med or pre-law students at college that would be suitable. Though it would break your father’s heart.”

She wanted to tell her mother that she was in love with Kyle, but before she could muster the courage to do so, she heard her mother’s fake pageant voice call out. “Oh my goodness! Rebecca Freeman! I’ve got to go, Cameron. I just ran into an old friend.”

“Thanks for your advice, Mom,” Cami said into a dead receiver. “Great chat, as always.” She rolled her eyes and tossed her phone on the bed willing herself not to cry. It really pissed her off that after all this time she still held out a tiny sliver of hope that one day her mother would actually give a shit about her.

Her laptop chimed from across the room. A new Facebook message. From one of Hayden’s douchebag friends. Prescott’s Back to School Bonfire Tonight @ 8 p.m.

Hayden threw a party every year in one of his grandparents’ fields that bordered Summit Bluffs. Maybe this is exactly what she needed.

Maybe it was time to get back to her old life, old friends, old boyfriend, and forget about the summer—and more importantly, Kyle Mason. The landscaper, since that’s all he was ever going to be.

Before this summer, she wouldn’t have batted an eyelash at blowing a guy off for not doing things the way she wanted. But now it stabbed her deeper than any of her parents’ hurtful actions ever had. She fought off the pain, the feelings, and searched for the shield of numbness she usually wore.

It was just about time to channel the old Cameron and get back to her regularly scheduled life. The one that didn’t include Kyle Mason.

34

Hayden

“YOU’RE coming tonight, right?” Hayden asked Ella Jane as they finished cleaning the shed out on his last day of work at Mason Landscaping. Well, half the day they’d cleaned out the shed and reorganized. The other half of the day they’d spent consumed with kissing and touching and being as close to one another every stolen moment they could manage.

“Hmm, am I?” Ella Jane raised an eyebrow and then winked at him from much too far away. Her innuendo made his knees weak. He shot her a wicked grin as he steeled himself. Turned out his angel had a little bit of devil in her. He loved it. He loved her. All of her.

“Oh you are. Most definitely,” he said, reaching out a hand to pull her to him. He inhaled her sweet honeysuckle scent and claimed her mouth with his. “Every weekend will never be enough. Can I sneak in your window every night?”

“Maybe I’ll sneak in your window. I’m squirrely like that,” she mumbled against his lips.

“That you are.” Kissing her beautiful bee-stung lips one at a time, he shook his head and pulled back. “You’ll get me fired on my last day if we keep this up. What if I need a reference?”

“Oh, I’ll give you a glowing reference, Hayden Prescott. Good with your hands, works well with others, always gets up, and never quits.”

Yep. He was a goner. Falling back under her spell, he kissed her until he had to come up for air or risk passing out.

A horn honked in the distance and she let out a little growl that had his dick standing at attention immediately.

“That would be Pops. I need to get going so I can help get everything ready.” He huffed out a breath. The absolute last thing he wanted to deal with was this party. He wanted to have his girl over for pizza and a movie and enjoy what time he had left with both of his grandparents. But Pops was dead set on doing everything as they’d always done it.