He placed one last chaste kiss on her mouth and pulled back, as much as he hated to. “Remember what I said, babe. I’m warning you—some of my friends are complete jackasses. And the rest of them are worse.”

Ella Jane giggled, a sound that made his whole day brighter. His whole life maybe. “Hmm, I remember thinking you were kind of a jackass at one point.” She hopped up on her tiptoes and gifted him one last kiss. “If I can handle you, I’m sure I can handle them.”

“Will you think about my request? Pretty please?” he pleaded as they left the shed and began the painfully slow walk to where his granddad was parked.

He’d asked Ella Jane to spend the night with him. His gran slept downstairs and Pops slept like the dead. He needed one entire night of her before he went back. Needed to leave her with something to remember him by so she wouldn’t forget him and fall into the arms of his least favorite farmer while they were apart.

“It’s all I can think about,” she said softly, looking shy for the first time since they’d made love a few nights ago. “If Mama says I can stay with Lynlee, then I’m there.”

Before he could respond, she spoke again. “Hey, what if it rains tonight? Forecast is callin’ for a storm.”

“It’s Oklahoma, angel face. They call for a storm every other day.” He chuckled. “Besides, last time it rained, we managed to figure out what to do.”

“We sure did,” she giggled. “The party getting rained out would give us a little more alone time.”

Hayden wondered if his heart was going to explode straight out of his chest at the thought of having her to himself for an entire night. Their first time together had been nice. Nice but cramped and awkward in the cab of her truck. He wanted to lay her out in his bed, please her every way possible, and then hold her all night afterwards. He wanted that more than he’d ever wanted anything.

God he hoped it rained.


IT was after seven when the summer sun finally sank into the horizon. Two cars full of his friends from school had already arrived. A part of him had hoped maybe no one would remember. He hadn’t sent out anything about it this year in hopes of calling the stupid thing off.

After checking to make sure his grandparents were all right for the night, he drove their truck out to the field.

Sitting around a fire on bales of straw and tossing back a few beers would’ve been nice if the dipshits he knew from high school weren’t there to ruin it. Jarrod Kent and Devon Keshner were among the first to arrive. And they were going on and on about their latest run in with a certain redhead that Hayden was almost positive was Ella Jane’s friend.

“Where’d you meet her?” He tried to sound uninterested, taking a long pull from his bottle of Michelob as if he couldn’t care less about the answer.

“Movies over at the plaza. But we didn’t stay and watch—not that movie anyways, if you know what I mean.” Devon Keshner was as shady as they came. Obnoxious as hell and cocky for no good reason.

Hayden fought the urge to sink his fist into his face just for the hell of it.

“J-Rod got shot down,” Devon said, placing way too much emphasis on the last word. “Uptight blonde had a boyfriend or some shit.”

“Naw, she just knew she couldn’t handle The Rod,” Jarrod shot back.

Hayden saw red. He knew exactly who they were referring to now. He had a feeling this night wasn’t going to end well. Storm clouds were rolling in from the east and the wind was already too brisk. If either of them said a word to Ella Jane when she got there, he’d kick both of their asses with a smile on his face.

His phone buzzed in his back pocket and he retrieved it with his free hand. Hoping it was his girl, he grinned and ignored whatever the other guys were bullshitting about. But his hope was short-lived. It was his dad’s number calling.

Standing and stepping away from the group, he answered. “Hey, Dad. I probably won’t have service. I’m—”

“Where’s the black notebook, son? The one you keep your bets in,” his father clarified.

The urgent tone and the fact that his father was bringing up their illegal gambling operation made him uneasy. “Um, it’s either under my mattress or in the Nike box in the top of my closet. Why?”

His chest constricted as he waited for his dad to answer.

“What did I tell you about keeping track of this stuff, Hayden? For God’s sakes, do you know what would happen if anyone found out you took bets for me at school?”

Hayden rolled his eyes as he polished off his beer. Probably the same thing that would happen if people found out his dad paid high school and college athletes to shave points and throw games. Summer wasn’t even over and his dad was already sucking him back into his mess. “Yeah, I know. Which is why I didn’t want to do this in the first—”

“Found it. It was in the closet. See you next weekend, son.” And with that, his dad was gone.

When Hayden looked up from tucking his phone back in his pocket, he was startled to see that the party was in full swing. At least a dozen more cars were there. He scanned them. Beamers. Lexuses. Jeeps. Range Rovers. Black. Silver. Gold. All shiny and proud, parked in the expansive field. No faded blue Ford pickup carrying the girl he wanted to see more than anyone else.

But when he turned to head back to his seat, he saw a girl he wasn’t so sure about seeing. And she saw him.

“Hey Cami-girl,” he greeted the statuesque brunette as she pulled a beer from the cooler. “I thought drinking ruined your skin or something?”

She’d always stayed away from drinking, smoking, or anything that would cause premature wrinkles. Pageants were his ex-girlfriend’s life pretty much.

“Yeah, well. It’s been a long summer. I need a drink,” she said, plopping down on a bale of straw positioned slightly away from everyone else. “You said you wanted to talk. Talk,” she said, gesturing with her bottle.

Hayden cleared his throat. “Um, okay. First things first. How was your summer?” Before she could answer, Devon and a few other guys from the lacrosse team let out a few low whistles and catcalls.

“Get you some, Prescott.”

“Shut your mouth, asshole,” he snapped without thinking. The old him would’ve given a thumbs up behind Cami’s back or a nod over her head. The old him was a dick.

“What’s your deal?” Cami asked, leaning away to get a good look at him. “Why are you being so nice?”

“I just called a teammate an asshole. If this is me being nice then I must’ve been a real jerkoff before.”

Cami shrugged. Her long, dark hair fell over one shoulder as she took another drink. She really was beautiful—there was no denying that. But sitting here with her was just…nice. She was more of a friend than anything. Granted, she was a friend he’d had sex with on a regular basis for the past year, but it wasn’t anything like what he’d felt when Ella Jane was anywhere near him.

With Cami he was comfortable. With Ella Jane Mason he was on edge like a long-tailed cat in a door-slamming factory, as Pops would say. But he loved every second of it.

“So I was thinking,” Hayden began just as Cami opened her mouth to speak.

“Go ahead,” they both said at once.

Giving her a tense grin, Hayden ran a hand through his hair. “So I know we talked about just taking a break for the summer, but—”

“But you didn’t miss me, did you?” Cami let out a small laugh and tilted her head, eyeing him knowingly. He didn’t see any traces of hurt in her expression—just mutual indifference.

“Um, it’s not like that, Cam. It was just…This summer was…”

“Crazy,” she finished for him. She pulled the red-lidded cooler closer and retrieved another beer. After handing him one, she practically downed her own.

“Whoa. How many of those have you had, sailor?” Hayden smiled but something was seriously off. He knew her parents were shitty people for the most part, but she’d spent the summer at some fancy French resort. So what had her so upset she was downing beers like an old pro?

“Oh-em-gee,” two girls squealed loudly as they approached.

Shit. Dread crept up his shoulders, pulling at the muscles in his neck. He’d forgotten just how obnoxious and irritating Cami’s friends were.

“Hayden and Cami. Cami and Hayden,” her friend Raquel sing-songed before smirking at them. “Guess summer’s really over, huh?”

He raised an eyebrow as the girls exchanged a few words. Raquel gave him a lingering glance as she walked away. “Great party, Hayden. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing you later.”

“Doubtful,” he muttered under his breath.

“Raquel seriously wants you,” Cami informed him. But her voice held no hint of the old, petty, jealous version of herself. He didn’t feel like he was even sitting with the same girl he’d dated off and on throughout most of high school. “She probably spent all summer plotting how to get in your pants behind my back this year.”

Hayden snorted. “If she did, Raquel needs a new hobby.”

“Cheers to that,” Cami said, clinking her bottle against his and dissolving into a fit of giggles. “Wait. Is…is being a massive bitch a hobby?”

Hayden chuckled but gently lifted her bottle from her hands and sat it on the ground next to their feet. “Everything okay, Cam? You seem a little…” He knew the wrong word might set her off. She might have relaxed a little this summer but she was still female. “On edge.”

She let out a deep sigh and stared blankly at the chaos ensuing around them. “You ever just feel like it’s all…pointless? All the crap we do to impress everyone, each other, our parents. I mean, really. I feel like I spend every waking second trying to please other people, and for what? I don’t get anything out of it. Not a single thing.”