Elizabeth Lee - Storm Warning

“Yes, Mama. I know,” she hollered back over her shoulder. “I will. I said I would and I will. It’s handled.” The slamming of the screen door would’ve caused him to jump if he weren’t struck dumb by the sight of her.

Hayden felt his jaw drop just as the shovel he was holding did. It landed on his toe so hard he figured he was probably bleeding. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

She zeroed in on him standing there, gaping at her like an idiot. His heart pounded so hard he could hear the blood it pumped rushing into his ears, could feel the vibration of it against his ribs.

The thin straps of her tight white tank top didn’t even cover the tan lines on her shoulders. His mouth went dry and he wondered briefly if he’d had a heat stroke, died, and gone to Heaven. Until the tan-legged, blond-haired angel in cut-off shorts in front of him spoke. “Well, you workin’ out here or what?” she drawled, glaring at him with her bright aquamarine eyes and a hand on her hip. “We ain’t payin’ you to be a lawn jockey.”

Her voice was sweet and harsh and turned him on so hard it hurt. And just like that, a summer in hell turned into a summer in heaven.

HER mother said they’d played together as kids. But Ella Jane knew she must’ve been mistaken. No way was this arrogant jerk the same boy who used to make mud pies with her when Kyle and Cooper left her out.

“Hayden Prescott, EJ,” her mother had prompted. “You remember. Edwin and Netta’s grandson.”

Right. She kind of remembered a dark-haired boy with greenish eyes who came around with his grandfather and chased her around the backyard.

But standing across from her was a male model wannabe who clearly didn’t know an irrigation system from his ass.

“So you gonna actually do some work today or should I just tell Mama you’re headin’ on back to Pretty Boy Town?”

She watched barely contained restraint tighten his facial features. “I’ve been here since six a.m., thank you. Nice of you to roll out of bed and help out.” He bent down and picked up the shovel at his feet. “Now if you don’t mind, how about you run along and grab me something to drink. I’m dehydrating out here.”

Heat rose up inside of her until she could practically feel steam coming out of her ears. “You’ve been half-assing it out here since six a.m. I’ve been watching you from inside while I answered the thirty-two phone calls for work orders, thank you.”

“You’ve been watching me, huh?” Hayden smirked at her reddening face as he lifted the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. “Well, in that case, might as well give you something worth watching.” He slung his shirt aside and went back to digging the holes for the new flowerbed her mom wanted around the elm tree.

Ella Jane felt her eyes widen without permission. So she concentrated on narrowing them at him. She took a deep breath and stormed back toward the house. Where she grabbed the water hose. And sprayed Hayden Prescott right in the face.

“Holy shit…what the hell?” he sputtered, dropping the shovel for the second time and backing up. “Jesus Christ, that’s cold! Are you insane?”

She released her hold on the nozzle trigger and gave him the most innocent grin she could manage. “Can’t have you dehydratin’ out here, now can we?”

She pulled the trigger once more, giving him a satisfying blast of water on his bare chest before dropping the hose.

“Relax on those holes. You’re probably halfway to China,” she said as she sauntered past him toward the barn. “Surely you know the meaning of shallow wells.” She paused to smirk at him one last time. “And be careful using the good Lord’s name in vain. Don’t want him strikin’ you down. Not on our property, anyways.” She didn’t look over her shoulder to watch him use his shirt to dry off his face or his perfect body. But as much as she hated to admit it?

She wanted to. She really, really wanted to.

THE two weeks since Hayden Prescott had started working at Mason Landscaping and Lawn Maintenance had flown by. She tried hard not to think about why that was. Much as Ella Jane tried to pretend otherwise, she lost time thinking about him. Watching him weed eat—or try to weed eat anyways, since it was pretty obvious the boy hadn’t done a day of hard labor in his life—kept her busier than she would ever admit.

Her mother had walked in on her peering out the window at his shirtless tan self more than once.

“Close your mouth, Ella Jane, or you’ll catch flies,” her mother said that Saturday afternoon.

EJ jumped, startled by having been caught, and resumed updating the payroll sheet she was working on. “No idea what you’re talking about, Mama,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Mmhm,” her mother said, pausing in the doorway. “He seems nice enough. Lord knows he’s trying his best to impress you.”

She snorted. “Uh, no he’s not.”

Her mother sighed and cocked a hand on her hip, a trademark gesture of both the Mason women. “Oh he is. Looks like Coop might finally have some competition.”

Her face reddened at the mention of Coop. Sure, their parents and grandparents liked to tease them about one day getting married, but her mother had never brought it up one on one like this. EJ forced an eye roll. “Did you take up smoking crack as a hobby recently?”

“Oh yes, it’s lovely. Just a shade less hazardous than the meth.”

“I can’t believe you just referred to crack as lovely. Wait, no, yes I can.”

Her mother had always been unshakable. EJ and Kyle often practiced straight-faced speeches involving admitting to being pregnant or gay in hopes of seeing her lose her cool. Her response to Kyle’s false claim that he and Coop were secret lovers barely earned a raised eyebrow and an “I suspected as much.” Which made Kyle freak out instead.

EJ’s big pregnancy news received a chuckle and a “I hope you kissed the father goodbye because Kyle is going to murder him.” Yeah, the woman had nerves of steel. Or titanium. Or whatever was tougher than steel.

She even delivered her own “kids, your father moved out today” speech with a straight face. EJ had hoped she was kidding—giving them a taste of their own medicine. But no, he’d moved out last month and only called once to say he was sorry he didn’t get to say goodbye but figured this way was easiest on everyone.

Sure didn’t feel easy to her.

Kyle hated him. He’d told his little sister more than once that a man—a real man—didn’t run out on his family. And she certainly felt like she was supposed to hate him—solidarity sister and all that on her mom’s behalf. But EJ just couldn’t bring herself to. She’d wondered for a long time if her parents were in love. They barely spoke, never kissed, and had always seemed more like business partners than a married couple.

EJ wasn’t twelve years old anymore. She got it. She knew love wasn’t all hearts and flowers. But surely if two people were really in love they acted like it. There had to be some romance involved, didn’t there?

She hadn’t missed the fact that she’d never seen her mom cry over her dad leaving. But lately she had noticed her once unflappable mother sleeping later than usual. And baking like her life depended on it. There were enough frozen casseroles in the deep freezer to feed all of Hope’s Grove every Sunday for the rest of summer.

“Big plans tonight? Showing Mr. Prescott around Hope’s Grove perhaps?” Her mother’s question pulled her back to the present.

“Um, no. Definitely not. Actually, I thought I might go with Kyle and Coop over to Hillside. If that’s okay, I mean. I hate leaving you here all alone.”

Her mother raised her hand and waved it as if her concern were silly. “Please. I enjoy the peace. I’ve got smutty romance novels to catch up on.”

“Oh God.”

Her mother winked. “Everyone’s got to have goals for the summer.”

As if he’d been conjured by their conversation, Brantley Cooper pulled up in the driveway. Speaking of goals. EJ had one. A big one. She was sixteen. Since she was nine years old and had learned what a boyfriend was from a babysitter, she and Lynlee had been saying that as soon as they turned sixteen they were going to get them. Honest-to-God, kiss-you-on-the-mouth, hold-your-hand-in-public boyfriends. And her fantasy boyfriend back then was the same one she wanted now. No matter how good City Boy looked with his shirt off.

Coop would always be the guy for her. Always.

And judging from their almost kiss a few weeks ago, he was finally starting to realize it too.

“Kyle and Coop are here,” she announced, practically skipping toward the door.

“Tell your brother to come in and hug my neck before y’all head to the track, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she promised, only half-paying attention. Her thoughts were already on the brown-eyed guy with the adorable dimples when he smiled walking toward their barn.

She nearly ran over Hayden as she hopped off the porch. “Whoa, easy there, angel face.”

She gaped at him as he caught her by the upper arms. “You did not just call me that.”

“Oh I did. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” He smirked as he released her.

Ella Jane had only felt this conflicted once before. To hate her father or not to hate him. Hayden Prescott summoned a similar burn in her belly. And her skin was on fire where he’d touched her. “No, I don’t think.”

“You don’t think? Funny, you seem pretty intelligent, for a country bumpkin anyways.”

The warmth of attraction flared to a scorch of irritation. “Oh I think plenty. And right now I’m thinking you’re an asshole.”