“I think it’s sweet that you’re the overprotective big brother.”
“You should try telling her that,” he mumbled into the crook of Cami’s neck, heating her sensitive skin with his breath.
“She’ll see you were just looking out for her one day,” Cami offered as her body began to tingle. “I wish sometimes that I had a big brother to look out for me.” It would have been a good time to come clean with any and all transgressions Cami may have been hiding from Kyle, but his hands started to move across the bare skin of her stomach, effectively derailing her train of thought. “I thought you wanted to talk?” A sigh escaped her lips as he peppered kisses up and down her neck.
Before she could move herself to face him, Kyle took matters into his own hands, lifting her up and pulling one knee onto each side of his lap. With their lips only inches apart, a wicked grin danced across his face.
“I think we’ve shared enough to earn a break.”
“Me too,” she agreed as their mouths found one another’s once again.
CAMI couldn’t wipe the love-struck grin off her face as she watched him walk out the gate that night. She could honestly say that this was the first time since her freshman year she’d stopped at second base with a guy. While she would have happily let Kyle hit a homerun, they’d agreed to take it slow.
“We’ve got nothing but time, baby,” he’d whispered. A shiver of excitement, of promises of what was yet to come, was enough to quiet the nagging voice in her head that had always pushed her to be a pleaser. She’d always thought that guys only wanted one thing from her, so she always just obliged. But Kyle was different.
He wanted her—all of her. The real her. And that was the one thing she’d never given anyone.
13
Kyle
“SO what’s the deal for the Fourth? Same old?” Coop asked while they stacked up bags of pea gravel in the Masons’ barn.
“Yeah,” Kyle said as he tossed one of the bags from his shoulder to the ground. “About that… I kind of have other plans.”
“Of course you do,” Coop smirked as he moved the final bag off the pallet. “Should have known you’d blow me and EJ off for you new lady friend.”
“Hmm…let’s see,” Kyle said, holding up his hands. “Hanging out with your ugly mug, doing the same thing we’ve done for the past thirteen years, or making a few fireworks of my own with a pretty girl?” He moved his hands up and down, weighing his options.
“Point taken.” Coop chuckled.
“Oh, and I’m sure you’re really pissed that you’ll get to hang out with my little sister all by yourself.”
“What are you talking about?” Coop’s eyes went as wide as a doe’s in headlights.
Kyle fought back a smile. He wasn’t stupid. Anyone with eyes could see that Brantley Cooper had a thing for his sister. That didn’t mean he was going to come right out with his official big brother blessing of their relationship. Coop was going to have to work for that.
Not to mention, Coop had yet to man up and tell him the truth. He denied each and every time Kyle brought it up. As long as Coop was too chicken to tell him, he could squirm. Their friendship aside, Ella Jane was his little sister, and as far as he was concerned no one was really and truly good enough for her—even his best friend.
“I’ve been gone most of the summer. The two of you don’t seem to miss me.”
“That’s not true.” Coop shook his head. “All your sister talks about is how much she misses you.”
“Yeah, I miss you because I have to pick up the slack around here.” Ella Jane’s voice rang out from above them. Coop and Kyle looked up to see her legs dangling from the hayloft as she rested her arms on the center railing and leaned out to glare down at them.
The two boys watched as she skillfully slipped through the railings and dropped down to the barn floor, the same way she’d done since she was six and had watched her brother do it.
“Who’s this girl you’re making fireworks with?” she asked her brother as soon as her feet hit the ground. “Better not be that skank Mackenzie. I can’t stand that girl, and if you think I’m going to sit across the dinner table from—”
“Easy, girl,” Kyle cut her off. “It’s not Mackenzie. Not that it’s any of your business who I date.”
“Sure it is,” she informed him, crossing her arms over her chest. “You always butt your nose in my business, so I’m just repaying the favor.” Kyle waited for the glance she usually snuck at his best friend, but it didn’t come.
Something had seemed a little off with her lately. Usually it was all batted eyelashes and sly smiles in Coop’s direction, but she seemed to be purposely ignoring him. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he was fairly certain his little sister was pissed at his best friend.
“Not that there is anything going on with me that you need to worry about,” she added. Kyle could practically see the heat flying off her words. Maybe he didn’t need to worry about Coop and EJ hooking up. Looked to him like that flame had extinguished itself.
“There’s a difference between being protective and being nosy, EJ.”
“Overprotective,” Ella Jane corrected him. “And I’m not being nosy. I was in here doing inventory when y’all came in. And I happen to know what kind of trash you try to pass off as acceptable company.”
“Get lost, brat.” Kyle pulled a leather work glove from his hand and tossed in her direction.
“My pleasure,” she sassed. “You two clowns are boring me anyway.” She made her way out of the barn without a second look.
“She’s in a mood today,” Kyle joked.
“Yeah,” Coop agreed. A few seconds passed as Coop stared at the barn door as if he were waiting for EJ to reappear. Slowly he slid his attention back to his friend. “Hey, I need to ask you something.”
“Ask away.”
“You still picking up shifts every now and then down at that shipping place?”
“Sometimes,” Kyle answered, surprised at the turn of direction the conversation was taking. “Why?”
“Just wondering if there was any way you could get me a job?”
“A job?” Kyle’s eyebrows shot up. “You already work from sunup to sundown. When would you have time to work there?”
“Graveyard shift maybe?” Coop shrugged. “I’ll make it work. Money’s a little tight right now. We could use the extra income.”
Kyle saw the desperation in Coop’s eyes. As close as they were, they never really talked about the super serious stuff. They were guys, after all.
As much as Kyle wanted to help his buddy out, he didn’t really want Coop involved with the crew that ran the loading dock. They were pretty sketchy. The only reason Kyle kept picking up shifts there was because he had no other option. Not since his dad had bailed.
The job paid quick cash and the Masons needed it. Kyle turned a blind eye to whatever it was he was helping transport. Drugs, guns, fake handbags, he didn’t care. It was strictly about the money.
“I’ll see if there are any openings,” he lied, giving Coop a pat on the back. There was no way he was getting his best friend involved with that crowd. Besides that, as soon as he started college, Kyle was out too.
“Thanks, man.” Coop smiled, looking relieved.
“No problem. I’m sure everything will work out.”
“Hope you’re right.”
“Me too.” Kyle forced a smile of his own. He wasn’t about to tell his friend that things didn’t always work out the way you hoped.
“HEY, Mason! You gonna stick around this weekend and find out what college is really about or you gotta run back home?” Fletcher Collins, OSU’s second string quarterback, asked in the locker room after Thursday training camp. “School’s not back in session, but there are still a few hot stragglers spending the summer on campus.”