This night was off to a swell start. She began pulling her arms from the sweater sleeves. A low whistle interrupted her.
“I just got here and already you’re stripping. Should I give you a few more minutes and come back?”
As much as she wanted to glare at him, she grinned up at Hayden as he approached. “Why do you always do that?”
“Do what?” he asked as he hopped up on the tailgate beside her. He offered her a brown paper sack so she took it.
“Make stupid comments like that. Like you’d really be okay with me taking my clothes off out here.” She peeked in the bag. “Oh, never mind. You can be an ass all you want. Grandma Prescott’s caramel apple pie is my favorite.”
Hayden laughed, but it was a short laugh. Then he cleared his throat. “For starters, I have no problem with you taking your clothes off up here. Pretty sure I’m the only one who can see. And secondly, I made the pie for the festival because my grandma wasn’t feeling so hot.”
Ella Jane ignored the comment about her clothes and inspected the pie with the plastic fork he’d handed her. “Oh no. I hope your grandma’s okay. And I hope you didn’t just poison the whole town.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. And yeah, she was just tired, I think.” He paused and set his own piece of pie aside. “Can I ask you something?”
With her mouth full of warm apple pie—pretty decent pie actually—Ella Jane nodded.
“Would you give two of me for one of Joe, er, Cooper?”
“Um…” EJ forced herself to swallow. She couldn’t help but notice Hayden’s normally gleaming eyes seemed a little dimmer as he reached over and wiped a crumb from the corner of her mouth. Her skin burned where he touched her, and it was scary and intoxicating all at once. “Why would you ask that?”
Hayden shrugged and removed his hand. “Something my grandpa said.” She studied his profile as he turned his face to the sky. “Ever feel like no matter how hard you try, nothing you do will ever be good enough? Like you can do two million things right but people will always remember you for the one thing you did wrong?”
“Kind of. But I mean, all you can do is your best, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” He turned to her and tilted his head to the side.
Ella Jane sucked in a breath as Hayden leaned his face toward hers.
A loud boom interrupted whatever had been about to happen. Startled by the fireworks blossoming and falling in front of them, they jumped apart.
“Aren’t they beautiful?” Ella Jane asked as the sky lit up with bright blasts of blue and purple and red and green. Flashes of light reflected on her face as the twinkly ones she loved went off.
“You’re beautiful,” Hayden said quietly from beside her.
“What’d you say?” she asked turning her attention back to him.
“You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
The abrupt honesty of his words shocked and thrilled her to her core. “I don’t… No one’s ever said that to me before. I don’t know what to say to that,” she breathed.
“Most girls I know would say ‘I know I am,’” Hayden told her with a grin.
“Really? What kind of girls do you know?”
“Fake ones. Conceited ones. Insecure ones. Lots of different kinds. None like you though.”
“And what kind of girl am I?” Ella Jane asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She held her breath as she waited for his answer.
“Real. Honest. You don’t hide behind makeup or worry about what anyone else expects or thinks.” A breeze blew between them, and he brushed her hair gently out of her face. “I never know what you’re going to say next. You always know when I’m full of crap. You amaze me. And you scare me a little, too.”
Ella Jane’s eyes widened. “What do you mean I scare you?”
Hayden shook his head, glancing up as if the words he needed might drop from the sky like rain. “I don’t ever know what you’re thinking. Well…sometimes I do.”
She laughed nervously, scooting a tiny bit closer to him on the tailgate. “Oh yeah? Like when?”
“Like when you’re thinking about kissing me.”
She scoffed, giving him a small playful shove. “Shut up.”
“Seriously. It’s cute. I love that you try to pretend like you’re not thinking about how bad you want to kiss me every time you see me.” With his trademark smirk, he leaned in and placed his forehead on hers.
“I’m not,” EJ whispered, shaking her head against his. “I’m not thinking about how bad I want to kiss you.”
“Oh yeah?” Hayden pulled back a few inches. “Then what are you thinking about?”
Pulling in a deep breath and gathering up all her courage, she met his stare and told the truth. “I’m thinking about how bad I want you to kiss me.”
That was all the confirmation Hayden needed. “Ella Jane Mason, I’m going to kiss you before this night is over. If you don’t want me to, you should say so. Soon.” His eyes looked like they were memorizing her mouth.
“If you don’t kiss me, after all that, then I’m going to be seriously disappointed.”
“Well we can’t have that,” Hayden said softly just before he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.
Fireworks went off around them as they both fell headfirst in love for the first time ever.
22
Cooper
SOME guys had all the luck. They were born into wealthy families. Seemed to be in the right place at the right time. And they always, always, got the girl.
Brantley Cooper was not one of those guys.
As he stood at the edge of the brush with a handful of vibrant flowers that reminded him of the girl he was finally going to confess his feelings for, he wondered why he couldn’t just for once catch a damn break.
Fireworks shot off in every direction behind the couple wrapped in each other’s arms.
All he could see was their silhouette in the darkness, but it was enough. Ella Jane and Hayden were attached firmly at the mouth. He didn’t know if it was the first time but he suspected it was.
He’d blown it. Chickened out when she’d needed him to man up and that was that.
He glanced over at them once more, hoping that maybe it was someone else sitting on the tailgate of her truck with Bitch Boy. But he saw the long blond hair. It was her. His girl in someone else’s arms. Kissing someone else’s lips.
Dropping the bouquet and letting the flowers scatter on the ground, he did the last thing he wanted to. Instead of barreling out of the woods and kicking Hayden Prescott’s ass, he did what his father said the bigger man always did. He walked away.
He walked right back to his truck and drove to town. Then walked right into Harwell’s Gas Station. Thankfully, when he walked up to the counter with a case of beer in hand, Harwell’s nimrod stepson, Brody, was working the register. The same nimrod that hadn’t ever taken the time to ask Coop, Kyle, or any other underage kid brave enough to attempt to buy beer for identification. Ever.
“Rough night?” he asked as Coop tossed a twenty down.
“Something like that,” Coop mumbled, not really wanting to get into specifics. Especially not with Brody.
“Wanna get high?” And there it was. Three words almost broke a smile free from Coop’s lips. Then he remembered EJ making out with Hayden Prescott. The urge to chuckle at the stoner who would probably work the nightshift at his stepdad’s gas station for the rest of his life was replaced with a pathetic sigh. Just like Brody would always get high and sell beer to minors, Coop would always be a farmer in a nothing town without the girl he really wanted.