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.
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.