Brantley Cooper was heading his way. And from the looks of it, Cooper was the bull and Hayden was a shiny red flag.
35
Ella Jane
“SO where is lover boy?” Lynlee asked, lifting onto her toes to try and see through the crowd. “I’ll give him this much—he knows how to throw a decent party. For a city boy.”
Ella Jane laughed. City kids throwing some bales of straw around a fire and calling it a field party made her smile and shake her head. Bless their hearts. They tried.
“His name is Hayden, Lyn. Hayden Prescott. Though he might like being called loverboy. He’ll be around here somewhere. He wasn’t too excited about the whole thing.” Ella Jane shrugged her way through the crowd beside her friend. “He’s really worried about his gran. She’s not doing well.” She bit her lip to keep from saying anything else. Pops had sworn her to secrecy, and she hadn’t even told her mama about Gran’s dementia. Her stomach twisted at the memory of what she’d just seen.
On her way to the party, she’d stopped to drop off the chicken and dumplings her mama had made the Prescotts. She’d hoped to catch Hayden before he left but he was already gone. Pops was sitting on the porch swing with Gran’s feet in his lap when she arrived.
Thankfully, she hadn’t freaked out and called EJ any mean names, but she was singing softly to herself and seemingly unaware of her surroundings.
“Good day or bad day?” she’d asked Pops. He smiled and nodded for her to take the food in the house.
“We’re together. Far as I’m concerned, that makes it a good day.”
Her heart had both swelled and ached from the encounter. Love could be fleeting. She knew that from her parents. But the Prescotts had something she hoped she’d have one day too. The kind of love that never ended. The kind that made it through fights, time apart, illnesses, and whatever storms came their way.
Maybe she and Hayden would have something like that. One day.
The idea she’d just given birth to died a fiery death the minute she laid eyes on Hayden. The crowd had thinned a little over by the fire, and between the bodies and the shadows the flames cast around her, she saw him. He was smiling, looking more carefree than she’d ever seen him. The gorgeous brunette sitting next to him kissed him square on the mouth. EJ’s hand flew to hers.
Her chest felt like it was trying to cave in. She didn’t know if it was trying to protect her heart or crush it. Hurt like hell either way.
Fate must’ve decided she’d had as much as she could take because a group of guys moved in her path, blocking her view. She used the brief reprieve to try and catch the breath that had fled from her lungs.
“Was that him? With the Kardashian wannabe?” Lynlee was actually somewhat subdued as she looked on in the same direction. Ella Jane was thankful her friend didn’t take the opportunity to make some bitchy comment about how that’s what she got for committing to one guy.
All she could do was nod and blink. Trying her best not to lose control in front of all these people, she glanced down at the denim dress she’d worn to remind him of their first date.
“Well he didn’t look all that upset about Granny to me,” her friend said, barely loud enough to be heard over the music.
I am exactly the naïve hillbilly idiot he thought I was.
Memories of watching trains, of kissing in every possible place at work—Jesus, where she freaking lived—of what had happened in her truck, the way he’d moved gently inside of her, asking her over and over if she was okay, telling her how much he cared about her pummeled her like punches from a prizefighter.
She could still remember his promise. I’m a lot of things, but an outright liar isn’t one of them. It echoed louder and louder inside her head.
Her knees went weak as every ounce of blood and oxygen and whatever else she was made of slid to the tips of her toes.
Thankfully, Lynlee had enough pissed-off in her for the both of them. “Kent,” she hollered, grabbing the Jarrod guy Ella Jane vaguely recognized from the movies. “Who’s that girl over there all over Hayden Prescott?”
He turned and grinned at them in greeting. “Well, hey there, Red. And Ella Jane. It’s good to see both of you beautiful ladies again.”
“Cut the crap, limp dick. Wide Ass Barbie, what’s her name?” Lynlee jerked her head in Hayden’s direction.
Ella Jane’s face began to tingle as she listened to their conversation. Just like when her mom had announced that her dad had moved out, EJ wished the words would just go back into everyone’s mouths. Wished she could freeze time and rewind. Go back to before everything hurt so badly.
Before everyone she trusted did their absolute best to break her.
Jarrod glanced over his shoulder. “Cameron Nickelson? She’s Hayden’s girlfriend. Has been for years. Why?” His light gray eyes moved back and forth between them until he saw EJ falling apart and understanding dawned on him. “Oh shit.”
It didn’t help that a small noise escaped her throat. That must be the sound my heart makes when it breaks.
It was one thing if Hayden had used her. But it was worse than that. So much worse.
He had a girlfriend. A serious one he’d had for years.
She’d been the other woman.
The same kind of woman her father had an affair with and ditched their family for.
It was all a lie.
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
36
Cooper
COOP slammed the door to his dad’s truck. He’d taken it by Kyle’s to get him to help him put some pictures of it online. The Cooper family financial situation was still in the shitter, and his dad had given him the job of putting it up for sale. Little did he know that stopping by Kyle’s would result in a wild goose chase. Or a piece of ass chase. Same difference as far as he was concerned.
He huffed out a loud sigh to let his friend know he wasn’t into this. “This is ridiculous, man. If she wants to talk to you, she’ll call.” The last thing he wanted to be doing was going to some stupid-ass party thrown by Bitch Boy himself. “Dude, I don’t even know what she looks like.”
Coop decided then and there that this was officially the shittiest summer ever. Kyle had talked him into coming along to look for his mystery girl. Apparently, she’d pulled a disappearing act on him, and for whatever reason, he thought she’d be here tonight. But so far no sign of her. Not that he even knew exactly what he was looking for.
Kyle was practically jogging ahead of him. “I know it sounds stupid to you, but she loves me. Even if she hasn’t said it, I know she does. It’s not like her to just blow me off. Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
Coop was about to make a smartass comment about her “blowing him off” when Kyle stopped so fast he nearly ran right into him.
“Hang on a sec. I’ve got to say hello to a few of these shitheads. Then I’ll show you a picture on my phone.”
Coop hung back as his best friend talked to some Summit Bluffs football players about their game last season. The two high schools were rivals, but that must have ended when they graduated because Kyle seemed to be cool with them.
Coop was looking for the keg when he saw Ellie May storming toward him, looking even more upset than she had the day he’d said she was like a sister to him.
“Ellie May? What is it? What’s wrong?” Coop tried to grab her, but she juked right and then left and went around him. The sounds of her broken cries echoed in his head over the shitty music blasting from a nearby SUV.