Path of Destruction (Broken Heartland, #2)(25)

Nothing like having your two biggest fears intersect.

Cami checked around the deserted basement hallway, making sure that no one saw her, before opening the door of the utility room and slipping inside. The room was cluttered with overstock cleaning supplies and boxes that the maintenance staff had stored. She shuffled a stack of printer paper aside before collapsing on the top of a box and burying her face in her hands.

Ella Jane would never understand what they shared and why Cami refused to share the details. She’d had him for sixteen years. Sixteen years of photographs, inside jokes, and memories. Sixteen years of his smile, his laugh, and the sweet-natured warmth he’d exuded. Cami had just shy of three months and what? One photograph taken on a sunny afternoon with a cell phone. A handful of kisses. One night in each other’s arms.

One. That was all she would ever have of him.

Ella Jane might not understand her reasoning, but Cami was keeping that small window of time to herself, tucking it away like a secret treasure she’d cherish for as long as she lived.

She could see him so clearly, the way he’d grinned sheepishly when she’d run out of her pool house half-naked, the way he’d scratched his head and averted his eyes when she’d confronted him.

The memories were so…vivid. She couldn’t get her head completely around the fact that he was gone. Not gone to college. Not gone because she’d blown him off.

No longer on this Earth breathing the same air as her.

Her head refused to accept it.

Not my head, she almost said out loud to herself. My heart.

She glanced around the cramped utility closet, realizing this was the safest she’d felt since he’d wrapped his arms around her—or she’d imagined he had—in that damn cellar.

In the hospital, she’d felt like a medical experiment on display, and at home, her parents seemed to document her every move. The familiar faces at school weren’t even comforting because she knew that, when they looked at her, they expected to see someone else. Someone smiling, laughing, and gossiping right along with the rest of them.

Impersonating the person she’d once been was exhausting.

And the worst part? She had no idea who she was now. A girl who hid in closets, apparently.

How had she had become this? This girl that hid herself away because it hurt too much to look people in the eye and tell the truth about how she was hurting. No one would understand. Not really.

Because no one would ever love her the way Kyle Mason did.





“You trying to get yourself kicked out of this place or what?” Coop asked Ella Jane as they watched Cameron rush down the hallway away from them.

The last thing he’d expected that morning was to walk in and see the two girls staring each other down in the hallway. But it was really only a matter of time before they crossed paths. The firm grip Ella Jane had on Cami’s arm led him to believe that he needed to intervene before a catfight broke out. Even if a little part of him would have enjoyed watching the two of them tussle on the floor, he didn’t want either of them ending up in trouble. Especially when he figured the root of it all was Hayden Prescott.

“You just got a warning for ditching class last week. It will kill your mom if you get into trouble, you know that right? She’s been through enough without having to worry about you getting kicked out of school.”

“Just handling things like you would,” Ella Jane responded, her eyes narrowed in on his. “Isn’t that what we country folks do? Kick ass and ask questions later?”

She might not have been very vocal over the past couple weeks, but he could hear the contempt in her voice loud and clear. Maybe it was a bad idea for him to bring up her mother’s disappointment.

“Maybe here, in this place, we should think things through a bit more than usual,” Cooper said gently.

“It’s not like you really thought things through before shoving Hayden.”

He should have known that her attitude had nothing to do with her mom.

“Are you seriously pissed at me for roughing up Prescott in the parking lot?” Coop scoffed. “I barely touched him. And, from what I recall, you were telling him to kick rocks before I got there.”

“Whatever,” she said. He didn’t miss the eye roll she added for effect. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”

“Maybe you do, ‘cause from what I can tell, you’ve got some pretty crap judgment lately.”

“For your information, what happened back there had nothing to do with Hayden.”

“What else would you have to discuss with Cameron Nickelson?” he asked. He highly doubted that Cameron was lecturing her about the latest fall fashions or that Ella Jane was giving her tips for pruning a rose bush. The only common denominator between them was Prescott. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out what either girl saw in him.

“It’s... She’s...” Ella Jane stumbled through her words like a flat stone skipping across the lake before she finally gave up. “Maybe you should go ask her. You seemed awfully concerned with her well-being a few minutes ago.”

“To be fair,” Coop began, “I was only concerned because I thought you were going to kick her ass.”

The last thing he wanted to admit to Ella Jane was that he actually liked Cameron Nickelson—she was different than he’d imagined the Summit Bluffs’ girls would be. Witty and engaging, way less shallow than he’d pegged her for. And there was something in her, deep down, that he could relate to, even if he didn’t know what it was. Nope. He could never tell Ella Jane any of that. It would go over about as well as giving a barn cat a bath.