Path of Destruction (Broken Heartland, #2)(43)

Cameron didn’t speak for so long that he was afraid whatever ailment had led her to the Doc in a Box had made her go mute. When he cut his eyes to her, she appeared several shades paler than usual.

“Cameron? You all right?”

“You were friends? You and Ky—the guy who was killed in the storm?”

Either Cooper was hallucinating or she was trembling. “Nah.” He shrugged, able to push aside his own discomfort at discussing Kyle long enough to focus on whatever was going on with her. “More like brothers, actually. We grew up together. He was good a guy. You would’ve liked him. He was going to play football at OSU. Had that all-American golden-boy thing going for him. Unlike me.”

Cameron looked like she was about to pass out any second.

Cooper considered pulling the truck over but they were less than a block from the pharmacy.

“You know what? Hayden is in town and he can pick me up. You can drop me here and I’ll just have him come here to get me.”

The instant rush of anger was beginning to feel strangely familiar. “Prescott, huh?”

Cameron nodded, avoiding his eyes.

“So, what? I’m just your closet make out buddy? But Prescott’s the one or something?”

“Don’t be dramatic. He drove me into town, so he should take me home. I don’t want him to worry.”

Had she just seriously accused him of being dramatic? “The only person Hayden Prescott worries about is himself.”

Cameron looked over just long enough to glare at him. “You’re wrong. He’s a good guy, a really good one. And until you actually get to know him, stop with the snap judgments. It’s annoying.”

Cooper sucked in a much-needed breath and worked her over with his eyes. “Is that so?” When she didn’t answer he nodded and leaned back in his seat. “Well, maybe you should stay away from me so I can stop annoying you.”

“That what you want?” The girl looked like she was being slapped repeatedly by conflicting emotions while she waited for his response. Anger. Confusion. Sadness.

The sadness really struck him. It was the deep, perpetual kind he hadn’t felt himself until his best friend died.

“Let’s just get these filled,” he said, nodding to their prescriptions as he parked the truck. “Place closes in an hour.” He practically grunted the last line. He hated talking about feelings almost as much as he hated how Hayden Prescott seemed somehow linked to every female he cared about.

Do I care about her?

He hadn’t known her that long, and sometimes he felt like he barely knew her at all.

She didn’t wait for him to open her door this time. She got out of the truck and marched into the pharmacy. He reached to open the door to Ross’s for her, but she took care of that herself as well. Cooper frowned as she continued on without looking back to see if he’d followed.

It felt as if she’d tied a piece of twine to his heart and was tugging it along as she went.

So I do care then.

Now it was time to see if she cared about him.

Casually retrieving a box of condoms from a nearby shelf, Cooper smirked to himself. Sure, it was kind of an underhanded move, but if she cared, she’d want to know who the condoms were for. And she wasn’t very good at hiding her feelings, though he could tell she prided herself on being able to. Not from me, Prom Queen, he thought to himself, his pride swelling as he realized she only let that vulnerable part of herself show around him. He’d seen her panicked and on the verge of hysteria. More than once.

Cameron was moving up in line at the prescription drop-off window when he sauntered up behind her. He heard the pharmacist’s assistant, Jenny Fisher, a girl who’d graduated from Hope’s Grove a few years before Kyle, ask Cam a few odd questions. One being did she drink alcohol and another being if she’d ever attempted self-harm.

Self-harm? What the hell?

All he’d ever been asked was if he was allergic to any medications. His protective instinct surged as he watched Cameron shrink into her oversized shirt.

He stepped up in front of Cameron and handed his prescription to Jenny. “Hey, Jen. Any chance I can get this before the places closes tonight? I don’t think I’ll have time to come by tomorrow and my arm is stinging like crazy.”

The girl in the white coat grinned and shook her head. “I swear, Brantley Cooper, one of these days you are going to seriously hurt yourself on that bike of yours.”

“Until then,” he said with a shrug and a smile. “Thank goodness I have you.”

“Be right with you,” she told him with an eye roll.

When she disappeared behind the elevated counter, Cooper turned to Cameron.

“You okay?”

Her eyes avoided his. “I’m fine.”

She definitely wasn’t, but he hated to pry when she was obviously already uncomfortable.

“Okay. Well, do I get to give you that ride home or did you already call for reinforcements?”

“I have a ride,” she said almost under her breath.

Cooper huffed out a breath. Clenching his fist he nearly forgot his stitches and his box of prophylactics. Cameron, however, seemed to be taking in both.

“Ribbed for her pleasure. My, aren’t you considerate.”

“That part of our arrangement now? Inquiring about each other’s sex lives?”