Path of Destruction (Broken Heartland, #2)(47)

“I’m going,” Ella Jane said, knowing she probably wouldn’t actually dance but that the smile on her mom’s face was worth the torture.

“Good.” Her eyes brightened a shade before EJ slipped on her boots. “Darling. Really? The boots?”

“Yes, Mom. Really. The dress I compromised on. But heels are not happening. Probably not ever.”

“A mother can dream,” her mother told her with a wink. “Do I get to take a picture at least?”

“Of your loser loner daughter going to prom by herself? Well of course. Who doesn’t want to capture this moment?”

Ella Jane could think of a few Bluffs girls who were going to be thrilled to see her alone.

“You know…if you’d just stop being so stubborn and call Coop—”

“No, Mom. Just…no. He didn’t ask me and I’m not calling him on prom night and begging him to take someone he sees as a little sister. Drop it already.”

There had been a brief discussion of prom between the two of them a few weeks ago.

“How’s your social committee sentence?” she’d teased him one night as they sat side by side on the river dock. Their old fishing poles were cast out into the water without so much a nibble in the past two hours.

The majority of the time the two of them sat in silence—neither one wanting or needing to talk about all the shit that was going on in their lives. They both missed Kyle, so they didn’t need to talk about it anymore—or at least that was what Ella Jane told herself. The last few months she’d noticed a difference in their relationship. It seemed that, lately, any conversation they had turned into an argument about the same old nonsense or one of them just shutting down completely. And, yeah, he was there for her, but she wondered if he was really there.

When it was clear that the fish weren’t biting, they’d decided to head in. She watched him gather up the gear and contemplate his answer to her seemingly simple question.

“It’s not so bad.” Coop shrugged.

“No?” She was surprised. She knew how much Coop hated the uppity crowd at Summit Bluffs.

“I mainly just build and move stuff.” He closed up the tackle box and stood up. “Some of them aren’t so bad,” he added.

She wondered if he was talking about Cameron. It burned her a little that Coop liked her. She didn’t know much about their interactions other than the day in the hallway when he had taken Cami’s side over hers. Ella Jane had to bite her tongue not to tell him what she knew. If he wanted to be friends with the Princess of Summit Bluffs during his time as a social committee member, so be it. Nothing would ever come of it. Just like nothing would ever come of Ella Jane’s relationship with Hayden. They were all cut from different cloths.

Cami and Hayden were cashmere and Coop and EJ were burlap.

It wouldn’t be long until school was out and they could get back to their regularly scheduled small-town lives far from the halls of Summit Bluffs High School. Except she was a junior and would have to face that godforsaken place alone for one more year. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would be like.

“Well, I bet you’re glad your time is almost up. Don’t you just have to help with prom and then you’re finished?”

“Yeah,” he said as if the thought hadn’t yet dawned on him. “I guess I am.”

Ella Jane couldn’t be sure, but he almost looked disappointed that he wouldn’t be the social committee’s workhorse anymore.

“So you going?” she mumbled. “To prom.”

“I doubt it,” he scoffed. “Not really my scene. I don’t really dance, you know?”

Ella Jane smiled at the boyish grin on Coop’s face. It seemed like forever since she’d seen that face. She knew what his answer was going to be before she even asked, even if a tiny part of her wanted him to offer to take her. It didn’t even have to be a date or anything. As much as she hated the majority of the people she went to school with, having a decent prom memory would have been nice.

“Yeah, I kinda figured.” She sighed and nodded her head as she cranked in her fishing line.

“It’s bad enough that I have to help set up the whole thing. I plan on being out of there before everyone else shows up. I’ll be back at the farm while everyone else is dancing around like dipshits in their Sunday best.”

She didn’t press it anymore. He didn’t want to go, she wouldn’t make him. It was stupid anyway. She didn’t even like getting dressed up.

The reminder hits closer to her heart than she’d allowed anything to in a while, shoving a lump of emotion into her throat.

Damn it.

EJ swallow hard. Her mom moved her hair to one shoulder and smiled warmly, making the lump of emotion even softer and causing it to spread. It was the first time they’d had an exchange that didn’t end in tears or yelling or just a complete emotional shutdown.

“His loss,” her mom said quietly. “Here. Let me pin your sides back.”

While her mom fussed with her hair, EJ wondered what would’ve happened if Hayden had asked her to prom. He hadn’t, but she’d spent several nights lying in bed wondering how she would answer if he had. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, sweetheart.”

“Why did you…you know what, never mind.”