A Fallow Heart (6 page)

“Caine,” Grady snapped again. “Since you’re just standing around doing nothing, hop up there and drag it back deeper into the bed of the truck, will you.”

“Sure thing.” Eager to comply, Caine scrambled onto the tailgate. But in his haste, he jostled the container and more oil splashed out, drenching both Cooper
and
Grady.

Coop gritted his teeth and bit his tongue, but Grady cursed a blue streak. Finally, Caine grasped the container and managed to tug it onto a stable surface. Cooper shook oil off his arm before he wiped at his face with the clean side of his sleeve.

Great. Jo Ellen was going to take one look at him and laugh in his face.

“Christ, Coop, I’m sorry.” Grady handed him a rag and managed to look genuinely grateful as he added, “But I appreciate the help. We needed it.”

“No problem.” Though actually it was a problem. He’d taken special care to look nice for Jo Ellen, and now all she was going to see was an oil-drenched farm boy. He had four times as much oil on him as Grady did.

To prolong his bad luck, the front door of the house came open. Forgetting about the fact he had grease sopping down his hair, face, and clothes, he quit mopping at his eyes, and even faltered in his breathing, when she emerged.

The sun glinted against her long, dark hair as she started their way, making a physical ache bloom in his chest. He began to smile before he realized she didn’t move as gracefully as Jo Ellen did.

“Hey, Coop,” she called, lifting her hand and waving big and sloppy as she skipped closer.

Disappointment ran thick through his veins. Not Jo Ellen.

“Hey, Em,” he greeted despondently, turning away to finish wiping the mess off his face.

“Whoa. What happened to you guys?” She glanced between him and her older brother.

“Ask
Caine
,” Grady muttered, using his own rag to brush black smudges off his arm.

“Actually, it’s pretty obvious.” Emma grinned as she turned to Coop. “So, what’re you doing here? Daddy hire you to help us out for the day, or what?”

“No,” Coop scrubbed the front of his ruined shirt and only succeeded in making the stain bigger. “I’m—”

He paused when he realized how embarrassing it was to confess what he was actually doing. Glancing up, he swallowed when he noticed he’d gained the attention of all three of Jo Ellen’s siblings.

“You’re what?” Caine asked when Coop took too long to answer.

Cheeks heating, Coop glanced toward the house before he risked a peek at Grady. “I just…I came over to see how Jo Ellen was faring this morning?”

There, that sounded like a friendly, worried-neighbor thing to do.

Emma Leigh scrunched up her face into a confused frown. “Jo Ellen? What’re you worried about
her
for?”

“Coop here brought her home last night.” Grady suspiciously eyed Cooper with intense, intimidating blue eyes.

Coop had to look away, so he focused on Em.

She continued to analyze him before her face cleared. “Oh, that’s right. Someone told me you’d done that.”

“She was awfully sick,” he explained. “I just wanted to make sure she felt better.”

Em snorted. “Sick? What, was she drunk?”

Coop lifted his brows. “Yeah, she was.”

Emma Leigh’s snigger died as her jaw dropped. “Seriously? The princess
drank
last night? She drank
alcohol
?” Before Coop could respond, she threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, man, I wish I would’ve seen that.”

“And I wish Mom and Dad would’ve seen the both of you,” Grady cut in. “If they knew you two were at Eden’s party last night, drinking, you’d be grounded until you’re thirty. I’ve a mind to tell them myself. Jo Ellen was so far gone anyone could’ve taken advantage of her. Who knows what might’ve happened if Coop hadn’t found her and brought her home?”

Coop’s cheeks turned a dull red. He couldn’t stop thinking about what
had
happened, and he
had
been the one to find her and bring her home.

“Oh, don’t tell on ‘em,” Caine begged. “Em’s paying me good money to keep my trap shut. If Mom and Dad find out, I won’t see a cent.”

“What?” Grady smacked him on the back of the head. “You should be ashamed of yourself; more concerned about cash than your two sisters’ welfare.”

Caine shrugged as he rubbed his cranium. “What’d I have to worry about? Coop was there.”

Coop coughed into his hand, and tried not to feel guilty about last night, but a quick shame filled him. If they knew what he’d done to their sister, all three of them would probably find the nearest tree and string him up.

He opened his mouth, though he wasn’t sure what he was going to say. As much of an honest idiot as he was, he probably would’ve confessed how he’d let Jo Ellen play with his erection and kiss him…and how he’d kissed her back. But thank God, the crackle of crunching gravel diverted everyone’s attention.

A sleek, red Mazda Miata—its engine so quiet Cooper didn’t even hear it running—pulled to a stop next to his clunker. He narrowed his eyes as the driver’s side door opened and a tan pair of khaki pants slid out before Travis Untermeyer unfolded the rest of his body from his toy box automobile. When he spotted Jo Ellen’s siblings, he waved congenially and started their way. All four of them waved back, and Coop was tickled to note the other three appeared about as eager to welcome Untermeyer as he was.

“Hey,” Pretty Boy greeted, his fake smile flashing until he spotted Cooper. Then he pulled to a stop, smirking. “Gerhardt?” He laughed. “Wow, it’s nice to see you finally cleaned up for once.”

Cooper felt so hot, he couldn’t even answer. He just wanted to reach out and wrap his hands around the dirt bag’s scrawny pencil neck.

Hurts enough when he shoves inside me.

Coop decided he could easily solve Jo Ellen’s dilemma by snapping Untermeyer’s small penis clean off with his bare hand and tossing it to the hogs.

As Grady, Caine, and Emma Leigh explained the oil mess on his clothes, Cooper seethed. Usually he felt a mild contempt whenever he encountered Travis Untermeyer. But today, the only emotion boiling inside him was white, hot hatred.

What the hell was Untermeyer doing here anyway? Had Jo Ellen called him over to break up with him in person? He hoped so. He hoped he got a front row seat, watching her dump the rich jackass. He bet Pretty Boy was a crier.

But even as he imagined a pathetic Untermeyer bawling and begging on his knees at Jo Ellen’s feet, the main entrance of the mansion sprang open again. This time, Jo Ellen herself emerged. It was the very vision he’d dreamed up when he’d first parked. The door flew open and she appeared under the covered porch, smiling as if she’d just spotted her one true love. Then she bounded down the steps and sprinted their way, her long, dark hair flowing behind her and her slim body eating up the ground with graceful strides.

His chest constricting with painful longing, Coop took a step in her direction…until he realized she was racing toward Pretty Boy, not him. The dirt bag opened his arms, and Jo Ellen leapt into them, hugging and kissing him as if she hadn’t seen him in a millennium.

And as he watched, unable to look away, Cooper’s world crumbled around him.

Chapter Four

Grady cleared his throat—l
oudly.

Finally, the two necking lovebirds reluctantly broke apart. Jo Ellen’s grin looked embarrassed. Untermeyer’s went smug. Cooper longed to break his face.

“We’re going for a picnic,” Jo Ellen announced, taking Untermeyer’s hand and snuggling close to him, but not quite as close as she’d snuggled to Coop last night.

He shifted, uncomfortable, and glanced away.

“Em,” Grady barked, impatiently motioning a finger in Emma Leigh’s direction. “Maybe you should go with them.”

Just as Jo Ellen frowned and said, “I didn’t pack enough food for three,” Emma Leigh made a face. “Eww, I don’t want to go with them and watch them suck face all afternoon. Gag me.”

Cooper tried to look invisible and remember how to breathe while the siblings continued to argue. In the end, Jo Ellen got her way. She and Untermeyer convinced Grady to let them go off alone together while Coop just stood there, soaked in grease and completely ignored by the girl who’d stolen his heart less than twelve hours ago.

When she finally noticed him, her gaze went wide but not from guilt or even horrified remembrance.

“Goodness, Cooper. What happened to you?” Her attention slid down his grease-coated arm with a hint of pity.

He sighed, glancing at the dark streaks marring the nicest shirt he’d owned up until then.

She didn’t remember. She was staring him straight in the eye and treated him as if everything between them was as it had always been: polite, distant, and lifeless.

Last night, his world had altered on its axis; he felt like a different person. But today she remained exactly the same, utterly unaffected and clueless about what she’d done to him.

“Looks like he took a dip in one of your oil drums,” Pretty Boy said, his eyes glittering with suppressed glee as he met Coop’s glower. “Y’all should charge him for that commodity he’s filching from you, but it’d probably feed the poor boy for a week.”

Jo Ellen, damn her, laughed. But she was the only one, thank God, because if anyone else thought Untermeyer’s lame-ass joke was in any way funny, Cooper would’ve lost all respect for the entire Rawlings family. Emma Leigh glanced at Coop over Untermeyer’s shoulder and rolled her eyes.

He almost grinned. Almost. But the broken organ in his chest pretty much prevented him from feeling any kind of joy. He’d be surprised if he could ever smile again.

“We better go,” Jo Ellen said abruptly and waved goodbye
to everyone as she hooked her arm through Untermeyer’s and steered him toward the house, nearly yanking him along as if she sensed Cooper might kill her boyfriend if he lingered a second longer.

“I really hate that guy,” he growled under his breath as he watched them depart.

He hadn’t meant for anyone to hear him. But next to him, Caine snorted. “Join the club.”

Surprised to hear such spite coming from the thirteen-year-old, Coop whirled to gape at Caine.

“Caine,” Grady admonished with a suppressed sigh. “Zip it.”

“What?” Caine asked, all innocence and confusion. “You don’t like him either.”

“Well, don’t go spreading family opinion around in front of outsiders.”

Coop knew it shouldn’t sting to be labeled an outsider. He
was
an outsider. But to be so openly separated from the Rawlings plainly told him where he belonged; on the outside. Forever out of Jo Ellen’s treasured reach.

“But it’s just Coop,” Caine argued with his brother, making Cooper feel marginally better. “As much as he hangs around Em, he might as well be family.”

“Coop’s not a gossip,” Emma Leigh added, coming to his defense. “Besides, he doesn’t care what we think of Travis.”

Cooper sent Em a grateful glance.

“Whatever,” Grady said, dismissing his younger siblings with a roll of his eyes before he sent Coop a reluctant grumble. “No offense meant.”

When Coop waved off his apology, Grady nudged Caine with his elbow. “Let’s get a move on it. We need to have this sample at the office by noon so Dad can show it to the investors coming to lunch.”

As the two Rawlings brothers piled into the truck, Emma Leigh sidled next to Coop and waved them off. The front door of the house opened again. Jo Ellen exited with Untermeyer toting a hulking picnic basket, and the two strolled hand in hand to his Miata.

Coop couldn’t help but watch, his chest a raw, shredded mess.

Jo Ellen had been so into him last night. No girl had ever made him feel that good, that needed. He wanted to hate her for breaking his heart. But all he could feel was bitter jealously as Untermeyer paused to kiss her again before opening the passenger-side door and helping her into her seat.

“Well, holy shit.” Emma Leigh set her hands on her hips. “How long has this been going on?”

Coop pulled his gaze from the departing Miata to focus on Jo Ellen’s twin. “What?”

Em pushed at his elbow. “You’ve got a thing for the princess. It’s written all over your face.”

He let out a snort and frowned. “No.”

Emma Leigh lifted her eyebrows. “Wow. It’s that serious, huh?”

Busying himself with his already-soaked rag, Cooper ignored her and wiped an oil smear off his forearm.

She set a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Coop. Buddy. You know she’s never going to leave Travis, don’t you?” Her voice took on a grave tone. “She’s committed to him. And when Joey commits to something, that’s that for her. She’s in for life.”

His heart strained in his chest as he wished she had committed herself to him. He lifted his face to study Em. She looked exactly like Jo Ellen. And it wasn’t like she turned him off. She just didn’t turn him on.

Wondering why he couldn’t have fallen for her instead, he blew out a deflated breath and let his shoulders sag. “I know.”