Autumn (11 page)

She kept everyone safe, and when you could protect others, it didn’t matter if they liked you.

Cooper often wondered if it was hard for her to
want
to help them when she knew they were always whispering about the Reynoldses behind her back. Or to her face. But if she had issues with the people of Poisonfoot, she never let it get in the way of doing her job.

Without looking up she said, “I was starting to think I’d still be here when my shift on Monday started.”

Instead of making excuses he lowered his head and muttered, “I’m really sorry.”

She straightened up, patted the deputy on his shoulder, and picked up her purse. “I’m sure you’ll tell me all about what was so important while we’re driving home. Have you eaten?”

Cooper shook his head.

“Okay, we’ll stop at the Dairy Queen on our way back. Is your sister still pretending to be a vegetarian to impress that silly boy?” She ducked under the counter and came to stand beside him, looking surprisingly short. When had he gotten so much taller than her?

“I saw her eating chicken fingers at lunch yesterday.”

“Thank God. The hair is one thing, but no right-minded Texan girl should ever stop eating
meat
to impress a man.” She touched Cooper’s back, and they left the building, walking to his unlocked truck.

As they drove, she rolled down the window and pulled a cigarette out of her purse. She held it between her teeth and looked at him as if waiting for a lecture. When he didn’t say a word, she lit the smoke and exhaled a puff out the open window.

For as long as he could remember, she’d always kept a pack of cigarettes in her purse, but she almost never smoked them. He recognized the brand as being those his father had preferred, and he had a funny feeling the pack she smoked from was one Dad had left behind. Given how rare it was for her to light them, it wouldn’t have surprised him to learn she was slowly burning through the last remaining relics of her husband one puff at a time.

Since she didn’t make a habit of smoking, he didn’t think he had any right to tell her not to. Sure, it was terrible for her, and he hated the idea of the smell lingering in his truck, but she was the parent, not him. People needed their vices, and he wasn’t going to deny her this one. If she started buying new packs and smoking in the house, he’d reconsider his stance, but until then he’d let it be.

“So why were you late?” she asked once she’d finished.

He debated using Lou as his excuse. It had been a long time since he’d shown any interest in a girl, and he thought his mom might be excited by the prospect of him meeting someone. But then he thought of the real reason he’d been delayed and knew a girl wasn’t going to make his mom happy.

“I saw Jer.”

She went rigid, and her focus narrowed on him as she turned in her seat to face him directly.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about, Mom. I saw him.”

His mother was quiet, staring at him. Cooper kept his eyes on the road and continued driving them towards the Dairy Queen on the edge of the city.

“Tell me,” she said after a long, aching silence.

“It was out on the road by the lake. I was…I was with a girl, and he stepped out in the middle of the road and blocked the truck.”

“You were with a girl? What girl?”

“Lou Whittaker.”

His mother’s hand clamped down on his wrist, and the shock of her cool skin on his made him jerk, causing the truck to swerve. He pulled over and put the truck into park, then met her wide-eyed gaze.

“Whittaker?” she asked, her voice trembling. The last time he’d seen his mother so scared had been… Well, it had been on Jeremy’s birthday.

“Yes.”

“Did she see him?”

“He was sitting right in the middle of the road, Mom. Yes, she saw him. And she said he’s been coming around to Elle Whittaker’s
regularly
. She didn’t know it was him specifically, but she was awfully curious about why the coyotes in Poisonfoot were so damned friendly.”

“Did you…?” Her hand tightened on his wrist. “You didn’t tell her anything, did you?”

Cooper snorted. “Do I look nuts to you? Hey, Lou, that coyote is actually my brother. Even if I had told her, she wouldn’t have believed me.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.”

Cooper regarded his mother carefully. “Why do you say that?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Not anymore. Because you’re never going to see that girl again.”

“What?” This was sounding all too familiar, except he was used to people telling Lou to stay away from him.

“She’s a Whittaker. You can’t spend any more time with her, Cooper, it’s not safe.”

“What the
hell
are you talking about?”

“
Language,
” she scolded. “And don’t question me. Just
listen
. You aren’t safe with her.”

Cooper conjured up an image of Lou in his mind, her small frame and messy, waving hair. There was nothing about her that screamed
threatening
.

“But I—”

“No buts. She’s dangerous. And what’s more, I won’t have you spending what time we have left with some girl. Especially not
that
girl.” When she finished speaking, there was finality to her words that told Cooper she wouldn’t hear any further arguments.

So his mom wanted him away from Lou as badly as Lou’s family wanted her away from him.

He started the truck, but the gears in his brain were already going full speed. He had never planned to tell Lou the truth about Jer or himself, but the way his mom was reacting made him wonder.

What was it about this new girl?

Chapter Fourteen

Cooper was waiting for her before the first bell rang on Monday morning. At the sight of him leaning against the row of metal lockers scanning the halls, Lou’s heart leapt with excitement. Until she saw the serious expression on his face.

He spotted her, his gaze locking on her eyes, and he watched silently as she weaved through the crowded hall towards him.

“Hi.” Her anxiety ramped high as she waited for whatever inevitable bad news he was about to tell her. They’d had a good time on Saturday until he’d taken her home. Was he here to tell her their friendship was a mistake?

“Hey.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “How was, uh… How was the rest of your weekend?”

Small talk? Okay…she could do small talk.

“Pretty boring. I mean, unless you think doing calculus homework is a profound and exciting weekend task. If you do, I don’t think we can be friends.”

At those last words Cooper grimaced, and Lou kicked herself internally. What a stupid thing to say.

They regarded each other in awkward silence. Since she wasn’t sure what he was doing waiting for her, she didn’t want to be overly cheerful and flirty. If he’d shown up to blow her off, she’d feel stupid for having been so bubbly. But it felt so weird to
not
be herself with Cooper. He was the only person in the whole school who reminded her what it felt like to be happy.

“So, um…” He had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans, and he wasn’t looking at her. His dark brown hair was especially messy today, and Lou fought the urge to run her fingers through it, wondering if it could possibly be as soft as it appeared.

“What are you doing after school today?” she blurted, unable to keep the words from slipping out.

“Nothing?” he replied uncertainly.

“Do you…?” She glanced into her locker, suddenly shy, and wished she hadn’t spoken so abruptly. “I mean… I never got to see the lake on Saturday. Did you maybe want to go? With me?” When he didn’t speak right away she added, “Together.”

He stared at her, and she wasn’t sure if she’d surprised him or if he just thought she was nuts for asking. She felt nuts for asking.

“Sure,” he said finally. “I think that sounds great. But, uh… Okay this is going to sound really silly, but…do you mind if maybe we listen to the game?”

“Game?”

“Yeah. The Rangers are playing the White Sox, and I—”

“Say no more. Yeah, that’s totally fine.” She smiled and tugged the Dodgers cap out of her bag, waving it so he could see it. “I’m not anti-baseball by any means.”

Cooper seemed to debate saying something about her team of choice but must have thought better of it because he smiled tightly and said, “Good. Awesome.” He took the cap out of her hands and set it on her head, pulling it low over her eyes. For a moment he stood there, inches away from her, and as he stepped away, his hand grazed her bare shoulder. Lou shivered.

“Well, isn’t this sweet?”

Lou tipped her cap up and turned towards the new voice. Archer stood nearby, still every bit as handsome as she’d tried to convince herself he wasn’t. He smiled at her in a way that might have made her heart beat faster if she wasn’t standing with Cooper. And if Archer didn’t give her the creeps.

She couldn’t figure out what it was about him that bothered her so much. He seemed like a nice, normal, charming guy. But all the same, she didn’t think she’d be comfortable being alone with him. He was like a shark—beautiful, but that toothy grin made her think he was more dangerous than he let on.

“Hi, Archer,” she greeted, trying to be polite. There was no sense in making unnecessary enemies. Archer hadn’t done anything except be nice to her, so she had no good reason to dismiss him.

Cooper, on the other hand, said nothing and just glared at the other boy.

“I’m glad I found you two together, actually.” Archer nodded to Cooper, and Cooper continued to glower, his frown deepening.

“Oh?” Lou shifted her attention from Cooper back to Archer. Archer ignored his teammate and addressed Lou like she was the only one there.

“I’m having a party Friday night after the game. The whole team will be there.” He placed extra emphasis on the word
whole
and stared at Cooper. “I wanted to invite you to come along.”

“What kind of party?”

Archer laughed, and Lou instantly felt stupid for asking. “Oh you know, the usual. Beer. Chips. Music. We’ll be celebrating a win, naturally.”

Lou nodded. It had been awhile since she’d gone to a good party. She’d attended them often back home until her dad got sick, then they’d stopped seeming important. A lot of things that once mattered suddenly became silly and pointless. But this was a new start for her, and she hated to admit how badly she wanted to do something normal and
fun
.

“If Cooper goes, I’ll be there.”

“Cooper will be there,” Archer insisted. “Right, Coop?”

Cooper grumbled something unintelligible, hiking his bag up on his shoulder. “We need to get to class.”

“See you at practice tomorrow. And that party on Friday.”

“Uh-huh.”

Cooper’s dark mood hung over him like a cloud as they walked towards Chemistry. He didn’t speak again until halfway through class, and only then to ask her to pass a beaker.

But he’d agreed to go, and as grouchy as he was being, Lou had a weird sense of elation to know that
she
was the reason he’d said yes.

The school day dragged on, and each minute felt like an hour. She barely processed anything in her classes but managed to answer a few questions correctly in Biology, making it at least seem like she had her head in the game.

In Spanish class Marnie wouldn’t stop talking about Archer’s party. It was starting to sound like the biggest social event of the year, not counting the Homecoming Dance, the Winter Formal and a handful of other dances. But Archer’s party would have the added bonus of illicit underage drinking.

From what Lou gathered, Archer’s family owned a large ranch on the outskirts of town, a section of land that shared the same chunk of forest as her grandmother’s house. It sounded like most of Archer’s parties took place in a makeshift party area in the trees on his property. If it was as close to her place as she suspected, Lou could probably cut through the woods to get home faster.

The thought of the coyotes she’d been seeing made her question whether or not a tipsy jaunt through the woods was such a wise idea, but she put the notion out of her mind.

By the time the last bell sounded, Lou had heard about the party in no less than five of her classes. All the girls she knew through Marnie were abuzz with the news of an Archer Wyatt rager. When she met Cooper at her locker, he didn’t seem to be in any better of a mood than when she’d left him in Chemistry.

“You don’t
have
to go,” she said, reading his downtrodden expression as a sign he begrudged having to attend the party.

“Sure I do. You don’t say no to Archer. Trust me, it’s just easier if I show up. Besides, if I can hang out with you, maybe it won’t be so bad. At least someone will talk to me.” He forced a smile.

“You still want to hang out?” She was terrified he’d say no, but she thought it was only fair to ask considering how bummed he looked.

“Of course. The leaves are just starting to turn. It’s a really nice time to see the lake. Plus, it’ll be the only place in Poisonfoot I don’t have to hear about the party.”

“You’re assuming I’m not going to talk your ear off about it.” She dumped her books in her locker, taking only what she’d need for that night’s homework.

Cooper smiled, and this time the expression felt more genuine. “You’re willing to listen to a baseball game with me. That alone will earn you a lot of forgiveness.”

He picked her bag up off the floor before she had a chance to grab it herself, and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

“Besides,” he added, his voice gaining a new, serious edge. “I think there’s something else for us to talk about that will make the party seem less interesting.”

“Oh?” Her heart thudded, and a giddy nervousness bubbled in her stomach. “What’s that?”

“I want to know why my mother is just as adamant I stay away from you as everyone else is that you stay away from me.”

“What?”

“Yeah. This town seems hell-bent on keeping us apart, Lou. And I want to find out why.”