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confessed. “Not that I don’t want her to be happy or anything. There’s just a bunch of assholes out there, you know?”
    “Yeah,” Coop agreed. “Like us, right?” He forced out an uncomfortable laugh.
    “Hey, I know we screw around a lot and all that, but in all seriousness. I need to know something.” All traces of humor were gone from Kyle’s voice.
    Cooper sat completely still and waited. This was it. He braced himself for the blow to his face.
    “You’re going to look out for her, right? When I’m gone? I need to know that somebody is gonna be here to take care of her. And you’re the only person I actually trust.”
    Normally, Coop would’ve made a joke. Rolled his eyes or told his friend he should consider applying for a drama scholarship. But he knew that Ella Jane was right. Things were changing. And he could feel the heavy waves of tension and worry rolling off of his friend and slamming into him.
    And you’re the only person I actually trust. He knew what he had to do.
    “Yeah, man. You know it. Always.”
    Kyle’s expression smoothed, and Coop was glad to have taken that off of his friend’s shoulders. But now? Now it was on his. And he could feel every single bit of it.

“N ICE to meet you, Mrs. Mason,” Hayden Prescott said as he shook the middle-aged woman’s hand. He grinned his meet-the-mom smile at his new employer. It was all a show for his granddad. Surely his parents would come to their senses soon enough and he wouldn’t actually be spending his entire summer in this godforsaken hellhole.
    “Nice to meet you as well,” the woman responded, eyeing him as if she were making up her mind whether or not he was really nice to meet. “I’m not going to lie to you. We need a lot of help around here.” She paused to nod at the sprawling yard. “We’ve got a small crew handling clients, but it’s here that needs the most work.”
    Hayden glanced around at the overgrown land surrounding the two-story Victorian home that doubled as a family business.
    “Probably doesn’t say much for our work ethic that our own yard looks pretty terrible.” She smiled, but Hayden had seen his own mother faking enough polite smiles to know when someone was full of it.
    “Yes, ma’am. I’m happy to help out wherever you need me.” And he was. She was pretty fine, actually, for someone in her forties. He wouldn’t mind having a Mrs. Robinson for the week or two he actually had to be here until his parents gave up the charade.
    His grandfather clapped him on the back. “Right. Like I said, Millie, he’s able-bodied and needs a summer of hard work. Put his nose to the grindstone. I noticed the weeds around the barn are gettin’ pretty thick. Where’s that boy of yours?”
    Mrs. Mason forced another smile. “He got a scholarship to State, Edwin. He has football camp and workouts this summer. He’s home on the weekends though. Takes care of some of the properties out in Summit Bluffs.”
    “They grow up fast,” his grandfather said, jerking his head in his direction. “This one’s seventeen already. Seems like just yesterday he was knee-high to a grasshopper and actually enjoyed spending a summer with his poor ol’ granddad.”
    Hayden had to fight to keep from snorting out loud. His granddad definitely wasn’t poor. Far from it. He owned half of the land in Oklahoma. Why he chose to live in the middle of nowhere when he could buy and sell Summit Bluffs ten times over, Hayden would never understand.
    Mrs. Mason nodded. “Ella Jane’s sixteen. Can you believe that?”
    Hayden’s grandfather whistled low under his breath. “I can still remember busting her catching lizards down by the train tracks when she was missing two front teeth.”
    Dear Lord. What kind of name was Ella Jane? Hayden immediately pictured a toothless fatty in overalls and pigtail braids.
    Mrs. Mason laughed. “Yep. Soon Kyle will be away at school and EJ will graduate and probably head off as well. Then it will