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Grady sliced a thoughtful glance Jo Ellen’s way.
She exploded. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Yeah.” Emma Leigh hooked her arm supportively through Jo Ellen’s. “Why do you assume we’re talking about her? Why can’t I be pregnant?”
Grady snorted and sent Em a get-real scowl. “Maybe because I’ve been through your underwear drawer and didn’t find any condoms.”
“Really, Grady. The idea of you pawing through my panties is just plain sick and creepy. Besides, wouldn’t the lack of condoms mean I was less protected and more apt to be pregnant?”
His eyes narrowed. “Jesus. You always gotta be a smart ass, don’t you?”
Before Amy could reprimand him yet again, their mother appeared in the doorway behind Caine. “What is going on in here? I can hear you kids arguing from downstairs.”
Instantly, everyone fell mute. Tara Rose Rawlings set her hands on her hips. “And what’s all this talk about someone being pregnant?”
Jo Ellen shared a poignant look with her siblings.
“Dear Lord,” Tara Rose uttered in a hollow voice, covering her mouth with both hands as she ogled Grady and Amy. “Who’s pregnant?”
Jo Ellen couldn’t take it any longer. “No one’s pregnant,” she yelled, and then ruined her resolve when her mother zapped her with a probing stare. Cowering closer to Emma Leigh, she more quietly added, “I don’t think.”
“Oh, Jo Ellen, no,” her mother whispered, disappointment and worry thick in her gaze. “What have you done?”
Chapter Six
A month after the night of Bose Eden’s back-to-school bash, Cooper still found himself scanning the halls of his high school for Jo Ellen between classes. He told himself to stop. She was Untermeyer’s girl. She’d always been Untermeyer’s girl, and she’d stay Untermeyer’s girl. He was being stupid anyway. Just because she’d stuck her tongue down his throat and totally rocked his world in a state of utter inebriation didn’t mean she had to feel for him what he felt for her.
But no matter how much he commanded himself to stop looking for her, to stop thinking about her, to stop dreaming about her, he continued to do all three. He kept remembering how good she’d felt pressed against him. He kept hearing her throaty sound of pleasure when he’d kissed her. He kept seeing her eyes widen and then go unfocused as she came apart in his arms.
And thus, he kept searching for her every dad-gum place he went.
Making out with her outside her parent’s house had been the biggest sin he’d ever committed, and yet he feared it’d live to stand as the most amazing memory he’d carry to his death.
Coop sighed and dug inside his locker, all the while watching hers with one eye, where it was located halfway down the hall from his. He’d just pulled out his American History book and was searching for a pen when he caught movement from his peripheral vision. Curious, he lifted his face, and the air stalled in his chest. A moment later, his heart kicked into gear and his lungs heaved, sucking in oxygen.
There she was.
Facing away from him, Jo Ellen unlocked her locker and slowly opened it. Her long brown hair floated gracefully down her back, flowing and molding to her with every precious move she made. After a mighty heave of her shoulders, she began to extract book after book before carefully bending to pile each one on the floor by her feet.
Cooper blinked as he watched her lug out an English primer, fan through the pages—occasionally removing a note here and there—and then pile the cleaned tome on top of the last. Her actions bewildered him until she finished going through her textbooks and began picking the pictures off the inside of her locker door and stuffing them into her bag.
He straightened, mind racing. What in the world? Why was she cleaning out her locker? Had she remembered their night together and felt so disgusted she had to move as far away from him as possible? But wait. Why would she go through her books as if she was about to turn them all in? Was she leaving the entire school?
A needle of guilt and despair stabbed through him. Shame and misery, tangled with a huge dose of longing, clogged his windpipe. He couldn’t just stand there and watch her leave, but he couldn’t seem to move either. So he just stood there, watching her pack her things to leave.
As if sensing his stare, Jo Ellen glanced over her shoulder and froze when she saw him. Her face instantly drained of color, alarming him. Students strode by, passing between them. Conversations littered the air, echoing down the busy hall; but as far as Coop was concerned, there was only he and Jo Ellen. Realizing glistening wet, red skin ringed her eyes, he took a protective step closer. Tears were his downfall; he’d do anything, anything, to end her crying. But first, he had to discover what had upset her.
Before he could take a second step, his answer came.
“Jo Ellen?” Untermeyer appeared at her side.
Her eyes widening, she spun away from Cooper and gaped at her boyfriend. Cooper halted, thinking Pretty Boy didn’t look so swell himself. Two fists balled at his sides. If Untermeyer had done anything to hurt her, the dirt bag was as good as dead.
“I, um…” Untermeyer’s voice went hoarse and quivered. When he reached for her hand, she pulled her fingers away.
Cooper’s chest heaved with a great big surge of hope. What was this? Were they fighting? Was she finally dumping him? He should feel bad but he was too full of hope and anticipation.
“Please try to understand,” Untermeyer started, confusing Coop big time. No way would he break up with her. Would he? No, Pretty Boy was an idiot but no one could be that stupid. “I can’t just…this is more than I can handle.”
