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Hand still full of his unopened beer, Coop used the back of his palm to smooth her long, streaming hair away from her face and feel her forehead, though he wasn’t sure why he checked for a temperature when it appeared as if all she suffered from was the three-two flu.
She lifted her head, her face sallow, eyes rimmed with dark rings, and cheeks reflecting the white from the moon. “Cooper?”
Before he could stop himself, he jerked back, releasing his grip from her suddenly potent skin as if she’d stung him.
Not Emma Leigh after all.
Em had never called him Cooper in her life. Just Coop.
Oxygen rushed from his lungs. “Jo Ellen.” Her name came out sounding a little rusty from the old voice box, probably because he rarely spoke it aloud and his vocal chords weren’t used to its cadence.
Though Emma Leigh’s twin looked identical to her, Coop had never confused the two before. He considered Emma Leigh a friend, someone to hang out with and laugh with when he wanted to have a good time. She was one of the guys. He could relax around her and tell her just about anything.
Em was comfortable.
Her sister, Jo Ellen, made him decidedly uncomfortable.
Maybe it was because he’d developed a raging crush on her in the third grade when their teacher had assigned him to sit behind her in class, and he’d yet to shake that feeling of complete adoration. But the strawberry scent of her shampoo, the dulcet tone of her voice, the aura surrounding her, they had all embedded themselves on his soul. He was just so fascinated by her.
Or maybe he grew nervous in her company because she wasn’t as loud and obnoxious as Emma Leigh.
Jo Ellen Rawlings exuded a prim and proper manner, making her twin seem especially rowdy. She typically kept her expression guarded and polite while Emma Leigh was only too eager to communicate everything on her mind, be it an appropriate time and place for such declarations or not. Jo Ellen’s quiet way made him antsy, always wondering what she thought of him.
She was a lady, and he was infinitely aware of her…as a male.
Or better yet, maybe he could never relax around her because she was dating the ultimate dirt bag, who also happened to be Cooper’s one and only nemesis. And if Coop had to name a single person he hated, it would be Travis Untermeyer. Though to be fair, Coop conceded, he hadn’t truly come to despise Untermeyer until he’d learned the guy had snagged Jo Ellen Rawlings. Still, the prissy mama’s boy thought he was God’s gift to just about everything, and he never failed to treat Coop like some poor, filthy, dumb farm boy who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as him.
Well, Coop didn’t think that runt of a human being deserved to have a girlfriend as pretty and polished as Jo Ellen Rawlings.
“Where’s Untermeyer?” he asked, darting his gaze around for Pretty Boy to appear out of nowhere and scold Cooper for not only touching his woman but actually coming within three feet of her.
He couldn’t quite understand why she was out here by herself anyway. Since she and Untermeyer had begun going steady their sophomore year, Coop had never seen one without the other lingering nearby.
But Jo Ellen ignored his question. “Have you seen Emma Leigh?”
“Uh…” Cooper squinted toward the horde of people crowding around the tank. “Yeah,” he answered. “I just did not thirty seconds ago. She stormed off, looking for Bose Eden.”
He turned back to Jo Ellen just as she once again curled into herself and cradled her belly with both arms.
“Want me to go fetch her for you?” he offered, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, not sure how to aid her without somehow offending. Not that his assistance would offend. But if she were in any way loyal to Untermeyer, she’d be wary about accepting anything from Coo
per Gerhardt, even if it was a simple helping hand.
“Would you please?” Jo Ellen’s voice rasped weakly as she glanced up at him with her drawn and pale face. “Tell her I…I’m going to be…sick.”
With that, she arched in her stomach and vomited.
“Jo Ellen!” Panicking, he leapt toward her. Since he was more hesitant to make contact now that he knew whom he was dealing with, he kept his touch light as he gripped her shoulder to keep her from falling.
Her frail frame lurched, and between spouts of emptying everything inside her, she whimpered. He grimaced but tucked his Coors under his arm so he could use both hands to hold her up and gather her hair out of the way. Lifting his face from the scene to keep from being sick himself, he glanced around, once more searching for Pretty Boy.
Where the hell was her precious boyfriend? Shouldn’t he be doing this instead? Then again, Coop bet Untermeyer wouldn’t slink within ten feet of anyone puking their guts out, girlfriend or not. No, he probably considered that lowly job fit for dirty, dumb farm boys like Coop.
Cooper rolled his eyes. No wonder why the jackass was nowhere to be found.
Weak and drained, Jo Ellen leaned against him as soon as she finished, pressing her warm, damp forehead to his neck and shivering as if chilled. Instantly, his body went taut. Her smell invaded his nostrils, leaving him dizzy. Never thinking of himself as a flower person before, he suddenly cherished the heady fragrance of crisp carnations exuding from her.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders to support her. She wilted and snuggled trustingly close to let him sustain her weight. He told himself his actions didn’t mean anything. Cooper was a nurturer by nature. He’d lend assistance to anyone in need. But for some reason, this felt different. He didn’t contemplate all the places Untermeyer had no doubt put his disgusting paws. All he could imagine was every place he’d like to put his hands.
