A Fallow Heart by Linda Kage Read Free Book Online

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