Page 56 of Cougar

Lexi shoots Jay an incredulous look as if she’s silently asking, “Why the hell would you tell your mom about the party?” and I hear Cam chuckling under his breath. Clearly Jay has no idea how to be a sneaky teenager. Then again, she’s not your typical teenager.

“Where’s the party?” I ask with a laugh.

Jay looks over at Lexi with raised brows. “Why are you looking at me like that? Even if I didn’t tell her about the party”—she gestures to Bass—“he would.” She looks over her shoulder and points to Troy lingering in the doorway. “Or him.” She looks around. “Or the other one who’s hanging out around here somewhere.”

“The party is at Carter Nixon’s house,” Lexi tells me. “He lives right down the street from Cole.”

“Okay.” I nod. “No drinking.”

“No problem.” Jay jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “You’re not gonna make me take one of the joes to the party with me, are you?”

I laugh at her nickname for her bodyguards and shake my head. “No. I trust you’ll be fine.”

Emerson

This is the first time I’ve sat in the bleachers during a Heritage Academy football game. My family is gathered on the crowded bleachers while I’m sandwiched between Bass and Cam. My brother Max is sitting on the bench just below me with Willow standing in his lap.

“Where’s JJ?” Willow asks as she scans the crowd for Jay. I smile in awe over her custom-made football jersey with “Mackenzie” across the back and the number fifteen in the center. Cole’s number.

“She’ll be back,” I tell her.

A couple of cheerleaders are gathered at the fence, talking to their friends, while the others are behind them, stretching on the track that circles around the outside of the football field. A feeling of melancholy washes over me as I remember my glory days as a cheerleader. Cheering alongside my best friends, for my team and the boy I thought I’d marry one day.

Chris stops beside the blonde girl who’s at the fence talking with some of the cheerleaders. Her back is to me, so I can’t get a good look at her, but I assume she’s his daughter because he kisses the top of her head before walking over to the bleachers. Just as he turns to sit beside Mike, his eyes find me and he gives a little wave, which prompts Mike and Elizabeth to look over their shoulders. Mike shoots me a smirk while Elizabeth shoots daggers.

Cam chuckles. “She needs to get over herself.”

“I don’t really care.” I shrug. “I ran into Chris the other day when I went to have lunch with my father.”

“That must’ve been awkward.”

I nod. “It was at first. But we talked, cleared the air, and we’re good now.”

“Huh.” Cam stares down at the back of Chris’s head as if he’s pondering something. Then he leans over close to my ear. “I heard he got divorced.”

I snort softly. “You’re as bad as my mother,” I say a little too loudly, prompting her to look at me over her shoulder. I wave her off and turn my face to Cam. “Who told you?”

He lifts a shoulder. “A friend.”

Whenever Cam says “a friend,” he’s referring to a female. I can’t help but wonder how many “friends” Cam has.Why do I care?

“It was final last month. Don’t say anything to your sister. But again”—I roll my eyes—“this is Heritage Bay. I’m sure she and everyone else in this town knows.”

“I didn’t know. Not that I care.”

“If you don’t care, then why’d you ask?”

He shrugs. “No reason.”

I give him a look. “Mmmhmm.”

He huffs out a soft laugh. “Fine. A friend of mine had coffee with him. When she told me about it, I kinda flipped out on her. I thought she was messing around with a married man. She said he told her he was divorced, and I told her he was lying. Guess I should apologize, huh?”

I bug my eyes out at him. “Yeah.”

“I’ll text her later.”

“No, text her right now. You can’t mess with people’s relationships.”

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