She handed him her phone and pointed it back at her. “Will you do me the honor, Cole?”
He took the phone while she aimed for another sign. “That’s your brain,” she said, quoting an old school ’80s ad she once saw against drugs. She shot the sign and it exploded. “That’s your brain on social media. At least that’s how mine has been!” she allowed with a laugh. “Any questions?” She whipped around to Cole. “Give me one more target,” she said.
“How about your phone?”
She let out a squeal of laughter, and then realizing that was a good enough message to her stalker, she nodded. “Set it on that post.”
“Wait, really?” he asked.
She nodded. “I’m closing my TalkieTalk account forever, friends, because… though I appreciate the individuals that you are, I need to start concentrating on the individuals who are in my life right now. I don’t need this app to feel loved. I have that love right here in my heart… and now I’m going to cherish these amazing moments that are waiting for me, without an audience. You’ll have those moments, too, and I bet they’ll be just as special to you and your loved ones because, well, life is so good, friends, and I’m reclaiming mine. Love you all!”
She shot the phone into the next field over.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cole had no idea what was happening right now, but Eva was laughing and crying. He ran to her and swung her around in what he hoped was the biggest embrace of her life. She clung to him. “Oh, Cole! Cole, thank you for putting up with that… you won’t ever have to do it again!”
He was completely mystified by what she’d done. He set her down on the tailgate of his pickup, not letting her go as he ran his hands down her back. “What was that about?” he asked.
She wiped at her eyes. “I don’t need fame to be happy, ya know?”
True, but… “Why are you doing this now?”
She let out a sound of distress. “I was trying to warn that stalker off me. I looked pretty tough, though, right?”
She’d looked hot. His heart warmed in absolute pride and amusement. “Totally.”
Eva pushed her errant hair from her face. “I hope my daddy doesn’t see that, though. He’ll think I’ve lost my mind.”
“Well, at least he’ll know why you aren’t answering his texts.”
She sucked in her breath. “He did… text. Oh!! He’ll call West next.” She hid her face against Cole’s chest, her back heaving while she groaned. “I’m in so much trouble.”
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he said, laughing a little, though a part of him was also concerned after hearing West’s warnings. Devlin Trout sounded more protective than the usual daddy he ran up against, and way too controlling. Would he really try to stop his daughter from getting together with Cole, like West suggested?
It didn’t matter.
Cole would fight her daddy for Eva’s hand. It couldn’t have been a harder fight than the one Cole had put up against himself.
“We’ll take care of it,” Cole said. “It’s going to be fine.”
“West had better not try to say anything bad about you,” she said. “Sometimes I think he’s closer to my daddy than I am…”
Irritation filled him that West had used Eva to further encroach himself into her daddy’s good graces. “No offense,” Cole said, “but why did you ever go for my brother?” Her expression darkened, and he groaned inwardly. Did he really want to hear? He quickly amended his words. “Sorry, maybe it’s better if you don’t say.”
She shrugged and began picking at the hay still stuck to the skirt of her dress. “He was interesting… and I just didn’t feel very interesting by myself.”
He was blown away by what she’d just admitted.
Abandoned by her momma and treated like an object to be controlled by her daddy had done a number on her self-esteem. West hadn’t helped things by taking over both these roles himself.
Cole choked back his anger at his brother and moved closer to her, so that she could see the sincerity in his eyes as he tried to undo all the damage West had done. “Eva… I can call you a lot of things, but boring? That isn’t one of them, like at all.”
She laughed lightly, but he could tell that she wasn’t convinced, and why should she be when her fiancé had done everything to escape her company these past few months?
His hands joined hers; they found her pretty little kneecaps as well, and he slid her closer, feeling an overwhelming urge to do everything in his power to keep her safe from any more of life’s crushing blows. “I mean it,” he said. “You are practically perfect,” he said.
“Practically perfect?” she asked. Mischief seemed to sparkle through her at the revelation. “A perfect angel or a perfect devil?”