Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,104

you ever tell her?"

"Tell her what?"

"That you love her."

I made a scoffing sound. "No. Because I'm no liar."

He was staring now. "Are you fucking serious?'

"Yeah, why?"

"Because anyone can see you're full of it. Admit it. You love her."

When my only reply was a sullen look, he said, "Deny it all you want, but you and I both know it's true."

Brody and I had always been close, but not so close that we talked about our feelings. And forget talking about love.

I muttered, "Even if I did, so what?"

"You still love her," he said. "Or you wouldn't be such a mess."

I asked, "Is there a point to this?"

"Let me ask you something," he said. "Do you really think Mina would take up with a married guy?"

No. I didn't. And that was half of the problem. "Yeah, well, maybe I didn't know her as well as I thought."

"Or maybe," Brody said, "you should talk to her and figure out what's going on."

Yeah, right.

What Brody didn't know was that I'd tried to talk to her.

Maybe two days after our breakup, I'd call her cell phone. When she didn't answer, I'd left a message, asking her to call me back.

She never did.

But a few hours later, I did receive a text, telling me that she was still planning to finish her work on the campaign, unless I wanted to fire her.

I didn't.

It's not like I was dying to see her. I just knew that no one else would handle the festival stuff as well as she did. I hadn't hired a new spokesperson either, because the way I saw it, the media could fuck off if they wanted to probe any further into my personal life.

Already, I'd had enough.

When I explained all of this to Brody, he said, "Are you listening to yourself?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because you're full of shit, and you know it."

I didn't bother with a reply. Even if I was full of shit, so what? Regardless of the reasons, there was no way on Earth I'd be firing Mina.

Into my silence, Brody said, "And I've got a message from Cami and Arden."

Now this I had to hear. "Oh, yeah? What?"

Looking almost embarrassed, he said, "Mina loves you, too."

Sure she did.

Brody continued, "That was from Cami, by the way." He paused. "And you wanna know what Arden said to tell you?"

"What?"

"That if you don't go after her, you're a bigger fool than she thought."

A fool, huh?

Now that was just plain insulting.

And yet, those words haunted me for the rest of the night and the following morning, even as I got dressed and cleaned myself up for the Hazelton Tomato Festival, the event that had brought us together in the first place.

In just a few hours, I'd be seeing Mina in person, and maybe meeting her family, too.

I could've bowed out, maybe talked Brody or Mason into taking my place. But I didn't, because the truth was, I wanted to see her – a lot more than I was willing to admit.

But when I did, it didn't go so great.

Like that was a surprise.

Chapter 71

Mina

When I saw Chase, my breath caught and my stomach twisted. He was standing near the festival entrance, talking to a couple of younger guys in ballcaps. They guys looked thrilled. Chase didn't.

Oh sure, he was smiling like things were perfectly friendly, but I knew him well enough to know that his smile wasn't real, and his mind wasn't on whatever they were saying.

Or maybe it was only my imagination. After all, how well did I truly know the guy?

The answer to that question should have been obvious.

I didn't know him at all.

And I sure as heck didn't want to talk to him. With this in mind, I turned away, hoping that he hadn't spotted me in the crowd.

Today was the first day of the Hazelton Tomato Festival, and this should've been a moment of triumph. After all, if it weren't for my persistence in pursuing Blast Tools, the festival wouldn’t have taken place at all, or at least, not in its current form.

I should've been happy, right?

But I wasn't.

The past few days had been so miserable, it was all I could do to keep smiling when I really wanted to cry.

At the thought of how well Chase had played me, I felt my eyes fill with new tears even as I strode toward the midway in hopes of getting lost in the crowd.

It worked, but not forever, because less than an hour later, I nearly collided with Chase near the