Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,86

to go there.

Mason was still talking. "But we know how it ends, right?"

I crossed my arms. "Oh yeah? How's that?"

"With you dumping her as soon as the book thing blows over."

By now, I'd heard enough. "Are you fucking nuts?"

From somewhere inside the pantry, Arden called out, "That's what I said, except I didn't use the F-word."

I looked to Brody. "And what do you think?"

He didn't look happy at the question. "I don't know what to think."

Terrific. "Are you serious?"

He shrugged. "Hey, I'm just saying, I know you can get pretty creative when it comes to marketing."

Shit. What kind of monster did they think I was?

"Oh, yeah?" I said. "Like you got creative when you hooked up with Arden?"

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"So the two of you – you hooked up for publicity, right?"

Now, he looked pissed-off. "No."

"Oh, I get it," I said. "So with you and Arden, it's real. But with me, it's just a stunt? That's what you're saying?"

Brody gave me a skeptical look. "So, it's not?"

Arden, who'd emerged from the pantry with a cannister of ground coffee, looked to Brody and said, "See? We told you it's not a stunt."

We. I could only guess she meant herself and Cami. When I looked to Cami, she gave me an encouraging nod, as if to say, "Go ahead. Tell them the real story."

I reached up and rubbed the back of my neck. Hell, I didn't even know the real story, except that Mason's theory was a smoking pile of you-know-what.

I looked back to Arden. "And what's your theory?"

Arden and Cami shared a long, knowing look before Arden announced, "We think you're in love."

I was staring now. "What?"

Cami added, "Yeah. It's so obvious from the picture."

Mason spoke up. "He's not in love. He's in lust. Or he's just using her."

I told him, "You don't know as much as you think."

From the sidelines, Arden said, "But how about us? We know." She smiled. "Right?"

"Wrong," I said. "Sorry to tell you."

Again, the girls shared a look. They didn't say anything, but their expressions said it all. They thought I was full of shit.

To whoever wanted to hear it, I announced, "I just like her, that's all."

Arden said, "You wanna know what I think? I think it's lust and love." She gave Brody a wistful smile. "Sometimes, they go hand-in-hand, you know?"

Brody moved closer to Arden and wrapped an arm around her waist. He pulled her close and whispered something into her ear. She gave a soft giggle, as if he'd suggested slipping into the pantry for a quickie.

When I looked to Mason, he and Cami were doing the same thing.

Just shoot me now.

I told the whole lot of them, "You need to go."

Arden said, "But I haven't even made coffee."

"Good," I said. "You can hit the shop down the street. Their coffee's way better than mine, anyway."

"Fine," she grumbled. "But I know you're just making an excuse."

"No kidding," I said. "I need to make a phone call."

Cami looked to Arden and said, "I bet he's gonna call her." She said "her" like Mina was a long-lost sister.

Arden nodded. "I bet you're right."

I didn't bother pointing out that I'd said as much only a few moments ago.

Arden looked back to me and asked, "So, when do we get to meet her?" Before I could answer, she gave a little gasp of excitement. She looked to Cami and said, "If they get really serious, maybe she could stand in the wedding."

I didn't ask which wedding, because for all I knew, they meant both weddings. Good thing I hadn't eaten the pancakes, or I'd be chucking them back up again.

When the four of them finally left, I grabbed my cell phone and started thinking in terms of damage-control.

Step one – warn Mina.

Chapter 57

Mina

It took weeks before my parents stopped looking at me funny – my dad, in particular.

It didn't help that Ginger and Emory had both shared that first National Dirt story on every one of their social media accounts, which meant that practically everyone in the county was now speculating on whether or not I'd had sex with Chase Blastoviak in the barn of the fairgrounds.

And yes, "wondering" was the right word to describe it, because I never confirmed or denied. Instead, whenever anyone was rude enough to ask, I politely explained that I'd given Chase a tour of the whole barn, which naturally included the hayloft.

And to those who asked about my own disheveled condition in that photo, I'd pointed out that haylofts