on," she said. "We're just having a little fun, that's all."
And I thought it would be fun to shove a camera up her ass, but we didn't always get what we wanted, did we? I turned to go.
She called out after me, "Do you know he's seeing someone else?"
I turned back. "What?"
"Oh come on," she laughed. "You can't think you're his one and only."
I did think that.
In fact, I knew I was his "one and only" because we'd both agreed to be exclusive. And foolish or not, I couldn’t imagine Chase sneaking around. If he wanted to move on, he'd simply tell me so. Wouldn't he?
At the thought, my heart clenched like it always did. But if Angelique thought she could rile me, she was dead wrong.
I crossed my arms. "I know what you're doing, and I'm not falling for it."
"Are you sure?" she said. "Because I've got pictures."
Now that made me pause. "Pictures?"
"Oh, yeah," she said. "You wanna see them?"
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
As if sensing blood in the water, Angelique prowled closer to say, "And they're recent, too."
I felt my eyebrows furrow. "How recent?"
She grinned. "Honey, if these were prints, the ink would still be wet." And with that, she reached into her designer handbag and pulled out a cell phone. She tapped at the screen and then turned it in my direction.
Silently, I stared at the image in front of me. She was right about it being recent. Today, we were attending the Buckville Carrot Festival. In the image, I saw Chase standing near one of the many signs welcoming attendees to this very same event. He was hugging a petite woman with long, auburn hair. I couldn't see her face, but I could see his. It was definitely him.
What the heck?
I was still staring when Angelique pulled the phone away and said, "Oh, well. Time to move on, right?"
I wasn't sure what she meant. Did she mean it was time for me to move on from Chase? Or time for us to end the interview for good?
Either way, Angelique was full of crap. And I might have told her so, if only she hadn't already flounced off as if she'd just scored a major victory.
She hadn't. But that didn't mean I was happy.
Chase had lied to me, but not in the way she thought. I pulled out my phone and sent him a text, asking where he was.
When I received no reply, I spent the next half-hour searching for him and his companion. But I saw no sign of either one of them, which frustrated me to no end as I waded through the crowd searching face after face.
But then, out of the blue, I saw a different face, one I hadn't seen in years. I stopped dead in my tracks and stared across the distance.
Holy crap. I was looking at Bryce, the guy who'd cheated on me all those years ago.
He was standing in line for cotton candy, and he looked just the same as I remembered. His hair was thick and blonde. His body was lean and muscular. He was clean-shaven with the same sort of tan he'd sported after returning from his impromptu Florida vacation – the one he'd taken with Emory Hawthorne.
Now that was a memory I didn't need.
Seeing him now was like traveling back in a time machine to seven years ago when he'd given me a lesson I would never forget.
Hot guys were not to be trusted.
Our eyes locked across the distance, and I felt a slow blush creep up my cheeks. The last time I'd seen him, I'd called him every name in the book, along with a few other names that I'd invented just for the occasion.
This, too, was a memory I didn't need.
I turned away, heading in the opposite direction. I'd taken only a few steps when Bryce called out, "Hey, Mina! Wait up, alright?"
Shit.
Reluctantly, I stopped and turned around. Already, he was wading through the crowd, heading straight in my direction.
Unsure what else to do, I waited with growing unease, wondering what the heck he wanted.
And when I found out, I was so surprised, I could hardly speak.
Chapter 67
Chase
In the small cinderblock building that served as the office for the fairgrounds, Cami was saying, "Oh come on. We want to meet her."
"Yeah," Arden said. "I mean, we didn't drive three hours just for the fun of it."
I looked at the two girls my brothers were planning to marry. They'd surprised me over