Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,122

house, nibbling at the edges of peanut butter toast, savoring it like it was the priciest pastry from the fanciest shop.

And at night, well, let's just say I wasn't sleeping so good, and it showed. I'd been snapping at everyone for weeks, except for the times I kept to myself, which was far too often considering all the work crews who needed more direction than I'd been giving.

God, I missed her.

Chase said, "Don’t you wanna know who?"

I was still eying the cookies. Why couldn’t I just throw the damn things out already?

To Chase, I managed to say, "Who what?"

"Who had the scholarship first."

I didn't care. With my eyes trained on the cookies, I said, "Alright, who?"

Chase laughed. "Arden Weathers."

At the sound of her name, my head jerked upward. "What?"

"Arden Weathers," he repeated.

"I heard you the first time," I said. "But what are you saying?"

"The scholarship," Chase said. "It was Arden's until she lost it."

I stared across the kitchen counter. "Lost it how?"

"The usual way," Chase said. "Grades didn't measure up."

I shook my head. No way. Arden's grades were perfect, until—

Oh, fuck.

Instantly, all of the things she'd said during the past few months came flooding back to me.

"It cost you nothing."

"It cost me everything."

And what had I told her in reply? "Get over it."

I considered the house on the beach. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't have been saddled with student loans. She wouldn't have been working too many hours while getting her degree. She would've had a lot more fun – and a hell of a lot more money.

And the house – it would've been hers.

I knew it in my gut. If it weren't for that stunt I'd pulled with the lighter, she could've bought the house on her own. Yeah, it would've been hard. But one thing about Arden, she gave it her all when something mattered to her.

Again, I looked to the cookies. At the crew house, I'd found a brand-new mixer, along with new mixing bowls and cookie sheets.

Arden hadn't only made me cookies. She'd bought all the supplies to make them, too.

This was no small thing.

She didn't even have a car.

And why was that?

I recalled something she'd said in passing. She'd sold the car to pay for home repairs – repairs that were never made, for a house she'd never own.

Thanks to me.

Shit.

In the kitchen, Chase was laughing again. "I know. It's a riot, right?"

I wasn't laughing.

And the fact that was Chase was – well, I didn't like it. Through clenched teeth, I said, "You think that's funny?"

"It's not as funny as the look on your face," he said. "But yeah, I think it's pretty damn funny."

I still wasn't laughing.

And now I had a question. I knew the answer. But the question still had to be asked. "And Kenny was thanking me, why?"

"Because," Chase said, "if it weren't for you blowing up the lab, that scholarship would've been Arden's."

Chapter 72

Arden

From the front walkway, Cami called out, "Guess who called me on my way to work."

While she'd been gone, I'd been painting the spindles of her family's front porch. "Who?" I asked.

It was two in the afternoon, and Cami had just returned from her part-time summer job of tutoring grade schoolers at the local learning center. When she reached the front steps, she stopped and gave me a significant look. "Mason Blastoviak."

At the sound of that name – the last name in particular – the paintbrush slipped from my fingers and tumbled off the porch into the nearby shrubbery. "Crap!"

"No kidding," Cami said.

Already, my stomach was in knots. "What did he want?"

"Two things," Cami said. "First, he wanted to know the name of my dad."

I frowned. Cami's dad was away at work, much like the rest of the family, who were either working or at school.

Her dad's name was Engelbart, but I had no idea why this concerned Mason Blastoviak. "Why would he ask such a thing?"

"Do you remember when you and I were walking Willow home, and we were trying to figure out where she lived?"

At the memory, I almost cringed. "How could I forget?"

"Well, the thing is," Cami continued, "I promised to tell her my dad's name if she told me hers."

"Ohhhhhh. That's right." In all the commotion, that little detail had totally slipped my mind. "So he called because Willow still wanted to know?"

"Yup. Crazy, huh?"

Crazy was right. I didn't like Mason, even now. His hostility had been a huge source of friction between me and Brody. And then there was the matter