Blitz: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romantic Comedy (Blast Brothers Book 3), стр. 48
As I watched, Emory and Ginger shared a long, perplexed look. They were still eyeing each other when Chase said to Emory, "Hey, I remember you."
Emory whirled to face him, making her slinky red dress flare around her thighs before it settled back into place. She gave Chase a ravishing smile. "You do?"
"Yeah. You're the nut chick." Chase looked to Ginger and said, "We saw her licking nuts near the corner of Third and Jefferson."
Emory made a sound of protest. "I wasn't licking nuts. I was holding them, and not even really, because most of them slipped out of my hands."
I couldn’t help it. I snickered.
Emory's eyes narrowed. "What's so funny?" But then she paused. "Oh, come on! It wasn't like that at all."
I gave her my sweetest smile. "Like what?"
"Like however you're making it sound."
"Me?" I laughed. "I didn't say anything."
"Yeah, but I know what you're thinking." She whirled to her mom and said, "It wasn't like that."
Chase laughed. "Aw come on. Get your thoughts out of the gutter." He looked back to her mom and said, "Hey Ginger."
She looked. "Yeah?"
He gave her a sexy grin. "You know the score, right?"
I'd known Ginger my whole life, but I'd never seen her look so flustered as she looked right now. With a girlish giggle, she said, "Me? Oh, yeah. Of course."
Emory mimicked under her breath. "Oh, yeah. Of course."
Ginger turned to her daughter. "What's that?"
Emory sighed. "Oh come on, Mom. You're making a total fool of yourself."
Ginger's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"
"I'm just saying, he's a little young for you, don't you think?"
Ginger's mouth tightened. "What exactly are you implying?"
"I'm not implying anything," Emory said. "I'm telling you straight up that if you're shopping for husband number-four, you might want to check a different aisle."
I spoke up. "I hear produce is nice."
In unison, they both turned to look. For a long moment, neither one of them said a word. But then, they turned back to each other and started bickering.
Ginger told Emory, "Hey, I'm not the one all gussied up."
"Oh, please," Emory shot back. "If you were any more 'gussied', you'd be wearing your freaking tiara."
Chase leaned his head close to mine and whispered in my ear. "She has a tiara?"
His breath tickled, and I tried not to laugh as I replied, "Don't ask."
"Oh, I’m asking," he said. "And you know what?"
"What?"
"You're gonna tell me." His lips grazed my ear. "Or else."
Chapter 43
Chase
We were halfway across the open field before Mina started laughing. "I can't believe you just did that."
I looked over my shoulder toward the building we'd just left. The door was still propped open, but the sounds of bickering had faded in the distance.
I was still holding Mina's hand – and not for show either. Did she realize that?Maybe. Maybe not.
Either way, she wasn't letting go of my hand either.
Her hand felt soft and warm, and I was liking the way it felt. I gave her fingers a playful squeeze as I told her, "You owe me."
"Oh, I know," she laughed. "I swear, you came along just in time."
"No kidding," I said. "But that's not what I meant."
She gave me a sideways glance. "So…what do you mean?"
I smiled. "I mean, I'm calling bullshit on the weather thing."
"Oh." She wasn't laughing anymore.
I missed the sound of it, and I felt like a dick for pushing the issue. But the more I'd been thinking, the more I'd decided that something was bothering her.
Whatever it was, I wanted to know.
And for some messed-up reason, I wanted to make it right, assuming I could. Considering everything I had at my disposal – money, influence, you name it – I figured it would be easy enough to solve whatever problem was on her mind.
But first, I had to know what it was.
I could demand to know. Or I could take a roundabout way to get there.
"Listen," I said, "if you don't want to tell me, I get it." I gave her hand another squeeze. "But I can't have you thinking you pulled one over on me, can I?"
With an embarrassed laugh, she said, "Actually, I was pretty sure you were onto me from the start."
Onto her.
From the start.
If she only knew how good that sounded.
Now, it was time to pull my own thoughts out of the gutter. "Oh, yeah?" I teased. "So you didn't think you had me, huh?"
"Oh, boy." She gave another embarrassed laugh. "Actually, I'm pretty sure you don't want me to answer that."
I wasn't sure what she meant, but I liked the sound of her laughter. It made me feel warm and happy in ways that were unfamiliar – and oddly unsettling.
Did she have any idea what she was doing to me?
Or the things I'd been wanting to do to her?
We were heading to the last stop of our tour – the big red barn where the festival staged hayrides for kids, families, and whoever else. I'd never been on a hayride, but I didn't feel like I'd been missing it.
But I had been missing something, even if I hadn't known it at the time.
And that something was Mina. She was the most genuine person I'd ever met. There was no pretense, no posing, no pretending to be something she wasn't.
I thought of the chick in the red dress. And then, I thought of her mom, Ginger Whoever.
I'd fucking hated them.
In that kitchen, it was all I could do to not show it.
Before I'd gone in for the rescue, they'd been talking plenty loud enough for me to hear, whether I'd wanted to or not. I hadn't liked what they were saying, especially those bits at the end.
I'd wanted to storm in there and give both of them holy hell for hassling somebody who was worth more than both of them combined.
But if I knew Mina – and by now, I was pretty sure I