Blitz: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romantic Comedy (Blast Brothers Book 3), стр. 81
I had never been inside her car, but I would've crawled across broken glass to learn what the hell was going on.
Already, she was heading toward the parking area, moving fast, as if she were hoping to lose me in the crowd. Not a chance.
With my long legs, it was easy to keep pace. What was difficult was resisting the urge to start the conversation along the way. Unable to stop myself, I said, "I saw the picture."
I meant the picture of Mina with Bryce. Of course, I probably should have said pictures, as in plural. And even though I'd pretty much decided that Mina hadn't run off with her ex-boyfriend, his arrival at the Buckville Fairgrounds did seem to be important.
How or why, I didn't know. But I was determined to find out.
Mina kept on walking, even as she replied, "Yeah, well I saw a picture, too."
Now that got my attention. "What do you mean?"
She gave me a quick sideways glance. "It was a picture of you, hugging someone."
I tried to think. Who the hell had I hugged in Buckville?
And then it hit me. Now, I couldn’t help but smile with relief. So that was the problem?
Shit. I should have known it was something simple. With a laugh, I said, "Lemme guess. A girl with long auburn hair, right?
"Yup. That's her."
I was grinning now. "Mina, you know who that was, right?" But of course, she wouldn't know, because the two of them had never met. I told her, "That was Cami, my future sister-in-law."
Mina kept on walking. "What, you think I didn't know that?"
Huh? Now I was more confused than ever. "But if you knew who she was, why'd you get so mad?"
By now, we'd reached Mina's car. She unlocked the driver's side door and flicked the switch to the unlock the passenger's side, too. I circled around the front and climbed into the passenger's seat just as Mina settled herself behind the wheel. We closed our doors at virtually the same time.
Mina turned to me and said, "You told me that you weren't getting along with them."
"Who?"
"Your family," she said. "You claimed that's why you didn't want me to meet them. But obviously you were getting along, which means you were lying to me."
I frowned. "So that's why you dumped me?"
Okay, I could see where she'd be confused, and maybe angry, too. But to end our relationship? Without even asking me about it?
It made no sense – unless Mina wasn't the girl I thought she was.
When she made no reply, I said, "Mina, I don't want to be a dick, but…"
"But what?" she snapped.
"Don't you think you overreacted?"
Just as I said it, I heard a tap at the passenger's side window. When I turned to look, I saw Angelique Delmonico, smiling like she'd caught us fucking in the back seat.
From the other side of the glass, she called out, "Well, if it isn't the happy couple."
In the driver's seat, Mina muttered, "I'll give her happy, alright."
Standing behind Angelique was the same camera guy as before. But this time, his camera wasn't loose at his side. Instead, it was pointed straight in our direction, and filming us, too, from the looks of it.
With a muttered curse, Mina fired up the engine and shifted her car into reverse. She hit the gas, leaving Angelique, along with the camera guy, staring after us in the parking lot.
Two minutes later, we were on the road, leaving the fairgrounds behind us.
Mina kept her gaze straight ahead, looking royally pissed off as we made our escape.
But hey, I was getting pissed, too.
I'd confessed my love. I'd followed after her. I'd even tried to be understanding through all of the drama – unnecessary drama, the way I saw it.
And Mina still hadn't answered my very basic question. Or maybe she had, and I was just having a hard time believing it.
"Just so we're clear," I said, "you dumped me because you saw me hugging my brother's fiancée? Are you serious?"
She made a sound, a half-laugh, half-sob. It tore at my heart and made me question the wisdom of letting her drive anywhere.
Still, I persisted. "So was that the reason?"
She said nothing. Instead, she stomped on the gas. Her car lurched forward, picking up speed along the lonely country road.
Soon, I heard a low, but supremely irritating noise – wind noise, but messed up, like it was pummeling my brain.
I glanced up at her sunroof. "What's that noise?"
When she replied, her voice dripped with innocence. "What noise?"
"It's your sunroof."
She smiled. "Is it?"
Oh, yeah. She was definitely losing it. But hey, that made two of us, because I was losing it, too. As the noise burrowed its way into my skull, I told her, "If that's why you dumped me, you're even crazier than I thought in the beginning."
"Oh, I’m crazy, alright," she said. "And you wanna know why?"
"Why?"
"Because I thought what we had was real."
"And it wasn't?"
Her voice broke. "I heard you."
By now, I felt like I was losing my mind. "You heard me what?"
"I heard you telling your brothers you were going to dump me as soon as the campaign ended."
And just like that, everything clicked into place.
Fuck.
Chapter 73
Mina
In the passenger's seat, Chase grew utterly still.
From the corner of my eye, I studied his face in profile.
Judging from his expression, he looked just as sick as I'd felt when I'd heard him say those awful words.
Even now, they haunted me like a bad dream. "Because I’m just gonna dump her when the campaign's over."
He'd said it in Buckville, when I'd been searching all over for him. During my search, I'd happened to wander by the festival office, only to hear him through the open window, bragging about how he was going to ditch me as soon as I was no longer needed.
In my car, I continued. "So you can imagine how I felt, knowing that none of