And with that, she turned and strode away, leaving me staring after her.
Now, it was my turn to swallow. What the hell had just happened?
Chapter 69
Chase
I didn't see Mina for the rest of the day, but I saw plenty of my brothers and their fiancées. By now, I was pissed and tired, and so confused, I felt like I was losing my mind.
The only upside was that with my brothers on the scene, I could skip the personal appearances and shove it all onto their plates instead.
And boy, did Mason love that.
But I didn't care.
Suddenly, I was finding it hard to care about anything. By the time night fell, and the midway glowed with carnival lights and the faces of happy people, I was almost ready to lose it.
I ditched the festival and drove back to the hotel. And, because I wasn't a complete dick, I sent Mina a text beforehand, telling her to let me know if she needed a ride.
Her reply came in an instant. "I'm good. Thanks."
If so, that made one of us, because the longer this went on, the more I realized that I wasn't good at all. In fact, I was feeling so lost and shitty that I was having a hard time holding it together.
But I did – right up until the moment I walked through the door of our hotel room and discovered that Mina had already moved her stuff.
This shouldn't have been a big deal.
It was easy to guess where she'd gone. Even though we'd been sharing my hotel room, she did have a room of her own.
Pissed or not, I wanted to go down there and knock on her door, and while I was it, beg her tell me what had happened.
But I didn't, because that was me.
Of course, I wasn't the kind of guy to call the front desk either, but that's exactly what I did at ten o'clock that night, only to be told that Mina Lipinski had checked out hours ago.
What the hell?
Buckville was three hours away from Bayside, and she had no vehicle of her own – not up here, anyway. Today was Sunday, which meant that our next destination wasn't another festival, but wherever we called home.
In Mina's case, this was her parents' farmhouse. In mine, this was a condo that I was dreading returning to. Why, I didn't even know.
I mean, it's not like Mina was living with me.
But the whole thing was so seriously messed up that I spent hours pacing my hotel room and raiding the mini bar until I was having a hard time seeing straight.
The next morning, I woke feeling like shit, even more so when I checked the usual news sites and saw pictures of me and Mina standing near the kiddie rides, looking tense and unhappy.
Probably, they'd caught us in mid-breakup, but this wasn't the worst of it. The real kick came when I saw the other pictures – the ones of Mina climbing into a red sports car belonging to a guy identified as Bryce Foster.
I also came across a few shots of Bryce loading up suitcases – her suitcases, the same ones I'd loaded into my car on Friday morning.
Now that was a kick to the gut.
But hey, it was her loss, right?
Chapter 70
Chase
From my open condo doorway, I eyed the plate of cookies that Brody held out in front of him. "What the hell are those?"
"Cookies," he said. "What do they look like?"
They looked like oatmeal chocolate chip, homemade too. Brody's fiancée made the best cookies of anyone I knew, but that didn't mean I was hungry for them.
Just to be a dick, I said, "So, did you make them or what?"
He laughed. "Yeah, right. So, are you gonna let me in?"
I gave him a look. "Since when do you need permission?"
He gave me a look right back. "Since you're standing in my way."
Yeah, I was. And I was in no mood to move. It had been four days since Mina had dumped me at the Buckville Fairgrounds, and they'd been four of the longest days of my life.
I hadn't seen her or talked to her since.
I hadn't seen any new pictures of her either, which was a damned good thing, because the last pictures had nearly sent me over the edge.
Brody said, "You're still in my way."
"I know."
"And you look like shit."
Like that was news. "Yeah, so?"
When I still made no move to step aside, Brody shouldered his way past me and strode toward the kitchen. "Where's your coffee?" he said. "It looks like you need it."
It was seven o'clock at night, and I wasn't in the mood for coffee – or anything else alcohol-free. Still, I trudged after him anyway, wondering what the hell he wanted.
I told him, "If you want coffee, go ahead. I'll grab something else."
He turned and eyed me up and down. "Looks to me like you've had plenty of something else already."
I said it again. "Yeah, so?"
He set the plate of cookies on the counter. "Those are from Arden, by the way. Cami, too. And just so you know, they both wanted to come with me."
No way. This was the last thing I needed, and I told him so.
When I finished, he said, "Yeah, but they're worried about you."
I forced a laugh. "Why?"
"Have you looked in the mirror lately?"
I had. And okay, so I wasn't looking my best. But hey, I couldn’t look like a god all the time, could I?
When I made no reply, Brody asked, "So, have you talked to her?"
"Talked to who?"
He gave me another look, one that said, "You're not fooling, anyone, you know."
He was wrong.
I was fooling myself. Or at least, I was trying to.
For the past four days, I'd been working like hell to reclaim my mojo, to shrug off
