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My knees felt weak, and Mom rushed over to direct me to one of the island stools. “Was she okay? Are her parents okay?”
“I don’t know. She said Kipton was very upset and crying, and just kept saying she needed to leave Hamilton—and that you would know why.”
My mind raced. Had I spooked her last night? Gone too far with the last kiss? “Fuck. I have no clue why she would leave.”
“Who left?” Mom asked.
“Kipton. Some girl took her to the airport and dropped off your keys at the shop. Kipton said I would know why she left.”
Mom shook her head. “She couldn’t have left. All of her things are here.”
A feeling of sickness hit me. “Is the girl still there?”
“No, she left just a few minutes ago, and I called you right away. What happened, Hunter?”
I ran my hand down my face. “I’ll call you back.” Not giving her a chance to even respond, I hit End. My mother was staring at me with a confused and shocked look on her face. “I scared her away.”
She shook her head adamantly. “No, you didn’t. We were with her last night. She asked me if it was possible for her to feel so happy. She wouldn’t have left because of last night. It was something else.”
“What else could it be?”
Taking my hands in hers, she softly said, “I don’t know, but we’ll find out, Hunter. We’ll get her back, I promise you.”
Jack called again, and I sent it to voicemail. He was the last person I wanted to talk to.
Blayze walked into the empty horse stall and kicked my boot. “Mom’s worried about you.”
Tipping the beer back, I finished it off and tossed the bottle. The sound of glass hitting, but not breaking, caused Blayze to turn to glance in the direction I’d thrown the bottle.
“This is how you’re going to handle things? Drink everything away?”
“She won’t take my calls. Her parents won’t take my calls. What the hell else am I supposed to do? I have no fucking idea why she left! The least she could have done was had the guts to tell me what I did before running.”
“According to that girl Morgan talked to, you already know the reason.”
I pushed both hands through my hair and yelled, “I don’t know the fucking reason, Blayze! If I knew, I would be on a plane to get her.”
He sat down next to me and didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “I’m going to give you some advice from my own experience. Don’t sit around here and wait. Go to her, Hunter. If you truly love her—and judging by the way you’re drinking yourself to numbness, I’m going to guess you do—then don’t wait to find the answers. Go directly to the source.”
“She won’t even take my phone calls. What makes you think she’ll see me?”
“Because something clearly happened that caused her to run. I saw the way she looked at you. We all did. She’s in love with you, Hunter. You just need to be brave enough to go after her.”
I dropped my head back against the wall of the stall. I wanted to go after Kipton…but what if she refused to see me? Wouldn’t speak to me at all? My heart couldn’t take the rejection again.
Christmas had sucked. I sat around with my family, totally depressed, watching everyone else enjoy being together, when all I wanted to do was scream.
“It’s so quiet in the barn now.”
Blayze let out a halfhearted chuckle. “I have to say, they got their shit and ran when Dad threatened to sue them and their parent company for breach of contract.”
My eyes closed. “I’m glad they fucked up and put up those cameras.”
“So am I. I got my damn barn back.”
I lifted my head and exhaled. Jack had gone live to alert everyone that the show would not be continuing, but everyone should stay tuned for the next season of Swipe Right. They gave no explanation as to why the show had ended so abruptly, and by the time they announced the next bachelor for season two, I was forgotten. Not that I was complaining. After Kipton took off unexpectedly, Mom and Dad locked up everything tight—including me. No one from the show was allowed within hundreds of yards of the property. And I’d continued to ignore Jack’s calls until they stopped coming. I was disgusted with both producers and didn’t care what they had to say about their precious show.
“Did Mom tell you the one girl, Kimber, sent a letter to you?”
