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“Uh, what’s going on?” Carter leans over, his voice so low, I barely hear him over the applause. Or maybe it’s due to the swishing in my ears from the sudden spike in my heart rate.
She said yes?Is this a joke?
Cassie stands there as if too stunned to move.
Deny it.
Is she not moving because she never expected him to announce this now? Was she playing me the whole time? Why doesn’t she deny it?
Bobby slips the ring on her finger and holds her hand up to the crowd. A constellation of light dances off the diamond. I would make fun of the size but fuck if it’s not bigger than anything I could afford.
Deny it.
Pain slices through me and punches me in the gut when she smiles at the crowd. I haven’t moved a muscle. Hell, I don’t think I’ve breathed.
Why is she smiling and not denying it?
Her dad walks over to them and pats Bobby on the back.
“Let’s give these two lovebirds a round of applause,” Coach says.
It’s the warm smile he tosses Bobby’s way that gets me.
“Son, welcome to the family.”
I digress. It’s when Coach calls Bobby son, I lose it. Carter doesn’t say a word when I bristle beside him. Cassie’s gaze meets mine, her smile wavering, but she doesn’t deny a thing.
I storm out of there and run.
Chapter Twenty-Six
CASSIE
How dare he.My blood boils as people who have seen me grow up, celebrated my baptism, and comforted me through my mom’s death peer at me with satisfied gleams. This can’t be happening. No one tells me who to marry. My proposal won’t be an ambush where the only choice I have is to say yes.
Do they actually think this is the way proposals should go? With Bobby deciding the answer for me?
He slips something cold and rigid on my finger and lifts my hand to the receptive crowd.
I’m too stunned to react.
The smug look on Bobby’s face. My dad’s knowing smile.Dad knew.Of course he knew. Bobby wouldn’t have gone through with this without getting Dad’s approval. He knew Bobby was going to blindside me, and he didn’t have the decency to stop it.
I feel betrayed and ambushed at the same time. I fight the tears pricking my eyes.
Dad calls Bobby his son, and it’s like a knife straight to the heart, but it snaps me out of my trance.
My gaze seeks Dalton’s.
Dalton.
What is he going to think? He’s the one I want to be with. He’s the only one who never thinks for me. He’s the only one who makes me feel and challenges me to stand up for myself.
When our gazes connect, it doesn’t take long to figure out what he’s thinking. He’s pissed. He has every right to be, though he’s not as pissed off as me.
I want to cry out that this is a sham. To not listen. I want to run over to him. Ineedto run over to him. I shift away from Bobby, but his grip on my wrist tightens.
Manipulative asshole.
