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“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“Don’t be. I’ll fix this.”
She swallows and lifts her head slightly. “I’ve made my decision.” Moisture fills her brown eyes. “And it’s not you.”
I stare back. “This wasn’t your idea. It was his.”
“You were the one who said stop running. I’m fixing this. On my terms.”
“Your terms are to leave me?”
She holds my gaze. “There’s something I saved for you. If you’ll have it.”
I frown. “What?”
“My backpack,” she whispers, then raises her voice slightly. “I’m marrying Troy next week. He’s the man I want. The one I love.”
33
“This one’s on me,” Tess says as she passes me a bottle of Corona.
“Giving away free drinks already, Tess? I’ll take one of those.” Levi drops his duffle bag and takes a seat beside me.
“Only to the cute ones. That’s eight bucks for you.”
Levi jerks. “It’s only six.”
“Chances are low that you’ll tip me, so I added one.”
He hands her a ten. “Don’t sell yourself short.”
She takes the bill and replaces it with a cold bottle before moving on to other patrons.
“You know he put her up to it, don’t you?”
It’s been two days since Pepper broke up with me on national television—not to mention the fans that actually heard the exchange in the front row—feeding the media bits and pieces of what they heard.
But all they needed to see is the ring she placed back in my hand.
He wasn’t with her. She walked back up the stairs and was escorted by two bodyguards. Cameras followed her until she was placed in the back seat of a limousine.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then you wouldn’t have come here.”
“For your information, I’m meeting Charlie here soon.”
“Charlie? Here? Girl’s come a long way since Pepper came into her life.”
“She just lost her best friend. Noah’s the least of her concerns.”
Levi looks around. “Look, you can talk to me. I’ve been through this with Jackson’s mother. All joking aside. You think this is for real?”
I slide my phone to him with the breaking news screen open. “There’s a wedding next Sunday. And whether it’s three years or forever, it’s none of my concern,” I lie.
It’s not that I don’t trust my brother with how I’m really feeling; I don’t trust anyone in Hideaway Springs. There’s been enough eavesdropping around here to convince me to keep my thoughts to myself.
Pepper was turned in by someone she once trusted with her life. And he sold her out.
