Page 126 of Bred

West laughs, and the cruelty of that sound is almost too much to bear. He’s smiling when I look up at him, but it’s not a nice smile. “You can’t really be that naïve. He’s been having fun with you. Maybe he isn’t anymore, and this is how he’s letting you know.”

I’m still shaking my head because everything he’s saying is totally impossible. There’s no way Lucas would leave me like this for no reason when everything has been fine. There’s no way he would blow me off and not even tell me he was doing it.

“He’s driving, right? What if he got into an accident? Have you heard from him?”

“Brinley, there’s no accident. He’s fine. He just doesn’t want to talk to you.”

That’s impossible.

Isn’t it?

West speaks and my attention shifts back to him. “Why don’t you go home, take a shower, get some sleep, and if he wants to get in touch with you, he will.”

I thought for sure I would leave this house with answers, but as I walk back to my car, I’m lugging an aching heart and even more questions than I had when I came here.

I sink into the leather upholstered seat behind my steering wheel and pull the car door closed. I look back at the little brown house, but the door is shut, and West is no longer standing there.

I can’t believe what he said, but I can’t explain why I haven’t heard from my boyfriend, either.

I grab my phone and try calling him one more time, but I go to voicemail just like I have each time before.

Weighed down by sadness, I open our text chain and message him, “Where are you? What is going on? I don’t understand why I haven’t heard from you.”

I pause to read the messages after I’ve sent each one in rapid succession. I hate the last one I have to send, but after what West just said, I feel like I have to.

“Did I do something wrong?”

I press send before I can rethink it.

My stomach sinks seeing those words on the screen because they open up a world of possibilities I hadn’t considered before. Last night when he didn’t show up, I knew something had to be wrong.

But it never occurred to me that what was wrong might simply be that he didn’t want me anymore.

I feel sick and I don’t want to throw up in his driveway, so I start the car.

I back out of the driveway.

I head home.

CHAPTER ONE

BRINLEY

It’sclosingtimeatthe Seahorse Tavern, but Blaine Richards is still sitting at the bar.

Blaine has a reputation around town, but he’s handsome enough and charming enough that most women ignore it, fooling themselves that maybe he will be different with them.

I’m not so delusional, so I let his smooth words roll off me like I always do as I wipe down the bar.

“C’mon, Brinley,” Blaine says, leaning on the bar and flashing me a smile that I’m sure a lot of women fall for but that has zero effect on me. “What’s it going to take for you to let me take you out? We’ll have fun.”

I cock a brow. I’m pretty sure we have differing opinions offun.

“Thirty-five thousand dollars.”

“Huh?”

“You asked what it would take for me to go out with you. That’s my answer. So, tell me Blaine, do you have thirty-five thousand dollars?”