Page 48 of Hot Summer

Femi, Jayden, and Leo were all instantly on their feet, their weights long since forgotten, and Cas was already halfway across the grass when the Voice of God crackled to life.

“Brad—report to the beach hut immediately.”

“Fuck!” Brad walked past Ada, nearly knocking into her with his shoulder and, for good measure, kicked a beanbag into the pool on his way back inside.

“Hey!” Femi shouted. “Brad!”

Cas quickly shook her head at him. “Femi, let him go.”

He needed to stay right where he was. The producers could deal with Brad; he didn’t need to get involved. Didn’t need to get himself kicked out, too.

Femi pressed his lips together, but he nodded. “Let me know if you need anything.”

The only thing Cas needed right now was to talk to Ada.

Ada didn’t move as Cas approached, just kept her gaze trained on the horizon. She looked like she was a thousand miles away, lost inside her own head, and a spike of anger shot through Cas’s chest.

“Hey,” Cas said, her voice gentle. “Are you okay?”

Ada nodded but didn’t make eye contact.

Cas frowned and shifted closer, her hand resting lightly on Ada’s upper arm. “You don’t seem okay.”

“No, I’m—” Ada sighed, one hand moving to comb through her hair and sending a few wayward locks falling across her face. She was quiet for a long moment before she finally looked at Cas.

“He was being such an arsehole,” Ada said. “You should have heard some of the shit he was saying to me.”

What he’d said loudly enough for the entire villa to hear was bad enough; she couldn’t imagine him saying anything worse.

She was going to kill Brad. Fucking kill him.

But it was Ada in front of her now. Ada who needed her.

Cas opened her arms, and without even a moment’s hesitation, Ada stepped into them.

Her arms went around Ada’s shoulders as Ada’s slid around her waist, her hands balled into fists at the base of Cas’s spine. She buried her face in Cas’s neck, her red hair spilling down Cas’s back, and she took a deep, trembling inhale.

Cas squeezed her tighter, tried to press every good feeling she could into the hug. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”

It wasn’t enough, wasn’t anywhere near enough. But then, what could Cas say that would erase the last few minutes from Ada’s memory?

“I wish I could fix this,” she said. She smoothed Ada’s hair down her back, her fingers threading loosely through the strands. It was a nicer version of what she wanted to say—because she wanted to say she would run Brad over with a car the minute they got out of here—but the sentiment remained the same. She wanted to do something that would make this better. Would make Ada feel better.

“You don’t have to fix it,” Ada said. She hadn’t picked her head up, so Cas could feel Ada’s breath against her neck as she spoke. “You’re here. That’s enough.”

It didn’t feel like enough. It wouldn’t feel like enough until Ada was smiling again, until she was light and easy and laughing.

“I can’t even believe it,” Ada said. She pulled back slightly so she could look Cas in the eyes, her arms still tight around Cas’s waist. “After everything—and I didn’t even want to be with him! I was only still partnered with him because they told me I should give him a chance—”

The words were barely out of Ada’s mouth when the Voice of God spoke again. And, unfortunately, they weren’t announcing Brad’s immediate removal from the villa.

“Ada—please report to the beach hut.”

All told, Ada was probably only gone for a few minutes, but it was long enough that Cas managed to turn over her last few words about fifteen thousand times.

Ada had admitted that she wasn’t with Brad by choice. It wasn’t because she had any sort of lingering attraction or wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Instead, production had explicitly told her to stick with him.

They must have seen what kind of guy Brad was. Must have seen the kind of reactions that he was drawing out of Ada, even when she wasn’t into him. The idea that they would have willingly kept him around, that they would have put her through that?

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