Page 89 of Hot Summer

Leo just laughed, but his expression quickly sobered as he finally selected an envelope from the bowl. He took a deep breath before he read it out, his tone grave. “ ‘Blank is on Hot Summer for a promotion! She’s not there for love at all!’ ”

As soon as Cas heard it, she felt her stomach drop.

Oh god.

Oh god.

Leo didn’t even bother looking at the girls. He walked straight across the deck, stuffing the card into his pocket as he went, and Cas thought he was going to know it was her, somehow read it on her face, but he took Lucy’s face in his hands. The kiss was quick and his movements were short as he pulled the card out of his back pocket.

Cas would have done anything, anything in the entire world, to keep him from opening that card.

Cas

Everyone on the platform was staring at her, mouths open in disbelief. This was the worst offense anyone could commit on this show. It never ended well for people who seemed to just be there for the money, but the idea that she was intentionally put there, that she could have been manipulating things the whole time, was the worst-case scenario Cas had feared since Robert and the Friday team even suggested this crazy scheme.

Cas felt for all of the lovers, but there were frankly only four she truly cared about, and they were all staring at her like they’d never seen her before. They were trying to make sense of her now, trying to put together a new picture of her in their heads, understand who she was and what her actions meant in light of this possible news. She hated it, how clearly stunned they were, but she could talk with them later.

Cas saved her biggest fear for last, the one she was dreading most of all. She pushed every single ounce of will out into the universe begging it, someone, to make everything okay. To make Ada at the very least willing to hear her out.

But the look on Ada’s face.

It was shock and anger and disappointment and hurt all rolled into one. She was staring at Cas as if she’d never seen her before, like the woman standing in front of her now wasn’t the same one she’d been sharing a bed with for the last week. Or, worse, like she was, but Ada didn’t ever want to see her again.

The anger Cas could deal with, but the hurt? The disappointment? The rejection? Cas didn’t know if they could recover from that.

Ada took a step back, almost stumbling in her haste, and Cas reached out for her.

“No, Ada, I— Please, let me explain.”

Ada opened her mouth, paused, then closed it again before shaking her head. “I need a second.”

And Ada ducked underneath the rope and started up the hill without so much as glancing back.

Cas’s phone beeped a second later.

Cas—please report to the beach hut immediately.

30

Cas’s footsteps were loud on the tile, echoing in the otherwise silent villa. This was the worst possible time for them to bring her into the beach hut—she hadn’t had time to talk to Ada, to Femi, to anyone, but the producers had to talk to her now?

She’d run after Ada, her trainers slipping on the stones on the hill, but Ada hadn’t been anywhere. She’d shouted her name, desperate, her brain running over a thousand possible things—maybe she’d left, maybe she was preemptively packing Cas’s suitcase—none of which made her feel any better.

The door of the beach hut fell shut with a thud as Cas dropped into the circular chair.

She’d just opened her mouth to say hello when the speaker crackled, and though the producers always sounded busy, there was something particularly distracted in Chloe’s voice today. “Thanks for coming so quickly, Cas. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah.” Cas shifted in her seat. “What are we doing about this?”

“Obviously, the production team was aware of the circumstances that brought you onto this show,” Chloe said. It sounded like she was riffling through a stack of fifteen thousand sheets of paper on the other end. “But we’ve always known there was a possibility that the situation could become public knowledge, and now that that’s happened, it changes things for us.”

Cas frowned. “In what way?”

“We don’t think it makes sense for you to continue on Hot Summer.”

Everything froze.

“What do you mean?” She tried for a laugh. At the very least, it might make her stop feeling like she was choking. “Surely, you can’t be kicking me off for this.”

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