Page 93 of Hero's Prize

Without another word, the younger man walked out the door. Colton watched him go then collapsed back down on the couch, shaking his head. He looked over at Tony, who seemed to be taking this much better than either he or Rick.

“I agree that you need to talk to Ella before we jump to any conclusions. Although it would be understandable if she didn’t want to admit to what she’s done.”

“I don’t know why she would do this at all.” Colton couldn’t even begin to wrap his head around it.

“People do stupid shit all the time for misguided reasons, you know that.”

Colton did know that, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what would make Ella want to leak that info.

“I was going to bring this up later, but you should probably know that there were a lot of posts about you at that store,” Tony said. “And a lot of posts concerning Ella.”

Colton scrubbed a hand down his face, all of today’s earlier energy completely gone. “Stuff you think she may have posted?”

“No. Normal stuff, but?—”

“Then I’m not interested. Regular social media will have to wait.”

Because comments didn’t matter right now. The only thing that mattered was why Ella would’ve done something like this and how he’d allowed himself to be so blind to it.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-TWO

Ella sighed as she finished putting away the last items that had finished drying from her final class with the campers. Both Ashley and Marshall had stayed to help, but she’d sent them on their way a few minutes ago.

She was going to miss these kids. Heck, she was going to miss the whole experience. She needed to sit down with Bear and find a way that they could make this happen more often. Sure, it wouldn’t be this same group of campers, but this entire event had been nothing but worthwhile for everyone involved.

She might have stuck around and hung out with the kids a little longer if it weren’t for the fact that she was meeting Colton for dinner. She couldn’t wait to see him, had loved how excited he’d been at his breakthrough last night. He kept crediting her with figuring it out, but she had no doubt that he would’ve gotten there himself very quickly.

Regardless, she wouldn’t be ungrateful for how he’d spent most of the night thanking her. She definitely hadn’t gotten much sleep. And was sore in places she didn’t even know someone could be sore.

A smile lit up her face; she couldn’t help it. She was so in love with Colton Harrison. That was nothing new. What was new wasthe fact that, for the first time, she thought this might actually work out.

She wanted to head home, take a shower, and get herself as dolled up as she could for her dinner date with him. Maybe she was never going to look like some of the models that he’d dated in the past, but Colton hadn’t done anything but make her feel beautiful from the moment he’d set foot back in Oak Creek.

It didn’t matter what the public thought about them. It only mattered what they thought about each other.

She was folding the last hand towel and getting ready to leave when Lilah stormed in the door.

“Are you okay?” Lilah rushed over to Ella’s side and grabbed her hand. “It’s going to be okay.”

Ella’s heart froze. The last time she saw Lilah look like this had been the day of the avalanche.

“What?” she whispered. “What happened?”

Lilah made a strange face. “Nothing. Never mind.”

Now, Ella grabbed her hand. “I know it’s not nothing. Is someone hurt? Is it Colton?”

“No.” But her friend flinched.

“Lilah. Tell me what’s going on. You’re freaking me out.”

The other woman let out a sigh. “You and Colton were at that new big sporting goods place in Reddington City yesterday.”

“Yes. It was a madhouse. Colton got swamped by fans, but he handled it beautifully. Why does that have you so upset?”

“There was some…stuffabout it on social media.”

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