Page 159 of Finding Hope

“I wanna move today.”

“Jack,” Kit whines. “Don’t do this.”

“I don’t have much to move, anyway. I could probably do it on my own.”

“You hurt yourself carting a box upstairs, you lose everything you worked for,” Bobby argues. “No more chances at the title. No more sponsorship deals. No more money.”

“It’s just clothes and stuff, B. Relax.”

“Can’t buy Bambie all the pretty baubles if you’re broke,” Jim adds.

Instantly, Britt’s head snaps up and a fiery inferno blazes in her light eyes. “I don’t need him to buy me stuff, Jim! I have a job. I’m not a gold digger!”

“No!” He brings his hands up instantly. “That’s not what I… I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just trying to talk some sense into your boy.”

“Myboy?Mine?Ugh! Jack and I are just…”

My eyes narrow. “We’re what?”

“Casual!” She throws her hands in the air and steps away from Brooke. “We’re having fun.” She stops and pins me with a glare. “The kind ofseeing each otherwhere I don’t expect you to buy me things! And the kind that, when we do decide to get real with life, we can walk away without hurt feelings.”

“Walk away?”

And just like that, Bambie publicly tears my heart out… and because my pain is my sister’s pain, tears well in Kit’s eyes.

“Walk away, Bambie?” I stalk forward. “You’re done with me?”

“No! I’m just saying–” She stops and lets out a breath. “I told you ages ago. I’m not looking for a boyfriend. We’re just hanging out.”

“You’re preparing me for your walk, then? Not today, but soon?”

“No! I’m just saying what we already know.”

“What do we know?”

She cries out in frustration. “Nothing. We know nothing! You guys have fun moving house. I’ve gotta go.”

“Where are you going?”

“I have to go home.”

“You just got here.”

“Yeah.” She steps past me and picks up her discarded handbag. “I have too much work to do. I was hoping I could take a few hours, but I can’t.”

“Bambie–”

“I’ll call you tonight, okay?” She steps up to me, shakily pulling down my shirt, and presses a gentle kiss to my cheek. “We’re good, I just have too much to do.”

“Is Luc gonna be there when you get back?”

Her glittering eyes meet mine. “Yeah, probably. He’s there almost always.”

“He ever sleep over?”

“Sometimes.”

I shake my head. “Don’t go, Bambie. Don’t leave.”

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