Page 18 of Grunt: A Marine Romance

Dima cut her off. “I know. Benny told to me everything. I don’t have to start with my partner until two more weeks. I come with you before I go.”

Why did he want to join her in San Francisco? They never visited each other when they were training their celebrities. “You don’t have to.”

“Of course, I go to there. We need to train for Blackpool. It is in four months. And San Francisco is our home. Where we met, where we fell in love. We were supposed to get married there.”

Dima never brought up their broken engagement. What was he up to?

“Whatever Dimka. You called off the engagement. Anyway, I’d love to have you come with us but Bret’s nervous enough. Having you around might hurt his chances on the show. We owe him that, don’t you think?”

Dima stayed silent. They had an unspoken promise never to talk about what had led Selena to finally make the decision to leave Bret.

“But tell you what, maybe you could come down before you meet your celebrity and we can train the whole weekend together.” Selena touched his face. “I really have to go. I’ll call you when I get there.” She leaned and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Ya tebya loobloo.”

Selena paused. “I love you, too.” They always said those words to each other. And she did love Dima. But she’d long given up any hope that they could have a normal relationship. Watching him over the years dating the starlets on the show had forced her to push her feelings aside.

She left the table, went to her bedroom, and grabbed her rolling suitcase. Dima acted strangely, like he could read her mind. Maybe they could work it out—she could find the happiness with Dima that she had craved for all these years. Being near Bret the past few days made Selena yearn to have the pure love again that she’d once shared with him. Over the years, she had convinced herself that what she and Bret had shared was only possible for a young, first time love. Selena hoped she was wrong and that Dima finally wanted to settle down and start a family with her.

She walked out the front door. Bret hopped out of his truck and took her bags. “Everything alright?”

“Yes. I’m great. Let’s go.”

Bret helped Selena into the truck. She settled into the crackly leather of the front seat, looking forward to their journey ahead.