Page 51

As I’m doing the meet and greet, posing on the black carpet and answering media questions, I track Mason from across the room, and more than once I find he’s already staring at me. I eventually lose him in the crowd, but I’ll text him as soon as dinner starts. I know he usually leaves as soon as the three-course dinner is done. After all, he’s got practice tomorrow at twelve thirty, followed by qualifying at four o’clock.

And then he’ll be up in his room. Waiting for me.

“Thank you, Catherine!” Greg, our social media intern, says. I’ve been conducting an interview with him. He snaps me out of my daydream, and I shift back into work mode.

“You’re welcome,” I say to him. I know how hard he’s working tonight. When I did these events at uni, they were long days. “I’m always here to help you.”

“I know. Thank you again,” he says, smiling.

I walk off the carpet and look around. Dinner will start in about ten minutes. I scan the crowded room for Mason. I find Caleb with Isla. Then I spot Mum, and the second I do, my stomach bottoms out.

She’s standing with Mason at the edge of the ballroom, away from the crowd.

Unease immediately sweeps through me. My stomach feels like ice. Mason has a grave expression on his face. What is she saying to him?

I make my way through the crowd, not as quickly as I’d like, due to being stopped by people to chat. I use the excuse that I have to go to the loo, and finally, when I get closer to Mason, he stops and looks at me.

I freeze. His eyes lock on mine, and the look is intense. I stare back at him, and then, to my shock, he says something to my mum before he looks at me one more time and turns around and walks out of the ballroom, texting on his phone as he exits through the doorway.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Mason just left. He saw I was coming to him, and he turned around and left.

I make my way to Mum, unable to shake the uneasy feeling that has gripped me. Just as I reach her, my phone vibrates in my clutch. I don’t need to see it to know who has messaged me. I know it’s Mason, and I’m terrified to read what he has said based on the way he just walked out of here.

“What did you talk about with Mason?” I say, lowering my voice so only she can hear me.

“Reality,” Mum says, looking at me with sad eyes. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but it had to be done.”

I’m going to be sick. I force myself to take out my phone and glance down at it, and my heart stops when I read the single message from Mason:

We need to talk. As soon as possible.

And just like that, I know whatever I have with Mason is over before it even had a chance to begin.

Chapter Sixteen

I lift my eyes from Mason’s message back to my mum, who is staring apologetically at me. “I’m so sorry, Catherine, but I promise you, it’s for the best. For everyone.”

My heart is pounding in my ears. My chest is painfully tight. I am so angry and upset, but I find a way to get the words out. “No. You did what was best for Karina. Not what was best for me,” I hiss. “You didn’t want to deal with the past coming up again, so you might have possibly destroyed my future to protect yourself from stupid gossip.”

My phone buzzes again. I ignore it.

Mum goes pale from my accusation. “How could you say that? You know how traumatising it was the first time! How can you do this to your family? Your grandparents, the team? How could you be so selfish?”

“I’m selfish?” I cry in disbelief. “I’m selfish for knowing this will all blow over and be nothing? I’m selfish for possibly giving up something that could be love?”

“Love? You’re too young to even know what that is!” Mum declares.

Buzz! I once again ignore my phone.

“No. I only don’t know what it is because I haven’t experienced it. I did think it might be possible with Mason, though. Things between us were different. Special. And I thought we had potential. But you’ve taken that away from me.” My voice grows thick at the end of my sentence, and a lump swells in my throat. “When I think of what could have been, where we were going … and now Mason is going to tell me we shouldn’t see each other. I’m more than angry, Mum. I’m devastated. I feel sick. And I just want to go back to my hotel room and be alone.”

“Catherine. You’re young. You are going to fall in and out of love so many times, but a driver is the last person you want to be involved with. Trust me.”

I bite back the urge to fling at her that she would know. My phone buzzes again, and I angrily flip it over, thinking it’s probably work related and I’m needed for something I’m in no shape to deal with right now. I look down at the screen. And my heart stops when I see multiple messages from Mason:

I’m waiting outside the ballroom. Please meet me as soon as you can.

Catherine. It’s important. I can’t go to dinner until we talk.