My heart pounds as I step up on her porch. This is pretty much enemy territory because I know her grandfather doesn’t like me. I stand straight and try to look like a decent human being, and then I ring the doorbell.
What seems like an eternity goes by, but finally I hear the deadbolt click and the door opens. An older woman stands on the other side, one eyebrow cocked like she thinks I’m a door-to-door salesman and she doesn’t want any of it.
“Hello,” I say, giving her my most charming smile. I hold up the DVDs. “Bayleigh left these at my house yesterday.”
“Who are you?” she says, giving me a scrutinizing frown.
“I’m Jace Adams, ma’am. I live next door.”
The woman, who I guess is Bayleigh’s grandmother, grabs the DVDs from my hand. “She’s sick but I’ll be sure to give it to her,” she says, closing the door.
Well I guess a charming smile can’t win her over, especially since her husband kind of totally hates me. I sigh and turn around, then start jogging so I can get out of their yard as soon as possible. I try telling myself that this is a good thing, Bayleigh’s grandparents hating me. It means I should just stay away and ignore the girl next door. That fits in perfectly with my plan of ignoring all girls and everything else except dirt bikes.
I should be focusing on dirt bikes.
Not pretty girls with adorable smiles.
Chapter 9
I’m not about to go over to Bayleigh’s house again, not even if I secretly want to. I call up the guy with the backhoe and he’s happy to come back out and help me make a twenty foot long tabletop jump in the back yard. Once it’s angled perfectly, I spend the rest of the morning riding around, mostly for fun instead of for speed like usual. I do some whips over the tabletop. They’re considered fancy or even “tricks”, but really whips aren’t hard to do. You throw your bike sideways as you soar over a jump and it looks badass.
I’m doing it hoping Bayleigh might be watching from her upstairs window, but I don’t ever look back there to check because I don’t want to seem like a show off. Of course, showing off is still showing off even if you act like it isn’t. It’s probably the lamest thing I’ve ever done. In my life back home,everygirl knows who I am. They’ve seen me race and they know I’m good at what I do. There’s no need to impress them with my talent because they already know how good I am.
But Bayleigh was pretty clueless about everything involving motocross and dirt bikes. I think it’s really cute how she asked so many questions, and not to mention how refreshing it was to talk to a girl who wasn’t already obsessed with me as a racer. My dad always warns about letting the fame get to my head. He says it’ll only get worse once I’m a pro racer, and I always roll my eyes and tell him it’s not a big deal, but I get what he’s saying. It is really easy to become an asshole when girls throw themselves at you. But I don’t want to be that type of guy. So it’s really nice that Bayleigh is getting to know me, the normal guy, not me, the racer.
Around noon, I take a break from riding and I hang outside by the shed, hoping she’ll come out to say hello. I can’t even tell if she’s seen me or not. The balcony window is shadowed by the overhanging roof so I can’t see inside. Not that I’m trying to or anything…
It only takes about ten minutes before I realize I need to get my shit together and stop stalking this girl. I take a cold shower and head into town to get something to eat. Just about everything that comes with living alone for the summer is great. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I can watch anything on TV and keep the AC extra cold without having my mom complain that I’m freezing her out. The only part that sucks is going to a restaurant and eating alone.
I find this burger place that claims to have the best burgers in town, and I order a cheeseburger with jalapenos and a large order of fries and then I tuck into a booth in the corner and read a motocross magazine. I’m not even interested in this stupid thing, but I found it in my car and wanted to look busy and not like I’m some loser who has to eat alone. Most people play on their phones to pretend to look busy, but I have no one to talk to. I could call my mom, but then she’d only go on and on about how much she worries about me and I’m not in the mood for that.
It’s a shame Bayleigh broke her phone, or I would have gotten her number the very first day I met her. I could be texting her right now.
Or maybe not, if she’s not interested in me.
She did sit really close to me on the couch when we watched movies. I could feel her body against mine, smell the fruity scent of her shampoo. But she was also drinking, so maybe it didn’t mean anything. Guess I won’t know until I see her again.
I think Fate is on my side today, because as I’m driving home, I see a girl in shorts and a tank top jogging on the side of the road. She’s wearing Converse instead of running shoes, which is a little weird. Her auburn hair sways in a ponytail as she jogs. I slow the car to a crawl and trail along behind her, slowly coming to a stop.
She looks over at me, her eyes wide and a little scared until she sees my car. Her eyes soften. I roll down the window.
“Need a ride?”
For a second, I’m afraid she’ll say no and keep running along without me. But then she grins and walks over to the passenger side and slips inside my car. She looks really cute with red cheeks from the sweltering summer heat. I crank the AC for her.
“Thanks,” she says, leaning toward the vent and closing her eyes as the cold air washes over her. I’m trying to think of something to say, when she goes, “Nice car,” in this sarcastic way.
“It’s a rental,” I say, tapping the dashboard as if I’m super proud of the thing. I’m hoping to get a smile out of her, and it works. “Yep, this baby was the cheapest model available and she’s mine for the whole summer.”
She laughs. “You’re not going to pick up any girls with a ride this lame.”
I lower my voice. “I’ve already picked up one girl in it.” She looks at me, eyes wide, and I wink at her.
And yeah. I can tell it now. She definitely likes me. Maybe not a lot, but I’m winning her over and I couldn’t be more excited about it. In this moment, I can’t even be bothered to think about my career or all that other stuff I should be thinking about. I just want her to smile at me again.
Too bad we’ve now reached her house.
“Can you pull in at your house and I’ll walk home?” she says, gnawing on her lip.
