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“Who says?” I asked, even though, my mind was still reeling from the fact that he just called me baby for the first time that wasn’t during sex.
“It’s the rule. Men ask women out.”
“Are you kidding me? What is this, 1925?”
Fox laughed but shrugged. “Fine. Yes, motorcycle girl, I will go on a date with you.”
“Great, but you’ll have to pick me up.” I looked at him from under my lashes, playfully.
“Woman, you’re going to drive me mad. Okay, it can’t be tomorrow night and Sunday is the party...” His eyes lit up as an idea occurred to him. “Harley, will you be my date for the hashtag unsurprised birthday party on Sunday night?”
“Hashtag yes,” I answered immediately and smiled. Fox’s mouth lifted at the corners and he placed a kiss on my lips.
Later that afternoon Fox drove me to Catch for my shift. He had the night off and planned to sort some things out with Woody. As I got out if the car he called out to me.
“Hey, can I get your number so I can call you later?”
“You don’t have my phone number?” I asked clearly shocked by this revelation and he shook his head with a smirk. “Wow, we really are doing this thing backward.” I laughed as I pulled out my phone.
“I kind of like it this way.” He grinned.
****
“Do you still want to go to Judge’s race tonight?” Blake asked as soon as I got in the car after my shift. I was a little sad that Fox hadn’t called me, and I was extremely curious about what he and Woody could be up to. I’d briefly debated on asking Blake to take me to Fox’s house but decided against it. I wanted to wait for him to ask me over instead. I also knew that popping up unannounced on Mack had always caused me a world of hurt. I wasn’t ready to risk it yet.
“Sure.” I was anxious and excited to see Judge race his car tonight for ranking.
“Is everything okay with you and Fox?” he asked as he studied me wearily.
“Yes, we’ve got some work to do but I’m going to try with him.” Blake nodded at me with a small smile of understanding. When his phone chimed, he looked up at me with a grin and put the car in motion.
“Cool! I just got the text with the location address.”
We drove several minutes away from the main part of town and down a long stretch of dark road until I could see the headlights of at least ten cars parked along the shoulder. We were seriously in the middle of nowhere it seemed.
“We’re here,” Blake said with a wink. He explained that racing was hard to do on the island since there weren’t very many long stretches of road and the cops had made it more difficult to get away with it. They knew which cops to bribe or nearby homeowners in order to let them use a location for a couple of hours. The locations weren’t chosen until just before the race and only communicated to the racers. All they needed was a quarter-mile stretch of flat road and two hours of uninterrupted racing. There was always the risk of getting caught because sometimes even the best-laid plans fail. Such as when engines got too loud for neighbors in the distance, especially vacationers who called in complaints.
Blake drove until he found Judge and his crew then parked the car.
“Just the man I’m looking for! Perfect timing!” Judge shouted out in greeting. “Get over here and have a look at this. I can’t wait to drag that motherfucker.” Blake immediately walked over and stuck his head over the engine as they all began their car talk mumble jumble. I pulled the hood of Blake’s sweatshirt over my head as I looked around the area. There were cars of various makes and models everywhere along with trailers that had names of different auto shops stretched across the side. There were groups of at least three to four people hovering around each car, some were under the hood, some were doing something to the tires, others were standing in groups holding laptops as they conferred about the sound of the engine as the driver mashed on the gas while the car was still in park. This was apparently serious business to these guys.
I noticed that two cars were at the starting line. Crews from each side had poured some sort of liquid under the tires, and the drivers began spinning their wheels right over the solution causing a heavy cloud of smoke. I’d learned that this was called a burnout. Apparently, burning rubber makes the tires sticky, which means it will race better on the road. After the burnouts, a person who I assumed was some sort of race master lined up each car by waving them forward as they inched to the starting line. He held a light in his hand that flashed red, once he positioned himself in front of the cars several feet away he lifted the light up. As soon as the color changed to green both racers took off, tires spinning, engines roaring and a thick cloud of white smoke surrounding them. People on either side were shouting and running behind the cars. Within seconds, the team on the left began cheering and jumping up and down, which meant that their guy must have won.
“Son of a bitch,” I heard Judge say from behind me. “That motherfucker Knight just won.”
“Shit, you know what that means, right?” Someone else spoke up.
“Yeah, he’s going to call me out for the number four spot,” Judge answered, and he ran a hand over his buzzed hair.
Twenty minutes later Judge and Knight had completed their burnouts and were waiting for the green light. Blake was standing next to me on the side of the road.
“I sure hope Knight doesn’t take this race,” Blake said.
“Why not?”
“Knight is a shithead, and nobody likes him. We sure as hell don’t want him sitting at the top of the list. The rumor is that he hooked up with this rich chick who bought him everything on that car he’s driving plus a master mechanic to work on it. It’s one thing to be fast, but you also have to earn respect from the racers before you can be considered one of the best. Every guy on that list has earned their spot because they put the time in and worked hard for their spot. Just going out and finding a chick to write you a check is a bitch move if you ask me.”
I remembered the one time I met Knight and he made my skin crawl. It made me wonder how he could convince a girl to do anything for him.
