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“Anna, there’s something—”
“Going on with you and Aiden? Yeah, yeah, we know,” she finishes for me, totally catching me off guard.
I freeze, hearing Jonesy saying something to the crowd in the background but not paying attention. “Wait. What?”
“Don’t think that Char and I haven’t picked up on it! But give us details later; the race is starting!”
“No, Anna, that’s not—”
“Don’t worry, we’ll wait until the Boys aren’t around to interrogate you,” she says playfully, without taking her eyes off of the track.
“Okay, but, Anna, you need to—”
“Stop talking, they started!” she shouts at me and physically turns my head toward the track, where Aiden and Ryan are speeding along the dark roads.
All thoughts fly out of my mind and my heart moves into overdrive from the stress of watching Aiden race. They’re driving right beside each other when Aiden suddenly pulls forward and cuts Ryan off on the same turn as last time, again leaving Ryan some distance behind him.
Come on, come on, come on. Ryan takes the next turn tight, almost pulling ahead of Aiden, when suddenly it’s like a total switch happens that’s palpable in the atmosphere. Aiden easily pulls ahead of Ryan, making the next few turns with ease and leaving the Mustang farther and farther in the distance. They get to that area with the trees blocking the track, but this time it’s obvious to see who’s in the lead. Aiden drives back into view first, keeping an easy lead. The crowd goes wild, cheering for Aiden to stay out front, and my energy feeds off that of the crowd, my confidence and excitement growing with it.
“The last turn!” Noah announces, indicating the sharp turn that Aiden didn’t drift last time.
Aiden’s still in the lead, but you can tell Ryan’s getting desperate to beat him.
They reach the turn, Ryan hot on Aiden’s trail, and Aiden leaves me staring at him in lustful awe. He manages his Challenger perfectly, gray smoke billowing up from the skidding tires as he drifts the turn, straightening himself out easily.
I’ve never been so turned on.
Ryan attempts to drift a few seconds after Aiden, a skill much too advanced for him, and we watch with shocked eyes as he violently spins out of control. His car almost clips Aiden’s, who expertly avoids Ryan’s unmanageable rotations. If they weren’t driving on open country roads with nothing but empty fields surrounding them, Ryan definitely would have flipped after hitting something.
I jump up and down, my excitement threatening to burst as Aiden speeds toward the finish line. He zooms past the finish line as Ryan finally gets his car under control, and the crowd goes absolutely insane.
Again, I jump off of Julian’s pickup truck, but this time my emotions are completely different.
High off of the energy and excitement in the air, I don’t even think about it when I sprint to Aiden, who’s getting out of his car, and launch myself at him. He’s caught slightly off guard but catches me with ease, and I wrap my legs around his waist and hug him to me, my elated excitement blocking all other rational parts of my brain.
“You won!” I cheer as he hugs me, my joyous attitude contagious as I hear him chuckle at me.
“I told you I would,” he brags.
I pull back to look at him but stay suspended in his arms. “And that drift! That was amazing! How’d you learn to do that?”
“Ahem, should we come back or something?” Noah coughs.
I was so caught up in the excitement and Aiden and his dreamy amazingness that I barely noticed our friends staring openly at us.
My head snaps toward them and my face heats up. Like last time, I awkwardly and reluctantly untangle myself from Aiden, trying to remember to breathe so that I don’t literally die of embarrassment.
Aiden looks at our friends, then looks back at me before breaking into a gorgeous smile and doing the unthinkable: he opens his arms and engulfs me in a tight hug, making me oblivious to everything but his warm and comforting embrace.
Then—as if he wants to see how long he can make me stop breathing for—he lowers his head and places a kiss on top of my head. On the outside, I’m sure I look just as shocked as I feel, but on the inside, my inner fangirl is squealing and jumping around like a kid on a sugar high.
Annalisa recovers faster than all of us. “Congratulations, Aiden!” she cheers, referring to the race.
Annalisa’s praise breaks the shocked and awkward spell, and everyone else congratulates him and cheers, talking about how awesome he was. He releases me from his hug but keeps one arm around me and pulls me into his side, and I bite my lip, trying to (unsuccessfully) hide my overjoyed smile.
Jonesy comes up to us and hands Aiden the two envelopes of four thousand dollars each. “Good job out there, man.”
“Thanks.” Aiden takes the envelopes and shoves them in the inside pocket of his leather jacket.
