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“Uh—” I say, holding out my hand. I want to tell them to go park their car and then take a picture with Ash, but the idiot in the driver seat has just climbed out of her car. In the middle of the freaking road. With a dozen cars waiting in line behind her.
I hold the clipboard to my chest and rub my forehead with the palm of my hand. “Can you hurry it up?” I snap. “You can’t just park in the middle of the damn road.”
“Oh sorry!” the girl says, grabbing her friend and dragging her over to Ash. “We’ll just be a second!” They ready their cell phones and turn around, posing in front of Ash for selfies.
Ash gives me this apologetic look as he’s ambushed, and it’s not really his fault, but I’m going to take my anger out on him anyhow. When they’re finally done, I walk to the next car in line, studiously ignoring Ash who trails along behind me.
“Good afternoon,” I say to the customer. “How many of you?”
“Hana,” Ash says, standing next to me. I ignore him, and take the person’s money while they sign the clipboard. As they drive off, I try to focus on the next car in line, but Ash grabs my arm. “Hana.”
“What? I’m busy.”
The next car rolls to a stop in front of me and I recognize the man and his daughter. “Hey there,” I say cheerfully, handing him the clipboard.
“Mr. Fisher told me to take over here,” Ash says. “You’re wanted in the tower.”
Since it’s a little harder to ignore him now, I look over. “Why would he say that? You don’t work here.”
Ash shrugs and gestures to his broken arm. “I offered to help out since I can’t ride.”
“Fine,” I say, shoving the clipboard into his good hand. “Have fun.”
I turn and speed walk out of there, pretending I don’t hear it when Ash calls my name a few times. There are dirt bikes riding around all over the place, so as far as I’m concerned, I
can’t hear him. My breathing is ragged as I drag myself across the acres of dirt and gravel, crossing through the pits to get to the tower. I don’t know why I’m so angry. Ash is a part of this motocross world just as much as I am—he’s always going to be around in some way or another. I’ll have to accept that eventually. But the fact that he thinks we can still hang out as friends when he has this hot new girlfriend that he still hasn’t told me about? Yeah, not happening. He can be friends with his girlfriend. He doesn’t need me.
Dad walks out of the tower right as I get to the top of the stairs. “What did you need me for?” I ask.
He shakes his head as if he’s confused and then shrugs. “I didn’t need you. How’s everything going?”
“Things are going smoothly. Should be a good race tonight.”
He pats my shoulder and nods. “I couldn’t do it without you!”
I find Teig and Shelby in the tower, talking suspiciously quietly while they look at something online. Teig’s wearing his racing gear and holds his helmet in one hand. I’d seen his bike parked next to the stairs a second ago. He always practices before the race even though he rides this track every single day.
“What’s going on?” I ask, noticing that Shelby closes the internet window the moment I step into the room. Maybe that was just a coincidence. “Did you summon me?”
“That depends,” she says, rolling around in her chair and touching the tips of her fingers together. “Are you a genie that can grant me three wishes?”
“Not even close.”
She frowns. “Well that’s no fun.”
I grab a water bottle from the mini fridge and crack open the lid. “So why’d you tell Ash you needed me?”
“Ugh, he never pays attention,” Teig says, shaking his head.
Shelby nods. “He wasn’t supposed to send you here now . . . he was supposed to wait until after he had spent some time with you.”
I don’t like the insinuating tone she used. I point toward the wall, in the general direction of where I came from. “You sent Ash out there to ambush me? Why would you do that?”
“Because he loves you, duh,” Teig says.
“Teig, stay out of it,” I snap. I walk over to the door and throw it open. “Shouldn’t you be out on the track?”
“Fine,” he says, lugging his heavy booted feet across the room. He turns to Shelby. “You should show her.”
