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Annie curled closer to him. And he was so glad that she was there. So glad that she’d finally put Malcolm and the life she’d lived in Europe behind her and returned to the world that she belonged in.
He tipped his head back, feeling the weight he’d been carrying around for too long?the worry for his twin. That anxious fear that she’d never be the smiling girl he’d once known. But tonight with Jared MacNeil, of all men, he’d caught a glimpse of the girl he remembered.
And that was a good thing because he’d almost forgotten the boy he’d been. He’d gotten lost somewhere between his dreams of becoming a NASCAR driver and his quest to get out of his father’s shadow.
He didn’t like the man he was becoming. He’d always prided himself on being a gentleman, on being the kind of man that would live up to the Jenner name. And in the last few years?hell, last year?he’d started to realize that he wasn’t that man anymore. He’d changed and gotten lost somewhere. But sitting here in the waiting room with his father recovering, he found the path back to himself.
CHAPTER FIVE
ANNIE HAD ALWAYS liked Southern California. For the first time since Sunday night she was thinking not about her father and his recovery, but about the race coming up and her job. And there was something about a track lined with palm trees and VIP boxes filled with Hollywood’s biggest stars. As a teenager she’d been able to meet some of her favorite Hollywood hunks thanks to her dad’s popularity as a driver.
It was nice to be back to work instead of sitting at her parents’ house watching her dad looking too pale in bed.
Fontana was a driver favorite. The track was a regular oval and not an odd shape, as some of the others were. The surface of the track was smooth, which made for good driving.
Walking through the infield, Annie told herself she wasn’t looking for Jared. He hadn’t called her during the week, but she hadn’t expected him to. Their date had ended a little strangely.
It was Friday and qualifying would happen later this morning. Her brother and the other drivers were getting ready to run a few test laps. She had her camera in her hands and snapped photos of her brother’s team as they worked on the car.
She took a few photos of the other bays and spotted Jared talking to Tucker.
She stopped a few feet away next to Tucker’s car, waiting for Jared to acknowledge her. She stroked her hand over the JM’s Coffee House logo. Tucker waved her over.
“Hey, Annie,” Tucker said. “How’s your dad doing?”
“Good. He’s home recovering.” They were all relieved to have him home. She knew it was silly to think that nothing could happen to him when he was home, but she just felt better knowing he wasn’t in the hospital. She suspected her mother did, too.
“Glad to hear that,” Tucker said. “I like your dad, wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.”
“He thinks you’re a maverick,” Annie said, recalling her father’s words about Tucker after last week’s race.
“Yeah, well he might be right,” Tucker said with a grin. Annie wished she had captured it with her camera. There was a certain reckless joy in Tucker’s face.
“He usually is,” Annie replied. Why wasn’t Jared saying anything? He was quietly standing to the side just looking at her. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Tucker cleared his throat and she glanced back at him. “Sorry I was an ass last week.”
“Apology accepted,” she said. Tucker’s crew chief, Billy Toughton, called him over and he left her alone with Jared.
“Your dad is really okay?” Jared asked when they were alone.
“He’s doing better. He’s recovering. The doctors want him to take it easy for a while, which is hard on him. Thanks for going into the hospital with me.”
“No problem.”
“You seemed to know a lot about heart attacks,” she said, not wanting to pry into his past but curious about it all the same.
“My dad collapsed while jogging. When he got to the hospital they ruled it a heart attack. So I read everything I could get my hands on about it.”
“You remember everything you read, too, right?”
“Yes. Did I tell you that?”
She flushed realizing that he hadn’t mentioned it. She’d read it on the Internet when she’d done a search on him. “I think you must have.”
He arched one eyebrow at her and she felt her face get even hotter.
“I don’t think I did. I was trying not to sound arrogant.”
“But we’d already established I like arrogant men,” she said, hoping to change the subject, but really having no idea what to change it to.
