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Though I should, I couldn’t stand down.
No matter what I’d done, I wouldn’t walk away.
I glanced over. Bristol stared at her twined hands. Her tongue dampened her delectable lips. Fuck, I wanted to kiss her more than anything. More than I wanted to breathe. I fought the urge to pull over this car and kiss the fuck out of her and stake my claim again. Right. This. Second.
But, Christ. Was she in love with this guy? Was I fucking up her plans for the future? Damn it. Decency dictated I should step aside here. I was the one who’d fucked her over. For a good reason and with no choice—it had been my mother’s life or a relationship with Bristol.
Still, I’d hurt Bristol, and for that, I did deserve to lose her.
And the agony of that about caused me to swerve the car.
My hands clenched even tighter on the steering wheel, my hands aching with the grip while I tried to come to terms with my position, with how Bristol probably saw me as an interloper.
“Bristol—” I started, but she interrupted me.
“It was Sutton. I went over to Sutton’s. I… I don’t date, Axel. Probably, that’s dumb, and I’ve been thinking, maybe after you go, I should. I should try to get out there and start to live my life, but you know… Once bitten, twice shy. It’s taken me a long time to move forward.”
Utter relief washed over me. Yeah, I was an asshole to be so happy about that. I let out a slow breath, almost light-headed from the near euphoria filling me. Because apparently, I was a jackass. She’d just confessed she hadn’t been able to move on from me because I’d hurt her so badly, and I was relieved. I was a dick. And a dumbass, as my father would say.
“I’m sorry, Bristol. You have no idea how sorry.” I wanted to tell her I wouldn’t be letting her go this time—or ever—but I knew right now probably wasn’t the time. She’d figure it out when I stuck like glue and begged her to come with me to Daytona then Fontana then the every race after that until I retired.
That thought startled me. Until that moment, I hadn’t considered asking Bristol to uproot her life for me.
That was probably an asshole move, too.
She lifted a shoulder. “The past is the past, and we both need to come to terms with it, right? Let’s just have fun tonight.” She chuckled. “Even though it’s a Wednesday, and I should be thinking about bed right now. But yeah, anyway, you don’t need to worry someone will try to punch you—not because of me.”
I wasn’t so sure of that. Plenty of her cousins were girls, but not all of them. Some Donovan out there likely wanted to punch my lights out for leaving Bristol. I’d lay money Oak and Barke aren’t super fans of mine. They’d probably only agreed to come out so they could rip me a new one. It might take a while for them to believe I was all in for Bristol, but I’d prove it.
“Did you get ahold of the crew?” she asked.
“I texted Barke and Oak. It was short notice, but they’re going to meet us, even though Oak tried the oldWho Disline. Asshole.”
I actually suspected the twins had been expecting me to contact them because there hadn’t been even a moment of hesitation before they said yes—aside from Oak razzing me.
“Well, you have been away a long time. You’re pretty lucky they can meet us, what with Barke’s restaurant and Oakley’s writing schedule and filling in at the resort’s diner most mornings. Do you think Sadie will come?”
“Barke mentioned calling her. Those two arestillnot together?”
She blew out a scoffing breath. “They’re stubborn. You might know something about that mindset.”
I grinned. “Maybe a little.”
Thirteen
Axel
I pulled into the lot for the sports bar on First street, noting not many cars were parked there. Good. I didn’t want to interact with a bunch of people. I just wanted to catch up with my friends and Bristol.
“Don’t get out,” I told her, remembering last night when she’d been annoyed at me opening and shutting her door.
She huffed, but when I made it to her side of the vehicle, she’d only taken off her seatbelt and she’d waited for me. Good girl. Showing attitude, however, she rolled her eyes at me when I opened the door.
“Thank you,” she said primly, a wide swath of sarcasm bleeding into her tone.
“Every time.” I winked, purposely not saying anytime. She rolled her eyes again, but she didn’t protest when I put my arm around her for our walk into the building. Despite the abnormally warm weather the area had been experiencing this week, so temperate you nearly didn’t need a jacket, the parking lot was slightly slippery beneath our feet now that night had fallen and the temps had dropped.
That was the story I told, anyway. Mostly, I wanted to touch her, to feel her small body pressed into my side, to breathe in her scent that had never changed and took me back to our past—from picnics and victory lane at races to my face buried in her neck when we fucked.
