AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stilled but didn’t shift to look at me. “Darius dangled the fulfillment your ambitions in front of you and made promises to help your family. He was an adult taking advantage of a kid, and he knew it. I’m sorry but that’s the worst kind of person. He saw you as a means for success and making money, and he preyed on your hunger for success. I get that now.”
“Yeah.” The word was practically a growled curse. I hadn’t quite looked at it from that angle before. “I can’t help thinking, if racing stock cars as more than a hobby was meant to be, an avenue for that would have opened for me. I didn’t have to make a deal with the devil—not that I realized how he was back then.”
“Maybe. But I’ve said it before: we can’t go down the path of woulda coulda shoulda. Maybe, you had to do that to get your foot in the door. Maybe, bigger things are waiting for you, something totally new. Maybe, we both needed the time to grow. We can never see the big picture and how bad things might have a purpose, a silver lining even, until after the fact.”
“Maybe,” I conceded. I’d always known Bristol was smart, but perhaps, my wife was more wise than I’d known. “Those are deep thoughts for eleven-thirty at night.”
“It’s from therapy—though I’m not a model patient. My feelings dig in their heels and don’t want to move. My point is, maybe, driving for Darius’ team was a step you had to take.”
I was too enraged at him to ever give him that leeway. “Or… I don’t know. I could have gone a different direction. Flip’s dad would have gotten me on a bike and seriously trained me in a heartbeat. Fuck, like I said, he’s still offering that. I used to ride that dirt track just as often as I drove the stock car.”
“Yeah, you’ve always had a reckless need for speed any way you could get it,” she laughed.
“Not really reckless. I never did anything I hadn’t worked up to and practiced a million times.”
“I know.”
“I could still do that. Motocross.”
“Do you really want to do that?”
“Right now? No. I just want to be with you for a while. I’ve saved almost everything I’ve earned the last six years. I don’t have to do anything. We can just move into our own place, get settled, spend most of the time in bed…”
“Tempting but no. I have a job.”
“You don’t need to work.”
“Idoneed to work.”
“But wearemoving. Yes?” We’d gone to see the Wellston condo when I picked her up from the library today. She’d been a little like a wet hen about the whole thing. It had taken a bunch of maneuvering and soothing to get her to come around to the idea and agree.
“It’s too much?” she’d hissed to me while Petra and Barrett had pretended not to listen to us from across the room.
“You don’t even know how much it is,” I’d pointed out.
Her arms crossed. “How much?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I shook my head and indicated around us. What wasn’t to love? The place had three spacious bedrooms, a living room, an actual dining room, family room, chef’s kitchen, four bathrooms and a couple nice-sized balconies—one off the living room where we stood and the other off the main bedroom, both overlooking the lake. “Do you like it?
“Of course, I like it. It’s gorgeous, and the view is amazing—”
“Could you live here?”
She bit her lip, glancing around. “It would be a dream, but—”
“Then we’ll get it,” I’d interrupted before she could lay out a list of reasons why this wasn’t our future home. I knew it was.
“Axel!” she’d growled, frustrated with me. This wasn’t a fight I’d let her win—unless she really didn’t like the condo.
I’d pulled her into my arms. “I won’t even notice the money is gone. It’ll be less than a drop in the bucket to me—I promise. Let me do this for us. I can tell you love this place. Let me give it to you—and to our kids. Did you see the indoor and outdoor playgrounds and gym? We’ll have room for a family.”
The mention of kids pushed her over the edge to yes—at least, that was the weight that tipped the scale.
“Yes, we’re moving,” she agreed now as she cuddled closer to me now. “I’ll miss this apartment, though. It was our first home together.”
I noticed she didn’t mention the bad times in the middle. It was one of the unspoken reasons I wanted the condo. Aside from more space, it would be a fresh start together.
“We can keep this place, too, if you want,” I said though the offer was disingenuous.
