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We walk back over to our pit area. Well, Ashton and I walk, Kat stumbles, and I frown at the paint scrapes I see when I approach. I didn’t notice them when Ash unloaded the car from his truck. We worked really hard to make the plastic exterior look exactly like his yellow-striped button-up shirt, just for him to mess with it last night?
I need answers.
Colin makes his way across the track with his backpack slung over one shoulder, sauntering over to us.
“Where were you?!” I scold as he approaches me. “My nerves are shot, Colin. What did you do this morning? Where were you?!”
I’m exhausted, spent, as emotionally drained as they come, but dammit if I haven’t still been giving everything for him and us. It’s been a hard few weeks, but I threw my energy into the new business, one with real meaning. Who starts a new business, putting themselves into more debt while still lassoing old debts? A girl who was told by a man she loved that she could do anything, be anything, that’s who.
As crazy as I am for it, I know it’s right. It was a feeling in my gut that wouldn’t go away once Colin and I came up with it.
“DD, I had to fix the flat. The flat. Race is today. I had to fix the flat,” he comments, placing his hands on my slumped shoulders.
“What are you talking abouuuttt...”
My words trail off as the literal air gets sucked out of my lungs. Knees go weak as an intense feeling of butterflies reawaken within every part of me, a sensation that’s almost too big to handle. My mouth hangs slightly parted as my eyes connect with another tall, dark-haired man in a canary-colored shirt, making his way through the crowd.
“No.” I shake my head. “No, you didn’t,” I practically whisper, suddenly feeling the need to vomit. Or chug Kat’s margarita.
“I did,” Colin says in his robotic tone. “I did, and DD will smile again.”
My throat dries up as if I’ve swallowed sand, and I turn to tip my head at Colin. “Why do you keep calling me that?”
Before he can answer, Lake’s eyes find mine.
He looks even hotter than I remember, and it bothers me. I get homesick at the sight of him. My heart is suddenly alive and well after weeks of hibernation. Weeks of pretending I wasn’t watching him on the screen when the games were on. Weeks of scrolling through social media, looking for any hint of a new woman in his life. Heartbreaking, lame shit women do to themselves for some odd reason. Rip into old wounds to see how fast they bleed.
His tall, fit form is standing there beneath a pair of casual jeans and a basic, plain, custom-made t-shirt that was never meant to look so good on a body. It’s literally cut for a box, yet forms around his toned, tanned arms and broad chest, while a zip-up hoodie fits comfortably over it.
It’s Sunday. He should be prepping for a game right now. Not be here. At the race.
Stalling at the fence about twenty yards away, he grips the metal with both hands, leaning forward, almost looking like he needs to catch his breath before he crosses the track. Colin shakes my shoulders.
“Do you or not?” he asks.
I realize the world around me is blurred in his presence. My ears numb, as if I’m drowning deep in that water again, sounds becoming vibrations. I shake my head of it, pulling my eyes away from Lake to look at Colin.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Do you want him to come over here or not? He told me to ask first.”
My lips pull into a lopsided grin and a scoff of a laugh leaves me.
“Seriously?”
I look back at Lake, who’s still leaning forward, gripping the fence like if he lets go, he’ll fall forward directly onto his face. His worried blue eyes lock on mine again, and I feel it everywhere.
“Yeah. Lake didn’t want to ruin this. He didn’t want to ruin my day. Your day. Ruin the day.”
I take a deep breath, letting it out with a heavy sigh. I feel an arm slide around my shoulders, and the smell of margarita fills my nostrils.
“Them meteorologists never lie,” Kat comments with a feisty tone, staring with me over at Lake.
I close my eyes tightly, shaking my head at her nonsense. Opening them, I catch Lake’s head dropping between his shoulders, arms still bracing him. The reflection of a gold necklace bounces off his neck as he hangs. He drops his hands from the railing, each finger slower than the last, before he stands and turns, beginning to walk away.
My eyes narrow before they widen in a panic.
He thought I just said no.
