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Not so much when it didn’t have to do with racing. But this was one night of the year I didn’t have a choice but to be at the center of the celebration. There was a bit of déjà vu the whole time. It was the same bar, and all my brothers were there. This time the group of family and friends had grown a bit, but we sat at the same table and ordered the same drinks. It became a tradition without me even meaning it to, and for the most part I really did enjoy it. My favorite part was seeing everybody so happy and having a good time together.
Molly, now at the head of the waitstaff, came by with the round of shots she always bought me as soon as I walked in on my birthday. Everybody raised their glasses to me and knocked back the shot. As they fell into different conversations and some jumped up to dance, I looked around the bar to take in my surroundings. Everything seemed pretty much the way it always did until my eyes fell on the stools at the bar.
Holy hell. Speaking of déjà vu. Same bar, same brothers, same drinks. Same gorgeous girl sitting by herself at the bar. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. After waking up without her the day after my twenty-first birthday, I thought I’d never see Kelly again. She didn’t leave any type of contact information and telling me she was leaving the country seemed like a pretty clear indication a reunion wasn’t in the cards. Yet, there she was, sitting at the bar just like she was the first time I saw her.
I resisted the urge to move my hand to my wallet. It might seem pathetic to anyone who found out, but I’d kept the note after I found it and still had it in my wallet. It was sort of a good-luck charm now. I didn’t even remember why I put it in there to begin with. A soft let down note from a one-night stand wasn’t exactly a souvenir most people would want to hang on to for years. But there was something about it that made me want to keep it. It found its way into my wallet, and I found it again a week later after winning the next race. It was my best performance of my career so far, and from that night, I never left it behind.
Even my brothers didn’t know it was there, and I didn’t really have the intention of telling anybody about it. But now that I was seeing Kelly again, the piece of paper, softened by being folded and unfolded countless times over the last three years, felt almost heavy in my pocket, like it could somehow sense she was close by.
“Right, Darren?”
I heard Quentin’s voice and knew he’d said something to me, but his actual words had totally gone over my head.
“What?” I asked.
My oldest brother looked at me strangely.
“You all right?” he asked. “That one shot didn’t hit you too hard already, did it?”
“Huh?” I looked down at the empty shot glass on the table in front of me. “Oh. No. I’m fine.” I glanced over at the bar again. “I’m actually going to go grab another drink. Maybe order some food. Anybody need anything?”
Before any of them could answer, I got up and headed across the dance floor. Three years ago, I walked away from my brothers sitting at the table and danced right there like I had no sense. I didn’t care who was watching me or what they might think of me then. That was before I noticed Kelly. Now I wasn’t going to stop to dance or to do anything else. She was the only thing in my sights, and I didn’t want to wait another second to get to her.
My heart was pounding in my chest and my palms were sweating. I had no idea what she was going to think seeing me again. When I first got that note, it didn’t even occur to me there could be anything more to it. She was leaving town. It was as simple as that. But there she was. Was it possible she had just come up with the idea of telling me she was leaving town so she could slip out of the house and not have to face me in the morning? Maybe I’d walk up to her and she’d be upset I was there.
That wasn’t exactly the most pleasant thought, but I couldn’t let it stop me. I’d been thinking about her for three years, and I wasn’t going to walk away without talking to her just because I didn’t know how she was going to react. I took a few deep breaths to settle my nerves and slid onto the stool beside her.
