Page 86 of Love Collided

It was all so wholesome, and a bit too relationship-like for my taste.

She didn’t want the crew to know, which meant I would be keeping it from them as long as I could. I didn’t particularly want to be on Fox’s bad side, and I believed that they took their job of protecting Scout seriously, so I would be staying on their good side as long as I could.

By the time I made it back to my place, I was ready to fall into bed, but that was short-lived when I saw my father’s car outfront. I almost debated not going in, but I wanted to go to bed, and knew he would just want to yell at me and go.

He started in before the front door was even closed behind me.

“Where have you been?”

“Have you been sitting here all day waiting to ask that?”

“I’ve been sitting here for nearly two hours hoping to find you coming home to study, or coming home from studying. I know you have exams this week, and I don’t see any books in your hands.”

“Because I wasn’t studying.”

“Where were you?”

I threw my keys down, grabbing a soda out of the fridge and sitting at the counter. The best thing to do was play along and let him rant out his anger, otherwise, it would just escalate.

“I was with friends.”

“Which friends? Because Justin and that group were at the banquet we had tonight. The place youshouldhave been unless you were studying. I believe that’s the excuse you always give your mother, isn’t it?”

“I have other friends.”

“If you mean you were at the pitiful garage with those people, then I wouldn’t be so quick to call them your friends.”

“Why? And how did you know about them?”

“Because I wondered where your car was and tracked it there. I’m not stupid. You can’t honestly believe they would be hanging around you for anything more than connections and money.”

Apparently, I needed to text the crew and ask them how to get a tracker off my car now.

“I’m pretty sure Ashton Holt doesn’t need to hang around me for connections and money. Her family is comparable to usin wealth and status. If anything, she has more connections for them in the car world than I would.”

He sneered. “Yeah, I heard about her running off with them. Her father basically disowned her, but then one accident or something and he’s right back to giving her everything. You need to get it out of your head that I’m anything like that. You keep hanging around them, and I’m not supporting shit.”

“I wasn’t asking permission to hang out with people. If I want to keep hanging out with her — them — then I will.” I didn’t look away, didn’t give any indication that I slipped up, but it was useless. My dad was as sharp as ever and wouldn’t miss such a blatant slip-up.

“Oh god, you’re fucking with one of the girls there aren’t you?”

“That’s none of your business,” I said, wanting to defend Scout, but not wanting to give my father any more information about her.

“You’re in college to become a lawyer for our company. How could you think running around with burnouts who like to race cars is going to help your future? How could you think that girl is right for you to spend time with?”

Each word out of his mouth grated on my nerves, making my blood boil. I didn’t want anyone to talk badly about Scout, but especially not him.

“Thatgirl is named Scout.”

“I don’t care what her name is. You’ve barely been around and now I find out it’s because you’re chasing a girl around? You aren’t a damn puppy Chase, you’re a leader, a soon to be lawyer. You don’t need to run after a girl who has a job working on cars.”

I stifled a laugh. “Scout does work on cars. She supports her family and their business. She is also about to be sponsored and trained by Holt Racing. Which, besides Ash, will make her theirsecond female driver. As you can imagine, that isn’t easy and doesn’t happen often. Is that really something to scoff at?”

He rolled his eyes. “Maybe not for her life, but for yours? Yes, it is. My company will need a good lawyer and we have worked hard to make sure you were on the path to become one.”

“Yeah, you have worked so fucking hard for that, haven’t you?”

“I have. And I guarantee the last thing the partner of a law firm needs is some greased up girl racing cars. Honestly, I’d be shocked if she wanted you for anything more than our money.”

---