He smiled but didn’t say anything else as he sat across from me, jumping right into the conversation with the crew.
The races starteda few hours later, and when I walked out of the trailer, I came face to face with eight people wearing eerily similar shirts.
“Is that my face on your shirt?”
“It is,” Ash said with a smile.
“Why?”
“Obviously, we’re your biggest fans and need to let that be known. I want to add that while everyone got one. Mine was first.”
I looked around, the black shirts printed with a picture of me next to my car. Others might not know it was me exactly, but I did, and I could already feel my face turning red. “Oh my god, we’re the embarrassing family that wears matching shirts now?”
“We’re adorable,” Ash said. “So yes.”
I looked everyone over, scoffing when I got to Jax. “You vandalized my face! You put a mustache on me?”
He was laughing, Carly smacking his stomach.
“Listen, at least I didn’t put devil horns on you,” he said, pointing to Kye, who proudly showed his shirt.
“You two are the worst.”
“Yeah, yeah. And while we are here for you, we don’t want to be embarrassed wearing the shirt of a loser, so you better get out there and win,” Kye said.
“Wow, what a pep talk.” I gave him a thumbs up before flipping them off as Chase pulled me away. The trailer blocked us from view as he pulled me into his arms, kissing me hard.
“What are you doing?” I asked, needing to get back and get in my car.
“I needed to give you a private good luck before you went out there.”
I looked past him, making sure the crew hadn’t come around the corner, as he kissed me again. His hand wrapped around one of my braids, worrying filling his gaze as his eyes met mine.
“Please be careful.”
“You know I’m not going out theretryingto wreck, right?”
“Yeah, I know that, but it isn’t stopping me from picturing every terrible scenario in my mind. And I swear if you pick the front end of that car off the ground, I’m going to lose my mind.”
“If you really think I’m going to take my time getting off the line, you have already lost your mind.”
He leaned down, kissing me once, his lips lingering on mine.
“How the fuck did Jesse not cower at your feet?”
“I’m starting to wonder that myself.”
“You should. You’re the Queen of my entire fucking world, and I don’t know how anyone could think anything different of you.”
“While sitting back here to talk about how much you worship me sounds like a good time. I do have to go race, and someone will walk back here looking for me soon.”
He groaned, kissing me once more before stepping away. “Fine, go kick some ass and make everyone here fall in love with you.”
I only smiled, trying to hide how much my heart jumped at the word love. Chase offered to give up his entire world, but hadn’t said he loved me. I preferred it that way for now, at least until we told the crew, but it was starting to make me wonder how serious this would be.
I started to head back out, and Chase followed behind me
“What are you doing?” I asked with a smile.