Page 70 of Love Collided

SCOUT

The race wentby in a blur, the car moving down the road so easily that I barely took a breath and it was done. My hands gripped the wheel as I pulled the car into the lineup behind the crew and parked. I was already in love with this car, and wondering how much I should fight Chase to let me drive it a little longer because I wasn’t actually going to keep it.

I groaned, dropping my head onto the steering wheel.

What had I been thinking? Agreeing to keep doinganythingwith Chase was a bad choice, but agreeing to secretly fool around with him with no strings attached was a horrible idea. Not only was hiding that from the crew a ticking time bomb, but I wasn’t exactly experienced in the world of friends with benefits. Could I even handle doing all of those things without falling for someone?

I looked at Chase, who leaned over Kye’s engine with him as we waited for Ash to race Fox next. He was wearing jeans and a hoodie tonight, which made me laugh. A little more dressed down than the last time I saw him here. Even in regular clothes, though, I could still see the differences. The way he stood a little straighter, the confidence, the arrogance. It was all still there, even in jeans and a hoodie.

Maybe that was the reason Icoulddo this, though. Chase wasn’t anyone I could fall for. He wasn’t the type I should end up with at all. I needed someone like us. A guy that knew cars, and racing, and the struggle of coming from nothing. I needed someone that could understand me, and I don’t think that would be Chase.

He had shown over and over that he was a rich playboy type. He didn’t have relationships and even admitted that he didn’t even have close friends.

Elias, a guy we’ve all come to know at the races, came over, interrupting my thoughts.

“Hey, Scout. Everyone here tonight?”

I nodded, pointing to the crew who were all gathered around Kye’s car now.

Chase met my eye, looking over Elias before turning back to Jax, who was apparently talking to him. For a second, I wondered if Chase would be jealous, but then Elias started talking about the new intake he put on his car and I knew there wouldn’t be many reasons to be jealous. Most guys here thought of me as either one of the guys or their little sister. I never had a long line of men waiting to take me on dates, and the few that seemed to have any interest would run the other way when they saw who my friends were. The crew was all lovable–from the inside.

From the outside, we were heathens with an endless list of accusations and rumors about us. From running drugs, to stealing cars, to a thousand other terrible things. People liked to gossip, and we never corrected them.

Ransom always preferred the route of being scary to the world so they didn’t mess with us, and all of us were on board. Better to be feared than walked all over.

It was great for business, but not as great for my dating life.

It never seemed fair. The girls might love a successful, tattooed, possibly dangerous man. On the other side of that, men did not like a short, possibly dangerous girl that came with four tattooed, scary, possibly dangerous men behind her.

Elias was still talking about the new modifications to his car, and I fell into an easy conversation with him. He was cute, closer to my age than the guys, and I always wondered if he had liked me at one point, but there was nothing there now.

Nope. Now I was one of the guys.

I could feel the frustration of my love life growing, and it was only compounded when Chase slid onto the hood of the car next to me.

“Hey,” he said to Elias. “Do I know you?”

I don’t know if it was that confidence or the arrogance, but Chase had a way of controlling conversations with new people. It was five words, but somehow, each one made it clear that Chase was now running the conversation.

“I don’t think so,” Elias said. “I’m Elias. And you?”

“Chase.”

“Elias was just telling me about his car and the new mods,” I said, turning back to him. “I’ll have to stop over later this week, and see what you did to it.”

“Yeah,” he said, eyeing Chase a few more seconds before turning back to me. “That would be cool. Just text me.”

I nodded, and he walked away, not looking back as Chase watched him.

“So, I might not be theonlyone you give that special treatment to after all.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what that conversation was. We were right in the middle of sexual negotiations before you rudely interrupted.”

“I know you’re kidding, but I’m also ready to go punch him.”

“He was telling me about his new car and the mods. I promise, as much as I hate to admit it, that men here are not waiting around to ask me into back seats.” I didn’t miss the smirk on his face. “Besides you, apparently.”

“I might be the only one actually asking, but I promise, I’m not the only onewantingto ask.”

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