Page 28 of Fall With Me (Sugarland Creek)

Once I’ve placed the plates, glasses, and silverware on the table, I walk into the living room where Dad and Aunt Phoebe are watchingSeinfeld. It’s her favorite sitcom and she watches two episodes every day between four and five p.m. After the final episode, the four of us will sit at the table and eat together.

“Hi, Daddy.” I kiss his cheek and he smiles.

“Hi, sweetheart. How was your day?”

“It was alright. Yours?” I ask, not wanting to go into the details about mine.

“Great. My new employee asked ’boutcha today. He wants to know if he can get your number.”

My nose scrunches in confusion. “How’s he know what I look like?”

The corner of his mouth curves up. “I only have my office covered in your photos.”

I shake my head in embarrassment because I know exactly what he’s talking about. Pictures of me with Ranger, us racing,my professional headshots, and our family photos paint his walls.

“And lemme guess, you told him I’m single?”

“Well, ya are, ain’t ya?”

“No, I’m in a long-term relationship with my career.” I snicker, then move around him to hug Aunt Phoebe.

“Aren’t you even gonna ask if he’s a cutie?” she asks when my arms wrap around her.

I pull back, scowling. “Whose side are you on?”

“The one where you get a life outside of racin’.”

Rolling my eyes, I stand between them and cross my arms. “Fine. Is he cute?”

I’m only asking to appease them because they constantly give me a hard time for being so focused on work.

“I’d say he’s of the attractive sort. He’s a little shorter than me, has that shaggy blond hair thing goin’ on where he shakes it out of his eyes every three seconds, and is on the lean side, but he’s strong. Gotta be to lift the hundred-pound bags of feed. Oh, and he’s an Aries. Whatever that means.”

“Great, so he’s a teenage version of Justin Bieber whose Zodiac weakness is insecurity and he needs a haircut.”

Aunt Phoebe belly laughs at the image I painted. “Could be your future husband?”

“Hard pass,” I tell them and then walk back to the kitchen.

As Mom takes the biscuits out of the oven, I grab the sweet tea from the fridge and then fill my glass.

“You know, Gage is a nice young boy. You should give him a chance.”

My brows furrow. “Who’s Gage?”

She waves a hand toward my dad. “The astrology-lover pop star lookalike.”

“Ugh. Not you too.” I take a long gulp of my drink. “When do I have time to date anyway?”

Almost every part of my day is scheduled. That’s how I learned to process everything when my life flipped upside down and staying consistent is how I hit my goals, so it’s a win-win. Working hard, staying focused, winning races. That’s my focus.

Men are a distraction. And from my experience with Landen each day, annoying too.

“You could make time, Ellie. You’re gorgeous, talented, smart, and you’d have a lot to offer in a relationship if you put in some effort to find someone.”

“You act like I’m forty-five not twenty-three. I still have time for all that.”

“Forty-five ain’t that far away.”

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