Page 32 of Drifting

“Oh my God, Luke. She was going to hit me if you didn’t stop her. I knew you still loved me,” Hannah coos, wrapping her arms around him.

“I didn’t stop her for you, Hannah, but for all of our sanity. I didn’t want to listen to you whine for weeks about how hurt you are.” He sends me a quick glance. “And I didn’t want her to get in trouble.”

Hannah let out a gasp, and her friends yell all at once.

A new voice cuts through them as a large kid runs over to us. “Cam, dude, your little piece of heaven is being destroyed!”

“Bob, what’s going on?” Cam demands.

“Big Ben pissed Lou off again, and they’re destroying your barn,” Bob says.

“Shit, not again! Come on, guys, I’ll need all the help I can get. They’re not invited back after this. I’m tired of fixing the damn barn.” Cam stands, and Jenna, still on his lap, tumbles to the ground.

He steps right over her, storming toward the barn.

“I need to help them,” Nick tells me. “Trust me, they really do need help.” He eyeballs his sister and her friends. “Will you be all right here by yourself?”

Because he’s done so much to stand up for me so far, right?

“Big girl, Nick, remember? I can take care of myself. Go help your friends.” I shoo him off.

I watch as all five of them run up to the barn.

Once they're out of earshot, Hannah turns on me. “You better watch yourself, bitch. We’re not through, yet.”

“Bring it, Barbie.” Turning, I hobble back to Nick’s truck to wait.

Putting down the tailgate, I jump up on it, then shimmy my way back so I can stretch out my leg instead of leaving it to daggle. I’m massaging my calf when Dom walks out from behind a bunch of cars and strolls over to me, beer in one hand and a shirt in the other.

“Here. I went to my Jeep and got you another shirt.” He holds it out to me. “I saw what that bitch did to you.”

“Thanks.” I take it gratefully. “I didn’t want to let her know how much I hate the smell of stale beer. It makes me sick.”

He grunts.

I make a twirling motion with my finger, and he turns around. I unclip my coveralls, then take off my bikini top, pull his shirt on, and take an appreciative sniff. It smells like a garage. I wish I could take off my overalls, too, but settle for leaving the top half hanging down. I’ll have to careful when I walk to make sure they don’t fall down.

“You can turn around now.” I smell the shirt again. “This smells like my uncle’s garage.”

Dom rolls his eyes and growls, “Sorry, it’s the only shirt I got. Maybe you should have taken Luke’s. I’m sure it would have smelled better.”

“Chill out, dude, I’m not complaining. I like the smell of oil and gas.” I pull the collar up to my nose. I miss the garage.

Expecting him to stare at me like I’m weird, he instead points to the tailgate, silently asking if he can sit.

I give him a nod.

He sits on the tailgate and starts to peel the paper off his beer bottle. “Your uncle owns a shop?”

“Yeah, I was raised there.” I chuckle. “I knew what a transmission was before I knew what a bra was.”

He scowls and shakes his head.

I stare at him. “What?”

“Who are you, really? Why are you so different from the girls around here? You know how to fight, you’re named after one of my favorite cars, and you claim you grew up in a garage. You check off every one of my boxes for a perfect girl. Did you study me? Did someone teach you what to say to me? You need to stop pretending not to know who Mav and I are.” His angry, dark eyes pierce mine. “What kind of game are you playing?”

Damn, someone did a number on him. Nick did warn me.

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