Page 80 of Well Played

I watch her walk down the ramp, confused, a little bit turned on, and strangely flattered.

It feels like a tornado just whipped through and rearranged everything inside my brain.

“Well, that wasn’t what I expected.” Eddie steps up next to me.

“Me either.”

2

Charly

We arrivedin Terra Haute last night and stayed at a hotel up the road. When I woke up this morning and headed out to the hauler, it was a surprise to find the Faraday Motorsports hauler parked right next to ours.

They must have gotten here late, after whatever race they were at the night before ended. Last week I’d resisted the temptation to drop in and chat with Robbie at the USAC race and I’d somehow resisted the temptation to look him up on social media.

After talking to him at Eldora, I’ve been running into him regularly and each time it gives me a tiny flutter of excitement. I know I shouldn’tlikehim like him. It would be terrible for my reputation, especially because he’s our direct competitor.

But I can’t help myself.

On a whim, I knock on the hauler door to see if anyone’s inside. Maybe they’ll want to catch breakfast with me and the team.

It creaks open and a bleary-eyed Robbie sticks his head out, already mumbling an apology. “Sorry I fell asleep” before he realizes who he’s talking to. His eyes go wide and he freezes like a prey animal caught in the sights of a predator.

I can’t help but smile at him, amused by his obvious shyness. “Fall asleep on the computer?”

He scrubs a hand over his face, tousling his already unruly mop of hair. “Close enough.”

“Or maybe it was your watch.” I gesture toward the perfectly round circle stamped onto his cheek.

“Jesus.” He flushes and scrubs at it. “Could I look any more ridiculous?”

“It’s endearing.”Don’t flirt, Char.

He raises an eyebrow, questioning my judgment.

“What were you working on?” I shouldn’t ask. He could misconstrue my curiosity for snooping, but in reality, I’m almost done with a mechanical engineering degree. I’m fascinated by machines, partly because of the old videos I found of Robbie explaining different parts of his dad’s race car.

“Cleaning parts. Nothing exciting.” He shrugs and then freezes. “You, uh, want to come in?” He gestures to the dusky interior of the hauler behind him. There’s a few running lights along the steps and an overhead light over a workbench, but otherwise it’s full of shadows.

“Actually, I was wondering if you and your crew might want to get breakfast?”

“The guys are always up for food if the offer is on the table.” He steps down and closes the door behind him. “Give me twenty minutes to wake them up?”

Pleased that he’s agreed, and we’ll have two pit crews’ worth of chaperones, I nod and walk with him to wake my guys up too.

The problemwith spending any amount of time with Robbie is that it makes me want to see him even more. There’s something addictive about his quiet curiosity and how easy it is for me to fluster him.

I blame that on why I keep dropping by his hauler, and sending him messages.

He’s terrible about replying to texts and DMs are out since he’s even worse about posting on his social sites. I’ve discovered Eddie’s not the only one who avoids attention, which is so refreshing.

Because of my job, pleasing sponsors, selling merch, driving publicity, I live on social media. Sometimes it feels like everything I do winds up online.

Except my encounters with Robbie. I’m always careful to ‘run into him’ when no one else is around and for once, I don’t want to share something about my private life with the outside world.

It hasn’t helped that we’ve done a couple mid week races at local tracks together. Eddie beat me in one of them. It was in a late model car, my first time driving one, but I gave him a run for his money. He’s a hell of a driver and I learned a lot trying to get around him.

After the race, the first thing I did was congratulate Eddie and thank my guys, and then I’d cornered Robbie. I lost my best intentions to my lascivious thoughts. With quiet steps, I snuck up behind him while he was doing something on his phone and wrapped my arms around him in a congratulatory hug. It was definitely not an ‘I can’t resist touching you’ hug.

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