Page 37 of Feint

“Are you kidding meeeee? UGHHH!” I sighed, exasperated. It was too nice of a word for what I felt right now.

Mom laughed. “Yes. But he didforgethis lunch, so maybe you can take it up to him before the event starts? It would help me out today.” She winked at me and held out a brown paper bag to me, which I quickly snatched and smiled at her, my eyes lighting up.

“Oh, I got you, Mom. Don’t even worry about it!” I turned on my heel and jogged out the door and to my car.

Gotta hand it to Mom. Sometimes, she had my back in the most unexpected ways.

I sped up the freeway, weaving through cars, warming up my reaction time and tires in the process. Let’s just call itdrifting warm-up,okay? Had to be on my A game today!

I started to approach a section that went from four lanes to three lanes, and I saw the cars ahead were almost going the same speed, so I stepped on it. My car revved under my body, and I pushed it past the first car, swerving in between it and the other car in front of me with seconds to spare before I hit one.

“Yeah!” I yelled as I blew past traffic down the freeway.

And before I knew it, I was pulling off on the exit ramp to the area where Dad’s property was. But when I rounded the corner of the valley, I never expected to see what I saw in a million years. The old airfield Dad had bought back around the time he first met Mom was no longer looking like an airstrip. No, there was a huge metal awning at the beginning of the property with Flywheels in big, bold letters on it.

And that wasn’t where the craziness stopped. The airstrip had been completely transformed. The tarmac was different-looking, no longer old and worn-out from years in the desert area. A long row of stands was on either side of the entrance of it, which had an official starting line, like legit drag-strip lights.

My dad had completely changed this old, dusty place into a space that would soon be filled with roaring cars. And not only that, but on the offside landing strips of road, there was a drift course set up. Driftinganddrag racing. Dad had literally built my version of paradise.

I pulled into one of the open hangars, which had new epoxy floors with large parking spaces painted on it, and saw my dad and his friends toward one side.

Hank Sr. tapped Dad’s shoulder and jerked his head toward me, and my dad turned around and looked at me, a smile breaking out on his face. He wasn’t surprised to see me, so I bet Mom had given him the heads-up on my way here. He waved and pointed to a space near him, which I parked in. As I got out of my car, he walked over to me.

“Hey, Rosalie! Couldn’t wait another few hours, huh?” Dad teased as he pulled me into a big hug.

I wrapped my arms around him and laughed as he rocked us side to side while we hugged. Then, he let go, and we started to walk back over to where he had been.

“So, you ready for your surprise?” he asked me, and when I looked up at him, I saw his eyes sparkling with excitement.

I nodded fast. “Ummm, is that even a question?! Of course I am!” I looked around the hangar slower this time, and then I saw them.

Sitting behind Dad’s friends’ cars were two almost-matching Hellcats. One a sharp yellow with black stripes and one a blue with white stripes that matched my Skyline. I stopped in my tracks, sucking in a breath and breathing it out excitedly as I looked over them. They were Scat Packs, modified to be drag machines with drag slicks installed. They were two of the prettiest cars I had ever seen. I didn't even realize that Dad had stopped next to me until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“You like them?” he asked me softly.

I glanced up at him and saw a loving look in his eyes. It almost brought tears to mine because I knew he had done this for me and him.

Dad and I were close in a way that was hard to explain. I know most people assumed if you had a boy and a girl, the son would follow in his dad’s footsteps. But for as long as I could remember, it was always me and my dad. From playing with toy cars on the tiled floors to driving go-carts when I was seven and up until I got my license, I wanted to do everything my dad could do when it came to cars.

And, sure, I’d eventually found out building cars wasn’t my favorite thing. But painting them? Now, that was my version of Dad rebuilding an engine from scratch. But Dad and I had done so many things together because we both loved cars—well, maybe I loved them because of how Dad had been around them at first, but it was certainly contagious to me. And so I thought him having someone to share this part of his life with really brought him so much happiness.

“I love them, Dad.” I turned and hugged him hard again, hiding my face from the others.

I worked really hard at holding in my tears because this was almost as crazy as when he had given me my Viper. And now, we had our second set of matching cars together. This was one of the most meaningful things my dad could ever do for someone. The amount of time, blood, sweat, tears, and money went into builds like this… well, you didn’t do it for anyone, let’s just say that.

He leaned down and kissed the top of my head, and we walked over to them together.

“There is only one problem,” he said, putting a quizzical look on his face.

“What’s the problem, Dad?” I asked, looking at the two cars. They didn’t look like they had any problems to me.

“See… I didn’t know which one you would want more, so I made them exactly the same, except for the colors. Think you can help me out with that?” He smiled as he looked back at me, and my face lit up.

“Y-yeah, I could help with that! But, umm… would you hate me if I picked the blue one?” I already had two blue cars, but the thought of this one sitting next to them made me smile. “But I would fix one little thing…” I looked at him. “Got any paint supplies up here in this fancy place?” I asked as I looked around. And I spotted a basic paint lab, just a small sprayer and some basic colors.

“Thought you might want to make a few adjustments, so, yeah, your old man brought some things up here. Go on and take a look.” He walked over to the yellow car and rolled down the windows while he watched me jog over to the paint supplies.

I quickly grabbed the sprayer and some glossy black paint. I walked back over and taped off the white stripes. I had them both sprayed a pretty black before an hour passed and removed the tape. It was so dry and warm up here that it would actually be dry before the events happened later today. I stepped back and admired it. That was exactly what she’d needed. Now, they were twins. Kinda like Jayden and me—so similar yet perfectly different too.

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