Page 59 of That Summer

“Like I said, nasty.” Lucas laughed uncomfortably. “But he finally dumped her. Thank God. During the intermission, surrounded by people, unfortunately. It was very public. I actually felt bad for Marissa.”

“Yikes. And you don’t even like her.”

“I know, right?” He twisted in his seat. “And for the good news.”

“There’s good news on top of that?”

“Yeah. That night, mom stayed with Bill so Nate and I had the trailer to ourselves.” He hesitated and pulled back a little. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m gonna. And it never leaves us.”

She nodded in agreement.

“He was probably too drunk to know what he said.”

Aurora recoiled and pushed deeper into her seat. She was anti-alcohol, and somewhere deep down she thought Nate rejected it too, mainly because of her. It was shocking to hear he didn’t.

Lucas’ hands waved all over as he spoke. “I know what you’re thinking. He doesn’t get drunk all the time. And he never drives drunk. I swear. Normal people drink. Evil people drink and drive.”

The words soothed her a little. But it was true. Most people their age did drink. And as long as they didn’t get behind a wheel, they kept everyone around them safe.

Lucas shook his head. “So, Nate doesn’t know I’ve been helping you all summer, right? Like he really has no clue. Honestly believes I’ve been elsewhere.” Lucas chuckled, rather proud of his evasive skills. “Anyways, in his drunken stupor, he went on and on about you two. How much he missed you. How much he’ll miss racing, but how you mean more, and how he wants you to be a part of Northern Lights Racing in some capacity. He was throwing out some ideas on how to try and get you back.”

“And? What’s he planning?”

“Retiring again. The whole thing with Marissa, well, it added to his problems. Figures he can be rid of her and get you back at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone type of thing. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter what he’s planning. You’ll beat him to it. By a few hours. If he remembers the really awesome idea.”

Her stomach fluttered with excitement. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

“That makes my night, Lucas because I made something for him.” She rose and walked over to the closet, gently extracting a huge poster. Turning it toward him, she said, “I’ve been working on it all week. It’s not Carmen’s caliber of artwork, but it was the best I could do.” She’d spent hours first creating it and then filling it with colour. “Do you think it’s noticeable enough?”

Lucas tipped his head and studied it. “I love it and you know what? It could make a great logo. Would needsometweaking…”

Glee filled her as she tucked it back into its spot. She fell beside him, closer this time.

“Let me ask you something.” His nose twitched. “With this hiatus you took, what do we do now? How do we manage the next five days?”

“You mean six.”

“No, I mean five. On the sixth day we travel.”

Shit. Five days to practice—worry—stress—freak out—or get excited. Depending on how you look at it.

“I honestly don’t know. Any ideas?”

“Hmm…” He rubbed his chin in thought. “What about a round trip drive somewhere that would be roughly twenty minutes? You need to be able to handle at least a fifteen-minute drive for Saturday. It would make the drive there much easier to plan.” He grabbed his phone. “What do you say to that?”

A slow nod. “Maybe.” Another nod. “It should work.”

“Or would it be too much?”

“I don’t think so. It’s only one trip, not the thirty or forty attempts of a trip in one night.”

“So… Can I drive you to class tomorrow?”

Chapter Fifteen

Lucas

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