Page 43 of Race to the Beach

Chapter Sixteen

Wassheseeingsomeoneelse?

Owen was kicking himself the rest of the evening and into Wednesday morning for not making their fake relationship exclusive.He’d thought that it was implied, but apparently he was wrong.

Now, he didn’t know how to act around her.Did he pretend that her going out with someone else didn’t faze him?Or did he ask her about it?Did he clarify that their arrangement was exclusive?

He stopped pacing in his living room.He realized he had given this whole situation way too much thought.

Buzz.

He moved to the kitchen counter and picked up his phone.It was his mother.Immediately worried about her early morning call, he pressed the phone to his ear.“Hey, Mom.What’s wrong?”

His mother sighed.“Good morning to you too.”

“Sorry.Good morning.So, nothing’s wrong?”

“It depends.”There was a pointed pause that let him know she wasn’t happy with him.“Is there a reason I had to let Maxi into the garage this morning?When she asked where you were, I didn’t know what to tell her.”

“Uh…” He hadn’t realized it was so late.The truth was that he was dragging his feet when it came to seeing Maxi again.The fact that she had plans with another guy had bothered him, and he hadn’t been prepared for that.“I’ll be right there.I, uh…slept in.”

“You slept in?”Her voice took on a surprised tone.“Are you feeling all right?”

“Yes.”He didn’t elaborate, and for once, his mother was quiet.

Five minutes later, he entered the garage and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Maxi with her head under the hood of the car.He still wasn’t sure what to say to her about the prior evening, so he decided to say nothing at all.

“How’s it going?”he asked.

She jumped before she straightened.“Oh.Hey.I didn’t hear you come in.”

He held up a bag.“I got some tape to piece together the light cover, since we can’t get a replacement in time for the race.”

Maxi nodded.“Good thinking.”

“If you don’t need anything, I’ll get to work on it.”He didn’t know what else to say to her.He just wasn’t in the mood to make light chit-chat.

“I’m good.”She retrieved a wrench and then leaned back over the engine compartment.

Once he got to work on taping the turn signal cover followed by adding auto filler to various areas of the damaged fender, time seemed to fly by.When he looked over at Maxi, he found her on a creeper under the front end.

“Hey, it’s lunchtime,” he said.

She didn’t move.“I’m not really hungry.”

“You have to eat if you’re going to keep up your stamina.”The words crossed his lips before he realized he shouldn’t care if she ate or not.

She rolled out from under the car and sat up.“I guess you’re right.I’ll just order something.”

“We should go out to lunch.”

Her eyes briefly widened.“What’s wrong with eating here?”

He shrugged.“We did make an agreement.And it’s not like we’ve been out in public much.”

He expected her to put up a fuss, but instead, she sighed and said, “You’re right.You’ve been working really hard on the car, and I haven’t been holding up my part of the agreement.Just give me a moment to wash up.”

She got to her feet and turned off the trouble light hanging from the hood.She moved to the doorway and shrugged off her overalls.Her hair was up in a messy bun, and she didn’t have much makeup on, but she didn’t need any.Her beauty radiated from the inside.He inwardly sighed.He was in big trouble.

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