Page 50 of Kiss & Collide
“Can’t quite picture that.”
He let out a grim chuckle, too. “Yeah, me neither. Not anymore.”
“And Sophie?”
“She was my girlfriend.”
“Yeah, that was my guess. How long?”
“Me and her? A year and a half.”
Violet let out a low whistle. “I didn’t think you did that sort of thing. Long-term.”
“I don’t,” he snapped. “Anymore.”
“So I’m guessing Sophie dumped you for Liam?”
“Eventually. But him and me … that started to go south before that, on the track.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everybody’s aggressive behind the wheel. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t, right? But Liam … with him it was different. We were racing at Sachsenring, and it was that same bullshit he pulled in qualifying in Austria, moving in the braking zone, refusing to concede a pass … He didn’t just toe right up to the line, he crossed it, over and over, seeing what he could get away with, until he finally caught my rear tire and forced me into the fucking wall.”
“Yeah, some drivers can be assholes like that—”
“I was the only thing standing between him and first place. So he put me out of the fucking race. He did it two more times that season, and at the end of it, one of us had an offer to drive F3, and it wasn’t me, who crashed out of three races.”
Violet paused for a beat. “That sucks.”
“Yeah, well”—he shook his head—“it wasn’t just that. You know I’ve always had a problem with sponsorships and shit. Liam never had that problem. His family has money, so theyhired someone to put together deals for him. And that’s how it works, right?” He let out a bitter scoff. “Deals mean money, money means racing. For Liam, it meant he kept moving up.”
“So where does Sophie fit in?”
“She followed the money.”
“Are you serious?”
He shrugged. “He was a much better deal than I was. She was trying to make it as an influencer.”
“I thought she looked familiar. I’ve seen her online. Famous but no one’s really sure why.”
“That’s Soph. By then, I was hustling just to drive from week to week. Might be test-driving for a team one week, then a race in the Le Mans series the next. Unstable, and not exactly glamorous. Not all that surprising she bailed. Liam … the sponsorship deals he was getting, his race results … it seemed like it was just a matter of time before he landed in Formula One. So Sophie took that gamble. And it’s worked out for her.” He couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “It’s been a lucrative partnership for both of them.”
She looked at him with those blue eyes. And Chase had the unsettling feeling she was seeing through him. “So that explains you.”
“In what way?”
“The manwhore thing. Now that I know you a little better, it doesn’t exactly fit. But if you swore off relationships after her—”
“I didn’t. Not consciously anyway. It was just …” He bit back what he was about to say, but Violet wasn’t having it.
“What?”
He shook his head firmly. “Nothing.”
“Tell me,” she groaned theatrically.
Despite the heaviness of the conversation, he chuckled. “It’s stupid. It’s just … my parents have this great marriage, and forthem, it was love at first sight. One look and they were together for life. It’s dumb, but I guess I grew up just expecting that’s how it worked. That’s how it would happen for me.”
