Page 96 of All That Glitters
The words were full of sarcasm, but they were also true.
“Get out.” Hale spit the words across the distance. “Get out. Stay away from Helen. And don’t ever come back. We’re done with you.”
Those words echoed in my ears. They were so similar to the ones Ashton had spat at me back in the hallway of the still under construction race shop of Darien Cross. “Hale. Think about what you’re saying.”
“I don’t have to. He’s done enough damage with his little revenge tour.”
“I’m afraid I can’t stay away from her. She holds her future and mine tucked inside that folder.” There was more behind the words he spoke, but I couldn’t begin to focus on what they meant and before I knew what was happening, Hale snatched the folder from me again and tossed it toward Ashton. “Thanks,” he said, catching it. “But you don’t get to decide what she wants in her life, Hale. No one does. No one but her.”
Ashton’s gaze bore into me and I simply shook my head. I couldn’t do this anymore. This was the one thing I never wanted to happen. This was the one thing I never wanted to experience. This searing pain of being torn between them.
My stomach swirled and burned and it was all I could do to not throw up. My mother would have my head. God… Our parents. What would they do when they found out? How were they going to handle all this?
Ashton nodded at me, smiled with all the confidence and ego he was known for. “We have a meeting in a couple of days with Darien to go over the terms of the contract. We’ll each want lawyers there for negotiations.”
It was so tempting. He was giving me everything I’d ever wanted on a silver platter. Well, if the silver platter was in the form of a manila folder…and manipulation. He’d put me in the most unforgivable, most awkward position with my brother and soon with my parents and I hated him for it. I hated him for his high handedness. I hated him for going behind my back and doing exactly what my heart wished for. I hated him for dangling it in front of me like a trophy.
I hated him.
I loved him.
I stood up on legs that trembled. My muscles shook from being clenched tightly through this whole fiasco, but I locked my knees so I wouldn’t fall down.
“I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to make the meeting. Good-bye, Ashton. We are definitely done here.”
Neither man said anything as I left the room and walked upstairs, exactly as I’d been trying to do since I came home.
I closed the door to my bedroom, locked it behind me, and slid to the floor. The tears fell and I couldn’t help but wonder if my life would ever be the same again. I’d walked away from my brother. I’d walked away from the man I loved. And I’d walked away from the dream I’d had since my parents put me into a go-kart so I could be just like them.
How was I supposed to go on from here? What was I supposed to do now?
22
Ashton
Some of the air left the room with Helen when she walked out.
“You know where the door is,” Hale said, moving forward and stepping around me. “You had no trouble walking into a house that isn’t yours. You can see yourself out of it.”
“Hale…”
“Go, Ashton.”
“Why didn’t you back out?” My heart beat hard and my breathing accelerated the way it did every time I thought about the wreck, which was more often than not. But I pushed the questions out. “Why didn’t you back out of the position and let me have it? I was there. Why didn’t you wait until we were clear and you had room? I had nowhere to go. You pinned me down. If I backed out, we would’ve crashed. If you’d backed out, we’d have been okay, but you didn’t. You swerved toward me. For a split second you swerved, you overcorrected and then… You did to me what you did to her during that test, only I didn’t have any recourse. I have watched every frame of the wreck including the laps leading up to it. Two cars were torn up that day. And a friendship was fucked. For what? I don’t understand. You had a good car, maybe even better than mine in some instances. You could have… There were other choices you could’ve made that day, and in that moment, but you… You forced us into something that didn’t have to happen. Why?”
I hadn’t meant to ask him any of that, not today, maybe not ever, but being left in a room alone with him, emotions too close to the surface… Maybe I was tired. Maybe I was tired of being angry… Maybe I was just tired of it all.
“Hale?”
“Because I didn’t.” It was all he said before leaving me standing alone with fewer answers than I’d come in with.
Maybe it was best Helen didn’t want the seat with Crossline Racing. Maybe it was for the best that things were over between us.
I crushed the folder still in my hand, then left the room, the house… A feeling settled inside that more of my life was about to shift and change and that everything was going to be all fucked up again. Not that it hadn’t been ever since the wreck.
“Thank you for waiting, Amber.” I settled in the backseat of the silver sedan with minimal physical signs that panic was riding my ass the whole time. It wasn’t a luxury car, but it was top of the line for the manufacturer. It was comfortable with heated and cooling leather seats, climate control, and plenty of leg room.
“Not a problem, Mr. Glitterati.”
