Page 78 of Racing Hearts

Juniper was silent until they were outside of the dorm. She stopped and turned to look at Sierra. “Do you love her?”

“Excuse me?” Sierra wasn’t sure she heard her right.

“Do you love Ellie? I’m only doing this if you really care about her.”

“I care about her more than anything else in this world. And yes, of course I love her. I’m so in love with her I don’t know what to do with myself.” Sierra couldn’t believe the first person she admitted it to was the girl who was her mortal enemy until this moment. “What are you doing exactly?”

Juniper smiled and lifted an eyebrow. “I’m going to help you get her back.”

That sounded perfect. There was only one problem. “And how do we do that?”

Juniper shrugged. “That’s what we have to figure out. Honestly, you could go knock on our apartment door right now and say‘Yo, babe, take me back,’and she would, but I think we need to do more than that. Don’t you?”

Sierra nodded. “I need to show her that I’m in this for real. I’m not going to run away again.”

“Okay. Let’s brainstorm. I think it should involve track since you two probably have wet dreams about the sport.”

Sierra chuckled. “I was thinking that too. Well, minus the wet dreams part.”

“Perfect. That’s a start.”

Sierra was still confused about who this girl was standing in front of her. “Why are you helping me?”

“I want my best friend to be happy again.”

Something about her words, combined with what they were planning, made Sierra emotional. She had to fight to keep herself from crying. “You’re a really good friend. Ellie is lucky to have you. I mean, you’re working together with someone you don’t even like, all because you care about her.”

Juniper waved her hand nonchalantly. “She would do the exact same thing for me. Plus, I think it’s important we startgetting along seeing as how we’re going to be on the same relay team.” A wide grin spread across Juniper’s face. “Coach told me tonight. I earned my spot back. It works out since Kate never really liked running it anyway.”

It was strange how a feeling of pride filled Sierra on Juniper’s behalf even though they weren’t really friends. At least, not before tonight, but Sierra was getting ahead of herself if she thought this actually meant Juniper didn’t hate her anymore, especially given the latest circumstances. “So, is that why you’re suddenly being nice to me? You don’t hate me, because I’m no longer the girl who stole your spot on the relay?”

“Nah. I was planning on coming here before Coach even talked to me. Here’s the thing. My best friend clearly— well, let’s just say, if you’re good enough for my best friend, you must be pretty great.”

“Wow. Thank you.” Now, Sierra had to try even harder not to cry. She blinked to keep the tears back.

Juniper put up her hand. “No time to get emotional. We have to figure out how to get your girl back.”

Sierra grinned from ear to ear. Better words had never been spoken. “Let’s do it.”

Chapter 37

Ellie

Ellie couldn’t believe almost another whole week had passed since things blew up between her and Sierra. Tomorrow she would be forced to get through yet another track meet without Sierra (the third one since the breakup, not that she was counting).

She walked to her room after showering from practice and put on sweats. Even though it was still early, her plan was to lie down and try to go to sleep. She had just laid down and shut her eyes when there was a knock on the door. At first, she ignored it in the hopes that Juniper would think she was already asleep, but when the knocking didn’t stop, she had no choice but to answer.

“Sorry, June. Going to sleep early tonight.”

When Juniper didn’t say anything in return, Ellie assumed she had left, but a few seconds later, her bedroom door opened.I really need to start locking that.

Juniper clapped her hands together. “I can’t let you do that. We have work to do. Did you eat yet?”

Ellie shook her head. “I'm really not that hungry.”

“Perfect. We need to go to the track.”

“The track?”What the hell is she talking about?“Why?”

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