Page 48 of Speeding Hearts

She didn’t crash her car—she ran a good race. She was well behind the other drivers, but I felt a shot of pride at how she’d handled herself. Safe. Cautious. Skillfully, considering how little time she’d actually had behind the wheel. When the race was over, I tried to slip out before the drivers got out of their cars. I knew her car number, and I’d be able to hear the announcement well enough from the parking lot—there was a loudspeaker out there that would blast the race results out to anyone in a couple mile vicinity whether they wanted to hear it or not.

But on my way down the stairs, I ran into Betty, Colin’s wife.

“Dean!” She exclaimed, pulling me into a warm hug.

I hadn’t wanted to see anyone, but if there was one person I could stand to see here, it was her.

“Your mom told me you were back in town, but I never expected to see you here.” She frowned. “You’re not thinking of racing again, are you?”

Mom had told me a few years ago that Betty had taken a different view of my accident than Dad and Colin. She’d been convinced it was my dad’s fault for being such a hardliner, that Dad had driven me to rebelliousness. Maybe I should have appreciated her take on the situation, but I knew she’d been wrong. Dad and Colin both knew only I was to blame for what had happened.

“I’m not racing again,” I said. “Just checking out the track.”

“How is your mother, anyway? We haven’t chatted in a couple weeks.”

“At a scrapbooking convention this weekend,” I said. Mom had been jumping off the walls about it. “Big crowd here, huh?” I said now, needing to move the topic from Mom if I didn’t want to linger. “Things could be looking up for you guys?”

Betty had sided with Colin during the rift between him and Dad, but she had stepped away from operations at the track. In fact, I was surprised to see her here now.

But she nodded now, almost begrudgingly.

“Yes, well, Colin has this new protégé in the office. She’s actually a mechanic, but she’s been helping him out with some management stuff too.”

My stomach twisted. Stella, of course.

“Lord knows he needs it,” Betty carried on.

By the way her chin jutted, I could tell she still had a chip on her shoulder about everything. The track had gone downhill after she’d left the office.

Another thing that could be traced back to me.

She smiled now. “Anyway, it’s thanks to this new girl we have such a crowd here tonight! If she keeps it up, we—Colin—might just pack the stands again. Remember how many people we used to get in here?”

“I remember,” I said. My guts churned. Betty sounded so happy talking about the track, but it reminded me I was the reason she’d stepped away in the first place. Plus, Stella was at the heart of the improvements, and I couldn’t even congratulate her for it.

Betty must have seen something on my face, because she sucked in a breath and stuck her hands on her hips. “Wait a minute, Stella’s your friend, isn’t she? Colin mentioned something about her being here because of you! Well, don’t I feel silly.”

“You’re not silly, Betty. I know Stella, but I haven’t seen much of her in the past couple of weeks.”

“Oh,” she said, furrowing her brow. “Maybe you should? She’s a little cutie, you know. You two would make a—”

I cut her off with a sharp look. “Betty,” I said. “You’re as bad as my mother.” I was surprised my mom hadn’t told Betty all about Stella and how she was staying in her new trailer.

Or how I’d come out of that trailer with my tail between my legs a couple of weeks ago… after the best goddamned half-sex of my life.

I grimaced. Now here I was, standing here in the stairwell and thinking about Stella’s naked body while I was chatting to my aunt.

Uncle Colin’s voice droned out over the loudspeaker, but I was so distracted, I didn’t think to concentrate on what he was saying.

“Well, I just think you would make a girl so happy,” Betty was saying. “A fine young man such as yourself. We were worried about you for a while there after the—” she waved her hand vaguely at the track. Yes, everyone knew how badly I’d fucked up here all those years ago. And how I’d lost myself for several years afterward.

“I’m good now, Betty,” I said. “But I’m not interested in getting match-made, please.” I gave her a winning smile which I hoped would release me from this painful conversation.

She gave a little sigh but acquiesced, going on for a bit about her kids and how they’d found such pleasure in their recent weddings and pregnancies…

I thought back to what Dad had said, before we’d gotten into it. How I should meet some more women. Have fun. I wasn’t going to go anywhere near marriages and babies, but maybe he was onto something. Maybe hooking up was what I needed. I wasn’t feeling it, but I knew I couldn’t trust my feelings.

“I gotta run, Betty,” I said. I gave my aunt a squeeze as voices began to carry from higher up the stairwell. The crowd was leaving, and with my continued luck tonight, I’d probably run into Victoria. I’d seen her cheering in the front row of the stands and had sat as far away as possible. The hat I’d been inspired to pull out of my glovebox earlier came in handy as I’d pulled it down low over my face. I pulled it low again now and carried on down the stairs.

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