I grabbed her arm again and pulled her to my chest. “I told you I didn’t want you to leave.”
She licked her lips and tilted her head back to look at me. “I’m not sure why. What’s so wrong that me staying is going to make it better?”
“When you’re around I don’t think about my mom, my dad, or anything. Everything just seems to fade away.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
It sure as fuck didn’t, but it was what I felt. “I know.”
“You know? That’s the best you’ve got?” she laughed. “We’re both doomed. Neither of us know what the hell is going on.”
“I know I don’t want you to leave.” I wrapped my arm around her waist and splayed my hand on her lower back.
“Brooks,” she gasped.
“Do you want to leave?” I wasn’t going to make her stay if she didn’t want to. Maybe I had been reading her wrong. She hadn’t given me any blatant signs, but something was telling me I needed to be with Frankie.
“Well, uh, I…” She gulped and her eyes darted to the left. “I really don’t have anywhere else to be.”
“We really are quite a pair, aren’t we?”
She buried her face in my neck and laughed. “I really did come here to tell you to go to hell,” she muffled.
I had no doubt about that. “Trust me, doll. I am fully aware of what you are capable of.” I held her, neither of us talking.
She wrapped her arms around my waist and sighed. “This is weird.”
Leave it to Frankie to break the silence with her unfiltered mouth. “A good weird though, right?”
“The jury is still out on that,” she whispered.
She was scared.
The strong, confident woman I had grown to know and like was now unsure and less than confident. “Wanna watch a movie?”
She laughed and relaxed into my arms. “I am so glad you suggested that because I don’t know how much longer I can stand here without either laughing or calling you a dick.”
“Hey,” I protested. “I haven’t even done anything dickish yet.”
“Yet,” she drawled. “The night is still young.” She pulled out of my arms and looked up at me. “Whatever the hell just happened has the possibility of completely fucking everything up.”
I brushed her hair from her face and caressed her cheek. “That may be, but it also has the potential to be fucking amazing.”
*
Chapter Eighteen
Frankie
Daylight streamed through the window, and I groaned.
Mornings sucked.
I burrowed into my warm cocoon and felt two arms wrap around me. My eyes flew open, and I was face to face with the Cummings Racing logo sprawled across someone's chest.
“Morning, doll.”
Brooks’ chest.
Holy hell.
What have I done?
I just spent the night with my boss.
I was so fucked. Well, at least not literally fucked.
I closed my eyes and prayed to God I was just dreaming. This was not good. Not good at all. How I had gone from coming to Brooks’ trailer to bitch at him to winding up waking up in his arms? “Uh, morning?”
“You know, I now remember why I don’t sleep on this couch.” Brooks rolled his shoulder and groaned. “This thing is like sleeping on cement.”
Why was he acting like this was normal? “Uh, it’s not that bad.”
“That’s because you slept on me for most of the night.”
I rolled partially onto my back and scowled. “I did not.”
“Oh really? You sure as shit did, doll.”
“Is that how you’re going to talk to me when my knee is so close to your dick?”
He put a hand on my knee and laughed. “Try me,” he taunted. “It was a good thing you didn’t snore like a freight train because I would have rolled your ass off of me in a heartbeat.”
“Do you always wake up being a dick?”
“I’d have to say that’s a new record. I don’t think I’ve ever been called a dick this early in the morning.”
I smiled wide. “Glad to be of service.”
“Anyone ever tell you you’re cute in the morning?”
My mouth went dry, and every sarcastic response I had died in my throat.
A loud pounding sounded on the trailer door, and I shot up from Brooks’ arms and landed on my ass on the floor.
“Brooks! Wake your ass up,” a loud male voice hollered. The door to the trailer opened, and I managed to crawl under the table next to the couch out of view of whoever had just opened the door. “You got press in twenty minutes.”
I couldn’t see Brooks’ body, but I saw his sock-clad feet hit the floor. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, Blain. I just need to hit the shower and change.”
“Why the hell are you sleeping up here and not in the bed in back?” Thankfully whoever Blain was stayed outside of the trailer.
“Uh,” Brooks mumbled. “I must have fell asleep watching a movie last night.”
“Your back is going to be all fucked up today. Probably not the best move to sleep there when you have a shit-ton riding on this race.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, Blain.” Brooks stood up and moved in front of me. “I’ll meet you at the press box.”
“Hurry up.”
The door shut, and I sighed.
Brooks bent over, and his face appeared in front of me. “I’ve never seen someone move that fast to get away from me before.”
I rolled my eyes and shooed my hand at him to move out of my way. “I don’t need anyone seeing me here.” I crawled out from under the table and stood up. “Especially this early in the morning.”
Brooks glanced behind me. “It’s really not that early. It’s half-past seven.”
“What?” I screeched. I was so screwed. Roc had told everyone we needed to report to the pits by seven. “I need to get the hell out of here.” My eyes darted around the trailer trying to find my shoes.
“Relax, Frankie.”
I spotted my shoes by the front door and pounced on them. “Says the man who isn’t half an hour late to work and having to think of some excuse of where I was last night,” I grunted as I hopped from one foot to the other and pulled my shoes on. I worked the hair tie off of my wrist and pulled my hair up. Thank God I had come to Brooks trailer last night in my uniform so I at least didn’t need to make a trip to the sleeping quarters of the hauler before trying to sneak into the pits.
“If anyone gives you crap for being late, let me know.”
I scoffed and shook my head. That wasn’t going to happen. “I can take care of myself.”
“Frankie.”
I dropped my arms to my sides. “What?” I replied absently. My mind was racing trying to figure out what I was going to do. Remy and Jay were going to know that I didn’t sleep in my normal spot in the hauler. What could I say that wasn’t going to bring a shit-ton of questions?
“Frankie,” Brooks repeated.
My eyes snapped to his, and I frowned. “What do you want?” The man had already caused enough problems for me by asking me to stay last night when I really should have left. Now his tone was pissing me off, and all I wanted to do was knee him in the nuts.