“Take a breath.”
I rolled my eyes and tucked my shirt in. “Yeah, that isn’t going to help, Brooks.”
Breathe.
Ha. He was nuts.
I eyed him wearily. “I should have went back to my trailer last night.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t. Not much you can do about it now.” He ran his fingers through his hair, and I couldn’t help but admire how he looked having just rolled out of bed. Or, off the couch. His normally clean shaven face was dusted with scruff, and his hair begged for me to thread my fingers through it.
I needed to get out of here before I did something else I shouldn’t do. I had already paddled my way up shit creek and didn’t need to set up and camp and stay there. “I have to go.” I moved to the door, and Brooks called my name. “What?” I hissed.
“Thank you for staying with me last night.”
I looked over my shoulder at him, and all of the stabby rage I had been feeling dissipated. There was so much in the way he was looking at me. His eyes were soft, his body was relaxed, and I could tell he really did need me to stay with him last night. There was so much going on with Brooks that I didn’t know, and I needed to know what it was. “You’re welcome. I’m sorry I’m such a bitch.” That was an apology I had never made before. Most people expected my bitchy attitude and just accepted it. Brooks made me want to reel it in and try to be less of a bitch.
“You’re not a bitch, doll.”
“Then what am I?” I whispered.
“Misunderstood.”
I shook my head and laughed. “That’s a creative was to say bitchy.” I pushed open the door to the trailer and stepped out into the early morning light. “Later, Brooks.” I shut the door, and looked around to make sure no one was around.
Thankfully, I didn’t spot anyone and made my dash to the pits. I racked my brain trying to figure out what I could tell the guys about me being late, but my mind came up blank.
“Jensen, where the hell have you been?” Roc stood by the front of the car with his arms folded over his chest and a scowl on his face.
“Uh, I had some problems.”
“Problems?” he thundered.
This was going as well as I had expected. “Yeah, you know, girlie problems.” I couldn’t believe that I had just said the words girlie problems.
Roc cringed and took a step back. “I do not want to hear another word out of your mouth.” He pointed to the guys working on the car. “Make sure this car is ready to win, and I’ll never bring up the fact you just said girlie problems.” He stalked to the hauler without a backward glance.
“Dude,” Remy called. “Where the hell were you last night? We were all thinking you took off again.”
“Yeah,” Jay agreed. “Though we didn’t hear about you trying to kill Brooks again so we really weren’t sure if you had quit or been abducted by aliens.”
“Uh, I just needed the night to myself. No big deal.” I walked over to my toolbox and pulled out a drawer. If I looked like I was trying to work, maybe they wouldn’t ask any more questions.
“Where the hell did you sleep?” Jay asked. I should ask him the same question every morning he would walk through the door wearing the same clothes from the night before.
“Yeah, you just had off for like three weeks. You had all that time to yourself then,” Remy chimed in.
Argh. I hated that these two weren’t getting the hint that I didn’t want to talk. “Just at the hotel in town.”
“How did you get there?” Jay added. That was it. Jay better prepare for the grilling I was going to give him the next time he didn’t sleep in his bed.
I slammed the drawer shut and turned to look at them. “Are you two my father’s now? Do I have to check in with you guys when I want to do something? I mean damn, guys. I needed some time to myself, and I forgot to set an alarm last night before I fell asleep. End of story.”
“Morning.”
I spun around and came face to face with Brooks. How in the hell did he manage to shower, get dressed, and look so damn sexy in less than fifteen minutes?
“Morning, Bossman. You ready to win the Sundown Nationals today?” Thank God for Jay never being able to keep his mouth shut.
“Uh, I think we’re in the best position possible to do that. It’s up to me right now to not be asleep at the line,” Brooks drawled.
Jay clapped him on the shoulder. “Like that is going to happen. You have the best reaction time out of all of those guys. I mean, your name should be Brooks ‘Holeshot’ Cummings.”
Brooks laughed nervously. “Yeah, not sure that was true last week, was it?”
Jay pointed at me. “Yeah, but now we have Frank back. We got this shit in the bag. We should just tell McDougal he doesn’t even need to show up today.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I mumbled. I preferred to not be so cocky and go into the races thinking everyone had a chance to win. Maybe we had a little better chance to win, but I wasn’t cocky like Jay.
“I’m sure the car is running great, Frankie.” Brooks threw a wink at me, and I felt my cheeks heat under his gaze.
I noticed Remy tilted his head to the side as he looked at me, and I spun away from the three of them back to my toolbox. “Let’s hope so. I better go over everything one more time before the first pass.” I grabbed a couple of tools, not really noticing what I took, and walked over to the car.
Jay and Remy talked to Brooks for a couple of minutes before they made their way over to me.
“Uh, how's it going?” Remy asked.
I looked up from the engine. “Just fine.”
“So, what are you doing with a wire cutter?” Jay snatched the red handled wire cutter I had grabbed absently. “You really think using these are going to help the car?”
I snatched them out of his hand and tucked them into my back pocket. “You never know when you’ll need a wire cutter.” That was the lamest thing I had ever said. I’ll just add that to the girlie problems from before.
“As long as you don’t use them today,” Jay mumbled. He leaned against the rear wheel of the car and crossed his arms over his chest.
Remy stood next to me and watched me work. “It was nice to see Brooks before staging.”
I glanced over at him. “Is there a point to what you just said?” He was on to me. I knew by the way he looked at me when I blushed that Remy knew something.
He shrugged and looked off in the distance. “Just saying it’s nice to see him when you normally wouldn’t see him. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I wouldn’t agree, Remy, because I don’t care about Brooks.”
“Interesting,” he muttered.
“Am I missing something here?” Jay asked.
He always was the last one to catch on. Some of that needed to wear off on Remy. He was much too intuitive to whatever was going on with Brooks and me. Though, to be fair, I didn’t even know what was going on with Brooks so he couldn’t be figuring things out that easily. “Yeah, you’re standing there doing nothing while I’m working.”
“Careful there, Jay. She’s liable to chuck a wrench at you,” Ronald, the clutch guy, called from the other side of the car.