After he left, she got up and wandered down to the railing, where she could better see into the pit lanes, where cars lined up two-by-two to enter the burnout boxes. She smiled to herself, pleased that she’d picked up that much specificity. Maybe she could convince Josh to come back on Wednesday. Or maybe he knew about other races she might find interesting.
Spending more time with Hot Mechanic would definitely be educational.
By the time she caught sight of his car, she was nervous. She didn’t know why. It was a recreational race. Nothing was really at stake here. But she’d seen how involved he’d gotten just watching other people.
Something told her he didn’t need external stakes. Simply showing up and doing the thing, entertaining everyone and driving his car well, was what really mattered to him.
She was torn between wanting to record him, and wanting to watch. She settled for filming him on her phone, but not watching the screen. He might want to watch it afterwards, if it went well.
As he drove into the burnout area, she held her breath. He rolled forward, stopped, then his whole car rocked as the back tires started to spin—and the front tires did nothing. Smoke and steam swirled around the back end, then engulfed his car for a few seconds before he shot forward, emerging from the cloud like an avenging dark knight.
She didn’t know the type of car he was racing. She couldn’t bet against him, though, even if the other car was good, so her only thought wasGo Josh Go, haul ass, you beautiful man!
The lights blinked, beep beep beep, and then it was green and he was gone, a rocket off the line. His whole car leapt forward like a panther on the chase, and she squealed and bounced and shouted things that probably made the video she was recording sound terrible, but she didn’t care.
For ten glorious seconds, his roaring car was all she could see, until the track lights and maybe some tears in her eyes obscured the view of him fishtailing into the curve, and then he was gone.
* * *
Josh gotin line to race again. He didn’t see the Mustang he’d been eyeing up earlier, but his second race was a good head-to-head against a gorgeous Barracuda. The guy couldn’t beat him off the line, but it was still neck and neck all the way to the end of the track, just the way Josh liked it.
By the time he made it back to the now slightly less full parking lot, Monica was there, waving him down.
He pulled into a spot and parked.
She did a double-take at his helmet and racing jacket when he stepped out.
“Safety first,” he said after pulling the helmet off.
“That was incredible,” she breathed. “Both races. Well done.”
He grinned. “You liked that?”
“So much.” She twirled in an excited circle. “And now I owe you dinner.”
“You really don’t need to—”
She caught his forearm, stopping him from waving her off. “I want to. I want to know everything about what got you into this.”
He raised his brow. “Is that genuine curiosity I hear?”
“You know it.”
“All right.” He stalked to the back of his car and popped the trunk. He stashed his helmet and jacket, then peeled off his damp t-shirt. It was only after he pulled out a clean shirt from his duffle bag that he felt her gaze on his body.
Slowly, he straightened up and tugged the new shirt over his head. Did he flex a little? Sure. He wanted her to enjoy the hard planes of his back and shoulders. He wanted to enjoy the fleeting attention of a woman who would otherwise never give him a second glance.
He’d impressed her tonight.
That felt amazing.
“Can’t take me anywhere too fancy,” he said teasingly as he turned around.
Except she was looking at him like she thought he was wrong about that. Like she could take him anywhere she wanted.
He’d told her she couldn’t tell her father about what they did tonight.
She’d insisted he forget she was related to his boss.
