“You are not,” Ryder laughs. “You just tend to drive really fucking fast.”
She grins at that. “I love it.”
Their joking is pulling some of the tension from my shoulders. They have enough to worry about besides teaching me how to fucking drive.
I kiss her lips softly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she replies, wrapping her arms around my waist and hugging me tightly.
God, I love this girl. Every time I see her, it bubbles up, ready to spill out, but I don’t have the courage to tell her.
She pulls back with a smile. “Go on.”
“Now?” I say, furrowing my brows. “You don’t have to do this.”
“No,” Ryder agrees, “I want to. We’re already set with Viktor. Everything else can wait.”
I look at Les again. “You aren’t going?”
She pulls my ear down to her mouth. “Take this time with Ryder,” she whispers.
I have been alone with Ryder thousands of times. Why the hell am I so nervous now?
“These cars have sensitive gas pedals,”Ryder explains. “Just go easy on it.”
He drove us to one of Les’ many worksites around the city. It’s now abandoned, just an empty parking lot and a trailer sitting at the end that would be used as an office. Before too long, it’ll be a huge hotel. It has been sitting empty for a while due to other projects getting pushed ahead of it.
I take a deep breath and shift the car into drive. I barely lay my foot on the gas, making it lurch forward. I slam on the brake, causing Ryder to catch himself on the dash.
“Just a little lighter,” he says calmly.
“I can’t do this,” I say for the twentieth time.
“Yes, you can,” Ryder says in that same calm voice he’s been using. “You’re just learning, Holden. All of us sucked the first time we tried.”
I snort. “I find that hard to believe.” Any of them could jump into any car and easily drive it. I can’t even drive this one.
“I almost took out a building,” Ryder says with a laugh. “Les almost flipped the car. It took mine and Les’ dads four months to teach Gage how to drive.”
“What? No way,” I say with a laugh.
“I think I shaved ten years off Dad’s life.”
“But you’re the best driver.” He really is. He could handle any car to get them out of any situation.
“That’s because I practiced,” Ryder says, turning to me. “Which is what you will do. Now go.”
I steel myself and switch my foot from the brake to the gas, thanking my lucky stars they didn’t put me in something that I had to fucking switch gears. The car lurches again, but not as bad, so I hold pressure on the pedal.
“See,” Ryder comments, leaning back in his seat. “Take us around the lot.”
I slowly take us around the lot, getting the feel of the car. Everything is sensitive about it, the steering, the gas, and the brake. Ryder has me start and stop several times until I can pull out smoothly. Feeling my confidence build, I start going a little faster.
Ryder is relaxed the whole time, letting me take as long as I need to drive him in circles, calmly offering advice. He has me park in an actual spot, drive in reverse, and parallel park. I start relaxing in the seat and finally appreciate that I’m driving my dream car, from my dream girl, with my dream guy sitting beside me. I don’t know what the hell I did to get so lucky, but I’m never going to question it.
“Pull up in front of the trailer,” Ryder says, pointing at the far end of the parking lot. I smoothly pull in front of it, putting the car into park. “There you go,” he praises.
Now that we aren’t moving, my sole focus is on him, and I’m nervous again. Hyper-aware of everything about him. The way hisjeans stretch across his thighs, his hand braced on the side of my seat, his other hand laying casually on his leg, and his smell. He shifts in the seat, and my heart starts beating double time.
