Would it take off skin?
“Hey.”
I feel the touch coming for my chin before he even makes contact with the rough pad of his finger, the tingling that precedes it like a static charge just waiting to shock me.
It makes me flinch the tiniest bit. Small enough that I’m not sure Tristen caught it when he pulls ever so slightly, turning my face toward him.
“Are you mad?”
“No,” I whisper even though I wanna say yes. And that shocks me more than his touch does.
What the fuck do I have to be mad about?
The spot on my chin where we connect burns.
“Emmett.”
My shoulders lift with my inhale.
“What?”
His lips thin. “I won’t.”
That look, the one that’s all scrunched brows and darkened eyes stares back at me, and my stomach twists up.
“O-okay.”
A long, loaded beat passes before he finally tips his chin in a nod and releases me. “Finish up. We can go back to the track after this.”
“But don’t you have to work tonight?”
His nod is stiff as he shovels another bite between his lips.
He doesn’t say another word after that. Not even as he finishes his meal and passed money to Blu, who returns it with a to-go bag.
“You’re being weird,” I say as we load into the truck, Betsy he calls it, and he turns over the engine.
“Sorry,” he mutters back distracted and gets us onto the street.
I stare at his profile the whole way back to the track, waiting for him to respond with something or make a quip like normal.
It makes me jittery that he doesn’t.
It’s not until we finally park in the normal spot, the lot filled with more cars and bikes than I’m used to, when he finally turns to me.
“You ready for a few more laps?”
I tilt my head and tighten my grip on my sleeves.
“Yeah. Okay.”
I’m not sure what else to say. Or do.
So instead, I hope like hell the rumble of engines and the smell of fuel knock him out of whatever funk he’s suddenly dipped into, and hop out of the truck.
Chapter 34
Tristen
