Although he’s answering Leslie’s question, he only looks directly at me. I deliberately don’t meet his gaze. With him looking at me like that, it makes me squirm a little in my beach chair. The fact that he’s already shirtless doesn’t help. I’ve never realized how toned he is.
I hope he doesn’t notice my discomfort, but from the small smirk on his face, that I can see from my peripheral vision—he notices.
“A magician never reveals his secrets,” he says, his tone filled with obvious flirtation that I gladly ignore and don’t reciprocate. “And you missed a spot on your back applying your sunscreen. I could always get that for you.”
I roll my eyes at his dumb comment. I can’tbelievethat he followed us here, just to annoy me. What does a girl have to do to get a moment of peace around here?
“Just pretend he’s not here,” I tell Leslie. She raises her eyebrows at me. “Don’t say anything.” I aggressively point a finger at her.
She raises her hands in defense. “Hey, I didn’t say shit.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Dixon is setting up a chair, opening a cooler, and pulling out a beer. Fuck, he’s getting comfortable. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to take sharing a space with him. It’s bad enough to have to see and race with him every weekend during the season. We wantedsome alone girl time, away from the testosterone filled garage area.
As I’m plotting our escape, someone else starts setting up a chair next to him. Great, he brought a friend. If it was bad before, it’s about to get worse. Much worse. Ian Hicks just sat in the empty chair next to Dixon.
As much as I hate Dixon, Hicks is right after him on my shit list. He’s the type to think his shit doesn’t stink because he comes from a wealthy family. That just because he can buy whatever, or whomever he wants, he can take whatever he wants, too.
He’s not even that good of a driver, for god’s sake. Mommy and Daddy just fund the team.He’sthe one who should be getting questions about using his family to get to the top, not me.
But I digress.
Sexism in this sport is still alive and well, unfortunately.
After a few minutes, Hicks decides it’s his turn to ruin our peaceful evening. His light brown hair shines in the sun, perfectly coiffed. Unlike Dixon, whose dark hair hangs closer to his shoulders and is nothing like that rich boy look that Hicks has.
“Ladies, I see you are enjoying your time out of uniform,” Hicks calls. He scans both of our bodies, and it makes my stomach churn. But I refuse to show that his gaze makes me uncomfortable.
“Brady, why don’t we get some ice cream on the boardwalk? My treat,” Hicks says, gesturing toward the boardwalk by tilting his chin up. I don’t know why he would think I’d agree to spend any time alone with him. He must have hit his head when he crashed out of the race in New Hampshire last week.
“As great as that sounds,” I say in the most condescending tone I can muster, “I would rather stick hot pokers in my eyesthan go anywhere with you.” The statement makes Leslie chuckle beside me.
“Come on, Brady. Don’t be like that. You won’t give me a chance?” he asks, dropping his voice lower. Hicks is not only known for being a rich asshole, but for hitting on anything that moves and has a vagina.
“Not in your life, Hicks,” I say, sounding firm. I stand and turn to Leslie. “Come on, looks like we won’t be able to relax here.”
We pack up everything we brought, leaving behind the beach and a fuming Hicks. I can feel his glare on my back as we stride away through the sand.
Dean
Brady and Leslie walk away, leaving Ian snarling in the sand. I don’t know why he would even bother approaching Brady like that.
I’ve never seen her at the track with someone other than her dad or friends. Maybe she just doesn’t bring who she’s seeing to the tracks with her. Why wouldn’t she bring someone she was dating? Not that I think about such things. I’m surprised that guys aren’t swarming her at every track we go to.
If she’s their type, I guess.
I wonder what her type is. Someone to help her with applying sunscreen. Running their hands up and down her body to be sure it’s protected from the sun’s rays. Not that I’d want that to be me, though that one bead of sweat that dripped between her breasts in that bikini top was tempting me to lick it right off her.
Woah, that’s not a thought I’d imagine having about Regan Brady. Though I did notice how she took me in, too.She liked what she saw. Too bad our rivalry will never make it possible for us to be anything but that. We’ve been fighting for way too long for that to change.
Hicks sits back down in one of the chairs that we set up next to Brady and Leslie to annoy them, and he grabs a beer from the cooler between us.
“Brady didn’t take you up on your offer?” I ask sarcastically.
“What’s her deal? I was polite and everything,” he exclaims, cracking open the beer can.
“Why’re you surprised? Brady doesn’t date.”
He turns to me, brows knitting together in confusion. “And how would you know that? Unless you’ve tried to shoot your shot, too,” he says smugly.
