She has an amazing poker face.
There isn’t a single slight of refusal on her soft features.
Instead, she smiles and bats her eyelashes. “Sure, Dad.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. Get to know each other while you’re at it.” He shifts to me. “After all, you’ll be working closely together.”
My eyebrows crowd.
Why does that seem more implied than before?
The moment Tessa and I are alone, the air in the hallway heats. She’s in front of me before I have a chance to blink, and just like a few days ago, her warm fingers clamp onto my arm, and I’m being dragged behind her like a lost puppy.
“Where’re we going?” I ask, humor lifting my words.
She throws a glare over her shoulder. “Shut up.”
We push through a door, and it shuts sharply behind us.
Once the light is on, I realize we’re in one of the sponsor suites. We have them at our headquarters too.
Had.
I’m no longer a part of Pierce Racing, so everything from this point forward is in the past, a memory–or nightmare. One or the other.
Tessa lets go of me, grabs a remote from the center table, and points it at the glass-lined wall.
My mouth curves, and as if she can sense it, she snaps her eyes over to mine. Just the mere anger in the warm brown sends me through the roof.
“Privacy glass?” I tease. “What exactly are we doing in here, Tess?”
Her lips draw back in a snarl. “I told you that only friends and family call me that, and you’re neither.”
I casually place my hands into my pockets. “Sorry. With the privacy glass, I thought maybe we were about to become more than friends.”
She shakes her head with irritation, and just like before, excitement zips down my spine.
Why is it so fun to pick on her?
Back before our fathers ended on shitty terms, I was the one who used to stick up for Tessa. Beck and Noah would chase her in the paddock and torment her, and I’d be there to smooth things over. But now, just after two instances, I’m the one doing the picking, and for some reason, her little scoffs and eyerolls feed me like I’m a starving man.
“What’s your plan?” she asks tightly.
My plan is to get back at my cold-hearted father. But, of course, I can’t say that to her. Not after dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s.
Vince was adamant his children remain unaware of what’s really happening at my father’s company for legal protection, which is exactly something a father should do–protect his family.
My father must’ve missed that in the parenting classes he never attended.
“Well?”
I drag my gaze from the shiny floor to Tessa again. With her hip popped and arms across her chest, she looks like a little spitfire, and if I’m being completely honest, the only thing it does is egg me on.
She watches me closely while I stride across the floor over to the leather couch. I sit down slowly with my legs stretched out in front of me. One of her gracefully arched eyebrows rises when I lift my hands and place them behind my head.
“My plan is to win,” I say.
She snorts, and the gloss on her lips catches the shine from above. “Couldn’t beat us fair and square, so you thought you might as well join us?”
