Page 22 of An Uncertain Road

“It isn’t like you to not have a plan. I always thought you had everything figured out.”

Across the lawn, Jensen again caught a glimpse of Flora and Sam, still with their arms linked, walking toward the hotel. A fist constricted around his heart. “That’s a child’s perspective talking. You’re a man now. I’m sure you’re beginning to understand that it’s not worth trying to decide your entire life all at once. The plans we make rarely work out the way we hope.”

To Jensen’s horror, Fred’s eyes followed his gaze, and he turned back to Jensen with the most knowing expression. “Flora and Sam make a nice pair.”

“No, they don’t.” Jensen tossed the cloth back onto the seat of the car and stalked away. He was sure he heard Fred chuckling as he retreated, but he refused to look back and find out. Fred could think what he wanted about Jensen’s relationship with Flora. Not that there was a relationship to speak of. As soon as this trip was over, he was going to figure out how to make his life as stable and quiet as possible. Flora could go take whatever reckless chances she wanted with hers. If Sam was one of those choices, so be it.

Getting as far as he could from Fred meant Jensen ended up at the front of the line of cars, where the day’s leader was parked, ready to start the next morning with the first group. He let himself blend into the edge of a group still surrounding the second-place car, but he didn’t bother listening to the stories the driver was going on about. They were all too far-fetched for any thinking person to believe, anyway.

An all-too-familiar voice nearby drew his mind away from Flora’s present companion. “Hello, Jensen. It’s been quite some time since I saw you around race cars.”

So much for a few moments to think without anyone talking to him. And of all people, Archie Franklin. He stood at Jensen’s left side, hands in his pockets, looking supremely relaxed. The exact opposite of Jensen’s reaction to seeing his old racing competitor. “Hello, Archie. Nice run today. I ought to be going now.”

“Oh, stay a minute, Jensen.” He started to turn away, but something in Archie’s voice held him back. “I have something to say.”

Stopping in his tracks, Jensen turned without a word, bracing himself for whatever Archie had up his sleeve. “I never got to tell you how sorry I was about Gregory. It always seemed like a bad time to bring it up.”

“It always was a bad time. You’re the last person I’d accept condolences from.”

Archie’s face was smooth and unbothered, not filled with the remorse Jensen would have liked to see. “Now, you talk as if I had some part in what happened. It was a race. Things happen in races. We all knew it then, and we all know it now.”

It was difficult, but Jensen managed to keep his fist from driving straight into Archie’s nose. “You pushed him. You kept goading him until he made a mistake. That mistake cost him his life, Archie. Don’t tell me it’s just something that happens.”

Archie’s expression filled with a strong emotion Jensen was familiar with seeing on his face—deviousness. “I’m not the one who let him get in the car. Encouraged him to, I’d even say. That was all you, my friend. You’re the one who told him to race me and then backed out at the last minute, leaving him without anyone to look out for him while he was driving. All I did was drive my best. And that was better than his best.”

Jensen took a step forward. He didn’t have the self-control to keep his hands off Archie now, but a young couple strolling past paused, obviously seeing that the situation was about to explode. Jensen’s rage cooled enough for him to step back. He couldn’t let his temper get the better of him again, especially not with so many people watching. He leaned back on his heels and let his hands clench and unclench several times, hoping to release his tension through them. “I’m not talking about this with you.”

But Archie wasn’t done. “Does your dear employer know what part you had to play in the crash that killed his son?”

Jensen’s heart froze solid. He could tell from Archie’s pleased look that the answer was written all over Jensen’s face. Still, he had to try to cover his blunder. “What does it matter? Encouraging him to race you wasn’t wrong.”

Over the last five years, he’d told himself that time and again. Every time he looked at Mr. Harrison’s grief-ravaged face or wondered if Mrs. Harrison’s mental decline would have been slower if she hadn’t lost her son, he repeated the same words in his mind. He should have confessed his part in the accident when it happened. Back then, they might have understood, might not have been upset over his cowardice.

But he’d hidden the fact that he’d been the one to convince Gregory to race Archie. Jensen had been more bothered by Archie’s lies and taunts than Gregory, but Gregory was the one who lost his life over them. Jensen should have been in the car to watch for the dirty tricks Archie was famous for using in races at the time, but he’d changed his mind at the starting line. By then, Gregory refused to back out, and in the heat of an argument, Jensen had jumped out of the car mere moments before his friend drove off to his death.

Now, face-to-face with Archie once again, Jensen still didn’t have the self-control to ignore the taunts. And he couldn’t let his weakness hurt anyone else.

Archie watched him steadily, as if he could read every thought running through Jensen’s mind. “I see you never mentioned that detail to Gregory’s family. It would be a shame if they were to find out now, years later. It would open those painful wounds all over again.”

How could he respond to that? He’d never been able to convince himself his part in the accident was unimportant. If it was as inconsequential as he’d tried to believe over the years, he would have explained it to them earlier. The truth was, he hadn’t wanted his surrogate family to know what part he’d played in their tragedy. He longed for them to see him as a son, as much as Fred was and Gregory had been. But if they found out his secret, they would blame him, spurn him, perhaps even cut him from their lives. For five years, he’d done nothing but work to support the Harrison family. With one small revelation, he could lose everything he held dear.

Strolling a few steps closer to Jensen, Archie was the picture of absolute self-confidence. He knew he had something over Jensen. It remained to be seen what he was going to do with it. “Knowing what we both know now, here’s what we’ll do. Your team will lose this race. You’re the mechanic for a female driver. She must rely on you to handle all the workings of the car that she doesn’t understand. You can find a way to compromise the car that she’ll never know about. Make a little something happen to knock off some points. Maybe then she’ll even decide to quit the race and you can go right back to your safe little office job. Whatever you choose, stay out of my way, or your secret will be revealed to the Harrison family as painfully as I can manage to make it.”

Jensen stood frozen, staring at Archie as the driver tipped his hat with a smirk, then wandered away whistling, looking quite pleased with his work. In a way, the demand wasn’t the most terrible plan Jensen had imagined from Archie. The option of returning to a quiet, safe life with Flora, Fred, and Beth securely out of the race sounded perfect.

But did he have it in him to betray Flora that way? Or Fred and Beth? Or Mr. Harrison? They’d put their trust in him to give his best for the team. Could he destroy their dreams on purpose to protect himself from the repercussions of his cowardice?

CHAPTER 11

The next morning, Flora waved at Sam, who walked past as she climbed into the Decauville and settled in for the second day of driving. The walk with him the night before had been just the relaxing activity she needed. He was funny and straightforward, the opposite of Jensen. The entire tour would be so much easier if she was more drawn to Sam than to her mechanic.

Hands freezing in the middle of straightening her black skirt, Flora realized that was a truth she’d been trying to deny to herself for weeks. She was drawn to Jensen in a way different from any other man, including Henri. That had been a hot flash of infatuation. This felt like a deeper, more intriguing interest in discovering who he was deep down. If only Jensen would be more open, show more of the charming side that snuck out on occasion. If they weren’t always at odds, she might be able to get somewhere in learning who Jensen was at his core.

As the man himself hopped into the car next to her, tendrils of awareness started creeping through Flora. And they were accompanied by an even more unpleasant truth—that maybe Jensen was standoffish with her because he wasn’t interested in the way she was. Maybe he had no intention of getting to know her, and therefore didn’t feel the need to open the deeper parts of his life to her.

As the morning went on, heavy clouds moved in overhead, matching the mood that overtook Flora. It was the kind of day she wished she could tuck her feet under her in a cozy chair and enjoy a book and a cup of the strong French coffee she’d come to enjoy in Paris. She’d been longing to read The Call of the Wild since Isabelle had raved about it the year before, but the motivation to read had eluded Flora since Henri’s death and the discovery of his failure to provide for his family.

Instead of a comfortable day indoors, she would have to endure a damp one sitting in very close quarters with a man who would prefer to be anywhere but at her side.