Ridin' Dirty (Beautifully Dirty #2)

by Paige Steele

  Maddie gives Cooper his trophy, he hugs her tightly, and I can feel a pull in my heart. It hurts; I want it to be me, and the water in my eyes reflects that. I look away, until Jesse walks over to get up on the first place box next to me. He gives me a small hug.

  “Congratulations, Jesse.” I try to sound happy for him.

  “Thanks and don’t worry about him,” he whispers in my ear.

  I pull back, smile at him, and move away so he can do the TV interview next. Shortly after all the interviews are done, we all pose with the guys for photos. Flashes are going off everywhere, between the fans, the magazine reporters, and the local newspapers.

  I walk off the podium with the girls and we head back to the pits, as there will be another round of people coming through before they head out for the night. They are with the companies that had passes for the day to check out Hyped Energy. Just as expected, there are about a hundred people that come back to the tent, as well as a few other stragglers that walk through for the last minute autographs and pictures.

  A guy walks over with a couple of his friends; I can tell he’s a bit intoxicated but asks for a picture with me, so I walk over and stand next to him.

  “Hey, buddy, my eyes are here,” I say, pointing to my face, as his eyes won’t get off my chest. For that matter, his hands are a little too grabby for my liking, too. I try to move away and he tightens his hold.

  “Knock it off, jackass, before I have someone come over and take care of you.” I push against him one more time. If he doesn’t let go, I’ll be yelling for one of the security guards stationed under our tent. Just as I am about to, I feel him let go, and I do a double take, because the next thing I know, I see Cooper’s fist connect with the guy’s nose and him on the ground. “Hey, fuckhead, I’m pretty sure I could tell from all the way over there that the lady said to let go.” He turns to me and asks if I’m okay. I nod my head yes and thank him. Even though he’s pissed me off, he is still there for me when I need him. I go to give him a hug and he starts to walk off. I stand there knowing Cooper is going to be in trouble for this. He’ll either be fined or banned from a race or worse, it could be both. Oh, this isn’t good.

  Security escorts the asshole and his friends off of the property. And now, our tent is being taken down, the girls and I go grab our bags, so we can head back to the hotel.

  Walking into our hotel suite, I get a text from Ryan.

  Ryan—You ok?

  Me—I am.

  Ryan—You sure?

  Me—Yes, how are you?

  Ryan—Fine, Cooper needs to get his shit together. He’s going to get fined for this, I’m sure.

  Me—That’s what I thought too.

  Ryan—But I’m going to see what I can do about it, since I saw what happened. I’m going to let the AMA know that security didn’t step in so that caused Cooper to do it.

  Me—Thanks, Ry . . . you’re a great guy and good friend.

  Ryan—You know I would have taken care of that guy for you, too?

  Me—I know you would have and it’s fine, I was just about to get security when Coop came over.

  Ryan—I love ya, girl, get some sleep. I’ll come over this week to say hello.

  Me—K, sounds good. Love you too, Ry.

  I crawl into my bed after washing off my make-up and brushing out my hair, throwing the sides back in a clip. I want to talk to Coop, get one of his hugs, and figure this whole thing out. I send a quick message to Coop thanking him, then I roll over and snuggle against my pillow. I realize just how much I miss him when a tear rolls down my cheek. Shutting my eyes, I fall asleep sad.

  Cooper

  WHAT THE HELL DID I just do? I sit in the truck, trying to calm down as I watch out the window. Ansley and the girls walk off with the security that is assigned to them for these events. I drop my head into my hands as the team manager walks in. He starts explaining that the asswipe went and reported me to one of the AMA officials, so they will investigate it and let me know what will become of it, if anything.

  I’m sure I’ll have to pay some sort of fine. If worse comes to worse, I’ll be banned from a race as well. I just can’t take it any longer; I sit here under my fucking tent, watching jackasses falling all over her the whole day, until my hands are fisted and I am ready to knock someone out. So, when I saw the last guy grabbing her and her trying to push him away, I snapped. Who could blame me? Seriously, I’ll do it again, if I see it happening.

  I finish changing and walk out of the truck. I just want to go to the hotel to sleep off the whole day, and then fly home tomorrow. It’s been a shitty weekend all together, from the return of the flowers, her message back to me, and now this. At least I had a decent day of racing. I help load up the rest of the tools and other shit that is still out, then we all head back to the hotel.

  Ansley—Coop, thanks for coming over and helping me. I’m sorry you got into trouble because of me.

  I debate whether or not to send anything back, but in the end I decide to.

  Me—Ansley, I will always be there when you need me and you clearly needed someone tonight. Glad I was there. Have a safe flight home.

  I shut off my phone; I don’t need to see if she responds to my message. I said what I needed to and that is it. We decide we want food, even though it’s almost one in the morning, so we swing into a McDonald’s and grab a burger. As we sit there, the guys ask me what the hell happened and why. After explaining it all to them and eating, it’s two in the morning and time to get some sleep. Our flights tomorrow are later in the day, thank goodness.

  Once I turn my phone back on the next day, I see that she didn’t respond to my text but I have one from Ryan, so I answer back.

  Ryan—Dude, what the fuck? Just so you know I talked to the AMA and told them what I saw, explaining to them that security didn’t step in. Hopefully that helps.

  Me—Thanks, Ryan, I have to wait and see what they decide to do, I should find out later this week.

  Ryan—Well, keep me posted.

  Me—I will. Do you know what is going on with Ansley? I sent her flowers to her room there and she returned them with a message about me not thinking of her.

  Ryan—Umm, did you do an interview last weekend?

  Me—Fuck, I forgot to talk with her about it!

  Ryan—Yeah, I’d say you fucked up alright. She’s pissed, Cooper.

  Me—Ryan, I only said what I did because I wanted to make sure she was ok with me telling the world about us.

  Ryan—Well, you better start groveling. Haha!

  Me—Thanks, Jackass.

  Ryan—No problem, anytime.

  Me—Catch ya later.

  Ryan—Yep.

  I need to regroup and get my head on straight. Fixing this with Ansley is important, and yet I still need to prove that I deserve to be on this team. It seems I’m fucking them both up.

  On Wednesday morning, I decide I’m just going to head over to Ansley’s to talk to her. I’m not going to call or text either, because I don’t want to give her a chance to tell me not to come. But once I get there, I’m struggling to focus on what I’m seeing. Ryan is walking out of her apartment at eight in the morning and she’s standing there in what looks to be her pajamas. He turns and she hugs him tightly, then he kisses her cheek and she hugs him again. Her arms are around him as I’m trying to figure this out in my head. It’s almost as if he stayed the night with her. No, that couldn’t be the case . . . could it? Screw this, I pull away without either of them seeing me.

  I can’t get the image out of my head so, I start busting my ass in the gym. I need to stay focused at what I want, and what I want is this job, riding for Yamaha. Jesse and I leave tomorrow for Atlanta, Georgia. We’ll be staying there for a week in a house that our team managers rented, as there are back-to-back races that we’ll be going to. Though this starts the East Coast series in Supercross, we don’t race again for seven weeks. We will be practicing there and going to the races just to give support to the rest of our te
ammates. We don’t travel again until we meet up with the West Coast racers in Levi’s Stadium in California. So we will be training at home for a few weeks, which will be great.

  Ryan has texted me but I’ve pretty much stayed away, not answering him or letting him know what I saw. I don’t know and don’t care anymore what happened. Neither of them have brought it up to me, so if it was innocent and nothing went on, then I think one of them would have told me by now.

  Once I land on Friday, I’m informed that I’ve been given a five thousand dollar fine for fighting. If I do it again, I’ll be given a one-month suspension from racing. I already decided, no matter what the outcome was, I am done being her savior. If she chooses Ryan, then he can step it up next time.

  While there, Jesse tells me that the girls won’t be here this weekend or next week either. He says that Maddie sent him a text, letting him know that they are headed to the FMX, freestyle show, for a couple of promotional events. I am grateful for that; I can use a break from seeing her, dressed like that and not being able to have her to myself.

  We watch both the first and second race in Georgia from one of the VIP boxes the team rents out for the night. In the first race, the Yamaha team kicked ass big time, taking the first and second place, leaving Suzuki to pick up third. They aren’t so lucky the following weekend, one of the guys is taken out in the first corner and doesn’t finish, though the other rider is standing in third on the podium.

  I return home late day on Sunday after two weeks of being gone. I’m exhausted and not because I did anything strenuous, but because I haven’t gotten much sleep lately, not to mention it’s been a full day of traveling today to get back across the country.

  I’m in the middle of my workout in the gym, at the house, when Jesse walks in.

  “Hey, there, you going to stay in here all day?” he yells over the music playing.

  “I might,” I say, pushing the volume button down as I continue to run on the treadmill.

  “We have guests coming over, so you better finish this shit up and go shower, you stink,” he says, laughing at me.

  “Oh, do we? And who might that be?” I am praying he doesn’t say the Hyped Energy Girls because that shit isn’t happening.

  “The Monster Energy ladies.”

  “What time?”

  “In forty-five minutes. I bought a bunch of food for a cookout along with some drinks.”

  “That sounds good, but we have practice at ten tomorrow morning so this can’t be an all-night party.”

  “I know that, jackass, so wrap this shit up, got it?”

  “I do, five more minutes and couple of sets of crunches and I’ll be done.”

  He walks out and I turn the music back up, just as Sam Hunt’s song Single For The Summer comes on. I could actually use a fresh body tonight, a no strings attached fuck . . . yeah that’s exactly what I need. It’s been a couple of months since that’s happened. I finish up my sets and walk out to get ready before the others arrive. I guess I didn’t realize just how long I was in there, because as I walk out, wiping the sweat off my face with a towel, I notice others are already in the kitchen.

  I hear one of them say, ‘Holy Shit!’ I was going to continue walking, to go take a shower, but after that comment, I stop dead in my tracks. Turning around to face them, I put an ‘I heard you’ smile on my face, and head toward the kitchen.

  “Hello, ladies, I’m Cooper.”

  “We know who you are,” the one with short brown hair and gorgeous eyes says, looking directly at me.

  “Oh, do you now?”

  “Yes, Cooper Brewis.”

  I go and grab a bottle of water out of the fridge as I hear my name. “I’d say you’re right then.”

  “Will you be joining us tonight?”

  “I will, I’m going to take a shower, then I’ll be back down.”

  I turn to leave as I hear, “I’d join him in a shower anytime.” Well hell, I wasn’t going to pass that invite up.

  Turning back around, I look directly at her, smirk and say, “Follow me,” with a hint of smart ass in my voice because I know she will do just that.

  I get right to the point and if she does as she just said, then she’ll be a happy lady, real soon. I continue to walk toward my bathroom as I hear her push back her chair to get up. Entering the room, I immediately turn on the water and drop my shorts. Stepping into the shower, I figure hell, if she is serious, she’ll be undressed and under this water in five.

  Well, she doesn’t waste time either, stepping in and then dropping to her knees. Damn it, I look down and don’t see the girl in front of me, I see Ansley. Her face is what I’m picturing in my mind and I can’t do this. Reaching forward, I gently touch her shoulders, pulling to her feet. She leans up to kiss me and I look away. What the hell is wrong with me? I explain to her this is a mistake and step out, she follows behind me confused. I hand her a towel, while drying off myself, then ask her to dress and get out. Not wanting to sound like an asshole, I just need to be alone for five minutes to gather my thoughts, this has never happened to me.

  The rest of the evening, I talk to a few other ladies, but clearly since my head isn’t screwed on right, I need to just socialize with everyone and then get some much-needed sleep. Having a couple beers is my limit; I am in training mode and nothing is going to set me back.

  Since the East Coast circuit is still going on, it’s full on riding and working out for the next month, until we go at it again. We only have one race to go on the West Coast to decide who will be sporting the red number one plate on their bike, along with one million dollars. Knowing that Ryan is nineteen points ahead of me, and Jesse is ten down from me, we all have a chance at this.

  Jesse and I are heading to our trainer’s house until Thursday; we are going to stay with him, so he can kick our asses both on and off the track. His house is a bit outside the city and he has a track in his back yard and a killer gym there, so we pretty much won’t be leaving once we arrive. I love the country lifestyle way more than the stuffiness of the city. Relaxing at night on the back deck and hearing the sounds of the outdoors when you open up your windows is so much better than the honking of horns and the smell of exhaust from all the cars in the city.

  I’ve answered texts from Ansley and Ryan, off and on, over the last couple of weeks, but honestly I’m definitely not putting forth a lot of effort when it comes to both of them. I just let them know, that right now I’m doing me, training and that I’ll see them at the next race.

  IT’S THURSDAY MORNING as my phone beeps to remind me I’m having dinner with Ryan and his parents tonight. They’re in town and we are all meeting up. A pit in my stomach forms. I care about what Mr. Evans thinks of me just about as much, if not more than my own father, so now I’m wondering if Ryan has told him I’ve been avoiding him.

  I go for a long run to clear my mind; I know I need it. When I return to the house, I shower and grab something to eat. As I’m sitting at the kitchen table, my phone starts ringing, and looking down I see Ryan’s face. I debate what to do, but decide in the end to just pick it up. If he is going tonight, then I need to know if it’s going to be awkward.

  “Yeah.”

  “Cooper?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you meeting us for dinner tonight?”

  “Yes.” I take a deep breath while answering.

  “What the fuck is up with you lately? I don’t get it, you seem to be avoiding me and Ansley says she’s barely spoken to you too. I thought you said you were going to make it right with her?”

  “Nothing, I just don’t need this shit right now. I decided to do me, not her. Too bad if she can’t take it.”

  “Wow, didn’t see that coming. Really, so it’s screw Ansley and me, is it?”

  “Ryan, I’m coming tonight. If you don’t want me to come, just fucking say it and I’ll text your dad an excuse, otherwise, I’ll be there and act like nothing’s wrong.”

  “Good, my dad thinks the world of yo
u; I wouldn’t want him to know whatever the hell is going on with you is affecting our friendship.”

  “Fine, I’ll see you tonight at the restaurant,” I say, then hang up, not giving him a chance to respond.

  Tonight, I put on a pair of my black dress pants and a button down aqua blue shirt. Not everyone can rock this color shirt, but I know I look damn good. I come downstairs and head out the door to go, I want to get this over with. As much as I can’t wait to see Mr. Evans, I know it’s going to be a long night of faking it, faking a smile, faking a laugh, and faking my friendship with Ryan.

  Walking into the restaurant, I go and give Mrs. Evans a hug and kiss on the cheek, Mr. Evans a handshake and half of a hug, and then there is Ryan. Right now, I want to punch him instead of giving him anything. But I said I’d fake it and that is exactly what I do. I get through the whole night, acting as if there is no tension between us.

  Ryan’s dad keeps telling us, the whole night, how proud he is and informs us that he and Mrs. Evans are coming to Vegas to see the East/West Shoot Out race and the finals of the 450s. It’s going to be a good race and it will be great to have him there.

  As I leave, Ryan follows me out, thanking me for a good night. I just look at him and keep walking. I can never forgive him if he’s taken Ansley from me; he knows my feelings for her are real. I miss him, but I miss her more.

  KNOWING THAT I HAVE just a couple more weeks before I need to kick some ass in the last race before Vegas is all I am focused on. I need to kill that night, so my mind is set on training and getting in the best shape I can be in.

  Jesse and I have been going to the tracks around the area, riding with the locals. It’s been fun for us, as well as giving us a chance to meet up with some fans. It’s cool that they’ve gotten to know me as a pro rider, so spending time with them is important. We even met some of the local female riders, and have seen them ride, which is pretty cool. They can kick some ass out there, too. Damn if they didn’t look pretty hot in their gear as well. When we remove our jerseys they see our six packs, but when they remove their jerseys we see what looks to be a fine ass woman hidden behind baggy clothes. They usually have on sports bras or a tiny tank that covers all their fine assets.