“Does being kissed on the cheek count, because that's all I’ve got to go by.”
“Well, that certainly isn’t going to help the next five minutes go by. You know what that means?” She asked. I shook my head no, but I had a feeling of what was going to come next. “It means we have more time to drink.” She pulled out two more Coronas, handing me one and pulled a bottle opener out of her pocket.
“You really think we should drink more?”
“Hunny, after the day I’ve had, drinking is the only thing left.” Leelee grabbed the bottle out of my hand, popped the top and handed it back to me. She pried the top off hers and chugged down half of the bottle.
I looked around in the crowd hoping I would see Violet and Luke headed back over, but they were nowhere to be seen.
I did the only thing I could. I drank and waited for Mitch to come back.
______________
Chapter 13
Mitch
I glanced to my right, Crank running neck and neck with me, but I knew I could take him. Kurt and AZ were in front of me, close to swapping paint. I could tell by the way Kurt was driving that he was getting impatient. That was Kurt’s downfall, he couldn’t wait.
AZ had beat all of us off of the line, but I was biding my time, waiting for the chance to blow past both of them. I slammed on the brakes, drifting around the corner, inching closer to Kurt and AZ. Crank and Guy faded in my rearview mirror, my only concern was with what was in front of me.
Kurt slammed on his brakes, forcing me to slow down. I swerved to the left, riding AZ’s ass and saw my opening coming. There were only three miles left before the finish line, and I had to be flawless if I wanted to win. I flew around the next corner, lining my car up perfectly behind AZ and feeling the drag lessen. AZ glanced in his rearview mirror, knowing what I was doing, but it was too late. He swerved to the left into Kurt trying to get me off his ass. I cranked the wheel to the right, slingshotting past him and stomped on the accelerator. I power shifted into fifth, my foot not lifting from the gas and pulled away from AZ and Kurt.
We were in the second to last straightaway, the last turn ten car lengths and I knew I had it as long as I didn’t let AZ or Kurt get behind me. Kurt was swerving into AZ, trying to keep him off my tail. Even though Kurt was pissed off at me, he was still on my side. It had become unwritten between us that whoever was behind would help the person in the lead. We were brothers, we weren’t out here to beat each other. It usually worked out well with Kurt and I splitting the wins between us.
I picked my line through the corner, slammed the wheel to the right and I felt the wheels lose traction as I careened around the corner. I glanced one last time in my rearview mirror, smoke bellowing from my tires leaving Kurt and AZ behind and slammed back into fifth and rocketed down the track.
The sides of the road were crowded with people as I flew by, my only thought was crossing the finish line first. Time slowed the last one hundred feet as I felt the tires grip the pavement and the car growled underneath me. This was what I loved. Even if I didn’t win, it was always the last stretch of the race that made me feel alive.
I screeched across the finish line, the car whining as I downshifted, the horses under the hood winding down with each shift of the gears. I turned around at the end of the street, whipping the car around and headed back to the finish line. Crank flew by me, the last to cross the finish line with Guy just in front of him.
Crank and Guy both had good cars, but they were nothing like the ‘Vette. Corvettes weren’t typically street racing cars, but I had built the ‘Vette specifically for street racing. She was one of a kind.
As soon as I stopped the car I was swarmed by people and I could barely get my door open. I squeezed out of the car, everyone patting me on the back and talking to me at once but I wasn’t paying attention to any of them. I only had eyes for one person, and she was standing in the back of Luke’s truck a huge smile on her face beaming down at me.
She was a trophy I’d take any day.
______________
Scarlett
“Holy hell, that was fast,” I breathed out.
Leelee was laughing next to me, her third bottle of Corona dangling from her fingertips. “That was more than fast, and now it looks like King Speed wants you.”
Mitch got out of his car and was looking up at me like I was something special and for the first time in a long time, I actually felt that way. This man who had people swarming and wanting to talk to him had eyes only for me. I smiled down at him, and he made his way through the crowd, everyone moving out of his way.
“I won,” he said.
“I saw,” I replied. My smile got even bigger and goofier as he held his hand out to me and he pulled me down from the truck and wrapped me up in his arms.
“I think I deserve a kiss.”
“Really? From who?”
He brushed the hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear. “You,” he whispered against my lips. I held my breath ready to finally kiss Mitch but not ready at the same time. His lips were firm yet soft as his fingers threaded through my hair, holding me close.
I moaned as he deepened the kiss, taking what I wasn’t sure I was ready to give. It ended before I could figure out if I wanted more and he stood back, his eyes shining down at me. “Let’s get out of here.”
______________
Chapter 14
Scarlett
“Um, when you said let’s get out of here, this wasn’t really what I thought you had in mind.”
“I always come here after a race. It’s the only place in town where you can get a chili dog after ten o’clock.” Mitch grabbed our tray off the counter that was overflowing with hot dogs, nachos, and sodas. He walked to the back corner booth and set the tray down.
I slid into one side of the booth thinking Mitch would sit on the other side, but he surprised me when he slid in right behind me. “Um, I can sit on the other side.”
“If I didn’t want to sit next to you, Sparky, I would have sat on the other side.” He took the food off the tray, setting it in front of us and my stomach growled. Mitch and Frankie had shown up right before Levi and I were going to eat pizza so I was beyond starved. I was relieved when Mitch had pulled up here after the race. “Hungry?” Mitch smirked.
“You have no idea. Plus, this looks ten times better than the frozen pizza Levi and I were going to eat.” I grabbed the hot dog Mitch set in front of me and took a huge bite. Seriously, heaven on a bun. I moaned quietly and closed my eyes.
“I see you enjoy Jim’s House of Wieners as much as I do.”
“You do know the name of this place is hilarious.”
“I do,” he said around a bite. “That is why we just call it Jim’s, otherwise it sounds like a porno.”
I snagged a couple of fries and set them on the napkin in front of me. Mitch was already halfway through his first hot dog and eyeing up the next. “So how long have you been racing?”
“Since I was old enough to drive I’ve been behind the wheel of a car. I got into racing a year or so after Luke did. After my first drag, I was addicted.”
“So, you, Luke, and Kurt all street race, right?”
“Yup.” Mitch grabbed his second hot dog and wadded up the paper from his first.
“But Luke doesn’t do what you do, right?” I had tried to keep up when Leelee was talking earlier, but with the crowd and trying to keep up with Leelee, I was still a bit in the dark.
“Luke drag races, Kurt and I do a street course with drifting. Both street racing, but different.”
“So do you drag race too?”
“Naw, Luke had Kurt and I beat every time. His reaction time is insane. He leaves that line, and it looks like the other guy is just standing still. Kurt and I learned early on that if we wanted to win we had to look elsewhere.”
I grabbed my drink, swirling the straw around. “So, since you and Kurt are in the same class, which one of you is better?”
“Kurt and I ea
ch have our own strengths. I tend to sit back, see how everyone is driving before I make my move. Kurt likes to be the first out of the gate and try to set the pace.”
“You won tonight. Does that usually happen?” I shoved the rest of my hot dog in my mouth and washed it down with a long sip of my lemonade.
“Eh, it’s a toss-up.” Mitch took a huge bite of his hot dog and set down the rest.
“So who won the most last year?”
Mitch turned in the booth, putting his arm around my shoulders. “I won the street class last year. Nudged Kurt out by two races.”
“Impressive.”
Mitch shrugged his shoulders. “It’s all in the past. Now I’m focused on the next couple of months.”
“So, you race every Friday night?” It felt like I was playing twenty questions with Mitch. Thankfully he didn’t seem annoyed.
“For the most part. There will be a couple of weeks where there isn’t a race.” I nodded my head and grabbed the napkin that was on my lap. “Is it my turn to ask questions now?”
“Nope, because I know your questions are going to be much harder than the ones I just asked you.”
“I promise if you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.” I nodded my head, figuring it was only a matter of time before Mitch would start asking questions that mattered. “Was that the first time he hit you?”
Well, straight to the point. I bowed my head, my hands shredding the napkin in my hand, “No, I lost count.”
I heard Mitch draw in a deep breath, but I didn’t raise my head. “Why did he hit you the last time?”
“I think my questions were much easier than these.”
“You don’t want to answer, Scarlett, you don’t have to.”
I didn’t speak. Did I want to tell Mitch? Would he think differently of me if he knew how long I stayed? That it was years before I got the courage to leave. “I… I fell asleep. Before Manny had left, he told me I needed to get all of the dishes done. When he came home, there were two bowls in the sink from the soup that Levi and I had for dinner.”
“So he beat you? For a fucking dirty bowl?” Mitch growled.
The napkin was shredded into tiny pieces in my lap, and I knew the tears were ready to fall. I never told anyone the reasons why Manny beat me, let alone that he beat me. I always told people I had fallen down the stairs or was in a car accident. I know they didn’t believe me, because how many times could a person fall down the stairs? “Yes,” I whispered. I was so ashamed to even talk about this.
We sat there, neither of us talking, the sounds of the restaurant buzzing around us. Mitch finally moved, loading up the tray with the empty wrappers. “Come on, Sparky.” He stood up holding his hand out to me.
I scooted out of the booth not taking his hand and headed out the door. I didn’t look at Mitch, but I knew what he was thinking. It’s what everyone thought. I was stupid.
I walked to the car, my head hung low, not watching where I was going. My bruises had all healed, but it still felt like they were there. They were never going to disappear.
“Scarlett,” Mitch called. “Wait up.”
“Just take me home, Mitch. I don’t want to have this conversation anymore. I know what you’re thinking.”
Mitch grabbed my arm and spun me around. “I’m thinking what anyone would be thinking right now.”
“That I’m stupid for staying.”
“Fuck, no! I think whoever the hell this douchebag is, needs to die. What he did to you isn’t your fucking fault, Scar.”
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face. “You don’t mean that. You don’t need to lie.”
“Scarlett, listen to me. Get all of that bullshit out of your head thinking that you’re stupid.”
“I stayed with him for six years, Mitch. For six years I let him beat me, and I never left.”
“Because you were probably fucking terrified.”
“I was. I didn’t want him to hurt Levi.”
“Did he?” Mitch growled.
I shook my head no. “I left. I knew that he would hurt Levi if I didn’t go.”
“So you finally left. That’s all that matters.” He wrapped me up in his arms, holding me tight while I fell apart. Everything that I had been feeling and wanting to say the past six years finally came out. I couldn’t remember the last time I had cried. I bottled up every emotion for the past six years, and now they were all pouring out of me. I broke apart in Mitch’s arms, and I didn’t know how I would ever be put back together again.
______________
Chapter 15
Mitch
Scarlett was sleeping in the passenger seat, her hands under her head and her legs curled underneath her. I don’t know how long we stood in that parking lot but it was now after midnight, and we were parked outside of Scarlett’s apartment. I knew as soon as I would try to lift her up she was going to wake up and that was the last thing I wanted to do.
She whimpered in her sleep, wincing as her arm batted in front of her. She had only been sleeping for ten minutes, but she was already dreaming.
This was not how I expected my night with Scarlett to end, crying herself into exhaustion. I slid out of the car, rounding around the front and opened Scarlett’s door. Her eyes cracked open as the brisk air swept into the car and she slowly looked around.
“We’re home.”
She closed her eyes and rested her head against the seat. “Please tell me that was all a dream and I didn’t cry all over you in the parking lot of Jim’s Wieners.”
“I’m afraid so, Sparky.”
“Oh, Jesus. Just leave me here to die of embarrassment.”
“No can do. I’m sure Levi will miss you.”
She cracked one eye open. “He knows how to make Pb and j. He’s a smart kid,” she laughed.
I held my hand out, and she shook her head. “You just going to stay in my car until I take you and Levi out tomorrow night?”
“You still want to go out with us tomorrow?”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I’m a fucking wreck. I have no idea where that came from tonight at the restaurant, but I’m sure that won’t be the last time that happens.”
“You just need to talk about it, Scarlett.”
“And you’re going to be the one who listens?”
“Look. I’ve told you before, I have no plans of going anywhere. You can cry, yell, or talk and I’ll still be here.” She put her hand in mine, and I pulled her out of the car and wrapped my arms around her.
“I don’t think you’re normal, Mitch,” she whispered.
“I don’t think normal is what you need.”
“I’m starting to think that you’re right.” She rested her hand on my chest and tilted her head back. “Something tells me you’re just what I need.”
“It’s about fucking time you start realizing that.” I threaded my fingers through her hair, pulling her closer and brushed my lips against her mouth. She whimpered at the light touch. “Tell me to stop, Scar.”
“I like when you call me that,” she breathed out.
“I shouldn’t want you like this.” Her body melted into me, and I was hanging on by a thread. All I wanted to do was bury myself in her and never come out.
“I should be running the other direction from you, but I just can’t.” Her eyes were glazed over with desire and she licked her lips, crumbling my restraint. I slammed my lips down on her mouth, taking what I had been craving. Her sweet moans were driving me crazy as her hands roamed over my chest, pulling up my shirt.
Her fingertips skimmed my stomach, and I could have come right there just from her touch. I pulled gently on her hair, tilting her head back more and her back arched, pressing her soft, full tits up. I pushed her against the car, grinding my hips against her, my dick begging to be let out. “Stop,” Scarlett gasped. Her hands still roamed over my body, but she pulled her head back. She looked up at me, her lips swollen and wet and her face flush. Her breathing was sh
allow, but there was a small smile on her lips. “Slow down just a bit.”
“I think we might be skipping a couple of gears, Sparky.” Her smile spread across her lips, lighting up her eyes and she tossed her head back laughing.
“I wouldn’t have put it that way, but yeah.”
I pulled my fingers from her hair and took a step back. I knew Scarlett was going to be mine, and I didn’t want to rush it. “You still want to go out with me tomorrow night?”
“Is Levi really invited?”
“Yeah. The way I see it, I’m dating both of you. I need to impress Levi as much as I do you.”
“I think you impressed Levi when you started talking Transformers with him.”
I reached up, brushing her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. “And what about his mama? Have I impressed her yet?”
She leaned into my hand and closed her eyes. “Hmm, you’re doing a good job, but I’m a bit harder to impress.”
“I guess I’ll just have to step it up.” I cupped her cheek, leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. I knew the second my lips touched hers again that I was never going to be able to get enough of her. “I’ll be here at four tomorrow. I figure we can grab some dinner and then play some mini golf.”
“You do realize that Levi is four, and you are likely going to spend the whole time chasing after his golf ball, right?”
“I figured.”
“OK, just so you don’t have some crazy idea that we’re actually going to play mini golf. He’s likely to get bored after three holes and play in the water hazards the rest of the time.”
“As long as I get to spend time with you two, I don’t care.”
“You’re too good to be true, Mitch,” she whispered.
“I’m not, Scar. I’m just what you deserve.” I brushed one last kiss against her lips and took two big steps backward. “I need at least five feet in between us or I can’t be held responsible for what I do.”
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