by Amy Gregory
Eli nodded to himself, processing Molly’s statement as he gathered up his trash. If it turned out to be true, then it’d make his job harder, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t impressed. Eli had followed Dallas’s stats the last couple of years. He, Molly, and Carter had looked into Dallas’s resume more thoroughly for the meeting this afternoon, so they could pitch for him. He knew what races Dallas had been to, what bike he rode, and things were starting to make more sense. He agreed all the more with Molly. He wanted to help the kiddo. The others were just a bunch of softies, too. It wasn’t as if he had any doubt that they wouldn’t immediately agree, but they had intentionally drafted a clause in the scholarship process. One member of the academy board would go to the child in question and meet them in person. The interview was a two-fold endeavor. One, it would tell them if the prospective student was serious. Two, it would tell them if the parents were crazy or not. They didn’t need any psycho freaks standing trackside yelling at their kid. If they wanted to do that, they could stay home and keep their delusional ambitions to themselves. That kind of attitude wasn’t accepted on the Noland property—period.
When they had originally talked about opening up scholarship spots, it was decided that if the child needed a scholarship, obviously the student didn’t have the means to fly across the country for an interview. Therefore, one of the guys would fly to them. As much as Molly and Emery argued that they were both more than qualified to go, James shut them both down. The father in him wasn’t allowing either woman to go alone, to a strange town, to a stranger’s home. They had eventually given up the fight. Eli’s shoulders fell as the air left his lungs. He couldn’t let Molly down. She felt the need to help Dallas. She wanted him to go to Tennessee and come back with good news.
Eli winked at Molly. “It’ll all work out, D. I promise.” He waited until she nodded before continuing toward the door.
****
Eli pulled his black leather duffle out of the overhead bin of the plane. The combination of turning awkwardly and lowering the weight of the small bag in his hand sent a searing pain shooting down his lower back. He blew out a breath as he stood somewhat impatiently, ready to get off the plane.
Mentally, he tried to block the straight lines of fire ripping their familiar paths inside of him until he could at least get to some water and ibuprofen. Suddenly he felt hot inside the cabin, and tugged up the sleeves of his lightweight sweater while he waited. Silently, he cursed the people in front of him who wrestled with their luggage, which obviously should have been checked.
The meeting with the board of the school had gone just as he expected yesterday and ended with an excited group of people wanting to see Dallas ride in person. Now all he had to do was convince Honor Graham to pull her kid out of school, let him come live with virtual strangers, and do nothing but ride—for a month. Well, there would be homework in there too. They weren’t about to let him fall behind. But instead of the rigid class day of conventional schooling, his courses would be fit in here and there.
The plan hadn’t sounded so tough when they were all discussing it as a group of excited trainers. When it was laid out like that, the speech he’d been rehearsing in his head for the better part of the plane ride did sound like an uphill battle. A month was a long time, both for Dallas academically, but also the time they were looking to invest in him would cost any other paying parent a small fortune. Maybe Molly was right to be worried that his mother would say no.
Finally, the line moved, and he exited the plane, glancing around the airport at the overhead signs to get his bearings, and headed toward the rental car counters.
****
Rolling down the windows in the car, he pulled in a breath of fresh air, and then rolled his neck as well. The air was a bit warmer in Nashville than what he’d left behind in Pennsylvania, and every bit as beautiful. He drank the last little bit of water in the bottle he’d purchased at the airport and recapped the empty bottle. Placing it back in the cup holder, he settled in for the drive while letting the fresh air and the pain meds do their best.
Now that the board was behind Dallas, and they all wanted him, it made this meeting he was headed to a little more stressful. If things weren’t so busy back in Pennsylvania, he would have persuaded Carter or Jess to come with him. Maybe it would make it a little harder for his mother to turn down their offer if she was meeting with more than just one retired professional rider.
A month was a long time. He was sure Honor was nervous about a week-long session, let alone two weeks, but they were all in agreement, a month would be ideal. What they could do with him, teach him, show him in four weeks’ time would secure his spot at the top. They just hadn’t mentioned the extended offer to her—yet.
They had been able to find some footage of the previous year’s amateur nationals. Dallas had won his class by a wide margin. They had all watched in total awe. The boy was almost flawless, floating over the whoops, cornering like a pro, weaving around the track like he was the only one on it.
One thing was for sure, Dallas Graham was the next golden child. Even an untrained eye could spot that. The tears glistening in Molly’s eyes weren’t only from pride, and they were Eli’s undoing. Her need to help Dallas was contagious, although no one in that room had spoken another word of the reasoning behind it. And not one word had been uttered since they got through the trial for the woman who attempted to murder Molly, but every once in a great while, there were moments when it was easy to see her childhood still haunted her. There was something about helping Dallas that was more than just offering money to a charity.
It was an interview they had found online that struck them all and sealed the deal. Dallas had barely gotten down off the podium before the microphones were thrust in his face. With sweat pouring off him, his jersey stuck to him, and heavy gear still on, he grinned.
But it was more than just winning. When he was asked how he learned to ride like he had in the race, his reply was so honest, his face so completely sincere, that he grabbed everyone sitting around the table yesterday. With a heat-flushed face, Dallas had glanced past the interviewer, to the track behind the man, and joy swept over him, his eyes sparkling.
His simple answer…“I just ride.”
So innocent, so perfect, a child’s love for his sport so completely obvious.
As Eli drove along the highway leaving Nashville’s city limit, the four lanes narrowed, giving way to a two-lane road, heading into more rural Tennessee. The green surrounding him was very similar to the landscape he was used to at home. The fenced pastures zipping by as he wound his rental car around the curves, the road dotted with a house here and there. From the directions Honor had given him over the phone, they lived on the outskirts of their small town, and he had passed the railroad tracks she’d mentioned.
Three miles down the quiet road, as he came to the birdhouse mounted on the corner fence post, Eli chuckled and turned right onto the gravel road as directed. She’d rattled off the street name purely as an afterthought, and the embarrassed hint of laughter at herself brought a smile to his face on the other end of the phone line.
Moments later, he found the small white ranch house with navy shutters, but it was the track he could see behind it that made it a safe bet he was in the right place.
Before Eli even parked, the front screen door flew open with a crack against the house. The young boy jumped from the top of deck of the front porch instead of taking the time to walk down the four stairs to the sidewalk. He radiated laughter and excitement. Eli grinned to himself as he got out of the car. It seemed all was right with the world, at least until he stepped down too hard, not used to the lower vehicle height.
The sharp pain shot down his spine and spiked like he’d been stabbed multiple times around his left hip. He let out a breath, blinking rapidly with the last daggers of pain before it subsided, and pasted on a smile so he didn’t scare the boy who was now anxiously awaiting him.
Eli shut the car door and held in a chu
ckle watching the brown-haired rider, still in full gear, shuffle from foot-to-foot, apparently unsure of himself. Even when Molly tried to tell him otherwise, Eli had never thought of himself as anything but Eli Hunter, a guy who happened to love riding and made a life for himself doing so. But he remembered what it was like as a kid, meeting older racers he admired or even idolized. He always rolled his eyes at Molly’s compliments, but it was still a bit thrilling to see the young boy so excited.
“I’m Eli, you must be Dallas?”
He nodded, his mouth slightly opened, his eyes still wide.
“Dallas Graham, where are your manners, son?”
The feminine voice from the porch grabbed their attention. Eli clasped his hand on the boy’s shoulder in support before turning to the stairs. As he raised his own eyes, slowly taking in the slim woman, he was thankful he still had his aviators on so she couldn’t see him stare. The tight denim jeans she had on sat low on her hips and hugged her just right, and the short-sleeved cotton shirt she wore was fitted, showing off her figure. The top two buttons were undone, revealing only a hint of the creamy skin below it. Her hair was pulled into a loose bun, leaving her neck open and calling to him. Auburn tendrils curled around her porcelain face, and there was a gentle smile spread across her mouth that reached the corners of her eyes. She had a romantic beauty to her, reminiscent of the actresses of decades past and a gracefulness that was evident in even the smallest of her movements.
For the first time in years, he was speechless. Scratch that—for the first time ever.
Eli realized his heart was racing. Dallas said something, and he forced himself to turn to the boy. Blinking behind the sunglasses as he tried to get a grip on himself and hide the fact that his jeans were now extremely uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, Dallas, what did you say?”
“Would you like to come in?”
Luckily, Eli didn’t have a problem with blushing or he was sure he would have been about fifteen shades of red. He nodded with an embarrassed grin. Not quite sure if he could trust himself to talk without sounding like a bumbling idiot, Eli glanced back toward the beauty on the small front porch and smiled.
****
There was something about Eli that told Honor she could trust him with her one and only love in the world. She had expected him to be a pompous jackass, wanting to be waited on hand and foot in exchange for the chance meeting of a lifetime, and for her to be grateful for the opportunity. Instead, he was the exact opposite—down to earth, laid back and completely in tune with Dallas. His patient manor and easy-going smile had charmed his way into their lives in a matter of moments.
And the man was smoking hot.
His jeans were faded in all the right spots and cupped his ass like they were made just for him, and Honor would bet hard-earned money that he knew he looked good in them. The thin V-neck sweater clung to his shoulders and the hard plane of his chest. On top of it, the beautiful gray was freaking cashmere. Only certain men could pull off cashmere without looking like they were trying to impress people. Eli was one of them. His muscles rippled and bunched underneath the material when he moved. The sleeves were pushed up and showed off his chorded forearms.
Through the years, she’d seen snippets of interviews, here and there when his parents had appeared, and knew that Eli was biracial. Honor had always thought he was extremely good looking, not that she’d ever let herself daydream. But damn it almighty, in person—he was so much more so. His dark honey skin, combined with the most beautiful hazel eyes she’d ever seen, made a deadly combination, and those freaking eyelashes were doing Honor in.
So not fair in any sense of the word. Men were not supposed to have eyelashes like that.
Ugh.
Since her attraction to his looks had nothing to do with money, she gave in and let herself throw a mental hissy fit. Seriously. It was criminal that men were graced with eyes like his. Not only was it unfair, it was so hard not to get lost in them.
This was so not her. She never had to fight herself, trying not to stare at a man. She never had to worry about catching herself picturing what his chest looked like underneath his shirt. She didn’t space off wondering if the muscles there were as defined as the ones along his forearms that flexed with every move he made.
“And I know this isn’t what we originally had planned, or what we spoke of, but we’d really love for him to stay four weeks.”
His dark hair shaved close to his head gave him a dangerous appeal, but his lightheartedness and gentle smile revealed the simple man. She let out a long, slow breath, hoping it wasn’t obvious to anyone else in the room that her pulse was racing, or that her mouth was dry and her smile was a lot bigger than normal.
Don’t go there, Honor, he’s got them lined up at his doorstep.
She wasn’t stupid. She’d always prided herself on being a realist. Daydreams only led to a broken heart. Pulling her head back out of the clouds and back to Dallas, she rubbed his back, forcing herself to the subject at hand. Listening to Eli talk about the school, reiterating a lot of what they’d already spoken of before.
She needed to let Dallas go. But something major had changed, causing her heart rate to spike for a different reason. When Molly had talked to Mac, she had originally mentioned a week. Somewhere from that conversation a few days ago to now, their invitation had been extended to a month.
A month?
Back up.
What in the hell?
She surely misheard what he just said, and she definitely needed to quit looking at those damn eyes and focus, especially since there was a twinkle to them, a hint of mischief that seemed to dance in them.
“We have all talked about the possibilities, and we just can’t tell you how excited we are at the thought of what we can work on in a month’s time.” Eli smiled.
Oh my God. He said it again.
Blinking, she replayed the words in her head, again and again. Honor forced herself to pay attention to the details, but there was so much swirling around her, she’d fidgeted in her seat until she was barely seated at the edge of her couch. How they made the jump from one week to a month still wasn’t clear, yet it was obvious through Eli’s excitement and compliments that he and those involved with the academy were very sincere…and very serious.
Dallas was sandwiched between her and Eli. His face lit up with a thousand-watt smile. Covertly, she peeked at Mac sitting in the chair across from her. She’d seen that look before on his face, pride for his nephew. He was intently listening to the details, but she could sense that Mac was going to tell her to let Dallas go.
A month away from school, a month away from home, a month away from…her. Sending him to Pennsylvania with people she didn’t know for an entire month didn’t sound like anything a sane mother would do. This was so hard. He was her world. She’d go crazy without him, even though he reeked like an old gym bag after he’d been riding, even though his room was a disaster zone most of the time, and even though he spent most of his free time eating everything in sight. Dallas was her everything.
Not to mention the money. She couldn’t even fathom the money the academy would be losing by Dallas taking a spot from a paying student, especially for that long. Free ride or not, it was costing somebody money.
She was a long mile past hesitant on the inside, but Honor grinned proudly as Dallas asked questions about the academy, about the training, asking details just like an adult would. He had been star-struck when Eli first pulled up their driveway, but that hadn’t lasted long. Eli’s easy personality had put Dallas at ease immediately. Pushing down the fear building inside her, she winked at her son before standing to go make another pitcher of iced tea, escaping not only the news, but also the man delivering it.
Watching the bubbles starting to form in the small pan of water, she quietly listened as Mac and Eli discussed what Dallas would ride, that all he’d need would be his own gear that he was comfortable with because they’d have a bike for him. Okay…so that was o
ne issue she was glad not to have to deal with. She lay awake in bed last night wondering how in the hell they’d get his bike to Pennsylvania if she decided to send him. But still—a month?
As the bubbles in the water started to grow and roll, she opened the tea bags, not realizing Mac was behind her until he whispered close to her ear, damn near scaring five years off her life.
“Shit.” She blinked at Mac as her heart pounded hard in her chest. “Damn it, Mac.” His boyish grin made her chuckle, but she still elbowed him in the side for payback.
He nodded toward the living room, “I’m impressed, Honor. You know me. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
Honor looked back to her pan, lowering the tea bags in, and watched the water turn brown. She could feel Mac’s presence beside her, not only physically, but also mentally. She knew what was on his mind, and she waited for the words as she bobbed the tea bags by their short strings, doing nothing more than simply playing with them. It allowed her to avoid eye contact for a few more seconds. Evading the truth a little longer.
“You need to let him go.”
Mac’s large hand on her shoulder did nothing to dull the sharp pain in her heart. The child’s laughter from the other room broke her thoughts, barely twenty feet away. Only a half wall separating the kitchen from the living room, she could hear every word, could hear the enthusiasm in her son’s voice. Yes, she needed to do this, for him. That didn’t make it any freaking easier.
She was still pissed at the hospital for running out of instructional manuals for parenting, conveniently on the day he was born. How in the hell did other parents do this? Just send their kid, wherever, whenever, and at the drop of a hat? Why was it so much harder for her?
Mac squeezed her shoulder again and kissed the side of her head. “I need to go. You know how busy Saturdays are at the shop. I promised them I’d be back by four.”
“Thanks, Mac. For being here.”