Behind the Wheel (Hearts & Horsepower Book 2)

by A. K. Evans

  They weren’t.

  That meant I hadn’t guessed wrong and automatically disqualified myself.

  And then it was like tunnel vision as I drove my car down the right-hand lane. Just as I had promised Knox I would, I crossed the finish well before my opponent.

  The next thing I knew, I had turned off the track and had pulled up behind Logan on the return road. He was standing outside his car waiting for the rest of the team to meet him and tow the car back to the pit. I got out and walked right over to him.

  Giving him a hug, I said, “Congratulations! That was awesome! Did they tell you what you ran?”

  “Thanks, Avery. Yeah, one of the track officials came over to congratulate me. I should be saying the same to you. You took a hell of a risk there,” he replied.

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “The announcers went crazy about your perfect light,” he shared.

  “No way. It was a perfect light?”

  He nodded and smiled at me.

  “Do you know what I ran?” I asked.

  Logan was about to answer when we heard beeping and cheering. Turning around, we saw the golf cart driving toward us. Nash was driving, Kendall was in the opposite seat, and the rest of the team was hanging on at the sides and back.

  Nash brought the cart to a stop a few feet in front of Logan’s car, and Knox immediately jumped off the side. He came right toward me, engulfed me in his arms, and brought his mouth to my ear.

  “I’m so proud of you, Avery,” he said. “You’re incredible.”

  “I don’t even know what I ran,” I told him. “Logan told me I had a perfect light, though.”

  Knox pulled back, put both hands to my shoulders, and shared, “Baby, you won the event running your best pass ever. Not only that, you set a record.”

  My eyes widened. “I did?”

  He grinned and dipped his chin. “Yes. Two records, actually.”

  “Two?”

  “First female to ever win any class at this event,” he started. “But even better than that, you ran a 7.99 at 176mph.”

  “What?!” I shrieked. “Are you serious?”

  Knox couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he replied, “Dead serious.”

  My hand flew up to cover my mouth.

  I just ran a seven-second pass and set a class record.

  It was too much. At that moment, I couldn’t handle it. My eyes darted around, moving from Knox to the rest of my team, and I lost it. I completely broke down sobbing.

  This meant everything to me.

  Running that pass, doing it in the car that I’d started building years ago with my father, and now making my dream come true with my new racing family, people who meant the world to me, was just too much to process.

  Knox brought his arms around me again, and I buried my face in his chest.

  A few seconds later, I felt another hand at my back followed by Kendall saying, “I told you you were a total badass! Congratulations, Avery!”

  I took in a deep breath and pulled my head back to look at her. “Thank you, Kendall.”

  She threw her arms around me and gave me a hug, which led to a round of congratulatory words and hugs from the rest of my team.

  I couldn’t remember ever feeling so good.

  In fact, only one thing could have made this moment better.

  And that would have been seeing my dad’s face after he watched his girl get behind the wheel of the car she built and made her dreams come true.

  He would have been so proud.

  I didn’t doubt he was watching me now with a smile on his face, grinning from ear to ear that I’d finally done what he knew I could do all those years ago.

  I was not only the queen of the drag strip. I was well on my way to becoming the best driver the sport has ever seen.

  Feeling nothing but happiness seeping through me, reminiscing about my dad, I hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on around me. It wasn’t until Knox was standing beside me again with his arm wrapped around my shoulders that I came back to reality.

  “Come on, my queen. We need to get this car back to the pit,” he urged. “And tonight, I’ll be finding some nice ways to congratulate you on your win.”

  “Sounds like I’m getting all the glory, doesn’t it?” I teased.

  “You deserve it.”

  I smiled up at him as I gave him a squeeze around the waist.

  Then we got my car back to our pit until it was time to go to the winner’s circle.

  It was later that night when I realized that despite winning the event and setting two records, my biggest dream had come true. And it had nothing to do with racing.

  Instead, it was all about the man who was helping me celebrate my win in the most glorious way. Everything I’d accomplished meant so much more because I had him beside me every step of the way.

  Three months later

  I lifted the three folded shirts in my hand and placed them in the bag that was resting on the edge of my bed. It was late evening, two days before Christmas, and I was packing up a few things to take with me to Avery’s house.

  Our plan was to spend Christmas Eve visiting with my dad and his girlfriend. I had introduced Avery to him—and the both of us were introduced to my father’s girlfriend at the same time—over the Thanksgiving holiday.

  That had been a unique experience. While I’d known for a little while that he’d found someone to make him happy, I couldn’t help but feel a bit melancholy for what my mom was missing out on. Of course, I never made mention of this to my dad and was truly happy for him. He deserved to have someone to share his life with.

  But since he’d have his girlfriend with him on Christmas Day, we all thought it would be better to spend Christmas Day with my mom.

  So, Avery and I were planning to do our own thing early Christmas morning at her place before visiting her father’s grave. Afterward, we’d meet up with Peyton, my brother-in-law, and my mom at her house.

  Things with my mom had settled down a bit. Over the days that followed her admission of what went down between her and my father all those years ago, I reached out and had a few conversations with her. The weekend after the last race of the season, Avery and I made a trip over to my mom’s place. I figured it might help my mom to cope with everything she was feeling.

  Fortunately, I was right.

  Over the last few months, she made the effort to look at the role she played in what happened, decided it wasn’t fair to make Peyton choose between her and our father, and had apologized for ever putting her in that position.

  I had a really good feeling about the holiday this year. It might have been because it was also going to be the first time Avery was going to meet my sister, and I was really looking forward to that. It could have also just been the simple fact that Avery was in my life.

  She made everything better… more enjoyable.

  For that reason, I often found myself staring at her and simply appreciating her. And that’s why I looked up from my partially packed duffel bag and stared at her.

  She was sitting at the head of the bed, gazing at my bag, and I could instantly tell there was something happening inside her head.

  “Avery?” I called, trepidation in my tone.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “You should move in,” she blurted.

  I froze. “What?”

  Looking away from the bag, she brought her eyes to mine and repeated, “You should move in with me.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Are you serious?”

  The sweetest look I’d ever seen came over her face. “I love you, Knox,” she started. “You love me. We already spend nearly every night together anyway. And on the rare occasion we don’t spend the night together, I’m always miserable and have a difficult time sleeping.”

  Shit.

  Shit.

  I’d been worried she wasn’t anywhere near ready for such a big step. And here she was askin
g me to move in because it just made sense.

  I continued to stare at her, silenced and stunned.

  Avery must have mistaken my silence as a negative response because she started to backtrack. “It’s okay if you’d rather not,” she began again. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.”

  Letting go of the bag, I dug through it to the bottom and felt around for something I’d been holding on to for a little while now.

  After I pulled it out, I walked around the side of the bed and held it out to her. “I was going to give this to you on Christmas, but you can open it now.”

  Her eyes were a bit guarded, and her movements were cautious, but she took the box from me. Carefully, she started to unwrap it.

  Once she pulled the paper away, she opened the lid and lifted the small black velvet box out of it. I watched as her chest rose and fell quickly.

  “Open it,” I encouraged her.

  Avery opened the box, and her eyes instantly filled with tears.

  Taking the box from her, I slid down to my knee and took her left hand in mine. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately, too, Avery,” I said softly. “And in all the thinking I’ve done, the one thing that remains constant is you. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want us working side-by-side from now until forever. I want to go to bed every night and wake up every morning with you right next to me. And I want you to know that I’m always going to be here for you. Will you marry me?”

  As tears rolled down her cheeks, she rasped, “Yes. A thousand times yes.”

  I took the ring out of the box and slid it on her finger. Then she threw her arms around me and declared, “I’m the luckiest girl in the world. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Knox. Thank you for loving me.”

  “I feel like I’m the luckiest guy in the world, Avery,” I told her, tightening my arms around her. “Thank you for being so courageous and giving me the chance to love you. I’ll love you forever.”

  At that, I framed Avery’s face in my hands, brought my mouth to hers, and kissed her. Then, for one last time in my place, I made love to my fiancée. Because that night, I packed up as much as I could and moved in with Avery.

  SNEAK PEEK OF FAR BEYOND REPAIR

  “Ryker?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You’ll be with Matt again today.”

  “Okay.”

  After receiving my orders for the day, I made my way out of the office to meet Matt. It was mid-June, school had let out at the beginning of the month, and I was at work for the second week this summer. Since I was a week away from turning sixteen and still couldn’t drive, I had to tag along with one of the other employees. I didn’t necessarily mind because I was still getting the experience and hours while two of us could tackle the job faster than just one.

  I worked for a company that provided both landscaping and pool cleaning services. Given that I was part of a two-person team, we were typically given the larger jobs. That meant we’d likely have to do several properties that would require both services.

  This job was my full-time summer job. I worked full days Monday through Friday and half days every other Saturday. On Fridays and Saturdays, I also worked part-time at the movie theater. Sundays were my day off, and I usually spent the mornings at home with my parents.

  I hopped in the passenger seat, buckled up, and Matt took off.

  “We’ve got one lawn to do in Rising Sun, and then the rest of our day is going to be spent in Norfolk,” he told me.

  “Sweet,” I returned.

  Rising Sun was the town I lived in. People from all walks of life lived here. Some folks were wealthy, and others were just making ends meet. My family was in the latter category. We weren’t starving, but we also weren’t the kind of people who needed to hire a pool cleaning service company because we didn’t have a pool. Both of my parents worked blue-collar jobs. My father was a plumber, my mother a seamstress. They made a decent living and had meager savings, but we wouldn’t be living in the mansions like so many of the people in Norfolk lived in.

  Following the completion of our first lawn in Rising Sun, which took us only thirty minutes to accomplish, Matt and I had finally pulled up at the first house in a neighborhood that had four client homes we’d be working at today.

  It was an hour before lunch when we finished the first mansion. Matt and I made the decision to move on to the second one, get the pool cleaned, and have lunch before we finished up with cutting the grass.

  Most of our clients, particularly those that lived in a neighborhood like this, were set up with contracts. It was nice because we wouldn’t need to wait around and speak to the homeowners in order to get our work done. In fact, they weren’t typically home anyway.

  So, that allowed us to get our work done quickly.

  Which is precisely what happened at the second mansion. The pool, though large, was done just in time for us to break for lunch. Matt and I went back to the work truck to grab our lunches, and he said, “Hey, I’m going to give my girl a call. Hope you don’t mind.”

  I shook my head. “Not at all,” I replied.

  To give him some privacy, I lowered the tailgate of the truck bed and sat there to eat. While I ate, I looked around at all the homes. It was mind-boggling to think that people made so much money they could live in homes like this. I found myself wondering if they were simply working to pay their bills and afford these homes or if they just had that much money that a home like this was a drop in the bucket.

  When I finished my lunch, I decided to unload the first mower. I knew I’d get started, and Matt would follow shortly afterward. He’d take his full thirty minutes for lunch because he spent that time on the phone with his girlfriend. It didn’t bother me. I just wasn’t the kind of guy who liked to sit around. I enjoyed working.

  And I couldn’t necessarily blame Matt. If I had a girlfriend, I was certain I’d probably spend my entire lunch break talking to her, too.

  Figuring we’d do what we’d done on the first mansion, I decided to tackle the lawn in the rear of the home while leaving the front for Matt.

  About five minutes after I started, though, I realized I wasn’t alone.

  A girl, who looked as though she was close to my age, was sunbathing. She was beautiful. More beautiful than any other girl I’d ever seen.

  I did my best to focus on my work, but it was tough. This girl wasn’t the kind of girl a sane guy would ignore. I wasn’t too proud to admit that it took me a bit longer to complete the mowing in the back yard because I was too distracted by seeing her there in her bathing suit. But what attracted me most to her was seeing her so engrossed with the book in her hand. She wasn’t reading some girly magazine or celebrity gossip tabloid. I didn’t know what book she was reading, but I liked that she seemed to be completely absorbed in it.

  A week away from turning sixteen, I only ever had two things on my mind. Girls and cars.

  The cars were the reason I worked so hard. I wanted to buy my first car this year. I’d saved up all last summer and hoped to have enough money within the next few weeks to get something decent. The girls were… well, any teenage boy’s fantasy.

  Seeing this girl, I had to admit I felt something stirring inside me. With her tanned, toned figure glistening under the sun, I knew she was a girl I wouldn’t soon forget. As much as I wished I could have approached her, I couldn’t.

  She was completely out of my league.

  And considering I’d have a summer filled with weekly visits to her family’s mansion, I couldn’t risk the humiliation of being turned down by her.

  After a full day of working out in the sun, I was a bit relieved to be inside the air-conditioned movie theater. I’d work until my shift ended at midnight and ride my bike the ten minutes back to my house before crashing for a couple hours and needing to get up early the next morning to do it all over again.

  For a Friday night, the theater was unusually quiet. We had a steady stream of movi
e-goers, but not what was typical for a Friday evening. My guess was that the first night of the week long yearly music festival held in one of the neighboring towns being that night was the reason for the poorer attendance.

  Even though I liked when it was busy because it made the hours pass by quickly, I felt differently tonight.

  Because at around twenty minutes past eight o’clock, she walked in. The girl from the Morgan mansion.

  Yes, I’d done some research once Matt and I were back in the car. As it turned out, the last name of the property owners was Morgan.

  From the moment she walked through the door, I watched her. I had been anticipating a gaggle of girls to join her at some point, but they didn’t. She simply got her ticket and bought herself some popcorn and a soda. When she walked up to where I was standing to check and validate tickets, I locked eyes with her a moment.

  Damn, she was beautiful.

  She offered me a friendly smile. I glanced down at her ticket, smirked at the movie she’d chosen, and tore the ticket in half. Keeping one half of it, I handed the opposite half to her and said, “End of the hall, make a left, first theater on your right.”

  “Thank you,” she returned, her voice just a touch over a whisper.

  I struggled not to watch her as she walked away and completely failed at first. But when a rambunctious group of younger kids had approached with their parents, I had no choice but to look away. After validating their tickets, I said, “End of the hall, make a right, first theater on your left.”

  “Okay, kids,” the woman I presumed was the mother started. “Let’s go. All the way to the end of the hall.”

  Before I had the chance to say anything else, they took off running. And the next thing I knew, I saw popcorn flying in the air. One of the children had collided with the girl I’d been thinking about all day.

  My eyes quickly shifted to the usher standing next to me checking the tickets, and I said, “I’ll go handle that if you want to stay here.”