Page 52 of Crash into me
Oh, the audacity. “First off, not Ghost. Foster.”
She laughs, and it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. “Okay, Foster. I’m racing now.”
“No, you’re not.” She’s being playful, but a knife sits in my chest. “That’s what took you away from me.”
She puts her foot peg down and stands in front of my bike, gripping my face in her hands. “No, me being out of my head took me away from you.” The silence stretches on, and she bows her head. “But it’s not like I did good anyways.”
I don’t want to give her a bigger head, I really don’t. “Actually, you didn’t do half bad. You beat half the guys on the track.” She grins from ear to ear when I tell her this. “Theoretically, with practice you could be behind me at the finish line.”
“Behind?” She tosses her head back “How about in front.”
She sounds so confident, so cute. “No one, and I mean no one ever gets in front of me.”
“So can I race?”
I cross my arms, surveying her. “If this is about us being together Skyler, I’m sorry, baby …” I look away, forgetting for a moment how fucked I truly am. “It can’t be, and I won’t hold you back until I pay off this debt. You, more than anyone, deserve to have a good life.”
“No, I already tried that remember? And look where it got us! Now you’re in debt to some psychopath and we’re not breaking apart again.” She sighs. “The two of us racing are better than one.”
She’s not wrong, but still, I can’t fathom her being in danger. “Aside from my fear of something happening to you, there’s the whole ‘I owe money to the Keeper’ part, and I can’t have any distractions.”
“I won’t be a distraction. I will only be helping you. First through third gets a cash prize, right?”
I nod. “Yeah, most of the time. I mean obviously first, being me, gets the pool money.”
She looks so hopeful, so positive. “Yeah, but like second or third gets something … so me helping is better than nothing.”
Why does she have to make sense?
I shake my head. “At least you got proper gear …” I check her helmet, her boots, smiling when I notice she’s wearing the jacket with my name on it.
“I can’t believe you’re giving in this easy.”
I only want her to be happy. Doesn’t she know this? “Not in storms,” I add a rule.
She groans, “That’s the biggest prize.”
“And not worth the risk since I’ll be winning anyways. Remember you don’t want to race me, you just want to race them.” I gesture to the beaming lights behind me. It’s against my instinct to tell her no. There’s nothing I want more in this world for Freckles than to spread her wings and do anything and everything her heart desires.
I never want to cage her or make her feel suffocated.
I want to help her flourish and watch her as she flies.
But still, storm races are a no go. It’s too dangerous, and she’s nowhere near the level she needs to be for them. I can’t ever see her like that again, full of tubes and needles. “I can’t lose you again, Freckles.”
“Okay,” she agrees. “No storm races.”
“And you’ll need to ride a lot. You need practice.”
She squeals, “I can’t believe you’re letting me do this!”
“I’m not letting you do anything, Sky. You’re capable of it. I’m just along for the ride.” I lean down to kiss her neck. “It’s us against the world, baby.”
24
Skyler POV
The cops didn’t show up, so now we get to hang out. It isn’t usual for this to happen; normally after a race we scramble like mice.