“Samantha?”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and a flood of emotions washed over me. Confusion, happiness, feeling of heartbreak all over again.

“The one and only.” Samantha paced her way over and wrapped her arms around me. I hugged her back gently before pulling away, and her dark eyes locked on it mine. “It’s nice to see you again, Mason.”

“You’re supposed to be in France…”

She took a step back but kept her hand loosely gripped on to mine. “I guess I had a little bit of a withdrawal from home and decided to put France on hold for a while.”

“I’m… ugh…” I shrugged my eyebrows, unsure of what to say.

“Well, did you miss me?”

I huffed. “Well, yeah of course I missed you, but I just… It’s just unexpected.”

Her eyes panned me up and down and she snapped her lips together. “I’ve missed you as well.” Her head swung to the side as she honed in on Layla and Amanda. “Who are your friends?”

I pulled my hand away from her and dipped my fingers in my pockets. “Oh, uh… These are Caleb’s friends. They go to school together.”

Samantha smiled and tilted her chin up. “Nice to meet you, um…”

“Layla.”

“Amanda.”

“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and turning toward Caleb’s friends. “Girls, this is Samantha… She’s…” I trailed.

Samantha grinned and lifted my hand. “Let’s just say we had a thing together.”

“Yeah…” I scratched the back of my head and my eyes darted around the ground, searching for something that wasn’t there.

“Figures you were driving against me,” Caleb said. “I didn’t even notice since Mike just put ‘Sam’ on the roster slip. I don’t feel so bad now knowing that it was you…”

Samantha had been an incredible driver who used to race in the both the drag races and the sprints. I had met her on the Bluff one night during a sprint where she gave me quite the run for my money and lost by a split second. After that race, she insisted that we sprint for pinks, and I ended up winning her decked out Audi TT. She was devastated to lose her car, and I thought the suspension on the Audi handled quite differently than the Mustang that I was used to driving at the time.

So, I told her she could have it back—if she agreed to go on a date with me.

Everyone told me not to mess around with the girl, because she was a heartbreaker and more into cars than guys, and I should have listened to them. After dating for two years, she just up and left me for Europe, just like it was nothing.

“How long have you been back?” I asked.

“Just a few days. Long enough to buy the Supra and add a little bit of personality to it. And…” Samantha snapped her lips again. “I should go move the car out the way. Hopefully, we can talk later.” She bit her bottom lip.

“Yeah… sure.”

My mind was going a thousand miles an hour. I loved Samantha, or at least I used to. But I also resented her for what she did to me. She had told me she loved me and that she she’d never leave me, and then just disappeared like our relationship never meant anything. It hurt. It hurt to a degree that it was almost unforgivable.

No, I definitely didn’t love her any longer.

It had been 2 years since I had seen her face, and she was still as stunning as I remembered. Part of me was elated that she was back in LA, but the other part of me wanted to tell her to fuck off for everything she had done to me.

I looked up from spot on the ground that I had been zoning out on for who-knows-how-long to see that Caleb had started chatting with the two girls that he brought along. He turned his head to me. “Do you know how many more races until the sprint?”

“I’m not sure,” I muttered. “Probably not many.”

Caleb started walking back towards the strip, and the girls followed. He slanted his head towards me. “Come on, bro. Come hang out with us and watch the rest of the drags before you race.”

“Yeah…” I muttered and nodded my head lightly.

But after seeing Samantha, I didn’t really want to hang out or watch the races. I didn’t even feel like racing. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but it was something between running after my ex-girlfriend and just running the fuck away.