As the teams load their cars in the back of their haulers and the patrons file out of the stands, I pull Cash and Grady aside.
“C’mere you two.”
They follow, both staring up at me. God, they’re cute, aren’t they? And I can’t fucking tell them apart aside from the fact that Cash usually has a frown on his face.
They were with me most of the night. Helping with everything from scoring to pill draws. Whether I was in the pits or the office looking for transmitters, they were there, assisting and they deserved to be paid.
“Can we help you every night?” Grady asks, hopeful.
“If it’s okay with your mom.”
Digging through my wallet, I hand them both fifty dollars. Might seem like a lot but they did good, and I wanted them to know it. I also can’t see very well—remember the whole practically blind and refusing to wear glasses—so I just grabbed whatever was the same in there and am thankful it wasn’t the hundred-dollar bill I had left.
Cash takes the money, tentatively like he’s not sure why I’m giving it to him. He looks at it, then me. “What’s this for?”
Prepayment for letting me have sex with your mom. Don’t look at me like that. I’m kidding. I didn’t say it... but I fucking thought it.
I look down at them, turning my hat around backward. “Well, you do chores at home, don’t you?”
They both nod and stare up at me curiously.
“Think of this as like a job. You do work around here for me. . . I pay you.”
It takes them a moment of staring at the money. Longer than I would have thought. If someone had given me money at eight, I would have pocketed and run before they could have changed their mind.
“We have jobs now!” Grady beams, counting money he won’t spend. Believe me. He logs his money in a journal he keeps in his desk at school.
Cash stuffs his in his pocket and turns to look over his shoulder at someone approaching us.
It’s Aly, her purse in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. She doesn’t even look at me and nods to the boys. “Time to head home, dudes.”
Fuck, she looks good. Tanned legs, jean shorts. . . hair up revealing her beautiful neck I want to bite. You don’t know how badly I wanted to bed her over the dinette in my trailer when she walked in.
“Ridge gave us money!” Grady shows her the fifty-dollar bill I handed him.
Her wide eyes sweep to mine. Reminds me of the look I got in the trailer earlier, and I intend to keep doing things to warrant this look as it’s becoming one of my favorites. “Fifty dollars?”
I shrug. “They did good tonight.” I nod to the front gates we’re standing next to. “I’ll walk you.”
“You don’t have to.”
“You can’t trust the people in this neighborhood.”
Aly laughs, shaking her head as the boys start to walk ahead of us. “You really don’t have to, Ridge. I’m sure you have a lot to do here.”
My jaw tightens. What’s with her? Does she really not want me around? It certainly didn’t seem that way in my trailer earlier. . . or at the concession stand. You saw the way she’s been looking at me. Am I imagining the attraction?
“If you want me to leave you alone, just say so.”
She’s quiet, her eyes on the sidewalk as we cross Oak Street and pass by her parents’ house. The lights are on, but I know they’re still at the track. They’re usually the last ones to leave.
“I don’t want that,” she admits meekly, watching the boys ahead of us.
They’re jumping in the air, trying to snag the branches of low hanging tree limbs lining the streets.
“What’s your plan with teaching?” Aly asks, her eyes finally drifting in mine. “What happens when Mr. Burke comes back?”
“I’m pretty sure those kids caused that accident,” I tease, trying to lighten the mood. Only she’s serious, and I know why. She doesn’t want to get involved in something that’s going to eventually turn to shit again. “Once he comes back, I’m out of a job. It was only temporary and just kind of worked out, you know?” I bury my hands in the pockets of my shorts.
“Are you going back to Santa Barbara then?”
“No, I got laid off. Budget cuts. That’s why coming back up here seemed like a good idea.”
She’s silent for a moment, then asks, “Henry said Madalyn wants you to sell her the track?”
“She wants to make it into a tasting room.”
“That’d be awful.”
Just the mere thought of allowing Madalyn to have the property or even step foot inside the gates makes my blood boil. “I’m not letting it go. I wanted to give it to your dad, but he doesn’t want it. Said it belongs to me and soon I’d understand.”
“And do you?”
I chuckle and remove my hat, placing it on Cash’s head as he stands beside me now. “Not a fucking clue.”
Smirking, Cash adjusts it, on backward like I had it and runs up ahead again. He taunts Grady with it, holds it out and then takes it away as if to say, look, I’m wearing his hat.
Smiling, I shake my head. They remind me of Henry and me growing up. One good, one bad, both equally ready to cause trouble.
“So that leaves you here. . . for now,” Aly deduces quietly.
For now? I swallow, daring myself to look at her. “You say it like I’m here for a purpose and then I’m gone.”
Aren’t I? I certainly didn’t plan on staying when I came home, did I?
We’re at her house now, the boys barreling inside and I know for now, I’ve lost that hat because Cash isn’t giving it back. Part of me hopes he wears it in front of his dad. I’ve had the same black hat since I was in high school. Guarantee you the moment Austin sees it, he’s going to knock it off that kid’s head.
“Aren’t you?”
I glance around and then take a seat on her porch. “Last week, yeah. I wanted to leave the moment Burke came back. I wanted to sell it all and never look back at this sleepy town time and life has forgotten. But now. . .” I pause, my eyes moving over her face, her beautiful features lit up by the dim glow of her porch light. “I don’t think I could leave and feel good about it.”
Aly blows out a breath like she’d been holding it the entire time we were walking to her house. She takes a seat next to me, our shoulders brushing against one another. “Why’d you leave without saying anything?”
I never said anything to Aly after that night. Hadn’t wanted to. She turned me down and if you haven’t realized it by now, big grudge holder. “My dad didn’t leave me much of a choice. Either I left, or I was going to jail for that shit I pulled downtown. Brooks wanted to press charges against me.
She fumbles with her keys in her hand, growing more and more flustered by our conversation. Her voice is small, her body hunched forward as she attempts to curl into herself when she says, “You couldn’t have said goodbye?”
Silence screams over her words as I process them.
I watch her face, the sadness I caused, the life she lived because I left. Even if I had stayed, would it have been for the better? I didn’t do right by her from the moment we met. How was I any different? I couldn’t say I was the better choice and feel good about it.
My jaw tightens, and I stare at my hands, flipping around a bottle cap I had in my pocket. “If I had, I would have taken you with me and then I’d be arrested for kidnapping. Either way. . . jail time and I’m still not sure I would have had you.”
Her mouth pops open at my response.
I stare at her, silently saying: You were never going to choose me and you know it.
The boys draw her attention inside the house, snapping her back to reality and she breathes out slowly and takes a step back. “I better get them in bed.”
I nod, stepping away.
As I’m walking away, her sigh catches my attention. “Ridge?”
I turn but don’t say anything, waiting for what she might say next.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
She could have said anything to me, but she knew exactly what I needed to hear.