I refused to let myself get carried away. The thrill of our youth was gone. We were adults and we needed to behave as such. The longer he stood there in front of me, all passive aggressively sexy, the faster I built up my tolerance to his seduction. Us being friends was never going to happen, especially if he kept this up. I felt my stance stiffen and I looked him straight in the eye. I gritted my teeth as I pulled my phone out of my back pocket, and checked the screen to see if Beau was close to being here.
“I was just pointing out that my boyfriend will be here. Any second.”
“Something you don’t want him to see?” Reid reached his hands up and rested his hands against the end of the overhang I was standing under. His body stretched out in front of me once again caught my attention. There was no denying that he was attractive, and judging by the wicked grin on his face he was well aware of it.
“Why would I mind if he saw me having a conversation with a friend?”
“Oh that’s right.” He dropped his arms to his side. “We’re friends.”
“We are—” I started to say.
“For now,” he said under his breath.
“Don’t get any ideas, Travers. You’re lucky I’m even giving you a chance to be my friend.”
“You’re right,” he conceded easily. Almost too easily. “Friends is good with me.”
“Good.”
“Great.” He said, but I could hear the mocking tone of his voice. “As your friend, I have to ask,” he took in a breath, “was there really no one else you could date in this town? I mean... Beau?”
“Beau’s great,” I answered. He responded with a look of skepticism. “I mean it. Things are great between us.”
“All right.” He held up his hands to signify that he was going to back off, when we both heard a car door shut. Beau had pulled up in front of the diner, unbeknownst, to both Reid and me. “Speak of the devil.” He waggled his eyebrows at me before turning to greet Beau. “Hey, man. What’s up?”
“Just coming to meet my girl for lunch.” Beau smiled back.
“I was just telling your girl,” he started, “that I’m planning a party this weekend.”
“You were?” I guessed the actual subject of our conversation was better covered with the story Reid was now telling. “What exactly were you saying?”
“I’d said the construction crew had started on the house, but I hadn’t gotten to the part yet where I mentioned that they brought some equipment for us to use to get the track back in shape.” He turned to Beau and offered up a head shake. “This girl of yours has trouble paying attention.”
Beau laughed off his comment, but I did not. I might have had a momentary lapse in judgment where I stared a little too long at Reid, but I was paying attention now. I could see plain and clear what he was trying to do. Get under my skin. It was working. Dammit.
“So anyway,” he clapped his hands together in front of him, “thought I could invite some folks out to ride. You still ride?”
“Of course. I own a race shop. It’d be like false advertisement if I didn’t.” Beau chuckled as he slipped his arm over my shoulders.
“How about you, Nora? When was the last time you were taken for a real ride?” His gaze locked on mine.
“Actually,” I swallowed hard before I even attempted to answer his question. “I’m not much for rides anymore.”
“Ain’t that a shame?” He grinned.
“We could probably stop by,” Beau blurted out.
We could?
“Awesome,” Reid replied. “Guess I’ll see you two on Saturday then.”
Beau confirmed our acceptance of his invitation before I even had a chance to put my two cents in.
“Guess we will,” I replied, trying not to let the last five minutes of being alone with Reid change the thoughts I’d had about not still having feelings for him.
* * *
“I hope he’s not making a habit of showing up every time you’re around,” Beau said as we sat down to eat lunch. “I mean, I get it, it’s a small town, but every time I turn around there you are... talking to him.” The jealousy laced in his words was clear.
“Then why did you agree to go to the party this weekend?”
“It will be fun.” He tried to leave it at that, but I pressed it further.
“Why do you really want to go?”
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“I want another chance at him,” he confessed. “I want a chance to show him that I am a competitor. He’s not as great as everyone thinks he is.”
“That’s silly.” I could see the desire to beat Reid written all over Beau’s face, but the fact was, Reid was a professional racer. Beau was a weekend rider at best. How could he have possibly thought he had a chance? I couldn’t let him see that I didn’t think he was capable of beating Reid though. “You’re two grown men, do you really need to compete. Can’t you just go and ride and have a good time?”
“Doubtful.” He reached over the table and placed his hand on top of mine. “Guys like to compete. We like winning and talking shit and things that go fast. It’s just what we do.”
“Well it’s stupid.”
“I am what I am.” He laughed.
I guess I understood his whole nature of a man argument, but I had a bad feeling about it. I used to love going to the races and watching Reid win. Even though it wasn’t me out there, I was just as excited when he won.
And the victory sex was pretty fantastic.
I had to stop letting my mind play tricks on me. Dangling thoughts of the past in front of me to torture me. Especially because I had a feeling I was going to be dragged into the middle of whatever the outcome of Beau and Reid on the track together again.
“Do you not want to go?” he asked. “Is there a reason we shouldn’t?”
“No,” I answered quickly. “I mean... no reason I can think of.” I wanted to be honest with him. I wanted to tell him that I’d talked to Reid about what had happened between us, but hearing his reaction to Reid “showing up” all the time and his desire to beat him at a race made it seem like a bad time. How do you tell your boyfriend that you think you might still have feelings for an ex? I knew what it was like to have the rug pulled out from underneath you and I didn’t want to do that to him. Especially when I was still unsure about what I really wanted. Or better yet, who I wanted to be with. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Like a serious question.” He nodded in response. “What kind of future do you see for us?”
“Long term?”
“I guess.” I honestly didn’t know what I meant. I’d never pictured the long term. I was doing my best with the day to day.
“The typical timeline, I guess,” he answered. “Whatever you want.” He shrugged. “Why the sudden interest?”
“I’ve just been thinking lately.”
“We could move in together if you wanted,” he suggested. I pondered the idea for about ten seconds before deciding I was nowhere close to ready to take a step like that. I envisioned myself pulling into the driveway in the subdivision on the east side of town where Beau lived. His house was nice. Recently built, with everything a girl could want—a big kitchen, decked out bathroom, walk-in closets. But as nice as it sounded, it wasn’t me that I pictured living there with him. It would have been very reassuring to my psyche if I’d been able to at least take the mental step of living with Beau.
“Yeah, maybe,” I replied. Or maybe not. I felt like an ass for not being able to give him an answer one way or another, but how could I? And, it’s not like he seemed gung-ho about the whole thing either. We could move in together and then he was eating french fries like he hadn’t just asked me to make a life altering decision. A little enthusiasm would have been nice. From either of us. I had a lot of thinking to do and neither Beau, nor Reid, was making it any easier.