Page 22 of Kiss & Collide (Racing Hearts #2)

“S he’s nobody,” Chase said, a knee-jerk reaction.

Violet scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Sure. Nobody. Her and Liam, two complete nobodies you can’t manage to hold a normal conversation with.”

He turned away, raking his hand through his hair. “It’s ancient history.”

“Doesn’t feel that way right now.”

He winced. That was bad, what had just happened between them. She wasn’t wrong. He had not been thinking about Violet, and that was really shitty.

“I’m sorry, Violet. I was an ass.”

He sat down on the edge of the bed and dropped his head into his hands. She was quiet for a beat, then he heard her cross the room and sit down next to him. “Tell me about her.”

“It’s not important.”

“The fuck it’s not. Tell me.”

He drew a deep breath and raised his head. He kept his eyes on the far wall. “I told you I was in Hansbach’s young driver program with Liam.”

“Yeah.”

“We were best friends back then.”

“Can’t quite picture that.”

He let out a grim chuckle, too. “Yeah, me neither. Not anymore.”

“And Sophie?”

“She was my girlfriend.”

“Yeah, that was my guess. How long?”

“Me and her? A year and a half.”

Violet let out a low whistle. “I didn’t think you did that sort of thing. Long-term.”

“I don’t,” he snapped. “Anymore.”

“So I’m guessing Sophie dumped you for Liam?”

“Eventually. But him and me … that started to go south before that, on the track.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everybody’s aggressive behind the wheel.

We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t, right?

But Liam … with him it was different. We were racing at Sachsenring, and it was that same bullshit he pulled in qualifying in Austria, moving in the braking zone, refusing to concede a pass …

He didn’t just toe right up to the line, he crossed it, over and over, seeing what he could get away with, until he finally caught my rear tire and forced me into the fucking wall. ”

“Yeah, some drivers can be assholes like that—”

“I was the only thing standing between him and first place. So he put me out of the fucking race. He did it two more times that season, and at the end of it, one of us had an offer to drive F3, and it wasn’t me, who crashed out of three races.”

Violet paused for a beat. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, well”—he shook his head—“it wasn’t just that.

You know I’ve always had a problem with sponsorships and shit.

Liam never had that problem. His family has money, so they hired someone to put together deals for him.

And that’s how it works, right?” He let out a bitter scoff.

“Deals mean money, money means racing. For Liam, it meant he kept moving up.”

“So where does Sophie fit in?”

“She followed the money.”

“Are you serious?”

He shrugged. “He was a much better deal than I was. She was trying to make it as an influencer.”

“I thought she looked familiar. I’ve seen her online. Famous but no one’s really sure why.”

“That’s Soph. By then, I was hustling just to drive from week to week.

Might be test-driving for a team one week, then a race in the Le Mans series the next.

Unstable, and not exactly glamorous. Not all that surprising she bailed.

Liam … the sponsorship deals he was getting, his race results …

it seemed like it was just a matter of time before he landed in Formula One.

So Sophie took that gamble. And it’s worked out for her.

” He couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

“It’s been a lucrative partnership for both of them. ”

She looked at him with those blue eyes. And Chase had the unsettling feeling she was seeing through him. “So that explains you.”

“In what way?”

“The manwhore thing. Now that I know you a little better, it doesn’t exactly fit. But if you swore off relationships after her—”

“I didn’t. Not consciously anyway. It was just …” He bit back what he was about to say, but Violet wasn’t having it.

“What?”

He shook his head firmly. “Nothing.”

“Tell me,” she groaned theatrically.

Despite the heaviness of the conversation, he chuckled.

“It’s stupid. It’s just … my parents have this great marriage, and for them, it was love at first sight.

One look and they were together for life.

It’s dumb, but I guess I grew up just expecting that’s how it worked. That’s how it would happen for me.”

“So you and Sophie … it was love at first sight?”

He shrugged. “For me? Maybe? At least, I thought it was. For her, I guess not so much.”

Violet inhaled deeply, running her palms down her thighs. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I get the sense she wishes she’d waited it out with you a little longer.”

“Bullshit.”

“I saw the way she looked at you. There was a vibe.”

“Right. Because now I’m in Formula One.”

“Liam might have been a strategic move. But you’re a contender now.” Violet paused for a beat. “She could have the whole package. The access she needs and the guy she really wants.”

“No, she can’t,” he said firmly. It had never occurred to him that Sophie might regret what she’d done.

But now that he considered it for a beat, he found it didn’t much matter.

Whatever he’d felt for her back then was long gone.

It felt like a faded memory from someone else’s life. So much for love at first sight.

“You wouldn’t want to … I don’t know … steal her back?”

He turned to look at Violet fully. Those dark-rimmed eyes were fixed on him, and that expression he knew so well was giving nothing away. His head told him she didn’t care. He could tell Violet that the two of them were done right now—tonight—and she’d shrug and move on without a backward glance.

But something else—his gut—told him maybe that wasn’t the case. That maybe there was something lurking in the depths of those dark blue eyes, some part of her that was hoping he wouldn’t choose Sophie.

Maybe he was just fooling himself. Maybe he was the one who didn’t want to let go. Maybe he was just hoping that he mattered to her—at least a little. Because, as much as he hated to admit it, she was starting to matter to him.

He raised a hand and cupped her cheek. The delicacy of her features always surprised him, so unexpected for someone who grabbed the world in her teeth the way she did. “No,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to be chosen for status. And I don’t want her back.”

Violet didn’t move a muscle. No relieved smile, no flicker of happiness in her eyes. But she also hadn’t gotten up and left yet, and the Violet he’d known three months ago would not have stayed. She wouldn’t be sitting next to him listening to all of this. She wouldn’t be … waiting.

Violet was too hardened to hope, or wish, or even want. Wanting anything—or anyone—was a weakness she wouldn’t allow. He knew her well enough by now to know that much. But she’d left the door open for him, which was not nothing.

He set his other hand on her knee. Her eyelashes fluttered, just a whisper of a reaction. “I’m sorry about tonight. I let them get in my head when I was with you, and that was wrong.”

“You don’t owe me an apology.”

“Yes, I do. Will you stay?”

She opened her mouth to reply, then hesitated.

“Stay and let me make it up to you.”

He slid his hand to the back of her neck, holding her still so he could lean in and kiss a spot just below her ear.

He could feel it in the air when she made up her mind, a shift in the energy around her, an infinitesimal softening of her body.

She was staying.