Page 29 of Kiss & Collide (Racing Hearts #2)

Austin, Texas

“G ood lord,” Violet groaned. “If it’s this bloody hot in October I can’t imagine what it’s like here in the summer.” She’d worn a slate-gray linen trouser suit, but she still felt like she was baking. She wasn’t cut out for this climate.

“Well, this is Texas,” Chase replied, leaning against the railing of the roof deck of the hospitality center, looking cool and unruffled in a deep burgundy short-sleeve dress shirt and jeans—nice, designer.

She’d managed to banish those ratty old things he wore the first night they’d slept together to the waste bin.

Funny that she could still remember so much of that night—a night that was meant to be forgettable—right down to what he’d worn.

“I thought this late in the day it would be nice for you to eat dinner outside,” she said. “But if your family is too hot up here, just text me. I can arrange for some space downstairs.”

Chase looked up from his phone. “Text you? Where are you going?”

She shrugged. “My office?”

He blinked. “My parents are coming. You’re meeting them.”

What?

“What?” she said out loud. She did not meet parents.

No one wanted her to meet parents. She wasn’t the sort of person people presented to their parents.

When she was a kid, parents usually stepped in front of their children, instinctively assuming she might bite.

Later, meeting parents had usually prompted them to turn to their sons and ask, Whatever happened to that nice Claire girl? She was lovely.

“Of course you’re going to meet them,” Chase said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “They’re going to love you.”

She scoffed. “No, they will not.”

She could be winning enough in small doses. Handshakes and smiles, professional small talk—she could manage all of that with ease. But with any prolonged exposure to her, his family was sure to see just how … challenging she was, to use Ian’s description. He was a wanker, but he wasn’t wrong.

“Trust me,” he said with a grin. “They will.”

Just then one of the track PAs opened the glass door leading to the rooftop lounge and ushered in what was obviously Chase’s family.

“Hey, guys!” Chase’s face lit up with happiness as he strode across the outdoor lounge to meet them.

His father met him first, catching him up in a bone-crushing, back-slapping embrace that lasted several beats.

“My boy!” the older man said. “We’re so proud of you.”

Chase got his dark good looks straight from his father.

The older man was a little thicker through the midsection and silver had begun to sprinkle his jet-black hair, but the face was just an older version of Chase’s.

Same nearly black eyes, same golden skin, same killer cheekbones.

He was wearing a pale blue button-down shirt and dark trousers with a linen blazer, still noticeably European despite his years in America.

When Chase managed to disentangle himself from his father, his mother was waiting there to hug him, too, having to stand on tiptoe to reach him.

She was petite and trim, in a blue floral sundress and wedge sandals.

She wore her dark brown hair in a long bob and her pale skin was lightly dusted with freckles.

The only thing giving her age away was the pair of light laugh lines bracketing her eyes when she smiled, which she seemed to do often.

When she pulled away from Chase, she reached up and took his face in her hands, smiling up at him with an affectionate warmth that was totally alien to Violet.

The younger brother—good god, there were two of them—was next to greet Chase.

He had the same dark hair and eyes as his father and older brother, but with his mother’s lighter complexion.

If she remembered her notes correctly, he was only nineteen, but carried himself with an easy confidence that made him seem older.

And beautiful, just like his brother. He gripped Chase’s hand with one hand and thumped him hard on the back with the other.

“Dude,” the younger Navarro said. “Look at you. Formula One. Now I’ll never hear the end of it. ‘Why can’t you be like your brother?’”

“Gives you something to motivate you, kid.”

His father protested that they were proud of all their kids while his mother jokingly begged Chase not to goad his little brother into taking even more risks behind the wheel.

Now that Violet had made sure they’d arrived and they were happily catching up, she’d planned to slip away and leave them to their dinner. Except Chase turned back and motioned for her to join them.

Oh, god, this was happening. Why? Why did he want her to meet his lovely, normal family? They were sure to wonder why their beloved son—and it was clear Chase was beloved—was hanging around with her. But she made her feet move, crossing the deck to join them.

“Guys, I want you to meet Violet Harper, the head of Pinnacle PR. Everything that’s happened to me this season … the magazines, the interviews, the sponsorships … it’s all her.”

Chase’s mother extended her hand first. “Violet, we’re so happy to meet you. Chase has told us all about you.”

She shot him an incredulous look. He had?

“Violet,” Chase said, “this is my mom, Nicole; my dad, Javier; and my little brother, Tyler.”

“Not so little, man,” Tyler protested.

“Always will be to me,” Chase replied, ruffling his hair. Tyler swatted his hand away and punched him in the bicep.

“Boys,” Nicole admonished gently, like they were still small, but she was smiling as she said it.

“I’m sorry Sam couldn’t make it,” Chase said. “You’d love her, Violet. Tough as nails, just like you.”

“Violet, I can’t tell you how grateful we are for all you’ve done for our son,” Javier said, shaking her hand enthusiastically.

His Spanish accent reminded her of that night in Paris, when Chase had spoken Spanish to her and her whole body had nearly gone up in flames upon hearing his accent.

She wasn’t even sure what he’d said to her, but remembering the look in his eyes, she’d guessed it had been dirty.

“Oh, he does all the really hard work out on the track. I just make sure everyone’s paying attention to him when he does it.”

“You’ve worked a miracle,” Nicole said. “Everybody we know has been calling us up to tell us they’ve seen his picture somewhere.”

“What do you say to doing that for me?” Tyler said with a grin she was all too familiar with already. Guess they both got that from their father.

“Hey, hands to yourself,” Chase said, shooting his brother a look that was only half teasing.

Tyler held up his hands in defense. “Wouldn’t dream of it, big brother.”

Was Chase staking some kind of claim on her? Here? In front of his whole family?

“Okay,” she said, mustering the warmest smile she could manage. “You’re all set up for dinner here at the roof lounge, but as I told Chase, if you’re too warm outside, I’m happy to get you settled in the hospitality center downstairs—”

“Oh, but you’re having dinner with us, aren’t you?” Nicole protested.

“I—”

Suddenly Chase’s hand landed on the small of her back, solid and warm. “Yes, she is.” She looked over at him and he just smiled back. “Of course she is.”

Then they were all happily talking over each other, filling each other in on news as Chase herded them to their table. There was no way for her to extricate herself without making a scene, so Violet let herself be herded along with them.

She was mostly quiet as they got settled and ordered.

Nicole and Javier bickered gently when Javier declared he was ordering a steak and Nicole reminded him about his high cholesterol.

Then Javier said she was being too American, and this was a special occasion.

By the end of the argument, if you could even call it that, their hands were clasped on the table and they were grinning at each other, all twinkly-eyed and sweet.

She couldn’t remember ever seeing her parents interact like that. Maybe it had happened briefly, years ago, before she’d come along. But as far back as she could remember, it was all frosty silences and passive-aggressive sniping, when it didn’t descend into outright warfare.

Well, sitting here in silence wasn’t going to make them think any better of her, so she busted out her best company manners. “How did you two meet? I don’t think Chase ever said.”

“Here we go,” Tyler muttered with an eye roll.

Chase leaned into her. “All three of us kids can recite this story by heart.”

“I was a freshman at University of Chicago,” Nicole said.

“Who’d never left Minnesota,” Chase and Tyler recited in unison.

Nicole swatted at Tyler’s arm.

“It was just a few weeks into the semester, and I took the L into the Loop so I could buy my mother a birthday present at Marshall Field’s. And as I’m leaving the store, just like that, the lights go out.”

“What happened?” Violet asked.

“Blackout,” Javier said. “The whole city, for hours.”

“Here’s the thing,” Nicole continued. “I’d just started school, and I only knew how to get to campus on the L.

I didn’t know the streets, so I had no idea how to walk home.

Now everybody’s got maps on their phones, but we didn’t have smartphones back then.

So, I’m standing there on the sidewalk trying to decide what to do, when all of a sudden this boy asks me if I’m okay. ”

Javier leaned in and stage-whispered. “She looked nervous. I wanted to be sure she was all right.”

Tyler eyed his father. “And?”

Javier shrugged with a smile. “And I thought she was beautiful.”

“Awww,” Tyler and Chase chorused together, like it was a line in a play.

Violet could imagine them telling and retelling this story at every family gathering until everyone knew it by heart, but wanted to hear it again just the same.

As much as she hated to admit it, it made something ache in her chest. What must it be like, to have this kind of love and support at your back, no matter what? She’d never known.