Page 28 of Racing Heat

“I just thought that maybe you had a boyfriend or something.

My eyes narrow. “Nope, no boyfriend. Don’t you think with as much as our friend groups cross you would have seen or heard about him?”

“Yeah, I guess I would have,” he replies. “But I don’t know what it is you do when I’m not around.”

“Yeah, let’s go get some coffee or something.” I move to get into the Jeep.

“Are you sure you don’t mind giving me a lift home?”

“I wouldn’t have agreed to do it if I didn’t want to. Why? Do you live far away?”

“Nah, sort of by Danny.”

I’ve been to Danny’s a time or two. Once he and Mac went public, he had us over to swim and has hosted some cookouts for us. It’s been nice. Sometimes Jase is there, and sometimes he’s not. But it’s nice when everyone is there, because sometimes I think Danny feels awkward when it’s just him and the girls.

“Well, you’re going to have to give me directions.”

“I will. Where were you thinking of stopping for that coffee?”

“The Sandbar,” I tell him.

“That’s by the team dorms. Are you sure you aren’t worried about being seen with me?” His tone has dropped to a sultry low, and I wonder if there’s something more behind it. I don’t get to ask, though, because he laughs at me. “I just remember Danny and Mac telling us about how paranoid she was when they were sneaking around. Do you want to be seen with me?”

I shift in my seat. “There’s nothing happening here, so why would I be nervous?” I say the words slowly, like I’m looking for clarification.

“Sure” is all he says.

“We’ll be fine, I’m sure.” I maneuver the Jeep out of my space and head toward my favorite little coffee spot. “I bet you didn’t know they have a pretty tasty protein coffee.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him shake his head. “I did not know that.”

“Well, they do. So, I can get my coffee and get some protein at the same time.”

The rest of the drive there is silent. I’m not sure why it feels so awkward driving with him in the car. We don’t have this problem before or after our runs. When I see him at practices or games, we fall into conversation easily. I think back to when he talked me through my nerves before our last game.

“What?” he asks me.

“I didn’t say anything.” I steal a glance in his direction to find him staring at me.

“You were smiling pretty big over there. I was just wondering what you were thinking.”

“Oh. Nothing too important.”

“Sure, looked like it, with that smile,” he teases me. “Come on, what could you be thinking about that you can’t tell me.”

I sigh and pull into The Sandbar and put the car into park. “It’s embarrassing,” I admit with a shrug. How can I tell him that I was thinking about the nice way he’d comforted me? He’ll think thatIthink more is happening here than there actually is, right?

“Well, I don’t know why you told me that, because now I definitely need to know what it is you’re thinking about. Were you having dirty thoughts?” His voice drops an octave and has a gravelly sound to it.

It’s sexy.

I turn so that he has a full view of my face. “It was not a dirty thought.”

“Oh, do you not have those?”

I reach over and smack his shoulder. “Even if I did, why would I tell you about them?”

“I have them. You don’t need to be embarrassed about it. Unless, of course, it was about me?”