“Why?”
“Because I’m showing up with you.”
We were walking around the back of the shop when she stopped dead in her tracks.
“What? Why? Do they know we are just fake dating?”
“Yeah, they already know the main points of what’s going on and why. At least, why for me, not for you.”
Her chest rose and fell, the panic in her eyes clear.
“Calm down,” I said, stepping a little closer. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
“What if they are all just hitting on me all night? What if they grab at me? Are you going to care to stop them? What if they say nasty things to me? And do you really think telling me to calm down works?”
“What the fuck?” I asked. “Who the fuck have you been hanging out with all the time? You think they are going to grab you?”
“I’m nervous! Dean’s friends were assholes to me, and I just had to sit there and take it. He thought it was funny and would go along with it. I don’t know what to expect. Based on you, your friends will be even more scary than his.”
“I can guarantee that none of that will happen. I would give my damn car with that guarantee. Not only would I fight any of my friends that treated you anything like that, none of them would. Unfortunately for them, they seem to all have a thing for strong, demanding, stubborn women. Don’t be fooled by any single one of us or our looks. We would lay down and let any one of you run us over before we thought we were in charge or hurt you.” I laughed harder. “Some of these guys might let their girls do it for less. I don’t know much about Dean, but I promise none of the guys think they could get away with any of that shit, and they don’t want to.”
“You’re serious?”
“About as serious you can be about getting run over,” I said. “You can run the world here, Daze, and no one is going to make you feel less than that.”
She finally got quiet, but I knew it wouldn’t last long.
I went around the fire, introducing her to everyone. I figured she already knew Ransom, Fox, Jax, and Scout from high school, but I still named them off, explaining that Ransom was with Quinn, Fox was dating Ash, Jax was with Carly, and Scout was now dating Chase.
“So, you all work together?”
They looked around at each other, but Quinn spoke up.
“Yes, in a very messy way. We all work at the garage in some capacity, but Ash’s dad has a big racing empire that we all do things at, too. Ash, Scout, Fox and hopefully Kye all race with him. Carly is an amazing chef and not only feeds us all, but runs her social media cooking business stuff. Ransom and I run and organize most of the garage stuff now, since everyone else is so busy. Has Kye told you about his racing?”
Daisy looked at me, and then back at Quinn. “A little, but nothing more than wanting to race with Holt. I mean, we met with him, but they didn’t talk about the racing part much, just the Kye messing up part.”
“Quinn, can we not?” I asked, not needing Daisy to know more about me, and already knowing what Quinn was going to say. I guess I should have thought more about that when I brought her here, though.
“No, we absolutely can.”
“We’re the embarrassing family that wants to tell everyone how proud of our little Kye we are,” Jax said.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Ha. You’ll have to get through Carly first.”
“Hiding behind your girlfriend again?”
“Always.”
I groaned, but Quinn continued.
“We can’t help that we’re proud of you and want to tell her. He’s amazing, Daisy. He’s going to be one of the best racers in the country, and that’s if he doesn’t become a professional stunt driver,” Quinn said, beaming at me.
“Is she serious?” Daisy asked, looking at me as her eyebrows jumped up.
“We can only hope,” I said.
Quinn shook her head. “Fine, Kye. Since you are only going to talk less and less if we talk about you, I’ll ask Daisy questions.”
Daisy moved closer, her hand going down on the bench between us, and I realized it was because she wanted to touch me.
And fuck my life that I wanted her to.
I moved my hand the smallest amount closer until our pinkies were nearly touching. I ignored the way my heart rate picked up and tried to focus on the conversation again.
“Tell us about you, Daisy. What are you doing out with Kye tonight?” Carly asked, leaning back against Jax and looking at me with a smile.
“Oh, and what do you think of Kye and all of us now?” Scout asked.
Daisy let out a hard breath and leaned the smallest amount closer to me, her hand sliding across the bench until we were touching.
“Honestly, I just spent the day with my so-called friends and my ex-boyfriend, who threw me off a boat. And really, if you would have asked me a few weeks ago which group was more likely to try to get me killed, I would have said you guys without a doubt, but obviously I was wrong, so there is now zero judgment of you all from me. I literally went death warp speed a bit ago, and that still felt safer than being on a boat with my friends. At this point, I literally know nothing about how to read people, so even if you all sucked, I may not notice, but I don’t think you do. And besides that, I was hanging out with Kye because he was the only one I thought I could call that would one, actually show up, and two, not judge me to no end for what happened.”
They all stared at her, silent and mouths open, until Carly got up and walked to the cooler. “Honestly,” she said. “It sounds like you could use a drink.”
“Or maybe ten,” Scout added, her eyes wide as she looked at me.
