We break down on the track and I distantly realize Nate still hasn’t said a word. He’s clearly confused with a mix of pissed off, surprised, shocked, and a little more confusion.
“What the hell is this?” Nate demands as his eyes run over the Camaro.
“I couldn’t do it, man,” Jesse says. “After the crash, when you told me to take it for scrap metal… I couldn’t do it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demands as emotion begins to cloud my head and completely overtake me.
I release Nate’s hand and throw my arms around Jesse, giving him the tightest hug, but his eyes are solely on his brother. “I couldn’t trash it. You worked your ass off on it, so mom agreed to let me get it fixed. We knew how much this thing meant to you.”
Nate’s eyes widen as realization finally hits. “This is mine? My actually Camaro. The one that was trashed?”
“The same one.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he whoops in excitement, bounding forward and throwing himself at his brother. I duck away just in time to avoid being crushed between their big bodies. “You little fucking turd,” Nate laughs. “How could I not know about this?”
Jesse just laughs as Nate goes on in shock. He releases his brother and throws himself at the Camaro, checking over every tiny little detail. “Holy fuck, man. How the hell did they do this? This thing was fucked up.”
“I know,” Jesse grins. “It took longer than expected but they did a fucking great job. There are still a few things missing that you had on the old version, but I figured you can add that later.”
Nate shakes his head, completely astonished. “Holy fuck, man.” He reaches out for Jesse again and pulls him in hard against his chest as he claps him on the back. “Thanks,” he says. “You have no fucking clue how much this means to me.”
“Yeah, well, you convinced mom to let me get a boat so I figured I owed you.”
Nate howls in laughter, bouncing around, unable to control his excitement. “Damn fucking straight.” He releases his bother once again and reaches out as quick as lightning, wrapping his hand around my forearm. He tugs hard and I crash into his chest as his arms protectively wrap around me. “Did you know about this?”
I shake my head as I smile up at him. “No,” I laugh. “I had no clue.”
“Hey,” a voice calls from behind me. I glance over my shoulder to see the other driver I’d completely forgot about. “This is sweet and all, but I came here to race. Let’s get the show on the road.”
Nate looks up and over at Jesse. “Is it ready to race?” he questions.
Jesse’s response is a wicked grin as he tosses the familiar old keychain to Nate. Nate plucks it out of the sky and grins right back at him.
I’ll take that as a yes.
Nate tightens his hold around my waist. “What do you say, babe? You with me?”
I look up into the eyes I love and I can’t possibly resist. “Hell yeah.”
Precisely three minutes later, Nate flies across the finish line with me holding onto the ‘holy shit’ bar as a storm of dust flies up behind him, declaring him still the undefeated champion of Broken Hill.
“That was incredible,” I laugh as I fly out of the passenger’s seat and around the front of the sleek matte black Camaro which has held so many memories for me over the past year, most of which where I was being kidnapped by the guy I thought was nothing but a bully.
Nate grins as he gets out of the car. I’ve seen him happy a million times before but nothing compares to the look of absolute joy in his eyes, making me promise myself that I will do anything and everything in my power to see that look each and every day.
Fuck, I love him so goddamn much.
This man is my life and watching him being bombarded by his ecstatic friends as they celebrate his win is something I’ll never get enough of.
Nate Ryder is simply incredible.
He’s my heart. My soul.
I’m ripped out of my thoughts as Brooke crashes into me. “That was awesome,” she declares.
And just like that, the mood for our Friday night has been set.
An hour later we pile into the cars after Jesse told the world there will be a party at his place. Everyone got on their phones. Alerts were sent out. Friends were called. A shitload of pizza was ordered.
This is going to be a good night.
“Hey,” Nate calls out, gaining Jesse’s attention. Jesse looks back and has just enough time to process the fact that Nate is tossing something at him. Jesse catches it before looking down and realizing they’re the keys to the Mustang. “Drive her home.”