“Hey,” Rhyland protests. “I’m not cocky at all.”
I roll my eyes. “You might not come off as that, but with the way you look, I’m sure there’s a little bit of cockiness in you.”
Rhyland bites down on my lip. “And how do I look exactly?”
Shit. I walked straight in to that one, didn’t I?
“Whatever, you both know your pretty, so don’t play dumb,” I say, deciding that owning what I said is the way to go.
Blaise straightens, slipping his sunglasses down the brim of his nose. “Did you just call us pretty?”
I shrug innocently. “The name seems pretty fitting. Do you prefer my other nicknames instead?”
“You can call me anything you want for now, sweetheart.” Blaise lips tug into a grin and Rhyland rubs his hand across his mouth, I think to conceal a smile. “But when I win, I want you to call memaster. In fact, it can be my first favor.”
“I’m going to love watching your face twist in pain when I slam your man goodies with the tip of my boot.” I leave it at that and hike back to my car, ignoring his chuckles as I slide into the torn leather seat of my car.
“Are we ready to do this?” Rhyland shouts as he moves to the center of the road.
Londyn ushers Payton and Bailey to the side and into the shade of the trees as I shift the car into drive and pull forward to where Rhyland is standing.
After Blaise and I line up, I crank up some music, tuning out the outside world as best as I can. Then I stare straight ahead at the desolate road in front of me that stretches between the cliff side.
Most of the races I’ve participated in have taken place on back roads that I’ve driven on before. This road is new to me, which gives me a disadvantage, but I try not to think too much about that as Rhyland raises his arms in the air.
“On your mark,” Rhyland starts. “Get set, go!” He drops his arms, and then the squealing of tires floods the air as Blaise and I peel out.
I focus on the road ahead as I speed up, only measuring where Blaise is a couple times. Every time I look his way, he’s right beside me. That’s okay. I’m awesome at turn arounds and figure that’s where I’ll lose him.
As I approach the rock, I don’t slow down, but speed up instead. Blaise must hesitate because his car slides out of my view. I mentally give myself a high-five then shove all thoughts aside and focus. I’m approaching the rock fast. If I don’t do this just right, I’m going to end up skidding off course, or worse, off the road and into the river.
Just like Mom.
My heart skips a beat at the thought, and my hands begin to sweat.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I chant as I grip the wheel. “Keep your shit together, Hadley. Don’t let your head go there.”
When the front end of my nose passes the rock, I press on the brake and crank the wheel. The timing is perfect, and the turn would’ve been, too, if my tires didn’t hit a patch of gravel and I started to skid.
For a faltering, heart terrifying moment, I’m a little girl again, standing on the side of the road, watching as my mom loses control of her car.
My heart races as I slowly let the car straighten out to avoid overcorrecting. Only when I regain control again does my heart settle down.
Letting out a shaky breath, I press on the gas. The skidding incident has shaved off some of my lead, and by the time I start racing toward the finish line, Rhyland and I are side by side again.
Refusing to lose, I slam my foot down on the gas pedal. The engine roars as I push the car faster, gripping the wheel tighter, determined to win.
“Come on, come on, come—” I zoom past the finish line, and so does Blaise. “Shit.”
I slow down, knowing the race was close. So close that I’m not one hundred percent confident I won. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to fake it.
I turn around and park on the side of the road near my sisters, then jump out of the car with a huge-ass grin on my face. Deep down inside, though, I’m a bit shaky, not just over losing, but over momentarily losing control of my car near a river.
I quickly shake my jitteriness off as Blaise gets out of his car.
“What’re you smiling about?” Blaise asks. “Because you get to kiss me?”
“No, because I totally won that race,” I scoff. “Now get over here so my boot can get acquainted with your balls.”