Drifting into Darkness (29 page)

“What?” I shrieked with a laugh. “You didn’t.”

She laughed and nodded at me. “I so did. I’ve done it a couple of times before. Derek doesn’t especially like me showin’ his friends my ass, but I can’t help it. I get all excited and can’t help myself.” She looked over at Devon. He was walking backwards, listening to Lisa. “He’ll make you delete it,” she directed to Devon.

He grinned. “Not this time, Lisa,” he said, shaking his head. “I told you the last time you did it; I would only delete it the last time.” He turned around and jogged a few feet before turning once more. “Just think of it this way,” he said with a smirk. “It’ll get a hell of a lot of views,” he said as he turned to finally catch up with the guys.

“Is he seriously going to put that in his video?”

She shrugged and laughed. “Probably, but I don’t care. It’s just the top half of my ass. Plus I’m wearing a thong so it’s not like they’ll really see anything.”

She was nuts. They were
all
nuts. But I couldn’t deny I was having fun.

We finally made our way to the bleachers that were lined up around the track and my mouth dropped open. I came to a complete stop to get a good look around. She wasn’t lying the first day I met her when she said that the girls dressed like skanks.

“I told ya,” she said in my ear.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Some of these girls should be fined for indecent exposure. “Do they think they are trying out for the playboy mansion or something?”

Lisa laughed and Joe walked up to me, resting a forearm on my shoulder. “Mmm, Mmm,” he said, biting his lip. “I love coming here.” That was all he said as he walked off to talk to a group of girls who must have lost half of their clothes.

I shook my head and looked at Lisa. “Is it always like this?”

“Yeah. It’s worse here than it is at our track.”

I thought back on the night Landon took me to the track and I couldn’t remember seeing girls dressed that way. But then again, I was more focused on the fact he was holding my hand than anything.

I looked down at what Lisa was wearing. She had on cut off white shorts with a light blue halter-top and wedge shoes. She was cute, but simple, without being trashy. “I’m so glad you aren’t dressed like that too. I’d seriously have to reconsider this friend thing.”

“Ha, girl, you’ve nothing to worry about. I don’t need to flash my goods. I’ve already got my prize,” she smiled. “Come on, let’s go up and sit with the gang.”

I followed her up the bleachers to where everyone was sitting. Including the two guys I’d met the night at The Diner with Landon.

“So, what did you think of the street racing?” Derek asked as we sat down.

“It was all right, I guess,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. My fear of speeding was brought up in a lunch conversation one day, so he knew I wasn’t exactly jumping up for joy. But I didn’t want to flat out admit I had fun proving them all right.

“It was
all right
? I saw you laughing in the car,” he stated as he nudged my shoulder, causing me to laugh. “There’s no denying it. I can see you trying to hide that smile.”

And I was, I was biting my lip when I looked at him and laughed, “Okay, okay, it was great. Landon was right; it’s definitely an adrenaline rush. But, it still freaks me out.”

Everyone laughed and Derek grabbed me into a hug, the best he could since we were sitting down.

“Aw, you’re part of the family now,” Lisa cooed.

“Is there a reason you’re hugging my girl, when your’s is right there for you to fondle?” I looked up to see Landon standing a few feet away with a grin on his face.

Derek let me go and scooted over for Landon to sit.

“Derek was just welcoming her to the family, since you popped her street-racing cherry and all,” Joe stated.

I scrunched up my nose. “Thanks for that, Joe.”

“No problem,” he grinned.

Landon wrapped his arm around mine and entwined our fingers. “You all right?” he asked as he leaned down to whisper in my ear.

I smiled up at him. “Yeah, I’m great,” I said as I rubbed my finger along his finger. “Where is your car? Aren’t you supposed to sit in it and wait for the race?”

“No, I’m one of the last cars to race. The more experienced drivers go last.”

Well, I guess that makes sense. Racing against someone who didn’t know what they were doing wouldn’t be much of a challenge. “Do you know who you’re racing against? Or do you get to choose or something?” I had no idea how this worked.

“Yeah, who did they pair you up with?” Derek asked.

“Luke Stewart.”

Derek nodded. “He’ll be a good run.”

“Yeah,” Landon replied.

“What about that Javier guy? Is he here?” I hoped he wasn’t so we wouldn’t have a run in with him again.

Landon huffed. “Yeah, he’s here, but they won’t pair us until next week.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a rule that got set up a couple of years ago. If you are going to be in the big summer race, then you don’t get paired up with your competition after it’s been set. There’d been a lot of taunting and crap that was going on a while ago. We take this race seriously so stuff like that isn’t needed, so they made it into a rule.”

I nodded my head, understanding what he was talking about.

I heard some engines revving and looked up to see that they already had some cars lined up. “Looks like they are about to start,” Derek stated.

I leaned up against Landon as the races started. It was one race after another with no breaks. I got the same feeling watching them as I did when Landon brought me to the races last Friday. It was amazing to watch. I still didn’t understand the whole time clock thing, but I did know the lower the time, the better you were. And the better you were, the higher rank you got in the community. It seemed like everyone wanted to be recognized one way or another.

According to all the talk I was hearing, Landon and this guy Javier were the best. Apparently, Javier was King B, until Landon showed him up. They’d been at each other’s throats ever since. It was also why Landon had so many girls following him around like lost puppies. He was the new big thing and they all wanted a piece.

When it came time for Landon to head down to his car, we all went down to the fence that surrounded the track. Landon held my hand until Devon found a good spot to shoot.

Landon turned to me with a smile. “Good luck kiss for the race?”

I smiled and leaned up to press my lips to his. I was only going to give him a soft kiss, but he took it further by wrapping his arms around me and running his tongue along the seam of my mouth. I opened up for him and he kissed me thoroughly to the point where I almost forgot where we were, which couldn’t happen in this group since they started whistling and chanting Landon’s name.

He pulled back from me with a smile and I laughed.

“You can’t lose now after that kinda kiss,” Lisa said from beside me.

“I didn’t plan on losing, anyway,” he smirked and gave me a wink as he walked away toward his car.

Lisa pulled me with her to the fence so I could have a clear view of the race. “You could’ve started a fire with that kiss he just gave you.”

I bit my lip and blushed. I wasn’t one for PDA and wasn’t even thinking about it at the time. “He can definitely start a fire with those lips.” I giggled and looked at Lisa.

“Oh, boy.” She laughed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, hey, there he is.”

I looked at the starting line to see Landon lined and ready to go. Then I saw the other car he was racing against. “Is that a…Viper?” I asked Derek, who was standing right next to Lisa.

He shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn’t a big deal. “Yeah, but always remember, you may have a nice car but that doesn’t mean it runs well. Landon has put more money into his engine than this guy probably has. Just watch. You’ll see.”

The engines started to rev and I watched nervously as they each did burn outs and rolled slowly to the white line. The smell from the burned rubber was overwhelming being so close; it almost made me feel sick.

A voice sounded over the loud speaker announcing the race was about to start. The first light turned yellow, then the next, and the next after that. Then the green light lit up and the cars took off. We all started to cheer in excitement.

They were lined up at first, but you could see Landon slowly easing his way past him. I couldn’t see much after he passed by us, but it was easy to tell who the winner was.

Lisa turned to me with a huge grin and raised her hand to me. I lifted mine up and gave her a high five. “Woohoo, hell, yeah,” she cheered and I laughed.

“That was pretty awesome,” I admitted.

She put her arm around my neck as we walked down to Landon’s car where he was waiting. “See, I told ya.”

When we got to Landon’s car, I immediately grabbed him around the neck and pulled him into a kiss. Doing the same thing to him as he did to me before, but this time, I sucked and nibbled on his bottom lip, earning me a groan.

“Damn, sunshine, you keep doing that and we’ll never make it home.”

I pulled back with a smile. “Congrats on your win,” I said as I walked around the car and opened my door. “I’m going to admit that it truly was amazing. I can’t wait to see you race again.” We got into the car and buckled up.

“It’ll be here before you know it,” he grinned as he pulled away from his spot and made his way through the parking lot so we could leave.

We headed home right after his race since it took forty minutes for us to get back. A couple of the guys wanted to stop and get something to eat, but after getting up early for work and it being so late, I was exhausted. I just wanted to crawl into my bed and go to sleep.

Landon agreed and brought me home, walking me to my door like the gentleman he was. “Thanks for coming tonight,” he said as he played with my entwined fingers.

I was going to invite him in, but I was too tired. I knew as soon as I lay down, I’d be out for the night. “Thanks for taking me.”

He leaned down and gave me a soft kiss on the lips. “I know you’re tired.” He rubbed his hand down my cheek. “I’ll text you tomorrow. Okay?”

I nodded and smiled at him. “Night,” I said as I gave him one more soft kiss on the lips. I then headed into the house and went straight to bed.

Nineteen

The week leading up to the big race went by quicker than I thought it would. After Mr. Johnson got his tractor fixed, we were overloaded with work. Though, I didn’t complain. The quicker the days went by, the faster I was able to spend time with Landon.

Monday, he had more parts for his car arrive so he had to take the opportunity at night to install them since it wasn’t so hot. He asked me if I wanted to come over while he did it all. It wasn’t the most entertaining thing to do on a weeknight, but it was better than sitting at home watching reality TV. Plus, I got to spend time with him. And I loved how he would take the time to try and teach me a little bit about his car. I was catching on little by little, but still so far from understanding anything.

Tuesday night, Landon told me he had somewhere he wanted to take me on Friday and asked if I’d take the day off.

“What do I say to your dad?”

Landon was leaning over the engine using a wrench to tighten a bolt on the new turbo he just installed. I didn’t understand why he needed a new one, so I asked him about it. He said he’d heard Javier installed a bigger one in his WRX, so he wanted to make sure he had enough power. I just nodded in agreement because I didn’t know how all of that worked on giving it more power.

“Just ask Nan for the day off. You don’t have to tell her a reason why. It should be fine.” He looked over at me with a grin.

I smiled at him as I spun the stool I was sitting on, next to his workbench. “Okay, boss. I’ll ask for the day off, but only because you are asking me so nicely.”

He set his wrench down and walked to me with black residue all over the gloves he was wearing. “I promise you’ll like it.”

“You promise I’ll like what?” I challenged.

“The surprise.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Another surprise, country boy? You keep this up and I’ll be expecting one every week.” I smiled brightly.

He leaned in to me, resting his hand on the workbench on either side of me. “I just might be inclined to do that,” he smirked and leaned down to kiss me. He smelled like oil and sweat, but I didn’t care. Any time he kissed me, I took full advantage of his lips.

He pulled back and resumed working on his car. “So are you going to tell me where you are taking me?”

He didn’t answer or look at me, which was his way of telling me no. I’d just have to wait and see and hope the week went by fast.

And it did.

Friday, I received a text from Landon telling me to meet him at his house at eight in the morning and to make sure I wore my bathing suit. I frowned as I read the message because the only place I knew of that I could wear my suit was at his house. I hoped he had planned a surprise better than spending the day at the house.

After taking a shower and shaving, I put on my suit, covering it with a jean skirt and a tank top. The weather wasn’t supposed to be as hot as it had been the previous week so I was hoping that if we were going to be outside, at least I’d be able to somewhat enjoy it. I grabbed an extra pair of clothes to toss in the car, just in case the ones I was wearing got soaked, and then I grabbed my small sketchpad from my side table drawer. Landon had asked me if I drew people and I wanted to try it out. I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it, but I figured I could bring it just in case. Then, I was out the door and headed to the house.

I arrived two minutes after eight; Landon was waiting for me on the porch.

“Good morning, handsome,” I said as I made my way up the stairs.

He smiled at me. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

He leaned down wrapping his arms around my waist, and gave me a soft kiss on my lips. “I’ve got everything ready to go if you’re ready.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, I’ve got my suit on so I guess I’m ready; although, I didn’t bring a towel. I didn’t think about it before I left.” I wasn’t really able to prepare because I didn’t know what we were doing.