Aflame (Fall Away #4)(72)

I leaned down, giving her a big hug. It was nice to know Jax was planning on proposing before they knew about the baby. Seeing her still bare finger, I guessed he was going to make an occasion out of it.

And thanks to the impromptu news today, it would probably be sooner rather than later.

“Everyone is here for you, you know that, right?” I told her. “And Fallon will be pregnant soon, so you won’t be alone.”

She looked at me, confused. “How do you know that?”

I sighed. “It happens in threes. Katherine, you, and it won’t be me, so . . .”

We laughed, knowing it very well could be me, but with Jax having a baby, I was sure Madoc would play it up and get Fallon to fold.

“Tatum Brandt!” someone bellowed. “Get your ass over here!”

I shot up, staring wide-eyed into the crowd. What . . . ?

I glanced at Juliet, and she just smiled, recognizing Jared’s voice, too.

Staying frozen in place—because I didn’t answer to that name, and he damn well knew it—I finally saw him rise above the crowd as he stood on . . . what I could only assume was his car’s hood.

His head cocked to the side, and the spectators looked between him and me. The music cut off, and I watched his easy, self-satisfied body language as he spoke.

“You want to race me or what?” he challenged, the same defiant and cocky attitude in his expression that I hated and loved in high school.

My heart picked up pace, and I crossed my arms over my chest, inching toward the crowd.

“You know I do,” I replied with sass. “Why are you acting like you have better things to do all of a sudden?”

“With you?” he shot back. “We definitely have better things to do.”

The crowd buzzed with laughter at Jared’s clear innuendo, but I smiled, unembarrassed. I’d learned to fight back a long time ago.

I looked around at the crowd. “I think he’s afraid I’ll win, don’t you?” I asked my rhetorical question and heard the amused crowd turn to him for his reaction.

He jumped down from his car, and we walked toward each other through the parting crowd.

He jeered, “You win? I’ve raced here twice as much as you have. I think I can handle seeing you in my rearview mirror, Tatum,” he joked, getting my heart pumping faster with his mock insults, which gave me déjà vu. Which, I guessed, was why he was egging me on.

To get me pumped up.

I put my hand on my heart, feigning sympathy. “Oh, but sweetheart? Didn’t anyone tell you?” I approached him, smiling. “This is a chicken race,” I informed him. “I won’t be behind you. I won’t be next to you.” I leaned in to whisper. “I’ll be coming at you, baby.”

The smirk on his face slowly fell to his feet, and I bit back the urge to laugh.

Priceless. Damn, I’m good.

Jared’s heated eyes turned fierce, and he looked around for his brother.

I snorted as Jax stepped up, rolling his eyes. “Thanks, Tate,” he said sarcastically. “I hadn’t told him yet.”

“What is she talking about?” Jared’s hard voice sounded tense, and I tried not to grin. It wasn’t often I could surprise him.

“Uh, yeah,” Jax inched out, sounding apologetic. “It’s a new feature here, brother. You both take off from the starting line but in opposite directions,” he explained, glancing at me. “You have the whole track to work with until you pass each other, which you’ll do in your own lanes,” Jax gritted out, telling me specifically, since I’d never done this before either, and he wanted to make sure I understood.

I raised my eyebrows, eyeing Jared. “But at the finish line . . . ,” I hinted.

“At the finish line,” Jax took my cue, “on the last turn, you have to cruise in between the barriers to make the finish count.”

He pointed to the waist-high plastic barriers, sometimes used in road construction, that were being positioned behind him to make a single lane on the track.

“That makes a lane only wide enough for one car,” Jax observed.

I couldn’t control the bounce in my feet. “Exactly,” I remarked.

“Whoever makes it first . . .” Jax nodded. “Well, you get the idea.”

I swung around, heading for my car as Jax blew a whistle, clearing the track.

“Tate!” Jared shouted, his voice being drowned out in the crowd. “I’m not doing this!”

“If you don’t,” I called over my shoulder, “someone else will, and I won’t be as safe with them as I will be with you, right?”

I opened my car and climbed inside.

“You’re a brat!” I saw him growl in the middle of the crowd.

I cocked my head, sticking it out the window. “I love you,” I shot back, teasing.

And thank goodness he didn’t put up more of a fight. Hesitating only a moment, he shook his head, looking defeated, before turning around and walking for his own ride, which already sat on the track.

Jared’s car was a piece of art, and everyone had been all over it since we’d gotten here.

Turning the ignition, I revved the engine and brought my hands up, squeezing the steering wheel against the hot rush in my blood.

The crowd had dissipated, either going farther off to the sidelines or to the bleachers, and I released the clutch, pulling myself up onto the track. Swinging around, I pulled up next to Jared, both of us facing opposite directions and our driver’s sides sitting next to each other.