#Rev (GearShark #2)(33)

Anticipating his action, I put the car in reverse. We slid back in the lot. Then I put it in one, and he spurred us forward.

It was actually a pretty cool thing. It was like proof we were as in sync as I thought. But even though the driving came natural to us, something about what he said bothered me.

Everything else about us does.

I wanted to believe that was true. I wasn’t so sure.

There was something I sensed that wasn’t exactly working for us. Our engine could be running just a little smoother.

I had some not-so-easy decisions to make.





Trent

The point of no return.

I was there.

For so long, I felt I was standing on a precipice. Looking back, but longing to gaze forward. You can’t walk forward when your eyes are looking back.

I stumbled. I fell.

I got back up.

I tried to prevent the future from becoming the past by pushing Drew away. Drew wouldn’t go. Even my family seemed to sense I had one foot out the door.

They rallied around me. Around us.

I accepted Drew’s heart and tucked it right next to mine.

So here I was. Standing in the present, turning my back on the past.

Our revolution began with love.





Drew

It felt like forever.

Being in my car and speeding down the road seemed like a distant memory in my rearview. Really, it had only been a few days. However, when the minutes between now and then were filled with so much else, it was easy for the feel of the clutch beneath my foot and the sound of the rumbling engine to cease to exist in my mind.

But never in my heart.

Fast cars and driving would be in my heart until the day it stopped beating. It could live right next to Trent.

After breakfast, T went to class, and I hit the road.

Driving alone was sometimes therapeutic. It gave me a good chance to really think and let my mind drift.

It was also damn good practice.

I could make mistakes, I could try out new maneuvers, and I did it without the watchful eye of those I might be competing against. I also could fly in an even less-controlled manner than I usually drove.

Ron Gamble would probably have a fit. If he thought I was too uninhibited when I tried out for him—when I was actually holding back—well, he’d likely fire my ass if he saw me now.

Oddly, that just made me push harder.

I went to the back roads Trent and I drove a lot. I coasted up and down hills, powered around corners, and drifted around curves. After that, I hit up a couple straightaways and opened up the engine. The Fastback needed some work. I’d been driving her hard lately and hadn’t really babied the engine as much as usual. I’d been too busy.

After I spent a few hours on the asphalt, I drove across town to an auto parts shop to get some of the stuff I needed beneath the hood. I liked an auto parts store; it was what a bookstore was to a bookworm. I liked the smells, the crowded shelves, the chrome (oh yeah, the chrome). I even liked shooting the shit with the guys behind the counter. They all knew me by now. So we talked parts and sometimes they gave me deals or the inside scoop on new shit before it hit the shelves.

My hands were full when I stepped out onto the sidewalk and let the door swing shut behind me.

The sound of a smooth engine caught my attention, and I looked up. Lorhaven’s black Camaro slid into the parking spot right beside my Fastback.

Goody gumdrops.

As I was stepping off the sidewalk, his driver’s door popped open and the dyed blond head of Arrow emerged.

I was relieved it was him and not Lorhaven himself. In fact, I kinda liked this kid, even if he was a Justin Bieber lookalike and my rival’s kid brother.

I felt his eyes even though I didn’t look at him. “Hey, kid, give me a hand,” I called behind me as I went around to my trunk.

He appeared beside me, and I lifted one finger off the box in my hands and wiggled it so my keys would jingle. He took them and popped open the trunk.

“Thanks,” I grunted, piling in my stuff.

“That’s a lotta shit,” Arrow said, poking around in it all.

“Thank your brother for me. All that money I won at his last race sure has come in handy.”

“I’ll be sure to not pass on that message,” Arrow said pointedly, then turned to walk away.

“Loyalty, huh? I like that.”

He stopped between our two cars and turned. “He’s my brother.”

“Your brother teach you how to drive?”

Beneath the light-gray plain and oversized hoodie he wore, his shoulders shrugged. His jeans were tight yet still seemed to fall past his ass. How was that even possible? I guess it really shouldn’t matter because the sweatshirt and T-shirt beneath it hung so low it covered his boxer-clad ass.

At least I hoped it was boxers. Tightie whities would be f*cking wrong.

Nobody needed to see that.

His tight yet too large jeans were ripped at the knees, but his shoes… his shoes were pristine. White high-tops of a very designer brand.

Kid had priorities I supposed.

“He shows me some stuff.”

I nodded and slammed the trunk, leaning a hip against the back end. “So you drive ‘cause he does, or is it something you love, too?”

His eyes narrowed. “What’s with the twenty questions?”