Bang the Blower (Country Roads 3)

He wondered if Frank had a good talk with her and if so, he was curious if he’d gotten anywhere. “You have plenty waiting for you, Julie. You know that. Question is, do you want what you have, or do you need what you used to have?”

She narrowed her gaze. “I don’t need anything from the past to make me happy.”

He chuckled and returned to the fence, draping his arms over the top plank. “You keep telling yourself that, baby. Maybe one day I’ll prove you wrong. I like doing that, you know.”

“Hmm,” she muttered, eyeing Duke curiously when he climbed out of a car that screeched to a halt right in front of them. “When did he start driving?”

Hank snorted. “Duke always thought he had the guts to do what you do. Fact is, he doesn’t. He’ll tell ya. We had a trial run down in Daytona once, just to prove a point. Duke couldn’t keep his eyes on the track in front of him for worrying himself to death about the guys behind him. He wrecked within ten laps.”

“Really?” she asked in a high-pitched voice.

“I’m telling you the way it is,” Hank said, facing her. “Very few people possess what you’ve got, Julie. It takes more than skill to get out there and race. You have to be smart. You gotta understand your limitations, and more than that, you have to know when you’re hitting your limits.

“You can’t fear the job or the boys you meet when you’re doing your best to bring home the win for your team. You oughta know that better than anyone. If you let your guard down once and the competition is there to watch when you do, then you’ll always be vulnerable. And one weakness can make a loser out of a potential winner.”

“How do you know I don’t have a few weaknesses of my own now?”

Hank chuckled. “Doll, you only have two of those. You’re looking at one of ’em.”

Before she retorted, Duke joined them. “Hey, gorgeous. What’d you think of that prize pony Frank bought ya?”

“Pony, hell,” Julie mumbled.

“She’s a beauty,” Duke said, using his T-shirt to wipe perspiration away from his forehead.

“Did you have a chance to see your car?” Hank asked, changing the subject. He’d much rather try and steer interest in the appropriate direction.

Julie cleared her throat. “Yes.”

She didn’t offer anything more, nothing less, and Hank considered her response one for the home team. She wasn’t hell-bent on denying the fact she wanted to race the car, and that in itself was a victory. Maybe in a few days, Frank would convince her to give the car a whirl around the track.

“So what’d ya think?” Duke asked, pressing.

“I think you’re crazy if you believe I’ll race a stock car.”

And there was one strike for Julie’s tally sheet. Maybe this wouldn’t be as easy as Hank had hoped.

“What are you so scared of?” Hank asked. “Stock cars and drag cars are two different giants.”

Julie wheeled around on her heel and slapped the back of her hand against his chest. “How dare you say that to me? Maybe if you weren’t such an egotistical, self-serving ass, you’d understand why drag cars and stock cars are certainly cut from the same cloth! One killed my father and the other almost killed me!” With that outburst, she hurried away, limping and jogging around the perimeter of the track until she bolted down the hill and disappeared out of sight.

“You just refuse to ease up,” Duke said.

“No,” H

ank retorted. “I refuse to give up on Julie because down deep, she knows racing is the be-all and end-all. If she’s not behind the wheel, if she’s not out there on that track, she’ll never be happy. That’s all there is to it.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” Duke said, his eyes searching the pastureland surrounding them. “Because I don’t think she’ll ever race again.”

* * * *

“Two different giants,” Julie mumbled to herself, as she sank into a whirlpool tub full of bubbles. That was the whole problem. She felt helpless when she stood next to Hank and Duke. In their presence, the past had a way of rearing its provocative head, tempting her with the things she once enjoyed, the men she once found irresistible.

She relaxed her neck on a support as the hot water soothed her. Punching the button on the side of the tub, she jerked as the jets massaged her sore, aching bones.

“Ah, heaven,” she whispered, propping her foot on the side of the tub. She thought of Hank then, of the way they’d groped and fondled one another in broad daylight. She looked down on her breasts rising high enough to cap the bubbles.

Her nipples were erect, her mounds full. She leaned back and tweaked the hard gems, rolling them back and forth until her heightened arousal made her recognize the obvious. She needed more than her own hand to satisfy her.