Pole Position (Country Roads 2)

“Looks to me like they’d excuse her fines considering how the end of that race played out.”

Brant snickered. “That was unbelievable, huh? She led most of the race and then some bastard puts her in the wall and she still comes across and collects a second place, sliding over the finish line on three wheels.”

“My heart stopped,” Colt said, looking down at his boots.

Brant frowned. “Colt, we need to have a talk, and you know what I’m going to say before I say it, but it still bears mention.”

“I guess I’ve got it coming to me, so go ahead.”

“If she’s not interested in you—or us for that matter—you have to let this go. You can’t push this. People back home will say we had this in mind from the very beginning.”

“I don’t give a damn what they say. I want her. I can’t explain it, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me, but from the moment I saw her yesterday, I made up my mind. I plan to pursue her. That is, if she’ll have me.”

“I will,” a small voice said, stepping out from behind the trailer.

Colt stared at the small form making her way toward them. Brant’s jaw dropped.

Colt didn’t know what to say, so he waited on Brant to speak, who for the first time in a long time, didn’t seem to have anything to add to the conversation now at a standstill.

Princess shook her head. “I’m sorry. I overheard a conversation that had nothing to do with me. You must think I’m—”

“The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life?” Colt stopped her from backing out of the door he’d opened.

“Me?” she asked, her cheeks burning a bright shade of red.

Brant looked at her and then cut his gaze toward Colt again.

“Yes, you,” Brant said, smiling. “I happen to agree with smart men who have a knack for saying the right thing at the right time.”

Colt held out his arms and she rushed him. “I’ve waited my whole life for you to come back to me!”

“I’m right here,” Colt said, stroking her hair.

“And I’m not going anywhere either,” Brant said, kissing the top of her head.

She stifled an outright cry and turned to face him. “Does this mean you’re both interested in me?”

Having been put on the spot, Brant shrugged. “I guess I have a few things to work out with someone back home, but yeah, I am, Princess. No matter what happens, I’ll always be interested in you.”

* * * *

Colt gripped that steering wheel as tight as possible all the way back to Morristown. Brant had pissed him off with the “I-told-you-so’s” and “Princess-tried-to-tell-you’s” until he was as angry as a man had a right to be. And as hard.

Princess hadn’t said much since they’d left Bristol. She’d slept in the backseat as they’d tried to stay awake themselves, fighting the race traffic all the way up Interstate 81. It took them about an hour to drive from Morristown to Bristol but the return trip home would take them at least three or four.

When he finally saw Exit 8 in the distance, he turned to Brant and said, “Home at last.”

“Five miles and then we’re home,” Brant grumbled, still pissed.

“Are you going to see her?”

“Who?”

“Kelly.”

“Yup,” Brant said. “I reckon I owe her that much. I think I may have been wrong before. She left me a series of messages on my voicemail and sent some texts that have me a little worried. I think she may be a little unstable.”

Colt thought so too. He’d seen the messages. The one that caught his eye and made him scratch his head was the one that said something about waiting for him to remove the dildo in her pussy like he’d sworn to do. “Did you, by chance, leave Kelly with a toy of some sort?”