“Don’t mess with Ry.”
I set my spoon down. “Are you warning me off her?”
“Yep.”
“Little late for that.”
Dare looked up from his bowl. “Exactly. She doesn’t need your pile of crap right now. She’s got enough to deal with.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? And what’s her crap?”
“She just moved here last week. She’s staying in Kel’s old place. Took over the lease.”
“So, she moved in. Perfect time for—”
“For you?” He shook his head with a laugh. “She’s a good kid. It’s bad enough you two made a spectacle at my wedding. We don’t need that kind of drama at Christmas dinners. Get me?”
“Jeez, is there some handbook for Christmas I didn’t get?”
“You haven’t been around since you were seventeen. You don’t exactly get the family dynamic thing.”
“Who the hell are you? Family dynamic? What the hell does that mean?”
Since when did my brother grow a vocabulary? This had to be the most words I’d ever heard out of his mouth that didn’t include car parts.
Dare sighed. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for a visit, but she’s Kel’s sister. Her only sister. She’s not one of your race girls who is aware of the score.”
She’d been damn well aware of the score when she asked me to be her one-night stand. Because it hadn’t been me asking. I didn’t say no, but I hadn’t been the instigator.
“I—”
Dare held up his hand. “I don’t want to know the hows and whys. It’s over, let it stay over, huh?” He tugged off the top of his to-go cup and took a long drink. “Visit with mom. Hell, you could do a few things around the old house to help out if you’re bored. But stay out of Rylee’s…”
“Pants?”
Dare gave me a hard stare. “Life.”
“She’s a big girl. She can tell me to go fuck myself.”
He folded his hands around the cup. “I believe she did that a few minutes before I sat down, brother.”
I resisted the urge to snarl at him. Because she had told me to take a hike, but more because I’d assumed we could just continue our good time. Getting shot down was a rarity for me, but it had happened a time or two.
I could usually let it roll off of me. There was always someone who was interested whether I was into them or not.
My whole fucking life had been easy, to be honest. Once Dare had stepped out of the light, I’d smoothly sailed right into the driver position for Patton, Inc. And I’d happily been their golden boy for two years before I moved on to another company—and finally been lured away by an even bigger corporation.
It didn’t matter who they were. All I cared about was the cars. At least that was all I used to care about. I wasn’t even sure when it stopped being about driving. It just felt like an endless merry-go-round of races and practice. Even the amount of down time seemed to get shorter every year. Special races kept popping up for chances at bigger winnings.
And I’d chased them all until the wins didn’t mean a damn thing.
I sounded like an asshole even to myself, but winning truly didn’t mean anything anymore. Just another day at the office. And that was why I knew I had to walk away.
When driving one of the most impressive machines on the goddamn planet was like riding a desk? Nope.
Time to go.
“I’m not looking to cause trouble. I just haven’t been around my family for awhile.”