Jordan looked away far more quickly than I could jerk the curtain closed. My pulse raced again, but not from fear or embarrassment as it should have. Excitement and lust waged a small battle as I frantically searched for my modesty and clothing.
“What do you want?” He wouldn’t have knocked on my window close to dawn without a reason, no matter how much I would have wished for him to when\ I’d been younger. Or now, if my sensibilities hadn’t been intact.
I stumbled as I tugged on a pair of jeans with trembling fingers. That he made me nervous enough to stumble was an annoyance.
“Vic called. Hunter East is about to make a pass out behind the canning factory. I want to go see what kind of pass he puts down.”
The edge of worry in Jordan’s voice when he said Hunter’s name excited me. My curiosity piqued, I raised a brow in question. “And you’re at my window, why?”
“We covered this, I saw the light on.”
“And?” I wasn’t buying it, not even for a dollar. “And he won’t recognize your car.”
The canning factory was set off away from anything resembling civilization. A random vehicle approaching it wouldn’t go unnoticed. Catching your competition watching you make a test pass? That could cause any manner of complications for Jordan and the next race.
“Want my keys?” It was a bluff. I was going. Sneaking out at almost dawn to watch a rival’s test past was thrilling. Doubly so that the driver was the guy I’d dated to make Jordan jealous.
I used the thrill of going with Jordan to help me forget I’d been awake in the first place.
“You don’t want to see what your boyfriend is running?” Jordan practically spat the words out. I imagined he was sneering on the other side of the curtain.
My lips spread wide as I snapped my bra into place and pulled a black tee over my head. If I’d ever doubted what Jordan thought of my dating Hunter, I didn’t now. “On my way out.” I shut the window in his still
sneering face. I hadn’t lost my ability to read him.
With the mass of my hair knotted on the top of my head, I trotted quietly out the back door. Jordan was leaning against my white Jeep Cherokee waiting on me. “Hurry up,” he growled as he climbed into the
passenger seat.
We didn’t talk on the way. We were both too anxious to get there before Hunter laid down the pass. Each time I cast a side long glance at him, I was reminded of how quickly I’d forgotten Caleb the second Jordan touched me.
I’d come home to hide from my shame. Yet, I was being sucked right back into the catalyst that had started it all. I didn’t blame Jordan, I blamed myself. I should be able to be an adult when I was with him. Not some libido driven teenager who can’t keep her hands to herself.
“Thanks, Raelynn.” He spoke my name quietly, like how he might whisper it in the dark.
“You’re welcome.” The words sounded dumb and hollow. More so, because I was trying not to react physically to the way he said my name. Something so simple shouldn’t make me so crazy.
I put the SUV in park. Only a rolling field stood between us and the strip of concrete often used for test hits.
“We should get closer.”
He had a point. Though sneaking across that field held little appeal to me. There would be bugs. Bugs probably bigger than I was.
Reading my thoughts, he chuckled. “Don’t be such a girl.”
“How do you expect to creep across a field?”
His brows disappeared beneath his cap in question. “You’re one big Indian.”
His body shook with his responding laugh, but he didn’t say a word. No matter how much time I spent with him over the years, I never got used to the way he could respond without ever saying a word.
“Remember when all of you decided to grow your hair out?”
“I remember how much you liked it.” His head gave a tilt to one side.
“I was thirteen. I thought you looked like Tonto with long hair. I had a Tonto phase.”
His smile was vibrant and his laugh full of life. Two bouts of laughter from the all too often stoic and serious Jordan Slater made me grin in the dark.
“Please don’t grow it out again, though.” I made a face.
“Nah.” He slipped his hat off and rubbed a hand across the close cropped dark hair on his head. “You ain’t gotta worry about that.”
On a deep breath, I slipped out of the Jeep. “I can’t believe I’m spying on Hunter.”
Jordan didn’t say anything but moved away from the car and past the orange glow cast from the streetlights. I’d made the joke about him being too big to successfully spy. The truth was, I’d known better. He moved quickly, quietly, and pretty soon I could barely make him out a few feet ahead of me.
I’d almost caught up to him when the sounds of a vehicle approached in the distance.
“Hunter was my first kiss, this seems disloyal.”
Jordan peeled his upper lip back in disgust, before jogging down into the ditch.
“Hey, it’s not my fault,” I tossed out as I followed him. “It could have been you.”