[18+]
College student Hadley Bell is eager to return home for the holidays, but there's a problem. Her ex-no. 44 Nick Baker, Professional Snocross Racer and member of the Bell Race Team, still resides under her parent's roof.
Tensions run high, and...
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A broad smile stretched across my face as I beheld Austin, our mechanic and oldest friend, wiping oil and grime from his hands.
He stood on the threshold of the garage. His hefty shoulders were broad beneath the black and white fox hoodie, matching the profit cap he sported backwards, hiding jet black hair.
Austin wasn't short, but he wasn't as tall as me either. And while he and Hadley's moms came from the same ethnic background, he wasn't as light as her. Hadley and her brothers tipped fairer on the scale of gold, while Austin's skin was more akin to the earth and losing the slight tinge of red the summer's rays coaxed from it.
He jabbed his chin at me as I rose. "How was the ride?"
I shrugged, "Same as always."
A playful spark lit behind his brown eyes as I made my way into the garage. "Finally had a taste of your own medicine."
My smile fell to a frown.
"I heard all about it," he beamed, making his way to the fridge along the wall, grabbing himself a beer and me a water. "How you lost your shit and threw Hadley over your shoulder cause she was wobbling across the bar like a baby fawn."
I clenched my jaw as he offered the drink, sneering down at him.
It didn't phase him. It never phased him. "Luke said you lost it on her boyfriend."
I eyed Luke, whose shoulders seemed to slump as he passed me, then Nate, who matched my rage, not for his brother, but the boyfriend.
Nate had already discarded his coat and sat on the leather seat of his sled—one arm propped on a knee, beer in hand.
"Not exactly," I replied as I fell onto the sofa adjacent to the fridge and took a thought-filled sip.
I wanted to, and I might have had Nate not snatched Hadley's phone when I reached over the seat to grab it.
Who the fuck is Baker? He demanded when Hadley answered his call after she ass dialled him three or four times.
None of his damn business, I snipped over my shoulder as she fumbled for words to explain. Clearly, she'd never mentioned me to him either.
The tone he threw had my blood boiling, but it was the tears that fell from her eyes as she gazed out the window that had my heart bleeding.
I fucking hated her boyfriend for making her feel that way. And if I ever saw him—
I sat forward, my gaze contemplative as realization struck.
I'd made her feel that way.
It was like a punch to the gut. Like I'd been thrown from my sled again and crushed under the weight of another.
I hardly noticed the teeth grating sound Luke's chair made against the concrete floor as he slid it over. Or the underwater words Austin was mumbling.
I couldn't move from those thoughts. I was submerged in an ocean of memory and guilt. Frozen beneath the ice and my fucking reflection was peering back at me like the god damn ghost of Christmas past. All I could hear was the bone-shattering words I'd uttered. I'd been just as bad as that prick, Dallas. Fuck.
