[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 wet tongue greeted me when I woke. Not Baker's, but Wolf.
I cracked a smile at the thought, my eyelids protesting as I made to open them. Baker's canine friend greeted me, impatiently pawing the edge of the bed—needing out.
What time was it?
I reached for my phone, finding it next to Baker's on the nightstand.
6:45 am.
I rubbed the side of my face. The boys needed to get down to the track to prepare for today's race, and I needed to wash my hair before we left.
Last night's events played in my mind, coaxing a wry side smile. Gently I twisted, maneuvering under Baker's heavy arm to face him—his chest firm against mine.
Still sleeping.
Good. He needed it. The opening race was today, and I wasn't sure how he felt about it. Or how I thought about the prospect of watching him.
Dark lashes rested on the delicate skin beneath his eyes—his tattooed arm curled around me and out of the blanket.
I ran my fingers along the ink, following every swirling line and crevice of muscle only to stop just before the scar on his shoulder.
My throat tightened. I didn't even think to search for it last night.
Plum-coloured lines ran jagged between whorls of ink. In his last race, Baker had shattered his collarbone and endured a few fractured ribs that punctured his lungs, not to mention the multiple fractured vertebrae and the broken hip.
My eyes watered as the images flashed through my mind. When I screamed and cried and prayed for a miracle. When I begged his late mother to send him back to me.
I remembered the litre of blood they drained from his lungs, the two tubes they inserted to reinflate the one that collapsed and the blood transfusion he later needed.
I ran a finger along his dark brow, then along the bridge of his straight nose.
I remembered sitting through the surgeries with Luke and Nate and feeling the overwhelming need to comfort a distraught Johnny, but for the life of me, I couldn't. I could hardly keep it together for myself, let alone anyone else.
It was like wading through dark waters—unable to see anything ahead thanks to the mists of uncertainty clouding my view.
I didn't know what I would've done if he didn't wake, and I didn't want to think about it.
The moment Baker woke was the happiest day of my life, and as grateful as I was, I wasn't prepared for the sullen days that followed.
Take-out boxes popped in my head. The phantom smell of Chinese food from a local place in town lining my nose. They littered the coffee table in the living room while the latest race played on the flatscreen.
