A Summer Romance

Chapter Thirty-Six - Skylar

Chapter Thirty-Six - Skylar 

"You can't help who you fall in love with."

-E.L. Montes, Cautious

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Skylar

"So what's on the agenda for today cupcake?"

I sighed as we pulled out of the hotel's parking lot. "Well, I'm gonna show you the track, go surprise my grandparents, say a farewell to my mom and Luis, and get a shake from the diner in town before catching our flight."

He nodded from beside me as I drove down the all too familiar roads of New Port, New Hampshire. 

It was a silent car ride until I pulled onto the side of the road by the track. Ryan's eyes grazed over the building as we got out of the car and his jaw dropped, "This is it?"

I nodded and his eyes widened, "This place looks huge!"

A chuckle escaped my lips as I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the front doors, "Wait till you see the inside."

When the doors opened to reveal a huge arena with a big dirt track, Ryan let go of my hand and practically ran to the barrier between the track and walk way, "Oh my god, Skylar. You were so lucky to be able to be here everyday."

For a second, I closed my eyes and breathed in. My senses were hit with the familiar smell of exhaust smoke and dirt.

I was home.

I chuckled again and pointed my head to a back door, "Come here, I have to show you something."

"You mean there's more?"

I rolled my eyes and pushed open the set of double doors. Ryan gasped in exaggeration.

"Oh my god."

The back room is a room that would look like just a place filled with rusted car parts and millions of tools to the average person, but to grease monkeys to Ryan and I it was car heaven. There were parts for every model and make of any car imaginable in here and every tool on the face of the planet. 

He immediately started looking through all the old parts like a little boy in a candy store. I smiled and followed after him as he 'oowed' and 'awwed' over every part.

"Oh my god." Ryan walked past the shelf of parts after a few minutes and came to the huge shelf full of various cans of paint. "This is the color on your Skyline."

I nodded and grabbed the bottle of silver. "Yupp. I had dreamed of this color every night. I wanted my car to be this color so bad, but we couldn't find it anywhere. But then when we brought my car here, we found all these cans of paint and, with permission, painted my car the color of my dreams."

Ryan smiled and then, almost like she heard us talking about here and her husband, she came around the corner with scrunched eyebrows. Her eyes ran over Ryan but then when her eyes met mine, she smiled and dropped the rag that she was using the wipe her hands with, "Skylar?"

My smile widened and my hands stuffed into their pockets, "In the flesh."

She looked star-struck until she smiled a wide smile and walked toward me. I met her halfway and wrapped her in a hug. "Oh my god, I've missed you around here."

I chuckled and pulled away, "I know. I've missed this place so much."

She smiled and bit her lip, almost like she was about to cry, and moved my hair out of my eyes, "Wow. You sure have grown up."