Chapter 6
Jake drove through the windy streets of downtown Austin, trying to keep the memories of yesterday’s race at bay.
He’d been driving in circles around town for over an hour wondering where the hell his mojo went.
How he’d gone from the front-runner to second place in a matter of four races.
If he wasn’t careful, he’d fall to third place—or worse.
That one win had been a fluke. Now the yips were back in full swing.
It wasn’t just his name on the line. Nova Racing and all its thousand employees were counting on him. They’d done their job creating a winning car, a stellar engineering team, and the Team Principal was the best in the business, making seven World Champions in its twenty years in the industry.
But it wasn’t racing that had his mind spinning.
That honor went to Georgia, in that prim pencil skirt and blouse with a dozen buttons he’d like to rip off with his teeth.
The sweet reward were the mile-high pumps in fuck-me red.
She was a five-foot-three pocket rocket with show-stopping curves stuffed into a prim and proper girl boss.
She’d accomplished what nobody else could have—she’d taken his mind off what was important.
Winning.
He should have known it would be a problem when he’d accidentally called her darlin’.
It took him back to a time when his world wasn’t so complicated.
When they’d been barely adults, not yet jaded by loss and heartbreak.
Or by a world that had chewed them up and spat them out.
And for a second, when he’d called her darlin’, that feeling of innocence had returned.
It was that feeling that had landed him in trouble yesterday. There wasn’t room for innocence in racing. Or for long ago memories to resurface. But they had and it didn’t seem like there was much he could do about it.
Not good, because his sister-slash-manager, Rachel, was going to have a shit fit. Muscles were Jake’s department, but his sister’s willpower could bench-press his any day. Make no mistake, Jake might run the show everywhere else, but when it came to Rachel, she was the alpha.
Rachel wanted what was best for Jake—and his career—but she absolutely did not want him withing fifty feet of Georgia.
She’d made her stance on his and Georgia’s relationship clear a decade ago, and her mindset hadn’t shifted even a millimeter.
She’d perfected the art of always getting what she wanted.
But this time she’d have to accept defeat because Jake wasn’t giving up the chance to find closure.
He pulled into the parking lot of a small diner—the one Rachel had specified. He got out of the car and walked in. The second he opened the door the delicious scent of honey butter and gravy created a visceral reminder of being back in his home state.
It didn’t take him long to spot Rachel. She was in a corner booth, dressed like a proper manager in a pantsuit and scarf, waving an excited hand his way. Even though he knew he was in for an ass whooping, he couldn’t help but smile. Especially when she flung herself into his arms.
“I missed you,” she said, squeezing him within an inch of his life. “It’s been too long.”
“I saw you two weeks ago.”
“And two weeks is too long.”
With a ten-year gap between them, they didn’t have a lot of time together growing up. Compound that with the fact that while Jake was sent back to Pine Village, Rachel grew up in Europe with their parents. Now they were thick as thieves—unless she was lecturing him.
“I already ordered for us.”
He smiled. “Of course you did.”
On top of being stubborn, she was a control freak.
Which had benefitted him many times in the past. Even though he had an agent and a lawyer, there wasn’t a deal made or contract signed that she hadn’t scrutinized—or negotiated.
Her fearless tenacity and bull-dog personality had earned her the name “Queenpin” and made her one of the most respected and feared managers in the sport.
Like the other five drivers she managed, Jake trusted her implicitly as she’d never steered him wrong.
Even times when he thought she was out of her mind, like having him sign a one-year contract with Nova back in the day, she’d been right.
Most people would have gone for the four-year contract, but Rachel convinced him that he’d get more money if he proved himself first. It had worked. His next contract was triple what they’d originally offered him.
“How’s your neck doing?” she asked.
“Better. PT is really helping.”
He watched as, in a matter of point-two seconds, her face went from sister to reaper—eyes narrowing, jaw locking, the vein in her temple ticking like a metronome. She planted her hands on her hips and took a step closer, and he suddenly felt like a teenager caught sneaking in past curfew.
“Then what were you thinking, flipping off Stellan?” she asked in quiet demand.
“He ran me off the track.”
“He’s a rookie,” she whispered back.
“He’s a pile-up waiting to happen.” Jake’s tone was cool, but his pulse was anything but, thrumming as she stared him down like she could throttle the recklessness out of him.
She hauled back and socked him in the shoulder.
“He had to give you back your spot, so why take it to an unsportsmanlike place?”
“Ow.” He rubbed his arm dramatically. “And the stewards made a shit call. Giving me a five second penalty.” That penalty had cost him first place.
“Oh, I know. The world knows because you let loose on your radio. Which the stewards heard and now they have it out for you.” She shook her head as they took their seats across from each other. “You know better than that.”
“It was supposed to be my comeback race.”
“Shit happens, but we don’t go pissing off the board of people who decide all your penalties for the rest of your career. Plus, it pissed off some of your more family-friendly sponsors. I’ve been on the phone for the last twelve hours trying to smooth things over.”
“I’m sorry, Rach.” He ran a hand down his face. “I didn’t even think of that.”
“Just like you didn’t think to tell me that you’re the newest ambassador for The Wish Project?”
How the hell had she heard? He hadn’t told a soul that he’d agreed. He was waiting for the right time to bring it up with Rachel. Seemed he was too late, and that made him feel like shit.
“The last thing I wanted was for you to find out from someone else before I had the chance to talk to you.”
“You agreed a week ago, leaving plenty of time to tell me.”
“I wanted to do it in person.”
“Any reason?” She gave him a look that said, “Tell me everything—or suffer my stare.”
Oh, there were several reasons, but one stood out above the rest. Reading him like a lie detector, she added, “My bet would be that you were afraid to tell me Georgia is heading this project.”
“That’s why I wanted to tell you in person.”
“Don’t you see that every time that woman is around you lose focus? I mean, did you even check before you agreed that you weren’t in some breach of contract?”
“Shit. Am I?”
“Friends of Families have an exclusive on you for the next year. That means you can’t do another children’s charity.”
“I’m sure we can work something out. She wouldn’t screw me over. It isn’t her style.”
Rachel didn’t look convinced. Not that he blamed her.
She was the one who helped him pick up his life and put it back together after Georgia ghosted him. Rachel got him refocused on his career, which was a big enough distraction to get over the heartache. And within three weeks of Georgia being back in his life, he’d made some pretty stupid decisions.
“I’ll talk to her this weekend.”
Rachel was silent for a full beat. She finally said in her best lioness tone, “This weekend? What the hell is going on this weekend?”
He gripped the back of his neck and squeezed the vertebrae at the base of his head to release some of the tension. It didn’t help. He hated being on the receiving end of his sister’s I’m disappointed stare. It made him feel like a jackass.
Rachel could have gone into any industry she wanted.
With her BA from Oxford and her MBA from Harvard, she’d had options—multiple seven-figure-a-year options—but she’d chosen to represent him and steer his career to where it was now.
He’d never forget that. Which was why he hated keeping things from her or making her life more difficult.
“Georgia and I are going to Pine Village for a week to do the shoot and get the PR rolling for the new campaign.”
“And she’s going, why?”
If he told Rachel he’d demanded it, she’d flip her lid. Then she’d castrate him.
“I need someone from the foundation to help me navigate all the events, and since this is her project she was the natural fit.”
“There is nothing natural about you spending Christmas with the one person who nearly destroyed your life. Not to mention your career. I was the one who had to piece you back together last time. I don’t want to have to do that again. Your pain broke my heart, Jake. And it nearly broke you.”
What she didn’t know was that part of him was still broken.
He’d tried dating, but every time things looked as if they might turn serious, he backed off.
He was tired of being alone, wanted to have that same connection he’d once had with Georgia.
Which was why he needed closure so he could have all his heart back—especially the piece Georgia stole.
Jake reached out to take Rachel’s hand. She immediately took his back. “It’s different this time. I promise.”
“I don’t know if you’re lying to me or yourself. But you’re choosing to spend Christmas with her instead of spending it with Mom and Dad.”
Jake nearly snorted. At no point was “spending” the holidays with his parents on any list. Ever.
But he didn’t want to upset Rachel. She’d been trying to mend what had been broken when Jake was sent to live with his grandparents.
What she didn’t understand was that, as the kid left behind, he didn’t want to fix things.
He liked them exactly how they were. A continent separating them.
“I’m spending it with Meemaw and Grandpa, who I know would love to have you come. It would make Grandma’s year.”
“I want to, I really do, but Tom really wants to spend Christmas in Europe this year,” she said, referring to the bag of dicks she was dating.
Tom was a hanger-on-er. One of those guys who peaked in college and rode the coattails of his family to the top. He had zero drive, zero work ethic, and zero aspirations—besides locking Rachel down and living off her hard work.
“If you get to comment on my dating life, then I get to comment on yours.”
Jake realized what had come out of his mouth the second his sister went stock still and took a long, hot beat. “I didn’t realize you had a dating life. Especially one that involves a woman who, you just told me, was a strictly professional relationship.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just saying, maybe handle the rocks carefully when your house is see-through. And it is professional. I needed someone—”
“—to help you manage all the events. Anyone at the charity could handle that. I’m just saying that Georgia shouldn’t be that anybody.”
As far as Jake was concerned, Georgia was the only body he wanted.
“At least tell me that you’re going to work on Meemaw’s wedding chapel,” she asked, referring to the project he and his grandpa had been working on for the past nine years.
With his grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary coming up, they’d made a plan to repurpose the old barn on the property into a wedding and events venue.
Only, nearly a decade later, the project was far from done.
In fact, Joy and Nic were staring down the big five-O and Jake hadn’t been inside the barn in years.
When they’d come up with the idea he’d been head over heels for Georgia, believing romantic love was within reach for him.
When it came to Jake’s parents’ love for him, it had been a commodity, doled out when it favored them.
Rachel, on the other hand, was the “chosen one.” Ten years older than Jack, she was just like their dad, always in it for the personal gain.
This left a young Jake with a confusing idea of how love worked.
And made him wonder if he was eligible for something other people found so easily.
Then again, he’d found it once before; he just prayed he’d find it again.