33. Chapter 33
Chapter thirty-three
G riffin climbs into the truck beside me and rides back to the hotel in silence. It surprises me to realize that we have never ridden together like this, so I soak up his quiet closeness. He allows me to lean against him without pulling away and even brushes his knuckles across my leg a few times. I didn’t realize I craved a simple normalcy like this with him, but as I watch the streetlights speed past outside the windows and feel the comforting heat of him pressed against my side, I make a wish that this will become normal for us. If there is such a thing.
It reminds me that I refused this sort of an in the open relationship with him before because I was scared of what people would think. How shitty that must have made him feel to think I was pronouncing him not good enough. Maybe I’m not worthy of him .
Once we get the trucks parked and secured for the night, we say goodnight to the team and he walks me through the halls to get me settled in my room.
“What did you find out with Wyatt?”
Griffin runs his hand through his hair, pushing it up into messy spikes that I always want to smooth. “Nothing he wants to talk about. Mike Alves was here giving him a hard time even though his debt was paid. I guess he wanted to shake him down for more or get him to make another losing bet of some sort.” He stops and considers his words before turning those stormy blue eyes my way. “Shelby, Wyatt has a problem and he needs help. As soon as this circuit is over, I’m making sure Paul knows what’s been going on. He can’t fix this on his own, so he needs all of our help.”
“I agree. And thank you for waiting until the season is over. I wouldn’t want Wyatt kicked off the team or feel like he’s under even more pressure with one race left in this series.”
He’s quiet as he sits on the bed next to me, not quite ready to leave, I think.
I yawn and stretch, wincing as my leg throbs and my body alerts me to tender spots I didn’t realize I had. I rub my hip and side gently.
“Are you okay?” Griffin asks, looking at his hands as they dangle between his knees.
“Define okay?” I joke, hoping to lighten his mood. When he just glares at me, I sigh. Somebody doesn’t want to joke. “I’m fine, I swear. I’m just a little sore and it’s not even that bad of a cut. It will heal up and become just a distant reminder of Laguna Seca in a few weeks.” I raise my leg up and study the flesh colored bandage in thought. “I might have to come up with a better story for how I got the scar, though. I’m thinking shark attack will be my go-to.”
“A metal stairway collapsing while you were on it at a drift event is not a good enough story?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
“It will get boring explaining that I was on a collapsed stairway and all I got was this little scar. I should have a better story like I broke half the bones in my body and managed to heal up and go on to greatness or something. Those are the stories that stick with people.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” He laughs and shakes his head. A smile and laughter from Griffin? Success!
“Just about you.” I capture his hand, lacing our fingers together as his smile fades and he becomes serious again. “Good job tonight. I’m sorry that your moment of glory was sort of stripped away by the accident. You deserved to celebrate your win. It sucks the way things went down after.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He looks down at our hands. I run my thumb along his knuckles, hoping he’ll continue. “I achieved what I set out to do, and it was witnessed by anyone who cared. That’s all that matters.”
“You didn’t get a chance to get up on the podium, though. That sucks. It’s nice to get a little recognition for the badass driving you did to get there.”
“I don’t need a podium presentation or a chance to do obnoxious amounts of donuts for screaming fans to give me the satisfaction that beating the TW Motorsports team did. Mason’s a good enough dude and a great driver, but his team can suck it. ”
It takes me a moment to layer this newfound maturity over the hotheaded Griffin I know intimately. His character is rounding out in more ways than I could imagine. It’s unnerving that when I think I know what he is all about, he surprises me. I’d like to have him pegged a little better than this, so at least I would have some semblance of control in the relationship. But I’m ready to accept him in any form he comes to me in.
“I’m really proud of you, for what it’s worth. You showed an incredible amount of maturity and good sportsmanship after your race. You’re doing your sponsors justice.” I run my hand along his arm and grip his bicep. I don’t want to let the solid warmth go, so I just leave my hand there and hope he doesn’t mind. “But what’s with the personal vendetta against TW Motorsports? I thought it was reserved for Charlie Sweeten for wrecking your car. When did this happen?”
“Charlie will always be a motherfucker for putting me into a wall, but that’s racing. We can have our friendly rivalry and keep it on the track. Unless he decides to take it up in our downtime. TW Motorsports made things personal.”
“You mean Terrance did by offering me a spot on their team?” I don’t really want him dwelling on this, since it’s what tore us apart last week, but it’s probably better to get it out. I just hope we can quickly put my hasty decision to leave S I’m going to show him he can trust me. I can wait as long as he needs to be sure of my intentions, to feel comfortable making himself vulnerable to me and know I won’t hurt him. I won’t walk away this time.