Chapter 7
[Tate]
NEW YEAR’S EVE
Nine months ago
The party was packed and a good reminder I wasn’t eighteen anymore. Too many people, too close together. The authentic racecar driver outfit I was wearing belonged to my cousin. I didn’t ask how he had it, but I was sweating in it.
Growing up, I’d spend long weeks during the summer in Lovewell Landing. Landon Abbott and Fisk Masters were my best friends. As second sons, we shared a common bond and were roughly the same age.
Fisk was the one throwing the party. Nearing forty, he was essentially still a frat boy, although he was hardly an Ivy League university kid.
He’d never gone to college. Like many families around here, the family business was generational.
A child took over from his parents, who took over from their parents.
Sometimes, second sons broke the rule. Fisk owned a bait and tackle shop.
It’d been a long time since I’d been to Lovewell Landing. Working for Hessfield Holdings was practically an around-the-clock kind of job. Demands from clients. Deals to be brokered. Sometimes, my phone felt surgically attached to my hand.
On a personal level, the past year had been a shitshow.
When Fisk sent me a text about the party, I hesitated, making my typical excuse—work. But when my brother got engaged at Christmas, I couldn’t get out of the city fast enough.
I needed a break.
I hadn’t planned to meet anyone or hook up with someone. I just wanted to see my best friends and disappear into Lovewell Landing, like I did as a kid.
Here, I had freedoms I didn’t have back home.
As teenagers, we rode bikes along the lanes and ran around the woods.
We hiked and fished and swam in the cove.
We took our grandfather’s boat out on the water and stayed up late.
I had my first drink with Landon and Fisk and lost my virginity to a girl during a beach party.
Lovewell Landing held so many special memories, but I wasn’t looking to make new ones.
Until I saw her.
The second she entered the house, I was star-struck. I didn’t recognize her. Then again, everyone was all older and looked a little different from our teenage years. However, with a town as small as Lovewell, I thought I should remember her. Somehow, I felt like I already knew her.
Hair, dark as midnight but short and wavy, peeked out from underneath a red bandana. She wore a clean mechanic’s outfit, but there was something sexy about it on her. Rolled to her elbows and unbuttoned to expose a little cleavage, she made my palms sweat and my heart race.
And then she walked right up to me.
“Driver?” she said, bold and playful, roaming those eyes down my costume.
“Or do you prefer to be ridden?” She had a local beer in her hand and took a swig, but the most incredible eyes latched onto mine, peering at me over the rim of that brown bottle.
Those eyes were spellbinding blue. There was no other way to describe them.
I laughed. “Want to handle my gear shift?” The retort was weak. I had no game, and I wasn’t interested in a one-night fling.
But a little flirting never hurt anything.
As she nursed her beer, the night wore on, and she stayed near me. We laughed. We flirted more. She smiled at me in a way that stole my breath.
I’d taken to calling her Rosie because of her outfit, and we played out the time with our new nicknames. Our real names never came up. It also never came up that I was related to Landon or Fisk, or a Love, nephew to the town mayor and the eccentric local historian.
Then, about half an hour before midnight, an alarm went off. She tugged her phone from her pocket, scowled at the thing, and slipped it back into her outfit.
“I have to go.” The statement was direct, while also a little sad.
“Gonna turn into a pumpkin if you stay until midnight?” Midnight was the point of the party. A new year. A fresh start with the tick of the clock and the flip of a calendar.
“I just have somewhere I need to be.” She smiled sweetly while tight. But her eyes said she wasn’t ready to leave.
I didn’t want her to go.
My shoulders sagged while I returned her smile as best I could. “Well, Rosie. It was nice to meet you.” I held out my hand like an awkward nimrod.
She stared down at the offering and chuckled.
Then she slapped her palm against mine, like she intended to high-five me from the side.
I trapped her fingers with mine before she could slip away, holding onto her a second longer.
That slight touch sent a spark up my arm, crackling over my skin.
A mini lightning storm right over my flesh.
Our eyes locked on each other. Had she felt it, too?
“Nice to meet you, too, Driver. Happy New Year.” She tugged from my grasp, flexed her hand, and then fisted it before spinning away from me.
Something inside me begged to follow her. Chase a feeling I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. That something-around-the-corner sensation. Or rather, someone walking out of this house.
“Dude.” Landon slapped me on the shoulder, startling me. “Don’t just sad puppy her. Fetch.”
He was a fine one to talk. He’d had puppy eyes for someone for years, and the updates on how often he’d struck out with her were becoming a constant joke in our cousin chat.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “She said she had somewhere to be.” Did she have a boyfriend? It didn’t add up. A family? Plenty of people our age were divorced with kids, when I hadn’t even been married.
“Where?” Landon asked, stumbling against me, proving he’d celebrated a little too much already.
We’d done a few pre-party shots, but ever since Rosie walked in, I’d held on to an empty beer bottle. I’d been too caught up in hanging out with her and too afraid to walk away to grab another beer. Afraid I’d lose her in the crowd.
“I don’t know,” I admit, again quiet while my throat felt like sand.
“Go find out.” Landon laughed, shoving on my shoulder. “I double-dog dare you, you puppy sap.”
I snorted, but a ripple came over my skin again. A whisper to do as Landon suggested. Be daring.
“Hold my beer.” I handed him the empty bottle and rushed after her.