Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
The day started off way too early, and Pilot stayed in bed too long.
Finally hauling himself out, he made his way to the shower and turned the water on cold.
He did a quick jump in and out to wake himself up a bit before getting dressed and strapping on his gun. Coffee in hand, he headed to the track.
People already mingled around the pit area, hoping to get a glimpse of their favorite racers, or maybe more, like an autograph or picture.
Pilot felt content to stay in the background.
He didn’t know how Davey dealt with all of the attention.
Tyler had attention, too and was less poised about it.
He grumbled sometimes that he’d never meant to be in the spotlight as a mechanic, but Apex kept thrusting him there, like it or not.
Lost in his thoughts, he bumped into someone, almost spilling his coffee. “Oh, shit. Sorry, man.”
He looked down to see Bryce. “It’s okay, no harm.” His voice seemed soft as he stepped back.
“You sure you’re okay, Bryce?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s cool.” Bryce started to back away from him.
Pilot’s mouth went dry. He didn’t want Bryce to just walk away. “You, uh, racing today?”
“Uh, yeah.” He lifted a hand, as if to say, we are at a Supercross track. Pilot suddenly felt stupid.
“Right. Well, hope you do well, then.”
The kid looked up at him with huge blue eyes. Pilot was taller by a good foot and a half for sure. Bryce had the cutest freckles splattered across his nose and cheeks. They made him look young, but Pilot knew he was older...old enough. “Thanks, Pilot.”
Pilot nodded, amazed at how much he liked Bryce. He had enjoyed hanging out with him after the last race, and he knew Tate had a crush on the kid. He could certainly see why.
Pilot’s stomach flipped, and he felt a bit guilty for it.
He wanted to take Bryce back to his hotel room with him, but how could he even be thinking about that?
Tate already had his heart. Pilot had asked Tate about the kid before to see where Tate’s head was about him, but Pilot wasn’t sure where his own head was.
He loved Tate and he’d never act on any other attractions, not that he had any.
He didn’t really. Except, all of a sudden looking at Bryce.
The kid was getting under his skin and he didn’t know what to do about it—except ignore it.
It was obvious he needed support, friends, and Tate needed to be there for him, so Pilot would be there too. “Hey. I know Tate’s your friend...”
“So? We’re just friends. I swear.” Bryce put his hands up and took another half step back. The apprehension in his eyes had Pilot chuckling.
“It’s okay, Bryce. I’m cool with that. I just wanted, uh...I guess, uh. I just wanted to say that I’d like to be friends, too.” He stuck out a hand, hoping to shake on it and put the kid at ease. He never wanted Bryce to be afraid of him.
Bryce’s eyes widened, looking even darker blue than earlier.
He was very adorable. He stuck his smaller hand out, gripping Pilot’s.
Without thought, Pilot used that hand to pull Bryce into a hug.
It felt natural, comfortable. He rubbed a hand down Bryce’s back, wanting to comfort him.
Pilot’s protective streak reared its head.
When Bryce pulled back, Pilot let him go. His cock had started waking up and taking notice of the attractive young man, and he didn’t want to cause any tension between them by rubbing it up against the kid. “So, yeah. Friends.”
“Thanks.”
“Good luck today.”
“Yeah, you said that.” Bryce nodded and stepped farther away, walking slowly backwards away from Pilot with a confused look on his face.
Pilot waved goodbye and hurried on to the Apex pit. He still had a job to do and even though he’d rather stand around gawking at the kid, he had to get on with it.
He tried to puzzle out how he was going to bring this up with Tate and wondered what Tate would think about it. He didn’t really know, but he knew he had to tell him, or things could get very awkward between them. Yeah, Bryce was fucking adorable, but he loved Tate, and that was that.
Tate watched Andrew tapping on his laptop that he'd plugged into the bike.
He had finished third and made the transfer in the first heat race, but the bike needed some fine tuning.
Andrew would damn sure make that happen.
Tate enjoyed looking over his shoulder and learning what he could and Andrew was really patient with him.
They needed to work together to get the bike running the best it could.
Top performance. Tate got up and worked out every damn day and watched what he ate to be at his best, and his bike had to be the best also, especially if he ever wanted to beat Davey.
“Tate!”
He looked up to see his coach, Joey, dashing into the pit with a worried look on his face.
“That kid, Bryce. Isn’t he your friend? He just wrecked.”
“What?”
“He'd missed the transfer in his heat and was racing LCQ and some dick bumped him. That would have been okay, but then someone else ran over him. Not sure who that was.” He shook his head and stared at Tate with wide eyes.
Tate's heart leapt into his throat. It sounded like Bryce might be hurt and he would be out of the Main Event. Knowing how he felt about that kind of thing himself, he could imagine how Bryce felt. Plus, his parents hadn't come to the races. They were actually giving him the space he’d asked them for and now this. Tate grabbed his phone and texted him, but worried that Bryce wouldn’t be able to get to his phone.
“Shit. I have to go. I have to see if he's okay.”
“Go,” both Andrew and Joey said at the same time. Tate couldn't argue. He took off toward the medic area and texted Pilot as he went.
When Tate arrived, he pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered.
It seemed like mostly fans and onlookers with security holding them back.
There were also people that Tate recognized from Bryce's team and sponsors, but he didn't really know any of them.
They let Tate in though, so he figured they at least knew who he was, or maybe it was just because he was in his racing gear.
He still had his goggles looped around his neck.
Bryce was stretched out on a board and a medic wrapped his leg. Tate could see his chest and stomach jumping as he tried not to cry. Tate wanted to fix it. He couldn't stand seeing this guy hurt. “Hey, Bryce,” he said softly squatting down next to his head.
“Tate?” Bryce seemed so young in that moment, his eyes all red and puffy from crying...innocent and in pain, he tugged at Tate’s heart, making his throat close up.
Tate rubbed his fingers across Bryce's forehead and cleared his throat. “Yeah. It's me. You okay?”
He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut tightly, creating wrinkles around the corners. His, “no,” sounded like half answer and half sob. “I have to go for x-rays.”
“Okay. I wish I could go with you. You have your phone? I want you to keep me posted.”
Just then Pilot pushed his way forward with Tyler in tow. “Hey. What's going on?”
“He has to go to the hospital,” Tate said, his voice cracked a little as if he might cry.
Pilot nodded. “I'll go with you.”
“Uh, what about Tyler?” Tate knew Pilot couldn't just blow off his job. He really wanted Pilot to go with Bryce, though. He looked over at Tyler, begging with his eyes.
“I'm fine,” Tyler huffed. “You can walk me back to the pit and I'll stick with Tony. It'll be fine. Hell, I haven't even received any death threats this week. Oh, except from some chick that wanted Davey to be her future husband.” He rolled his eyes.
That got Bryce laughing a little, and that pleased Tate. “Okay. If it's good with you. Keep in touch.” He leaned into Pilot and gave him a peck on the lips.
It took everything he had to leave Bryce alone, but he had to race. He lingered as long as he could, then left with Tyler. He felt better knowing Pilot would be with Bryce. He trusted Pilot and knew that he'd make sure Bryce was taken care of.
At the starting gate, Tate situated himself over the bike, preparing for the race.
Emotion and worry bubbled up inside him.
He knew he'd have to leave it in the dirt.
He pulled out his phone to check for any messages one more time, before handing his phone off to his team and putting his helmet on.
The mechanic assistant on duty handed over his goggles and he pulled them over his helmet.
They were stacked with tear off sheets that he could pull off as they got dirty along the way, and he'd need that on this track. It would be messy.
“Tate!” Davey called out to him.
He turned toward Davey who came up behind him. “What?”
“He's going to be fine. Focus on the race.”
Tate exhaled and gave Davey a quick smile and a thumbs up.
“I got this.” A strange swell of happy exploded from his gut and drowned his heart.
He had friends. Real friends. Not just people you joked around with or rode with, but people that knew him and wanted him in their lives.
Davey, Tyler, and Mickey all had check marks by their name in the friend column.
Oz, hell, he was family if anyone was. That left Pilot in the love department.
He wasn't sure about Bryce. He knew Bryce was a friend, but that wasn't enough.
Not anymore. He also knew he wasn't going to figure it out with the gates about to drop.
His mechanic checked with him one more time and Tate was ready.
He didn't have to wait long before the track girl in her fake leather halter and miniskirt held up the 30 second board.
Then, as she skipped off the track, Tate's heart took off before the gates even dropped.
When they did go down, everything else in the world disintegrated into the red and brown dirt.