3. Keira
CHAPTER 3
KEIRA
“ S o this is the concession stand?”
Keira took a deep breath to steady herself before she answered. Of course this was the concession stand. What gave it away? she wanted to ask. The popcorn? The soda fountain? The hot pretzels?
But she was determined not to be rude, so she hoisted a smile back onto her face. “It’s one of them,” she said. “You might have noticed, as we’ve been walking around, that this venue has several concession stands, which enables us to better care for the needs of the guests. We don’t want the lines getting too long, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
“It seems to me that it wouldn’t matter very much,” Kareem said. “If people want something, they’re going to wait in line for it.”
“Sure. Why didn’t you buy a ticket to get in here, again?”
He grinned, which confirmed what Keira had begun to suspect.
“You just didn’t want to wait in line, did you?” she asked. “You thought that by bribing your way in, you could skip it!”
“Which did work,” he said.
“You’re real proud of yourself. I could absolutely call security and have you dragged out of here over that.”
“Yeah, but you would have done it already,” he pointed out.
“Anyway, you can see how people are going to be unhappy if they have to wait in line. And that’s not even the most important part of it. It’s a crowd control issue. That’s what I really need to keep top of mind. If this concourse fills up with people waiting in line, it becomes a fire hazard. We need to give them multiple places to get food. And that’s why I hire food vendors.”
“Food vendors? Are you still talking about concessions?”
“No.” Keira put a hand on his arm to draw his attention and pointed to a pop-up cart that was selling Mexican food on the other side of the concourse.
The moment she touched him, she felt her heart skip a beat. It had been a very long time since any man had had this effect on her, and she had to admit, she was enjoying it a little. It definitely wasn’t going to go anywhere — she didn’t even like him very much, on a personal level — and that fact took the pressure off. She could just enjoy her attraction to him as if it was an interesting exhibit in a museum — something to be regarded and enjoyed for its superficial qualities, maybe something to ponder, but certainly not anything to worry about.
If Kareem had a reaction to the touch, he didn’t let it show. He was looking at the Mexican foot cart. “What is that?”
“Tacos and burritos.” Couldn’t he smell them from here?
He shook his head. “I’ve never had that before.”
“You’ve never had a taco?”
“We don’t have them in Qalmar.”
It made sense, she supposed. If she’d estimated Qalmar’s location correctly, it was about as far away from Mexico as you could get. “Come on,” she said, leading him over. “We’ll get a sample.”
She didn’t know the man who was operating the cart — her dealings had all been with the owner — but when she showed him her badge, he understood at once who she was. “What can I get for you?”
“Just two tacos,” she said. She looked at Kareem. “Steak or chicken?”
“Oh. What’s better?”
“It depends what you like.” She shrugged and turned back to the man in the cart. “One of each.”
The tacos were pre-made and sitting in a warmer. He pulled them out and handed them to her. “Add it to the tab,” she told him. She’d put extra money on their invoice at the end of the day to compensate.
“Wait a moment,” Kareem objected. “I can pay for this.”
“Don’t start being financially responsible now,” Keira said. “These cost three dollars each.” She pushed one into his hands. “Go ahead.”
They unwrapped their tacos and bit into them. Kareem chewed thoughtfully.
“That’s a complex flavor,” he said. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had this sort of cheese before. Would you say that this is a standard choice for an event such as this one? I mean to say, would you ever hold a race without including this menu item?”
Keira couldn’t help it — she laughed. “It’s just a taco,” she said. “I bring in these food carts so people will have more options, and people around here like Mexican food, but it’s not like you can’t have a motorsports event without tacos.”
“All right, fair enough,” Kareem said. “You’ll have to pardon me. I’ve never put on a motorsports event before.”
Keira shook her head. “I’ve got to go check on the pit crews, so maybe you and I could go our separate ways now.”
“Oh, I’d very much like to see the pit crews,” he said, falling into step alongside her again. “I mean, that must be such a big job, figuring out who you’re going to hire for that. Is it very difficult?”
“Most of the drivers make their own choices,” Keira said, resigning herself to a little more time in his company. Kareem was difficult to shake. It was a good thing he was as cute as he was, otherwise she would have felt nothing at all apart from her irritation at him. “I have a small team of house crew members in case any emergencies come up, but drivers tend to be most comfortable with people they’ve worked with before, people they’ve selected themselves.”
“It’s so nice of you to allow me to get this look behind the scenes,” Kareem said as they headed down to where the pit crews were set up.
I didn’t exactly let you , Keira thought but didn’t say aloud. She didn’t want to let on how annoyed she was. There was something about this man that still had her confused, and it made her feel as if it might not be a good idea to offend him, even though she couldn’t put her finger on why she felt that way.
But she was nothing if not a good hostess. People like Kevin had the freedom to act like jerks because everyone would admire them no matter what they did. Keira wasn’t like her brother, and in this way, she was proud not to be. She would always treat people with respect and dignity, even if they were annoying and intrusive. Even if they had bribed their way into the event when they could have just bought a ticket like a normal person.
She didn’t think she’d ever get over that. He had bribed his way in, spending — according to him — more money than the ticket itself cost? Who would do such a thing? Nobody liked waiting in line, but could anyone possibly dislike it so much that they were willing to do that?
Add it to the questions that I’ll probably never get answers to about this guy .
Her thoughts were interrupted by Allie, her best friend and one of the house pit mechanics. “Hey, K,” she said, coming over to meet Keira. She looked Kareem up and down. “Who’s this guy?”
“Kareem is my guest for the day,” Keira said, wishing that she could give a more enlightening answer. “He’s here to see how our operations work. Kareem, this is Allie. She heads up the house pit crew.”
Allie folded her arms across her chest and said nothing.
Keira knew what was happening. Allie could be very defensive when she was introduced to men professionally, and if Keira was honest, she didn’t fault her for that. Plenty of men made comments about how surprising it was to see a woman — especially a pretty young woman — as a pit mechanic. Some of them even insinuated that Allie wasn’t good at or qualified for her job.
But Kareem didn’t do that. “It’s nice to meet you, Allie,” he said. “Show me what you do down here, please.”
He didn’t frame that as a request, so even though he’d been respectful of Allie as a person, Keira simmered. “She really doesn’t have time to play tour guide,” she said. “She has a job to do.”
“I don’t mind showing him around a little,” Allie said. “I really wasn’t doing anything right now.”
“I wouldn’t want to keep you from your work.” Kareem flashed her a winning smile, and Keira’s blood went from a simmer to a boil. He didn’t want to keep her from her work? But interrupting Keira’s day was totally fine?
She wished she could walk away right now, leave Kareem here with Allie, who obviously didn’t mind tending to him. But she knew she couldn’t do that. As much as she would have liked to get back to what she ought to be doing right now, she couldn’t pawn this man off on her pit crew. They really did have work they needed to be focused on. And if something went wrong in the pit, it could be a matter of life and death. As important as Keira knew her job was, nobody was going to crash and die if she wasn’t paying attention to something.
“We’re actually on our way up to my office,” she told Allie. “I do appreciate your offer, though.”
“All right, well, come check in with me after the race,” Allie said. “You promised we would get drinks later.”
“And we will.”
“Maybe you can join us.” She smiled winningly at Kareem.
Keira shook her head. “He has somewhere else he needs to be,” she told her friend firmly.
“I do?” Kareem asked, cocking his head at her. “No one told me that.”
Keira took him by the arm and dragged him away from the pit. Kareem allowed himself to be dragged, but he was laughing the whole time — a fact that only made Keira feel that much more infuriated.
“I’m really getting under your skin, aren’t I?” he said as they stepped back out onto the concourse.
“You’re keeping me from doing my job,” she told him. “I have work I need to get done today. I really don’t have time for whatever this is.”
“You could have left me with your friend. She was happy to show me around.”
“She has work to do too. I’m not going to inflict you on anyone else.”
“That’s a little harsh.” He laughed again. “Are you really going to take me to your office? I’d love to see documentation of everything you did to get ready for the Spritzer Cup.”
“I’m definitely not going to show you all our documentation,” Keira said. “In fact, maybe it’s time to cut this tour short. I do have work to do, papers I need to look over before the race begins.”
He fell into step alongside her once again. “I’d love to see that.”
Keira thought she might be about to lose her mind. It wasn’t that he was incapable of taking a hint, she thought — it was that he was refusing to take one. She had indicated to him any number of times that she was ready for this to be over, and he refused to hear her. Until she faced him down and told him that she flatly refused to play tour guide to him any longer, there would be no getting rid of him — that much was obvious.
It shouldn’t have been such a problem for her. She had never had trouble telling vendors that their prices were too high or insisting to her employees that they needed to get back on the job. She had grown up with Kevin, who had always tried to hog the spotlight, and had learned from a young age how to advocate for herself. Getting rid of Kareem should have been easy for her.
Why couldn’t she seem to just tell him to go away?
And how could it be that there was no shaking him?
Keira made her way up the stairs that led from the concourse to the mezzanine level, where there were doors leading to club boxes and to a few private offices. Her own had a large picture window that looked out over the racetrack, giving her a quiet place from which to watch the race.
She sighed. If there was no getting rid of Kareem, she might as well embrace the inevitable.
She turned to face him. “Would you like to come inside and watch the race with me?”