Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,18
what he didn’t say. She wanted to touch his arm, tell him she was proud that he was trying. He’d probably been humiliated at her hearing him at the bank.
She leaned her hip against the car, facing him. “You will succeed. You’re that kind of guy.”
He closed his eyes, dropping his chin and inhaling. “You always did believe in me.” Then he met her gaze, taking in her face, perhaps her scars, in the harsh fluorescent light. “I never understood why.”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure I can explain. It’s just something I saw in you. Still see. You’re a hard worker. You’re smart and good with cars. I Googled you.” Damn, had she actually admitted that aloud? She shrugged, owning it. “Just curious. Several racers credited you for their success.”
Raleigh lifted one shoulder. “I give them the right equipment, but it’s driver skill that’s most important.”
“And you’re modest, too.”
He looked away, clearly uncomfortable with her compliments. She took a sip of water, recapped the bottle, and reined in all the questions she wanted to ask that had nothing to do with her reason for coming. Was he dating? Married? Her gaze strayed to his left hand. No ring, but then again he might not wear it at work. “It says a lot, you working at the same place all these years later.”
“Peter took me back when I got out of jail, treated me the same as before. I couldn’t quit him.”
“Even to open your own business? That was your dream.”
“Wouldn’t be right.”
Because he had that kind of loyalty. It shored up her reason for coming. Their gazes locked. He swallowed. “Don’t go giving me that look.”
“What look?”
His eyes took in hers as though he were searching their depths. “Like I did more than anyone else would do in my position.” His voice grew softer when he said, “The way you used to look at me.”
Was she looking at him like that? Probably. She blinked several times. “Fine. See, it’s gone now.”
That got a laugh out of him, a subtle shake of the head. “So, Mia Wentworth, what brings you by?”
Okay, they were moving on. Getting to the point. Oh, and being all businesslike, too. “I don’t accept your offer.”
“I didn’t make an offer. At least, I didn’t say it aloud. Did I?”
She wanted to laugh. Did that mean his mind was racing, too, shoving thoughts at him that he couldn’t voice? “I refuse your refusal to take your inheritance. Grandma wanted you to have that money. For this.” She indicated the garage with a flick of her eyes.
“I don’t deserve—”
She pressed her fingers to his mouth, stilling his words. “Yes, you do. In fact, you deserve it more than I do. I didn’t—” The warmth of his lips tingled on her fingertips, and the heat of his body radiated out, enveloping her. She stepped back. “I wasn’t the one who was here to help her all these years. To keep her company, fix up her house. So I refuse your refusal.”
“But your father—”
“It’s my inheritance, not his. I won’t let him drag his lawyers into this, and, honestly, I’m not sure he has any legal ground to do so. I’m sorry about that whole scene at the lawyer’s. And at the memorial. My parents don’t know how to let go of the past.”
“I don’t blame them, Mia. After everything you’d already been through—”
She pressed her fingertips to his mouth again, but only for a second. “Don’t. Don’t do that whole ‘poor Mia who fought cancer, so delicate and frail’ bullshit. Okay?” she added to soften the vehemence in her voice. “I guess Nancy told you?”
He nodded. “I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me? That’s…huge.”
“Because I loved that you didn’t know. That you didn’t look at me as exactly that: poor, fragile Mia. You saw me as a normal, healthy girl. And I was normal and healthy when we met, had been for two years at that point. And I am now. I didn’t want you to know I’d been anything else.”
“I guess I would have treated you differently if I’d known.”
“You wouldn’t have invited me to the races. Wouldn’t have encouraged me to sneak out. Or…” She couldn’t say make love with me.
“I don’t think that would have stopped me,” he said, maybe reading her mind on that last unspoken bit. “But—”
“Don’t ‘but.’ Do you know what you did to me? For me? There was an expectation that I should embrace life because I’d been through so much.