Hard Edge - Tess Oliver Page 0,54
it’s a good look for you. You should chuck the razor and let it grow.”
A shallow grin appeared beneath the silvery moustache. “That’s what I told Sally, but she doesn’t like it. Still, I think I’ll keep it for awhile. What the hell. Thanks for doing this, Cade.” He walked to the driveway to pick up the newspaper as I finished cleaning up the grass trimmings. He stopped to look down the street toward Mom’s house. “I saw Walt and your mom drive past. How long will they be gone?”
“She asked me to housesit for the week.”
Dad nodded. “What will you do then?” I knew my dad and he wasn’t just asking what I was up to after the week. He wanted to know what the hell I was doing with the rest of my life.
I rested the rake against my shoulder. “Not sure yet, Dad.” For obvious reasons, I’d hesitated on telling him about the ride or the possibility of me getting back into racing. For one, it was far from a sure thing, and for another, he’d just lost one son. Telling him that I was heading back to a sport that had a huge risk factor seemed like a bad idea. But I also knew that the idea of me winning titles and doing something awesome like riding MotoGP excited him too. When I’d first gotten into racing, those been some of the best years of our relationship. He’d called me constantly to find out my stats and my speed times and details about the bikes. My broken leg had been almost as devastating to him as it had been to me. The worst part about it all was that I’d felt, once again, that I’d let him down. Something I was damn good at.
“Dad, while I was down at the beach, I met up with Tanner. He let me try out a new motorcycle down at Charter’s Speedway.”
There was a flicker of relief in his face, as if he was glad I was telling him after the ride. “How did that go?”
I nodded and couldn’t hold back a smile. “Pretty fucking good, Dad. Tanner was talking about starting me up again as a rider for the team.”
The mix of emotion in his face, even masked greatly by the thick facial hair, was easy to read. But it seemed excitement about the idea of me racing trumped the worry about me flying over asphalt at two hundred miles per hour. “But what about your leg?”
“Yep, that’s the big what if. I have to go through a physical and talk to an orthopedic specialist first. No sense in wasting anyone’s time or money if I can’t get back into competitive shape. I’m not holding my breath. It would be awesome, but there’s still a lot in the way.” And then, without even thinking consciously about it, I looked at the house across the street. I couldn’t pull my gaze away before Dad noticed.
“Have to say, I’m not terribly surprised that you and Kenna—” He stopped to search for words, fatherly sounding words. “That you two started seeing each other a bit.”
I held back a grin thinking about the last few hot and heavy days together. A bit was definitely an understatement. Of course, not something I would confess to my dad. Ever. “You’re not surprised?”
“Nah, I always knew there was something there between you. Anyhow—” He seemed uneasy enough with the topic that he changed it fast, even after bringing it up himself. “Grady’s things arrived yesterday.” He looked pointedly at me, as if he needed to remind me that I’d just lost my only brother. But I knew my old man well enough to know his main motive for bringing up Grady was to remind me that my brother had strong feelings for Kenna too.
“Dad, we both loved her. I never let on to Grady or to Kenna, or, I thought, to you because I knew how crazy Grady was about her. I had no intention of ever getting in the way of their friendship. I’m sorry the timing of this was so shitty, but none of it was intentional. We were thrown back together because of Grady’s death, but that doesn’t change how I feel about her.”
There was a slight nod of his head, but I knew he was still gnawing on the whole thing. I couldn’t blame him.
I walked over to the lawn mower. “I’m done here, Dad. I’m going to head over to