Burndown (Nitro Crew Book 1)

by Winter Travers

  I sat down next to her and grabbed her other skate off the ground. “We could always head across the street and bowl.”

  She grabbed the skate and shook her head. “But what will we do on our next date if you do that now?” she laughed. She shoved her foot in it and tugged on the laces again.

  I leaned back, my elbows resting on the back of the bench. “Not even half way into our first date, and you’re already talking about our next date.”

  She glanced at me over her shoulder. “Your cockiness doesn’t really come across in text like this.”

  “What can I say? I have a way with words.”

  She finished tying her skate and shakily stood. “I can’t believe you talked me into doing this. I feel like I’m fifteen again, praying someone will ask me to skate when they play a slow song.”

  I stood up and slipped behind her. My hands rested on her waist, steadying her. “I can tell you for a fact, I got you for all the slow songs, baby.”

  “Don’t distract me with your sexiness, Remy. You’re moving around like you live in skates, and I’m standing like a newborn giraffe.” She tried to move forward, and her left foot swung out. She stumbled over, and I caught her in my arms.

  “You said you had skated before.” I helped right her and looked to the right to see just the thing to help her. “Can you stand here for five seconds?”

  She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Uh, you’re leaving me?” Her tone was laced with disbelief, and a little fear.

  I held up two fingers. “Two seconds.” I glided over to the half wall that divided the rink from the benches.

  “Oh, Jesus! I can’t believe I’m going to have to use one of those. I am officially one of the people that I used to laugh at when I was a kid.”

  I grabbed the walker made of PVC pipe and pushed it over to Harlyn. “Just use it a couple times around until you get used to it. Ain’t no shame in having a little help.”

  She grabbed the walker and wearily looked up at me. “So now if I fall with this thing, I’ll really be a loser.”

  She half-scooted, half-hobbled out on the oval floor while pushing the walker. I slowly skated next to her, ready to catch her if she was about to go down.

  “Can I ask how it is you are basically skating circles around me?” I sped up, turned around, and skated backward while she slowly moved forward.

  “Grew up in a small town. There really wasn’t much to do unless you wanted to drive forty-five minutes. We had six bars, a bowling alley, and an old roller skating rink. We rotated weekends between the bowling alley and skating rink.”

  We made it one time around the oval, Harlyn improving with each glide of her feet. “I think I’m ready to ditch the walker. I think roller skating is like riding a bicycle. You never really forget how to do it.” She pushed the walker to the side and latched onto my arm. “I’m not that balanced yet, though,” she laughed. Her nails dug into my arm, and she knocked me off balance for a second.

  “Don’t take us both down, baby.” I crooked my arm, and she laced her arm through it. “We’ll take it easy until you get the hang of it.”

  Thankfully, there weren’t many people skating on a Monday night, so Harlyn and I had the oval to ourselves except for three kids in the small arcade off the rink and three giggling teenagers who had been lacing up their skates since we came in because they were looking at their phones more than their skates.

  “I have to ask. When was the last time you went skating back home?”

  My answer was embarrassing. “Ergh, last time I was home.”

  “And that would have been?” she drawled.

  I cleared my throat. “A month ago.”

  Harlyn threw her head back, laughter spilling from her perfect lips. She stumbled slightly and dug her nails into my arm. She sobered quickly and directed her eyes back to the rink. “I think that was karma in action.”

  “You might be right about that, baby,” I chuckled.

  “So you grew up in a town just like Leeds Square?”

  I nodded. “Although, I think Rockton might have been a bit smaller. We didn’t even have our own grocery store. We had to drive ten minutes to get food, or even go to a restaurant.”

  “Your bar didn’t serve greasy burgers and stale popcorn?” She wrinkled her nose. “Although, if that was all they had, I wouldn’t have blamed you for not wanting to eat there.”

  “They weren’t really keen on a group of teenagers hanging out in the bar.”

  “Oh, duh,” she laughed. “I can see why they wouldn’t like that. I don’t know if I could have survived in a place like this growing up. We had over one thousand people alone in my graduating class, and the population was twenty times that.”

  I looked over at her. “City girl, huh?”

  “You could definitely say that. Although now, having been in Leeds Square for a couple of weeks, I can see the charm of a small town. A slower pace is nice now. I’m sure at sixteen, I would have died of boredom, though.”

  We managed to make it a few more times around the rink before the first slow song started pouring out of the speakers throughout the rink.

  “If you ask anyone else in this rink to skate, I’ll be forever scarred,” Harlyn laughed.

  “I don’t think anyone else would want to skate with me, even if I asked them.”

  She nodded to the three girls sitting on the bench who each had their nose buried in their phones. “I bet they would love to have a Remy sandwich.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Baby, they’re like fifteen.”

  “Okay, so ten years ago, you would have been into the Remy sandwich too.” She slightly stumbled and clutched my arm. “Was that karma again?” she asked shakily.

  “No, I think that was just your lack of balance,” I chuckled.

  We glided to the half wall, and she leaned heavily against it. “I just decided you are not allowed to plan our dates anymore. I think you’re out to kill me,” she panted.

  I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest. “Oh, come on, baby. You were a little shaky out of the gate, but you were doing a hell of a lot better on that last pass.” Sort of. So, Harlyn wasn’t exactly athletic, not a big deal.

  “I get to pick what we do next,” she giggled. “Something that doesn’t involve me possibly breaking my ass.”

  “Drinks and dinner were what I had planned next.”

  She nodded and held out her hand to me. “Get these damn skates off of me and ply me with booze.”

  *

  Chapter 13

  Harlyn

  “That was two.”

  “That was four, baby.”

  I squinted at the empty glass in front of me. “I could have sworn that was two.”

  Remy chuckled. “Four. Definitely four.”

  I looked up at him. “I’m trying to wipe out the memory of falling flat on my ass. I blame four margaritas on you.” I pointed my finger at him and tried to hold my hand steady. Not only had I bruised my ego when my feet had gone out from underneath me, my tailbone was hurting like a son of a gun. The tequila was helping to numb both.

  “I tried to catch you, but you dropped like a ton of bricks.”

  I hummed under my breath. “Just the thing every girl likes to hear on the first date. You dropped like a ton of bricks.” The tequila also mellowed me out to where I was only mildly annoyed I was compared to a truck-load of bricks. “You did have a quick reaction time to get me up.”

  He tipped his glass of water toward me. “Took a whole hell of a lot to not laugh right away, baby, but I managed not to.”

  I bowed my head. “And I thank you for not laughing ‘til after I was upright.” I gingerly shifted my weight and knew I was going to be limping tomorrow. “I am totally serious about picking our next date. My butt needs to recover from this one.”

  He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “You might want to think about what you just said.”

  I rolled my eyes and waved my hand at him. “Get your gutter out of
the mind.”

  He tilted his head. “Um, I think you mean get my mind out of the gutter, baby.”

  I snagged the straw in my empty glass and tried to sip up every last drop. “That too,” I mumbled.

  “You ready to get going, baby?”

  I gave the glass one last slurp and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I had already embarrassed the hell out of myself in front of Remy, and now, I was about to stand up after drinking four margaritas. He was about to see me fall on my ass again. “Onwards.”

  As soon as I swung a leg around and the stool swiveled, Remy shot off his stool and was standing at my side. “Let’s prevent you hurting your ass even more. I don’t want to be blamed for fully breaking you.”

  I reached up and patted his cheek. “Hmm, we are so going to kiss later.” My filter was apparently in the bottom of my fourth margarita.

  He leaned in close, his lips a breath away from mine. “Do we have to wait for later?”

  I gulped and slightly shook my head. “I guess not.”

  His eyes were locked with mine, and he licked his lips.

  Sweet heaven above. I was in a tequila fog, but I knew this was going to be damn good.

  His hand trailed up my arm, over my shoulder, and he delved his fingers into my hair. He closed the gap between us, his soft lips pressing against mine.

  I instantly leaned into him and clumsily grabbed onto his arm.

  It was a sweet, delicate kiss. His tongue brushed against my lips, and I whimpered as his other hand rested on my hip and pulled me closer. This kiss was perfect, but it made me ache for more.

  He pulled away and looked down at me. “I think it’s time to take you home, baby.”

  Uh, what? I mean, I was okay with going home, but only if it meant Remy was planning on staying. Otherwise, I’d rather just stay right here and keep kissing Remy.

  He took his wallet out of his pocket, threw a twenty on the table, and tugged my hand. He pulled me through the restaurant and out the door to his car. He opened the door, brushed a kiss to my temple, and deposited me in the car. My head was swimming from the alcohol and the sweet kiss.

  He slid into the seat next to me, started the car, shifted the car into drive, and threaded his fingers through mine.

  I leaned my head back on the headrest and sighed. “Did I make too big of a fool of myself tonight?”

  Remy backed out of the parking spot and glanced over at me. “Nah, baby.”

  “Hmm, I’m sure I’m your first date to fall on her ass and get drunk within the span of an hour.”

  “It was definitely a unique first date.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. “I was a unique first date that dropped like a ton of bricks.” I pumped my fist in the air. “Go me!”

  He squeezed my hand and lifted it to his lips. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Harlyn. It was the best first date I have ever been on.” His lips pressed a firm kiss to the back of my hand. “I can only imagine what our second date is going to be like.”

  I cracked open an eye and rolled my head to the side to look at him. “Perhaps we can go paintballing, and you can pepper me with paintballs while I run around like a chicken with its head cut off?”

  He chuckled low and pressed another kiss to my hand. “As fun as that sounds, I think we need to stay away from sports. Of any kind.”

  I smiled sleepily. “That is the best idea I’ve ever heard.” The tequila was making me sleepy, and the quiet purr of the car while we glided through the night on the way to my house lulled me to sleep.

  “Any date with you sounds like a good idea to me, baby.”

  I hummed as he squeezed my hand and rested our intertwined hands in his lap.

  Staying awake should have been what I tried to do, but my eyelids were honestly too heavy to hold open.

  “Best night ever,” I whispered.

  *

  Chapter 14

  Remy

  “Riddle me this, Batman, what the hell is with the goofy smile on your face?”

  I smacked Jay’s hand out of my face. “I had a good night, asshole. That okay with you?”

  He leaned against a stack of tires and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s only okay with me if I get to hear all of the details. Didn’t happen unless I know about it.”

  “You are such an idiot,” Frankie mumbled under her breath.

  Things were still tense between the two, but they were at least talking to each other.

  Jay ignored Frankie and rubbed his hands together. “Come on, man. I tell you all the shit that goes on with me. We’re brothers.”

  Even I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “All of your stories are the same. Met a girl, fool around with her, and then you move on to the next one. I stopped listening to your conquest stories a while ago.”

  He held his hand to his chest like I had just hit him. “You wound me, brother. You should feel lucky to know about Michele, Nicole, Monica, Beck—”

  “Enough,” Frankie yelled. “We know you can’t keep it in your pants, Jay. We’ll be here ‘til Friday if you list all of the girls you’ve been with.”

  “I was just going to list the girls this month,” he snickered.

  Frankie stood up from the engine she was just wrenching on and wiped her hands on her overalls. “It’s only the fifteenth, and you just named four names.”

  “And I wasn’t even done yet.” He held out his fist to me, and I bumped it with mine. Frankie might think Jay was an asshole, but the guy had game for days. “Now tell me about the chick you managed to snag before I could.”

  “You would have met her if you wouldn’t have passed out in the back of Remy’s car two weeks ago,” Frankie smirked.

  Jay pushed off the stack of tires. “Hold the hell up, you met the chick Remy is seeing?”

  Frankie crossed her arms over her chest, enjoying the fact she had one over on Jay. “Yup. I sure did.”

  “When the hell was this?” he demanded.

  “The night before we left for Vegas. You took us to that bar a couple of towns over, and on the way home, the chick was having car problems. Remy helped her.”

  “You helped her too, Frank.”

  She waved her hand at me. “You know what the hell I meant. I’m not the one who wanted to get into her pants, so it doesn’t really matter if I helped her.”

  Jay stood in front of me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Is she hot?”

  “Jesus,” Frankie whispered. She grabbed a towel off the bench and stalked to the other side of the garage.

  “Now that she’s gone, fucking spill, dude.”

  “You do know this is fucking weird, right? You’re acting like you’re getting off on me seeing someone.” I knocked his arm away and leaned against the workbench.

  “Because you haven’t been with a chick since we moved to this podunk town. It’s fucking front page news you are seeing someone. Although, I don’t think you should get hooked on one girl too soon.”

  That would be something Jay would say. He was the king of one-night stands. “Not hooked, dude. Just seeing her.”

  “Does the her have a name?”

  “Harlyn.”

  He nodded his head. “Never dated a Harlyn before. A Harley, but not a Harlyn.” He tapped his finger to his chin. “Or was it we hooked up on a Harley?”

  I punched him in the shoulder. “You got enough of your own shit to remember.” My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out with a glance around the shop to make sure Roc wasn’t anywhere around.

  He had been riding my ass hard all morning. Jay swore up and down there was no way for Roc to know I had skipped out early yesterday, but from his mood toward me today, I didn’t believe him.

  Work is boring. What are you doing?

  I had texted Harlyn this morning before heading to work, but all it had been was a simple good morning. It’s work. Another day another dollar. I cringed when I hit the send button, instantly wishing I could unsend it. Damn, that sounded cheesy as hell.
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  LMAO You sound like you’re fifty.

  Yup, I was right. That was totally lame. Some days it feels like that. 27 going on 50. Sweet hell. There went another lame message. I wondered what other lame clichés I could come up with.

  I’m so glad it’s your day to be awkward and weird. Almost breaking my ass yesterday was awkward enough for me for the rest of the year.

  It’s only April. Still plenty of the year left.

  Is that your weird way of saying you like my awkward?

  I’m saying I just like you.

  “Jesus Christ. He’s smiling down at his phone like some damn fool in love. Give me that phone.” Jay moved to snatch the phone away from me, but I was quicker than him and dropped my arm to my side.

  “Don’t you have something else you should be doing right now?” I asked.

  “No, I think taking away your phone before you make a fool of yourself is just what I should be doing right now.” He lunged at me, trying again to grab my phone.

  I shoved the phone back in my pocket, not wanting Jay to get his hands on it. “Knock it off, fucker,” I shouted. I spun around, ready to make my escape, and ran smack dab into Roc.

  He pushed me back and brushed his hand down his chest. “What in the fuck are you two doing? It’s like I’m running a fucking daycare here.”

  I took a step back and scrambled to find the right thing to say. “Uh, sorry about that, Roc. Jay and I were just talking.”

  Roc scowled. “Looked like you were ready to make a fucking run for it.”

  Jay laughed behind me. “I was just giving him shit, Roc. Nothing going on.”

  Roc’s steady gaze stayed on me. “We’re not here to fucking play around. We leave for Gainesville in two days. You think maybe we should be working on the car and not acting like a bunch of giggling school girls?”

  Jesus. Roc was still in a shitty mood, and I was his target to take it out on. “Sorry, Roc,” I mumbled. I figured there wasn’t going to be anything I could say to make him less pissed off.

  “Show me how sorry you are by taking inventory of all of the extra parts we have. We’ll be out on a three week stretch when we leave early Thursday morning, and I don’t want to have to make parts runs like we did last week.” Roc said it like I had personally taken all of the parts from the trailer, shorting us when we needed them.