by Amy Gregory
“I hope you don’t mind.” She spat out.
“Mind? Are you kidding? I feel bad. You’re supposed to be my guest and here you are cooking.”
At that, she turned. “I like to.” Her voice quiet and unsure.
“I appreciate it, and it smells delicious.” He rubbed up and down her arm as she stood at the stove.
Honor froze under his touch. Knowing her son was behind him, Eli squeezed once, then let go and headed toward his saving graces—the coffee maker and the bottle of medicine beside it.
He felt Honor’s eyes on him when he popped the lid on the over-the-counter help he relied on daily. He had been refusing the doctor’s offers of stronger pain pills for a long while, but that didn’t mean he was pain free. He just didn’t want to walk around in a daze. Plus his students needed him to be coherent. Eli pulled in a long sniff of the aroma floating from his coffee mug. The smell was almost as good as what Honor was making. Finally, he glanced at her worried face. He knew he’d scared her in Tennessee. This was just part of his life. There was nothing more he could do to ease the pain he still lived with.
“Are you okay, Eli?”
The ring of the house phone saved him from explaining.
“I’m fine, sweetheart. No worries,” he said as he walked across the kitchen to the built-in desk. He stood smiling at Honor as he answered. “Hello?”
The beautiful girl on the other end of the line made Eli’s face light up. “Morning baby, how’s my favorite girl?”
He winked at Honor, and if he wasn’t mistaken, her shoulders physically slumped. Was it from disappointment? He continued his call but Honor quickly turned and busied herself at the stove. Part of him wanted to rush to her and explain. The other caveman part of him was excited. She was jealous. No other way to describe it.
The little voice on the other end asked, “Is Dallas up yet?”
“Excuse me? Is who awake?” He asked, his voice a little sing-songy. Eli laughed, teasing the caller. “Does your daddy know you’re calling?”
Eli watched as Honor’s head tilted and turned a bit as if she was subtly trying to decide if it was another woman on the line or not. He grabbed his cell out of his pajama pants as he walked to Dallas with the cordless phone. The boy’s eyes went wide for a second before his face scrunched.
“Hey, ah, Dallas, you’ve got a phone call, son.”
The boy leaned back on the bar stool like the phone in Eli’s hand would burn him if he accepted it. Eli nodded that it was fine.
Hesitantly, Dallas accepted it. “Um…hello?” he answered with a question, the voice of a shy boy, not a proud male who had a girl calling for him already.
Eli quickly dialed on his cell. “Hey.” Years of phone calls and being as close as brothers had long done away with formalities. “You need to go listen to your daughter.”
“I’m afraid to ask why,” Carter said with a groan, drawing out the last word.
He laughed. “I didn’t think you knew she called me. And actually, she didn’t call me. Go listen.”
Waiting for the reaction on the other end of the line, Eli glanced between Dallas and Honor. She was apparently clueless as to what was going on. He walked closer to her and whispered that Dallas had an admirer. When her brow furrowed in concern, he leaned in closer to her, knowing the father on the other end would be loud enough she could hear him as well.
“Alexandra Noland Sterling. What do you think you’re doing and just who are you talking to?”
Eli was right. Carter was loud enough that Honor could hear. Without saying anything else, he disconnected the call as she slapped her hand over her mouth and looked at Dallas with the phone still to his ear.
Pointing discreetly at her son, she whispered, “Is it little Alex who called here, and did she call…for Dallas?”
Eli nodded, barely hiding his amusement. Although he hadn’t been around him a great deal yet, he knew Dallas well enough to know that the boy was going to be mortified, and it was definitely not something to tease him about. But it was still funny as all hell.
Now that Honor wasn’t worried about Eli having a woman call him, another emotion spilled over her face. Cringing, she bit her lip watching Dallas on the phone with a girl for the first time. A very little girl, but the future was slamming into her. Eli squeezed her shoulder.
Honor glanced up at Eli. “Is she always like that with the students here?”
Eli shook his head. “No. Never. She has been around some of our conversations about him and has seen some of the video we have on him. From day one, she’s been curious and asks about him all the time. She couldn’t wait for him to get here yesterday. But no, normally she walks around like the other kids aren’t even here.”
“Well, I guess I am okay with his first girlfriend being someone that has a very protective daddy and uncle.” Honor grinned. “And her age is still in the lower single digits.”
It would have to stay an inside joke between them about Dallas and Alex, one they could laugh about when Dallas wasn’t in the room, but at least Honor was laughing and not pissed about another woman. Eli grinned.
“Oh, just wait. When her Uncle Jesse finds out about this, he’ll be after her. You met him last night.”
Her brow furrowed, true worry deepening the creases across her forehead. “But…he seems like a teddy bear.”
Eli shook his head. “Not when it comes to Alex. I don’t think I mentioned it last night, but he and Emery can’t have kids, so those twins are like their own. The Texas in him is going to come roaring to the surface when he hears she’s been flirting with a boy. I just hope I’m there when he lets loose.”
“I hope you mean it’s all in good fun. The baby is only three after all.”
Eli’s grin widened with pride. For some reason, Honor’s immediate jump to protect Alex resonated with him, his heart warming with the knowledge. “Spoken like a true momma. No, he’ll tease her mercilessly. And I have a feeling Alex isn’t going to give a shit from the sounds of it. She was very matter-of-fact that Dallas was the one she was calling for.”
“I don’t know who I feel sorrier for, Molly or Alex when she gets a little older. She’s got an awful lot of men watching over her.” Honor softly chuckled as she picked the spatula back up from the counter, placing it in the sink.
“I can answer that…her parents. For sure. She looks like her father and has her mother’s attitude, a lethal combination. She’s going to be hell on wheels one of these days.”
Honor swiped at Eli. “Molly was nothing but sweet last night. You be nice.”
“Oh, she’s a doll, one of the most amazing people I have in my life. That doesn’t mean she’ll take a lick of shit off anyone.”
“Okay. Well, my mom is making me breakfast, and then I’ll see if Eli will bring me over,” Dallas said quietly into the phone before they saw him turn back to face them. “Okay. Tell Jack ‘hi’ too. Bye.”
They stood by the coffee maker trying nonchalantly to gauge Dallas’s reaction to his early morning call. The boy hit the end button on the phone and walked slowly to the desk to hang it up, without one word. Eli and Honor shared a look, both fighting like hell to hold in the laughter and teasing remarks they wanted to make.
Dallas went to the stove and picked up a plate off the stack. Without looking at the adults in the room with him, he mumbled, “Looks good, Mom.”
He scooped a spoonful of scrambled eggs onto his plate along with two pancakes, and made his way back to the kitchen bar. Eli turned toward Honor, but glanced over his shoulder at the boy, his cheeks still red, shoveling food in his mouth probably to keep from answering any questions.
Eli leaned into Honor’s ear. “I’m sorry, but that’s freaking hysterical,” he whispered his words only for her.
Her amusement spread over her face, and she rolled her eyes and grinned.
“Why don’t you get something to eat while it’s hot.”
CHAPTER SIX
As Dallas walked out of Eli’s h
ouse into the garage where she and Eli were waiting in the Razor, Honor sensed the nerves in her son. He quietly slipped into his boots and bent over to buckle them, then made his way over to them, climbing in the backseat of the off-road vehicle. She watched him thumb through his gear bag that she already placed on the seat beside him, going over his mental checklist and making sure he had everything he needed.
She could feel the tension radiating from him. His face was tensed, his breathing shallow but steady. Dallas never got nervous. Not even before a big race. Now it was her turn to be worried.
“You okay, buddy?”
He nodded his answer.
“You’re going to do fine, son.” Eli reached behind and squeezed Dallas’s knee in support. “It’s just practice, no big deal…really. Don’t look at it any other way, all right?”
Dallas let out a deep breath.
Eli rolled to a stop in front of the massive metal building. The early morning breeze was warm enough to allow for the shop doors to all be open. All eyes stopped and stared for a long moment.
Talk about feeling like they were on display in a zoo. Honor’s stomach dropped to the floorboard, and she immediately turned to the seat behind her. They’d already been introduced to the family last night at dinner, but the rest of the staff they hadn’t met yet, and as they all started making their way toward them, Dallas’s eyes went wide, his face paled.
The boy was scared shitless.
This was exactly what Honor had been afraid of. The pressure. Not that he couldn’t do it. She had no doubt in his skill or ability. But he was just a young kid, and these were important people in the business—this was his make-it-or-break-it moment.
Sudden death.
They may be here for a month, but Dallas knew as well as she did, he only got one chance to make a first impression. One chance to show them what they wanted to see. One chance to prove they’d made a good decision on inviting him to the school. For free. One chance to show them all, he was the real thing.
Eli held out a fist to bump in male support. Honor watched Dallas look around at the group of about thirty people who had gathered. When his eyes met Eli’s again, he held his fist to Eli’s and took in the support the man offered.
“Dallas, listen to me.” Eli demanded her son’s attention, and then she watched her son visibly relax once his eyes settled on Eli.
“You got this, son. Just like when it was you and me alone on your track. Just ride. That’s all you’ve got to do…just ride.” Eli nodded, waiting for the boy’s gesture of understanding. “Now, go show them what you’ve got. Show them what you showed me.”
Honor saw the hint of a proud smile dance across her son’s face. She would have said very similar words, however, they wouldn’t have had nearly the same effect Eli’s did. She filed that piece of information away for later, for when she was in bed alone and could assess it from all angles.
Exiting the Razor, Eli reached in the back seat, grabbing Dallas’s gear bag. The three of them stood, unable to move forward because the group descended on them. The friendly hello’s, nice-to-meet-you’s, can’t wait to see you ride’s all being said over one another, the volume quickly layering, leaving them clueless as to which direction to turn first. When Honor would have tried to calm her son with a gentle hand on his shoulder, Eli scooped him close to his side, casual, manly, but still supportive.
Very much…fatherly.
Honor pushed the thought out of mind as fast as it had entered and let out a breath, her eyes wide to what she was witnessing.
She would not let herself get swept away by a gorgeous man, one that she had just seen without a shirt on not more than a couple of hours ago. The man that she had practically drooled over, with his washboard abs and dark skin, the one that still had the night’s shadow gracing his jaw and chin. The one with a tattoo spanning across his shoulder blades that made him ten kinds of hotter.
Honor would not let her son get attached to someone who would not be in their lives after twenty-nine more days. She couldn’t.
It was better now that he had a shirt on. It wasn’t as effective as a bag over his head, but it was a great deal safer to look at him when he spoke. After his shower, he had come back to the kitchen without the whiskers that matched the very closely trimmed dark hair on his head that had made him appear dangerous.
At least to a single mother who hadn’t had sex in too many years to count, other than the battery operated kind. And thankfully, he’d covered up that amazing tattoo. She did not need to have to look at it, the way it moved when the muscles in his back and shoulders flexed. The scroll and design work had been nothing short of astounding, but frustrating as all hell when he’d caught her staring—more than once.
Yes, Eli in clothes was much easier to handle. Now if he would never take off the sunglasses so she didn’t have to look, or more appropriately, lose herself, in those hazel eyes, she'd be just dandy.
Still horny, but just dandy.
What the hell was wrong with her? It had to be the lack of sleep. She had tossed and turned, even in the comfort of the large queen bed with a mattress so soft she felt like she was laying on top of a cloud, and the blankets, so warm and downy, completely cozy. Honor was grateful beyond measure. However, all of it—his home, his gestures, his sweetness—had made her feel more out of place, more out of control, more…different.
It didn’t help that she had slept with her door partway open out of habit for Dallas, and so had Eli. Only two walls and a hallway separating them all night. Knowing he was right there, but that she needed to keep safely behind the line she had drawn around herself years before, left her feeling edgy. Needy. And restless like she’d never felt before. She clenched and pressed her thighs together while fisting the butter-soft cotton sheet in her hands.
Volleying between guilt and hunger, pride and want, only resulted in allowing sleep to elude her. The moon washing the room afforded her the ability to watch the shadows dancing across the walls in the dark blue light.
The night grew even longer hearing him toss in a fit, wrestling in his own sheets, with what had to be a nightmare. The low moans of pain and anguish reliving a horror. After a couple of minutes listening intently, the motocross mother in her knew exactly what his dream was about. She had lain in bed, smelling the lilacs he’d placed there special for her, wondering what she could do, what she should do. When she had finally argued herself into a corner, she threw back her covers, ready to go check on him, but he’d quieted down again, sleep winning out over his demon.
After about her pride the first half of the night, Eli became her focus and concern the second half, listening for another round of hell that thankfully never came. It brought to the forefront how dangerous the sport really was. Again, it made her wrestle with what kind of mother she was to let her son relive Eli’s past. Would he have a crash like Eli’s? Would he be okay? Could she make him quit?
The answers to her questions were elusive as she sat trackside over the years.
No. This was Dallas’s dream. Honor had the chance to go for hers, and she wouldn’t take away his. Dangerous or not. Instead, she gave him every tool she could afford to keep him safe. She did everything she knew possible to make sure he had the right training, including standing uncomfortably in a group of strangers, taking a scholarship that hurt her pride. So she could watch her son do a sport that scared the hell out of her, all in the name of motherhood.
Eli hadn’t said anything about the nightmare when he walked in the kitchen for breakfast, so she didn’t either.
The words had been on the tip of her tongue, and her mouth opened more than once, poised to ask, only to lose her nerve and turn away. The part of her that worried about those around her wanted to know if she could help, but the part of protecting her heart from developing any type of bond with him won out. Even a platonic friendship with Eli could end up being painful and leaving her feeling empty.
****
Eli watched Honor walk to the track entr
ance with her son. The academy’s two chief mechanics, Emery and Joey, were close behind them with the bike that Honor had no idea had been built specifically for Dallas. He couldn’t help but worry. She was trying to keep it together, trying to stay strong, but he could tell she was feeling the strain of the offer.
He had no doubt Dallas would live up to their expectations, and although the boy was a little antsy about showing off in front of everyone, Eli also knew that inside the boy was the heart of a racer. As soon as he kicked the bike, everything else would fade to the background.
As he walked their direction, a blonde giggling ball of energy raced past him. Dressed in her own purple riding gear, her hair in long braids for her helmet, she ran as fast as she could in the cumbersome riding boots. Nearing the object of her affection, she tucked her tiny hand in Dallas’s without a word. The older boy didn’t appear to mind, never skipping a beat, holding her hand as they continued to walk.
Eli bit his cheek to keep from laughing, and turned to see if either of her parents was watching. Judging from the dropped jaws surrounding him, everyone saw. Carter looked like a man defeated, standing shaking his head, Molly had her mouth covered, her eyes wide with shock.
Jesse was standing by Karen, and when Eli caught his attention, Jesse mouthed, “Oh my God, did you see that?”
With a jerk of his head, he acknowledged the sight. From what he knew, Jesse hadn’t heard about the early morning phone call Dallas received—yet.
Eli got close enough to hear the words of wisdom James Noland was giving Dallas, all the while Alex clung to his side, not letting go of the boy for anything.
“Can I ride with him, Uncle E? Grandpa said maybe.”
For whatever it was worth, the little darling had erased Dallas’s nerves. Eli nodded an understanding to the boy. “How about you let him take a few laps by himself, then you can show him how you jump that.” Eli pointed to a small hill. “I’m not joking buddy, don’t let your girl here out jump you.”
