Legends and Lies (2 page)

“SURE, BUT IT’LL HAVE to be late. I’m working until nine.”

“Where shall I pick you up?”

“I’m staying at a condo on the beach. I can meet you somewhere.”

“You could, but my mother raised me to pick up my dates.”

“What else did she raise you to do?” Annie asked, wanting to know more about the man behind the image.

“To be a gentleman,” he said.

Time would tell. “And are you?”

“You’ll have to be the judge of that.”

The press conference was winding down. “Until later.”

She walked away from him, quickly. Her brother was staring at her as she approached. Annie gave him a narrowed glance, silently asking, “What’s up?”

He tipped his head at Jared, who’d moved back to Tucker’s side. She shook her head at her brother. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss this with Dave.

“Hold up, Annie. Walk with me to my motor home.”

She glanced back and remembered that minute when she’d been uncertain if he’d walk away from the crash. She rushed back to his side and wrapped her arms around his chest, holding him tightly to her.

“I’m okay,” he said, his words just a whisper.

“I know. I’m just glad.”

He grinned at her, for the first time looking like the carefree brother she knew. There was a lot of pressure for Dave to perform and perform well during race season.

“Good,” Dave said.

He kept his arm over her shoulder and she felt that natural rhythm that had always flowed between them. That twin thing that she could always sense when they were together.

Dave dropped his arm from around her as they approached the entrance to the garages. There were a flock of fans with cold pit and garage passes lined up waiting to see the drivers when the garage would be “cold” again. Annie pulled her credentials out of her pocket and flashed her hot pass at the official at the gate. She waited just inside the gates until Dave finished signing hats and T-shirts and joined her.

“Shouldn’t you go talk to Vinnie?”

“We’re meeting in fifteen—he’s still with the team trying to assess all the damage done to the body of the car.”

They reached his motor home and he opened the door, waiting for her to go inside. She did, taking a seat on one of the plush leather captain’s chairs.

“What do you need to talk to me about?” she asked, leaning back on the padded seat. She could tell their mom had been by here at some point during the day because there was a bottle of citrus juice with a sticky note on it just like the one her mom had given her this morning.

“I see mom is doing her best to keep you healthy.”

He flushed a little. “Did you get one, too?”

“Yes. I think it makes her happy to take care of us.”

“That’s what dad is always telling me,” Dave said. Then he leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “I want to talk to you about Jared MacNeil.”

“What about him?” she asked.

“What were you and he talking about before?” Dave asked, doing his protective older brother routine.

“Nothing,” she said.

“You looked pretty close for nothing.”

“Dave, I’m twenty-eight.”

“I’m aware of how old you are. I just want to know what’s up with you and that man.”

“We’re having dinner. That’s all. End of story.”

Dave cursed under his breath and she didn’t have to guess at why. Her brother had been completely snowed by Malcolm, her ex-husband. The entire family had bought in to his easygoing charm and it had taken them a long time to come around to listening to her when she’d said he was rotten to the core.

“I don’t want to see you get in over your head,” Dave said.

“Ah, Dave, you’re a sweetie for worrying, but this isn’t any big thing. Just dinner.”

Dave ran his hand over his jaw and cracked his neck. “I just don’t want to see you make another mistake.”

Her, either. This was another reason why she’d busied herself with her job at
Sports Illustrated
. Here in the world she’d grown up in she was surrounded by family and friends that wanted to put her in some kind of protective bubble wrap. “I’ll be okay. Have you heard anything bad about him?”

Dave shrugged and then pushed to his feet. “He’s good friends with Tucker Aldridge. That says it all as far as I’m concerned.”

“You are rivals on the track—that doesn’t make either man a bad one off the track,” she pointed out, knowing that Dave normally got along with everyone. His reputation wasn’t a false one. He was a gentleman, even to those ladies he ran through like the high-speed driver he was.

“Why him?” Dave asked.

She glanced at her brother, trying to really see if this was a sticking point for him, if he was really upset that she was going on a date with someone from another racing team.

But in his eyes she saw only that brotherly concern.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I kind of like Jared. I don’t know Tucker, what’s he like?”

“He needles me. I can’t put my finger on why exactly,” Dave said.

“Tucker is a good driver,” she said, stating something that her brother could respect.

“I know. Some say better than me.”

She gave him a smile. “Better than a Jenner—no way.”

He reached out and tugged on her hair, something he’d started doing when they were teenagers and his friends had needled him for hugging her. She knew the gesture meant
I love you
. She reached out and rubbed his neck as her return gesture.

“I’m still not sure about Jared. He’s not like us. He grew up in a family of socialites. I think he knows the Hilton sisters.”

“That’s not a crime, you know.”

“Yes, I know. All I know is that he seems to keep people at a distance. You need someone who’ll—”

“Don’t, Dave. Don’t try to tell me what I need. Because I’m not sure that either of us really knows.”

ANNIE LEFT the after-race party well before it was over. She wandered around the empty condo with time to spare before her date with Jared. She didn’t want to think about him or their date.

Grabbing her Nikon she took out the memory stick and downloaded the photos she’d taken at the track today. As the images flashed on her computer she tried to stay detached. Tried to be a photographer dispassionately viewing her subjects, but she couldn’t be.

The crash looked even worse in still-frame. It was amazing to her that both drivers had walked away. She changed her view from single-photo to proof-sheet and started marking notes on which pictures she wanted to submit for the book on Dave’s year.

She enlarged a photo she’d snapped of her parents and noticed for the first time how tired her father looked. She leaned closer to the screen but knew that photos didn’t lie. They showed the unvarnished truth about a subject and the viewers had to decide if they were going to believe it or not.

She’d always just seen the masculine beauty of Malcolm and had fooled herself into missing the vacuous expression in his eyes.

The doorbell rang. She left her laptop on the breakfast-bar counter and walked through the open room to the front door. The condo was typical of Florida. Open spaces with large windows that overlooked the ocean and clean white walls. This condo was owned by one of her relatives and had photos of the ocean on the wall that Annie had taken over the years.

She opened the door to find Jared standing there. He hadn’t changed, but then he’d looked good before.

His eyes slid over her body. She fought the urge to suck in her stomach or fiddle with her hair. She heard her cell phone ringing in the background.

“Go ahead and get that. I’ll wait here,” he suggested.

“Come in,” she said, stepping back so he could enter. She hurried to the counter where she’d left her cell phone.

“Hello, Mom.”

“Hey, sweetie, where did you disappear to?”

“I wanted to get a look at the photos I took today and that party really isn’t my scene,” she replied. She didn’t want a bunch of questions, especially in front of Jared. Her family would be like Dave, warning her about dating another man in the racing world. Especially one they didn’t know. She appreciated that they were protective of her, but at the same time she wanted to just be a girl going out with a boy. Not a Jenner going out with the team owner of a rival race car.

“We’re all heading over to Uncle Steve’s place. Do you want to join us?”

“Umm…not tonight. Tell everyone I said hello,” she said, hanging up with her mother.

Jared had come into the main room of the condo and stood on the threshold of the kitchen, staring at the images on her computer screen.

“You’re good at what you do,” he said.

“Thanks. Sorry about the call.”

“No problem. I have to take calls all the time.”

She’d bet his calls were about business, not from overprotective relatives. “Does your mom phone you all the time, too? It’s like she still thinks I’m twelve.”

He shook his head. “My mom’s deceased.”

Great, Annie. Nice way to start the date. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t know. And it’s been a long time.”

“Were you close?”

“Yes, we were. I’m an only child so my parents doted on me.”

“Ah, so you were the typical spoiled only child?” she asked, wanting to know more about him. Maybe the appeal of Jared was that she knew so little of him.

“Not typical,” he said. “What about you? Spoiled princess or tom girl?”

“A bit of both actually. When Dave and I were little we’d tag around after my dad when he was in the garage before races. But at home I was definitely a princess. My family can still be kind of protective.”

She led the way to the front door and locked up when they were both outside. Her condo was on the ground floor and the smell of hibiscus filled the air.

“I think I like that about them,” he said.

He put his hand on the small of her back and directed her toward the parking area. The night breeze was cool and she was glad she had on her leather coat.

“You wouldn’t if you were the one being protected.”

“I don’t know about that. I’ve never had anyone try to protect me.”

She tipped her head to the side, stared up at his profile and realized just how much he’d revealed to her. “Not even your parents?”

“They did hire a bodyguard for me when I was seven,” he said.

The comment was so off-handed that she knew there had to be more to the story. “Why a bodyguard?”

“My father had annoyed some people and they threatened me.”

She knew so little about Jared. “Who is your father?”

“Benjamin MacNeil,” he said. “Captain of industry and CEO of one of the largest banks in the world. My father had been born into money and then proceeded to make more of it before his death. My mother had been an actress/model from another wealthy family.”

She couldn’t imagine what it had been like growing up in the MacNeil family. But she was curious. Her family had money and were well-connected, but they’d never traveled in the kind of circles the MacNeils had.

“My car’s over there,” he said, pointing to a silver Aston Martin. Everyone she knew drove American cars. Her brother was a Chevy driver, so they all drove Chevys except for her dad, who’d driven a Buick back in his racing days and still had one in his garage.

“You’ve got to take a lot of flack for this car.”

“It’s worth it. Drives like a dream.”

He opened the door for her and seated her in the car, then walked around to slide inside. The smell of his aftershave lingered in the air. She glanced over at him and felt the weight of his stare on her.

Their eyes met and held. She tried to tell herself this was just a dinner date, one like every other one she’d been on before, but there was something different about Jared. Something that made her wish…that she still believed in fairy-tale love and happily-ever-after because he definitely looked and acted like Prince Charming.

THERE WAS SOMETHING different about Annie from the women he’d dated in the past. Since his parents’ deaths he’d kept a barrier between himself and other people— and she tempted him to drop it. “Fasten your seat belt.”

He was beginning to believe that asking her out was going to be one of the biggest risks he’d taken since he’d started sponsoring Tucker. She was breathtakingly beautiful in the bright lights of the parking lot, with her curly, black hair falling in smooth waves past her shoulders.

But it was more than physical beauty that drew him. She fastened her seat belt and put her hands in her lap, fingers laced tightly together.

He couldn’t explain why she was affecting him so deeply. Maybe it was seeing Tucker crash today. He realized that they were both mortal and no longer college frat boys with more guts than brains and a long lifetime ahead of them.

“Where are we going for dinner?” she asked.

“It’s a surprise.” He’d arranged a private dinner for them at a restaurant in Cocoa Beach. It was a forty-minute drive from Daytona.

“I don’t like surprises,” she said.

“You’ll like this one.” He hoped she liked it, and he wanted some privacy for their first date together. He wanted them away from the press that followed the drivers, team owners and their families. And getting out of Daytona seemed the best way to do that.

“You are cocky and arrogant.”

He laughed, feeling good to be alive. It was one of the rare moments in a life filled with monotony. “Hey, I thought you didn’t know me.”

“Traits like those can’t stay hidden,” she replied.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice,” he said.

“I’m very observant.”

“Is that why you are a photographer?”

She shrugged. “Partly.”

He thought she was pausing to gather her thoughts, but as the minutes passed and she said nothing else he realized she was going to leave it at that.

He started the car and put down the convertible top. “Do you mind?”

“No. I like the fresh breeze.”

“What else do you like?”

“Hot pretzels, Stevie Wonder and watching my brother win.”

He backed out of the parking lot. “So what about arrogant men? You must like them, too.”

“Not like so much as learn to put up with them.”

“Who do you put up with?”

“Dave and my dad—they both think they know what’s best for everyone.”

He glanced over at her and sensed there was more to her comment than she was saying. He wondered if knowing her down to the bone was going to be a good thing. But he knew himself well enough to know that he wasn’t going to be satisfied until he’d uncovered all of her secrets—every last one of them.

And he couldn’t do that without revealing parts of himself that he normally didn’t like to share.

“I’m a rank amateur compared to them. I only know what I like and what I want.”

“So you’ll like this surprise dinner and think I will, too.”

“Something like that,” he said.

He headed south out of Daytona with the top down on the Aston. The cold Florida breeze filled the car as did the scents of the ocean. He saw Annie start to shiver so he turned on the heater, pumping the hot air from the vents.

“Word around the track is that this is your first race in a few years.”

“That’s right,” she said, wrapping one arm around her waist.

“What have you been doing?”

“I’ve been working for
Sports Illustrated
and other sports magazines.”

“What do you cover?”

“Mainly racing,” she said. “It’s what I know. My dad always says that racing gets in your blood and I have to agree with him. Even though I’m not part of the family racing business anymore, I still wanted to be at the tracks.”

“The U.S. racing circuit?”

“No. I’ve been in Europe for a while.

“The F-1 circuit in Europe?” he asked.

“Not really,” she said and pointedly changed the conversation to Lance Maxwell, the driver who’d won the race today. Lance drove for Jenner Racing and was a teammate of Dave’s.

He wished this weren’t a first date, then he would have been able to push harder and find out what she was hiding. Whatever had taken her to Europe was definitely something she wanted to hide. And that just whetted his curiosity. But he knew better than to push past barriers that people put up in conversations.

He’d learned that lesson the hard way when he’d let a reporter push him into talking about his parents’ deaths.