Legends and Lies (7 page)

THE PRERACE BLOCK PARTY was crowded with race fans, drivers, crew members and celebrities. Jared moved easily through the crowd toward the table where Tucker and D. J. Owens, the other driver on their team, sat.

“Yo, MacNeil, wait up.”

Jared could think of only one reason why Alan Jenner would want to talk to him—Annie. Ah, hell.

“What’s up?”

“That’s what I want to know. What’s doing between you and Annie?”

“None of your business.”

“Ah, Jared, that’s not the answer I wanted to hear.”

“Too bad. She’s an adult—she can make her own decisions.”

“No kidding. Just make sure you remember she’s part of the Jenner family and we take care of our own.”

“We’re dating, Alan. Most people don’t get hurt—”

“Annie’s not most people.”

Jared knew that, but he wasn’t going to discuss this any further with Alan. She had warned him her family was protective. It surprised him to some extent because Annie didn’t need a man to protect her. She did a good job of it herself with those steel-gray eyes of hers demanding truth from a man.

“Was that all?”

“Don’t make light of this, MacNeil.”

He nodded at the other man and walked away, working his way behind the table.

“Hey, man, you want to hang for a while?” Tucker asked as he finished signing the last autograph and posed for one last photo.

“Got nothing better to do,” Jared said.

“I thought you were dating Jenner’s sister.”

Everyone wanted to know about his love life, he thought, and right now there wasn’t anything to tell. “Yeah, that situation is complicated.”

Tucker raised one eyebrow at him. “That’s odd. Don’t women usually throw themselves at you?”

He punched Tucker in the arm. “She’s not like other women.”

“No?”

Jared didn’t want to talk about Annie with Tucker. Jared rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the man who was probably closer to him than anyone else. They were like brothers.

“No,” he finally answered.

“Oh.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Nothing…it doesn’t mean anything.”

They stopped in front of the stage where the Jenner Racing team was signing autographs. He scanned the crowd, looking for Annie, and caught a glimpse of her long dark brown hair as she moved through crowd, snapping pictures.

“Yeah, right,” Tucker said. “Why are we hanging out in a rival team’s crowd, then?”

“We’re not hanging out,” Jared replied, walking again. He couldn’t explain to himself why she was always on his mind. She was like an obsession that he couldn’t shake himself of.

Tucker’s next event was with a group of Boy Scouts of America. Their top box-car racers were waiting for him. Jared left Tucker with them and moved back through the crowd telling himself he wasn’t looking for Annie, but nonetheless he was standing in the shadows of the Number 153 car’s fans watching for her. He couldn’t spot her and felt like an idiot for hanging out, looking for her.

He walked back through the crowd toward the stage set up at one end of the street. A local band was playing covers of Jimmy Buffett hits.

“Hey, Jared,” Annie said, coming up next to him. She had her camera hanging around her neck.

“Hello. Working?”

“No. I’ve been hanging out with one of the musicians who will be performing later.”

“Who?”

“Stevie Taylor.”

How did she know him? And why did he care? He tried to come up with something to say but frankly he couldn’t. “That’s nice.”

She arched one eyebrow at him. “He and Dave are poker buddies.”

“So why were you hanging out with him?”

“Why do you care? I thought I was just someone you were dating casually.”

He thought about that. He’d tried to keep it casual. Their lunch had been anything but casual in the end. “It’s not—listen, I don’t know what I feel for you, but I do know I don’t want you dating another guy.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked up at him. “I’m glad to hear that. I feel the same way.”

She smiled up at him. And he knew he was lost. He leaned down and kissed her because he didn’t want her to see the emotions in his eyes. He kissed her because it had been too long since he’d had her in his arms and he was only just coming to realize that he wanted her— in his arms and in his life—and he had no idea how he was going to get her to stay there.

Annie pulled back as her cell phone started playing a song. She glanced at the screen and let the call go to voice mail.

“A bunch of us are going to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for drinks. Want to join me?”

“That sounds great.”

AFTER THE BLOCK PARTY Tucker and Jared climbed into the Ford Cobra that Tucker drove when he was off the track.

“I’ve got a date.”

Tucker glanced across the seats and stared at him with that knowing gaze. “I thought Annie shut you down.”

Jared didn’t respond to that. “Well, you thought wrong.”

“Oh. So now you’re running to her side.”

“Tucker…”

“This isn’t like you. I’m going to ask you again— what’s this woman got going on that has you so tied in knots?”

“I don’t know.”

Tucker laughed then, not cruelly, more sympathetically. “Tell her I’m sorry I accused her of tampering with my car.”

It turned out that one of the new guys on Tucker’s own team had removed the tape after it had been placed. So there was no tampering at all. But Jared wasn’t going to bring that subject up unless Annie did. He wanted to get back in her good graces, not remind her that he’d asked her to prove she hadn’t done something immoral and illegal.

“Want to come with me? Meet up with her?”

“Ah, no.”

Jared glanced at his friend, arching one eyebrow at him.

“Sister of my enemy and all that stuff.” Tucker said the words casually, but Jared understood how the other man felt. When they’d first come to NASCAR they hadn’t understood all the rules and they’d been branded from the beginning as mavericks—because they’d been so creative with the rules. And Dave Jenner had been one of those labeling them.

“Dave’s not really your enemy, is he?”

Tucker shrugged as he raced down the dark highway. “No, we’re just rivals. But something about that guy— actually that whole family—makes my skin itch.”

Jared knew exactly what Tucker meant. They were so close and supportive and two loners like Tucker and him…well, all that Jenner family love made him a little itchy, too. The last time he’d let himself really enjoy being a part of a family was way back before his parents had died.

“I know what you mean,” Jared said, thinking of Alan’s hounding him about Annie earlier.

“I think that’s part of the problem. Ya know, I want them to be too good to be true but they aren’t. Even Dave—hell, he really is gentlemanly both on and off the track. He has his aggressive stuff like any other driver, but he comes off looking good no matter what he does.”

Jared leaned back in the seat, not sure he agreed with Tucker. He didn’t want Annie to be too good to be true, but a part of him feared that she was.

He wanted her to be exactly as she seemed. Not a woman who was looking for a red-hot affair. Not a woman like any other he’d ever met.

“What’s with all the quiet?”

No way was he going to talk about Annie with Tucker. He just wasn’t going there. And in the past he would have. They always talked about the women they dated, but then they both had an endless stream of women who breezed through their lives.

“She’s different, Tucker.”

Tucker glanced over at him, taking his eyes from the road for a minute.

“Are you serious about her?”

Jared didn’t know. But his gut tightened when he thought about those moments in the corporate suite when she’d walked away and he hadn’t been too sure he could get her back.

“Yeah.”

Tucker didn’t say anything else for a while. Finally he said, “I’ll come out with you guys.”

“What changed?”

“If she’s going to be important in your life, then I want to know her better.”

He glanced at Tucker, uncertain of how Annie would be important, but not sure how to explain what he didn’t understand himself to his friend. But he wanted Tucker to like Annie. To know her well enough that he didn’t suspect her of trying to sabotage his car in the future.

“Don’t worry, man, I’m not going to blow it for you,” Tucker said with his trademark grin.

“I’m not worried about that.” Hell, if Annie had a problem with Tucker maybe she wasn’t the woman he thought she was. Tucker was like the brother he’d never had.

“Yes, you are.” Unfortunately just like blood brothers, Tucker could read him like a book. Luckily it went both ways so he’d always known what was going on with Tucker, too.

“Where are you meeting her?”

“At the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.”

“Let’s go.”

Tucker drove down the interstate toward Beverly Hills without saying much more. Green Day blared from the speakers. They valet-parked the car and entered the lobby of the hotel.

Tucker was waylaid by a few fans and Jared stood back to give him room. He hadn’t figured on Tucker wanting to meet up with Annie.

A part of him wanted to draw his friend to a stop and take five minutes to finalize the different scenarios running through his head. But Tucker was heading toward Annie, who was sitting at the bar.

Annie smiled at them. And Jared knew he was lost. There were no contingency plans he could make that would help him manage this.

WHEN ANNIE AWOKE the next morning she didn’t allow herself to analyze the night before. She’d had fun with Tucker and Jared until her male relatives had arrived and made asses out of themselves. Most of her female relatives had sided with her, and they’d all gone home early.

Annie had agreed to have breakfast with Jared this morning at the track. She’d seen a new side of Jared through Tucker. It was obvious the men had known each other for years, and knew each other well.

She tried to tell herself not to read too much into Jared’s interest in her. Not to give the feelings that were developing toward him too much importance. But it was impossible not to.

She made a simple breakfast of fruit salad, cheese and French bread and packed it into the picnic basket. Jared had said he’d bring the coffee, and since that was his business she figured he’d be better at it than she would.

She showered, dressed and headed out the door. She stepped out into the fresh February morning. The breeze was cool, and dawn was just starting to break over the horizon when she arrived at the track. She reached into the picnic basket for her camera, putting the strap around her neck and lifting the Nikon to her eye.

She waited, holding her breath, as the first pink fingers of the sun stretched up in the sky. Then she started clicking, taking pictures until she’d captured the entire sunrise.

She put down the camera as she heard Jared clear his throat, and she glanced over her shoulder at him. She’d been aware of his arrival but hadn’t wanted to lose the sun.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Nice sunrise?”

“The best. I was a little jealous yesterday when Abby was talking about her new project. I miss projects like that. Sports photography is fun and I love it, but it’s not the same as nature.”

He took the picnic basket from her and led her out of the line of RVs toward the grassy area near Turn Two. Since no one was up at this time of the morning, and the infield campers weren’t allowed access to that area, they’d be alone.

“How did you get interested in photography?” he asked as they settled into their picnic spot.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be a race-car driver when I was about nine. So I started researching other jobs I could have when I could still travel with my family.”

He handed her a travel coffee mug with the JM logo on it, along with a packet of sugar and a small container with half-and-half. “I didn’t know how you take it,” he explained.

“Just cream,” she said, adding it to her coffee. The rich aroma filled the air around them.

“How did you get into the coffee business?”

“It started when I was in college. I always had a lot of extra money, but my father wouldn’t let me have control of it until I could prove myself. With my trust fund we purchased a building. My original intent was to make money from the rents, which I did for a while.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “What changed?”

“I went to Colombia for the summer on one of those extreme vacations, and broke my ankle doing a high-altitude climb. I spent the rest of the vacation sitting in the main house of a coffee grower. His son was our guide.” He shrugged. “I learned a lot from him, and one thing led to another and before I knew it, I’d opened a coffeehouse.”

They ate their breakfast and talked about their lives, and Annie realized that the tests she’d thought about last night had disappeared. She wasn’t playing games and keeping score anymore. She was just enjoying her time with him.

When the meal was over he helped her clean up the containers and then repacked them. Then he took her hands in his and drew her around to face him. They sat cross-legged, knees touching. He leaned in, cupping her face in his hands.

He kissed her, a soft, sweet brush of his lips against hers. “Yesterday I meant for our lunch to be the start of our relationship. A real start. But that got botched, so I want to start again.”

“Me, too,” she said, her voice sounding breathless to her own ears.

He pulled the Tiffany box from a pocket in his jacket and held it out to her. “Will you accept this now?”

She nodded.

He took the bracelet out and fastened it around her wrist. She glanced down at it and noticed that there was a second charm hanging from it this morning.

She smiled and tried not to give the new charm too much importance, but it was a dazzling sun charm. She fingered it carefully and then leaned forward to kiss him.

He pulled her into his arms and leaned back so they were both lying on the blanket.

She closed her eyes and wrapped herself around him. His mouth moved over hers in languid sweeps, making her feel like they were the only people in the world.