Hot Laps (24 page)

Olivia walked by just then heading for Charlie’s stall and smarted off with, “Making
the rounds early today?”

Olivia suddenly didn’t like me. I’m not exactly sure why so I asked Bailey this morning
and she said it was because Olivia had tried to get with Casten a few times and he
said no.

Casten, who had just hung up quirked an eyebrow at me, “What was that?”

“She’s a slut,” I said rolling my eyes.

“Olivia is a slut?” he asked slipping his cell phone into a pocket.

I shook my head at Casten’s lack of awareness to this place. “Let’s just say I’m sure
she’s had more than one dick slapped against her forehead.”

Casten did this gaping fish out of water thing again before he chuckled. “Just when
I think I know you…you spout off with something like that.”

“Good or bad?”

“Good, Hayden, everything with you is always good.”

Why does he say stuff like that? Why is he so kind and I’m so … well, me?

I changed my path of direction. “I heard Olivia tried to get your attention first?”

He didn’t look up but I could see the change in his expression. “Is that what you
call it?”

“What?”

“Let’s just say her approach was less than original.”

“Oh,” and then I thought my approach wasn’t real original either. I mean Christ almighty,
I got drunk every night of the week, and told him I would rape him at one point.

“And I was?” I asked with an appropriate amount of hesitation.

His eyes met mine as he took an oil pump out of the box, tossing the cardboard aside
and then taking his shop towel and cleaning the outside of the small red container.

“You were …” he stopped what he was doing and looked directly in my eyes. “I don’t
know how to explain it but you’re different, Hayden. You say things, do things … everything
about you is not at all what I expected and I like that. Unexpected can be a good
thing.”

“I told you two to stay away from each other,” a voice bellowed from behind. A very
annoying, very hypocritical, and very jerk-like voice.

“Get lost, Charlie,” I stepped closer to Casten.

“I won’t get lost. I don’t see why you have to fuck everyone here, too,” he said,
in a manner I didn’t appreciate.

“You couldn’t keep your dick out of one girl, could you?” he asked Casten.

Casten’s jaw clenched tightly as he stepped forward. “I’d be real careful what you
say to me right now, Charlie, if you want to keep your job.” His eyes flashed with
anger and warning. “You’re walking a fine line as it is speaking to her like that.
You have no say over anything she does.”

Charlie wasn’t about to back down. “You don’t mean shit to her, Casten. You may think
you do, but you don’t. She’s fucked the entire hockey team and most of the male population
at our high school.”

What a fucking tool!

I wanted to punch Charlie and I nearly did if it wasn’t for Casten’s firm grasp on
my waist holding me back.

“The fact that you keep that close of an eye on her sex life doesn’t say a lot about
your own there, buddy.” Casten let out an arrogant chuckle knowing he had control
over the argument.

“Fuck you,
Riley
.”

Casten chuckled again unphased by his remarks. “Like I said, if you want to keep your
job, I’d walk away right now.”

“Yeah, I know, daddy owns the shop so the son walks all over everyone!” Charlie yelled
across the shop.

Noah walked in and nudged Casten distracting him from Charlie. “The bearing alignment
is off. Could you look at it before you leave today?”

Casten nodded but didn’t say anything as he turned toward me, his gaze fixated on
Charlie.

Great
. Just great.

As you can see, the days following my Saturday morning with Casten, you know, the
best day ever, were hectic. It didn’t help that Charlie suddenly thought I needed
another father and assumed he could tell me who to sleep with.

Charlie told Casten about Jacob and the rest of the hockey team like I was
with
them.

I had a real problem with him talking about those “hockey players” like we had some
kind of relationship. We fucked around; it wasn’t a relationship.

Casten was the only boy I’d had sober sex with, and could possibly consider a relationship
with him sometime. Well, let me rephrase, I’d consider the possibility of a relationship
if it involved what we had right now, sex and simplicity.

Relationships to me were strange. Take two ordinary people and slap a title on what
they became and suddenly one thinks you own the other or vice versa. I couldn’t for
the life of me understand why it had to be like that.

How come two people couldn’t just have a good time, fuck if they wanted, and then
move on when one wore out their welcome?

Why did there have to be a break-up?

Seemed dumb to me so, for now, I’d never been in a relationship.

And I wasn’t so sure I wanted to start with one. But then, there was this adorable
winking boy who was slowly capturing my heart by simple gestures like smiling, giggling
and having sober sex with me.

Stupid engine builder anyways.

Anna called me shortly after I got off work to tell me her and Cole were heading to
the bar in a few hours. I knew Casten was working late tonight since I distracted
him for a while today so I snuck downstairs once more before heading out.

He was alone, and don’t think it didn’t cross my mind to swagger down there naked,
cause it did.

I remained fully clothed and approached him from behind; watching him work with a
boring machine that nearly sent me over the edge.

“What are you doing there?” I asked eyeing the way the muscles in his arms flexed
each time he pushed the handle of the machine forward.

His head whipped around with a wide grin before he stopped and had me pressed up against
the machine kissing me fiercely.

“Now this is a welcome I could get used to,” I told him in between my own fierce kisses.

“Hey, Casten?” a voice called out from the top of the stairs.

I knew the voice; it was Noah pissing on my parade.

“Oh, sorry guys,” he kind of laughed. “But I need you, Casten.”

Damn you, Noah.

Casten pulled his head back that had fallen forward against my shoulder. “I’m sorry,
but I have to go.”

“It’s okay,” I straightened my shirt out from where his large hands had been close
to ripping it off. “Anna and Cole were heading to the bar. Wanna meet up when you’re
done?”

He did that squinting thing again when he pulled back to look at me. His features
softened. “I was kind of hoping to have you alone tonight, waiting in my room for
me.” He reached inside his jeans to pull out a key. “Wait for me?”

A key? A motherfucking key?

My eyes focused on it and, sure as shit, it was a key.

“That’s a key. To your parent’s house.”

He looked at me like I was crazy.

I wasn’t sure how to act to this. No one had ever offered or trusted me for that matter
with a key.

Why would they? I couldn’t even house sit a fucking dog without the pound being called.

“Are you … sure?” my eyes widened as I thought of all the ways this could go wrong
for me and this engine builder. “What if something catches on fire?”

He offered a careless shrug. “Don’t light any matches?”

“What if a pipe breaks and the place floods?”

“Put on your bathing suit and have a good time.” The smirk that’d been tugging at
those beautiful lips went into a full-fledged grin.

“What if Rosa is there?”

“She’s not. She’s spending the week with her sister in Pittsburgh.”

Well, he had an answer for everything, didn’t he?

“So I’m supposed to take this key, drive to your house, and let myself in?”

“That’s the general idea,” he said turning around to place the wrench he had in his
hand onto a cart beside his toolbox. “Can you handle that?”

“I’m not sure,” I groaned. “I think that’s an incredible amount of responsibility
for someone like me.”

“Pretty girl, you’ll be fine,” he said before tossing the key toward me and then jogging
up the stairs to where Noah was still standing there.

So on the way to his house, I contemplated stealing some beer from Adam but then decided
against it and drove to Casten’s house instead.

Some think I drink for depression or to escape reality but that has nothing to do
with it. I do it for fun. I don’t hate my life or wish I was someone else. Just because
my bank account only had $3.46 in it didn’t mean I was unhappy.

I just liked to have a good time and, to me, that happened to involve alcohol.

Knowing this, I did understand some boundaries were going to need to be drawn between
me and my addiction.

When Casten got home from the shop that night, I had let myself in just as he told
me to and added a little surprise of my own to his bedroom.

He laughed eyeing his transformed bedroom. “What is all this?”

“Well, some would say it’s a fort but I would say it’s a fort for adults.” I gave
him a smirk while I shook my hips a little standing in front of the sheets hanging
from his ceiling and walls.

Casten walked toward the fort and smiled wider. “You built a pillow and blanket ‘fuck
fort’ in my bedroom?”

“I guess I did,” I said with a shrug wiping sweat from my forehead. It did take a
lot of effort to make.

“You might just be my soulmate.”

I think I snorted and then tried to play it off with a cough that turned into choking.
Being awfully close to needing CPR, I decided to just keep my mouth shut after that.

“Come on, crazy,” he pulled me by the arm toward the bed. “I brought dinner.”

As we ate, I noticed I missed a text from Anna:
You should come to the bar. All your past fucks are here. It’ll be like a family reunion.

Rolling my eyes, I replied while Casten took out the Chinese food he brought home
with him.

No thanks. I hated high school. I was given a key.

Her reply:
No shit? A key to what? Place tell me the local liquor store because you would so
be my best friend.

I thought I was your best friend?

You are but it’d be a lot cooler if you had a key to the liquor store, too.

I laughed and replied with:
It’s to Casten’s house.

Oh…well…don’t burn the place down.

See, she had just as much faith in me as I did.

“So I was happy to see my parent’s house was still standing,” Casten said with a slight
chuckle just as he twirled some chow mein noodles around his fork. “My dad was really
pissed about the party. I’m not sure his head could take it if something else happened.”

“You doubted me … didn’t you?” Picking through the options of food, I chose some fried
rice and began eating it.

He seemed to contemplate his answer for a moment. “No, I don’t care about the house
as much as I cared that you were still here when I got home.”

I inhaled again only this time rice got lodged in my throat and nose somehow. I sneezed
and then gagged. Gagging turned into me actually puking in his bathroom sink.

I’m not sure why I couldn’t act like a normal version of myself around him but I felt
like a complete fucking dumbass and wished like hell I had alcohol. Maybe then I could
calm the fuck down and be somewhat normal.

His response, with that adorable wrinkled nose and a smirk, “It happens to the best
of us.”

Stupid engine builder.

Casten kindly allowed me some alone time to collect my thoughts and get the puke smell
off myself. After brushing my teeth a few dozen times and changing into one of his
shirts, I made my way back to the fuck fort where I heard the TV in his room on.

He smiled, his body relaxed against the fluffy pillows and his head leaned back against
the couch. His shirt was off now as he lounged in just a pair of jeans. I noticed
off to his side he’d poured us some drinks, thankfully, and a large bowl of popcorn.

I didn’t care so much about the popcorn but the drinks were appreciated. Maybe then
the normal me could reveal herself. This one was unacceptable.

Returning the smile, I sauntered my refreshed self over there. It didn’t take long
and I was snuggled into the fuck fort with him as we searched through his movie collection.

“So what did your dad say?”

“He said by the time he gets back from California in two weeks everything better be
fixed
and
he’s taking it out of my paycheck.”

“Wow.”

Casten shrugged. “It’s understandable. We did go overboard.”

When I thought about that night, he was right, it was overboard. But, oh so amazing.

Not really focusing on the movie, I let him pick one and just continued to stare at
his body.

Apparently, my stupidity returned, thankfully I had nothing to drink or eat this time
and I asked: “Have you ever been in love?”