Apparently, Nathan meant it when he said he wasn't letting me out of his sight. The second we got to the tracks, he pulled me into the garage and made me stick by his side as he went to check in with Cotter. He held my hand tightly the entire way to make sure I wouldn't stray away from him. Not that I was complaining.

Maybe it was just me, but it felt like our hands fit perfectly together. It was like the curves of his palm were crafted to fit into the curves of mine, and the coolness on his hand was balanced by the warmth in mine. It was like he brought a shock of electrifying comfort with his hand placed in mine, and I didn't want to let go any time soon. 

Unfortunately, my wish was not granted, because the moment we walked up to our group of friends gathered by the racetrack, he dropped my hand. I tried to ignore the disappointment that settled in my stomach as I approached our friends empty handed and forced a smile onto my face in greeting. 

Vincent had his arms around Tess' shoulders, drawing her back into his chest, as he leaned against the side of his pick up. Mike and Holden had busied themselves with two girls with platinum blonde hair and clothes so skinny that I wondered how they didn't get frostbite. Asher was sitting on the bed of the pick up with his legs dangling off. 

"Lauren, it's good to see you!" Asher greeted happily, and then his gaze fell on my outfit before his grin morphed into a smirk. "I take it Nathan dressed you like that?"

I pout jokingly and cry dramatically, "He forced me to dress like a sack of potatoes."

Asher barked out a laugh as his easygoing grin returns to his face, but this time, there's a wicked glint in his eye. "He just doesn't want any other guys looking at you. You know, Nathan gets really possessive over girls that he-"

Nathan shoots Asher a dangerous look, one so cold that I even shrank backward, but Asher looks unaffected. He rolled his eyes at Nathan and smiled sweetly at me. 

"That he's friends with," Asher continues monotonously.

But I swear I saw the tips of Nathan's ears turn pink and my breath caught in my throat. Nathan blushing? In what world does that exist?

"Hey Lauren," Tess smiles at me and pulls me out of my jumbled thoughts as I shoot her a friendly smile. "Do you want a beer? We have plenty in the cooler."

A beer sounded like the perfect thing to calm my nerves. After all, I was surrounded by drunk, hollering strangers in the very place that I'd come a little too close to having someone force himself on me for comfort. 

I nod feverishly and say, "Please." 

Tess moves from Vincent's hold and he groans in protest with a frown on his face. I can't help the small smile on my lips when I watch him pull Tess back into his arms the second that she has the beer for me in her hands. She giggles as Vincent tightens his hold on her and nuzzles his face into her neck.

Their adorableness made a small pang hit my chest as I wondered if I would ever have love like they have. Fortunately, the feeling came and went with the wind as soon as Tess smiles at me and hands me my drink.

"Here you go," Tess says in between giggles. "Sorry, Vince is-"

"Is what?" Her boyfriend interrupts challengingly with a playful expression on his face, and she just begins to giggle again.

They get lost in their own little world and I smile at them again before I crack open my beer. I move to sit on the pick up and let my legs dangle off beside Asher and Nathan leans against the tail light with his arms crossed. I watch as Holden dips his head down to whisper something in Barbie #1's ear before she smirks and they walk off to do God knows what. 

I look away from them as curiosity bites at me and turn to Nathan. "Hey Nate, when do you race?"

"Ten thirty," He answers coolly, his eyes surveying the race going on now. 

Asher has a goofy smile on his lips as he looks back and forth between Nathan and I. "Nate? You let her call you Nate?"

My brows furrow in confusion. "Yeah, why?"

"Nathan doesn't let anyone call him Nate," Asher muses as he is clearly finding the entire thing very amusing. "Not even me, and we've been friends our entire lives."

I couldn't ignore the way my heart toppled over itself and skipped a beat at his words, but my awe-struck momentary happiness was crushed when I heard Nathan's cold voice and saw his dismissive eye roll.

"I don't let her say it, she just does it on her own," Nathan mutters in slight annoyance.

Which, for the record, wasn't even true. I got to call him Nate for an exchange of him calling me kitten. But I wasn't going to get into that right now, especially not with Asher, with all of Nathan's friends listening in on the conversation. Instead, I stayed silent and brought the can to my lips and began drinking again. 

By the time I was finished my beer, I really had to pee, and glanced around to see if anyone could walk with me- per Nathan's request, not my own. But Nathan and Asher were in a serious conversation, Vincent and Tess had since moved to the side of the truck to make out, and Holden and Mike were nowhere to be seen. 

I decided that it would be rude to interrupt anyone just to make them walk me to the bathroom and slipped off of the truck bed without disturbing anyone. I could see the small building designated for the bathrooms from here and began to walk over with my head down and ignoring everyone around me so I didn't draw attention to myself. 

Luckily, I made it to the bathroom unscathed, and managed to remember where Vincent's truck was. As I was walking back to the pick up, I passed the entrance to the garage and heard someone curse loudly inside. Cautiously, I peeked in and saw, faintly illuminated by artificial light, someone hunched over Nathan's car.

"Hurry up, dude," I recognized Andrew's voice. "Just cut the breaks and let's get out of here before Cotter catches us."

My eyes widened and, before I could come up with a rational plan of action, I step further into the garage and yell, "Get the hell away from Nathan's car!"

Two figures straighten up and turn around as I approach them angrily. Andrew's eyebrows are raised but Walker is just looking at me with an amused smirk. My body tenses as I realize what I had just gotten myself into, but I cross my arms over my chest and try to radiate confidence, seeing as I can't exactly back out now. 

"Or what, princess?" Walker threatens. "You'll throw a temper tantrum?"

I narrow my eyes at him as Andrew snorts with laughter and says, "Just go back to your boyfriend and mind your own business. You don't know what you're getting yourself into."

Their threats, which were clearly meant to intimidate me, just fueled my anger even more. I had too much built up hatred toward Beefy and Meaty to back down now and keep my mouth shut. 

"You're both pathetic," I muse confidently and take pleasure in watching their faces fall. "You have to sabotage Nathan just so Alex can actually beat him."

I bit my tongue to keep myself from saying more, considering I had a list of insults ready to spout at Walker. I could feel my blood boiling as I remember what they did to my little brother and what they were about to do to my- well- Nathan. 

Walker clenches his fists by his side as he growls, "I would be careful about what you say to me."

"She's right," A deep authoritative voice says behind me, almost boredly. "You are pathetic."

I glance behind me and see Nathan as he walks closer to me but keeps his cold glare set on Walker and Andrew. He was radiating confidence as usual and his mere presence made my body untense just a little. At the sound of Nathan's voice, Beefy and Meaty both step away from the Mustang and toward Nathan. 

I can hear the distant sounds of engines and a crowd coming from outside, but I'm more focused on a new set of footsteps approaching and then a gruff, "Rhodes, you're on in five."

Andrew and Walker noticeably pale as Nathan turns to see Cotter standing there, looking down at a crumpled piece of paper before glancing up. He narrows his eyes at the scene he stumbled upon and snaps, "What the hell is going on here?"

Andrew is quick to defend, "Just checking out my car before my race, Cotter."

Cotter's narrowed eyes darts between everyone standing around, his presence as intimidating as his voice. "No foul play or you're both suspended, got it?" 

Everyone nods stiffly and I bite my tongue from ratting Andrew and Walker out. As they both start heading toward the entrance of the garage, a hand clasps around mine, and I can tell from the tingles shooting up my arm that it's Nathan. I glance over at him and see his usual hardened mask is situated on his face as he drags me toward his Mustang.

The second we're safely in his car and the doors are shut, Nathan turns to me with an accusatory glare and snaps, "What happened to not leaving my sight?"

I sink back into his seat sheepishly and try to ignite confidence in my tone as I say, "I had to go to the bathroom."

"Did I not tell you to get one of us if you had to go anywhere?" Nathan practically growls. "It's dangerous here, Lauren. Just be fucking smarter about what you're doing."

I look down in shame and feel myself deflate as he turns the car on and starts driving out of the garage. Heavy, thick, tense silence hangs in the air as he drives to the racetrack and positions himself in the lot beside the track, where the cars in cue wait. When he cuts the engine, Nathan runs a hand over his face and looks back at me. 

I look up and I'm surprised by the look in Nathan's eyes. There was a fondness, a sort of softness there that I could hardly recognize. But as soon as I saw it, it vanished, and Nathan was back to his usual closed off self as he gave me a hard look.

"You're going to stay by Vincent's side until the race is finished," Nathan tells me roughly. "Understood?"

Because I knew it was easier just to agree with him, I nod curtly. I make a move to get out of the car, feeling the overwhelming need to get out of the small tense space with him, but Nathan's hand clasps around my wrist to stop me. I turn back to him and some of the softness in his eyes returned. 

"I'm sorry for yelling," Nathan surprises me by muttering. 

A tiny smile quirks up the side of my lips at his unexpected- and unnecessary, considering I was the one in the wrong- apology. "I'm sorry for leaving without supervision."

The intensity of Nathan's gaze pins me down as he stares into my eyes for a long minute, and I feel my heart racing in my chest, and can only pray that he can't hear the wildness of it thumping. And then something amazing happened. The corners of his lips turned upward slightly, so slightly that I wouldn't have seen it had I not been looking. 

"Come on," Nathan murmurs before he lets go of my wrist and climbs out of the car.

I take a deep breath to steady my racing thoughts before getting out of the passengers side and walking side by side with Nathan back to Vincent's pick up. Tess and Vincent were still in their own little world, but Asher was smirking at us knowingly from the truck bed. 

Nathan stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder and glancing over at Vincent, who was leaning against the side of the truck. "Vincent, get over here."

Vincent walked over lazily and rolled his eyes. "You could ask nicely, you know."

Nathan chooses to ignore him and instead looks at his friend with a hard stare. "Don't let Lauren out of your sight while I'm racing."

Asher pouts from the bed of the truck and asks, "Why don't you ever trust me with anything?" 

"The last time you were put in charge of a living being, it died," Nathan deadpans as he shoots him a look. "Remember your pet fish?"

Vincent and Tess begin snickering as Asher frowns at Nathan. "Why did you have to bring up Fishy? You know that's still a sore subject!" 

"Fishy?" I can't help but ask through an amused smirk. "You named your pet fish, Fishy?"

"I was going to give him a better name," Asher mumbles. "But he died after the car ride back to my house."

I stare at him incredulously before looking at Vincent and then to Nathan. "Yeah, I think Vincent is the one who should be in charge." And then, I add begrudgingly, "Not that I need a babysitter in the first place."

Nathan just rolls his eyes and I move to go climb onto the bed of the truck beside Asher. Once I'm situated, I realize Nathan is already walking away toward the racetrack.

"Nate!" I call and when he turns around, I give him a small smile. "Good luck."

Of course, he just smirks at me. "I don't need luck. But thanks anyway, kitten. Enjoy your revenge."

My smile grows tenfold as he turns around and continues to walk toward the side waiting lot. Once I peel my gaze off of his retreating figure, I glance at Asher to see him already staring at me with his typical wide grin. 

"You two are cute," Asher mocks and makes color rise to my cheeks.

I shake my head at him. "We're not-"

Asher cuts me off before I even finish defending myself with a light laugh and a shake of his head. "It's only a matter of time."

My cheeks heat even more and I decide to ignore Asher, his laughter, and my flying cheeks. Instead, I look toward the racetrack. From here, I could make out Nina standing beside Andrew and Walker as she talked to Alex, who was walking toward his car. Nathan had already pulled his car up to the starting line and the flag girl was strutting toward the line. 

Even though we're parked fairly close to the perimeter of the racetrack, I still stand up on the back of Vincent's truck in anticipation of the start of the race. Nerves begin flooding my stomach as Alex pulls up beside Nathan's Mustang at the finish line and I begin to worry that Andrew and Walker managed to mess with his car before I stopped them.

"Hey Lauren," Asher nudges me and only then do I realize that I had been nervously gnawing on my bottom lip. "Maybe you should breathe."

I let out a deep breath that I didn't even realizing I was holding. He chuckles beside me with a knowing half smile on his lips and I shot him a small smile back before I refocus my attention on the tracks. I watch as the flag slowly raises above the girls head and then, after a long moment, she swung the flag down.

And then they were off. Alex held his own against Nathan as they floated around the first corner and then his car surged forward, in front of Nathan's. My eyes widened nervously as I realized that Nathan was right and Alex probably put advancements on his car, too. Vincent and Tess stood up to watch eagerly in front of the truck. 

"Come on, Nate," I mutter under my breath as I watch his car fall a few feet behind Alex's.

Nathan manages to get on the inside right before the third drift around the corner, and once they turn to drive the last stretch of the race, Nathan's car pulls forward with ease. He passes Alex and leaves him yards behind as he crosses the finish line first, as if he was never worried in the first place.

A grin broke out of my face as a breathless laugh escapes my lips. Only now do I feel the intensity of my beating heart against my chest or the way my hands had been wrung together so tightly in anticipation. In front of me, Vincent chuckles slightly.

"I was almost worried," Vincent mutters. 

Asher barks out a laugh and grins. "Worried about Nathan losing to Fisher, of all people? C'mon, Vince, have some faith in our boy."

I watch in excitement as Nathan pulls his car into the waiting area once again. The adrenaline pumping through my veins matched with the high from watching Nathan win was all too much and, before I can think better of it, I hop off the edge of the truck and take off toward the race track. 

I run into the waiting area and, as I near, I can hear Nina's screeches from the other side of the racetrack about how Alex lost her four hundred dollars. But instead of reveling in the fact Nathan just helped me get revenge on Nina, I'm too preoccupied in jumping on Nathan the second he closes his car door and looks at me.

Literally. Jump on him. He stumbles back against his car as his arms wrap around me tightly and he chuckles. "You were amazing!"

My feet are hanging off the ground and Nathan is completely holding me up. I relish in the way our bodies fit together at every crook and the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around me tightly. His musky scent overwhelms me as I shamelessly nuzzle my face into his chest.

"It would've gone differently if I didn't have that booster," I hear Nathan say, his voice muffled from my face pressed into his chest.

I tilt my head up to stare at him, not even registering that our faces were mere inches apart and his gaze was boring into mine with such an intensity that made my grin grow wider. "It was smart to save the extra boost for the end. The last lap was incredible!"

The beloved half smile stretches on his lips as he displays his dimple. "If you thought that was impressive,  you haven't seen anything yet. I was holding back."

I tilt my head to the side as my brows draw together. "Holding back?"

"Yeah," Nathan's eyes float over my face and the smile is still firmly on his lips. "I was a little worried about the breaks so I didn't want to gain that much speed."

I open my mouth to yell at him about how he told me his breaks were fine, and that if I had known he was worried I wouldn't have let him race, but Cotters gruff voice interrupts us.

"Sorry to interrupt," He says gruffly. "But here's your winnings, Rhodes."

Only then does it catch up to me what we must've looked like. My cheeks stain a deep shade of crimson as I suddenly become hyper aware of every inch of our bodies that were pressed together and the proximity of our faces. Nathan just smirks and takes the envelope from Cotter as he still keeps a tight hold on me. 

I bite my lip and tug on Nathan's shirt to attempt to make light of my embarrassment. "I know you love holding me, but you can let me down now."

I watch in awe as Nathan's smirk turns back into a smile. "You caught me," His voice is far from joking as he sets me down but keeps me toe to toe with him. "Come on, let's go back to Vincent's truck."

And then, as if his comment wasn't enough, he grabs my hand and pulls me to his side before we start walking back. I feel the familiar blush creep back onto my cheeks and try to distract myself by looking back at Nina as we walk away. She was throwing what looked like a temper tantrum to Alex, who looked pissed enough as it was. 

Alex caught my eye as he looked around, and I just smirked and lifted my free hand to wave at him. His anger grew tremendously and I could practically see the steam coming from his ears as Nathan and I walked away. I simply turned back around and kept walking with Nathan, my previous high beginning to wear off. 

When we reach Vincent's truck, Asher hops off the tailgate to clap Nathan on the back. "Nicely done, man."

Vincent hopped down next and grinned at him. "I bet it felt nice to take that asshole's money, yeah?"

"Definitely," Nathan agrees with a smirk and then glances down at me. "But that wasn't my favorite part."

It's at that moment that I realize my cheeks will be forever coated with a blush for as long as Nathan Rhodes is around. To him, his comments were no big deal- jokes, probably- but they made my heart race and face flush. I look down in the hopes that