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Chapter 5
"Wow…" Chad was standing over the sofa as Gabi slept in and Troy came down to check on her.
"Dude, you okay?" Troy ran his hand back and forth through his already-messy hair.
"She has all this hair…" Chad marvelled.
"Are you in love?" Troy asked bemusedly.
Chad looked up and smiled flatly. "Not with this Filipino. But you should be. You love girls with hair."
Troy cocked his head. "She has to like me, too." He pointed out.
"She might," Chad smiled secretly.
"Look, don't freak her out by playing matchmaker…" Troy warned his friend as he passed him.
"I'm not gonna say a word…." Chad promised silkily.
"You better not…"
"But, you do like her, right?" Chad checked and Troy swung him a look.
"I don't even know her properly, yet."
Chad lifted his brows.
"Stop doing that," Troy complained.
"Why's it so hard to say she's beautiful?" Chad challenged.
"It's not," Troy argued. "I told her that last night."
"Told, me what?" Gabi stirred, staying face down on the sofa but lifting her head only to speak.
"Never mind," Troy grumbled and pushed past Chad to get to the kitchen.
"Is it morning?" She asked whoever was listening.
"Time to make us a track team…" Chad told her as he too went through for coffee.
Gabi took her time in stretching before she joined them and even then as she poured her coffee and collected her toast, she felt all eyes were on her.
"What?" She asked them both groggily.
"Ah…is that what you wear in bed?" Troy ventured diplomatically as his eyes clung to her thighs and Gabi looked down, frowning.
"Shit!" she cursed, realising she had on only her vest-top and her panties after she got hot in the night and kicked off her pyjama bottoms; intending to replace them before coming for breakfast.
"Hey, don't change on my account," Chad chipped in, his gaze also frozen on her.
"Shit, I knew this was a bad idea," she sulked, heading back out to put her bottoms on and returning to the kitchen where neither male had moved. "Okay, I'm dressed now."
"Phew-wee," Chad whistled through his teeth. "Know what? It's time I got ready for chemo…"
"Chad…?" Gabi watched him go and sighed, facing Troy. She went and sat beside him, gently budging into his arm.
"I'm ruining your bachelor pad," she guessed.
"Gabi, you know when you said you're a tomboy?" Troy spoke finally and she looked up, surprised.
"Yeah…"
"When you walk around in your underwear…not so much…" he offered.
"Do you want me to go?"
He took a breath and smiled down on her. "Strangely, no."
"Really?" She checked.
"Really." He assured, even though he felt the tell-tale awakening of attraction spread up his thighs toward his groin.
"I have to tell Dex."
"It might be an idea," he broached.
"And then I have to go home." She added firmly.
"If that's what you want…"
"Time to face the music," she added, rising to get ready.
/
"So if you weren't with Marlade, where were you?" Dex practically snarled at Gabi and she gritted her teeth at his tone.
"At a friend's."
"You don't have any female friends, Gabi and we both know it."
"So, I stayed with a guy." She shrugged.
"You're just trying to piss me off aren't you?" he squinted his eyes.
"Unlike you, Dex, actually I don't care what you do…"
"You're coming home tonight," he told her and although she had hoped to do just that, his tone set off her rebellious streak again.
"No, I'm not," she said back.
"If you want to make me mad, then you succeeded," Dex glittered. "Now come home and let's talk."
"You don't want to talk!" She argued. "You just want to tell me what to do!"
"You know why I can't let you go back out there, Gabs," he sighed painfully. "I love you so much and I don't want to see you hurt…"
"But I'm going to be, Dex. I'm going to have my heart broken, or my leg; sometimes my skin if I cut myself or burn myself…but the track isn't the danger, Dex. Danger is everywhere. I could get run over in the street tomorrow…I could get stabbed by a madman, and okay I could get burned by a hot tyre, but it's my life to live, Dex. If I want to be a stunt woman and drive through hoops of flame, then you know what? I'm going to…"
"If you even think about driving, let alone through flames, consider yourself disowned," he warned.
Gabi's brown eyes glittered right back. "Well at least I don't have a brother telling me what to do," she smiled wanly before turning her back to go.
/
"Hey, what's all this?" Troy came in behind Gabi as she unpacked groceries.
"I need to stay another night," she conceded, looking at him nervously.
She watched as he actually smiled. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah…just tell me you're not planning on cooking…"
She broke into a smile. "I'm not."
He nodded. "So, I could use your help," he ventured.
"Really?" She looked up hopefully.
"Yeah. I have CV's for the track team I'm building. Wanna help me sift through them?"
"Do you have a driver?" She asked lightly, pursing her lips as she followed him over to the kitchen counter where they both hitched onto stools.
"I…" he paused. "I have to audition."
"Really?" She looked up. "What's the audition process?"
"Three rounds, from 6 drivers to two," he explained.
"Can I try out?" She asked next, predictably.
Troy took a breath and paused. Somehow, he couldn't refuse her. If she had come to him and he hadn't known her family troubles, then he would have given her a straight shot. It wasn't usual for women to race, but there was nothing in the rules that said they couldn't. And although he didn't want to be the guy that gave Gabi her big break, he also knew he couldn't avoid it.
"I guess I could allow that," he offered carefully, knowing that Dex would not thank him for his involvement in getting Gabi on the track.
"I just need to know that I can do it," she beseeched.
"Okay, you get your timing tomorrow," he nodded.
She smiled and then looked back to the papers. "This guy is a great fueller," she flipped him a sheet. "Coalton just let him go because they wanted Swedish-born employees to please their sponsor," she relayed knowledgeably.
"Right, we have one of those to please, too," he joked.
"They won't want a girl behind the wheel," she mused.
"Actually it's my friend, she has a business and she's sponsoring me out of love," he smirked.
"The best sponsorship," she agreed, handing him a couple more resume's for interviews. "Try these two for tyre changing."
"How is your arm?" he checked, reminded of her injury.
She absently stroked the dressing. "It's fine."
"I want to show you something," he smiled slowly and she frowned.
"Really?"
"Don't look so frightened," he admonished, sliding off his stool and putting out his hand to her.
She looked at his hand, then at him, and then placed hers in it, trusting him totally in that moment.
/
"She's not at Marlade's" Dex told Jody as he came in.
"Oh." Jody frowned.
"She won't tell me where she's staying…"
"She came by then?" his friend ventured.
"Am I so wrong for not wanting her out there?" He wondered.
Jody took a breath. "It was an accident that the screw got cross threaded," he offered diplomatically. "We all learn the hard way…"
"But if I give a little, she'll want the lot…"
Jody licked his lips, seeing Dex could at least be reasoned with. "She can have it all with another team, Dex. Don't you want her here where we can look after her?"
"I don't want her anywhere where she can get hurt," Dex repeated his earlier claim.
"You can't keep her in cotton wool," Jody argue gently. "She's gonna get hurt at some point…"
"That's what she said," Dex grumbled.
"Hey man, I have a sister, I can't tell her anything, she just does what she pleases," Jody offered. "But I'm always there when she needs me. And all you're doing is pushing her away- half of this is just rebelling against your orders."
"I told her I would disown her if she thought about driving," Dex admitted shamefully.
"It's not too late to take it back." Jody rubbed his back consolingly.
"I don't know that I can…" Dex frowned.
"If she's gonna race, man, it's better she does it with your help," Jody reminded him.
"You knew this was gonna happen," Dex realised.
"I tried to forewarn you."
Dex sighed. "I need to talk to Mom."
/
"I have a date," Chad announced to Gabi and Troy loudly as he came in; finding them both on the sofa; Gabi's make shift bed, discussing pro's and cons of hard and soft rubber tyres in various types of weather.
"You do?" They both answered at the same time, but whereas Troy's answer was incredulous, Gabi's was far more excited.
"Yep. Going to get ready now."
"Who's the lucky girl?" Gabi twinkled.
"A nurse," Chad smiled proudly.
"Good going" Gabi giggled, surprising both the guys. "What?" she asked as they looked at her.
"Nothing," Troy assured, then to his friend. "I hope you have a great time."
"If I can 'feel sick' later, all the better," Chad winked, leaving them both amused.
"He's not like most people," Gabi allowed.
"No, he's very special," Troy agreed.
"Troy," she giggled, budging his arm.
"What? He is," he grinned down on her, receiving her smiling eyes back on his face.
"You're kinda special, too."
"Ah, now, I doubt that," he disregarded shyly.
"You let me stay here," she pointed out.
"Chad was threatening to make me homeless," he argued.
"You're letting me try out," she added.
"I would have let anyone try out," he assured.
"And you have the most amazing blue eyes I have ever seen," she marvelled, her face tilted up as she flicked hers between them.
"Well I guess you can blame my mom for that…"
Gabi smiled and tried to figure him out. "So if I kissed you right now, what would you do?" She asked, close enough to try.
He thought, for precious receding seconds. "Kiss you back," he promised, closing his eyes as he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers.
"Right, I'm off!" Chad burst into the lounge and they both jumped apart guiltily, Gabi going as far as standing up.
"Ok have fun!" She smiled tightly back, her lips tingling from the very short contact they'd had with Troy's.
Chad flicked his eyes between them knowingly. "Play nice, children," he told them.
"Thanks, Chad," Troy called drily and then heard the click of the front door behind his friend.
He looked up to Gabi who was still standing. "Are you coming back down here?"
"I…uh…I might go for a shower."
"A shower?" He frowned. "Do I get to finish that kiss first?"
She looked down, her mouth o'd at his honesty. "I…" she frowned, not knowing what she wanted.
"Oh, I see," he nodded with a grimace.
"No, it's not that," she could see his disappointment and assured him quickly.
"It's okay, no need to explain," he nodded and got up. "I'll make some dinner…"
/
"Look, you can kiss, okay?" Gabi turned to him later; after dinner, after hours of awkward conversation and barely-there eye contact.
His brows rose as he sat beside her on the sofa once more; this time watching TV together.
"Okay," he accepted.
"I just…I have so much going on right now…" she explained.
"You really don't need to," he assured her of her justification.
"I just wanted you to know…that I wanted to…I just…" She sighed and gave up trying, instead crashing back into the sofa.
"I wonder what time Chad will be back?" He wondered, changing the subject.
Gabi smiled at this. "He's so lucky."
"The guy walks into a room and picks up a girl in a minute," Troy agreed.
"I bet you could, too," Gabi smiled.
"Careful, I'll get an ego," he arched a brow.
"Well, if you were a racer, some might argue you already have…"
"I don't miss it," he admitted tightly.
"I don't believe you," she challenged and he smiled.
"Okay, I do miss it. I don't miss what came with it." He adjusted.
"Do you think I could survive it?" She questioned.
He shrugged. "If you have the right team."
"I have you…"
He smiled and looked at her, his face sideways on the sofa cushion. "That helps."
She giggled and leaned into his arm tiredly. "Stay and talk to me about racing," she begged.
He managed a sleepy smile. "Okay."
But that was the last word either of them spoke, because then their tired eyes closed with satisfied exhaustion, aching to rest and they did; together.