THREE
“DRAG RACES? YOU dragged me to a drag race in the middle of the desert?” Jennifer shook her head as her best friend Ginny grinned and handed her a bottle of water. “We could’ve stayed at brunch in the air-conditioned bistro or gone shopping.”
She needed groceries desperately and her condo was full of boxes. She’d been working for a week and still hadn’t had time to sort through her stuff or make her condo a home.
“Chillax. This is fun!”
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because this is how I wanted to spend my day off, sitting on a hard bench watching motorcycles race across the desert.”
“Yeah, but look how hot those guys are.”
Yeah, she remembered that. Clearly.
Jennifer chuckled and couldn’t disagree with her friend. Not that she could see any of the riders’ faces. They had nice bodies clad in leather, and she was always a sucker for motorcycles.
Nick rides a motorcycle.
Her heart beat a bit faster as she thought about that moment she’d thrown caution to the wind and climbed on the back of Nick’s bike. He had been a stranger, a man leaving on a long tour of duty, but she hadn’t cared.
That had been when she’d still been carefree. Before the press had got hold of her and David had publicly humiliated her. Though she was more annoyed by the stolen research than the jilting.
The lack of accreditation of her in his paper had made her look like a fool in front of her colleagues. It had been like they’d all known David would screw her over.
David had broken her heart, but she could never regain her research. All the countless hours she and David had spent together, working on repairing an aortic dissection by trying a surgical grafting procedure with artificial veins, and he hadn’t credited her.
Now the surgical procedure was being deemed innovative and the grant money he’d got for a medical trial he’d received, well, he had it made in the shade.
Whereas right now she would kill for some shade. It was too damn hot in the desert. She’d spent too long up north in Boston.
Even though she was wearing a big straw hat, it wasn’t protecting her from the hot sun.
Ginny was whistling as her boyfriend, Jacob, climbed on his bike. Ginny waved at him, blowing kisses.
“So, once his race is over, we can head for a nice air-conditioned bistro or something on the strip?” Jennifer asked, grinning.
Ginny laughed. “If he wins, he keeps going until he’s eliminated.”
“Or wins it all?” Jennifer offered.
Ginny tapped her nose. “You’ve got it. Seriously, though, Jenn, thanks for coming with me.”
“Of course. I’m sorry for griping. Not used to the heat. The North made me too soft.”
“I still don’t know how you survived all those bitter cold winters.”
“Layers. Lots of layers.” Jennifer winked.
Ginny chuckled. “Oh, they’re starting!”
Jennifer turned to the race track. Two motorcycles sat there, revving their engines as the lights flashed from red to green.
In a split second it went from revving engines to a cloud of dust as the bikes raced across the desert plain in less than a minute.
Jennifer couldn’t keep up with the fast pace and the screams deafened her. When the dust finally settled, there were two bikes at the end of the track.
“He won!” Ginny leaped up. “Come on, let’s go down there. I promised him a kiss if he won.”
“And if he didn’t?”
Ginny grinned. “You don’t want to know.”
Jennifer laughed and followed Ginny down off the bleachers toward the track. Jacob and his opponent were riding their bikes back slowly up the side to where all the other competitors were waiting.
As they approached Jacob, he was shaking hands with the biker he’d just trounced and Jennifer had a nagging suspicion that she knew him.
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