“He does?”

“Yep. And Reid says he checks his phone every five minutes waiting to hear back from you.”

Maybe she was right. He had been more than willing to see past my issues. He hadn’t run away from me yet. Even now, when I was giving him a perfectly good out, he was still trying to contact me. My heart and my head had been in a constant battle since I’d broken up with him.

“I wanted to call him back,” I confessed. “I wanted to read all of his texts. I’m just so confused.”

“Maybe you need to talk it out with him. He’s as much a part of this relationship as you are. It’s not really fair of you just to end things. Especially the way you did. Just out of the blue and on a whim.”

“But—”

“Georgia, stop and think for a second. If you had known from day one for sure exactly what date and time Jamie was going to be taken from you, would you have done anything differently? Cheated yourself and him out of what time the two of you did have together?”

My vision blurred from the tears welling in my eyes. “No,” I mumbled.

“And if I told you right now that Brett had a terminal illness and had six months to live, how would you want to spend the next six months? Be honest. With yourself at least.”

I closed my eyes and let the tears fall. “With him,” I whispered. “As much as humanly possible.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“Nice do, Sally,” Reid said as I walked over to his truck. He reached over and rubbed his hand across my head. “A little short.” It had been three days since I’d decided shaving off my hair was the best way to forget about having my heart ripped out. I had to admit, it helped a little. Seeing the reflection of a dude that seriously looked like he had zero fucks to give was making it easier to pretend. Fake it ‘till you make it, right?

“Good thing I’m awesome enough to pull it off,” I said, cracking half a smile.

The only text messages I got were from Hoyt and Reid. The only phone calls were from Pilsner and Dr. Forlani asking how I was feeling. The one person that I wanted to hear from was busy pretending I never existed, so I did the same.

“Heard from Georgia?” he asked.

“Nope.” There wasn’t much else to say. I’d told him what had happened already. Once was enough.

“Nora went home yesterday. Maybe she can talk some sense into her.” I knew that he was just trying to be helpful, but I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that she meant it when she said she couldn’t do it. I wasn’t enough.

“Doubt it,” I said. “She’ll probably tell her sister the same thing she told me.” The two of us stood beside his truck, our arms resting on the side of the bed. “I shouldn’t have pushed her into a relationship in the first place,” I confessed. “I knew she wasn’t ready. She needed a rebound and that’s what she got. No harm no foul.”

“I call bullshit. She was ready,” he insisted. “If I know anything about Bennett women it’s that they don’t do things they don’t want to do. She wouldn’t have started anything with you if she wasn’t ready.”

“Yeah, well, looks like she changed her mind. You win some, you lose some.”

“Wow.” He looked at me like he thought I was screwing with him. “I can’t believe you’re giving up so easy.”

“I’m not,” I snapped. “Or I didn’t. I was two seconds away from going back to Illinois when your brother talked me out of it.” I huffed out of frustration as I turned my hat backwards. “Give her time,” I said, mocking Hoyt’s advice.

“He’s usually right about most things,” Reid said with chuckle. “Maybe she’ll come back around.”

“Maybe,” I said, aggravated at the entire situation. “What the fuck ever, man. Who knows?” I threw my hands up in frustration before resting them on the back of my head. I turned and leaned against the truck. “This is why I don’t do relationships. I need to focus on riding. Not on whether or not she’s going to ever want to see or speak to me again.”

“I think she will.”

A little part of me wanted to tell Reid that I was over it and that she could do whatever the hell she wanted, but a bigger part hoped he was right.

“Do you love her?” Reid asked.

“Obviously,” I bit out at him with sharper teeth on the word than I’d intended. “Which is exactly where I went wrong. I should have never let myself get caught up in her. I should have come back home and done my recovery here. At least then I wouldn’t be standing here feeling like a little bitch crying over a girl who doesn’t want to be with me.” I knew exactly how jaded I sounded. Seventy-two hours of radio silence from the woman he loves will do that to a man.

“That’s love all right.” He smirked. “If you ain’t tied up in a million different knots then it’s not the real thing. Believe me. I know.” I thought back and remembered Reid being a mess when he realized that the girl he loved was dating someone else. I didn’t know if it was worse or better that there wasn’t another guy involved. At least if Georgia wanted to be with someone else I could beat his ass and be done with the whole thing.

Unless he was already dead.

Jamie Shaw was the one guy I couldn’t compete with. Maybe I’d finally lost her to the better man.

I’d somehow found myself in the front seat of Brett’s Expedition a few days later. My sister taking the wheel and pulling the Airstream back to Texas.

“Did you at least text and tell him your coming?” she’d asked. Her persistence had worked, but I wasn’t just doing this for her. I did want to be happy and I’d tired being happy without him. It hadn’t worked. Maybe I could be strong enough. I’d promised him that I’d come to one event—his exhibition was in a few days and I owed him at least that much.

“No,” I told her. “I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to say yet. I still don’t know if we can make it work.”

“I’m just glad that you’re going.” She reached over and grabbed my hand. “You’ll see. It’s not as scary as you think. He’s going to be so excited that you’re there.”

“Don’t tell him just yet. I... I just need some time to figure out what my game plan is.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “You can stay at Reid’s apartment until you’re ready to see him. He’s at the track with Brett anyway. It’s only about twenty minutes from the track.” Nora took the time that we had on our drive and the night before the event to fill me in on all things motocross—more specifically what it was like to be a motocross girlfriend. I have to say, she made it sound exciting.

“Not many jobs get the perks of seeing the world,” she said. “We’ve already been all over the place. Vegas. London. I think in a couple weeks we’re heading to Spain for an event.” I knew that she wasn’t just excited about watching Reid. Nora had been hired as the photographer for Throttled Energy so she was not only living Reid’s dream with him, she was fulfilling hers as well.

The more she talked, the more I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be a part of something. I wanted to be a part of couple. I wanted to be the girl he knew was cheering for him, standing in the spot his family never filled. I just hoped I hadn’t screwed it all up.

I stood in front of the mirror in Reid’s bathroom for a good twenty minutes trying to psych myself up for the event that day. I was going to see him. I was going to see him ride. I was going to talk to him. I took in a calming breath and held my shoulders back.

You can do this.

Nora had left early that morning to head over to the track and get everything ready for photographing the day. She’d given me a pep talk over coffee, telling me how excited he was going to be to see me and how much I was going to love seeing him in his element.