Read Alex's Destiny (Racing To Love) for Free Online

not to work too hard, to eat right, and drink plenty of water.
    The longer the moment stretched on, the faster his heart pounded.
    Her eyes lowered first, then her head. She gave him a slight nod, but it was her choked words that tore him up. “Okay,”—she turned toward the house—“be careful.”
    “Alex…” His call out to stop her was screamed in his head, but in reality it’d been barely a whisper.
    A hand clasped his shoulder. “Be careful, son.”
    Heaviness settled over him as he glanced at Carter. Swallowing hard, he watched Alex’s father follow after her. With his hands fisted at his sides, he stood motionless except for the clenching and grinding of his jaw. With the soft click of the door shutting behind them, Dallas screwed his eyes shut tight. Before he could help it, his temper got the best of him, and the rock that had been lying on the driveway by his foot went sliding across the concrete, along with a grunt of frustration behind it.
    “It’ll all work out, man.” Jack said quietly before patting the roof of the car twice. “Let’s go.”
    Feeling like a caged animal, Dallas paced the length of the car several times, breathing hard, but trying to calm down. He gave up and threw his bag in the trunk, shutting it harder than necessary, then stomped his way to the passenger side, slamming that door as well. This was a new feeling for him. Sure, he’d been pissed off, frustrated, ready to call it quits when things went wrong in the past. But he’d always had his best friend to turn to. She’d pick him up, dust him off, and make the world spin again. Within seconds of her turning and walking away from him, he felt himself start to flail. Falling hopelessly with nothing to grab onto, she’d been his lifeline. Now it was severed.
    The white fence was miles behind them before Jack dared to speak. “You know this all could have been prevented, right?”
    Dallas didn’t bother to pull his attention from the car window. It was almost a subconscious form of torture and punishment, watching his place of peace fall behind him, mile by mile. Jack turned the radio down, and Dallas knew he couldn’t continue to pretend to ignore him.
    “You should have trusted us.”
    He’d been prepared for a list of accusations, a berating that would last the entire car ride. That simple statement, in Jack’s calm and honest manner, left him clueless.
    Dallas narrowed his eyes at him, although Jack’s never left the road. “Trusted who? With what?”
    “You should have just been honest with us, and yourself, about your feelings for Alex. What were you afraid of?”
    Her brother wanted honest. Fine. He’d fucking lay it all out there. His jaw clenched again, the constant clamping caused a spiking migraine. “That I’d tear the family apart. That I shouldn’t feel this way. That it’s wrong, and no one would understand.” Pausing for a breath after all the truths had been gushed out in one long stream. “I just didn’t want to hurt the family.”
    A long minute of silence stretched on for five miles. Jack’s patient, straight-forward sureness knocked Dallas on his ass. The truth cut him open and left him to bleed, “Yet…your actions had the same effect, all because you didn’t trust us.”

 
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Alex pulled her knees into her chest and rested her chin on them. She stared out her bedroom window as she sat in her comfy upholstered chair. Watching two squirrels chase each other over the branches of the trees beneath her window, a pain struck her. Tucking herself into a tighter ball, she continued to listen to the lyrics floating through her headphones. The same haunting truths cut her deeper. The hurt pulsing through her was long past being a figment of her imagination. The pain was physically unbearable every time she saw Dallas.
    Maybe he was right to go. Maybe.
    It gnawed at her already fragile heart to know he was so close, but knowing he was gone for good now, way worse. The