Read Redline for Free Online Page B

loosens something inside me. Releases a tightness in my chest that I didn’t even know was there.
    â€œYeah,” he says. “Exams suck. Studying hard?”
    I pause. I bite my tongue against a sudden desire to tell him how sorry I am for blowing him off.
    â€œYeah,” I say. “I’m almost through them now though.”
    â€œWell, that’s good,” he says. “Maybe we can get out to the track yet.” I can hear the smile in his voice. Why does he have to be so goddamned friendly ?
    I glance at the clock. I’m due out at the stage in half an hour. Cody’s expecting me. I don’t want to be late.
    The tightness returns.
    I close my eyes and rub them with one hand. “Maybe,” I answer.
    I know I’m blowing Dmitri off again. It’s so rude. I’m angry with myself. With him for calling me. For making me be mean to him.
    I want to throw something.
    I force myself to take a deep breath. “Dmitri,” I say.
    He doesn’t wait for me. “I haven’t seen you around much,” he says. His voice is quieter, serious. “Actually, I haven’t seen you around at all.”
    The doorbell rings. Probably the wilderness people raising funds again for that pipeline ban. I grab a twenty-dollar bill off the counter.
    Oil baron to the rescue, I think, and almost smile.
    I swipe my hair back behind my shoulder and walk toward the front entrance.
    â€œYou still drinking Americanos?” Dmitri’s asking me.
    Weird question. “Uhmm…,” I say, opening the door.
    And there he is. Standing right in front of me, on my doorstep. Smiling, his phone up to his ear.
    The phone slips right out of my hand. It bounces off my leg and lands on the rug.
    Dmitri closes his phone and slides it into his pocket. Looks at the money in my hand.
    â€œOh. You don’t have to pay me for it,” he says. He winks and holds out one of the two cups he’s holding. “It’s on me. Extra hot, just like you take it.”
    I smile. But then I remember that I’m not supposed to want to see him. My smile morphs into a weird sort of grimace.
    I reach for the cup to save him from looking dumb. His fingers brush mine, and I end up snatching the cup from his hand.
    My next words make me seem like even more of a bitch.
    â€œListen,” I say. “I gotta run. I’m sorry. I have to be somewhere in a few minutes.”
    God, you haven’t even said hello. Or thanked him for the coffee. Could you maybe be just a little bit ruder?
    A shadow of disappointment crosses Dmitri’s face, but his recovery is gracious. “Need a lift?”
    I glance over his shoulder at the Camaro parked at the end of my driveway. My tummy does a little loopy thing when I see it. I think about driving with Dmitri. Kissing him.
    Bawling my eyes out in front of him.
    Telling him everything.
    I look back at him. “No. I’ll be needing my own car tonight.” My tone is sharper than I mean it to be, but maybe it’s just as well. I just want him to go away and forget about me.
    So that I can forget about him.
    Dmitri’s face doesn’t register any emotion. “You’re racing,” he says. It’s not a question.
    â€œMaybe I am.”
    He looks away for a second, then back at me. “That’s dangerous stuff, Jenessa. I told you, people get killed doing that.”
    As soon as the words leave his mouth, he realizes his mistake.
    I swallow.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he says. He looks down. “I’m sorry. I just…I don’t want to see you hurt.”
    â€œYou don’t have to worry about me.”
    â€œPretty hard not to with the idiots who’re running that show,” he says.
    â€œI know those guys.”
    My eyes narrow. He never told me that before.
    And it bothers me that he’s dissing Cody and his friends.
    It also bothers me that he’s right.
    My mixed-up feelings make me even angrier.