Page 210 of Bend
My number is sitting there.
Three.
Fourth overall.
My mouth drops open.
“No fucking way.”
Andre finally lets himself smile. “Way.”
My eyes scan the names below mine, and then I see it.
Talon.
I beat Talon.
A laugh bursts out of me so suddenly it hurts.
“Oh my fucking God.”
Andre already knows exactly what I’ve spotted. “Well shit, I don’t recommend rubbing that one in,”
I’m looking across the paddock before he finishes.
Talon is pulling off one glove, talking to Sayshen near the barrier.
“HEY!”
He turns.
I point violently at the timing screen.
His eyes narrow before he looks.
There is a beautiful, glorious second where I get to watch him find my number, then his own.
His head slowly turns back toward me.
I grin so hard my cheeks hurt. “I beat you.”
He looks deeply unimpressed.
Which makes it ten times better.
“By fuck all,” he calls back.
“Still counts!”
“You’re going to be fucking annoying about this, aren’t you?”
“For the rest of our natural lives, big brother.”
Sayshen laughs beside him, and Talon gives him a look that says betrayal apparently runs in the family.
For a few seconds, something inside me lifts.
It doesn’t erase Wolfe.
