Page 278 of Rogue Riders Duet

“No,” he says quietly. “But I’m standing up for it.” He steps even closer. “I can’t change what’s happened or what I did, but I can promise you it’s not over yet. We’ll find a way, okay? I’m going to help you. I’m here for you.”

“Fuck, Finn. I told you, I can’t handle this right now. I have to focus on how the hell I’m going to race like this. I don’t have the space in my head to figure out what you’re doing or why. I need my head in the game.”

“Good. That’s exactly what I want. We concentrate on you. I’m here for you.”

“Stop,” I plead. I can’t hear it again.

Because it hurts more than it should.

“You can hate me as much as you want.” He meets my eyes. “But don’t push me away. All I want is to help you, and it looks like you need that help.”

I scoff, wiping angrily over my goggles. “So what, you think painting the bus will make it all better?”

Finn shrugs. “I started painting it, but Jim said I had to fix the rust first before even thinking about that.”

“But why? Why are you doing this? This is our last stretch. After that, we’re in Canada, then the US. We’re not shipping the bus over. What’s the point? It’s only five more days in this thing.”

“Maybe. But it’ll be easier to get it overhauled off-season if it’s not completely trashed when you park it.”

“There won’t be a next season. You know that.”

“Maybe not,” he agrees. “But I want to make sure there’s something great for you to come back to, if you decide to.”

I look at him, and I hate how kind that sounds.

How much it hurts.

“You know how this will end. They’re not going to let me race again.”

He smiles sadly. “And you know me. I’m an optimist.”

I stare at him, chest hollow and burning because he still doesn’t get it.

He’s trying to build a future for me? Now?

He could have been that future. I would’ve given him everything, my trust, my loyalty, my whole damn heart. And he threw it back, said he shouldn’t have done it, shouldn’t have touched me.

And now he’s changed his mind?

I don’t need someone who didn’t want me to build safety nets I never asked for.

I don’t need someone who didn’t want me to hold me up like I’m broken.

What I need is someone who doesn’t think I’m too brittle to be kissed when all I needed back then was a reason to believe I mattered to him.

But that moment is gone, and he’s too fucking late.

I grab my bike, haul myself back onto it, the silence stretching tight between us.

Pedaling, I mutter as I pass him without looking back, “I don’t need saving. I need someone who won’t flinch when I fall.”

And today, Finn Greer reminded me that person isn’t him.

NINETEEN

Knock. Knock.

“What the fuck, Finn,” I mutter under my breath before I groan into my pillow, burying my face for a second before I roll onto my back, every muscle stiff.