Before I can even respond, he slides into the driver’s seat and starts the engine.
I stand there, blinking after his taillights.
What the actual fuck was that?
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Alaina
“You’re cheating!”
I lean into Finn’s shoulder as he flicks his thumb across the joystick, eyes narrowed at the television screen like he can get his avatar over that last jump with brute force alone.
“Bullshit,” Dane mutters from his other side. “You clipped the marker.”
“Didn’t,” Finn grunts, tapping furiously. “Your eyesight’s just trash.”
“Boys.” Piper sighs, perched cross-legged next to Dane, Toulouse curled up in her lap like the world’s softest loaf. “Play nice.”
Jim chuckles from the recliner across the room, sipping something fizzy.
It feels like old times, watching Dane and Finn game together, except it’s not. The room is full of easy laughter, but it’s also full of everything that’s happened since.
Like me, trolling the whole MTB world.
Fuck.
The door bangs open without a polite knock or even a casual creak. A full-send slam that rattles the hinges andmakes everyone twist toward the entryway, prepared for a SWAT team to charge in.
Luc barrels in and sweeps his helmet at us. “Why are you all sitting here like nothing happened?”
I jerk to a sitting position and brace my hand against Finn’s thigh to push off. “What’s wrong?”
Mason walks in behind him, looking calm but dazed? And then there’s Otis, sweaty but smiling.
Luc spins toward Mason. “Merde, my heart won’t stop beating.”
“You’d be dead otherwise,” Mason deadpans.
What the fuck happened at practice today?
“Ha ha.” Luc fake glares at him before turning back to us. “No, seriously. Haven’t you fucking seen it?”
“Seenwhat,maniac?” Finn asks, tossing his controller aside.
Otis laughs under his breath, then tips his chin at Dane. “Check Raine’s socials.”
Dane snatches his phone off the armrest, thumb flying over the screen before he goes slack-jawed. “No way.”
I slide to the edge of the couch. “What is it?”
“Hold on.” He taps some more on his phone and reaches for the remote. “I’ll stream it.”
The television screen blinks, cutting from Finn’s paused racer to the mirrored image of Dane’s phone.
A thumbnail appears of Isla and Isaac Raine, frozen mid-frame, sitting side by side on a leather couch, backs stiff, expressions weirdly blank. The caption reads,Stepping Back – A Personal Statement.
“Oh my God…” Piper whispers before snapping, “… click it already!”
