Free Racing to Love: Eli's Honor by Amy Gregory

thinking they’d spend ten minutes, maybe fifteen, on the track and call it a day. However, Dallas was the perfect student, and the next thing they both knew, their stomachs were growling letting them know it had been well over two hours. Eli glanced back down at Dallas as the boy asked another good question.
    Movement in the kitchen window caught Eli’s attention, and he watched as Honor moved about, talking with a phone to her ear. She glanced up, making eye contact. Only a few yards separated them, and in that short distance, he saw the immediate stain on her cheeks. He grinned proudly at her reaction to him.
    Eli nodded and answered Dallas’s question, all the while keeping his attention on Honor, daring her to break eye contact first. His smile widened, and he threw her a wink. That did it, her eyes went wide, and she busied herself again, dropping the phone in the process. Despite the pain spiking with every step closer to the backdoor, Eli’s spirit was in fine form. Nope, this trip was nothing like he had expected.
    He laughed to himself. Something about how a simple wink got to her was refreshing to him. She wasn’t throwing herself at him like women in days past when he raced. She wasn’t trying to sell him on how good her son was or begging to get Dallas into the academy. Honor was just…Honor.
    Dallas took his riding boots off in the garage and walked through the door in front of him. Without looking up from her post at the counter, his mother instantly put her arm up and directed him to the hall, and he assumed a shower. Eli was standing beside him when Dallas rolled his eyes behind his mother’s back. Trying not to laugh, he nudged him with his elbow and grinned when Dallas went without a struggle.
    Honor turned to him and motioned for him to sit at the table. Eli remained standing near her instead.
    She tilted her head but let it go. “That shower was a gift for you.” She laughed quietly and turned back to the stovetop, removing a batch of chicken from the hot oil. “He is hot and sweaty and probably stinks, but it was a good excuse to give you a break. Now …you’ll only get five minutes. He’s so wound up, he’ll hurry just in case you decide to sneak off to get away from him.”
    Eli appreciated her subtle sense of humor. Honor had a unique air about her, and she moved with a grace he’d only seen in the movies. Not the country girl he expected. She did have a bit of a southern accent, but only on certain words. She almost seemed like she belonged somewhere else, that the small town life wasn’t her own. Eli could see she was happy. Her face was light and carefree, her attitude—easygoing, but he could sense she was faking it.
    “He’s a great kid. I don’t want to sneak out on him.”
    Honor took the rolls out of the oven. The smell of warm honey and yeast drifting through the air filled the small kitchen and reminded him of home. Not his house, but James and Karen’s house. Dinner there was a weekly ritual, one he would love to take Dallas to if he could convince Honor to let him go to Pennsylvania. One glance at the warm baked bread on the counter that Honor was brushing with melted butter had Eli’s mouth watering.
    “He is amazing. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t talked your ear off, though.” She turned to Eli with the potholder still in hand. “You should feel special. He normally doesn’t say much. You’re lucky, or unlucky , however you want to look at it.”
    The sparkle of pride mixed with a little mischief in Honor’s violet eyes sent a surge through Eli. If he was being honest with himself, he had smiled for hours after their one and only phone conversation. Despite her nerves and the reservations she shared with him that night, he picked up on her sense of humor. But it was more than that. She had a soothing spirit that came through the phone line, drawing him in before he ever even met the woman. It was a kindred connection, as if she was a long-lost friend—a