Free Racing Outside the Line: A Love Story at 190 Mph by Kimberly Montague

he’d have a shotgun out pointed at your crotch." Brad shoved Greg away from us and wrapped his arms around me again. My happy buzz was starting to wear off, and the comments were starting to sink through the alcohol in my system, but I kept on dancing, although I had pulled away from Brad a bit. Desmond was too busy making out with Christina to notice what Greg was saying.
    "Hell, hun, I think I’ll give him a call, what’s yo’ daddy’s number…" That sunk in. I felt my eyes get misty and told Brad, "I’m going to get another beer."
    As I walked toward the kitchen, I glanced up at Seth and noticed that his jaw was clenched.
    I felt the tears begin to overpower my self-control, and instead of stopping at the fridge, I decided to get some air. I could barely hear Seth yell, "Okay, party’s over!" as I opened the back door and headed outside.
    The light, misty rain that was falling felt soothing as it hit my face. The warm air was a nice contrast to the almost too cool air conditioning of the house. I walked to the edge of the deck and decided to keep going down the steps, past the pool and down the dock to where I could dangle my feet and hit the water. I slid my feet from my sandals and sat down. How did my life get so messed up? Here I was, in love with the same man who had destroyed me and making out with another man, who might as well be every single man I had ever dated. All my boyfriends were the same—the nice guy who wanted to wait patiently for me to grow a brain large enough to make me realize what an idiot I was to keep loving a man who didn’t love me back.
    This was not the life my dad would have wanted me to lead. I let my head fall into my hands and didn’t force back the tears.
    I heard confident footsteps behind me and knew that it was Seth. Brad would have been tentative, he always was, and Desmond would have been shouting his questions long before he got close to me. But, Seth, Seth would come and join me in silence, and that’s exactly what he did. For several moments he didn’t say anything, just moved his feet back and forth in the water, staring off into the distance.
    I wiped the tears from my eyes and finally broke the silence, "Everyone gone?"
    "Yes, Brad took Greg home; Desmond took Chelsea home and told me to tell you he wouldn’t be back tonight." I nodded vaguely.
    We sat in silence for several more minutes until the mist began to fall in small raindrops. I wasn’t ready to go back in the house yet, though. As my hair soaked up more and more raindrops, Seth finally spoke.
    "He didn’t know about your dad, you know?" I nodded again. "If he had, he would know how asinine his comments were." More quiet moments passed as I looked out onto the lake. A half moon shone brilliantly in through the clouds, and I loved how it made the surface of the water glimmer and glean. "He would have wanted you to be happy, no matter what that meant." The tears started to fall again. I had to remind myself that "No matter what that meant" clearly didn’t apply to being with Seth. The uncomfortable tension that sat between us after his last comment seemed to take over. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I tried to change the topic to something safer.
    "Number two on my list of things I missed the most while in California would definitely be the weather."
    "Why?" he asked, politely going along with the change.
    "They don’t have thunderstorms or humidity."
    "And you missed that? The thunderstorms, obviously, you would miss, but don’t you hate the humidity?"
    "Nope," I actually loved it, as odd as it sounded. Guess I was a glutton for punishment in more ways than just chasing around a man who didn’t want me.
    "What about Desmond? You didn’t miss his annoying ways?" He had a lighthearted laugh in his voice as he called Desmond annoying. They always teased each other. I often envied their friendship.
    "I missed Des and Wyatt a lot, but they came to visit me often, the thunderstorms never came to