Final Lap (Fast Track #8)(20)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Besides, he kept picturing her standing at a fetish club, watching everyone with big, serious eyes, her arousal growing and growing . . .

It was driving him insane, the idea that she was a shy girl who would shatter beneath him in bed, which made him feel like the creepiest douchebag in Charlotte. He’d never had a twin fantasy, so what gave? Why were the McLain twins doing such a number on him?

“So when do I get to meet Mary Jane?” she asked.

Oh, yeah. His sister. “Right now if you’re good with it.”

She nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”

“Okay, cool.” Cooper picked up his phone and started to text MJ.

Harley raised an eyebrow. It was a look of complete disapproval. “No?” he asked.

She slowly shook her head. “You need to go get her in person.”

If anyone else had told him that, he would have resented the criticism. But there was something about Harley that was gentle enough he didn’t feel like she was judging. She was just suggesting. And she was right. Having someone to guide his actions with his sister was exactly what he needed.

“Give me five minutes,” he said. “And please help yourself to some coffee, or there is bottled water and juice in the fridge.”

With a fortifying sip of his coffee he went off in pursuit of his sister, up the marble staircase. His feet were cold and he wished he’d put socks on. The marble wasn’t a cozy stone, but he liked that it gave the feeling of cleanliness to his house. It was tidy, sparkling, and he dug that. It was the aftereffect of growing up on a farm. There had been altogether too much dirt and chaos in his early childhood. Not that he wasn’t grateful to his grandparents, because they’d raised him well, with lots of love, but he had an aversion to clutter now.

Knocking on MJ’s bedroom door, he checked his phone for e-mails from his team, his boss, and his assistant, and he checked the predicted weather for the weekend. It was Daytona prep and he couldn’t afford to be distracted. He was grateful Harley could start right away; otherwise he was going to worry about his sister all week.

The door opened a crack and his sister’s head appeared. “How may I help you?”

His sister was blond and willowy, her eyes still too large for her head, neck too long, as she maneuvered her way through puberty. She was a beautiful girl, and she looked older than she actually was, which apparently was thirteen, not twelve, as she had informed him a few days earlier. He’d lost a year somewhere in there. Until six months ago he had never lived with MJ and he knew exactly nothing about raising kids. He didn’t even really remember a whole lot about being thirteen himself.

He did remember, however, that he would not have said, “How may I help you?” at that age. MJ was a forty-year-old in a tween’s body, who occasionally threw the temper tantrums of a three-year-old. It was confusing as hell and he was still learning his way around her. He hedged on telling her about Harley. “I’m leaving in a few hours. Going to the track, then heading to Arizona. I’ll be back Sunday night.”

“Got it.” Mary Jane stayed behind her door, which was now only cracked, and looked at him like she couldn’t wait for him to leave. “Good luck doing what you do.”

“Thank you.” Resisting the urge to force the door open, he asked, “Do you have everything you need?” He understood the need for privacy, but she acted like she’d been cutting rocks of crack in there.

“For the most part.” Her expression turned calculating. “So what do you think of Eve Monroe’s brother-in-law Rhett Ford marrying Shawn Hamby of Hamby Speedway? Rather scandalous, don’t you think?”

“Uh . . .” Cooper was so caught off guard he just stared at her for a second. He was surprised she was bringing it up to him directly. “I actually didn’t even know they got married. But why is two people getting hitched scandalous?” He went way back with Eve and her brothers, but he didn’t really know Eve’s husband, Nolan, all that well. While he had known Shawn in his late teens, he hadn’t seen much of her in recent years. Not to mention he didn’t pay much attention to gossip.

“Because they met on a Saturday and married the following Friday. What do you think that is all about?”

Insanity. That was what it was. “I have no idea.” He took a stab in the dark because she clearly wanted an answer and he wanted to foster some sort of friendship with MJ. “Love at first sight?”

“You don’t really believe in that, do you? I mean, we all know that is really lust.”

“We do?” Well, he did, but damn it, how did she know that?

She scoffed. “Mom has been in love at first sight about twenty times. You’re not going to decide to marry a chick on Friday you met the Saturday before, are you?”

So that’s what this was about. She didn’t want him bringing a wife home randomly and disrupting her life yet again. “No, of course not. You have my word on that.”

“You’re not going to marry Holly either, are you? She’s all wrong for you.”

It really made him uncomfortable that his sister knew about Holly. She had only stayed over twice, maybe three times, and Cooper had thought they were being discreet, when clearly MJ had been on to him. Awkward. But he wasn’t going to pretend not to know what she was talking about. He was not going to be having Holly over anymore, that was for damn sure. “No, I have no plans to marry Holly.”

“Good. She’s put together, I’ll give her that, and classy enough, but she’s still just a pit lizard. She’ll take any driver she can get her hands on. Did you know she has dated Ty McCordle and Elec Monroe in the past?”

“Uh . . .” Cooper wasn’t sure what to say to that, and the truth was, he had no idea who Holly had dated before him.

“But that was years ago and she’s been on a driver dry spell, so I imagine she is looking to really hook her claws into you.”

Who the hell was his sister? My God, she was like Nancy Grace in a child’s body. Enough was enough.

“I appreciate the warning. But I am not discussing my personal life with you. And I’m going to suggest you find a hobby, because your knowledge of track romances is frightening.”

She made a face at him. “Knowledge is power, Cooper.”

Whatever the hell that meant. “Come on downstairs. Your new nanny is here.”

“Really? Must we persist in this farce? I don’t need a babysitter.”