Read Online Racing to Love: Eli's Honor by Amy Gregory - Free Book Online Page B

happy. Until she thought of him being gone for a month, then her stomach felt like it had been drop-kicked, and a shooting pain darted through her heart.
    The two walked a section of the track then headed back to Dallas’s bike. Dallas rode the section and then Eli would point to different spots, obviously giving directions. When Dallas rode the same section again, with a different line, in what she could hear was a different gear as he hit the jump, suddenly what she would have considered awesome before now looked perfect.
    It continued on that way, the entire length of the track. Honor’s heart swelled watching the progress they were making in such a short amount of time. It was one thing to see him practice with Mac, but watching him connect with Eli was nothing short of amazing.
    Their bond was based on mutual respect because they were both racers who understood the dedication, skill, ambition, and flat-out guts racing took. Both the boy and the man understood the risks they were taking once they straddled the bike.
    Unfortunately for Honor, the mother in her saw the hidden winces Eli thought he’d covered up, the way he favored his left side, the way he’d leave his hand on his hip, only to rub his back again and again when Dallas’s head was turned. The man was hurting. She remembered seeing his accident happen on television, had seen the replay one too many times. Judging from what she was witnessing now, he still lived with a great deal of pain and probably would for a very long time. She knew the risks too well. She closed her eyes and prayed that would never be her son.
    No matter how close she got to understanding, Honor realized that even though she supported her son, she didn’t get it. Not like Eli did. She didn’t have a racer’s view. Only a mom’s view. She glanced out the window again. Seeing the two huddled together, Dallas hanging on Eli’s every word, the smile spread across his face…and that was it.
    Dallas had just made the decision for her, right there and then. She didn’t even have a say.
    Eli had taken the time to teach, to support. Even when his voice was loud enough to be heard over the sound of the bike, it was encouraging. Always positive. Not once was his voice forceful or demeaning. Honor let out a sigh.
    She couldn’t take this opportunity away from her son. It was going to hurt like hell. It was going to be murder on her pride. But if she hid behind the excuse that it was for her son, she could do it. It wasn’t as if it really was an excuse as much as the truth, anyway.
    She put the potatoes on to boil and went about setting out the trays of egg and buttermilk along with her flour and spice mixture to make fried chicken. A long-time favorite of her son, she hoped it would be general enough that Eli would like it. She hated having company and not knowing what to cook for people, always leaning toward the old standbys that children usually loved. Taking out the lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and other salad fixings from the refrigerator, she bumped the door with her butt to close it. With the oil heated, she started dropping pieces of coated chicken into the pot and pushed the sad thoughts away until later when she would lie in bed, in the dark, alone.
    In the meantime, she continued with her perfectly orchestrated routine. Happily cooking for the three of them, Honor hid the pain tearing through her because she had become a master of disguising her feelings over the years. Between her deceased mother, her deceased excuse for a husband, and lack of money…faking happy had become second nature.

    This trip blew all his expectations out of the water. Pulling the door of the small shop shut behind him, he wished he had taken another dose of ibuprofen. The prior one failed to give him much relief, and now as it had worn off completely, Eli put a palm to his left side, trying to rub it nonchalantly while they walked toward the house. He hadn’t meant to get so wrapped up, truly