Dirty Looks (Dirt Track Dogs: The Second Lap Book 1) by P. Jameson Page B

around, it was like the vixens were caught with their pants down.
    Aaron maneuvered the truck across a small low-water bridge and Lexington could feel the tension wafting off of him. She turned to see he was ramrod stiff in his seat, jaw set and fingers gripping the wheel until they were white, where moments ago, he’d been the calm one, so sure things could work out with the wolves.
    “Don’t usually take this road to the highway,” he rasped.
    The truck slowed going over the small bridge and then he gunned the engine once they were across. Like he was running away from it.
    “Wanna talk about it?” she asked, hoping he would. And hoping whatever was bothering him wouldn’t break her heart.
    Aaron was quiet for a long time, just staring out the windshield, but she knew he wasn’t ignoring her question. He was building up to something big.
    With a deep breath, he said, “My parents died on that bridge.”
    Aw, damn. It was worse than she thought. Her human was missing his parents. She could feel the sadness that filled him through their newly budding bond, but her mouth didn’t seem to work. She couldn’t think of the right thing to say, to make it better. And she really, really wanted to make it better.
    “They tried to cross in a storm, when the water was above the bridge. Their car got swept into the creek and by the time the sheriff found them…” He shook his head slowly. “They were gone. Both of them, just like that. I didn’t get to say goodbye,” he said softly.
    Tears pricked Lexington’s eyes but she had a feeling Aaron wouldn’t appreciate her crying for him, so she pushed them down until the back of her throat burned with them.
    “I’m so sorry that happened to you,” she whispered, but he was lost in the past, his brow furrowed with memories.
    “I was an asshole afterward,” he muttered. “I couldn’t deal with being in this town, around all the people who knew them, all the people with the pity in their eyes. And Annie… I couldn’t look at Annie and see her sadness, that was bad enough. But it was… it was her strength that sent me running for so long. How shitty is that?” He shot a glance at Lexington and then back to the road.
    Damn it, he was tearing her heart up with this. If there was one thing her human was not, it was shitty. He’d taken her on, with all her problems, with her six other foxes and their fragile situation, and went headlong into finding a way to help her.
    He was amazing. Strong. Sure, he had years’ worth of scars. Like he said, life armor. But they were beautiful. And if he was still a work in progress, it was okay by her, because she was one too.
    “Not shitty,” she choked out. “Grief makes people do things they would never do otherwise.”
    “She was solid, kept things going smoothly at Red Cap. Took care of me when I was drunk off my ass trying to drink away the grief. She was a rock even though she was hurting too, and I just couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand that she could keep going when I was falling apart. So I left. Didn’t say goodbye to the guys, gave my sister some lame ass excuse about finding myself, and then got the hell outta dodge.” He turned the wheel taking them onto the highway. “Stayed gone for nine years. Took me nine years to get my shit together, and still… I’m working on it.”
    “You did what you needed to do, Aaron. To get through a hard time.”
    “I ran away.” He found her gaze and held it. “Something I’m never doing again. Running is for assholes without wheels.”
    Lexington chewed her lip, because she didn’t exactly agree. She wasn’t black or white on this. She was steadfastly in the gray.
    “Sometimes running is necessary.”
    His forehead creased in a frown.
    “For survival. Sometimes running is the only thing you can do.” Holding back the tears was getting harder, but she wouldn’t let them fall again. Not over her past.
    “You and the vixens ran,” he whispered almost to himself,