One Track Mind by Bethany Campbell

strangely and her voice go shaky. “No,” she said.
    A moment of silence hung heavily between them. He leaned closer. “Yes, you do,” he said, and laid his hand on her neck, drawing her nearer. “You have the power. I’ve known it from the first.”
    His mouth lowered to hers. She put her hands on his bare shoulders and kissed him back. In that kiss, she felt that she had both lost herself—and found herself.

CHAPTER SIX

    K ANE FINISHED the gin and fell into an uneasy asleep. His dreams were erratic, and images of Lori and him, both young again, drifted in and out of his mind. Yet these dream people, while both young, also seemed their true age, too, and at the same time ageless, beyond the touch of time.
    Although the images were disjointed and herky-jerky, Lori seemed to hold them together in some order far stronger than logic. Her—and the feeling he’d had for her then.
    Before her, he’d been a loner, sworn never to be dependent on anybody. And after it was over with her, he became more of a loner than ever. He “made love” to women. But he didn’t love them. He’d loved once, and it had hurt like hell. It was enough to almost kill a man.
    He woke up wondering why he was back in Halesboro, why he was getting himself tangled up again with the girl who’d betrayed him years ago, and he was no longer sure.
    Shaving that morning, he looked in the mirror and saw a man with startlingly regular features and unhappy eyes. He’d told her he’d meet her again this morning, and he would. And then he needed to go back to Charlotte.
    And he needed to keep as much distance as he could from this place. And from her.
    As for the speedway, he’d find somebody else to battle its multitude of woes. What another guy from this region had once said was all too right: “You can’t go home again.”
     

    L ORI HADN’T slept well, either. The rude-sounding shrill of the telephone woke her. She answered sleepily, but her aunt Aileen’s voice immediately jolted her into wakefulness. “Lori, why didn’t you call me?”
    Aileen was in her seventies now, but there was no tremor of age in her voice. It was strong, feisty and sure of itself, just like its owner. She gave Lori no chance to answer.
    Aileen said, “I heard Kane Ledger’s back. Is it true?”
    “Y-yes,” Lori stammered. “It’s true.”
    “Ha!” Aileen said triumphantly. “He came back because of you. I knew it as soon as I heard he was here.”
    Lori blushed. She caught a look at herself in the bedroom mirror. Her face was creased from being pressed into the pillow. Tousled hair hung in her sleep-drugged eyes. Her old white nightgown hung down, wrinkled and limp. It looked like the shabby garment of a down-on-its-luck ghost.
    Who’d come back because of me? she wondered, looking at her wan image. “He’s not here for me,” she protested.
    “Then why is he here?”
    “I don’t know,” Lori stated with emphasis.
    “I think he wants to impress you, show you how successful he’s become,” Aileen said in her husky voice. “And the town. Are you seeing him again today?”
    “He’s supposed to drop by the speedway,” Lori muttered, exhausted. She’d had a night filled with dreams mostly about Kane, disturbing ones she didn’t want to admit to anyone, even herself.
    “Ask him to give me a call,” said Aileen. “I’d love to hear from him, see him. Maybe he’d come for a visit.”
    “He asked about you. He said he wanted to get in touch.”
    “Then tell him I’d be delighted.” She paused, as if for dramatic effect. “But now, about you. Have you asked him the big question about the speedway?”
    Lori’s body stiffened with wariness. “What big question?”
    “You know what. He’s supposed to have connections.Could he help you get a NASCAR-sanctioned race again at Halesboro?”
    Lori gave a short, mirthless laugh. “I don’t think so. I’d say that it’s next to impossible.”
    “And I’d say, my dear, that there are some