Pedal to the Metal: Love's Drivin' but Fate's Got the Pole (The 'Cuda Confessions Book 3) by Eden Connor Page A

ourselves. Those lies are the bandages we slap over the otherwise-fatal wounds to our souls that let us keep stumbling forward.
    Without those lies, we’d all end up like Jill Shalvis.
    Hence, Caroline stayed with Robyn, helping her mother stand again, and holding her hair while she puked, and maybe even fixing her another drink. Because right across the road, a tiny headstone spelled out the alternative. And I played along, trying to be enough for Macy, for the same damn reason. 
    “It’s me she hates.” Caine tightened his arms around me, pulling me away from the yawning hole in my heart. “Colt flirts with her. He teases and flatters her, but—God, I’m sorry, Shelby.”
    Macy had a history of serial relationships. I only had her version of why they ended—her bandages. It wasn’t like any of her other men had offered to say more than ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ to me.
    I tried to choke back my sobs so they could make out every word, because, dammit, they had to hear me.
    “After they stopped talking, I lay on that gurney and thought back to the party. Those women, the wives and girlfriends of Dale’s crew? They treated her with respect. Deference, even. In her mind, that’s what the house is all about, making people look up to Dale. Something she picked up from Bliss Roark. She’s found the one thing she’s always craved. Respectability. She’s somebody now. Mrs. Dale Hannah. And there’s no room in that new vision of herself for any of us giving people a reason to gossip.”
    I bit the inside of my cheek. What was the point in hurting Caroline by telling them that Caroline and Brandon’s relationship—or the ugly things people said about it—played a role in the other little speech Mom had served up, along with store-bought banana pudding and ice cream? Way back in high school, Macy had let slip that someone had told her the sordid tale. That was life in a small town. Everybody knew everybody’s business.
    I knew Dale stopped to pick my mother up on the side of the road because he was into redheads. But he married her for far different reasons. Ernie had nailed it. The man was building his legacy. He needed the white picket fence and the little girl to complete the picture.
    That was the missing piece I hadn’t been willing to see, until the smack on the head made my brain think in new ways. Why else would the man turn in his bachelor card, long after he’d already had raised his sons?
    Still, I believed Dale loved Mom. He loved her so much, he’d been determined to find a way to reach me, too. I could tell by the misery in Caine’s eyes, he couldn’t deny I was right. I darted another look at Caroline. She dashed away a tear and turned to stare at the junkyard.
    “Kiss me, dammit,” Caine demanded. “Kiss me hard and make me forget about all the ways I planned to hurt that little cocksucker that came to pick you up. Because she thinks he’s good enough for you and I ain’t.” He swallowed so hard his Adam’s apple surged in his throat. His voice fell to a whisper. “Kiss me with all you got, Shelby, because I’m gonna have to stand by in a goddamn monkey suit and watch you marry him, or someone just like him.”
    His eyes dared me to deny it. The words died in my throat, leaving a tight, sour ache that burned all the way to my chest.
    “Give me tonight, Shelby. Give us tonight.” He tossed a glance at Colt, who murmured an agreement. He turned the other way, getting nods from Jonny and Caroline.
    Jonny and Caroline, who were holding hands.
    Oh, fuck me. She’s got her man and it’s not Caine.
    My last shred of self-protection went up in smoke. My loving Caine ruined nothing for Caroline, but that didn’t matter, because if we did one damn thing about it, our relationship would rip our family apart . Fucking Caine was the easiest thing I’d ever done, but the first lesson my brothers eve taught me was that fucking wasn’t intimacy.
    Horrified, I followed the shining droplet that