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Hearing a text message come through on his phone, Hunter ignored it for now. Whoever it was could wait until he’d reached his apartment…and had cooled down. He loved racing. It was in his blood, and he got incredibly bored when he wasn’t involved. But the people sometimes…they could be complete idiots and every once in a while it just got too much on his nerves. Even so…he knew he probably shouldn’t have hit that guy. There had probably been a better way to handle it…he’d just been so frustrated. No one deserved to be talked about, especially someone like Ryan. She deserved nothing but respect.

Driving away from the racing scene, Ryan’s comment made Eli quirk an eyebrow. He kept his eyes on the road and shrugged. “I know very little about him, other than he seems to be a lot different than when first started racing here.” Eli remembered seeing an arrogant man who soaked up all the attention and liked to drink and take too many risks. Now, Hunter seemed to have a much more settled head on his shoulders, while ignoring the women and the booze, and seemed to race just for the pure pleasure. Friends though? Eli couldn’t think of seeing him hanging out with anyone in particular – at least not lately. “Seems like I remember seeing him with a girl there for a while.” Wasn’t it even Katie, from the Elite? He thought it was. But come to think of it, he hadn’t seen her around here lately and Hunter had indeed been alone. “But I guess lately he has seemed to be pretty alone.”

He paused and gave his sister a sidelong glance. “Did you say that as just an observation or because you’re trying to think of a way to solve it?”

Finally getting home, Hunter grabbed a bottle of rootbeer from the fridge and settled down on the couch to turn on the television and find a good movie to watch. Only then did he remember to check his phone. Reading the message, he was surprised to realize it was from Ryan. His thumb hovered over the keyboard. He didn’t want to make her feel any more badly than she already did.

No worries. I’m totally fine.

You know how sore losers

can be. 

He sent the reply, then paused in thought again before typing out a second message.

You doing alright after the excitement?

Travis followed Ashlee’s lead and helped clean up their dishes before heading back outside. He had been asked to help stack some hay bales, so agreed to meet up with Ashlee again in a couple hours to ride again. While working though, he wound up with a deep splinter in his hand that he couldn’t get out, and Sparky suggested he go see Angel. Though he would have just let it go, he decided to obey, and found himself sitting in Angel’s office, letting her try to dig the splinter out of his palm.

Just holding still and watching her work even though it hurt, Travis sighed a little. Angel was easy to talk to… Maybe she’d have an idea. “So… I asked Ashlee out on a date…” He bit his lip, giving her a sheepish look. “But Dad and her mom both put the kabosh on it ‘cause of the whole Agency thing, and they said we couldn’t leave the ranch without somebody going with us.” He smirked a little. “Any ideas on how to convince them to let us go do something?”