Asa shrugged. “She and I worked things out. We’re good.”

“Oh, you mean after you dived into her mouth in the middle of a bar last night?”

Duke had been there the night before, so of course he’d seen the whole thing.

“She needed kissing.” And she had. Sweet Penelope Jean had needed a whole lot of kissing and caressing and loving up all over, and he’d been happy to deliver it.

Duke snorted. “You staked a claim.”

“That too.” He’d stopped fighting his attraction to her. And after the way they’d been not only last night, but that morning before he’d driven them both in to Twisted Steel, he’d been right to finally make a move.

“Okay then. So this is a thing.”

Asa paused a moment and then decided that yes, it was a thing of some sort. “It’s a thing.”

Asa tended to date around and be friends with the women he had sex with. Kissing PJ in the middle of the bar last night the way he had was more than just a Hey, we’re seeing each other move. He’d been saying, Mine. He’d known that the night before. PJ knew it too.

That was an entirely different type of thing for him. But PJ was an entirely different type of woman, so he supposed that was only fitting.

“All right then. Good.”

Asa grabbed a cinnamon roll. “We going out to the track Wednesday?”

“The way you’re stuffing your face this morning I better eat that last cinnamon roll or you will.” Duke grabbed the last one and put it on a plate. “So, Wednesday. Yes.”

That upcoming Wednesday was the monthly grudge match out at the track with all their friends. It was mainly a lot of shit talk, great cars, and fast driving, which made it something Asa never wanted to miss.

“Just got off the phone with Mick a few minutes ago. He’s coming out on Wednesday too, says he’ll meet us there.”

Mick had been in the army with Asa and Duke. Asa had gotten out first, then Duke. They’d both ended up in Seattle, and that’s where they’d created Twisted Steel. In those early days Mick had lived with Asa and Duke for about eighteen months before he’d given over to moody, restless behavior.

And then out of the blue Mick reenlisted. Asa couldn’t imagine what demons he could’ve been facing at home to send him back to a place that just might have killed him.

“He okay?” Duke met Asa’s eyes.

They all had shadows. Even Asa sometimes didn’t feel fully home. And he caught a darkness in Duke’s eyes from time to time too. But Mick did everything harder than anyone else Asa had ever known, and he knew some pretty hard-core people. It led to self-destructive bullshit sometimes, like returning to a war zone after you’d done your duty and were lucky enough to finally get out.

“He just got in at eleven last night, he said. His brother picked him up, so Mick’s there until he decides what he wants to do.” Duke shrugged.

“He just wants to fit in somewhere,” Asa said.

Asa knew that hunger in ways Duke never could. Duke was the kind of guy everyone liked. He had an easygoing manner that made people talk to him. He was the cool dude people wanted at their table.

Asa had come up harder. He’d had to scrap for a place in the hierarchy of that shitty four-block area he grew up in. Had to dig himself in and keep anyone from thinking they could prey on him.

Mick had had his own scrapping to do. Though he came from a large family, they told him they loved him but hated his sin. Which meant they steadfastly judged him for being bisexual and he never felt like he belonged anywhere.

That’s why Asa wanted Mick in Seattle. Because he and Duke were the family who’d give him a place to land and call home.

“You’re probably right. God knows most of his family doesn’t seem to want to give him that.”

They finished up their coffee and headed back down to the shop floor. Asa normally worked six or seven days a week.

Twisted Steel was his. He’d built it with his sweat and his brain. He and Duke had made something special, and through that, Asa had found a place he fit. Had finally found a way to be comfortable in his skin.

“I’m going to finish that door on the Camaro.” Asa headed over in that direction as Duke turned to the left.

Things were mighty fine in his life indeed.

PJ capped her lipstick and dropped the tube back into her bag. She pretended she wasn’t nervous and did a terrible job at it.

“Stop. You’re making me jittery.” Julie patted her hand.

“My paint is right there, Julie. Right. There. People are looking at it and talking to one another. What if they’re saying what a horrible job I did?”

“Did you do a horrible job?”

“Hell no! That’s triple metallic. That is totally badass.”

“Obviously. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, stop panicking.”

“This is like the first public thing Asa and I have been at since he sort of claimed me all Officer and a Gentleman–style at the Ditch. I’ve gotten two dirty looks already.”

“Where is he, by the way? I’m so annoyed that everyone else has met him and I haven’t. For god’s sake, Jay knows your boyfriend and I don’t?”

“You could have come with me that first night to meet him. And Jay doesn’t know my boyfriend. Jay knows who owns Twisted Steel. Different thing.” PJ scanned the crowd to see if she could find him.

Just over the last few minutes the number of people who’d showed up had surged as the time for the first heats got closer.