CHAPTER 3

KNOX

I knew Kai Bennett hated me.

Not I think he hates me.' Not 'maybe he doesn't like me.'

No. Kai Bennett absolutely hated me.

I had known it for years. The first time I'd realized it, he was eighteen and had looked at me across Ethan's kitchen like I'd personally offended his entire bloodline. I still didn't know what I'd done. Actually, that wasn't entirely true. I'd probably done something. With Kai, there was always a chance. But whatever it was, he'd never told me. Instead, he'd perfected the art of looking at me like I was an inconvenience he'd been forced to tolerate.

Which, honestly, was kind of funny. At least it used to be.

Now I wasn't so sure.

I stood in the spare bedroom, staring at the suitcase I'd brought with me. This was officially happening. I was living in the Bennett house for the entire F4 season.

Ethan had made it sound simple. My accommodation had fallen through. The team wanted me close to the circuit. The Bennett house had a spare room. Problem solved. Except nobody had apparently considered one very important detail.

Kai.

I had barely been in the house for an hour, and he'd already looked at me like he'd been personally sentenced to prison. I smiled to myself. Some things never changed.

I opened my suitcase. Clothes. Racing gear. Shoes. A few things I'd probably never use. I started unpacking, and my phone buzzed.

LEO: You survive the Bennett house?

I smiled.

ME: Barely arrived.

LEO: And?

I glanced toward the open bedroom door. Across the hallway was Kai's room. I could hear nothing.

ME: Kai still hates me.

The reply came quickly.

LEO: 😂

LEO: Obviously.

ME: Helpful.

LEO: What did you do this time?

ME: Nothing.

LEO: That's what you always say.

I put my phone down. Leo hadn't known Kai as long as I had, but he'd been around enough to know the situation. Everyone knew Kai and I didn't get along. At least, that's what it looked like.

Ethan had once joked that if we ever agreed on something, the world would probably end. He wasn't entirely wrong. Kai and I argued about everything. Music. Food. Racing. Movies. Who got the last bottle of water. Who was right. Who was more annoying. The answer to that last one was obviously Kai, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

Not yet.

I finished putting my clothes away and headed downstairs. Kai was sitting at the kitchen island with his laptop open. Of course he was working. I leaned against the doorway.

"Do you ever stop?"

He didn't look up. "Do you ever leave?"

"Touché."

His fingers kept moving across the keyboard, and I watched him for a moment. Something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it was his hair. Maybe it was the way he carried himself. Maybe it was simply the fact that I hadn't really looked at him properly in a while. The Kai I carried around in my head was still the kid who followed Ethan around and complained whenever we told him he couldn't come along.

Now he wasn't a kid.

That thought caught me off guard, and I looked away.

"So," I said.

"So?"

"How's work?"

"Fine."

"That's it?"

He glanced up. "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know. Something friendly."

"You came here expecting friendly?"

I laughed. "Fair."

His eyes went back to the laptop. I looked at the screen. "Are you working on my data?"

His fingers stopped. He slowly looked up. "No."

"You closed that file pretty fast upstairs."

"I work with racing data."

"That's not what I asked."

He shrugged. "Then maybe don't ask questions you don't want answers to."

He stared at me. I smiled. There it was. The look. The one I'd known for years. Annoyed. Defensive. Completely Kai. Except something about it felt different now.

He looked away first.

Interesting.

I walked to the refrigerator. "Want anything?"

"No."

I opened it. "Sure?"

"Yes."

I grabbed a bottle of water. "You're very conversational today."

"I'm working."

"You were working upstairs too."

"And you're still talking."

"Also true."

He sighed, and I laughed.

It was strange, being here. I'd spent so much time at the Bennett house growing up that it almost felt familiar. But this time it wasn't a visit. I wasn't staying for dinner. I wasn't crashing on Ethan's sofa for a night. I had a room, a suitcase, a place here. For months. And Kai looked like he was still trying to process the idea.

I couldn't blame him. I wasn't exactly thrilled about losing my own space either. But it was temporary. The season would end, I'd move on, and everything would go back to normal.

At least, that's what I thought.

I took my water and headed toward the living room. "By the way."

Kai looked up. "What?"

"Your brother said I could use the garage."

Kai frowned. "For what?"

"My equipment."

"You brought racing equipment here?"

"Some of it."

"Why?"

"Because I race cars."

"I know what you do."

"Then why did you ask?"

He glared at me. I smiled. "Right."

I walked away, and a few seconds later, I heard him mutter something under his breath. I turned. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You said something."

"I didn't."

"You did."

Kai looked at me. "Go unpack."

I laughed. "Already did."

"Then go do something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't care."

I walked closer. "You're very bossy for someone who doesn't own the house."

He leaned back in his chair. "Neither do you."

"True."

For a second, neither of us spoke. Then Kai's phone rang. He looked at the screen. "Ava."

He answered. "Hey."

I walked away. I wasn't trying to listen. Really. But Ava was loud and the house was quiet, and her voice carried through the phone.

"How bad is it?"

Kai laughed.

I looked back. He was smiling. A real smile, not the sarcastic one he'd been giving me all morning. Something about it made me pause. Then he caught me looking, and his smile disappeared almost immediately. He turned away.

I frowned. What was that?

I had no idea.

Kai finished the call a few minutes later. I was still standing near the living room window when he walked past me.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah."

"You look annoyed."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm fine."

I watched him disappear upstairs. Something was definitely different. I just didn't know what.

Later that afternoon, I headed to the garage. My race gear was packed in a few cases, and I needed to check some of it before heading to the team's next session. I opened one of the cases. Helmet. Gloves. Racing boots. A few tools. Everything was where it should be.

I heard footsteps behind me. Kai. He stopped at the garage entrance, and his eyes went straight to the equipment.

"You brought all that?"

"Most of it."

He walked closer and picked up my gloves. "These are new."

I looked at him. "You know racing gloves now?"

"I know what they look like."

"Right."

He turned them over, then looked at my helmet. "How much?"

"For what?"

"The helmet."

"Why?"

"Just curious."

I told him. His eyes widened slightly. "That's insane."

I laughed. "You should see the car."

"I have."

"You have?"

He looked at me. "I work in motorsport, remember?"

Right. I had almost forgotten. Everyone still thought of Kai as Ethan's younger brother, even me, maybe because that was how I'd known him for so long. But standing there, asking questions about equipment and studying everything with that focused expression, he didn't seem like Ethan's little brother. Not anymore.

"You really know your stuff," I said.

He looked at me. "What?"

"The racing stuff."

His expression changed, almost as if he hadn't expected me to say it. Then he shrugged. "It's my job."

"I know."

Silence settled between us. I looked at him. He looked at me. For some reason, neither of us moved.

Then Kai's eyes dropped to my hands. Then back to my face. He looked away quickly.

I frowned. "Kai?"

He looked at me immediately. "What?"

I smiled. "Nothing."

He narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing."

He shook his head. "You're weird."

"That's rich coming from you."

He rolled his eyes and walked back toward the house.

I watched him go, then laughed quietly. Kai Bennett still hated me. I was sure of it. But today, for reasons I couldn't explain, his hatred felt different.

I looked down at the gloves he'd left on top of the case, then toward the house. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe he'd simply grown up. Maybe I'd just never noticed before. Either way, I wasn't going to overthink it. I had a season to prepare for, a championship to win, and a very annoyed roommate to survive.

I picked up my helmet, then looked toward the house again. Kai was standing at the kitchen window.

Watching me.

The second our eyes met, he looked away.

I stopped. For some reason, I couldn't move. Because that wasn't the look of someone who hated me.

At least... I didn't think it was.