Hot Laps (32 page)

In the meantime, Sway gave me the complete story on Dana Sloan, Jameson’s biggest
fan, and how she used to steal his underwear and even broke into their house one time.

I couldn’t stop laughing.

When Jameson came back from his heat race, he grabbed Casten by his shirt. “You better
sleep with one eye open, you little fucker.”

“Keep fucking with me, Dad. I dare you. I’m younger and can outrun your old ass.”

His words to his father resulted in some eye rolling and even more head shaking as
Jameson let go of his shirt as Sway reached for Casten, separating them and laughing
hysterically.

Being in the pits was unreal. There were cars and people everywhere and they didn’t
seem to watch out for you. It was basically an awareness thing. You had to be aware
at all times. I don’t know how many times Axel or Sway had to pull me out of the way.
Rager almost hit me three different times because I wasn’t paying attention when he
pulled into his pit.

Casten was all smiles that night, having finally pulled one over on his dad but we
didn’t make use of any more announcer’s booths. Probably because I was still getting
whistles from last night.

As I understood from Jameson, them putting us in the lake was partly payback for the
party. I almost shit my pants when he found out I was there. In my defense, and I
voiced this, I had to point out I wasn’t part of the jelly, or any of that. I was
too busy shot gunning Monster energy drinks and vodka with a funnel.

Given everything that happened that night, I wasn’t sure how to act around Jameson.
He was my boss and I was having sex with his son in announcer booths.

Sway was easier to be around. I think we were meant to be friends. I felt like she
loved me instantly.

That night I was sitting in what they told me were the pit bleachers with Abigale
on my lap, she loved me too, and talking with Sway and Lily.

Lily was shy and kept to herself but she also had two very active little boys to look
after. Every five minutes you heard, “Jack, no!” or, “Jonah, don’t put that in your
mouth!”

It reminded me of dog sitting.

“How do you like working at the shop?” Sway asked drinking from her water bottle and
then placing it back on the bench in front of her where she had her perfectly manicured
feet relaxing.

“I love it,” was all I said at first but I knew by Sway’s expression she was looking
for a little more than that.

I caved.

“I do love it but …” I let it all out after that. I missed Anna, who I told everything
to and not having that was killing me. My phone was dead and I forgot to grab my charger
in our rush to leave. In turn, my phone had been dead for two days. Part of me wondered
if Anna called the police yet looking for me.

“Olivia hates me,” was the statement I started with and went on to explain about Charlie.
“And Charlie hates me, and now Casten, only because I wouldn’t have sex with him but
I did have sex with Noah,” I paused, took and drink of my water and was met with two
stares.

Right about then was when I gathered that maybe this wasn’t an appropriate conversation
to have.

Lily looked at me with surprise while Sway was amused.

“Well, I can tell you from experience,” Lily paused and moved up to the row of seats
in front of me. “Olivia is like that with everyone.”

“She seemed so sweet the first week I was there.” I looked from Lily to Sway.

Sway rolled her eyes, nodding. “Jameson said he was thinking of getting rid of her.
Bailey told him last week she noticed a lot of tension around there.”

“With Olivia?”

“With Charlie, too.”

“I feel bad,” I said, because I did. “He got me the job and then it creates a war
between him and Casten.”

Lily laughed. “Uh, there was a war before that,” she looked to Sway to confirm, she
nodded. “Fourth of July in Dodge City last year they got into a fight in the pits.”

For some reason, Sway was barely able to keep the laughter from her voice. “The first
person Casten ever punched was Charlie.”

“Wow.”

“They used to get along great,” Sway went on to say. “But they sorta drifted apart.
He’s closer with Cole out of all his cousins.”

“So it’s not all about me?” I teased. Abigale moved off my lap and took off running
toward the pits. She was barely over a year old but just ran around the pits like
she owned the place. It was the weirdest thing. How she didn’t manage to practically
get hit like I did was unbelievable.

“Nope,” Sway laughed squeezing my shoulder. “Lately though, my son has been all about
you.”

“Casten makes an impact on every one,” Lily laughed playfully tipping her head toward
the pits where Casten was standing on top of the hauler with the boys. And there was
Abigale holding onto Casten’s legs.

A pack of cars made their way on the track and I noticed Jameson and Axel were part
of them.

So far I hadn’t had many interactions with Axel but occasionally he’d smile. He was
very different from Casten. I’d yet to meet Arie but from what everyone told me, she
was nothing like her brothers and more like Jameson.

As you might guess, I was very nervous to meet her.

Jack took notice of his dad on the track, holding onto the chain link fence separating
the grandstands from the track.

Lily looked back at Sway tucking her rich golden hair up into a ponytail. “What’s
wrong with Jameson’s car?”

“This has been a bad west coast tour. Everything keeps breaking,” Sway wrapped her
hand around a handheld camera when the cars got a wave from the flagman.

One by one they made a thunderous roar as they started flying by.

With my head turned, I noticed Casten again. At first glance you would have thought
there’s another crew member or maybe just another team but these guys were family.
Whether they were at the shop, track or camping, it was clear these guys had a bond
that was even thicker than blood.

Jameson ended up winning that night and back at the campsite that night confirmed
despite them constantly fucking with each other, I hoped to forever know this family.
DOESN’T MAKE SENSE…

I got to know Lily better and my previous assessment of her being shy went out the
window when her boys went to bed. She could drink more than Axel.

Sway and Jameson were full of witty humor and comebacks that no one but Casten could
compete with. If someone was a bystander to this family, like me, it was easy to see
who Casten’s parents were.

With a few beers in him, Axel became engaging and joked around asking me if I enjoyed
cutting my way into my car.

“Why you shy little fucker. That was you?”

He smiled rubbing his hand down his rusty scruff, and never directly answering the
question.

I made a mental note to find out as much as I could about every member of this family.
Much like the Dana incident today, you never know when you’ll need to pull one over
on one of them.

Home Track – A track where a driver either lives near, or is the only one near him.

I’ll admit I was a little nervous having Hayden meet everyone in my family. For good
reason. A girl happened and I wasn’t sure how to deal with that. Maybe that’s why
I asked her to come to Texas with me. Part of me knew if she fit in with my family
then I had nothing to worry about.

As we left Tuesday morning from Texas, Dad pulled me aside.

“What’s with you two? You dating now?”

“Kinda,” I said. “Maybe, or maybe just exclusively having sex.”

He didn’t say much about that and moved on to ask about Cole. He was arrested last
night with cocaine on him and called Dad, as opposed to Spencer.

“You into that shit, too?”

“No,” I answered immediately. “I … uh … tried it once but never again.”

“Okay.” Dad loaded his bags into the back of the car they were taking to the airport.
“Mom and I are flying back and Spencer and Alley are heading to Salina. I’m gonna
talk with Cole and Charlie.”

Damn. I‘d forgotten about Charlie up until then.

Dad knew a little about the shit going on, he always did, but I don’t think he realized
how close Charlie was to quitting now.

My relationship with Charlie had completely soured these days and that was unfortunate.
Ever since we were younger, Charlie always thought he could tell me what to do.

If you knew me at all, you would understand that didn’t work for me.

I usually didn’t listen to anyone but my mother.

Sometimes, if he made sense, I would listen to my Dad. Sometimes.

Charlie thought because he was older, wiser, and could build an engine at ten that
he should have been the lead engine builder.

How do you think he felt when my dad gave the lead engine builder position to his
eighteen-year-old son?

Probably not well.

The reason my dad made that decision had nothing to do with me being his son. As he
stated, I had the negotiation skills Charlie lacked. I could not only build the engines
but I could talk to the reps and work with others at the tracks.

You took Charlie, or even Noah, to the track and it ended in a fight with someone.

I know Tommy and the boys got in their fair share of trouble and half the tracks in
the midwest Willie wasn’t allowed any longer for that very reason but at least they
knew when to cut the shit and work. Charlie didn’t.

Our problems started there, at the time I was given the position in December, well
before Hayden arrived.

Hayden was a girl Charlie had talked about often. I knew they were friends but that’s
all they ever were.

It wasn’t like I planned on what happened with Hayden in the beginning but after that
party and the days following when we hung out every night, I decided to see where
it went.

In some ways, I suppose you could say that wasn’t very noble of me. Maybe it wasn’t.

If you spent any amount of time with Hayden you would know how easy it was to be around
her. The girl was like a magnet for me after that.

I heard Axel say it, and then Arie, that eventually one person comes along that you’re
drawn to. I didn’t completely understand it until my mom explained it.

She compared it to my dad and his love for a certain track and then again to me this
weekend after getting to know Hayden.

Every racer out there has their favorite track. A track where, on any given night,
they know the fastest line. More often than not, that track holds a deeper meaning
than just finding that line.

They know this track so well they could probably race it with their eyes closed and
still get fast time.

The deeper meaning here, I believe, was great memories were made there. In the beginning
it was because they initially ran well there. They fell in love with the track. Then,
only after falling in love, they learned the track. Maybe it was flat and wide and
you could run wide open through one and two and pass on the apex of three when you
did that. Sooner or later you get dialed in, had pit notes and each and every time
you went back there it was like you never left.