Pace Laps (Racing on the Edge Book 10) (26 page)

“It better not be a dick in a box.” I laughed, walking toward the door where the boxes were lined up along the wall. It was more than one box; it was about twenty of them.

“What’s all this?” I asked, glancing to Rager for an answer.

He shrugged, trying to control Knox who was now squirming and crying in his arms. “No idea.”

Staring down at the boxes, I picked up the first one that said one of twenty and saw it was from Cole. There was a note inside the box that said:
I know my apology means nothing, but hopefully this helps. - Cole

Opening the boxes, I smiled. He’d got back every helmet from Nate.

Casten came inside the showroom. “Are those the helmets?”

“Yeah,” was all I managed to say, tears constricted my words. Not because he returned the helmets, though I was proud, it was because the helmets were a reminder Jack was gone.

Just as we had the last helmet back in the display case, Spencer came inside dressed in a suit and tie.

Casten laughed, breaking down the boxes. “Where’d you come from, the club?”

Spencer smiled at Casten, his hands in the pockets of his dark slacks. “Easton’s wedding.”

“He married that Jessie girl, didn’t he?” I asked, knowing he did. I heard Tommy talking about it a few months back when Easton proposed to her in victory lane. I think he stole that scene from me.

Spencer nodded and I wasn’t at all surprised Easton didn’t invite me to his wedding. Why would he? He cheated on my daughter and then ruined any credibility he had with me by lying about it and acting like dick-douche.

“Cole?” Spencer asked with a tilt of his head toward the display case.

My throat tightened again. “Yeah.”

When I stared down at the last helmet Jack wore, the tears welled. “Have you heard from Cole lately?” I was trying to change the subject, anything to stop from crying right now.

“Yeah. I flew out with Alley and Anna so he could see the baby.”

I’d forgotten Cole was a father now. A son, Austin, about two months old.

“He seemed good.” Spencer reached up and loosened his tie, his weight shifting to one side. “He was excited to see us.”

Casten raised an eyebrow but smiled. He’d wanted to know Cole was doing better too.

“Think he’s using again?” I asked when Casten took the boxes outside to the dumpster.

Spencer drew in a deep breath. “I doubt it. Van’s drug testing him every two weeks and he lives with them so I’d think he’d know. He’s been working a lot, marketing mostly.”

“Yeah, I approved the commercial for their season opener he did the other day. He’s still got it.” Truth was, Cole was incredibly talented when it came to photography and making videos, and if he kept it together, he could do great things. I wasn’t sure I’d ever hire him back with JAR Racing, but from a distance, I was okay with him working for me again.

“Wanna go get some lunch?” Spencer asked, nodding outside. “Lane’s at the restaurant with Axel. Thought we could meet them over there.”

A rush of emotion crept in again when I gave the helmets one last look. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Loud Pedal – Refers to the accelerator, gas pedal or throttle.

I couldn’t believe how quickly our lives changed. It was if I blinked and I had three kids and eleven grandkids. Crazy thought.

Casten and Hayden added a little one. A beautiful brown-hair little girl, Rowyn, who was just the sweetest thing ever. Nothing like her sassy older sister, Gray, and rowdy brother, Ryder. Talk about three completely different kids.

And poor Arie, she had her fourth and last baby. Rager was fixed before Hudson was even born. It was a good thing too because the kid was a shit head. He’d just turned one in March and I was positive all that sugar Arie ate had made him mean. Deep down I loved him because he was blood, but I would never babysit him. Arie was on her own with that one. I mean, he broke my nose two months earlier throwing a baseball at my head. No “hey, catch this.” Nothing. Just bam, take a baseball to your head. And get this, he loved Jameson. Thought he was the greatest person on the face of the planet. Naturally Jameson was the only one he’d listen to. He’d give Hudson a look and the kid obeyed. It was magic.

Maybe we were crazy, okay, we probably were but after the last couple of years, we decided a family reunion would be fun. Sure, none of us were actually from Hawaii but it was one of the few places no one had been arrested or kicked out of so we decided to go there.

Charlie used to tell me it was important to spend time with your entire family. I remember him talking about us traveling to family reunions as a child, but I was too young to remember them. It got me thinking since Jack died, we hadn’t all been together other than Jameson’s birthday party on the lake and holidays, but even then, everyone wasn’t always able to make it.

The challenge was getting all the schedules to line up but we managed to get a time in August we could all go. Too bad it was hot as a devil’s ball-sack there and enough humidity, I believed, to suffocate someone.

We, and when I say we, I meant me, decided it would be fun for everyone to travel together which meant we were forced to fly commercial because our plane wouldn’t fit that many people. As it was, we nearly filled the commercial flight with all forty of us. It was like traveling with a professional sports team. A professional sports team whose members were either drunk, fighting, or having sex in one of the bathrooms.

“Who said this was going to be a good idea?” Jameson asked, leaning into me as he watched his brother and Alley sneak into a bathroom together. It was so good to see them back together again. Tipping his head my direction, he gave a nod to the bathroom. “Should we go next?”

“Gross. I’m not having sex with you in a bathroom after your brother has. No way. And I said this was a good idea.”

“Fine. I’m getting drunk then.” He managed to flag the flight attendant down and ordered a Jack n’ Coke. “Go light on the Coke. It’s going to be a long day.”

The friendly flight attendant smiled at my husband and glared at me.

Jameson eyed me again, raising an eyebrow. “She doesn’t like you very much.”

“That’s because she knows she doesn’t have a chance and
I’m
the reason why.”

Naturally Jameson smiled at this revelation. “Well, since I’m such a hot commodity, you may want to rethink your refusal to visit the bathroom with me. I’m just saying.”

“Yeah.” I snorted, turning toward the window and picking up a magazine. “I’ll get right on that.”

Jameson laughed but didn’t bring it up again. He knew better than to think I would ever have sex in any room right after Spencer and Alley. I’d known them too long and they were into some seriously weird shit. Think whips, chains and peanut butter. Enough said.

Once we landed in Kona, it became a waiting game for the luggage. Happened every damn time and someone always lost their luggage. This time it seemed to be Tommy who couldn’t find his bags.

I really couldn’t understand the problem. I mean aside from us, there weren’t that many people on the flight so how could have they have lost it?

As we stood around trying not to completely lose our shit, I could hear Arie next to me rooting around in her purse like she was looking for something.

Arie groaned, her purse falling off her shoulder as Rager stared curiously at her holding Bristol on her hip. “I can’t find my phone and there’s a hot dog in my purse. That tells me Willie is around.”

Rager rolled his eyes at Arie trying to keep a hold on their crying daughter who wanted down to run around in the airport with the rest of the kids. Bristol had a tendency to run away though so Arie knew putting her down wasn’t safe.

“Willie,” she yelled after him as he sat on the edge of the luggage racks. “I swear to God, if you took a bunch of selfies of your dick with my phone, I’m going to shove this hot dog up your stupid ass!”

Rager groaned, tossing his head back. “Why the fuck did you let him have your purse?”

Willie was known to be slightly obsessed with taking dick pics. None of us understood why either. It was like he had to keep reminding himself he had one. If you asked Tommy or Dave, it was because he was divorced. They blamed everything on his divorce and he blamed them for actually causing it.

“What makes you think I have your phone?” Willie actually had the nerve to look hurt by the accusation. Never mind the fact he was wearing cutoff shorts and a tank top that read: The Man, which pointed to him, and The Legend, which pointed to his junk.

He stole it from Casten.

“Well let’s see, if memory serves me correctly, when we boarded the plane you had a hot dog in your hand. And now I have a hot dog in my purse. Doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.” Arie handed Bristol to Rager and then her bag as if she were preparing for a fight with Willie.

He stood, holding his hands up in defense when she cracked her neck. “Okay, so let’s say the hot dog you found in your purse is mine, and let’s also say maybe I borrowed your phone to take a picture of my dick to compare to said hot dog. How many pictures count as a bunch which would then lead to you shoving said hot dog up my ass?”

Arie appeared as if she was about to explode. Her face turned red, her shoulders tensed. “Damn it,
Willie
, you have your own phone. Why are you using mine to take pictures of your dick? And why are you measuring your dick to a hot dog?”

Rager, Casten, and Lane found this apparently hilarious and were practically falling over in their laughter.

“Well, my phone storage is full,” he explained, as if that would make perfect sense. “Apparently, I have reached my dick pic limit on it so I borrowed yours because the guy at the hot dog stand told me I was buying a foot long, but I had my doubts.”

“You know what, forget it. I don’t want to hear anything else that comes out of your mouth right now. Keep the damn phone.” She turned around to face Rager, who now had tears in his eyes. “There is no way I’m touching anything that was near your disgusting dick.” She slapped Rager on the shoulder. “And stop your damn laughing.”

“Okay, now you’re just being rude,” Willie noted, placing his hands on his hips as if that of all things offended him finally. “There is nothing disgusting about my dick.”

Arie turned, refusing to acknowledge anything else he said, walking away.

Willie watched her, a smile creeping over his lips. “Hey, Arie, can I get my hot dog back?”

She flipped him off and threw the hotdog inside the men’s bathroom she passed by.

An hour later they finally found everyone’s luggage. Well almost everyone. Tommy’s luggage was still lost which I found amusing because Tommy’s luggage consisted of a cooler with wheels that he duck taped shut and used as a suitcase. You’d think that would stand out. Which it probably had. They more than likely thought it was some kind of bomb. Until they opened it.

The airline assured us as soon as they found Tommy’s cooler/suitcase, they would send it to our house, so we headed outside to the rental cars.

THE MADNESS CERTAINLY didn’t stop once we were at the house we rented. In fact, I think it got worse. Mostly because the guys raced there and two of the six rental cars needed new tires.