Pace Laps (Racing on the Edge Book 10) (29 page)

“Do you believe me now?” His arms reached out to pull me close to him, holding me tightly against his chest. He was quiet for a while before he whispered into my hair, “You will always be what I need.”

“WHERE WERE YOU
last night?” I asked my son who looked like Mardi Gras took a shit on him.

Casten groaned sitting down at the bar outside where Hayden and I were making Bloody Mary’s. “What a mess. I said I’d go out with them for a drink. Next thing I know I’m half naked, the bar is chanting my name, and I’m dancing on tables with that Kelly chick from the luau and her husband. I can’t do anything in moderation.”

“You married Tommy? Do you even love him?” Arie asked as she and Rosa stepped outside to the bar. Almost everyone else was still sleeping, including Tommy who was facedown on the pool deck drooling.

Casten and I whipped our heads around to stare at them as they sat at the bar too.

“Well,” Rosa contemplated for a minute and then took a slow drink of her Bloody Mary I handed her. “I think about him when I masturbate so I guess that’s love, right?”

“No, not really,” Casten told her setting Gray down beside me and then taking a seat next to Rosa at the bar. “I used to masturbate to pictures of Megan Fox, and I never loved her.”

Gray stared at Casten, blinking slowly. “What’s masturbating?”

Casten looked at me and then Hayden, who punched his ear. “Really, dude?”

He ignored her and looked over his shoulder at Tommy, now awake, groaning about his sunburn. “Maybe that’s why he got married. The sunburn went to his head.”

“So why
did
you marry him?” Hayden wanted to know. Hell, we all wanted to know.

Rosa shrugged, staring at her candy pop ring. “Let’s face it, at the end of the day, he’s the face I want to sit on.”

Leaning into my shoulder, Hayden whispered in my ear, “Twenty bucks says they get it annulled when we get home.”

“I don’t know.” I took the empty cups from the bar and washed them out. “I think they might actually work. I mean, they’ve been together for a long time.”

“Yeah, but when has Tommy been faithful to her? Him and his orange hair get more ass than a toilet seat sometimes.”

“Right? I’ve never understood it. Maybe because he’s Tommy to us.”

“Or maybe he’s just really gifted in bed,” Rosa added, peeking over our shoulders and handing me her empty cup.

“Well, there’s that.” Hayden cringed. “But excuse me while I vomit.”

“What are they talking about?” Jameson asked, no shirt on and scratching his head. I stared, naturally, at his body as he sat down next to Hayden, who he kicked off the stool next to him so he could put his feet up.

She took her new drink I gave her and dumped it on his head.

He stared at her in complete disbelief that she would one, do that, and shock because it was cold.

“Tommy and Rosa got married,” I blurted out, hoping to distract him from killing Hayden. He had that look in his eyes.

His brow scrunched as he took a towel from the bar and wiped his face off. “Why?”

“Rosa wants to sit on his face.” Hayden smiled, trying to make Jameson uncomfortable. Ever since Jameson began playing practical jokes on Hayden, it had been her mission to get him back. Poor girl would be trying a lifetime but she was good at making him uncomfortable.

Glaring at his daughter-in-law, he stood and took two steps toward her, wrapped his arms around her and jumped in the pool with the both of them.

This was turning out to be a great vacation.

Stressed member – Term used for a method of construction, seen mainly in open wheel cars, where the engine, rather than being supported by the chassis, is part of the chassis.

“You’re such an asshole.” Hayden reached for her towel on the side of the bar.

“Whatever. You poured you’re drink on me. How’s that fair?”

“Just is.”

Gray walked by, looked at me and then back down at the screen pointing to the racing game on her iPad. “I beat your high score.”

I ripped the iPad from her hands and yanked her on my lap to sit with me on the lounge chair on the deck.

She glared when she noticed her clothes getting wet. “Gross. Is that sweat?”

“No. I’m wet. Now let’s see this game. Who says you beat me?”

“The game.”

Staring at the screen, her name blinked at me, mine under hers. “You cheated.”

She gave me an offended look over her shoulder. “Whatever. I’m good at it. Once I’m racing in the Outlaws, people are gonna be like, Jameson who?”

Hayden approached us. “Don’t be corrupting my daughter.”

Gray laughed and dropped her eyes to the iPad, uninterested in anything but the game again. “Pretty sure you and Dad did that years ago.”

Being seven, Gray thought she knew everything. I blamed Hayden for it.

“You ready to go?” Aiden asked, coming outside with Spencer wearing board shorts and socks with sandals. Him and his fucking socks.

“For what?” Leaning back in the chair, Gray got up and went about her game, so I kicked up my legs like I wasn’t going anywhere when Sway handed me a drink.

Aiden rolled his eyes, like he couldn’t believe I’d forgotten what we were doing today. “Fishing.”

“I don’t want to go fishing.”

Sway threw a towel at my face. “No one asked if you wanted to go, but you are. Now get up.”

As I stood in the driveway, I came to one conclusion, besides the fact that Sway forced me to go fishing so she could go shopping without me. My family was like a three-year-old hugging a kitten. They didn’t know the difference between hugging and suffocation. And that suffocation to me was being on a boat in the middle of the ocean, fishing with them.

Rager sighed beside me when we were getting in the truck to leave. “Think they’d know if we bailed?”

My voice was dejected when I said, “Probably.”

Guess who was the fisherman taking us out into the Pacific?

Yep. Eamon from the Luau last night. He still didn’t like me and I wouldn’t have helped him if he went overboard.

“How long have you and Irish Cream been married?” Willie asked Eamon as they sat baiting hooks.

Eamon gave him this look that was something similar to, I think this dude is mentally challenged. But he answered with, “
Kelly
and I have been married for three years.”

Willie nodded, seeming interested. “Kids?”

“Girl.” Eamon was short with all his answers, which I found entertaining. Most people were with Willie because you just wanted him to stop talking.

Willie let out a laugh, seeming to find his own thoughts entertaining. “Did you name her Cream?” Twisting, he slapped me on the shoulder. “Get it, Kahlua and Cream?”

I did get it. Didn’t mean I found it funny.

Eamon stared at me, his face void of emotion. “No wonder you’re an asshole. Your family is weird.”

“That’s funny. He’s the fishing guide too,” Aiden remarked, standing beside me as Eamon explained what we were fishing for in the middle of the ocean.

“No, it’s not funny.” I think there was a reason as to why Aiden always wore socks. He had the ugliest fucking feet ever. “Why is your middle toe flipping me off?”

“Fuck you,” Aiden grumbled, reaching for his wet socks. “I’m never taking my socks off around you again.”

“Thank God.” I grabbed my beer I’d stashed in my bag. I didn’t care about fishing, but I cared about beer today. “No one should have to see that bullshit.”

Aiden shoved my shoulder practically throwing me off the boat and into Rager, who was behind me. “You’re an asshole.”

“I know.”

I heard a splash behind me and then realized I’d knocked Rager into the water.

“Hey, can I dump this in?” Willie asked, and then proceeded to dump the fish guts and blood into the water, right on Rager.

There were a few problems with that. I mean, we were in Hawaii and we were there to fish. But there were also sharks in the water.

“Willie, you fucker. Help me get back on the boat!”

“You know, you’re a real jerk when you want to be.”

“I’m in the water with fish blood and guts all over me. I think I get to be more than a jerk.”

Naturally, with blood in the water, a shark became Rager’s best friend. Why wouldn’t it, right?

“Don’t panic,” Eamon ordered, tossing Rager a flotation ring from the boat as he scrambled around trying to control the situation.

“Panic?” Rager gasped, shaking water from his face as he tried to swim away from the shark, but further from the boat. “There’s a motherfucking shark in the water with me. How can I not panic?”

I felt horrible, and then worried about myself. Arie would kill me if a shark ate her husband. Thankfully it wasn’t a big shark. More like Jaw’s infant son. If he had one. I was pretty sure even if it bit him, we’d at least be able to sew the pieces back on.

“Yeah, don’t panic.”

Rager shot me a glare, struggling to stay afloat. “You get in here then, Jameson. Don’t tell me not to fucking panic.”

“Nah.” I leaned over the boat for a better look at the shark. “I’ll pass.”

“What if it bites off his dick?” Willie asked, watching the shark swarm near him. “I bet then Arie might consider me. I mean, like as a last resort.”

“The fuck she will!” Rager yelled from the water.

It happened quickly and Rager was actually kind of badass about it when the shark tasted his calf. It was just a nibble if you asked me. He kicked the fucker in the head and I have no idea how, but he jumped out of the water and toward the boat. It was like he had super powers.

Once he was on the boat, leg bleeding all over the place, he scowled at me. “I can’t believe you pushed me in.”

I pointed to my chest, offended. “I did no such thing. Aiden did.”

We, as in me and Rager, decided fishing was over after that and we headed back to shore.

Rager reached for a bottle of rum he’d stashed on the boat. “This vacation fucking sucks.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic. It’s only because Jameson tossed you overboard.” Casten handed him a towel to wrap his leg up with.

I glared at my son. “I did not.”

As we walked back to the truck, Rager limping with a bottle of rum, and me and Spencer helping him walk, a girl in the parking lot caught Willie’s attention by flashing her tits at him.

Willie watched the hooker closely. “Maybe I should go talk to her.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Casten grabbed him by the shirt, yanking him toward the truck. “I’m pretty sure if she sneezed, her tampon would fall out.”

His eyes went wide. “What does that mean?”

“It’s like traveling with children,” Casten noted and then turned to Willie. “It means she’s loose.”

“Oh.”

He still didn’t understand.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO you?” Arie asked when we were back at the house, staring at Rager’s bleeding leg.

“Shark attacked me,” Rager grumbled, tossing himself on the couch dramatically. Knox walked over to him, his hand on his dad’s shoulder, bending down to examine his leg. At two years old, he still didn’t talk much, but he did rub his dad’s head like he understood what was going on with him. And then he proceeded to show him his elbow where he crashed on the pavement earlier today. Sympathy sharing, I supposed.