The Legend (33 page)

“I don’t
think so.” She said dismissively as one of Ami’s aunts shushed us from across
the aisle.

Glaring
toward the woman, I turned to Arie. “Are you really not having any kids?”

She
shrugged. “I don’t even have a boyfriend. It’s hardly relevant right now.”

I never
thought my kids wouldn’t want kids of their own. Was this something I did
wrong? Did I not provide them with a good childhood? I mean, that would cause
this sort of feeling, right?

“Was I a
bad parent?” I voiced concerned that maybe I’d failed them in some way.

I’m not
sure why, but she burst out laughing. It wasn’t meant to be funny and the
thought that she found my parenting skills laughable made me that much more
emotional.

“That’s
not exactly the response I was looking for.” Turning myself forward again, I
started crying.

“
Shhhh
!” her Aunt said again.

Nancy who
was sitting next to Arie on my left, whispered. “What’s her problem?”

“Me?” I
pointed to myself still crying. “What’s my problem?”

Jameson,
who was beside me on the right, threw his arm around me pulling me into him and
kissed my forehead in deliberation. He was so sweet and understood my breakdown
completely.

“No, her,”
she pointed toward Ami’s aunt glaring at us. “Why is she so worked up?”

“It’s
because of Arie, she’s causing a scene.”

“Mother!”
Arie
nearly shouted back at me causing Jameson to glare at his baby girl.

“Knock it
off.” He said to no one in particular.

He was
right. We shouldn’t ruin this for them but I really wasn’t in the emotional
state to be the mother of the groom today.

Axel for
me signified the meaning behind what Jameson and I were. Now he was getting
married. That confirmed my fears that we were getting old and didn’t have much
time left together.

Thankfully,
the wedding was simple and before I knew it, we were inside the tent for the
reception with heaters. Why they chose a beach wedding in January was stupid to
me but that was Emma for you. Beauty before weather in her book—whatever that
meant—no one actually knew but Emma.

The
reception was beautiful and I got a chance to dance with my son while Justin
stole Lily away. It was funny that we were now tied to the West family by
marriage when it felt like we were family all along. I had always imagined them
as another brother and sister to all of us as did I with Tommy.

“Yeah,
well you’re an asshole!” Jimi said to Jameson loud enough for the entire place
to hear as I danced with Axel. We both laughed.

Casten,
who was beside us dancing with Lily’s maid of honor, giggled. “I love my
family. That was awesome.”

I took
Axel’s beer from him. “Give me that.” I said and chugged it. “This sucks.”

“Oh what’s
a wedding without drama?” Casten replied throwing his arm around Axel and me.
“Now, let’s party!”

Jameson
and Jimi were arguing about god knows what when I finally walked over to them.
Nancy did as well to give them a piece of her mind.

“I swear
to god, if you two fuckwits don’t stop, I will
...
I’m not sure what I’ll do but it won’t be nice.” Nancy yelled at her
son and husband.

They both
laughed as though she said nothing and continued their argument about who was a
better racer on sand. I hardly doubted either of them ever raced on sand but
the night ended with them renting go-karts and racing on the beach.

I was a
little nervous this may have ruined the wedding for the kids but they got a
good kick out of it especially when Justin got involved.

When I
thought back to all the weddings over the years, none were without drama.

Such is
life though.

Feature – Jameson

“What was
that all about?” I asked my dad as we walked back to the wedding. “You had that
race won.”

“I’m old
...
not dumb.”

“Good
point.” I unbuttoned my black slacks to get the sand. “You are old.”

“Shut up.”
He said pushing my shoulder.

My dad,
Justin and me rented go-karts and ended up solving our argument about sand. I
won, naturally. But at the last minute when dad clearly had the race won, he
lifted.

“That tide
would have pulled me under in a heartbeat,” he said reaching inside the go-kart
to grab his whiskey. “Like I said, I’m not dumb.”

Justin
laughed slinging his jacket over his shoulders. “Let’s go party. I’ve had
enough of this sand.”

I was
right there with him. Sand on my skin that was about to drive me insane, not to
mention I wanted a shower, badly.

Lily and
Axel were just heading out for their limo waiting for them when we got back.

Dad leaned
over and slung his arm over my shoulder. “You raised a good kid.”

“We did.”
I leaned against the bar watching everyone say their goodbyes and congratulate
them.

“He’ll do
fine. Axel’s not you but with time, he’s got something that took you years to
figure out.”

“What’s
that?” I snorted reaching over the bar for another beer.

“Patience,”

“Uh-huh.”
I laughed.

Patience.
Pft
.
I
had that.

“He gets
so nervous.” Looking over at my dad, I shrugged. “That’s what worries me.
There’s no room for that.”

“His wants
to outshine that. He’ll do fine. He just needs experience.”

I looked
back to his first USAC season when he was a kid and realized it happen then.
The following year when he was comfortable in his ability, he won the
championship. Axel wasn’t the type of driver to go out and make history when he
wasn’t comfortable. If he wasn’t comfortable, he was a nervous wreck when it
came to the feature event. It was something I was unfamiliar with and had been
around such a diverse group of drivers over the years that I understood it.

Axel had
it. He just wasn’t as headstrong as me at times. Where I bordered on insanity
in a race car, he was more methodical and thoughtful about his decision.

There
again, no two drivers were the same. Where one had strong points others showed
their weakness.

The party didn’t
stop once Axel and Lily left. We celebrated until the early hours of the
morning but what I cherished most that night was the talk with my dad and
watching my son get married. There were a lot of moments that I thought of
watching Axel tonight, but one in particular stayed with me. The image of me
holding him for the first time, knowing that someday, someplace, he would be
feeling what I was feeling right now. I felt as if I had won the feature event.

12.
          
Drivers Meeting – Jameson

Drivers
Meeting – In NASCAR the drivers meeting is held two hours before the race and
provides the officials an opportunity to review important rule changes and
other issues that teams must remember throughout the day.

“Why is it
that we are always here, at this very table, trying to decide on punishment for
our youngest?”

I groaned
running my hand through my hair. “Because he’s paying us back for all the shit
we did when we were kids.”

Casten had
once again been involved in recreational drug use and we had specifically told
him we didn’t want him involved in that. Logan, Noah and Charlie had been there
too but I personally felt Casten was old enough to know the difference so my
beef wasn’t with them. I had a feeling Logan was providing the drugs and I
would be talking to him about that but still, Casten was old enough to know the
difference between right and wrong.

“So
...
let’s uh
...
ground
him from going to Frost Nationals with you guys?”

“Great
idea, he wanted to go to that.” I high-fived
Sway
.
“Well done mama.”

Sway winked.
“I’m good. Now, go get me coffee.”

“Yes. On
my way,” I grabbed my keys from the counter and was out the door.

“And
donuts!” she yelled after me.

I did what
any good husband would do.

When I was
at home during the off-season, it was a normal life. I still felt like I was
coming or maybe I was going, a revolving door to nowhere? Who knows but I took
comfort in days like today when I was a part of the field. I felt normal.

I saw this
all the time with rookies and Brody was a prime example of it. They flew all
around the world during the week, taking trips to New York and The Hamptons but
that was never me. Even in the beginning. I was never in it for the celebrity
all-star lifestyle or the money so that side of the lifestyle never appealed to
me. Racing did.

I later
spoke with Casten about his drug use and he listened but decided to spin it to
his advantage and told me that I should reconsider letting him go to Frost
Nationals for moral support.

Just when
I think that Casten might be maturing he goes and does shit like that. I was
referring to the drugs rather than the negotiating.

“Stop it.
You’re sixteen. Act like it.”

“Well,” he
looked at me, a small grin tugged at his lips. “
...
last
week I was seventeen. Now I’m sixteen. Which is it? At the way you add I’ll be
back in diapers by next Tuesday.”

“Shut up
and go clean the kitchen.” I told him heading upstairs to find Sway.

“I thought
that was Rosa’s job.” Casten laughed and then snapped his finger pointing at
Rosa sleeping on the couch. “Oh right, she doesn’t clean because it’s against
her religion.”

He had a
very good point.

Sway
wasn’t upstairs; instead she was with Alley going over the last minute details
for Frost Nationals in Knoxville.

Making my
way to the shop, Noah and Charlie were there preparing the cars for the race.
They looked nervous but my beef wasn’t with them. Like I said, Casten was old
enough to be making better decisions about the shit he participated in. He
liked to blame it on peer pressure but at some point his fifteen-year old ass
needed to claim responsibility.

Grady was
there too preparing the frame to my car I was taking. Quiet as usual he kept
his head down and worked. Since our conversations at the Monster Million he
understood, or so I thought, he was on shaky ground with me. I didn’t take well
to people stealing from me but then again I had no actual proof of him
stealing. So far there was roughly about $156,000 in parts and an engine
missing.

Deep down,
I knew it was Grady but I needed proof before I could believe that someone I
gave a chance to steal from me.

Tommy and
Willie caught me after we did a break in run on the track behind the shop. Both
engines had problems and we needed to replace them.

“What’s going
on with these?” I asked Willie who kept a close eye on the engines and how they
were being built for the sprint cars.

I didn’t
have to worry about the Cup side, though I did after the mishap in Homestead,
Harry usually had that handled. Now with Kerry on board over there, we had a
better handle with those engines.

Because
the 410 engines are essentially very different than an engine put inside a Cup
car, I had Noah and Charlie there for the sprint cars as well as Greg Lynch,
Justin’s brother in-law, doing machine work. We also had Slater and Bob Davis,
Tommy’s cousins, doing dyno testing and break-in’s. Everything we did, whether
it was building the engine to performance, was done in house and by people we
trusted. Grady was the only one we didn’t know.

About a
mile up the street from my sprint car shop was Riley-Simplex Racing and CST
Engines, all housed under a forty thousand square foot building complete with a
dyno room where the engines were tested.

When the
engines came in, CST built them from parts to ready to go engines. We cleaned
the parts, inspected them, did the entire machine work including align boring
and porting the heads. We assembled the parts making sure they all lined up
correctly. We made sure there was deck height clearance, cylinder roundness and
measuring pistons to be sure they fit to the cylinders correctly. We did all
this in-house because that was originally how CST Engines was designed back
when my grandpa Casten developed the procedures. Staying true to his legend in
the industry of engine building, we kept it exactly the same.

Among the
engine builders, we had two machine guys, Kevin and Brad, who were related to
Kyle. We also had a few guys doing quality control along with Willie and Tommy.
The quality control was now done mostly by Noah and Charlie since they were
both currently going to school for it and were able to take an engine apart
when they were four.