The Legend (54 page)

“You
jerk.” I punched his shoulder but he did nothing but hold it even higher.
“Give. It. Back.”

“Jesus,
you’re so moody.” He said tossing the remote back in my lap and relaxing into
the couch. “What’s your problem?”

“I’m
hungry.” I told him and then remembered that Sway wouldn’t be home until later
tonight. “If I give you a hundred bucks, would you go get me something?”

Casten
eyed me curiously and then crossed his arms over his chest, “Keep talking.”

“Go get me
barbeque at Lancaster’s.” Leaning forward I pulled my wallet from my back
pocket.
“Brisket and ribs.”

“I have
one stipulation.” His face took on a somber edge. “Don’t you dare tell mom that
I did this for
you.
I’m her favorite child and I
intend to keep it that way.”

“I’ll
never understand why she likes you so much.”

Another
somber look before he jetted out the door.
“Because I’m
awesome.”

It must
have taken that little shit two hours to come back with the food and don’t
think I didn’t text him every five minutes. Being alone in the house, well not
really with Rosa roaming around, but I didn’t like being alone these days. Sway
was with Arie and Alley doing a meet and greet for Easton Levi. That left me
alone.

“I brought
friends!” He yelled coming through the door with Spencer, Aiden, Tommy, Willie,
Axel and Justin.

It was
just what I needed right then. My sprint car buddies. It felt good to hang out
with the boys. It was something we hadn’t done since, well, the night before
Knoxville.

My stomach
dropped at the thought but I pushed away the memories. I wasn’t over it nor would
I ever be. Only seat time would provide the distraction and way to deal with
the pain.

My stomach
hurt but not from pain this time.
From laughing.
It
was the kind of pain that you couldn’t catch your breath and if someone looked
at you, you started laughing all over again.

It felt
good.

And strange.

I missed
Sway in moments like this and felt bad that I was laughing now and not with
her.

Axel broke
out into giggles when beer shot out Tommy’s nose. Casten was telling a story
about last weekend when they were in Haubstadt for the race at Tri-State
Speedway. “No lie,” Casten laughed throwing his head back. “He comes out of the
hauler with holding a box of wine that he made a pillow out of and nothing on
but a feather boa wrapped around his neck.”

Axel lost
it again but tried to add to the conversation through his snorts. He reminded
me of Sway when he laughed like that. It felt good to see him happy again. “So
then
...
” another burst of giggles, Aiden looked and
me and laughed shaking his head. “
...
he
tells us waving the boa around saying half was flair and half was for
protection.”

Tommy held
his hands up in defense. “Whoa, stop judging me. I warned you not to give me
that bottle of gin. I hate gin.”

“Now we
know.” Casten said seriously and then broke into laughter again. “He sent this
text at three in the morning asking if I had a chainsaw.”

“I did
not.” Tommy said waving his hands around. “Now you’re lying.”

“Oh
really,” Casten dug his phone from the pocket of his khaki shorts and showed Tommy
the text.

Tommy
looked at me. “I think your kid set me up.”

Licking
barbeque from my thumb, I smiled. “I wouldn’t doubt he did set you up.”

Aiden
nudged Spencer next to him reaching for another helping of potato salad. “Did you
tell Jameson about Brody and Easton last week?”

Spencer
let out a bellowing laugh that actually hurt my ears but a lot of sounds hurt
my ears these days. “You should have seen Easton last week in Martinsville man.
He took some hard licks from Brody all
race
, and then
on the last lap, he fucking just nailed him. No brakes,
nothin
’
just slammed right into him.”

“I saw the
aftermath on Sports Center today.” Looking down, I hated that they all had
racing stories that I wasn’t part of right now. Everybody was back to working
fulltime aside from me and just like being in the house alone this afternoon,
it felt strange. That’s how I knew I was ready to go back.  

“Oh Jameson?”
Rosa called out as she came into the room with headphones in and dancing around
whatever that shit was she listened to. “You might be interested to know your
wife is home.” She took my rib that was in my hand, half eaten, and started
eating the rest of it without missing a beat.

“Who is
that?” Aiden asked as if he never saw Rosa before and then looked at me like I
was crazy for letting her eat off my plate. She then took my beer and chugged
it.

“My best
friend,” Spencer goaded when Rosa burped louder than him.

“Or
Tommy’s gymnastics partner,” Casten added.

Tommy
dropped his head to the table shaking it back and forth when Rosa made a
humping motion against the side of his chair, headphones still in.

“I love
this family.” Casten announced. “But seriously…” his eyes widened. “We
gotta
hide this shit.” He was in full panic mode because he
knew damn well if Sway found out he got me barbeque, she would kick his ass.

I didn’t
want
my
ass kicked by her so we hurried and got rid of the evidence
while Spencer guarded the door. Sway was pounding on the door as he sat there
in front of it laughing his ass off.

“Open the
goddamn door Spencer!” Alley shouted losing control just about the time we had
it all put away and then opened the door. All five girls fell through the door
landing on their ass in foyer.

Sway
looked at me less than amused pushing a bag at me. “I brought you barbeque to
be nice.”

“Oh, wow,”
I turned to Spencer who could barely control his breathing. It wasn’t that
funny but it seemed since we hadn’t laughed in so long, everything was funny to
us, “they brought us barbeque.”

“You ate barbeque
today, didn’t you?” Sway asked looking from me to Spencer and then Aiden, who
couldn’t lie to save his ass.

“Why would
you say that?” Casten stepped in. “I was with him today.”

“I told
you no barbeque for him.” Sway was looking at him like she wanted to kill him.

“I
...
uh
...
” he pointed at me as if I asked him to commit a fucking murder with
me. “He made me do it. He bribed me with money!”

“You are
such a little jerk.” I told him taking my new bag of barbeque with me to the
table.

Sway came
up behind me as I sat there eating. I refused to let it go to waste. Her hands
squeezed my shoulders and then she moved to sit on my lap, her face beside my
ear when she spoke. “Care to work up an appetite there, champ?”

Nodding, I
swatted her on the ass once and gave a tip of my head for her to get up.

Though we
had a good time in our room, we still hadn’t had sex yet since the accident.
Every time we tried I was in too much pain from either my shoulder or my
pelvis. I couldn’t be on top of her, nor could she be on top, because the
weight of supporting myself on my arms hurt but then when we tried to move, it
hurt too much to relax.

Either
way, we were doing all the assembly prep but we had yet to perform the engine
overhaul if you know what I mean. If I was being honest, something felt
different between us. Maybe it was those track changes I talked about. I’m not
sure if it was because I was in pain or if Sway was afraid of hurting me that
she didn’t relax either but something was there and left us both silently questioning
the change.

Seat Time - Sway

When we
got back downstairs, I was confused and busied myself with the schedule that
Alley and I had for when Jameson got back to racing in a few weeks. If he passed
his medical clearance with NASCAR on the tenth, his first race back was
scheduled to be the All-Star race on the thirteenth. We would be cutting it
close but with practice and qualifying but with as much time as Jameson had
been spending at Lowes Motor Speedway, I think he was ready. When I watched him
race it was as if he never missed a beat. The first time I saw him get back
inside the car at the house I nearly had an anxiety attack waiting for him to
show some sort of nerves or hesitation but he didn’t. He just got inside the
car, strapped in and acted like it was no big deal.

When the
boys were done eating, we moved into the family room and started drinking beer
which was nothing unusual for our group.

“Where’s
Lily?” I asked Axel when he kept checking his phone like he was late for
something but acted like he didn’t want to leave.

“She’s
with her mom in Florida this week.” He gave me a funny look. “I thought you
knew that. Grandma is with them. They went shopping for the baby.”

“Oh,” I
tried to act amused. I was excited that they were having a baby. I was. I was
not excited about being a grandma and avoided the topic all together because of
that. I think Lily felt like I wasn’t happy about it when they first found out
but I had to calmly tell her to stop thinking of herself and think of me as a
gray haired old grandma and then she could understand my reservations for it.
She did and now we had a mutual understanding. I would be the baby’s Aunt.

I must
have lost where the conversation went from there because the next thing I knew
they were talking about Jameson’s cane that he was able to get rid of the other
day.

“Who
wasn’t hit with the cane at one time or another?” Spencer asked and then looked
at me. “Aside from Sway,”

My goddamn
cheeks flushed so bright remembering the other night. I felt like the sun had
blasted me. If only they knew what he’d done to me with that cane.

Problem
was, without my verbal objections, they did know.

Jameson didn’t
help matters by side-eyeing the cane and then raising his eyebrows. His head
tilted as if he too was remembering the other night.

Then he
winked at me. Though our sex life wasn’t what it used to be, I did get a few
taps on the ass with the cane. All of which I enjoyed immensely.

Spencer’s
laughter broke through. “Fuck yeah brother!”

Jameson
said nothing but the smile he had gave him away. He looked like a little boy
again with his mischievous grin.

“He’s got
a nice ass.” Rosa sat next to me on the couch. “I saw it this morning.”

“Rosa,
don’t look. He’s my husband.”

“I tried
to tell her that.” Jameson lifted his beer up in the air as if he was raising
his hand.

“So?” Rosa
glanced back and forth between the two of us. “I can’t help it.”

“You are
so morally wrong it’s disturbing at times.”

“I never
claimed to be morally correct. I’m just saying that given the chance to peek, I
would check out his
...
” she
thought for a moment, her eyebrows scrunched together, “what do you call it?
Track layout?”

Laughter
broke out around everyone. Spencer looked at Alley. “Can we get a maid like
Rosa?”

Jameson
lifted his beer again. “She speaks Spanish too
...
” and then he chuckled and looked over at Rosa, “or is it Portuguese
now?”

“
Gillpollas
,” Rosa muttered taking Jameson’s beer.

“
Oh’p
, it’s apparently back to Spanish.” Jameson laughed
taking his beer back.

It’d been
so long since I heard him laugh and be in such good spirits I forgot what it
felt like.

Times like
this with all of us together were great. The worst part about a death in the
family was after the family and relatives have left and their lives moved on
but you’re not. You’re stuck. Rooted in the life you knew. The life you wanted
and the life you made until it was changed for you.

The best
thing about the Riley family was that no matter what, they were there for you
along the way. The death was still very real to us but we took comfort in
knowing everyone felt the same way.

The test
session rolled around on Wednesday and we made the drive to Charlotte to meet
with Patrick, the Vice President of NASCAR and Russ Campbell, the new Director
of Competition.

  
Randy, Jameson’s uncle, met us there. Him and Jameson exchanged a handshake and
then went to discussing the test and all the exams they wanted to perform.

They took
him behind closed doors for a while, said it was a private meeting and then had
Randy and I wait in the hallway for him. We didn’t talk much. It was mostly
because I wasn’t really in the talkative mood. I hadn’t had nearly enough
coffee, I hadn’t had sex since before Jameson’s accident, and I was scared of
Jameson getting back inside the car. I had never been scared and now I was.
That kept my mind preoccupied to the point that conversing with Jameson’s
overbearing sadistic Uncle wasn’t in my plan.