“So…” Lily leaned toward me. “I hear you’re sleeping with your boss now.”
Hayden whipped her head around, eyes wide, face disgusted. “You’re sleeping with your dad?” Naturally her tone was not hushed and about three fans browsing through shirts heard her.
“No,” I gasped, slapping my hand over her mouth. “Rager is co-owner of JAR Racing.”
“Oh.” Hayden clasped her hand over her chest. “Thank fuck.”
“Axel seemed surprised,” Lily noted, unscrewing the cap to the water bottle she was holding.
“Surprise good or surprise pissed?”
“Good.” She set the water bottle on the counter and glanced up at me with nothing but sincerity in her eyes. “He didn’t want anything to do with owning a team.”
“Yeah, me either.”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “You guys didn’t talk about it, did you?”
I must have been wearing the same expression I had the night I told them we were remodeling our house. Probably because we stayed with Axel and Lily when Rager decide to tear a hole in the side of our house. Without telling me. Or the time he came home with a million-dollar motor home. Without telling me.
Noticing a trend here?
Exactly. And the fact that my dad hadn’t warned me about the team only pissed me off more.
“Dad still technically owns the team,” I pointed out, keeping one eye on Hudson as he laughed and tried to hide from Rowyn underneath the trailer. “But Rager is now a co-owner.”
“I had a feeling that was coming soon when he signed over CST Engines to Casten this winter,” Hayden added, handing a T-shirt over to a customer.
Lily shook her head, stacking the rack cards she’d brought in with her. “And told Axel he inherits Grays Harbor Raceway.”
Fear worked through me. Why was dad suddenly releasing all this responsibility? I held up my phone. “I need to take care of some things. Can you guys keep an eye out on the trailer and Hudson?”
Kinsley sat down on the ground where Hudson was now trying to catch a lizard he’d found under the trailer. “I’ve got the Hornet… but I might not be able to get up from here.”
I laughed, smiling down at her. “I remember those days.”
I kneeled next to Hudson and made him look at me. He blinked, his precious blue eyes locked on mine, cheeks pink from the afternoon sun. Sweeping his dark hair from his eyes, I kissed his forehead. “You need to be nice to Ms. Kinsley.”
He frowned, as if he couldn’t agree to such a demand.
“He’s fine,” Kinsley assured me. And he was always nice to her, so I shouldn’t be too concerned. He liked two people in his world. Okay, three if you counted my boobs. But Kinsley and my dad, they could do no wrong as far as Hudson was concerned. It was everyone else he had a problem with apparently.
I made my way back into the pits to see if I could find my dad. He was in Rager’s pit, along with Axel and Lane trying to get the engine into the car. They’d at least made progress. When I saw the car this morning, it was still only a roll cage.
A cloud of dust hovered in the air, along with the sounds of tools clanging metal while my husband frowned like his rebel toddler as he sat inside the car. He wasn’t in his racing suit yet, but I assumed he was in the car for a reason. Probably to put it into gear when they were ready.
“No mechanical errors. No fuck ups,” Dad yelled over the front of the car at Tommy and Willie both lying near the rear end changing out the gears.
I, for one, agreed with that. There was no room for error with these cars. My husband’s safety depended on it.
My eyes landed on my dad, his hat on backward, black JAR Racing T-shirt clinging to his biceps as he reached for the handle of the jack beside him. “Coming down.”
“All the way,” Lane told him, rolling out from under the car, his hands covered in grease. He glanced over at Jenson, who stood near the rear tires. “Is the air pressure the same as other night?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” Lane stood and wiped dust off the front of his shirt. “Six off the right rear. Hey, bud.” He leaned into the cockpit. “Put it in gear for me.”
Despite Rager looking my direction as he put the car into gear, I kept my eyes on my dad. I stared at him, attempting to find a fault. A reason as to why he’d be giving away everything he worked so hard for over the years. Was he sick?
“What’s up?” Dad finally asked when he noticed me hovering.
Rager smirked. “You’re in trouble,” he told him, sliding out of the car.
I glared at my husband. “So are you.”
“I didn’t do anything.” His shoulder bumped mine as he made his way into the hauler with Lane.
Dad and I stood next to the mule as he rummaged through tools. “I’m taking bets down on whether or not he destroys this car too. You in?” His eyes slide to mine, and I knew this was his way of trying to avoid the conversation I wanted to have.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I just did. I got fifty that he wads it up.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Rager grumbled, bumping my shoulder again as he carried his steering wheel from the hauler.
Dad leaned into the mule with his shoulder. “Oh, I have confidence in you.” He smirked, winking at me. “And my cars, but that track is brutal tonight.”
He was right. They hadn’t seen rain here in months and the track showed it. They worked it all morning, but I had a feeling with the winds today, it’d be dried up after the heats.
I shoved my hand into Dad’s stomach. “I’m not talking about the track or betting on my husband. I’m talking
