Kinsley moved to Caden’s pit next to Dad’s. I motioned to her with a flick of my wrist. “Did you know she was due last week?”
“Kinsley?” Rager craned his neck to the side and eyed her. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
Tightening his hold around my waist, he buried his head in my neck. “Do you remember when you went into labor with Knox?”
A snort escaped me. “How can I forget.” Rager loved to think he broke my water by having sex up against his sprint car. I’d already been having labor pains and knew it was a possibility to go into labor. But I let him believe him and his super sperm were what did it.
AS THE NIGHT progressed, Rager won his heat, which put him on the pole in the dash and starting third in the A-main event. I’d love to say I watched the main, but I didn’t get a chance.
Remember that girl that swore she wouldn’t have the baby tonight? Well, guess who went into labor when Caden brought out the caution in the main after flipping down the backstretch?
Yeah, Kinsley.
“We should take her to the hospital,” Hayden noted, staring at Kinsley doubled over in pain and a puddle of water at her feet in front of the merchandise trailer.
“I feel like her head is coming out.” Kinsley squeezed her legs together. “Guys, that’s bad, right?”
Hayden, Lily, and I stared at each other before Lily took control of the situation. And Rosa appeared with my mom. “Let’s get her into Caden’s hauler,” Mom told us, helping Kinsley walk. “There’s more room there and Dave’s truck is parked out there. It’d be easier than trying to get the motor homes out.”
She had a point, but one mentioned of Dave, and Kinsley wasn’t having it.
“Fuuuuuck that.” She stopped walking, holding her stomach with one hand and waving her other around in the air. “That crazy bastard isn’t driving me and my baby anywhere.”
Kinsley also had a point. No one in their right mind would get in a car with him, aside from Tommy, but I thought we all agreed Tommy wasn’t in his right mind. Ever.
“No, he’s not driving,” Mom assured her.
Hayden stayed back and locked up the merchandise trailers while Mom, Lily, Rosa, and I escorted Kinsley back to the pits. A thick cloud of dirt hovered in the air, wind whipping around in a swirling motion as the cars roared by turns three and four. Jerry’s voice echoed from the loudspeakers near us. “Bouncing the right rear off the cushion and dipping down low into turn four, Rager Sweet takes over the lead from Rowdy Riley in the nine. Two to go this time by.”
Mom and me smiled at one another. Sure, Dad lost the lead, but we all knew how much Rager wanted a win this season.
Rosa, who was walking beside me digging through her nanny pack as she called it, snorted. “Driving would be a bit hard for Dave tonight.”
I glanced over at Rosa. “Why?”
“He was arrested.”
“Again?” Mom and Lily said in unison.
Believe me when I said that none of us were surprised by that, and we didn’t bother to question why.
“Ah, there it is.” Rosa found what she was looking for and held a juice box. “Here.” She handed Kinsley what looked to be orange juice in a carton.
Kinsley stared at the juice in her hand. “Is it normal to feel like my stomach is going to rip apart?”
“Yes” was another collective answer among the five of us.
“We need to get her to the truck before the cars start rolling off the track,” I added, fearing we wouldn’t make it to a vehicle in time. I seriously thought about commandeering someone’s car in the parking lot, but I had no idea how to go about it. If Dave hadn’t been arrested, this would have been a task for him. Not me. Or maybe even Casten. He had stolen a car once before.
We managed to get Kinsley into the pits and near Dave’s truck, but not in it. “Seriously,” she cried, clutching her stomach. “I think she’s coming out.”
Mom flagged down the safety officials in the pits to help us. The only problem was the ambulance couldn’t leave the track until the race was over. Lily acted quickly and got Kinsley laying down while Rosa held her upper body. By the time we had Caden’s hauler closed up, Zac, Jensen, Tommy, and Lane had returned.
“Sweet won,” Tommy told us, smiling as he peeked his head in the side door. “Why is the hauler—” We didn’t have to answer him once he noticed Kinsley spread eagle and screaming. “Where’s Caden?”
“On the front stretch.” Zac looked over Tommy’s shoulder. “What’s wrong? Oh, shit. Is she in labor?”
“Arie?” Rosa whispered, tugging on my hand. I didn’t answer her at first. I was too busy trying to see where the damn ambulance was. When I didn’t look over at her, she slapped my cheek. “Arie?”
I snapped my head her direction, nervously biting my nails. “What?”
“Is alcohol bad for pregnant women?”
All of us girls stared at Rosa. “Are you serious?”
“No.” She gasped, her eyes darting around the hauler and then to her nanny pack. “I was just joking. But it can’t be any worse than the drugs they give you to birth these little aliens.”
I blinked rapidly. “Did that orange juice have alcohol in it?”
“Did it?” she asked, acting as though she was perplexed as to why I would ask. If you knew Rosa, you would understand this was how most conversations went with her.
“How am I supposed to know?” I waved at her nanny pack. “You’re the one that stocks that damn thing. Be honest, do you give my babies alcohol during the day? Is that why they’re always ready to take a nap at noon?”
She sighed, as if she couldn’t believe I’d
