“Oh, look. That’s a cute dinosaur,” Kinsley noted as we stood outside the motor homes while the guys went inside with Pace and Bristol.
Hudson and Knox were beside me and bolted the minute they saw the dinosaur statue outside the gas station. I didn’t think much of it. There was literally no one in the parking lot at nearly midnight, and yeah, our kids were wide awake.
I kept one eye on them, and one on a bright orange bus parked outside. I smiled thinking of Grand Forks and the buses they had parked outside the pits.
“There’s a bus over there.” Rager gave a nod to the shadows and the row of buses that lined the pits. “Come with me.”
“You’re carrying me. Pretty sure I don’t have a choice.”
“You never had a choice anyway.”
I’d seen the buses before, and they freaked me out. The guys raced them on occasions, even my dad had, but no way did I want to get in one myself.
They looked haunted if you asked me. Painted bright red, yellow, blue, purple, you name it, and they had it along with spray painted names on the side. Apparently they were named after the high school that donated the bus to the track.
There was about ten of them out there, some hidden, and others not so much.
“Which one?”
“Blue?” he teased, twisting his head to bite my hip where my tank top had revealed bare skin; his teeth sank in lightly, but enough that it made me jump in his arms. “It’s the color of my balls right now.”
I laughed to myself, but then my attention was on Rager exiting the store, without Caden.
“Where’s Caden?” Kinsley asked, rocking the baby from side to side.
“Bathroom,” Rager told us, holding Pace and Bristol’s hands as they clung to candy.
“You’re not opening that until morning,” I informed both of them, fearing they’d never get to bed.
“Daddy said we have them now,” Pace whined, trying to keep his package of Skittles away from Hudson, who suddenly wanted to be best friends with his siblings. He only tolerated people if you had what he wanted. Boobs, candy….
Standing beside me, Rager wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Sorry, hon. It was either that or beer. I got them to go for the candy.”
Sadly, my kids were obsessed with beer. No, they hadn’t drank it yet, that I knew of, but growing up in the pits of a dirt track they knew exactly what it was, and they wanted it.
Rager filled up the water in the motor home and I gave each kid two Skittles, hoping they’d be okay with that. After ten minutes and no Caden, Kinsley started to become worried. “What the hell is he doing in there?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Another ten minutes and he came out, his face red, and practically running to the motor homes. “Never again will I use a public restroom.”
Rager grinned. “What happened?”
“You didn’t tell me that chick in the leopard tights was a fucking lot lizard.” He shoved Rager back away from him.
“What’s a lot lizard?” Kinsley asked.
Last year, Caden had a very unfortunate and unforgettable experience at a truck stop in Minnesota. He swore off them for an entire year after a woman, who was old enough to be his grandma, followed him into the bathroom and locked him in there wanting a piece of the candy cane, as she put it. Luckily he was rescued by Tommy and Lane, but it stuck with him.
Now apparently he’d met his breaking point. Standing outside his motor home, he stripped down to his underwear, tossed his clothes in a trash can and refused to talk about it.
Back inside, Rager stared at the gas station and then laughed. “What are you laughing at?”
He pointed toward the row of trucks on the other side of the parking lot. It was Willie and Tommy in their van talking to the chick in the leopard pants. “I bet you twenty bucks they paid that chick to go into the bathroom at the same time.”
Knowing Tommy and Willie, I certainly wouldn’t put it past them.
ELDORA SPEEDWAY
NEW WESTON, OHIO
“WHEN IS THE surgery scheduled for?”
“August eighteenth,” I told Kinsley, who sat with me as the morning at Eldora moved slowly. I’d just finished making the kids’ breakfast; Rager was still asleep inside. “I wanted to wait until after Knoxville Nationals and then I figured I’d just stay home for the final West Coast swing.”
“That’s good timing.” Kinsley was feeding Jameson Grace, who she had cradled in a plush pink blanket. “Are you nervous?”
I nodded. “A little, but I think in a weird way, I’m excited to have perky tits again. Babies drain them.”
She laughed as she ran her fingertips over her baby’s cheek. “Can’t wait for that to happen,” she teased, winking at me.
With my coffee in hand, I watched my kids eating off paper plates in front of the motor home. Knox’s sausage link rolled off his plate and into the grass, but he ate it anyway. Didn’t matter to him. He ate fucking sticks like they were candy. Yes, I asked his pediatrician about this. It’s… normal. Kind of.
The camping lot we were in was starting to come to life. Caden eventually joined Kinsley outside with coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. “Hey, Closer.”
He grinned, chocolate on his lips and leaned to the side in the camp chair. “I still haven’t come close to the Sweet Spots two-hundred wins.”
It was true, he hadn’t, but no one had touched Jimi’s record of over five hundred and thirteen outlaw wins. Or my dad’s three hundred and thirty-nine. “He’s been racing since you were a baby though,” I pointed out.
“Someday I’ll get there.” He took the baby from Kinsley as she adjusted her shirt. “Hey, baby,” he cooed, holding his daughter close to him and rubbing her back. She made the cutest baby noises and curled her
