I stared at her. “Not a chance.”
“Yeah, okay.” Arie nodded, trying to accommodate all their requests. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“It’s gonna look like a schizophrenic’s car,” I told her, trying to voice my disapproval for any of it other than the flames. At least Pace and Knox had some sense.
Arie laughed, like my request meant nothing. “Be nice.”
And you know, I was beginning to realize when you’re married and have four kids, your opinion in anything meant jack shit.
Beside me, Casten grinned and gestured to the car Rowyn and Ryder designed. His car was covered in swirls and dots and a random star here and there. None of it made any fucking sense. It made me dizzy looking at it. It looked like a drunk was let loose with a box of Sharpies while on a roller coaster and attempting to draw.
“Whose idea was this?”
I glared at Casten. “Yours!”
“Oh, right.” He smiled when I knocked my shoulder with his. “I’m fucking brilliant.”
HONESTLY, I WASN’T looking forward to the second West Coast swing based on how the first part went. Or the middle. Okay, it’d been a rough fucking year. But I’d also been racing long enough to know you had years like this. Ones that made you appreciate the good ones even more.
What bothered me the most was not having Arie there. I hated the few days she hadn’t been there this season. No way I wanted to do a fucking month without her. I also had to respect Arie’s desire to stay home and heal from her surgery. It didn’t stop the husband in me from wanting to be there for her.
We said our goodbyes that night in the parking lot of JAR Racing where the haulers had just left. Jameson’s truck was hooked up to the one T-shirt trailer we were taking, the lights on and highlighting the stone sign in front of the building.
“Are you sure?” I asked Arie, pulling her into my chest, the hum of the diesel in the background drowning out her sigh.
She gave me “the look.” The one that screamed stop asking that. “I’ll fly out to see you in a couple weeks with the kids when you’re in Washington.”
“Do me a favor,” I whispered in her ear, reaching down to grab her ass with one hand.
“What?” she yelped, wiggling against me.
“Send me naughty pictures every day.”
She laughed. “That I can do.”
I hugged each one of the kids, kissed Arie entirely too inappropriately in front of her dad, and then got inside the truck with Lane and Jameson. Tommy followed us.
“Where’s Paxton?” I asked. He was originally going to come with us, and we’d drop him off in Indiana on the way.
Tommy shrugged. “He left this morning.”
I reached for my phone in my pocket, flipping through messages. “Aren’t you going to see him again?”
Tommy opened his cooler and reached for a beer. “Well, maybe. I don’t know.”
“You’re his dad,” Lane added, making his way inside the truck. “He’s fifteen.”
“Yeah, but once his mom finds out he spent three months with me, got arrested, lost his virginity, and now likes Fireball way more than he should, she might change her mind on visitation rights,” Tommy pointed out.
“True.” I smiled. “Did you ever figure out if his mom knew he was gone?”
“Nope. He kept saying he told her, but I don’t know. I didn’t see his face on the news.”
Lane shook his head. “The whole situation was weird.”
“Yeah, well…” Tommy took a long pull from his beer. “…what’s weirder is him thinking I’m his dad. He looks nothing like me, and I had a vasectomy when I was twenty-six. No way I’m that kid’s dad.”
Lane, Jameson, and me all stared at one another. It was Lane who spoke up. “No shit? But you let him believe it?”
“Eh. We got free labor out of it for the summer. Kid could change out gears faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
We laughed when my phone dinged. It was a message from Arie.
Arie: Check your phone. You have about thirty naked pictures of my new tits.
Willie, who I didn’t know was riding with us, laid his chin on my shoulder. “Can I borrow your phone?”
Willie spent the next hour complaining that I broke his nose and Jameson nearly kicked him out before we made it out of North Carolina for getting blood on his seats. I spent the drive worrying about Arie, unsure how it was going to go without her by my side.
As I watched the scenery change from city life to barren farmland, I realized that I didn’t fear racing any longer. I wasn’t nervous about getting into the car, or wrecking. What I feared was our life changing and not having my family around for it.
Gearhead – Device that reduces motor speed and increases motor torque.
“I miss your pussy. My hand isn’t cutting it anymore.”
I laughed. “Really, dude? No hello or how are the kids?” I asked when I answered the phone. “What if one of the kids had answered?”
I could hear the smirk in his words. “I would have known it was them by their breathing. All our kids are extremely loud breathers.”
He was right. They were. I was sleeping next to two of them right now. Sighing, I settled into our bed I’d been occupying by myself for the last two weeks. It’d only been fourteen days and I missed Rager so much he was literally all I thought about.
“You did good tonight.” He’d finished third at Skagit and I could tell by the tone of his voice he was pleased by it.
He let out a breathy laugh. “I want a win about as bad as I want your pussy.”
“Oh my God.” I laughed lightly, trying not to wake the kids. “Is that all you think about?”
“No, I think about winning.” I could hear doors closing in the background and Lane’s laughter. “And pussy.”
I let out a breathy sigh,
