The Legend (34 page)

As you can
see, it’s a family business as always will be.

Examining
the engine, Willie looked up at me holding the oil line. “There’s our problem,”
he said, “the oil coupler was loose and all the oil drained out. Grady was
doing final assembly last night with Noah.”

My gaze
shifted from the car to Willie and then over to Grady. He was there with
headphones in, bobbing his head to music, doing a final walk around on the four
cars heading to Knoxville. He stopped near the rear tires, his hand reached up
to run over the bars under the wing of my car. Seeming satisfied, he moved on
to check off his list as he went, never looking up from his meticulous effort.

Kneeling
down, I took a look at the engine on the hoist. In sprint car engines we use a
dry sump system where the oil is stored in a tank outside the engine rather
than in the oil pan and then pumped to the rest of the engine. In this case,
the oil line wasn’t sealed correctly and allowed for the oil to drain out.

“We can’t
be having this kind of stuff happening.” Willie said to me when I sat against
the wall going through emails on my phone. “The kid needs to go. No one trusts
him and you know what that does around here.”

Willie sat
next to me.

Setting my
phone on the floor, I reached up to place my hands on the bill of my hat. “We
will deal with it when we get back from Knoxville.”

“Jameson,
you—”

“We can’t
prove anything, Willie.” I snapped back at him. “Until then, he is still
employed here.”

Tommy knew
me well enough to drop it but Willie kept up. “Come on Jameson, he’s stealing
from you and you know it.”

“No, I
don’t know it for sure.” I said to him looking over the inventory Sway printed
yesterday and noticed that everything seemed to add up this time.

Sway and
Alley stopped by. Sway immediately sensed the apprehension in the air. “What’s
going on?” she whispered handing me a hamburger they picked up on the way over.
Alley handed the rest of the guys’ burgers as well. Spencer, having smelled
food, came in from outside where he and Lane had been loading tools and
equipment for the race.

“We
gotta
put a new engine in my car tonight before we can head
out tomorrow.”

Sway
nodded taking a drink from her milkshake. “What happened?”

“There was
a coupler left loose and all the oil drained out. It blew it up after only two
laps.”

In the
distance, I saw Arie, who was there shipping merchandise for Rager’s’ fan club,
walk from the office to the parts room and then back with a box of merchandise
I assumed. Conversations continued around me but my attention remained on the
interaction that occurred between Grady, who was still here, and my daughter.

She passed
by him and he looked up at her. I couldn’t hear what he said but she stopped
and stared at him. Looking over her shoulder at me, I knew something was going
on, her eyes quickly drifting back to Grady. Stepping closer, she said
something else to him and he reached out to her as she began to walk away.

The boys
went to work getting the new engine prepped and Grady took off after that
without saying anything. Something about his quick departure struck me as
unusual. Normally he said something but I had the impression it had to do with
Arie’s conversation with him.

Sway
kissed me goodbye and then planned on heading home to get my bag ready since we
would be here most of the night getting the car ready. “I love you,” she said
with a supportive smile before heading out.

“Hey,” I
caught her hand before she left. “
...
have you
noticed anything going on between Grady and Arie?”

“Not that
I’m aware of, but, Arie doesn’t tell me anything.” Sway shrugged. “Apparently
we don’t have that mother-daughter-bonding-thing down.”

“She loves
you honey. She’s just
...
” I kissed her
forehead drawing her into my chest to wrap my arms around her. “
...
she’s just Arie.”

Sway
understood that statement because unlike our boys, Arie was secretive and like
I’ve said before, if she didn’t want you know, she didn’t tell you.

Sway left
after that and I made my way inside the office where Arie was filling boxes
with merchandise and then placing mailing labels on them. She looked up when the
door opened her eyes wide for a moment and then she relaxed. “Hey dad, you
scared me.”

“Sorry
sweetheart.” I leaned against the table, my arms resting against the table.
“What was that between you and Grady?” There was no sense in tiptoeing around
it, she knew by my appearance that I knew something was going on.

“It’s
nothing dad,” she replied avoiding my stare.

“It sure
didn’t look like nothing.”

Arie
stopped packing the box she had set in front of her and sighed, the top of her
hand dropped to the table. “Like I said dad, it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“Can’t
handle huh?” I repeated sarcastically. “Arie
...
”
by my deep sigh; she sensed my mood shifting and stood up to grab her bag. I
stopped her. “I’m not going to get involved in whatever it is that’s going on.
But I do not want you seeing Grady.”

She made
it to the door before she turned to look back at me, tears threatening. “I
assure you there’s nothing going on between me and Grady. He made sure of
that.”

My stomach
dropped at her words. The lingering glances Grady had given her along with her
shy smiles over the weeks confirmed what I hated to even think about and
wouldn’t let myself.

Tommy
stuck his head inside when Arie left. “Hey man, we need your help out here.”

The rest
of the night we finished up with the engine and had everything loaded by
midnight. Sway was waiting up for me when I got home. No conversation was had;
instead, it was lingering touches and heated breaths. It was days like this
when I remember what was important and what wasn’t worth the fight. It was
where the revolving door closed for the night and the going seemed slow to the
breathing in and out, the taking time to ensure that time was spent taking care
of what needed to be.

Just like
any scheduled race, there’s a drivers meeting to go over rules and regulations.
Then there’s a team meeting followed by the driver introductions. This time
with my wife was like introductions. It was a time where two heats that beat
for one another spoke to what didn’t need to be said.

I had a
lot on my mind that night but in her arms, skin to skin, none of that mattered.

13.
          
Lights Out – Axel

Lights Out
– The lights go out when the starter is ready to display a green flag.

After our
honeymoon in Hawaii, it was back to real life and time for racing once again.
Personally, I was looking forward to it. I enjoyed the time with Lily but I was
ready to get back in the car.

This year
all the talk was about Frost Nationals in Knoxville in just a week. I could
hardly focus on anything but that once we returned. That was until Lily pulled
me aside the night before we left for Iowa.

She sat
there in front of me, chewing on her lip as though she was scared.

I kissed
along her tanned skin hoping this might ease any troubling thoughts she had but
still, her mood didn’t change.

Lily had
something to say, I just knew it but she seemed
...
confused?

Standing
over her, I moved my legs in between hers. “Lil, what’s going on with you?” My
hands rested on the back on the couch trapping her.

“I uh
...
need to talk to you.” She looked up at me.

“Okay,”
sitting down next to her, I pulled her across the couch wrapping my arms around
her. “What’s up?”

Another
few minutes of silence, she sighed and closed her eyes. Her long lashes seemed
to flutter for a second before opening. “I’m pregnant.”

I didn’t
say anything for close to five minutes. This was not what I was expecting to
hear. I was thinking something along the lines of, “Let’s get a bigger house,”
or “Can I get a new car?” Not, “I’m pregnant.”

“Wow, that
wasn’t what I was expecting you to say.” I finally said breaking the
uncomfortable silence hanging between us.

“Oh,” her
face fell slightly at my confession, her eyes dropping from mine.

“I didn’t
mean it like that Lil
...
I’m just
surprised
.”

She nodded;
her eyes glassy with threatening tears. “Are you happy?”

“How could
I not be?” I reached for her, my arms wrapping around her tiny shoulders. “I
love you Lil.”

I wasn’t
exactly sure what to think about her being pregnant. I wasn’t mad, no, that wasn’t
it but I also wasn’t as excited as I hoped I’d be. Was that a bad thing? Wasn’t
I supposed to be happy?

I wanted
kids, eventually, but right now just didn’t seem like the time. I would be
starting my second-season that year and
wanted
that championship. I was
afraid my focus wouldn’t be there now.

Lily
wasn’t coming with us to Knoxville. She was staying with her mom for the week
since she had just had surgery on her back.

I guess
now would be my time to adjust to everything.

The
morning we left, everyone met at the shop and we decided who was coming and who
had other plans. We ended up taking a variety of crew members and a few guys
from CST Engines.

Lane, Cole
and Logan were flying out with me and Tommy. Everyone else was already there
including my dad. Casten decided to stay home that weekend with the girls,
something about a date with a girl but I later found out he was grounded again.

Racing in
the winter generally wasn’t done anywhere other than Tulsa for the Chili Bowl,
Irwindale
for Turkey night or Australia. Usually, it was
too damn cold usually.

But this
year Knoxville Raceway was doing an event called Frost Nationals which was a
three day event to kick off Speedweeks before Daytona and the opening of the
World of Outlaws in Barberville. Each night would have main events. From a
driver’s point of view, this was ideal.

The next
night, it started all over. That was ideal because it didn’t matter if you
fucked up and got a bad spot on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was a clean slate so
to speak.

No points,
just money; a million dollars to be exact. None of us did it for the money
though, we all just wanted to race. The joke was, since my dad was going,
“Million Dollar Maybe” they called him, would win it. They called him that
because anytime someone asked him if he would win, he said maybe. Anytime he
said maybe, he won.

Dad was of
course set to race along with Justin, Cody, Rager and Tyler. It would be a
stacked field for sure.

I didn’t
know grandpa was racing until we were standing outside the registration booth.

“Holy shit
dude!” Shane reached for the entry list, his eyes wide. “Jimi’s racing
tonight?”

Huh?

I ripped
the sheet from his hands and looked back at my dad who was signing the waver.
“Did you know about this?”

He smirked
handing the clipboard toward Justin on the other side of him. “Who do you think
got his car ready?”

It wasn’t
that I didn’t want grandpa racing. I wanted to race against the best but he
wasn’t exactly in the best shape these days. At sixty-five, he was getting old;
not that he was the oldest guy to race sprint cars these days.

Bucky
Miers after ten years in retirement climbed in a USAC Silver Crown car last
year to prove a point he still had it in him and he was seventy-six.

Age never
mattered in racing but physical condition did. With a hip surgery, a recent
heart valve replacement and more concussions than any brain needed, his
physical condition wasn’t great.

“Does
grandma know your old ass it racing?” Lane asked nudging grandpa in the ribs as
he pulled his racing suit over his broad shoulders getting ready for hot laps.

“Boy,” he
drawled out slowly with a smirk I hadn’t seen in a while, “your grandma would
never question why I wanted to get back in the car.”

“She
doesn’t get scared?” I asked standing next to them, my dad followed behind me.

“Women
that marry racers love them for who they are and never question why they get
behind the wheel. And when it all falls apart, they are right there, putting
the pieces together again.”

I didn’t
like the way he said “falls apart”. Even dad, who stood next to him, glanced up
when he said that and then walked away shaking his head.

Lane
laughed and walked toward Cole and Logan who were trying to wrestle my dad to
the ground when I blurted out the first thing on my mind.