The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (35 page)

It was time for bed.

Jameson, who used the kids as a defense device when I
found him in the tent, had nothing to say for himself until I showed him the
cuts on my back from the tree.

“I’m sorry?” he offered playing with Arie’s curls as she
slept on his chest.

“Sorry he says.” I repeated shaking my head before
zipping myself up to my nose in my sleeping bag.

Pit Board – Jameson

“Daddy, daddy!”

I groaned, opening my eyes to the blinding light coming
in through our tent. I got very little sleep with all the bugs and everything
that happened last night. Oh, and when I finally did reach the tent, Arie
wormed her way in between us.

I tired numerous times to put her on the other side of
Sway but no, every time she found her way back to me and my sore back.

After about the tenth time of Arie saying, “You awake?”
that morning, I opened my eyes to find her staring at me.

“Finally,” Arie sighed. Her big emerald eyes gleamed with
brightness. “Get up,” she ordered pointing her tiny finger at me.

For being nearly three, she was demanding. I blamed Emma
and Alley for that.

“Flowers,”

Oh, right. I promised her we’d pick flowers today. How we
were going to find flowers here was beyond me. So far, all I’ve seen is red
clay mud, water, and bugs.

“Daddy!” she yelled jumping on me. “Up.”

“I’m up sweetie, I’m up!” I turned over to see Sway was
still sleeping. “Just let me make some coffee first. And don’t wake up mommy.
She’s mad at me.”

She seemed to contemplate this for a moment. “One
mimmut,”

“You are so adorable.” I grabbed her chubby cheeks in
between my hands kissing her nose. “So adorable,”

“No me not.” She said sternly frowning as she pushed against
my chest.

“Oh yes you
are
.” I tickled her ribs as she
cackled, continuing until she was screeching loud enough to wake Spencer and
Aiden.

I let her up after that so she could catch her breath.
For the first time I noticed what she was wearing and I had to bite my lip to
keep from laughing. She obviously dressed herself this morning. The outfit
started-off normal enough, with a t-shirt and jeans but the jeans were tucked
into bright yellow boots. Along with those she was wearing a pink ballet costume
over the shirt and a tiara that was slightly askew from our tickling war, on
top of her head.

Chuckling the words out, I muttered. “Ten minutes. Yes
ma’am.”

Even though my little angel couldn’t tell time, I knew as
by the way she stomped from the tent, she’d be back in less than two minutes.

Sure enough, Arie came stomping back, this time with a
life jacket around her and a bucket in hand.

“What’s with the life jacket?” I knelt down to adjust the
straps to fit her snuggly.

She glanced over her shoulder at the boys having an early
morning water fight by the lake.

“Aunnie Amee,”

I saw Ami wave at me. After last night, she must have
known the boys get a little crazy at times because she strapped life vests on
Arie, Alexis and Lily for their safety.

Sway woke up with all the screaming from Spencer when
Aiden threw a snake at him he found in the lake just before Arie and I left to
pick flowers.

I heard her grumbling about the bugs and her cuts when
she yelped as she unzipped the tent.

“Oh son of a—”

“Say good morning to mommy Arie!” I said loud enough for
her to hear.

I did this for two reasons. I didn’t have any money on me
to hand over to Arie for Sway’s cussing and two; Arie was like a goddamn
sponge. Anything you said, she repeated and at the most inconvenient times.

“Good morning sweetheart.” Sway smiled at Arie who lunged
for her and looked at me with a glare and then smiled. Her smile was somewhat
concerning though. It was one that had me wondering what I was missing “Did you
sleep good?”

“Yeah,”

Sway looked over her outfit. “Did daddy dress you again?”

“No me.” Arie pointed to herself.

Sway kissed her chubby cheeks.

“You did good. You look beautiful!”

They spoke for a few minutes until it was time for Casten
to eat, he didn’t like to wait.

“C’mon sweetie, let’s go get mommy’s present.” Arie
popped up from Sway’s arms and followed me. I smiled back at my wife but she
glared.

Being out in the backwoods of Alabama, we didn’t find any
flowers. Found a few snakes and quite possibly the largest spider I’ve ever
seen in my entire life, but no flowers. That depressed my little girl to the
point of tears. You can imagine how this made
me
feel. I didn’t like
Sway crying let alone our adorable little spaz children.

I didn’t deal well with the crying so in turn, I was now
making a s’more at eight in the morning for her to keep the tears at bay.

On the way back, I did indeed promise a s’more when Arie
looked up at me and grinned. “Daddy, why your hair pink?”

I shook my head remembering Sway’s smile. “Oh, because
daddy has assholes for friends,”

“Assholes?”

“Never mind.”

Sway came walking up to the fire. “Sucker,”

“You’re one to talk.” Slowly, I turned the marshmallow to
keep from burning. “You went to get coals yesterday and bought half the goddamn
store.”

“Whatever.” She sat down beside me with Casten in her
lap. “Nice hair.”

“Yeah, I think the color goes nice with my skin.” I
gestured to all the bug bites.

“That it does sweet cheeks.” She kicked my ass and almost
landed me in the fire head first.

“Nice.” I said brushing ashes from my shirt.

Arie came bouncing over to me with chocolate all over her
face. “Where’s my massmello?”

“Marshmallow?”

“Yeah.”

“Here you go princess.” I handed over the marshmallow and
smiled at Sway.

It never failed. We gave into the adorable spaz children,
no matter what. But when your kids become part of your pit board, you’ll do
anything to keep them happy and running just as smoothly as you are.

Sway and I also knew this would backfire someday. Some
may even call them spoiled. Spoiled
maybe
, but not with possessions,
with love. That may sound a bit cheesy I know, but it was the truth. I strongly
believed we couldn’t worry about the future right now. We had to live for each
pit stop and discover who they really were within the race. Even if that meant
bribing them at times and making s’mores at eight in the morning.

16.
           
   Crush Panels – Jameson

Crush Panels – Metal panels that are inserted around the
bottom of the driver’s compartment and wheel wells to keep fumes and intense
heat away from the driver.

It was early, too early for my liking to be leaving for
the airport, but I was. It took me a good hour to actually get out of bed this
morning because Sway not helping my attempts by giving me pouty lips and
showing me her boobs, which is why I was running late to pick up Justin in
Martinsville. Wes, on my time clock, was late as well when we landed to pick
him up.

Justin and I were racing in the World of Outlaws race at
Skagit Speedway on Friday night and then I would fly back to Richmond in the
morning for the cup race. Tyler and my other driver, Cody Bowman, were already
there in Washington.

“Jameson, I need to drop you off here.” Wes told me when
we landed in Martinsville Indiana where I met Justin. “I need to get to
Jacksonville to get Jimi. He needs to be in Alger tonight as well.”

I’m sure my expression was something similar to “What the
fuck!” I didn’t say this.

Instead, I said, “You mean I have to fly with other
people?”

“Yes, your no fly order was lifted.” Wes chuckled. “I
think you can handle it.”

“So Jimi is more important?” I scoffed annoyed. I was
already late because of Sway and her magic boobies.

“He pays the fuel for this thing. So yeah, I think he’s
more important kid.”

“That’s bullshit Wes.” I slammed my bag down and pointed
at him. “If I get arrested, I’m blaming this entirely on you!”

My threat just washed right off him, as I’m sure he
laughed all the way to Jacksonville.

An hour later that morning, I missed the flight Alley
booked for Justin and me.

“What took you so long this morning—we could have been
there by now?” Justin asked as we walked through the airport.

I smiled and went to say something when he shook his head
and held his hand up. “Never mind—I don’t want to know.”

We finally found the ticket booth, got new tickets for
the next flight only to discover it’s departing right now. In our mad rush back
to the gate, Justin dropped his ticket so we had to back track. Once we found
the ticket, we made it to the gate to see the door closing on us.

“Fix this asshole.” Justin said virtuously.

Once again, I hardly thought this was
entirely
my
fault. “You lost your goddamn ticket.”

He pushed me toward the ticket booth in front of the
closed door. “And
you
were late this morning.”

Looking from an angry Justin to the woman at the counter,
I knew my option.

It was time to unleash some charm. Taking in a deep
breath, I stepped forward.

“Excuse me miss
...
”
She immediately turned to face me, her cheeks flushed. She was young, nineteen
or twenty maybe.

That’s right, you still have it.

“I’m Jameson Riley and my friend
...
” I motioned behind me to Justin—he flashed a charming smile
of his own. “Well, we
really
need on that plane.”

“Oh sir
...
I’m sorry
I can’t. They are securing the cabin,” she said hesitantly.

Her eyes glanced fugitively around the airport, avoiding
mine.

C’mon, just look at me.
I knew if she looked at
me, it was over. I know that sounds cocky, but I was well aware of the affect I
had on women these days and knew the ways to get them going.

I smiled my most seductive smile and leaned against the
counter. My forearm gently brushed against her fingers that were clinging to a
clipboard. At the contact, she inhaled sharply.

“The problem with that is,” my eyes that were focused on
the counter met hers. “I need to be in Alger later this afternoon for a race.”

She looked confused for a moment and then comprehension
flashed across her face when her eyes
finally
met mine. “Are you Jameson
Riley the NASCAR driver?”

I winked for good measure. “That would be me.”

She then laughed and started rambling on about racing and
getting the doors to the plane open. Justin and I both gave her autographs and
took a couple pictures with her before they finally allowed us to board the
plane.

Yet another reason I preferred to fly with Wes. I didn’t
have to flirt with him.

“You’re lucky your charm worked.”

“It always does.”

Maintaining eye contact, Justin shook his head and stared
at me as I took a drink of his coffee and maintained eye contact.

“Sway was right,” he said sourly. “your head
can
get bigger.”

We made it to Skagit without any more problems. That was
until we got inside the cars.

It was hard to believe that three years ago my little
girl was brought into the world at this very track. Those thoughts made me
think of my family who were at home this weekend.

With the cup schedule, I could only make one night of the
racing and then it was on to Richmond Saturday morning for the race and then
back to Mooresville to celebrate Arie’s third birthday on Tuesday with our
family.

It was one destructive night of racing and by the time
the main events rolled around, I was wondering why in the hell I even came up
here. All I could think about was how much money this was going to cost me this
week to get these three cars ready for Cottage Grove Monday night.

I never went very long without racing on dirt. If I did,
I went through withdrawals, which was exactly why I was out here for one day.

So there we were, sometime after the hot laps looking
over our cars lined up beside each other in the pits.

Justin leaned back on his rear tire, pushing his fingers
against the rubber. With the lower psi, the rubber flexed under his touch,
“It’s crazy out there tonight.”

And it was. The track was slick with only one groove
making it hard to pass anyone. Tyler’s car was flying but Justin and me; far
from flying.

We were hanging on to dear life hoping like hell we
didn’t wad it up in each turn. I loved racing Skagit, a relatively flat track
made for the good slide jobs in the corners but with only one groove working
tonight, it was pretty much impossible unless you hung it out there and prayed
to fucking god you didn’t end up in the wall. With a wife and three kids now,
that wasn’t an option for me any longer.

As it turned out, none of us had a good night, including
Tyler who broke the track record during qualifying.

“How’d ya do?” I asked Justin pulling down my suit to my
waist.

Justin frowned. “Broke a lower control arm,”

“Hell, my right front tire could be in Seattle by now.” I
flipped the car six times on the backstretch when I got tangled with a local
guy halfway through the A-feature.

“I broke a torsion bar too,” he kicked it. “Actually make
that two
...
” Justin got on his hands and
knees and scrapped a few large chunks of mud from the front right wheel. “And
an axle,”

I laughed.

“My rear end is in turn four
...
well, kind of. Most of it is in turn four, my shock mount is
in turn one. My rear axle is
...
” I
glanced over my shoulder toward the track. “in turn two.”