The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (43 page)

I couldn’t get enough coffee these days. It seemed, like
with everything else, our lifestyle was catching up with me and I turned to
coffee. I had this deal with myself that if I drank coffee, for every cup I
had, I had to drink a full glance of water. This just met I was drinking all
the time and when I wasn’t drinking something, I was peeing.

I was now down to two cups a day because I couldn’t spend
my life in the bathroom.

All my habits aside, we did need a break. It was the
middle of the season and the battle for the chase was in full swing. Jameson
was riding in the wild card spot and just as hungry for the spot as the other
four drivers in line.

With a string of three top twenty finishes, he had
dropped from his fifth place position in the points to eleven and was feeling
the pressure. In turn, we all felt the pressure building. Jameson was good
about controlling it but there were the times when he would lash out at his
crew or the guys back at the shop for simple mistakes. He couldn’t blame them
for everything as he himself was struggling on the track. It happens to every
driver out there and they all took it just as personally as Jameson did.

“So, about going out
...
”
Emma caught my stare at the wall. “I was thinking we could sneak out when the
guys are in Atlanta.”

“You know Richmond follows that. With the chase—”

“Sway,” Emma silenced me. “We. Need. A. Night!”

“
You
need a night. My kids are good.”

Emma looked over at Casten gathering all the sugar
packets on the table at Starbucks and then stuffing them in his pocket for
later. It explained his sudden bursts of energy late at night.

“You don’t have angels either.” Emma remarked gesturing
to Arie who’d been staring intently at a group of teenagers before she rolled
her eyes. It was slightly amusing every time I saw her roll her eyes. Come on,
at four years old, anyone wouldn’t be cute rolling their eyes?

“Emma, Jameson will never let me go out in Atlanta. It’s
out of the question.”

“Okay,” she turned to me. “Just don’t tell him. Say we’re
going out.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening. I don’t lie to Jameson about
things like that. He just worries that we will get into trouble and you know us
Emma, we get into trouble.”

“We do not.”

“Really? What about the time in Los Angeles when we went
shopping and those fans attacked us?”

“They didn’t attack us Sway.”

“What about the time in Richmond when we went to that
restaurant and had to sneak out the back because our kids trashed the place?”

“Our kids won’t be there.”

She had an answer for everything so I pulled quick time
and went for the pole.

“What about the time we went to Jacksonville and we ended
up—”

“All right. I get the fucking point.” She glared leaning
back in the seat to drink her ice tea.

Emma didn’t like to be reminded of our trip to
Jacksonville last winter when we got so shit faced that Jameson had to carry us
back to the hotel and Emma ended up naked on her balcony singing
Take me
Breath Away
to a hobo on the street. After that night, she wasn’t allowed
out with adult supervision and Alley wasn’t enough. You get Alley drinking
enough and all her commonsense turned into bullshit.

The sun coming in through the window next to her sparkled
her long black waves of hair. I reached out to touch her hair as I always did.
It was mesmerizing.

She slapped my hand away. “Stop that.”

“It’s just so pretty.”

“Yeah well, touch your husband’s hair, not mine.”

Casten, with a bright smile sensing some opportunity,
moved from the chair next to me after collecting enough sugar packets and
joined Arie at the table next to us. Arie, Casten and Noah sat quietly watching
the teenagers again all with her same curiosity.

“Sway, please. I
need
to go out and Andrea is
flying in, Ami said she’d come.”

“Wait a second,” I waved me hand around before grabbing
her face between my palms seeing through her wicked ways. “You’ve already
planned this fucking trip, haven’t you?”

Emma nodded.

“This is peer pressure you know.” I flipped the lid to my
mocha and handed it to the barista for a refill. She knew me well and
understood when I was here with Emma, refills were imperative. Fuck my water
theory.

“It is not.” Emma argued handing the girl her ice tea for
a refill. “Peer pressure is for high schoolers.”

Sam, the barista here at our local Starbucks laughed at
our argument and our kids destroying the small café.

“No, it’s not.” I told Emma. “Peer pressure is for
everyone.”

“Bullshit.” She sighed reaching for her lotion to lather
up. “Just got out with us,”

“One of these days your brother is going to kill you. You
know that, right?”

“Whatever. He’d miss me too much.”

“He wouldn’t just forget about you or anything. I think
naturally there’d be a grieving period.”

“God,” she huffed and stood to gather her brats. “You two
act as though there’s something wrong with me and my kid.”

I watched as her son, Charlie, smack the barista on the
ass as they left. Nothing wrong with them family my ass.

Mine weren’t any better when Arie sat down beside one of
those teenagers and started asking her questions about her piercings. I was
surprised the girl didn’t leak when she drank her coffee.

Against my better judgment and sanity, I convinced
Jameson to let me go out with the girls Friday night when we were in Atlanta.
With the race being on Saturday night and a few days before Arie’s fourth
birthday, we only had Friday night and hoped none of us got into trouble.

Jameson wasn’t pleased and voiced his concern many times
that this was the worst idea I’ve ever had. I wasn’t sure if the worst idea was
me going out with the girls or him keeping an eye on all three of our kids.
Even worse, Aiden and Spencer thought it’d be cool if they all got together and
watched the kids as a team. Somehow they thought with all of them together they
could manage eight kids under ten.

I tried to point out they were outnumbered but it was
almost like they took that as some sort of challenge and it became a mission to
make it through the night.

If only Emma shared the mission to make it through the
night.

It started soon after the Nationwide race on Friday night
when we left our husbands at the suite in downtown Atlanta. We had a chaperon
though, Van.

Emma, Alley, Nancy, Andrea and even Ami joined me on our
night out. I couldn’t tell you what bars we stopped at, just that there were so
many I couldn’t keep track. I was one drink away from shitfaced most of the
night and just kept it up.

Nancy and Andrea, who rarely went out and it was even
rarer that they drank, could barely walk by the third bar and I was sure were well
on their way to alcohol poising or something equally as drastic. But no, they
kept step and drank us drink for drink despite that.

Nancy found entertainment in Jameson’s favorite drink
these days,
Monster Energy
drinks mixed with vanilla vodka. I think
that’s what kept her going so strong.

We were all going strong around midnight when I got a
text from Jameson that said:
I
found Casten’s diaper and shirt in the bathroom and he’s missing. Does he have
any secret hiding places I should know about? When should I panic?

I replied with:
Well when I can’t find him at home I have Axel look for
him. For some reason he comes out of hiding when Axel barks like a dog and
pretends to run around on all fours. Just do anything that causes a commotion
and he’ll come running for the entertainment. He’s just bored so he hides. And
no, don’t panic unless he doesn’t come out.

I didn’t get a reply right away so I tucked my phone
inside my purse and went about the night.

“I think I’m done for the night.” I told Emma by the fourth
bar and swaying slightly as I held onto the table we were gathered at.

“No.” she said adamantly. “This isn’t a one drink night.
This is the type of night that we drink a fifth of whatever, show up at the bar
and see what happens. I’m expecting one of us gets arrested.”

“Emma,” Nancy scolded. “That would not be good.”

“Mom,” she began setting her lemon drop down on the table
and looking like she was about to give a presidential debate.

For some reason, Alley, who’d been pounding beers all
night, thought her expression was the funniest thing she’d ever seen and let
out a string of laughs followed by snorts and some tears. It wasn’t pretty.

“Listen to me,” Emma started in again when Alley gained
control. “For the three times I’ve been arrested in my life, I’ve enjoyed every
experience.”

I tried multiple times throughout the night to convince
Emma to call it a night all with no success.

About one was when Tommy showed up. Emma was pissed that
he showed up because this was apparently a girl’s night but I held some comfort
that Tommy was around. Usually I didn’t do stupid shit when he was around.
Tommy did.

I’d like to think I’ve matured since my days of getting
rip roaring drunk and tattooing myself but that night turned into stupidity
after Tommy arrived. It was a part of the night that I referred to as the
point-of-no-return.

Jameson had been sending me all kinds of weird text
message throughout the night asking how to do simple tasks with the kids I knew
he already knew but I also understood this was his way of silently making sure
I was okay.

Found
Casten. Spencer lit the toaster on fire and Casten came out of the pantry
eating graham crackers. By the way, does Arie usually take off her clothes and
run around naked? That’s not normal, right? Do our kids ever run around fully
clothed? By the way, she’s nearly four. We should get clothes on her.

And then after I replied assuring him that was normal he
sent another text an hour later that said:
Got Spencer and Aiden to bed but the kids
won’t stop! How do you get Arie to sleep without her binkie? She’s nearly four.
That thing has to go at some point! I’m sure they don’t allow them in
kindergarten.

It was something like three and the bars were closing so
I assured him I’d be back in a little while and help him out. Boy was I wrong.

That’s when Tommy fucked us all. Not literally but he did
cause a blown tire or two.

We’d lost people before. Actually, we’d lost someone
every time we went out but I had no idea it’d be Nancy. We were walking down
the street to the last open bar when we lost her.

Alley freaked out and was about ready to call the police
when Tommy piped up with a confession that shocked us all.

“I kind of told her
...
it’d
be cool if she got a tattoo.” Was his sheepish reply followed with a few slaps
to the back of his head from all five of us staring at him in horror.

We found her about forty-five minutes later with a tramp
stamp that read
Hit This
in bold calligraphy with a red lips at the end.

“I can honestly say I don’t have the tackiest tattoo in
the family now.” Emma said between giggles.

It was horrible and I was sure Jimi wouldn’t be please
and Tommy would need to join the witness protection program when Spencer and
Jameson found out what he convinced their mother to do.

After that, we made it to the last open bar and stayed
there until we got kicked out. Alley got a lap dance from a girl wearing barely
anything and thigh high red hooker boots. Andrea threw up on the bar tender
only to ask for another drink. Ami found that she was a champ at darts only she
wasn’t throwing them at a dark board and had to explain to the owner of the bar
why she broke all their windows.

Alley caught her hair in a fan and chunks had to be
sacrificed.

Van had to leave to take Andrea to the hospital when she
got in the way of Ami throwing darts. Turns out when they get lodged into your
ass it bleeds a lot when pulled out. She looked like she had hemorrhoids and
wasn’t pleased.

Tommy, completely intoxicated decided he was in charge
now and that just resulted in an even worse plan when he convinced Nancy to
steal a cop’s horse.

I couldn’t understand where Nancy’s sense of direction
went and why she was following Tommy and his shitty advice tonight.

Nancy made the cop pinky swear not to arrest her when she
failed the breathalyzer but as it turns out; walking around in public was
considered frowned upon too. That landed Tommy, Nancy, Emma and me in jail when
we went to her aide with the cop that couldn’t understand that she was a
fifty-year old woman who’d drank too much and branded her lower back.

She clearly wasn’t rational and he needed to consider
that before arresting us. But no, that cop was not friendly.

As we sat there in jail, I looked over the string of text
message from Jameson that I hadn’t noticed while controlling my mother in-law.
Each one cracked me up. Most were just messages but there was a few of Spencer
and Aiden wearing make-up, no doubt a product of Lexi and Arie. Those two put
make-up on everything, including Casten, which was the next picture. My little
baby, not so little, was all dolled up in a princess dress, wearing a crown,
and plastic earning. He looked pretty good as a girl as did Aiden.

“How do you still have your phone?” Tommy whispered in my
ear glaring at Alley who’d been giving him the stink eye since we landed
ourselves in this shit hole in Atlanta.

By the way, if you have never been arrested in downtown
Atlanta, keep in that way.

What a nightmare.

“I smuggled it in through my bra.”

“Oh, cool. I usually shove my down my pants.”

“That’s
...
disgusting
Tommy.”

He shrugged undeterred by my remark and made friends with
the guy next to us and then took to flirting with the woman next to Emma. I had
to remind him where we were and clearly picking someone up in jail wasn’t the
smartest decision he’d ever made. I could have been wrong though.