The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (48 page)

Once Jameson arrived home and the rest of the family
showed up to celebrate Lexi’s birthday, the night thankfully passed in a blur.

The next day, we were on our way to Daytona for the race
with Logan in toe.

Taking Logan to a track like Daytona was a bad idea. Not only
was he sixteen and into girls, but Daytona was notorious for their pit lizards.
This was very exciting for Logan. In turn, he wanted to spend all his time
around Jameson, as that was where the pit lizards were.

The infield in Daytona was out of control at times. Once,
and only once, I took the kids through there on my way out. What took two
minutes to get through took two hours of explaining when girls flashed their
funbags at my innocent little boys.

Jameson qualified for the pole but then blew up the
engine in practice so he was not the nicest person to be around. Every time I
turned around he was yelling at someone and we got to the point that weekend
that if we saw him coming, everyone fled.

While Jameson was getting a feel for the back-up car in
happy hour I went to check on the kids at the playground where Emma was
watching them.

“Don’t be mad.” Emma said when I saw Casten holding a
bloody towel to his mouth and nose.

“What happened to him?” Glancing down at my little boy I
knew. He looked distraught.

You wouldn’t believe the shit my kids could get into at a
race track. Daytona was by far the worst so I knew something was coming.

“Hi mama
...
” He
mumbled holding the towel against his face, his tiny shoulder slumped forward.

Kneeling down, I brushed his mess of hair out of his eyes
to get a better view. Having a mischievous nine-year old already, I knew
exactly what happened when I saw the purple blob lodged in his nose.

Play-Doh.

“What made you do that?”

“I’m sorry.” He offered looking at his hands.

“Don’t be sorry monkey
...
just
uh
...
don’t push it up there any
further.”

He seemed to think this was a good idea. After all, he
had it so far up there it was now bleeding. I actually wasn’t sure it could go
any further without lodging in his brain but I could be wrong.

Emma collected the rest of the kids and followed me to
the infield care center.  

 While they cleaned up his nose and attempted to get
the blob out, I ran back to the motor coach to get his monkey, which he said he
needed to make it through the rest of the day. He may be my brave happy little
5-year old but he still needed his stuffed monkey just like Axel still needed
his Mr. Piggy at times.

“Where’s Casten?” Jameson asked once back at his motor
coach. I kept one eye on Logan and one eye on Jameson clutching the stuffed
monkey to my side.

“He’s detained,” was my answer.

Jameson quirked his head to the side before climbing back
inside the golf cart when Alley gestured toward the media center.

Both Noah and Charlie quickly darted the other direction
quickly and hid behind Aiden.

“He stuck Play-Doh in his nose.” Logan told him swinging
his arm around my shoulder. “He’s in the infield care center with Emma.”

“Why would he do that?”

Noah and Charlie chuckled and I pushed Logan away. He
thankfully tripped over his own feet.

“You couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?”

“What?” Logan asked. “It’s not that
big
of a
deal.”

“It is a big deal. He doesn’t want everyone knowing his
shit head cousins coaxed him into sticking Play-Doh up his nose.”

Logan shrugged indifferently. “It happens to the best of
us.”

Just as Jameson got back out of the golf cart knowing he
had some father duties to tend to, Emma sent me a text message just then
stating Casten broke down and was now crying.

Turning toward Jameson, I yanked him by his racing suit
with me. “Come talk to him, he’s crying.” 

Jameson groaned but followed. “Why is he crying?”

“Probably because he tried to stick Play-Doh into his
brain.”

In every infield on the circuit was an infield care center.
Drivers and their families were treated there for sprained ankles, cuts;
scrapes, sore throats, and the flu
...
pretty
much everything.

This wasn’t the first time one of my kids visited the infield
care emergency room. Axel had frequent visits at Bristol, Charlotte and
Daytona. Arie had stumbled over a tire in the garage area at Fontana and
received her first set of stitches when she was two. And now Casten who he had
an issue with sticking things in his nose. Let’s just hope that issue didn’t
expand to chemicals when he got older.

Later that night after getting Casten ice cream to make
him feel better, he spent the rest of the night curled up in Jameson’s lap
playing X-box with Logan. Usually he was a mama’s boy but at the first sign of
illness or injury, he wanted his daddy, much like all my children.

After the episode of “Play-Doh up the nose” Casten
received a rather nasty infection.

He needed a hefty dose of antibiotics so I took him with
me to fill the prescription when we went back to Elma for the Outlaw tour. It
felt good to be back home for a few weeks and hanging out with Andrea and Macy
was my favorite part. A not so favorite part was running into Chelsea for the
first time since before the accident.

Having Casten with me was not something I wanted at this
moment. I never wanted her to see the kids. We tried to keep them out of the
public eye as much as possible but times like this I never thought I needed to.
Everywhere in Elma I went, people never bothered us. The same went for
Mooresville; two places where we truly felt at home. I should have known that
I’d run into her in Elma though.

“Sway
...
is that
you?” I knew her voice, how could I not? It haunted me for years in high school.
Casten gripped my hand tighter when he felt me tense, looking up at me.

Turning back to look at her, I had to bite back a laugh
that she had gained about fifty pounds.

“Chelsea?” My arms instinctively picked up my youngest
spaz holding him close to me.

“Wow, it’s good to see you.” She said, her blue eyes
appearing honest for once.

Casten looked from me to her. “Who is that?”

“This is Chelsea Adams.” I told him.

She held her hand out to him. “You look just like your
daddy sweetheart.”

“Well I should, he’s my dad,” was Casten’s response.

“Oh I can tell with that remark.” She laughed. “You must
be the youngest one
...
Casten, right?”

We both nodded as I gave her a confused look. “The
internet
...
it’s not hard to find out.”

 “Back to stalking these days?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “No, I’m not. Listen Sway,
I’m sorry for what happened.”

“Sorry doesn’t really take it back Chelsea.” I whispered.
Our kids didn’t know the troubles we’d had prior to them. I didn’t want them
to, knowing eventually there would be no way around them not knowing.

Chelsea sighed knowing this wasn’t the time for this sort
of thing when my eyes glanced toward Casten who was curiously watching our
interaction. “I wanted his heart back then Sway, but it wasn’t his to give. It
never was.”

I could have told her she was wrong but she wasn’t. We
didn’t know it then but our hearts were taken that night beside that black
sprint car when we were eleven. Neither one of us ever had a chance alone.

Back-out – Jameson

“How does it feel on the straight stretches?”

I shrugged flipping open my visor as Kyle leaned inside
the car. “Good but not great. It still feels like it’s bottoming out on me.”

“We could try an air pressure and a spring wedge to see
if that helps.”

“It couldn’t hurt.”

“All right,” he nodded. “do you need water or Gatorade?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Kyle put my window net up again and then
moved back so the crew could make some adjustments. We were currently testing
at Texas, in probably the hottest temperatures of the year. In the two-hour
test session we did I drank six bottles of water and had no urge to use the
bathroom—I’d say I was a little dehydrated.

I ended up making another hundred laps or so before
parking beside the hauler in the infield where Kyle, Bobby and Mason were
waiting.

Tossing my gear inside the hauler, I turned toward them.
“You guys wanna get some food?”

They all agreed so we headed off to Lonestar for dinner
before I flew home to see Sway and the kids.

Everyone was sound asleep by the time I got back to Mooresville.
Quietly I crawled in bed, hoping not to wake Sway who was curled up to my
pillow.

My eyes were just about closed when I felt a tiny hand
against my shoulder. “Daddy?”

I could hear a soft melodic whisper that pulled me out of
the almost sleep. My baby girl’s breath blew across my face as she nudged my
shoulder again. “Daddy?”

“What’s the matter princess?” I whispered back blinking
into the darkness.

Arie sighed. “I had a bad dream. Can I sleep with you?”

Opening my eyes just enough to make out her tiny frame; I
lifted her in between Sway and me. She curled up next to me, her head resting
on my pillow. Arie was a snuggler with me, not so much with Sway but she loved
a good cuddle in the arms of her daddy.

Every time she slept with us she had to be touching me
and usually with several body parts.

“I hate bad dreams.” She said with another sigh.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” I asked throwing an
arm around her and rubbing her back.

“You wrecked and didn’t come home to us.” She wiggled and
snuggled closer. “It made me sad.”

“Do worry baby, nothing is going to happen to me.” I
whispered kissing her forehead.

Within a few minutes she was sleeping in my arms. This
was always a fear of theirs. At least Arie’s. I never heard Axel or Casten talk
about it but Arie worried me as I worried about her. But this was different.
Even though I promised her, I couldn’t. I never knew what would happen from
week to week on the track. All I could hope for was the chance to let my family
know I loved them.

I’ve mentioned this before but other women were
relentless at times. And it wasn’t even the pit lizards. It could be anyone.
Any time they found out who I was it was if they thought if I gave into them,
they won something. It wasn’t happening though. I was happy with Sway.

We were comfortable with each other. Just like my
favorite dirt track, on any given night I knew how to get fast time, I knew
where the ruts were and I knew just how much speed I could carry through the
corners. I knew how to throttle through the turns to glide over the ruts
...
Just like any bullring track, I knew her as
she knew me.

I also knew even good marriages failed at times. But it
started with one simple miracle, two people fell in love. That’s what I valued.
Sway and I fought at times over everything from time with each other to me
leaving my underwear lying around the house. I’m not saying it was perfect, but
it was pretty fucking good. All that being said, that’s why these women
throwing themselves at me were
never
an option or even so much as a
thought.

One particular woman, Kristy, worked for me as a scorer
for our team and on any given weekend was rather flirty. Spencer warned me
countless times that there was something more to her as though she took the job
to get closer to me. For a while I thought he was right until she began dating
Colin. I realized how right Spencer was when Kristy and I had to spend a few
afternoons together when she stepped in for Alley as my publicist for an event.
Kristy really wasn’t any different from any other girl.

Once night while we were in Chicago for the race, she
knocked on the door to my motor coach fairly late as I was just getting ready
for bed. Sway and the kids were in Eldora at the Little Dirt Nationals for Axel
and Casten. I was flying out tomorrow to catch a few heat races but this left
me alone.

Thinking it was Spencer again I answered the door in just
jeans, without a shirt.

“Oh
...
hey Kristy,”
I reached for my shirt on the back of the chair near the door. “What’s up?”

She was crying. That much was evident by her reddened
eyes. I invited her in, she told me that she and Colin had gotten in a fight
and she was feeling upset about it and thought she wasn’t good enough for him
being a NASCAR driver. After a while when I told her I needed to get some
sleep, she hugged me and confessed her real motive.

“I came in here hoping that you and I could
...
you know.”

Well shit, Spencer was right.

“Kristy,” I let out a deep sigh. I knew where this was
going with that look on her face. I’d seen it on countless women. “You’re
beautiful. I’m married, not blind, so when I tell you that you are, please
believe me. But I love my wife more than anything in the world so
this
,”
I motioned between us. “is not an option.
Ever
.”

“I know.” She mumbled tears streaming down her redden
cheeks. Her expression brought me back to when Sway left me in Sonoma all those
years ago.

Kristy was pretty and resembled Sway in a lot of ways,
there was no denying that, but I also knew it really didn’t matter. No one would
ever fill the aching void I felt when Sway wasn’t with me.

“You know,” I began handing Kristy a tissue. “My wife,
Sway and I went through something like this.”

“
I know
,” she nodded. “I read that somewhere.”

“What I meant was that even though you think you can’t
have Colin, you can. He loves you.”

“You don’t know that.”