The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (58 page)

“Who’s that?” Justin asked nodding the direction of the
girl.

“I don’t know. Fan maybe
...
”
my voice trailed off when the girl leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
Axel flinched away from her indicating the kiss wasn’t wanted.

“Looks like he’s got the Riley charm with the girls,”
Justin snorted walking away.

There was one bad thing about your son dating your best
friend’s daughter, what if he broke her heart?

Knowing Axel, he had no intention of ever hurting Lily
but then again I never had any intention of hurting Sway. I’d like to think
that Justin understood that, after all we’d become pretty close over the last
sixteen years.

I watched for a little while as fans and the media
continued to crowd around Axel. He had just turned sixteen in December which
meant he was the youngest driver here and that was news.

A group of girls around seventeen, maybe eighteen
shuffled past me smiling. I knew what they wanted when they pushed their
programs in my face.

“Is that your son?” the shorter black haired girl asked
with a small smile.

Without looking up, I nodded. “Yeah,”

“Wow, you look too young to have a son.”

My eyes met hers for a moment before handing the program
back to her with my autograph spread across the cover. “I’m damn near forty.
I’m old enough.”

The blond one giggled. “You still married?”

Jesus she’s bold.

I laughed. “Yes.”

“What about your son?”

“He’s dating someone.”

This wasn’t the first time someone asked about Axel’s
dating status. I actually got that a lot around the time he turned fourteen and
won the Hut Hundred. There was no way around it now, my little spaz son was
famous and sought after by women. Women Sway and I wanted to keep away from
him.

Before Axel could get completely swamped by fans, I
pulled him aside to get some food,
alone
.

We ended up at El Guapo’s Mexican restaurant in downtown
Tulsa.

Axel was quiet until mid-way through dinner when his
phone kept vibrating.

He finally shut it off and sighed.

“Girl problems?” I hinted taking a drink of my beer.

“You could say that
...
”
he nodded pouring salsa and sour cream on his nachos. Another few minutes of
silence and he opened up to me. “Lily
...
well
I
think
she wants to date other guys, maybe closer to Hillsboro.”

Justin and his family still lived in Hillsboro Indiana.
It was easier for them with the majority of the outlaw races taking place in
the Midwest. This was not ideal for Axel and Lily but throughout the last
sixteen years, they’d remained best friends and eventually began dating. Most
of the time they went weeks without seeing each other but there were also a
great deal of the USAC races that took place in the Midwest enabling them to
reunite.

Time wasn’t about to get any easier for them and probably
never would with Axel’s desire to race. This coming season he was set to race
his first full season in all three of the USAC divisions. Time would definitely
not be on his side.

“And how does Lily feel about this?”

Axel glared. “She’s with some kid named Brian tonight.
She says he’s just a friend.”

“Just a friend?” My eyebrow raised in question.

“So she says.” I could tell Axel did not think Brian was
just a friend.

“Is that why you shut off your phone?”

“No
...
yes. I just
...
” he sighed pushing his half eaten plate of
nachos aside. “I just feel like I’m being pulled all over the place and she
doesn’t understand that.  I thought she understood but now, I just don’t
know.”

“I’m sure she does buddy. She’s grown up around it as
well.”

“I know.”

The waiter brought by another beer for me and refilled
Axel’s Pepsi. “Did you talk to Casten?”

“No.” his eyes met mine. “I never meant to hurt him but
Jesus
...
he’s got to stop sometimes.”

“He’s twelve Axel and he will always be your little
brother. He doesn’t always know when to stop. Look at my siblings
...
they still piss me off daily.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Axel
...
you need
to think before you react with him and Arie. They’re your family.
And
on
the track, well the sooner you realize how mental this sport is compared to how
physical it is, the better off you’ll be.”

Axel chuckled. “Grandpa tell you that?”

“Yeah, some of his timeless wisdom,”

When we headed back to the hotel, Lily sent him another
text messages telling him she loved him and wished him good luck for tomorrow.
“See I don’t get it,” he showed me the message. “She tells me she’s hanging out
with other guys and then she tells me she loves me
...
what the hell?”

“Just give her space. Being sixteen is hard enough. Then
you add on having a boyfriend who is a professional race car driver at sixteen
and that’s a lot to handle. Think about how she feels with girls all over you?”

“She hates that.” He groaned. “Mom does too, huh?”

“I’m sure Lily does but your mom is different. Before
being my wife, she’s my best friend and understands what I go through every
day. She’s seen it from the beginning.”

Axel nodded again buckling himself into the front seat of
the truck we drove here. He looked like he was going to respond to the message
Lily sent him but he stopped and slipped the phone inside his coat pocket.

“Do you know that girl that kissed you on the cheek?”

He didn’t look over at me, just stared out the window as
I pulled out of the parking lot. “Yeah, that’s Shaylee. Her dad is a sponsor
rep for Wyle.”

“Do you know her well?”

“Not really,” he shrugged. “She’s at most of the races
but we don’t talk that often.”

“Be
...
careful.”

Again, he didn’t say anything and part of me wondered if
something had already happened between them.

I made a mental note to talk to Sway about this. She’d
know what to say.

The rest of the week through all the heat races, Axel
kept advancing. They had two hundred and sixty three drivers here this year
with 10 main events planned for Saturday. The fastest four qualifying cars were
in the A-main with the top two cars from each main advancing to the next main.

Since Axel broke the control arm in practice Monday, we
had some trouble getting the set-up to the point where he felt comfortable so
he ended up starting in the D-Main event.

What improved his mood the most was when Lily showed up
on Friday night.

Looking back on the way I acted at events like this when
I was his age, Sway was always what I needed. It wasn’t any different for Axel.

Casten made an appearance shortly after Lily arrived. He
smiled but surprisingly didn’t say anything.

Tommy and Greg were changing the gears on Axel’s midget
before the last heat race when Axel pulled Casten inside the hauler with him
leaving me and Aiden standing in his pit wondering if we should follow them
after what happened Monday.

Even though you fight with your siblings, there was never
a time when I didn’t love them. Yeah, I’ve hated them on occasion but I never
wanted to hurt them. As I said before, Axel never wanted to hurt Casten.

After about three minutes, they came walking out and went
different directions.

“What was that about?” I asked Casten making sure he was
all right. Since he and Axel had gotten into it on Monday, he hadn’t been the
high-spirited little boy he usually was.

Casten shrugged retrieving a Gatorade from the cooler
beside the hauler and sitting down in a pit chair. “He told me he’s sorry.”

“And you said?”

“He better be.”

“Casten
...
if I
remember Monday morning at all—I remember you actually started that.”

“So
...
” he gave me
a blank stare.

I kicked his leg at me. “You should apologize too.”

“Geez dad,” he groaned throwing his head back annoyed.
“What do you take me for, some kind of idiot? I said sorry.”

“Good,” I picked him up out of his chair and threw him
over my shoulder. “Now
...
let’s go cheer
on your brother.”

He laughed.

“Put me down,” he wiggled laughing again when I squeezed
him harder. “You look ridiculous, put me down.  I’m not a toy.”

My right hand scooped him into a headlock before setting
him safely on the ground. He smiled but rolled his eyes straightening his hat.
“Have some dignity.”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“No, but neither do you apparently.”

Everyone filed into the stands when the cars lined up.
Aiden, Spencer and Van made their way to us with Lane, Cole, Logan and Noah
close by. Who knew where Charlie had disappeared. Between the two of Aiden’s
boys, Charlie was the worst. I had a feeling his was probably with my dad
somewhere. Whenever Charlie was a handful for Aiden, dad stepped in and laid
down the law with them. Most of the grandkids were petrified of Jimi, for good
reason.

Dad set fast time and was locked into the main with
Justin, Ryder, Cody and Tyler. By the time the B-Main rolled around, there were
four positions open. Axel wanted one of those positions.

The stands were packed with fifteen thousand fans all
eagerly awaiting to see what this sixteen-year old kid from Mooresville had to
offer the greatest midget racers in the world.

The race got off to a rough start when Shane Jennings
flipped on the second lap bringing out the red flag for ten minutes while they
cleaned up the mess. That’s when the real fun began.

On the front row, Axel was lined up against an Australian
driver, Dylan Cottle.

Cottle had won events like the Hut Hundred, Turkey Night
and the Cooper Classic last year. He was tough competition but I knew Axel had
the talent and patience to outrun him.

Off the track Axel was like me, impatient as hell. On the
track, he showed fortitude in situations like this.

“He’s gonna choke.” Some kid behind us said. Spencer and
Casten turned around to look back at the kid, glaring. “What?” the kid asked.
“He is.”

Casten took Spencer’s fries loaded with ketchup and
tossed them back at the kid, ketchup spraying him in the face. “Looks like
you’re
choking now.”

That’s my boy.

Turns out, Axel didn’t choke as he stayed right with
Dylan all twenty laps and locked in a spot in the A-Main tomorrow night.

I called Sway to let her know and she told me Arie got a
tattoo. I was not impressed by this at all. My little angel was fourteen, she
didn’t need a tattoo. Apparently, it was small and on the inside of her ankle
but still, this was not
good
news to me. It just meant she was growing
up and that depressed me.

Back at the hotel that night, it took a good hour to get
my hormone driven sixteen-year old son away from his girlfriend. They must have
spent a good twenty minutes in the parking lot making out.

This time Justin was not impressed.

“This is not good.” Justin sighed closing the curtains so
he couldn’t see them any longer. His hotel room was right next door so we
decided to open up the mini-bar. “Your son better not break her heart.”

“I have no control over that.”

His eyebrow arched as he chucked an airplane bottle of
rum. “Regardless
...
put yourself in my
shoes
...
think of that as Arie out
there.”

I leaned out the door of the hotel room. “Axel, get your
ass in here!”

Justin started laughing tensely throwing back another
bottle. “My point exactly,”

“You beat me
...
I
didn’t make it out here until I was nineteen.”

“How’d you do?” Axel asked as we walked into the Tulsa
Expo Center around seven on Saturday morning.

I pointed to the plaque on the wall. “You tell me.” My
name appeared on the wall seven times, the first being in 1999 when I won the
event, my first time there.

Axel was calm and withdrawn that morning. Much like me,
he retreated when he needed to focus spending much of his morning inside the
hauler away from everyone. Lily made her way in there for a few minutes but
eventually she too knew he needed to be by himself.

About an hour before driver introductions, my dad and I
made our way inside the hauler to check on Axel. He was sitting at the table, his
head resting on his arms hiding his face.

“You ever coming out of here boy?” Dad asked him pushing
him over so he could sit next to him. “I need some healthy competition out
there.”

“I’m hardly competition for you grandpa.” Axel answered
his face still out of sight from us.

Dad nodded toward him and then the door before rubbing
Axel’s back once. “See you on the track kid.”

Axel didn’t respond, just kept his head down. We sat
there in silence before he finally looked up at me, “I’m
...
scared.” his voice was soft.

Instantly I saw the little boy I saw before his first
Dirt Nationals, looking to me for advice and more than anything, reassurance. I
knew then everything my dad tried to warm me about when I was Axel’s age.
Talent can only take you so far, he was right. Confidence, determination, and a
clear level head are what win races and championships. To do that, you can’t be
second-guessing yourself. Something I never did of course but Axel, he worried
a lot about what others thought and turned to them for comfort.

“There’s not much I can tell you that will comfort you
buddy. I know you can do it.”

His eyes met mine, his expression wary. “With Grandpa out
there?”

“Every race I’ve ever won, I’ve looked at my competition.
To be the best racer you can be you want to beat the best. Personally, if I won
a race where grandpa or Justin and Tyler were in it
...
I would feel like I
really
won.”