The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (8 page)

It was easier when I was on bed rest because he was gone
for the majority of it, but now, he was home and constantly giving me these
looks. The ones that had me wanting more than just reciprocating motions.

Testing for the upcoming NASCAR season would be starting
up again after the new year so that would distract us but it was going to be
interesting.

Spencer and Aiden already placed bets on who’d crack
first. Assholes. I only say that because their bets were against me.

Maggie showed up shortly after Dana left and we did the
interview along with a shit load of pictures for their magazine spread. Jameson
and I both hated being in the spot light but it came with a championship for
him.

“Would it be possible to get some of you with the baby?”
Maggie asked once the interview was completed.

“No.” Jameson said in a hard, tight voice. “No pictures
will be taken of Axel.” I looked at him quickly and saw that his expression had
turned violent.

“Why?” I whispered.

He didn’t answer at first, just scowled. Maggie was on
her way out before he finally murmured, “I don’t want him exposed to all this
just yet. The time will come when he can’t escape it but for now
...
I want him to just be ours.”

I understood him completely. Axel was innocent, and he
was ours. The public hadn’t seen him yet and when they did, everyone would want
pictures of him.

On New Year’s Eve, we all gathered at Charlie and
Andrea’s house.

Jimi and Nancy were still in town so once again, just
like Christmas, all of us were together under one roof.

“Where’s Charlie?” I asked Andrea when I walked into the
kitchen. I’d just gave our sleeping little boy to Alley to hold while the boys
played some retarded drinking game I was sure would end in a fight once again.

Andrea gave me an apprehensive glance.

“Sleeping,” she said softly while chopping the lettuce
for the salad.

“Is he all right?”

I watched silently as she started to speak and then
stopped placing both hands on the counter.

“He called me Rachel last night when he woke up and now
he’s confusing the twins together
...
I
feel him slipping away Sway and I just can’t stop it. I’ve heard the doctors
and I’ve seen all the scans. I know we don’t have long but to think of it
happening now
...
scares the shit out of
me,” she leaned forward, her eyes darting around the room. “I can’t handle
those boys by myself.”

“Don’t look at me for advice.” I told her holding my
hands up. “I mistook my kid for a cat and tried to breastfeed him.”

Andrea laughed as Nancy walked into the kitchen.

Nancy reached over and rubbed my back as she walked past
me. “Van says to tell you that he’s on his way, he got stuck in traffic.”

I laughed reaching for the mushrooms to cut them.

It was as though Van had become my other child—even
though he was older than me. I was constantly worried about him. All this
worrying led to one thing. I insisted he move in with us in the guest apartment
above our garage.

With the help of Jameson, he did. Since his wife and
little girl had died, Van hadn’t been around much of anyone. When I first met
him, he was withdrawn but sweet. But ever since Axel was born, Van had become
more open and welcoming with us all. He had no one but his parents and in-laws
and now he had us.

The more time he spent around Jameson, Spencer and Aiden
though, the more he resembled a Riley.

All of that aside, when it came to our safety, Van was
all business, particularly when it came to Axel now. Anywhere we went these
days, Van was with us with his eyes fixated on me and the baby.

Charlie was up around seven and smoking pot in the back
yard when the Lucifer twins tried to go out there with him. Andrea had to
explain that he was taking his medicine and they should not be around him.

Lucas threw a complete fit that resembled that child out
of the movie
Problem Child
. The only difference being Lucas had brown
hair, not red.

“I just want to go out there with Charlie!” Lucas
screamed.

This went on for a good hour, the Lucifer twins throwing
fits over everything. Lane watched in amusement and when Axel finally woke up
from his catnap, he too gazed at them.

At least that’s what I thought. The kid couldn’t see more
than a foot in front of himself though so he was probably staring at Jameson
and me wondering what in the hell went wrong when he was assigned his parental
units.

Thoughts of finding him a therapist resurfaced. I’d need
to get on that sooner rather later.

Van finally showed up and joined the drinking game the
boys were playing. I couldn’t figure out exactly what they were playing but I
also never took the time to. I spent most of my time feeding Axel and handing
him around to everyone.

I wondered if they ever got motion sickness from all the
handling. I know if someone passed me around like that I’d be hurling all over
them. But I wouldn’t mind being all swaddled and warm like he was. I wouldn’t
mind being rocked to sleep either, that did look appealing to me.

After a few hours of all this madness, we decided to stay
here tonight with the roads being icy and Jameson was drunk to the point he was
now slurring his words.

“Three
...
two
...
one
...
Happy
New Year!” we all yelled together as we welcomed the New Year.

Jameson turned to me, smiling, and pulled me hard against
his chest. “Happy New Year
wife
,” His voice was low and gravelling and I
was shaking. It was hard to believe that just his voice could set my body on
fire, but it did, or was it the lack of sex that had something to do with it.

“Let’s go to bed
...
”
he suggested and began kissing down the side of my neck, pulling my sweater
away, nipping at my skin.

“We can go to bed
...
but
you need to keep your hands to yourself mister.” I poked his chest.

His hand came up to rub the spot I poked, still smirking.
“We can do
other
stuff
...
we’re
good at
other
stuff.”

He had a very good point there. If anything, the two of
us had
other
stuff down to a fine art.

“You mean like reciprocating motion?” I asked with a
giggle.

He growled pushing me against the wall in the hallway. “
Fuck
honey
...
don’t tease me.”

Once inside my old room, we were settled on the bed in a
very heated over the clothes make-out session with reciprocating motion and a
little with a little porting of the heads but to be fair, the clothes were
disappearing quickly. His hands were so sure, so strong, and so completely
inescapable as he moved against me.

“
Whaa
...
Whaa
...
Whaa
!”

Great timing kid!

Jameson sighed. His head fell forward against my
collarbone but his hips continued to move against mine wanting more but so did
Axel and let out another cry.

“Seriously?” he grunted, still moving.

“Get used to it daddy.” Pushing against his shoulders, I
flashed him a smile that resembled Bob Barker off that Price is Right show.
“We’re parents now.”

Jameson just laughed and laid back against the headboard,
adjusting himself.

I retrieved Axel from the bassinette and when I picked
him up, he made his signature puppy whimpering and snuggled closer to me.
Laying him on the bed, I prepped myself for breastfeeding.

“I can’t look at those,” Jameson looked away.  “I’ll
get distracted again.”

I giggled while Axel whimpered again and started rooting his
head around, searching for his foodbags. When I got him situated, he went right
to town.

“Wow, he was hungry.” Jameson’s eyes got wide as he
watched our son eat.

I laughed. “He’s always like this when I feed him. He
acts as though I’ll never feed him again.” My eyes met Jameson’s when his hand
was still on my ass, caressing it. “Kind of like
someone
else I know.”

“Point taken,” He grumbled and waited for me to finish
feeding our son.

Although once the feeding, burping, changing and rocking
was finished
...
the
other things
were dealt with. Many times.

As I said before, everything had changed.

In 365 days, 52 weeks, 8,765 hours, or 525,948 minutes my
life had change completely.

Then it starts all over on New Year’s Day and who knows
what this next year will bring.

4
.
             
Rebound – Jameson

Rebound – In shock
absorbers, a rebound adjustment is a change to the dampening of the shock on
the expansion stroke. Without rebound dampening, the car would want to bounce as
it passed over bumps on the track. Rebound adjustments can also affect how the
weight of the car shifts around during braking, acceleration and cornering.

“I know you don’t want to leave us but it’s your job.”
Sway told me as we stood in Axel’s bedroom discussing my schedule for the next
few weeks. “I understand.” Her hand came up, brushing my hair away from my
forehead. January had flown by with testing and racing was now starting again.

“I know
...
it’s
just hard now. I want you guys with me.”

This last month since Axel was born, I had spent every
minute I could with the two of them, enjoying the chance to finally be a
family—even if it was only for a month—I’d take it. I’d take any moment I was
given.

“We will be in Las Vegas with you,” she offered.

“It’s just not the same. Last year you were there at
Daytona.” I shrugged looking down at my feet. “I just
...
wanted you there, as my wife. It’s retarded I know—”

Her finger silenced me. “It’s not retarded, Jameson. I
know exactly what you mean.”

I almost forgot how well she actually knew me.

We both turned to look down at Axel when he whimpered.
Sway had him buckled in his car seat.

“What’s on him?” she asked examining his hair.

Kneeling down, I took a closer look. “I’m not sure
...
it looks like
...
you
have to be fucking kidding me
...
LOGAN!”
I yelled after him.

Lane turned to Sway with an arm full of Legos.

“I not do that.” He smiled. “Can I hold him?”

“Sure buddy, just let me get this peanut butter out of
his hair.” Sway replied while I ran after Logan.

I found him hiding in our pantry, snickering to himself
as he ate peanut butter with a spoon. I grabbed his scrawny arm and pulled him
out, sitting him on the counter so I could look him in the eye.

“Listen to me.” I growled. “Stop acting like an asshole.”

He held out his hand.

“I don’t think so. I only give money out to kids I don’t
want to corrupt. You start resembling a normal child and
maybe
I’ll
watch my mouth around you.”

“He wanted peanut butter.” Logan replied trying to defend
his actions.

“He can’t even talk. What would make you think he wanted
peanut butter?”

Logan shrugged carelessly. “He whimpered.”

“He always whimpers.”

“Sorry.” He finally said and reached for the peanut
butter.

I snatched it before he could take it again—trying to
restrain myself from laughing at his expression of scared shitless. “No, no,
you’re done with the peanut butter.”

This babysitting shit was hard work. How our family
thought we could handle a newborn baby, the Lucifer twins and Lane all at once,
was bullshit.

Lane was okay
...
the
twins were not. They were hardly classified as
normal
children.

It was the day before I had to leave to Daytona for
Speedweek and the last thing I wanted to be doing was babysitting these shits
today but Andrea had to take Charlie up to Seattle for a doctor’s appointment
and Alley and Spencer were at the doctor as well getting an ultrasound.

Logan had long since passed out next to me but Lucas was
another story. It was now close to nine o’clock and I thought for sure he’d be
asleep by now but no such luck.

I’m almost certain he had this plan that if he annoyed me
long enough I would have I eventually caved and given him chocolate so he would
have left the room. You’d think at some point logic should have set in and I
would have recognized a pattern but no, I chose to ignore it. Ignorance is
bliss at times.

“Is everything okay?” Sway asked carrying Axel into the
family room, amused I’m sure.

I shot Lucas a warning glare.

“Yes, everything is fine,” I told her, feeling as though
I had finally gotten the situation under control, and not wanting to miss any
more of the Deadliest Catch.

The minute she walked in the kitchen, Lucas started
whining again that the tape was hurting his arm. I hadn’t had much experience
with sugar-mania before, but was intuitive enough to know things were not going
well.

I was blissfully engrossed in my show while
simultaneously contemplating a career choice into the crab fisherman shit and
pretending Lucas wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary besides jumping on
the couch and looking for some sort of attention. I ignored him. He wasn’t
going to get attention from me. I was trying to watch a goddamn show and not
think about Speedweek fast approaching.

Then he jumped off the couch, untied himself, and tossed
the remotes directly at me. One hit me in the forehead, and the other hit the
wall behind me, knocking over a glass on the end table.