Happy Hour (Racing on the Edge) (33 page)

Earlier this season, Torres was placed on three-week probation for retaliating against Riley in the Winston Cup race at Dover. In that race, the retaliation resulted in Riley being hit by Torres after the checkered flag had been thrown on pit road.

Then we all know what happened in the Winston with the backyard brawl on the finish line where these two spared like Ali and Holyfield.

“These two drivers have a history with each other dating back to their USAC days,” Reynolds told us. “We had talked to both drivers after the Dover incident. And even though Darrin was put on probation, we had conversations with Riley about their relationship and explained to them that there will be a boundary.

“You fast forward to Pocono and you look at what we feel like was Darrin misjudging his corner and pit road space and then you look at the retaliation by Jameson coming out of turn two, we felt this had escalated beyond what we should tolerate on the race track. The penalty is to put these guys on notice. They have affected many of the other teams in the garage area and we felt they stepped over the line with their aggressive driving. It was time to penalize.”

Reynolds said the penalties are designed to keep the two drivers from retaliating in the future and affecting the other drivers, should there be any.

“We wanted to do the right thing for the competitors and the right thing for the garage area as far as maintaining law and order,” Reynolds said. “It takes two people to pull this stuff off.”

By losing 60 points, Riley is now 228 behind Torres with 23 races left in the championship.

The Riley Simplex Racing No. 9 team was also docked 60 points in the owner standings. Riley Simplex Racing has not decided whether to appeal and declined to comment on the penalties at this time but did have this to say.

“As with all NASCAR actions of this nature, we will internally evaluate the penalties, and the underlying explanations, prior to making any decision about next steps,” Riley Simplex Racing President Randy Riley, said in a statement. “We look forward to watching Jameson and Darrin as they continue to compete on a weekly basis for the championship in the Winston Cup Series.”

When asked if Jameson would be commenting on the penalties, Riley Simplex Racing declined to comment.

Maggie Summers, a reporter with ESPN, caught up with Jameson last night in downtown Pocono, the aggressive driving penalty was the least of his worries.

When asked about his thoughts on the race, his response was, “What race?” as he took another shot of Tequila.

Gibson Racing will not appeal Torres’s penalty, according to a statement released by the team earlier this morning.

“The incident at the end of Sunday’s race at Pocono was unfortunate not just for Gibson Racing and the No. 14 Wyle Products Chevy team, but for all of the teams that were caught up in the aftermath,” Torres said in the statement early Monday morning. “There was unnecessary damage done to a lot of race cars as a result of the incident, including one of our best cars. We support NASCAR’s decision and we look forward to putting this behind us.”

This was just disgusting. This was
...
I had no words.

How could they make it out to
just
be his fault?

“Can you believe the nerve of them?” Emma asked.

“What did he think was going to happen?” Alley reproached. “I mean
...
he’s not a child. Well
...
that’s debatable, but he
knew
what would happen when he hit Darrin.”

She did have a point, but the way NASCAR painted the picture in this article, it made it seem that Jameson was doing all the retaliation and Darrin had no part of it.

“Was Darrin fined or just put on probation?” I asked wrapping a sheet from the floor around my waist so I could use the bathroom and maybe find underwear.

If I couldn’t, I was making a pair like the one Emma did with the scarf. They did that in the stone-aged, right?

“Nope,” Alley replied. “They’re not going to fine NASCAR’s golden boy.”

“Unbelievable.” I stepped over the kiddy pool to get to the bathroom while Emma looked in the bouncy house for her cell phone. “See if my underwear are in there.” I yelled over my shoulder.

Taking in a deep breath, I closed the bathroom door behind me, letting the sheet fall to the floor. I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this but I might as well get it over with.

It’d been a while since I examined my own ass. Not exactly expecting the size, it’d grown since the last time that’s for sure.

Carefully, balancing myself on the counter, I surveyed my new artwork.

My god.

There, on my left ass cheek, was a square box with the words, “Property of Riley” imprinted in it.

The goddamn thing even had red along the outside edges as if it was meant to look like an actual branding with an iron. It wasn’t tiny either; the tattoo almost covered the entire side of the cheek.

There goes my modeling career as an ass model.

I took a quick shower because god knows I needed it. I smelled as if I just came from a distillery in Guadalajara and my hair felt as though whatever was in the bouncy house; was in my hair.

When I finished, wrapping my sheet around myself again, I walked back into the war zone hoping to find some clothing and underwear.

Emma and Alley were staring at the dick on the wall once again. It was as if they had some kind of obsession with it.

“Did you guys find the boys?” I asked joining them in staring the wall.

It’s sick how fucking real that looks.

Imagine the poor cleaning lady that has to clean this disaster. I bet she gets a good laugh out of it though.

“Yeah, they are getting some coffee up the street.” Alley replied. “They’re on their way back now,
with
Jameson.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I asked hesitantly. “How bad of a mood is he in?”

“What do you think?” her tone mocking. “When is it ever a good thing with him?”

Today was going to suck.

Alley left after a few minutes to fly back to Mooresville with Jimi to get Lane, which would leave Spencer traveling back with us.

Though this was a major concern for me, I was more concerned with Jameson’s mood as it could either make or break the entire day and maybe even the rest of my time on this vacation from reality.

Still staring at the dick, I had a feeling Spencer was behind it.

It was something he would do, although I wouldn’t put it past Jameson or even Aiden.

Aiden may seem like this polite reserved southern boy from Pickard Alabama but he was far from that when you got a few beers in him, which was why he mixed well with all of us.

Thankfully, before the boys arrived, I found my jeans from last night but I was still wearing Jameson’s t-shirt. I had no idea where mine was or the underwear.

“Do you need these?” Emma asked holding up Jameson’s underwear I wore last night.

“Where were those?” I stepped over a beer tower that had been made.

“They were in the closet, along with
...
part of your shirt.” She shook her head. “I don’t even want to know what happened in this closet last night.”

“What do you mean part of my shirt?”

She held up half of the black tank top I’d been wearing last night.

“What the hell?” I shouted ripping it from her hand. “What is wrong with your brother? He has some kind of obsession with ripping my clothes off.”

“He’s got anger issues.” She shrugged.

“And he bites me.” The teeth marks from his latest bite visible on the inside of my thigh.

“He was a biter in kindergarten.” She told me. “He got sent home for school for it and spent a good part of first grade in timeouts too. I see he hasn’t grown out of it.”

“What went wrong between you three kids? I mean, Jimi and Nancy are completely normal. Then you have Spencer who is just
...
insane. Jameson is borderline psychotic, and then there is you
...
the little pixie sister that tattoos license plate frames on her neck.”

Emma shoved me inside the closet. “You’re not any better. You can’t even find your underwear.” She sounded like a damn child. I was waiting for her to stick her tongue out.

“Because
your
psychotic brother ripped them off like he was the hulk.” I pointed out and stuck my tongue out for good measure.

“We should go shopping.”

I was amazed out how quickly her mood changed. A moment ago she looked like she was going to kill me for saying her family was strange, and now she was cuddled beside me in a closet with her head on my shoulder.

“Yeah, we should go shopping. I need underwear.” I agreed. “Is he always like this?”

“Is who always like this?”

“Jameson, was he like this with all the other girls?”

“What other girls?”

“The ones he would sleep with. Did they have to go shopping all the time for clothing too?”

Emma looked over at me and raised her eyebrows. “Jameson
never
has other girls around.”

“Huh?”

“He doesn’t bring anyone else around.” She repeated. “Besides Chelsea in high school, you’re the only other girl any of us have ever
officially
met.”

“Really?” I played with my ripped shirt in my hands hoping I didn’t appear too transparent. “I thought
...
I mean he used to be such a slut.”

“Maybe the first year after you left for college but we never met any of them and then when he started racing in the Busch series, it slowly trickled off and we never saw him with anyone. If he was with anyone, he kept it discrete.”

I just nodded. He wasn’t lying when he said he stopped sleeping around. Not that I thought he would lie to me about it but it made me feel better coming from Emma who spent nearly every day with him.

“Don’t tell him this,” she whispered and I don’t know why she was whispering. We were only sitting inches from each other and there is no one else in the room. “I think he’s falling in love with you.”

“I wish.” I stated sarcastically.

“No, I think he is. You should have seen his face when he saw Darrin talking to you the other day. He looked
...
jealous, like boyfriend jealous. I don’t know, I’ve just always
thought
he felt more for you then friends. Now his actions are the same.”

“I’m not getting my hopes up.”

Before Emma could say any more, the boys came barreling through the door.

And if I thought we looked bad I was wrong
...
we looked like cover models compared to them.