Happy Hour (Racing on the Edge) (74 page)

“Jameson?” I asked hesitantly. I didn’t want to push him or upset him, but I couldn’t stand not knowing for another minute if he was okay with that.

Would he still want me? Was he mad?

This was hardly planned and not exactly what he needed right now but it happened and we couldn’t take it back.

“Hmm?” He was fading.

“Are you
...
” my voice faded into a barely-there whisper, and he forced his eyes to mine once again, “Are you
...
okay with that?”

I stood in an agony of dread, anticipation, and fear. He stared at me intently for a long time, and I began to feel light-headed again, on the verge of tears, thinking the worst.

Finally, his eyes shut and he sighed. A small smile curved one side of his mouth, and my heart leapt in true happiness for the first time since I’d watched the accident on television. It was my smile.

“Yes.” he murmured.

I pressed my fingers to my lips to contain my sobs once again, this time in joy.

He breathed deeply, carefully, his hand reached for mine. I squeezed it gently. “Everything’s
...
going to be all right.” He murmured again.

I stood watch over him until his body relaxed into sleep. Then I threw up again.

When I walked out of Jameson’s room to let him sleep, I immediately walked up to Emma, who was now talking with Jimi.

“Did you tell him?” I demanded interrupting their conversation. I should have felt bad but I didn’t.

I specifically asked her
not
to tell anyone.

“Tell him what?” Emma looked at me confused while Aiden slung his arm around her.

“Jameson,” I sighed. “Did you tell him I’m pregnant?”

“No,” she gasped and I then realized exactly
how
loud my voice was.

Jameson’s entire family, including many members of his crew, gawked at me.

Can you say awkward?

“You’re pregnant?” Jimi asked. The look on his face was pure shock.

“I
...
uh
...
shit.” What do I say now? Do I admit it? Do I say just kidding?

Ah
...
crap
...
I think I’m gonna be sick again.

My hand instinctively fell to my stomach as the rush of nausea hit me.

Nancy wrapped her arms around me in a motherly way that only she could. “Yes, she’s pregnant but we
don’t
need the whole goddamn hospital finding out, Spencer
...
Emma.” She gave them both warning glares.

“I didn’t say anything.” Spencer defended holding his arms up but immediately grinned in response.

“I know,” Nancy agreed. “But you
will
.”

Spencer’s smile widened as he pulled me into a bear hug. “Spencer,” Alley chided smacking his shoulder. “Don’t squish her!”

“I’m not,” he argued setting me down. “I’m just excited to have another little Riley running around.”

“Yeah, cause that’s all we need around here.” Jimi chuckled with a sarcastic edge. “Especially one with Jameson’s DNA involved.” He then reached his strong arm around me cradling me to his side  and then kissed my forehead. “Though I’m concerned about
that
,” he gestured towards Jameson’s room. “reproducing
...
I’m happy for you guys.”

I thought I heard him mutter something about the kid being conceived on his kitchen floor but I couldn’t be sure.

“What did Jameson say?” Emma asked when Jimi let me go.

“He smiled and said everything would be okay
...
I think it was the drugs talking.” I muttered picking at a hangnail on my index finger, really just avoiding looking at anyone.

Being around five in the morning, my stomach was beginning to growl having not anything all night.

Emma and Alley looked down at my stomach, obviously hearing the thunderous noise. “Definitely Jameson’s kid in there,” Alley laughed.

With the help of Spencer, the boy could smell food being cooked a mile away; everyone went down to the cafeteria to find breakfast.

Now that I knew he was alive and conscious, I felt the need to eat again.

Nancy and Jimi stayed with Jameson until Jimi had to leave for Fulton New York that afternoon.

That’s the thing about racing
...
it doesn’t stop on the account of lapped traffic. The race continues while your 200 MPH taped car, continues to get lapped—lap after lap—by faster cars.

It was a lifestyle that never slept. A lifestyle this family knew well.

“Jesus Christ, you eat like a pro wrestler trying to make weight.” Spencer’s eyes took in my heaping plate as we sat at a large table in the corner of the cafeteria. “Where do you put all that?”

“Asshole,” I grumbled but continued to devour my pancakes and bacon.

Most of the team joined us for breakfast.

Tate and Bobby, who’d stayed until they knew Jameson was all right, left get ready for Watkins Glen this weekend.

When I glanced around at the team, I noticed their faces for the first time. They looked exhausted but that wasn’t what was alarming.

Justin, Tommy, and Tyler appeared unscathed but the rest all looked like they were stunt doubles in a
Rocky
movie.

“What the fuck happened to you guys?”

No one said anything so Alley piped up. “These lunatics decided to make matters worse.” Her lips pursed as she glared towards her husband.

“We had a fucking right to.” Spencer snapped eating his lucky charms. I’d never heard him so angry. “No one tries to kill my little brother and gets away with it.”

Around that time, Emma finally noticed Aiden was sporting a fat lip and black eye. Needless to say, she had her make-up bag out trying to apply concealer to his face while he glared at her.

“You’re lucky you guys weren’t arrested.” Alley added.

Spencer glanced towards his wife menacingly. “I would take jail any day for what I did to those assholes.”

“What did you do?” I asked softly sucking on a piece of pineapple.

“Spencer beat the living shit out of Darrin’s crew chief, Frank.” Gentry perked up with excitement as he described the garage clearing brawl.

He went on to basically say that Bobby, Tate, and Jameson’s entire teams got into a gladiator style fight, in the garage at Pocono International Raceway.

It made me feel somewhat better that they defended Jameson but it didn’t change the fact that Jameson had been injured because of Darrin.

“I can’t believe this.” I said leaning my elbows on the table dropping my head. I was almost afraid to lift my eyes at that point. 

I broke out in tears when Spencer narrated how he found Jameson. Spencer apparently saw Darrin pull out of the pits after an argument with Frank.

Kyle and Spencer were the first ones to Jameson after the safety officials. His car was pinned against the outside wall, while he was a mangled mess inside. It appeared that he must have saw Darrin coming because his left arm took a hard hit. It would have been easy if the bones had just broke but instead they’d splintered in a way that now required surgery.

Jameson was unconscious when they arrived and never regained consciousness until hours after he arrived at the hospital. The worst of his injuries appeared to be the punctured lung.

“What’s going to happen to Darrin?” Emma asked putting her make-up bag away when she realized Aiden was about ready to cunt punch her if she didn’t stop.

Tommy in particular found this amusing; milk was now coming out his nose. Spencer snapped a picture with his phone for future blackmailing.

“I’m sure NASCAR will fine him but that’s the least of his worries.” Kyle added. “He was police escorted away from the track and booked in the county jail for reckless endangerment. Phillip won’t let him get away with this. Not after the conversation Alley heard in the bathroom.”

“What conversation?” Emma, Spencer and I asked in sync.

Alley sighed. “I heard Mariah on the phone in the bathroom. She said Darrin had enough of Jameson’s haughty disregard for his warnings. Mariah told the person he was going to take care of it during the race, whatever that meant
...
apparently now we know what that meant.”

“Did you warn Jameson?” Emma asked dubiously, her features distorted.

“Of course I tried
...
he didn’t want to hear it and then I let it slip about Axle.”

“You told him before the race?” Emma was now shaking her head in disbelieve.

“I wasn’t going to but I started crying
...
I never cry.” Alley looked ashamed. “He knew something was up.”

I was confused as hell. “Wait,” I interrupted them throwing my arms up. “What happened to Axle?”

Alley and Emma both looked at me with poignant expressions. “He passed away
...
Saturday morning.” Alley whispered looking down at her coffee cup, tracing the outline of the handle delicately.

I started crying
...
hysterically. I was a fucking mess. My only option at that point was to blame the hormones.

Later that afternoon, I was back in Jameson’s room with tissues surrounding me and my emotional state of mind.
I read and re-read and then read again the article over and over again
...
it wasn’t nearly enough punishment for what he had done to Jameson. I glanced over at his motionless sleeping figure again and then read the paper once more. It was nowhere near enough.

Torres suspended for post-race incident

LONG POND, PA. – Darrin Torres, along with five Gibson Racing crew members from the No. 14 team, and Frank Rudd, crew chief for Torres, received a range of penalties for his involvement in an altercation following Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at Pocono International Raceway, NASCAR officials announced Monday.

Winston Cup drivers Jameson Riley, driver of the No. 9 Simplex Ford battled with Darrin Torres, driver of the No. 14 Wyle Products Chevrolet, throughout the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500. Around lap two hundred, Riley pulled away to a two and half second lead when Bobby Cole, Riley’s teammate clipped the left rear of the No. 14. The remainder of the race was quiet until the last lap. Riley took the checkered flag and was currently making his victory lap when Torres left pit road and made another lap. The two cars collided right outside of the tunnel turn. No word was released as to why Darrin Torres went back out on the track. Gibson Racing has declined to comment.

Riley was reportedly unresponsive when safety track officials got to him. He was later air lifted to Pocono Medical Center where he is listed in critical but stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.