The Legend (73 page)

“Uh, don’t
know where Tommy is and that wasn’t his doing.” He rolled over and buried his
head in the pillow he’d ripped from the other queen sized bed. His hand rose
behind his head to point down at my mom who was now snoring. “That happened
from this little shit show here.”

“I found
Tommy.” Axel, my normal child, announced coming into our room with coffee and
donuts and Lily following him. “He’s in the pool floating on a pink dolphin
sipping whiskey from one of Jack’s
sippy
cups. Dude’s
got issues.”

“Please
tell me he has pants on this time.” Lily asked setting Jack down to change his
diaper on the bed.

“Nope,”
Axel confirmed peeking out the window. “Man dad, your truck is fucked up.”

I couldn’t
believe that my own mother did that. “How did that happen?”

Casten
rolled over, his hands resting on his stomach as he exhaled slowly. “I have no
clue. All I remember was her telling me that she smelled smoke and sure enough,
something in the bed of the truck had caught on fire. Willie got it put out but
we were asleep until then so who knows.”

I never
did figure out how my truck was missing the tailgate, the bed was toasted black
and puke ran down the side of it. My mom had no memory of the night and was so
horrified that she had done that, she bought me a new truck the following week.

The
following weekend, Tommy had a similar incident as that weekend and had me
concerned for the direction his life was heading. The boys with JAR Racing were
all very hardworking guys but they all had borderline alcoholism forming and
Tommy wasn’t an exception. He was the setting the bar high for the rest of them
to keep up come July.

One
afternoon we sat around the house making bets on when he’d show up that
afternoon when Axel asked if we should call the police. We hadn’t seen him in
two days.

“Maybe he
was arrested again?” Sway pointed out placing a plate of nacho’s in front of
us. No one hesitated to dig in.

“What can
I say?” Casten mumbled around a mouth full of nacho’s. “He specializes in low
standards and bad decisions.”

Rosa
smacked Casten’s arm. “I’m not a bad decision.”

“I never
said you were.” He defended looking at her with remorse. Casten loved Rosa and
never wanted to hurt her feelings. “I said he specializes in it. That doesn’t
mean that he always swings that way. Just most of the time,”

Rosa
shoved a heaping pile of chips and salsa in her mouth. Pieces fell out as she
spoke on to the plate until she got some lodged in her throat and then spit it
out on the plate. “Oh, okay.”

Everyone
kind of stepped back from the plate after that.

I was just
about to say some smart ass comment to Rosa when a clearly disoriented Tommy
showed up looking like he could barely tell up from down.

“What
happened to you?” Casten asked, laughing hysterically. He looked like he spent
a night in a crack house and then woke up in a sewer drain. I knew Tommy didn’t
do drugs so the crack house was out of the question but the sewer drain was a
definite possibility.

Tommy
shook his head and tried to brush dirt from his pants. “Shut the fuck up.”

Sitting
beside Rosa he smiled at her, his orange curls matted it what looked to be
dreads or something. “Hey,”

Rosa
leaned forward to smell his clothes and then backed away. “Yep, it smells like
low standards.”

“I’m not
sure what went wrong or what happened last night but someone has been texting
me all day and I put them in my phone as diesel burner.” Reaching for the plate
of nachos, he started to eat them. Axel gagged thinking about Tommy eating
chips Rosa just regurgitated. He had a weak stomach.

It wasn’t
but ten minutes later and this chick walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge
like she owned the place. Sway and I exchanged a look as did everyone else.

Axel
looked at Tommy with an amused expression fighting back laughter. “I’m guessing
that’s diesel burner?”

Tommy’s
mouth hung open mid bite looking at the door and Axel lost it.

And that’s
when Arie came through the door wearing a rock on her hand trying to act like
it was no big deal.

Yep. My
eighteen-year-old daughter was getting married.

Awesome.

When
Easton had asked me if he could marry Arie, I wanted to say no to him. But now,
looking at my little girl beaming with controlled excitement, I knew I made the
right call when I told him he could.

Drive Train – Sway

Not only
was I a grandma now, but I also had nearly two kids married. It wasn’t good for
making me feel old. I felt like at any moment my funbags would be down around
my knees and I’d be buying granny underwear.

Jameson
thought he was making me feel better when we were having sex and he slapped my
ass and said I was a hot granny. I wasn’t cool with that.

“Emma!”
Arie scolded pulling me from my thoughts. “We haven’t done that yet.”

“Are you
shitting me?” Lexis gasped.

Walking
over to Arie, I handed her the veil. She sensed my irritation immediately and
laughed. She thought it was hilarious that I didn’t like getting old.

“No.” Arie
said through her teeth adjusting her wedding dress in front of the full length
mirror. I actually gasped at how much she looked like me in that moment. “Who
wears this shit?” Arie’s arms took a big handful of her dress dramatically. “This
is ridiculous. I don’t know why anyone would willingly put themselves through
this.”

“Why
haven’t you guys had sex yet?” Lexi fixed Arie’s hair and then took her face
between her palms. “You should always do a shake down before the main event.”

It was
evident our
entire
family spoke race talk now.

Arie’s
looked at me and then Lexi, anxious of my reaction. “I wasn’t eighteen when we
got together. He said he wanted to wait until I was eighteen. By the time I was
eighteen, it seemed like it wasn’t on his mind as much. He wanted to wait until
we were married after everything I had been through with Brian and Grady.”

All the
girls gushed over her confession except Lexi who gagged. “How ridiculous,”

“It’s not
ridiculous when you think about everything I’ve been through. He was being
respectful.” Arie snapped back. “It also wouldn’t have been good with his
career to know he was with someone who was underage.”

“Yeah but
now you’re nearly nineteen. What’s the hold up?”

“I think it’s
great.” I said pinning Arie’s hair up. Looking at her now, she always looked a
lot like Jameson. She had his eye shape and lips. When she smiled, I saw
Jameson.

Speaking
of Jameson, he was looking hotter than ever and standing behind us with his
hands tucked in his tuxedo, looking down at his feet as he watched his little
girl prepare for the biggest day of her life.

He smiled
stepping forward, his hand remaining in his pockets. Arie watched him in the
mirror, smirking. “You look hot dad.”

I eyed
him. “That he does.”

In a very
sexy motion, he removed his left hand from his pocket, his head hung as he
tipped it slightly to look my direction as he hand ran over the back of his
neck. He winked.

His
shoulder bumped into Arie. “You’re beautiful sweetheart.”

“I look
ridiculous.” She replied rolling her eyes, tears fell freely now. She was my
daughter after all. “I can’t believe people wear this shit.”

The three
of us hugged, as cheesy as that sounds, and Jameson put his arms around us kissing
our foreheads. “Let’s get this over with. My mom found the wine and it’s only a
matter of time before Easton’s Aunt
Lenette
finds
Willie.

Arie
finished touching up her makeup with Emma when Jameson pulled me aside. “You
look amazing in that dress honey. I hope it comes off easily.”

I grabbed
the funbags with both hands and pushed them up.
“Granny my
ass!”

You could
hear his laughter downstairs.

Drive Train – Jameson

Much to my
warning for them to take it slow, Arie and Easton didn’t.

I wasn’t excited
for the simple fact that Arie was my only daughter, my little angel that used
to think that no matter what, I was the only man in her life. Now there was
Easton.

And it
wasn’t that Easton was a bad kid because he wasn’t. It was just me not wanting
to let go.

Eventually
I did though and I gave my little girl away to become Mrs. Arie Marie Levi.

Sway
wasn’t nearly as emotional at her wedding as she was at Axel’s but I could tell
it did bother her. Me, I had to drink before, during and after the wedding just
to get through it all.

The most
surprising part about the wedding was Casten’s speech to them. He’s always been
the center of attention but he really was then.

“Don’t
worry,” he said first looking at me, “I’ll make it appropriate.” And then
winked at the girl he brought with him. Sway rolled her eyes next to me. “I’ve
watched Easton and my
sister get
to know each other
and then jumped into getting married
...
maybe
it was the se
...
” he waited until my eyes widened. “I’m just
kidding.” He arched his eyebrow with a smirk and cleared his throat when
Spencer started laughing like a fucking lunatic beside me. “You two deserve
each other but remember Easton
...
she has
two brothers, four male cousins, four insane uncles, two body guards and a very
unstable father. I’d watch your step if I was you.” He warned with a chuckle.
“I can’t offer you any other advice than that
...
oh
and she’s
not
friendly in the morning.”

Easton
took it all in good fun. But Casten was right. Arie meant the world to a lot of
men in her life that would gladly lay their life on the line for her safety.

“Just
remember,” I told them as they left that night. “She will always be my little
girl. But I know you’ll take care of her.”

Arie
caught me before they left but all she said was that she loved me. And that’s
all she needed to say.

It’s
always hard to give your daughter away and I knew then how difficult it had
been for Charlie.

I
completely understood his hesitation when it came to me.

Everyone
seemed to enjoy themselves especially Casten and Sway who spent a lot of time
dancing. I never grew tire of watching those two feed off each other. The bond
between them was amazing. He looked at her as though she was the greatest
person on the face of the planet. 

They had a
connection and it showed.

My mom
found me at some point during the reception while I watched my wife and son act
like the crazy family I always loved. She smiled and held out her hand. “Come
show your mother you can still move.”

“Don’t
doubt my skills mom. I can still smoke any of these fools on the dance floor.”

“Don’t I
know that but you were always my best dancer growing up.”

“I
remember when you were a baby; I used to kiss your toes while you were
sleeping. I think that’s why you dance so well.”

I looked
at Spencer and chuckled. “You must not have kissed his toes?”

Mom eyed
her oldest lunatic of a son throw his large body around in a motion he called
dancing. “I did, but something went wrong.”

I pulled her
close gently and she tried to wrap her arms around me. My mom was tiny though
so I ended up having to slouch a little just for her to reach. Thankfully, she
was wearing heels today.

“I’m
really happy for Arie. Easton is such a sweet boy.”

“Yeah, he
is.” I agreed slowly moving us around the dance floor.

“Are you
doing okay with it?”

I thought
for a moment while my eyes caught Sway laughing hysterically at something
Casten told her. “Yeah mom,” I smiled down at her green eyes examining me. “I’m
doing fine.”

And I was.
I wasn’t lying. Yes, there was a time when I wasn’t fine. But with time, I
understood what happened and moved forward, just like she did.

“Are you?”

Her eyes
watered. “There are days when I’m not okay. I do miss him. It’s times like this
when I really miss him. He thought the world of you kids.”

I nodded
quickly as I was getting a little choked up now.

Her eyes
moved to Axel who let out a loud laugh as him Casten and Lane danced around.
“Those three kids right there held a very special place with him as well. He
loved all his kids and grandkids but I knew just as well you have different
bonds with each one. Lane, Axel and Casten were always close to my dad, more so
than the others.

“He was
so
proud of you Jameson.” She said as a tear slipped down her cheek. “I don’t know
that you will ever understand the pure joy he
got knowing
that everything you set out to do with racing you did.”