The Champion (Racing on the Edge)

by Stahl, Shey

  “Are you worried?” I asked. Kyle never showed emotions on race day. He kept his, thoughts and remarks, focused on the race and winning.

  “No but I want to be sure he’s gonna be okay.” He fiddled with his head set adjusting the volume as I’m sure Mason was asking him questions. They used headsets even when Jameson wasn’t on the track. It was easier to communicate that way when the team was spread out around the track. “It’s hot.”

  “You’re telling me.” I laughed fanning my face with my hand. “I think my bra has a gallon of sweat in it.”

  Kyle looked around to see who heard me and then chuckled returning his head set to his ears. “Always a pleasure conversing with you Sway,”

  Before Jameson got in the car that afternoon and prepared for six hundred miles, I handed Axel over to Nancy who took him inside the air-conditioned towers. It was too hot for him. Hell, it was too hot for me and my pooling sweat.

  We said our goodbyes, I wished him good luck, and then I headed up to the tower with Emma.

  On the way up to the private suites, I ran into Paul Leighty’s girlfriend, Elaina. She was new this year and had some things to learn about tact. She flat out asked me if Jameson had signed a prenup.

  Who asked that?

  Up until that moment, the thought of a prenup had never even crossed my mind. Jameson never mentioned it. No one in our families ever mentioned so why did this girl I’d only met five minutes ago?

  That got me thinking the majority of the race about prenups and if Jameson had wanted one. It was a little late now but he was worth a lot of money these days and had cars, houses, all kinds of stuff I would consider his but if something happened—I had to mentally stop myself there. I couldn’t focus on the race and prenups so I instead focused on the race.

  “Your fuel window is sixty laps bud.” Kyle told him once he was making the pace laps prior to the start.

  “10-4.” Jameson said and then asked, “I need a couple Gatorades at each stop.”

  “Will do. Just make sure you try to keep cool and keep drinking fluids.”

  Being NASCAR’s longest night, none of the drivers were thrilled with the heat today. I was worried about him and by lap three hundred, when the sun had finally set, the temperature hadn’t dropped and my fears of him getting dehydrated were starting to grow.

  “How do these auxiliary switches work?” Jameson asked. His voice was completely drained.

  “If you turn on the one for your seat, you’ll have to turn the one for your helmet up.”

  “Oh,” he began to fade in the field creating a distance between him and Paul Leighty in turn four. “No wonder.”

  “How’s your temps?”

  It took another lap before he replied to Kyle’s question.

  “Me? Or the car?”

  “Both I guess.” Kyle let out a nervous chuckle that was rare for him. “You hangin’ in there bud?”

  He was silent for another lap as he battled with a lap car to stay in his twelfth place running order and my heart leapt into my throat.

  “Yeah, just tired,” He let out a whoosh of air and continued with a dull voice. “When I get close to other cars, my temps shoot up.”

  It didn’t help that he was running mid-pack after a pit altercation when Spencer dropped the jack too soon.

  On the final stop, water was spewing from the radiator from the vent on the right side of the hood and got Spencer and Gentry in the face. Whenever the temps in the car went up, the vent on the right side of the car near the windshield spewed hot water.

  It seemed every stop, and there were many from the tires shredding about every twenty laps, something went wrong. The guys were dropping air tools, tires were getting away and Jameson kept getting in the pit at the wrong angle. He had the pit in between Colin and Paul and every time, Colin got into his pit sideways so that meant Jameson got into his at the wrong angle.

  “Damn it, we need to get this together!” Jameson shouted after the last stop. “I need another Gatorade. My feet are burning through the heat shields. Oh, and not the grape one. That was gross.”

  I laughed beside Nancy who was holding Axel up near the window to see the cars pass by. His wide green eyes fixated on the track below.

  Jameson didn’t want to make a big deal out of it but he was, in fact, feeling the heat and making comments, like the heat shields and that he was tired. That was his way of letting us know without complaining.

  “How many more laps?” I asked mostly to myself and worrying about Jameson.

  Nancy looked over her shoulder at me shifting Axel to her hip. He latched on to her necklace with his hands and then quickly turned to sucking on it. “I think there’s about a hundred.”

  Those hundred laps were way longer than I, or Jameson, would have liked.

  At one point Kyle and Jimi contemplated taking Jameson out of the car and putting in a back-up driver from the Nationwide series.

  He managed to hang onto a ninth place finish but as soon as he was out of the car and walking away from the car he collapsed.

  The media, huddled around, caught wind of the situation and started in about the drivers doing too much each week and the possible heat exhaustion results.

  There was no way you were going to tell Jameson Riley he was doing too much. Yes he was doing too much between racing sprint cars, the Cup series, running a track and a three-man sprint car team but like I said, you couldn’t tell him that. He was doing what he loved.

  Jameson was forced by the track officials to visit the infield care center along with a handful of other drivers but his thoughts were once again focused on the race and what he could have done for a better finish, despite his lethargic demeanor.

  “Man,” he wiped a cold rag across his forehead and over the back of his neck. His matted sweaty hair stood in odd directions. His face, flushed from the hours of exertion portrayed his thoughts clearly to those who knew him well. “I must have slid through that pit box five times onto the air hose.” He looked at Spencer who sat beside him being treated for the burns to his hands and forearms when the overspray from the radiator had scorched him. “Sorry guys. It just wasn’t my night.”

  They understood though. Everyone had bad nights. Just look at last year when this very same race was almost lost because of his pit crew.

  Later that night when we got to the hotel, the same one we stayed at a year ago, I watched him sleep wondering how I got so lucky to have him.

  I can’t say everything in our live was easy but I can say that we worked well through it.

  Sometime in the night, Jameson’s fingers slid around my neck and then into my hair to cradle the back of my head. I could feel his breath on my face and then his nose at my temple. We exhaled together and then he moved to rest his forehead against mine.

  His body trembled from exhaustion as he smiled. “I can’t believe it’s been a year.”

  “Me either.” I smiled knowing despite the complications from the race, he remembered the night and what tonight meant.

  That’s when the prenup ideas came back to me and I voiced my concern.

  “Should we have signed a prenup?”

  I was immediately turned in his arms. “No.”

  It was a prompt answer. One that you know he didn’t have to think about.

  “But what about, I don’t know, all they money you had and all your shit. Wouldn’t you want your shit protected?”

  “What is this all about?” he finally asked sitting up on his elbow to look down at me.

  “Paul’s girlfriend asked me if we signed one. I just thought, maybe with the whole Darrin thing, and being pregnant, you may have forgotten about one.”

  His eyes scowled even in the poorly lit room.

  “No, I didn’t forget. Phillip asked and I said no. If you were to ever leave me, you might as well take everything I have. To me, I would have nothing left if you were gone. Besides that,” he continued. “It’s not like you were in it for the money. I knew that.” He laughed leani
ng back on the bed beside me. His hand moved over the sheets to find mine. “You were in it for the sex.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. I’m in it for the sex.”

  The topic of the prenup was never brought up again. He said his part on it and I never questioned his intentions. He knew what he wanted.

  I’d taken a vow to myself that I’d never hide anything from Axel or Jameson.

  If something was wrong, I would tell them.

  I understood why people put things off. Fear of the unknown. To me, as I’ve said many times, not knowing was worse than the fear of keeping the secret.

  What if I hadn’t stayed that night in Charlotte with Jameson?

  We wouldn’t have experienced some of the best times of our lives. In those three weeks I learned more about myself and him than the previous eleven years. I also got knocked up, but I learned a lot.

  If I wouldn’t have listened to myself that night in Charlotte I wouldn’t be looking down on the most beautiful little boy.

  Currently stealing flowers from grave sites he was beautiful and had brought so much joy to our lives. Being a mother to a child where your husband was constantly on the road was difficult at times, but I wouldn’t change anything about our lives. Well maybe some of the late night crying sessions or the teething. Those weren’t fun. I knew the fast passed lifestyle Jameson lived racing on the edge and I knew what we had, wouldn’t be any different.

  Four months had passed since Charlie passed away and we were now having our memorial race weekend for him, on what would have been his forty third birthday.

  In those four months, life had changed as it always did with time.

  We moved back to Mooresville because of Dana and Cooper.

  It never failed. When I was home alone they’d come over, so I made the executive decision to move back to Mooresville.

  Along with a pair of restraining orders, it was the best thing for everyone.

  After they broke into our house, which I later learned was not actually a “break in” but a “let in” by Spencer. Regardless, it was what sealed the deal for me.

  By the way, Spencer paid the price for this “let in” incident and spent two days in the hospital because Jameson tased him with a taser. This wouldn’t have ordinarily landed someone in the hospital but Jameson did it at the worst possible time he could. Spencer was driving.

  The conversation between Nancy and Jameson was the most entertaining when he had to tell them who tased Spencer.

  “What do you mean you tased your brother?” Nancy gasped. “Jameson, that doesn’t sound like a very nice thing to do.”

  Jameson’s response: “It wasn’t a nice thing to do but he let Dana in my house while we were on our honeymoon. That wasn’t very nice.”

  She turned to Spencer and his broken arm.

  “Spencer,” she scolded. “That woman is crazy! Why would you do something like that?”

  That went on for an hour and in the end, Nancy was upset with Spencer and took Jameson’s side in the whole situation. No surprise there, Jameson was her baby and could do little wrong in her eyes.

  Just so we’re clear, that taser was taken away after that by Jimi.

  Andrea had taken over my position at the track and Jameson hired a whole array of staff to fill in the voids from us not being there. I flew home every few weeks to make sure everything was running smoothly but other than that, Axel and I traveled with Jameson, in our home away from home...the motor coach.

  This worked well but if I was being honest with you, raising a kid on the road was not easy nor was it easy raising a kid in general. There were times Jameson got stressed out and took our parenting frustrations out on each other but looking at our families, we understood that was completely normal. Hell Alley and Spencer once stopped talking for a week over grounding Lane for sticking toothpaste up his nose. You may think this is not a normal thing to ground a kid for but the little shit did this weekly. It was like he was lacking mint or something.

  Alley, the amazing super woman that she was, had just given birth to Alexis Nicole Riley a few weeks back when we were in Daytona. Days after her birth, she was back to working. I couldn’t understand how quickly she recovered from childbirth. I still felt out of shape after having Axel. Or maybe that was the ten pounds I still carried around with me.

  With everyone starting families, Spencer and Alley decided to have a house built near ours in Mooresville and across the street for Aiden and Emma. Their fifteen hundred square foot apartment in Charlotte was apparently not big enough any longer.

  Having the entire family living within walking distance to one another was like living with the cast from those Jackass movies. The boys were always thinking of stupid shit to do and usually, one of them ended up in the hospital or with a concussion.

  In the last four months, Jameson had three concussions, six stitches above his left eyebrow, two broken fingers and three broken ribs. And those injuries were just at home, not racing.

  Aiden and Spencer’s injuries were similar only worse at times because Jameson had a flair for talking them into the dangerous shit. He usually say something along the lines of: “I bet you can’t make that.” And then he’d rattle off with some ridiculous dare. Every single time they took the challenge.

  After the third concussion, Simplex, concerned their driver was crazy, forced him to sign a contract that prevented him from engaging in reckless or unsafe behavior that would prevent him from living up to his end of his five year contract with them.

  I wouldn’t say it was all the activities they were doing, just the way they were doing them that made it so dangerous. They were crazy. He may have signed the agreement but I think Simplex knew damn well he didn’t stop riding his dirt bike or racing sprint cars. Two things he’d rather die than give up. Asking a guy like Jameson to give up sprint car racing was like asking him to give up sex.

  That was clearly not an option.

  Emma and Aiden were busy getting everything ready for their little ones that were due in November. The shocking revelation really came when they found out they were having twins. Aiden was not at all excited about this but eventually came to terms with it.

  Emma was wrong to have decided a major life decision without him but they worked everything out after a few weeks and Jimi’s words of wisdom.

  His exact words to the two of them after a very public fight at a restaurant outside of Atlanta, “Listen you two...I’m tired of this shit. Act like fucking adults! So you fuck up and get married in Vegas, did you really expect either of you to make responsible decisions when it came to becoming parents?” Neither of them said anything so he continued with, “That’s what I thought.”

  I was almost positive Emma learned her lesson when she found out she was having twins and Aiden’s response was, “See...that’s what you get.”

  Emma had always wanted children but she also never thought the decision through. She had no idea the impact those tiny humans were about to have on their lives.

  When you think about it, you would assume the driver of the car has the most grueling schedule, that’s not the case.

  Take Aiden for example. Monday through Wednesday, Aiden was usually free, until Thursday when he was required to be at the track spotting for Jameson during practices, qualifying and the race. He’d stay there with him until Sunday. Monday the process started all over again at a different track, different city. Aiden also spots for Jameson during any Busch or Truck race too and this year, he was scheduled to run thirteen Busch races and seven in the Truck series.

  Emma was less constricted because most of her work revolved around Jameson’s fan club and charity events she scheduled for him. So now, you add twin boys into that picture and that wouldn’t exactly result in much family time.

  Spencer’s schedule was the similar to Aiden’s but Alley...poor Alley went everywhere Jameson went. Being his publicist, she had her work cut out for her. Now that she had two little ones, it wasn’t unusual to see Alley running around
with Lane attached to her back and Lexi snuggled into a Baby Bjorn.

  Van made the move to Mooresville with us, though I could tell he was torn by the decision. Every time I flew home to Elma, he came with me. I think over time he’d formed a bond with the Lucifer twins. Van was the only one that could stand to be around the little shits without wanting to kill them.

  After Charlie passed away, Logan and Lucas got into a shit load of trouble in school. They were becoming almost unbearable for Andrea. I had no idea how Andrea made it through the day with them without medicating herself or them. I would have shipped their asses off to boarding school a long time ago. You’d think turning seven would have at least matured them slightly. Not a chance.

  Jameson’s season was going great. He was leading the points with Tate and Paul close behind. He’d won three of the last six races and had jumped to a 230-point lead over Tate last week in Charlotte. The tension between him and Colin Shuman was still there at times but Jameson had learned a valuable lesson. Walking away.

  I should probably rephrase that, he walked away most of the time. In Richmond after a late race wreck when Jameson blew a tire and collected him and Colin, he threw his helmet at Jameson and ended up hitting me in the back. Jameson did not walk away from that and spent a good amount of time defending his actions to the media and to Simplex who weren’t pleased.

  Racing in the elite levels of NASCAR there was no way for him to escape the taunting and retaliation on the track all together but he needed to learn to say when and he had for the most part. He still had his temper tantrums and was still the same hothead that overreacted to the inconsequential things in life but he was maturing. He could almost be classified as an eight year old in maturity.

  You could say, looking back on the last few months, our lives had changed considerably that’s for sure.

  One thing remained the same was that we were still the Mama Wizard and Dirty Heathen we’d always been. Some say having a kid changes your sex life. It didn’t for us. We made use of any alone time we had that’s for sure.