The Legend

by Shey Stahl

“That’s not exactly the worst part.”

  My eyes narrowed at him as his hands rose quickly defending himself. “I had no part of this.”

  Pushing past him, I heard the pounding on the door while Casten was laughing hysterically on the floor with the girl and Axel. “What’s this?”

  “Part of the problem,” Tommy said on the verge of laughing himself.

  “What’s the problem then?” I pressed throwing a blanket over the naked girl.

  “Well...” Tommy squeaked suppressing a laugh. “She’s an actual prostitute and we have three kids here under age and drinking.”

  They can’t be serious?

  “Please tell me you’re joking?” More pounding on the door occurred with more laughing from the boys and the girl. “How in the hell did you get a prostitute?”

  “Open the door sir, this is the Jacksonville police!”

  “I know that—just a minute!” I hollered and turned back to Tommy and Lane who suddenly appeared with Spencer.

  “They’re...oh god.” He chuckled taking in the scene in front of him. “What happened in here?” Spencer asked smiling at the girl who was now standing.

  I leaned over and covered her with a blanket again but she just shrugged it off and danced down the hall to the bathroom.

  “Hold up, I’m coming with you.” Cole followed her. “I’m not waiting around for the police.”

  Lane pushed Casten, who wouldn’t stop laughing, down the hall. “Hide in the closet giggles.”

  I turned to Spencer, Willie and Tommy. “Keep your fucking mouths shut.”

  Willie rushed to the sink and then puked in it.

  Drawing a deep breath, I pulled open the door. “Hello officers. Sorry about the noise.”

  Tommy and Spencer snickered behind me. It’s hard to believe they were in their forties but had the mental stability of an eighteen-year old.

  “Can we come inside?” One officer asked while the other peeked over my shoulder.

  “I’d rather you didn’t.” I smiled politely. “My wife and I are celebrating our anniversary. If you know what I mean.” I waggled my eyebrows at the end hoping they bought the story.

  The officers exchanged a glance and then smiled. “Just keep it down, Mr. Riley.”

  I never said my name. Oh fucking well. If my fame got me out of a potential legal issue from a prostitute and underage drinking, by all means, let it.

  “Thank you.”

  When I closed the door, Tommy and Spencer burst out laughing and Willie puked again.

  “Listen you assholes,” I grabbed Tommy by the shirt and kicked Spencer when he fell to the ground. “Clean this place up and get that girl out of here!”

  Walking back into the bedroom where the boys were, I chuckled at their conversation in the closet.

  All four were crammed in a small closet with the girl, still naked.

  I stood outside for a moment, listening. It was clear I had no idea what they were actually talking about.

  “By the way,” Cole said. “I hate to point this out right now but people go to prison for this shit.”

  I assumed he was talking about the prostitute at this point so I opened the door.

  “Nice.” Casten shook his head at Cole, disgusted. “Where the fuck are your balls these days?”

  “Ask your sister.” Cole replied cockily.

  I don’t think he actually thought before he said that. After all, she was his cousin.

  “My god,” Casten slapped his shoulder, “you’re not very bright, are you?”

  “No, he’s not.” Lane added shaking his head at his younger brother. “She’s your cousin dude, that’s really wrong.”

  “All right, let’s go.” I said smacking the door with my fist so they all noticed me. “Get out of the closet.”

  The girl was so drunk by that point that she was curled up in Axel’s lap, sleeping. Axel wasn’t any better as he was passed out drooling.

  I took my boys and left. I wasn’t about to let either of them get arrested and more importantly, sleep with that girl.

  Casten wasn’t willing to leave and put up a pretty good fight but surrendered in the end when I told him he could find a new place to live if he didn’t leave with me. I had a feeling he’d be thirty and still wanting to live at home. As long as he continued to work, I didn’t see that big of a problem with it. Don’t get me wrong, no one wants their kids living with them forever but Casten wasn’t a bad kid and didn’t take advantage of us. He just liked living at home.

  I blamed Sway for that. She fed him too well.

  “That was the greatest night of my life!” Casten announced stumbling into the car.

  “You said that the night you set the street on fire.” I reminded him buckling Axel in who still hadn’t woken up.

  “At that time it was the greatest night of my life...until tonight.”

  On the way home that night, I thought about what I’d do if my kids never moved out.

  Axel had his own place now but after Aries’ ordeal with Brian; I didn’t want her moving out. And Sway didn’t want Casten moving out for obvious attachment reasons.

  We were screwed.

  Sway was up, in bed, going over schedules when I got home around six that morning. I dropped Casten and Axel off at his condo and hurried home to be with her. I was somewhat relieved that I left the rest of those jerks in Jacksonville because I knew they’d be invading my house tonight if they would have come with us.

  “How’d it go?” Sway asked snuggling against my side. Her cold feet pressed gingerly to my bare legs testing whether I’d move them away. I didn’t, instead I let her warm them against me.

  “It was horrible.”

  “Why?”

  “Your ‘baby boy’ hired a prostitute.”

  “He didn’t?” she looked up at me horrified. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Nope,” I pulled the blankets up higher and leaned over to flick the switch for the fireplace.

  “That’s not good,” Sway said snuggling back against my chest.

  “You know...these last two will never leave.”

  “That’s all right.” She smiled kissing my cheek. “I kind of like them.”

  Like I said, it’s not like they were mooching from us.

  Arie was working on Axel’s fan club and his charity with Children’s hospitals. She also took care of his website, Facebook and Twitter accounts making sure they all stayed up to date.

  And Casten, he was still in high school. When he wasn’t in school, he worked at the JAR Racing with the boys and frequently traveled with his brother to learn more about what Willie and Tommy did. He was taking an interest in being a crew chief, something I knew he would be good at.

  They all had jobs and earned their keep, just in different ways. They had to deal with the destruction they caused.

  Feature – Axel

  The day of the wedding, you would have thought that all hell broke loose in the Riley and West families.

  Lily wasn’t happy about my bachelor party but to be honest I wasn’t happy with the pictures that I saw from her bachelorette party. We agreed to disagree on the matter and moved past that until she asked me the night before the wedding if I had cheated on her.

  I was pissed.

  This was a constant battle between us. It also wasn’t something I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her arguing about.

  So I said, “If you can’t believe me when I tell you that I haven’t been with anyone else...we have no business getting married.”

  It wasn’t meant to be harsh nor was it me calling off the wedding. I just wanted her to understand that “trust” was the most important part, to me anyway.

  She had other ideas about my statement and burst into tears thinking that I had called off the wedding. I guess all the insecurity might have been my fault. It didn’t help that I gave away my virginity to the first willing girl when I was younger and ended up breaking her heart but seriously, that was years ago and I asked her
to marry me. To me that was the ultimate commitment. I wasn’t going anywhere and didn’t have the desire to sleep with any other women. There were always willing girls when your dad is Jameson Riley but other than the occasional smile, I didn’t offer those girls anything more than a hello. I wasn’t rude to them like my dad was but I didn’t leave with them either.

  Lily and I ended up staying up to three in morning the night before the wedding arguing about it when I finally got through to her that I wasn’t going anywhere.

  My brother and sister weren’t helping in the morning when they met me at my hotel room in Jacksonville.

  That wasn’t so bad and it was a nice change from Lily’s crying the night before, but the shit got out of hand when we got to the beach where the wedding was. Florida usually had nice weather in the winter, it was usually around 70° in the winter but today is was a scorching 38°.

  I did not like cold weather, never had.

  We were only there about five minutes when Justin found me. I’ve never really looked at Justin as Lily’s father, I’ve always thought of him as my dad’s best friend and a fellow driver.

  He wasn’t very happy that morning.

  “What happened between you two last night?” Justin demanded corning me inside the tent that was getting smaller by the minute. I think I’ve said this once before but I wasn’t exactly a big guy and anyone cornering me, especially my soon to be father-in law, was intimidating.

  “Nothing happened, why?” I’ll admit my voice was frightened. You would understand if you saw the way he was looking at me. It was similar to the way a wild animal stalked its prey.

  “Well Lil is in tears, go see her!”

  He didn’t have to tell me twice and I was inside my parent’s condo where she was getting ready with my sister, mom, and aunts.

  “Lily?” I called out only to have Arie slam the door in my face.

  “It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.” She told me through the door. “Get lost!”

  Pushing past her wasn’t hard. Arie was taller than me but weighed less than a hundred pounds.

  “Listen to me!” I shook her shoulders. “I’m seconds away from kicking you out of here. I need to see Lily right now. Fuck the stupid traditions.”

  She didn’t budge, only crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”

  “I’m not above pushing my sister.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “Don’t tempt me.”

  “Mom?” she wailed pretending to be hurt like I actually did hit her. She pulled this shit so often when we were little no one actually believed her any more.

  “Arie,” Lily called out from the bedroom. “...let him in.”

  Dad was sitting on the couch eating cereal in his tuxedo. He was calm and collected like this whole day was no big deal. It probably wasn’t to him. He dealt with this stress every single day with aunt Emma.

  “Can you believe this shit?” I asked looking to him for support.

  “You have no idea kid.” Dad laughed placing his cereal bowl in the sink. “I had to spend every day inches away from my sister for years while we traveled.” He patted my back. “I don’t really have much sympathy for you on that part.”

  No one had sympathy for me today.

  Lily was in the bedroom dressed in her wedding gown, crying again.

  “Lily, what’s wrong baby?” I pulled her in my arms.

  “I’m sorry. I feel like an idiot for last night.”

  Pulling back to look at her, I wiped the tears from her cheeks and kissed her nose.

  “Don’t be. It’s normal to have pre-wedding jitters.” Moving from the bed, I knelt in front of her taking her hands in mine. “I love you and I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone other than you. Do you understand that? You’re the only woman I want.”

  A few more tears fell before she nodded.

  “I know...I’m sorry for being like this.” She shrugged closing her eyes. “I see your parents and my parents and I want that. I do. But I get scared you...”

  She couldn’t actually say it without crying. I knew what this was leading up too.

  You see it all around you when you grow in racing—men choosing his career of adrenaline over women. My dad may be one of the greatest racers of all time but he owed most of that to my mom. She was there for him no matter what. So he may have missed birthdays and anniversaries to race but he had her to fall back on. Justin and Ami were the same way.

  Lily and I grew up around that mentality and saw that relationship every day. Her fear, that I would chose racing entirely.

  “Do you want to know one of the best memories I have of my parents growing up?”

  She nodded eagerly. She loved hearing about my parents and their epic love story. Smiling, I pulled her hands forward kissing her ring finger.

  “I was probably around ten or eleven; anyway, my dad was always racing on my mom’s birthday, never failed. That particular year he was in a fairly close battle with the points, which left him on edge going into the last race before the chase. The night before the Saturday night race was mom’s birthday. Our entire family was there wanting to celebrate for her but dad wasn’t in a good mood that night. There was also a sprint car race going on in Lernerville that same night that he was set to race in.”

  “He chose racing over your mom’s birthday?”

  “No, he didn’t have to. She told him to go and they made a party out of the night for her in Lernerville. He even won the race for her and took her around the track in his sprint car for a victory lap.” I smiled up at her hoping that she understood where I was going with this memory.

  “It’s not about choosing...” she deduced with a small smile, her head tilted to the side.

  “It’s not about choosing.” I repeated. “My dad never had to choose because just like you, my mom was ready and willing to support him. You’ve never asked me not to race.”

  “I never would. Racing is what makes you happy.”

  “Exactly...you have nothing to worry about…” I paused. “And if you asked, I would walk away.”

  It would be hard but I would if she wanted me too.

  She didn’t say anything to me for a moment staring at my cufflinks.

  I got impatient and moved closer grasping her hands more securely. “Please marry me, Lily.” I whispered against her hands that I had pulled against my lips.

  “I will. Now get out.” She pointed at the door. “I need to meet my soon to be husband on the beach in an hour. I’m a hot mess.”

  “You’re beautiful.” I stood and looked down at her my fingers brushed along her cheek and then curled around her chin. “Now meet me next to the shore in an hour.”

  “Deal”

  Making my way back to the tent, I had my brother to deal with.

  “You’re being a moron.” I told Casten.

  “It’s a wedding Axel, not a Mensa meeting,” he replied. “How do you want me to act?”

  “With a bit more decorum, I would guess.” I told him eyeing his appearance. He was sweating profusely. “Why are you all wet?”

  “No reason.” He smiled brushing his hair out of his face. “I think I drank too much last night. So you want me to act like them?” Casten pointed to Logan and Lane who were so drunk they could barely stand, covered in sand. Silently I hoped they got washed away by the tide before the night was over. I loved them but they weren’t helping me today.

  “No, don’t act like that. Just...be normal. If that’s possible for you.”

  Casten threw his head back and let out a loud laugh and then went completely serious. “That’s probably never going to happen with our parents.”

  “Fine,” I groaned heading down the aisle not feeling very confident in my family.

  My dad and Spencer were standing up there with Tommy. He was doing the ceremony for us. Yes, he got his license online, which was good enough for me.

  “You ready kid?”

  “I think so?” it wasn’t meant to
be a question but the way it came out, it was.

  “I’m sorry to say this,” Tommy laughed beside me, “but there shouldn’t be a question at the end of that sentence moron.”

  “Way to be supportive.” Spencer shook his head and walked to the bar to where Aiden was perched on a stool avoiding Noah and Charlie.

  This left me standing alone with Tommy and my dad, although Tommy was now distracted by Lily’s bridesmaids.

  “Are you all right over there?” I asked dad when Casten came up to us. His hair was even sweatier than before with a big grin on his face.

  “Couldn’t be better,” dad said in a very melodramatic way when he reached for his beer in his pocket and tipped his head at Casten. “Why are you all wet?”

  Casten started laughing mirthlessly at that point. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I had a feeling he was in the tent with Logan earlier and had an even stronger feeling they had been smoking something but I wasn’t about to confirm or deny that to my dad of all people.

  “Uh-huh.” Dad nodded and walked back toward my mom sitting in the chairs in front of us.

  The music changed and everyone took their places, including Casten who was my best man. My buddy Shane and Willie were also in the wedding standing beside him.

  “Last chance to back out,” Casten whispered in my ear when Lily appeared under a flowered archway leading to us. Waves crashed behind me drowning out the faint piano music.

  I didn’t reply to Casten, just smiled at my bride to be. I hoped she would understand that my heart belonged to her and only her now.

  Feature – Sway

  I remember holding him for the first time. I remember watching him take his first breath and hearing his first cry. I remember the day I found out I was pregnant with him and that first horrifying ultrasound when I realized there was actually life inside of me. I remembered it all and every detail of his birth. I remember Jameson not understanding that he blinked and hiccupped just like every other human being. I had visions of Charlie holding him and now smiling down on us. I had memories of him in the pits of Bristol when he had to have seven stitches in his knee. I remember the fits he would throw at the grocery store or the temper tantrums when he wouldn’t get his way. I also remember his loving side, the sweet boy would tell me he loved me before each race and his bear hugs that he would give and only he could give. Let’s just say I was a tad emotional by the time Lily joined my son and they began to exchange their vows.