Behind the Wheel (Hearts & Horsepower Book 2)

by A. K. Evans

  Over the last several weeks, the thought never occurred to me that I’d be in the same position when this day arrived. While I knew the rest of the team was going to be here today since LT Motorsports had a few other customers who were going to be testing, something just felt off. I had been expecting Knox to be arriving with me.

  Even though he promised he’d be here before I made my first pass, I hated that he wasn’t here now. This was something we were supposed to be doing together. He promised me that.

  Feeling a bit forlorn, after making it through the entry gate, I drove my truck and trailer slowly through the pits. Eventually, I spotted two of the cars from the shop. A moment later, I saw Ryker putting his hand out to direct me to park beside where those two cars were already pitted.

  Once I got the truck and trailer situated, I got out and walked to the back of the trailer to open it up so I could start unloading.

  Ryker walked up and wasted no time. He asked, “Where’s Knox?”

  I shook my head, feeling the disappointment and sadness creep in, and replied, “I’m not a hundred percent sure. I think he’s home.”

  A look of confusion and concern washed over Ryker’s face. “Why isn’t he here?” he wondered.

  “I don’t know that either,” I confessed.

  There was a long pause while Ryker waited for me to provide further explanation. When that never came, he pressed, “Is everything okay with you two?”

  I had no reason to believe that things weren’t okay between the two of us, but there was no denying the fact that Knox was definitely not in a position to be dealing with explaining anything to me this morning. And while I guess he didn’t need to share with me what was going on, we did have plans. I couldn’t imagine why he’d suddenly break them.

  Of course, I knew that things could happen, and it was possible he had experienced a real emergency, but he really hadn’t given me anything. It’s not even like I could pretend that my birthday was coming up and he had to handle some last-minute detail to prepare a surprise or something for me.

  But despite not having the best feeling about what was going on, I also didn’t have any concrete confirmation from Knox that I had anything to worry about when it came to our relationship. For that reason, I answered Ryker truthfully.

  “Yeah, everything is fine,” I started. “Knox called me this morning and told me he was running behind. I offered to wait for him, but he said he had a few things he needed to take care of before he could leave. I’m not sure what it was because he didn’t have the time to talk to me about it, but he promised he’d meet me here and would arrive before I made my first pass.”

  Ryker didn’t respond verbally. He merely gave me an assessing look before he dipped his chin in acknowledgment of the clarification I’d just provided.

  Only then did he jump into action.

  “Well, let’s get the car unloaded, swap the drag radials for slicks, and make sure we’ve got fuel in the tank,” he suggested.

  I appreciated him not making a big deal of the fact that Knox wasn’t here. If he had any thoughts or concerns about it, he wasn’t letting them show.

  For the next little while I was incredibly grateful for the laundry list of things I needed to do before I could even consider taking my car down the track. As Ryker had said, I needed to get it unloaded from the trailer first. After he guided me out the ramp door at the rear of the trailer, we got to work. I swapped the tires and put on my racing slicks while he confirmed there was enough fuel in the tank. Logan ended up walking over after he’d finished with one of the other cars and sat in my car. This wasn’t unusual.

  Tuning was an ongoing process that was required if a car was going to reach any goals. And what might work one weekend at the track might not work the next. Things like the track temp and track surface grip played a factor in how a car would perform. So, I realized that Logan had probably not only seen a few cars go down the track, saw how they were hooking, and wanted to make adjustments to the file he’d loaded into the car before he sent me off down the quarter mile, but he also likely sent one of the guys up with the track surface analyzer tool to get some hard data.

  When he finished in the car, Logan shared, “Hey I just wanted to let you know that I killed some power by cracking the air bypass valve. It should be cutting power in half.”

  “Okay,” I returned.

  “I figured it was best to get you comfortable behind the wheel again before we go overkill on the power,” he continued. “And while I have some data on the track surface, I’d like to have you make a pass not on full power just yet so we can get some tire temp data, too. You know we added those infrared tire temp sensors and wired them into the engine management system, so after your first pass we’ll see where things are and adjust accordingly.”

  “That sounds great, Logan. Thanks,” I replied.

  The fact that Logan took the time to explain what he was doing when he made adjustments to the car spoke volumes about the kind of guy he was. Ricky never did that, and I now wondered if it was because he was simply guessing all the time. It wasn’t that way with Logan. He knew what he was doing, he understood the data he was looking at, and he knew how to analyze it and adjust accordingly. If nothing else, it made me feel much more confident about getting in my car and taking it down the track.

  About an hour after I’d arrived, everything was ready to go.

  Well, everything except for me.

  The car was ready. The team was ready. I was not.

  Because Knox still hadn’t arrived.

  I’ll be there with you every time you take it down the track.

  Was I supposed to wait? He promised to be here, but he wasn’t. I didn’t want to be unfeeling or unsympathetic to whatever he had going on. I just didn’t understand. And I didn’t know what to do.

  “Did you call him?” Nash asked, pulling me out of my thoughts that were pulling me downward fast.

  I had been staring off into space. At Nash’s question, I turned toward him and shook my head. “No. I didn’t want to interrupt whatever he’s got going on,” I explained. “I mean, he knew we had planned to do this today. I can’t imagine he would have decided to do something last minute just to make me wait around. I’m sure it’s important.”

  “So, what do you want to do?” he wondered. “Would you like me to call him?”

  I wanted to race. I also wanted Knox to be there when I did it, especially for the first pass. But I hadn’t heard from him, and he made it clear when we were talking this morning that he didn’t have time to mess around and talk to me about what was going on. For that reason, I didn’t think it was smart to have Nash call him and give him a hard time.

  Even though there were a couple other cars here that were from the LT Motorsports camp, I didn’t like knowing that the entire team was waiting around to see my car go down the track when they all played an important role in getting it back together.

  Swallowing hard, unable to believe I was going to do this, I declared, “No. Let’s just head up to the staging lanes and get this done.”

  Nash seemed a bit surprised by my response. “Are you sure?” he asked.

  Directing my gaze toward the car, I dipped my chin and rasped, “Yeah.”

  Then I walked away from Nash as I felt the lump growing in my throat.

  “I refuse… refuse to go there if she’s going to be there!”

  This was a nightmare.

  A disaster of epic proportions.

  And it shouldn’t have been.

  When I came home last night after work, I expected to get on a FaceTime call with my sister, have a nice talk with her, and get to bed at a decent hour so I could get up early this morning to get to Avery’s before we needed to leave to get to the track.

  Everything had started out as I had suspected. In fact, everything had gone substantially better than I expected.

  Because my sister had shared great news with me.

  She was pregnant, and I was going to be an un
cle. I couldn’t have been more excited for her and my brother-in-law.

  The news of my sister’s pregnancy should have been something filled with joy and happiness. And it was. Or, at least, it had been. I spent time talking with her and her husband last night, getting all the details about her due date and how she’d been feeling. I even managed to get to bed at a decent hour last night.

  I had considered calling Avery to talk to her, but I wanted to share the good news in person. In fact, I was hoping when the time came early next year that Avery would be able to join me when I went out to Seattle to visit after the baby was born.

  So, everything had been going according to my plan. I even managed to wake up a few minutes before my alarm. That actually made me laugh a bit because it reminded me of Avery. I was convinced she was rubbing off on me. Race day and testing day was always exciting, and it was a nice change of pace from being in the shop. But not once in all the years had I ever woken before my alarm on a testing day simply because I was looking forward to what the day would bring.

  Then again, this was Avery. I shouldn’t have been surprised she was giving me some of her bad habits. Over the last several weeks, Avery had become such a big part of my life. I looked forward to seeing her and spending time with her every day. Hearing her voice and her laughter was like music to my ears. The woman had become so important in my life, being around her was as crucial as having air in my lungs. And I couldn’t wait to spend the day with her today as she got back behind the wheel and took her car down the track.

  Unfortunately, my plan came to a blinding halt approximately seven minutes after I woke up when my phone rang. I had expected it was Avery calling to tell me she’d been awake all night, but instead I saw a name on the display I hadn’t been expecting.

  Peyton.

  Immediately concerned that something bad had happened to her or the baby, I answered, “Peyton? Are you okay?”

  She hadn’t even said a word, and I could hear she’d been crying.

  My body tensed. “Peyton?” I called again.

  Sniffling, she lamented, “I’m s…s…sorry for calling so early, Knox.”

  “It’s okay,” I insisted. “What’s wrong?”

  “We’re months away from the baby’s arrival, but she’s already starting,” Peyton answered.

  “Mom?” I guessed.

  “Yeah.”

  “How did something happen between last night and this morning?” I wondered. “You told me last night that you already told both Mom and Dad about the pregnancy.”

  “We did,” Peyton assured me. “And everything was great. Mom was so excited about it and told me she was going to start looking at flights for next year so she could be here when the baby arrived.”

  I thought this was all good news, so it didn’t make any sense why she was crying. Understanding she probably needed a moment to pull herself together, I waited. Sure enough, she eventually continued, “She called me a few minutes ago and told me that I was going to have to decide whether I wanted her or Dad here.”

  “What?” I asked. There was no mistaking the horror and disgust in my tone.

  My sister sighed. “I know, Knox. She called here before I was even awake. And then she started going on and on about Dad. I was still so out of it that I could barely register anything that she was saying, let alone get a word out. The one thing I did get out of all her ranting and raving was that she would not come here if Dad was coming out.”

  This was unbelievable.

  Or, better yet, it was unbelievably selfish.

  “Has Dad said he planned on coming out?” I wondered.

  “He didn’t discuss the specifics of a plan just yet, but I’m guessing that’s because we’re still months away from the big event,” she shared.

  “Something set her off,” I noted.

  “Who knows what it was,” Peyton returned.

  Not wanting my sister to have to deal with whatever had gotten our mother all riled up, I ordered, “If she calls back, do not answer. I’m going to deal with this, and I’ll call you back in a little bit. You wait until you talk to me before answering any calls from her. I don’t want you stressed out over her shit.”

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean to get you involved, but I didn’t know what else to do. Will nearly lost his mind when he realized she called this early just to bitch at me.”

  “I don’t blame him,” I told her. “And don’t worry about it. I’ll figure out what’s going on, and I’ll call you back. Okay?”

  “Okay. Thanks, Knox.”

  “Anytime, Peyton.”

  I disconnected the call with her, glanced at the clock, and realized time was slowly ticking away. So, I decided the best course of action was to contact my dad. He was least likely to be dramatic. And the last thing I needed this morning was any more drama.

  It was likely due to the fact that I rarely called him this early in the morning that my dad answered on the first ring.

  “Hello?” he answered.

  “Dad,” I said.

  “Yeah? Knox, what’s going on?” he asked.

  I took in a deep breath before I shared, “I wish I knew. I talked to Peyton last night, and she told me about the pregnancy. Everything was great. She was happy. I just got off the phone with her not even a minute ago, and she’s beside herself.”

  “Is something wrong?” my dad asked.

  “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me the answer to that,” I started. “Peyton wasn’t even awake this morning when her phone rang. Mom called. She started ranting and raving telling Peyton that if you were going to be out there when the baby arrived she wouldn’t be coming. I know it’s no secret that you two aren’t on the best of terms, but according to your daughter, Mom was completely fine when she’d gotten the news about the baby. She started looking at flights immediately. I’m wondering what, if anything, you might know that would have triggered her to react like this.”

  My father didn’t immediately respond. There was a bit of rustling around before he answered, “I have no idea. I haven’t talked to her in ages, son. I can’t imagine what her problem is.”

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  Now it was my turn to sigh. I was going to have to call my mother to get to the bottom of this. And I knew it was going to be no easy feat.

  “Alright. I guess I’ll have to give her a call,” I told him.

  “Is Peyton okay?” he asked.

  “She’s understandably upset,” I answered. “I mean, this is her first baby. She’s supposed to be enjoying her pregnancy, not dealing with a grown woman who, for whatever reason, has decided to throw a hissy fit.”

  “I agree. If you figure out what’s happening, let me know. I’ll give Peyton a call later to check in and make sure she’s alright,” he said.

  “That’s a good idea,” I returned. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Okay.”

  My father and I disconnected, and I looked at the clock again. Short and sweet. I had expected that. What I didn’t like was that time was still ticking by and there was no doubt my conversation with my mom wasn’t going to go smoothly. I need to leave within the next fifteen minutes if I had any chance of making it to Avery’s place on time.

  Deciding it was best to get myself ready first, I went about doing that. But as soon as I had finished getting ready, I took a moment to consider what would happen. I had planned to call my mom and talk to her on my way over to Avery’s. This conversation was going to last much longer than the drive to Avery’s place. The last thing I wanted to do was to be on the phone arguing with my mother while my attention should have been on my woman.

  If it had been any other situation, I would have waited until later to take care of it. But Peyton was pregnant with my niece or nephew. She didn’t need the stress this early in her pregnancy.

  So, I decided to call Avery and have her go ahead without me. Crushingly disappointed was probably the best way to
describe the sound of her voice when she realized I wasn’t going to be picking her up. I hated doing it to her; I just didn’t want her distracted by what could have turned out to be a rather hostile conversation.

  And that’s precisely what it was shaping up to be.

  Because now I had my mother on the phone, and she was livid. I tried to keep things calm and asked what was going on. That’s when she shouted back that she, my mother, refused to go if she was going to be there. I still had no idea who the she was, and it was time to get to the bottom of it.

  “Can you calm down for five seconds and talk rationally about this?” I clipped.

  “This is going to be my first grandchild,” she announced.

  “I understand that,” I assured her. “But that makes it even more baffling why you’d tell Peyton you wouldn’t come. Why are you asking your daughter to choose between her parents?”

  My mom let out a grunt of displeasure before she answered, “I will not be there if he’s going to be there parading around his girlfriend.”

  “Dad?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. Admittedly, it had been a while since we’d gotten together. Christmas, to be exact. I wondered if they had been dating then. Realizing that I didn’t even know he had a girlfriend, something struck me.

  “How do you know he has a girlfriend?” I wondered.

  “I have my ways,” she answered.

  There was no time for this game. “Can we not do this right now?” I huffed. “I’m doing what I can here to try and figure out a solution to the problem you’re having, but if you can’t be bothered to be honest with me, I’m not sure I’ll be able to help.”

  “Facebook,” she mumbled.

  My father was on Facebook?

  I knew my mother was, but it just wasn’t my dad’s thing. “What?” I asked because I was still too stunned at the news.

  “His girlfriend,” she clarified. “She was posting about how she and your father couldn’t wait to meet his grandchild next year. If he’s going to be bringing her out there, I will not be there.”