Page 35 of Lemon Crush

“Last week,” I said defiantly.

That’s right, buddy—I had a plan long before you showed up. Okay,one daybefore you showed up.

“Other teamshaveraced VWs,” Lucy agreed in a soothing tone, obviously tuned in to the tension. “And because it was souped up long before the sale, we won’t get any point deductions from the judges. They’ll put it in they u rune classic?category and keep us in Class C with no penalty laps.”

“Thewhatcategory?”

“What about Myrtle?”

Rick and Lucy glanced at Wade as if he were suffering from heatstroke.

“Myrtle’s too slow to be a racecar,” I told him.

“She would be a better one than Jiminy,” Wade argued. “A two-decade-old CRV on its last legs is more in keeping with the spirit of the race. Hell, I thought you were going to offer it earlier today.”

Lucy slid Rick a sideways look. “She named her car Myrtle?”

Dideveryonehave a problem with that? “It’s a great name. And I was never planning to offer you Myrtle. I can’t let you have her.”

“AndIcan’t let you do this to your mother’s car without giving it serious consideration.”

He did not just say that. He couldn’tletme? Like I was a child and he had any say in my decisions?

“That was a mistake, Wade,” Lucy ruled. “Trust me, I’ve been to the doghouse enough to know.”

“I have given it serious consideration,” I told Wade stiffly. “The car is in my name, and legally I can do whatever I want with it. Including sell it without needing anyone else’s permission.”

“Gus, you know I didn’t mean?—”

I held up my hand to stop him. “And I’m willing to sell Jiminy to the team, on the condition that I’m allowed to drive him in this one race.”

There. You finally said it.

“No fucking way,” Wade growled.

I gaped at him. Thenerveof this man!

“Are you seeing this?” Lucy laughed in disbelief. “Certain things are making so much more sense now, aren’t they, Rick?”

“They are. Rookie move, Wade.”

“Fuck you both,” Wade snarled. I’d never seen him so angry. “This isn’t bumper cars, and she was so sick for most of last year, she couldn’t walk around the block. Whether you take the car or not, I want her to think about this for more than a hot minute.”

It was official. I was back to not liking Wade Hudson. He didn’t just irritate me, he enraged me.

“Should I think about it as long as Gene did after he got his remission news, Wade?” I fired back. “Because if I remember correctly, he went directly from the hospital to purchase his first racecar, with you cheering him on.”

Rick sent me a finger gun of approval as he finished the last of his bacon cheeseburger.

Lucy morphed completely into peacemaker mode. “Let’s give Wade the benefit of the doubt, August. Gene bought a hunk of junk that time, but that’s your mama’s love bug out there. It meant a lot to her, and you wouldn’t be getting it back. Even if you did, it would never be in the same condition again.”

“To turn it into a Lemon, we’d have to scrape out the interior. Completely gut it,” Wade told me quietly, the anger drained out of him and his eyes now begging me to reconsider.

Why? Because he felt sentimental about the car? Or because he didn’t think I could handle myself?

“Do you even know what to expect on a racetrack?” he asked,unknowingly answering my question. “Have you gone to a single Lemons race to watch what happens?”

“You think I can’t do it because I haven’t done it before?” Disappointment brought me to my feet. “Neither had these knuckleheads until a few years ago, but you walked them through it without questioning their abilities.”

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