Page 4 of Love Complicated

That led me back to my hometown.

Anyone in Calistoga will tell you this town and the surrounding wineries are what drives thousands of tourists here every year, but to me, it holds no resemblance to what I remember. What draws me here is this track and what it means to me. My childhood was here. I was raised on this red clay with four corners and a catch fence. It holds every memory I’ve ever had of my dad and the only girl to hold my heart.

My attention moves to the track’s surface, the ruts, the catch fence that’s seen better days. It seems my dad’s health wasn’t the only thing deteriorating around here. “You let this place go to shit,” I say, distancing myself from him and his tomato. “What were you doing all this time?”

I know as soon as I ask, I shouldn’t have by the death glare I receive and the way Glen’s bushy eyebrows knit together. “Piss off. There’s nothing wrong with this place.”

Unfortunately, I can’t say it’s good to be home, but I did miss Glen and his constant bantering.

Clouded with memories, I stare at the track’s surface and the surrounding fence that looks like it needs to be replaced. “Still looks like shit.” Hooking my hands in the links, I shake the fence. It clings against the concrete barriers securing it to the ground. “This needs replacing before the big money comes to town.”

Glen glances at his watch. “Why are you standing here giving me shit when you’re the one who’s late, Trouble.”

Am I?My eyes move to my watch. Shit. He’s right.

“We’re talking about this when I get back tonight,” I warn, pointing my finger in Glen’s face.

“Uh-huh,” Glen grumbles, shrugging in the process, his dusty boots shifting in the gravel below him. “I’m old enough I won’t remember what we were talking about.”

“That’s the excuse you gave my dad. I know better, old man.”

Glen twists his stance and acts like he’s going to nail me in the shin with his cane, then chuckles. “I might be sixty now, but I can still kick your ass, boy.”

Glen has many nicknames for me. Trouble. Boy. Smartass. The list is endless and mostly accurate, but hardly ever my real name. Though I haven’t seen him in close to ten years, we picked up right where we left off. Him telling me what to do and where to go, and me essentially ignoring him.

In the distance, I watch Glen retreat to his house directly across the street from the track where he lives with his wife, Helena. Since getting into town last night, I’ve been successfully avoiding her. She’s an incredible lady, but she’s too much like a surrogate mother to me, one who’s constantly telling me what to do. My plan was to avoid both her and Glen for as long as possible, but that old man can find me anywhere. Much like he could when I was that smartass little shit causing trouble in this town.

I think most people would agree, because of the ruckus I’ve caused in this city, it would have been in everyone’s best interest for me to stay away. I was actually told to leave. Believe me, I wished I hadn’t returned—for a lot of reasons—but it’s not like I had much of a choice in the matter. Either I came home, or I stood by and let Madalyn Campbell takeover everything my dad had worked for. Over my dead body would I let this track go toher. That fucking bitch doesn’t deserve shit.

My dad, Michael Lucas, owned Calistoga Speedway for the last twenty-five years. Having raced for years himself, he hung up his helmet after a bad wreck in Chico, California and settled down in Calistoga where he bought the track. If he couldn’t race, he was hell-bent on making this work. He was a man of passion and put everything he had into this place. He loved this track more than anything in this world, including his health and in turn, his own life.

For a reason unbeknownst to me, he left it to me.

Two days after he passed away, his lawyer called me with the news that he’d left the track to me. I was shocked. After everything I’d put him through growing up, I only assumed he would leave it to Glen and Helena or even his only brother, my Uncle Vic. He didn’t leave a reason, and the will had been updated three weeks before his death. Maybe I’ll never know why he left it to me, but the final result is the same. He left itallto me.

And I’m still running late. . . so the trip down memory lane is gonna have to wait.

I knew when I decided to come home to sort this mess out, I needed a job. When I told my aunt I was coming back for a while, she hooked me up with a temporary job teaching second grade at the local school, Lake Shore Academy, where she’s the principal. The full-time teacher had been in a car accident over the summer and wouldn’t be back until November.

I had no idea how long all this would take, so I accepted the job. Might as well get use out of that education I’m still paying for.

Since graduating from Southern California University two years ago with a master’s degree, this will be my first full-time teaching job, and I think the only reason I landed it is because my Aunt Katherine has always had a soft spot for her delinquent nephew.

I know what you’re thinking after everything I’ve told you about myself so far. You probably have this assumption I don’t give a shit, and I’ve spent some time in jail. . . maybe even addicted to drugs. Am I right? You’re actually wrong if that’s what you think. I’ve never been arrested. Should have a time or two, but I’mverypersuasive when I need to be.

And now you’re asking yourself how someone like me gets a master’s degree?

Well for one, I went to school. Just because I like to push limits and get a rise out of everyone doesn’t mean I’m not smart and capable of graduating. Hell, I graduated high school with a 4.0. So not only am I a delinquent, I’m smart enough not to get caught.

Jogging over to my trailer I parked in the pits of the track, I grab my backpack and helmet before rushing back out the door.

I can still see the track in the distance and remember the day I left this place. I remember every single detail about the events leading up to leaving, why I did andwhoI left behind. The night I left, I had been with Aly after getting in a fight with Madalyn’s husband at the time. Somehow I found myself in Madalyn’s car, which I stole, with Aly. The girl who holds my heart, even now. I wanted to tell her why I’d been so upset, everything Brooks had said to me and everything my dad hadn’t, but I didn’t tell her any of it. Instead, I left her crying in the rain. After leaving her, I didn’t go home like I should have. I didn’t want to see my dad. I didn’t want to hear him lie. So I convinced a guy to buy me a bottle of tequila, and I stopped worrying about everything.

And then, because listening to tequila is never a good idea, I ran my mother’s car through a building hoping it’d kill Brook’s and destroy my mother’s life.

It didn’t. All it got me was arrested and facing the fact that I could possibly go to jail for it.

“Ridge.” Dad looked at me, his message clear. “You’ve left me no other choice here.”

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