Page 141 of Happy Hour

Wow.

Examining my crankcase, she looked sparkly. She’d been turned into a shiny sparkly smooth vajazzled crankcase, complete with a checkered flag and a number nine.

Hot damn if I didn’t look good.

I was tempted to click a picture and text Jameson, but I refrained, he was with children today. Then I thought, I need to reveal this Holy Grail extravagant masterpiece in person, maybe even with fireworks.

When the tiny Asian left, carefully I put my clothes on. I didn’t want any diamonds to fall out in fear they would...get misplaced. The thought made me cringe of having anything sharp making its way inside my crankcase.

Emma was standing in the lobby waiting for me. Just as I was about to ask her what she got, she pulled me into the bathroom, dropped her pants and bared her goods to me.

“Christ almighty Emma—I didn’t need to see that!” I wailed diverting my eyes away from her horseshoe she had designed on her girly pad. “You could havetoldme what you got. This isn’t show and tell.”

Pulling her jeans up, she reached for the button of my jeans. “Hey, I showed you, now you show me.”

“No way.Not happening.” Slapping at her, I backed away. “Never, no,” I shook my head violently. “Not in this life time,” It was becoming pretty obvious Emma was not concerned with my lack of show-n-tell.

“Sway, I showed you. That’s not fair.” she whined crossing her arms in front of her.

I wanted to back away further but I was now straddling the toilet in my attempts to escape.

“I do not care.” I shouted sprinting from the bathroom with her trailing. “I never said this was an all skate.”

“At least tell me what you got,” she insisted catching me once I made it to the lobby doors.

I couldn’t help the smile that grazed my lips when I thought about my checkered flag crankcase. Fortunately, she couldn’t see it since I was running away from her. “A checkered flag with the number nine,” I answered quickly making my way through the parking lot.

My running didn’t last long; I was completely out of shape. Soon I was panting, wheezing and holding my side in pain.

“Oh, that’s sweet. You should send him a picture.” Emma held up her phone. “I already sent one to Aiden.”

“I’m not sending him a picture.” I chided helping Emma put the bags in the back of the red dragon. “He’s at St. Jude Children’s Hospital today. I’m not sending him a picture of my crankcase while he’s entertaining children. That’s gross.”

“What’s he doing at St. Jude’s?”

“There’s a five-year old boy, Axle, whose wish was to meet Jameson.”

“Oh,” I could tell it bothered her as well. “Jameson donates a lot of money to that particular hospital. I can see why he’d want to spend some time there.”

Making my way through Tacoma traffic wasn’t the highlight of my day. When we got to Olympia, I headed for caffeine.

“Where are we going?” Emma asked.

“You threw my coffee away, so you’re buying me more.” I smiled. “You should think of getting some too.” I hedged. She had no idea what she was in for with the Lucifer twins.

Rolling with my advice, Emma did get coffee and then we were cruising down 101 towards Elma country and cow shit.

With Emma’s dancing rocking the truck from side-to-side, I turned down the music once we were back on the freeway. “What do you think Chelsea, Darrin and Mariah are up to?” I asked.

Emma was all keyed-up after that. She wanted to be a lawyer at one time so solving a mystery was right up her alley. That and she watched entirely too much CSI. “Well,” she began with much exaggeration. “I think Darrin used Chelsea in attempt to get Jameson in trouble. You know, trying to prove he’s like some sort of bad guy who goes around assaulting woman.” Emma paused taking a drink of her mocha. “Darrin’s just pissed that Jameson is one of the best drivers out there—he’s competition for Darrin. Ireallythink all this is Darrin’s doing. It has to be. He’s hated Jameson from day one. I mean, you remember their USAC days together.”

“Do you think Tate is involved?”

“No, I don’t. I think Tate is just in denial. He would never do that to Jameson purposely, he’s being fed lies by Chelsea—I’m sure of it.”

I was quiet for a few minutes merging onto Highway 8. Then it hit me...if we found someone who was close to them maybe we could see what they’re up to. “Do you know anyone that’s friends with them?”

“The only person I know who hangs around them is Dana. I don’t know that she’s friends with them though.” Emma took another drink of her mocha. “Dana doesn’t go to every race; she’s just an obsessed fan. I don’t even think she has any family on the series.”

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