Page 173 of Happy Hour

Emma gave me a strange look while Andrea smiled at me. “Yeah, I’ll stay with her.” She held out her hand. “Can I have your credit card?”

“What would make you think I wouldeverhand you my credit card?”

“For payment,” she set her plate in the sink. “If I’m staying here, youshouldreward me.”

“You’re reward will be me not going home and burning all your favorite clothes for the shit you’ve put me through.” I responded patting her before making my way down the hall to check on Sway.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly opening the door. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, Sway slumped against the wall beside the toilet.

“Yeah, I think maybe I have the flu.” She fumbled with the hem her shirt to avoid looking at me directly.

“Hmm...I guess Lane had it.” I felt her forehead. “Maybe you caught it from him somehow.”

I really didn’t think it was the flu. I had a feeling it was something else but didn’t say anything. Seeing those very same symptoms in Alley, all the signs were pointing to her being pregnant.

When Alley was pregnant with Lane we were all still traveling around together in my truck, which made for some interesting trips.

There were times when I was moments away from volunteering to ride on the roof rather than sit next to a hormonal Alley for sixteen hours in a day.

I didn’t want to freak Sway out, so instead I smiled reassuringly at her. “Maybe you should...go to the doctor.” I suggested pulling her up into my arms. “Just to make sure you don’t have something else.”

“Yeah, I think I will this week.”

The thought that she might be pregnant, with my child, had me glowing as much as her. I wasn’t ready for kids but if they happened, they happened. I knew Sway was on birth control pills, I saw them the morning after we first slept together. That right there made this even more confusing to me. If she was on the pills, there was no way she could be pregnant?

Maybe she does just have the flu.

Ughh...my cell phone beeped twice, reminding me of the real world waiting for me.

“I have to go.” I kissed her forehead. “I’ll call you went I get to Sarver.”

With a few more lingering kisses,aftershe brushed her teeth, I headed for Olympia to begin my busy two weeks, without Sway.

As with any time away, my focus then was solely on racing.

“The car is shaking real bad. My shifter is vibrating like a son of a bitch. I wanted to see if it was all of us?” I asked Cole around lap two twenty of the Brickyard 400.

This week had flown by with my numerous commitments and now here I was, on race day, trying to piece together an ill handling race car. It could have been worse. The last two races the engine had blown way before lap two hundred, so I guess in all actuality, we were doing good if you considered running eighteenth good.

“It’s all of us.” Cole finally answered. “I can barely get the car in fourth without slippin’ off the shifter.”

I used to love Indy but lately, it only served back memories.

Last year, I raced in the Busch Series and pegged the wall in turn three, nearly sending me to the hospital with a concussion. The year before that, I raced here in a USAC midget and flipped it seven times on the backstretch.

This track hated me.

There was still a chunk missing from the outside barrier where my car landed upside down on it during that USAC race.

Somewhere around lap three hundred, we were doing better,untilthe caution came out.

Kyle came over the radio after the pit stop. “Too fast entering, come back in bud.”

“What?” I slammed my fists down on the wheel. “You have to be shitting me? I came in on fifty six like I have all goddamn race.”

“I know,” Kyle replied. “Harris and Cole are being held too,”

“It’s bullshit!” I yelled back heading back to pit lane for my stop and go penalty.

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