Page 96 of Black Flag

Curious as to what itwas, I opened it to find a beautiful platinum heart locket. I smiled and lookedinside to find a picture of us when we were eleven at the track sitting on thefront of his sprint car. On the other side was a scripture in Italian. “Whatdoes it say?”

“It’s says:Toseeing past the speed.”

I started crying againbecause I knew exactly what that meant and why he chose it. Jimi always toldhim, “It’s hard to see past the speed when you’re going two hundred miles perhour.”

To Jameson, it meant ahell of a lot more than just racing as it was his entire life. He couldn’t seepast the speed for the longest time and then when he did, he saw me for what Ireally was in his life.

He settled beside meand thankfully stopped the dirty talking and singing. I wasn’t sure how muchmore I could take tonight.

The rest of dinnerpassed quickly. Charlie and Jimi took turns taking shots. I was a littleworried that Charlie shouldn’t be drinking that much but every time I suggestedhe stop, he blew me off and continued drinking.

Alley was beginning tolet loose. Since she didn’t have to worry about Lane, and Jimi and Nancy werearound, she was finally able to relax without feeling like a babysitter.

After a while, Aidenand Emma were missing, which I assumed they went back up to their room likeJameson and I had done but I couldn’t be sure. There was plenty of shopping todo in Vegas and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she was forcing Aiden totagalong.

Nancy was sipping herfire drink all the while keeping an eye on everyone. Spencer and Jameson playedsome retarded drinking game with Tequila, bad idea.

And there I was,drinking my water, boring.

“Where’s Emma?” Alleyasked taking Jameson’s seat next to me since he was consumed by the silly game.

“Not sure—why?” My eyesshot to Jameson when he shoved Spencer and barked, “You fucking cheatedasshole,” loud enough for the entire hotel to hear.

“We should go findher.”

“Why?” I asked. “She’swith Aiden.”

“No she’s not.” Alleyscrunched her eyebrows together shaking her head. “Aiden is with Tommy atTreasure Island.”

“Oh, well hell...let’s go find her.”

I went over to Jamesonand told him where I was going. He wasn’t pleased.

“No, I don’t think so,”was his firm response. “You’re staying by me tonight.”

“Jameson...I’ll only be a minute.”

He insisted Van followus, which I agreed to. It was actually nice to know I was safe with Van nearby.Van Lambert, the bodyguard Phillip hired was fucking huge. He reminded me ofsome professional body builder. You know the ones that couldn’t put their armsdown or wipe their own ass because their arms were so fucking stout?Yeah, them.

An hour later, wefinally found Emma in a boutique trying on wedding dresses.

Between everything sincethe proposal, I hadn’t had time to think about what kind of dress I would wear.By the time December came along, I’d probably be huge. Might as well wear sweatpants.

Emma spotted us as shetwirled around in a floor length flowing gown. “Oh hey, look Sway.” Her blueeyes sparkled like Jameson when he was racing. “You should get this one!”

“Why are you trying onwedding dresses?” Alley asked snickering. Everything was funny to her tonight.

“ForSway.I’m planning her wedding.”

Alley looked at me,confused.

“You are?” I askedsmiling at her on the pedestal she was perched on, swirling and twirling. Iknew Emma would be perfect but the fact that she assumed I’d let her do it, wasfunny to me.

“Well...yes, she didn’t exactly say I could but...I want to.” Her smile was so sincere Ijust nodded. “Ekkkk!” she squealed. “So what do youthink?”

“I’m never going to fitinthatcome December.”

“December?Why not now? We’re inVegas.” She motioned around like we didn’t know. “Do it tonight!”

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