Page 50 of Dirt Driven

She swallowed over what appeared to be a lump in her throat, her cheeks flushed. “I knew five years before my cancer I had the mutation. And I waited, because I didn’t think I’d get it. I wish I hadn’t. I wasn’t in love with my fun bags anyways. But these new perky ones—” She paused and cupped her boobs and pushed them out. “I love them. So does your dad, even though he was against it in the beginning.”

I laughed, rolling my eyes. “I didn’t need to know that part, Mom.”

“I know, but Rager doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

She might be right, but convincing him of this might be harder than I imagined. I had to get stitches after Hudson was born because I tore so bad and he wasn’t happy about it. He was so nervous that I’d get an infection or that they’d hurt me somehow. Until he realized I was tighter and then the dude certainly had no fucking complaints then.

MOST OF THEafternoon at Pevely I spent in the pits with Rager and the rest of the team getting caught up on everything I missed. We had a press release coming out to announce the co-ownership and new sponsorships.

I would love to go as far to say Rager relaxed, but he hadn’t. In fact, after motor heat and packing the track, he shoved Casten.

I got between them, my hands on his chest but noticed there was some humor in his eyes. “Why are you smiling but look like you want to kill my brother?”

Reaching around me, he threw his helmet at Casten. “This fucker drew a dick on all my tear-offs. Every single one of them. It was like watching a cartoon book of a dick’s life from start to finish.”

Willie suddenly became interested in the conversation. “Like finish,finish? Or the end of the dick story?”

Rager’s frown deepened. “Like…finish. I thought it was water on my visor. But no, glue.” His glare snapped to Casten who, at this point, couldn’t stand up straight he was laughing so hard. “At least I hope it was fucking glue.”

Casten straightened his posture, smiling proudly. “I spent a lot of time on it.”

If you knew Casten, you knew this wasn’t anything new. Caden, who’d heard the entire interaction, grinned. “He did that to me last week. Made for an interesting main event.”

We all laughed. Hayden high-fived her highly inappropriate husband. That was when I noticed a kid I hadn’t seen before in the pits beside Tommy. They were bent over Axel’s car, and Tommy looked to be showing him something on the gears.

“Who is he?” I asked Hayden as I juggled my phone and the handwritten lineup for the dash I had in my other.

“Oh, girl.” Hayden took a long drink from her Jack Daniels mixture she was keeping hidden in her Yeti. “You missed so much. That little ray of attitude is Tommy’s son.”

I stared at her with wide eyes. “What? You can’t be serious?”

“Dead serious. He has a kid. He’s fifteen and his name is Paxton. He lives in Terre Haute and basically followed us from Eldon to Pevely.”

Oh, shit. Yep. Tommy spent a lot of time there with Axel when he was younger racing USAC. Made sense. But what didn’t make sense was what he was doing here.

Tommy said something, Willie laughed, and then the kid Paxton leveled his dad a serious expression of what the fuck is wrong with you? “I think you’re all fucked in the head.”

Tommy rolled his head in Willie’s direction. “Clearly he takes after his mother.”

Gray surfaced from the hauler and stood next to me. “Do you know where your daughter is?”

“My daughter? With my mom in the grandstands. Why?”

“Nope.” Gray glared at me, her skin super shiny for some reason. It was like she had oil on her or something. “Try again.”

Shit. My heart jumped up into my throat. “Where? And what’s all over you?”

Gray’s lips pressed together as she stared up at me in anger. “Go do something about her.” And then she shoved her finger in the direction of Caden’s car where my daughter was literally spraying everything and anything with the Sure Shot.

Mom was next to her trying to get it away from her but no such luck. Thankfully Rager got it from her by tickling her. She dropped it immediately, her laughter rolling through the dirt fog in the air.

I watched the two of them, so thankful that I had this time with them. I’d been so stressed out over Rager becoming co-owner that I forgot to realize how this lifestyle, no matter how hectic, was what I loved. Everything about it from our relationships we’d made to the different city every night. Dad was right. It wasn’t even the sport. It was what being dirt driven had provided us. A family.

Kinsley, Hayden, and I went up and watched the main event in the grandstands. We took Bristol, Pace, Ryder, and Gray with us. Mom watched the other kids and baby Jameson. Pace wouldn’t sit still on my lap and moved to sit next to Gray, but poor Bristol was out after the four-wide salute. While the opening laps were filled with early cautions, the race stayed green most of the way. Casten ended up blowing a left rear and tagged the wall on the front stretch.

“Fuck,” Hayden groaned. “He’s going to be a fucking peach to ride with tonight.”

Gray looked dejected but kept her eyes on Caden’s number nineteen cherry-red car holding that number one spot in front of my husband. Rager blipped the throttle on the back stretch and up into the cushion into three and four. Caden did the same.

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