Page 53 of Dirt Driven

“What’s a lot lizard?” Kinsley asked.

Last year, Caden had a very unfortunate and unforgettable experience at a truck stop in Minnesota. He swore off them for an entire year after a woman, who was old enough to be his grandma, followed him into the bathroom and locked him in there wanting a piece of the candy cane, as she put it. Luckily he was rescued by Tommy and Lane, but it stuck with him.

Now apparently he’d met his breaking point. Standing outside his motor home, he stripped down to his underwear, tossed his clothes in a trash can and refused to talk about it.

Back inside, Rager stared at the gas station and then laughed. “What are you laughing at?”

He pointed toward the row of trucks on the other side of the parking lot. It was Willie and Tommy in their van talking to the chick in the leopard pants. “I bet you twenty bucks they paid that chick to go into the bathroom at the same time.”

Knowing Tommy and Willie, I certainly wouldn’t put it past them.

ELDORA SPEEDWAY

NEW WESTON, OHIO

“WHEN IS THEsurgery scheduled for?”

“August eighteenth,” I told Kinsley, who sat with me as the morning at Eldora moved slowly. I’d just finished making the kids’ breakfast; Rager was still asleep inside. “I wanted to wait until after Knoxville Nationals and then I figured I’d just stay home for the final West Coast swing.”

“That’s good timing.” Kinsley was feeding Jameson Grace, who she had cradled in a plush pink blanket. “Are you nervous?”

I nodded. “A little, but I think in a weird way, I’m excited to have perky tits again. Babies drain them.”

She laughed as she ran her fingertips over her baby’s cheek. “Can’t wait for that to happen,” she teased, winking at me.

With my coffee in hand, I watched my kids eating off paper plates in front of the motor home. Knox’s sausage link rolled off his plate and into the grass, but he ate it anyway. Didn’t matter to him. He ate fucking sticks like they were candy. Yes, I asked his pediatrician about this. It’s… normal. Kind of.

The camping lot we were in was starting to come to life. Caden eventually joined Kinsley outside with coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. “Hey,Closer.”

He grinned, chocolate on his lips and leaned to the side in the camp chair. “I still haven’t come close to the Sweet Spots two-hundred wins.”

It was true, he hadn’t, but no one had touched Jimi’s record of over five hundred and thirteen outlaw wins. Or my dad’s three hundred and thirty-nine. “He’s been racing since you were a baby though,” I pointed out.

“Someday I’ll get there.” He took the baby from Kinsley as she adjusted her shirt. “Hey, baby,” he cooed, holding his daughter close to him and rubbing her back. She made the cutest baby noises and curled her legs up.

“I miss when they were that age.”

“I miss being young enough that when I woke up, my back didn’t hurt,” Rager added, stumbling out of the motor home in a pair of shorts and no shirt, and coffee in hand.

I gawked at him, knowing that with every year he got older, the better looking he got to me. I couldn’t wait to be old and gray with him. “Oh, please, you’re in better shape than most of the kids around here.”

Caden coughed, handed the baby over to Kinsley and lifted his shirt. “Aside from me.”

I glanced at his stomach and snorted. Dude had a twenty-pack, if that was a thing. “Okay, maybe aside from him.”

That earned me a glare from my husband. “Really? Did you just check him out right in front of me?”

“Oh, c’mon. I only looked. It’s not like I’m trying to seal the deal withthe Closer,” I teased, winking at Caden.

Caden grinned. “Or maybeI’mtrying to push the cushion with her.” He raised his hands up. “I do have a thing for brunettes.”

It was all in good fun. Caden never flirted with other women at the track. He was one hundred percent in love with Kinsley. But, my husband didn’t see it that way. Rager growled out a breath and before Caden knew it, he was flat on his back in the grass, but both of them were at least laughing.

Tommy came by for coffee, as he usually did, and brought Paxton with him.

“Paxton is going to draw tonight. He’s feeling lucky if you know what I mean…,” Tommy hinted. I was assuming that meant he got lucky last night, but by the flush to Paxton’s cheeks, and the kids sitting around, I didn’t push that conversation. It was strange seeing a kid his age around Tommy and Willie, and knowing damn well no good was going to come from it.

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” Rager asked, peering sideways at Paxton.