Page 54 of Dirt Driven

Paxton took a drink of his Gatorade in hand and then stared at the cap, as if it was far more interesting than why he showed up out of nowhere to follow Tommy around. “We’re out for the summer.”

In May? I guessed times had changed since I went to school, since that was over ten years ago.

“And your mom is cool with you hanging around Tommy?” I asked, curious myself how all this got started. I couldn’t even fathom Tommy Davis having a kid, let alone hanging out with one and being a father figure. He’s great with kids, but as the cool uncle. “Does she not remember him?”

Paxton shifted his stance nervously. “She said she didn’t know him. I thought I’d come find out.”

The whole situation seemed weird to me. Who would let their fifteen-year-old son take an Uber to find his dad? I certainly wouldn’t let my sons do that, but then again, they knew their dad. Caden talked to Paxton while I pulled Tommy aside.

“Do you know his mom? Have you talked to her?”

Tommy shrugged. “No. I mean, I remember her, but I haven’t heard from her.”

“And you don’t think this is a little weird this kid came to find you… alone?”

“Well, yeah, when you put it like that.” Tommy scratched his head, taking another drink of his coffee as his eyes drifted to Paxton. “Do you think he looks like me?”

I stared at the kid, still not seeing the resemblance. “No, not really.”

“Me either.”

“Tommy,” I gasped. “What if he ran away? You’ve been traveling with him for two weeks now. That could be kidnapping.”

“How so?” He looked offended. “I didn’t tell him to run away and find me.”

“Still. We should maybe look into this and check to make sure he’s not some runaway.”

Tommy stared at the kid again. “Yeah, okay,” he said, and then walked away from me with Paxton. “Have you met Josephine?”

Paxton followed along with him. “No. Who’s that?”

“A good time for you.”

Yep. He said that.

Rager snorted. “I bet you a hundred bucks that kid ran away from home.”

“Right?” Caden sat up in his chair. “I thought the same thing. He said he was from Terre Haute, but then he didn’t know shit about the Hut Hundred. How do you live there and not know?”

“He’s not real bright,” Rager argued. “I had to explain to him seven times why the tires are staggered.”

Hudson made his way out of the motor home, missed the last step and landed face first in the dirt. Didn’t bother him one bit. He stood, brushed his hot dog off—where he got that from I had no clue—and went strolling over to where my parents were parked.

“Hornet is the toughest little dude I know.”

Rager smirked. “He’s been that way from the beginning. When they circumcised him, he didn’t cry at all. Just stared at the doctor with a blank expression.”

Kinsley’s eyes went wide. “Is that normal?”

“The doctors said he has a high pain tolerance, but it’s normal, I guess,” I told her, watching Hudson in the distance. Dad had him in his arms now, talking to him and glaring at us.

Caden looked over at Rager. “Why is he glaring at us?”

“I know why,” Kinsley noted, burping the baby after she fed her. “So Gray walked by me earlier and said, Jameson shit her pants. Clearly talking about the baby.” We laughed, but then she added, “Well now there’s a rumor going around that Jameson, you know…. He won’t talk to me now. I think we should start calling her by her middle name.”

The guys laughed, their attention on DIRTVision where they were watching highlights from last year at Eldora where Caden swept the weekend.

Kinsley and I talked about the baby when she grinned at Caden and then me, slowly raising her left hand up. “So… he did this last night….”

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