Page 127 of Trading Paint
When the front door opened, I jumped up so high off the sofa; I nearly flew through the air.
“Jameson...” I heard my mom’s voice, “Your dad and I are home.”
“Mom, you scared the shit out of me!” I yelled back, not moving from the family room and trying to calm myself down.
“Don’t curse at your mom.” dad said sternly making his way inside. “Put some clothes on, boy.” dad hit the back of my head. My mom kissed my cheek before skipping past.
“We need to go over your fan club!” she said with wide excited eyes. I groaned.
Dad chuckled. “Andweneed to go over your contract for next season.” He held a thick manila envelope in the air.
Awesome.I thought to myself.
Here I was debating with myself all morning and now more were joining the party.
“What fan club?” I asked apprehensively.
“Yours,” Mom said opening her laptop on the table in the dining room. “You got fans sweetheart. Those fans need to be able to get in touch with you.”
“No they don’t. I don’t want to get in touch with them.”
“Yes you do. You wouldn’t be racing if it wasn’t for them.”
“That’s not entirely true.” I groaned until dad kicked me again.
“Go put some clothes on.” His eyebrow arched at the bottle of whiskey I was holding. “Give me that.”
Mom glared at the bottle. “Jameson, sweetie...it’s a tad early for that.”
“Not if I’m spending the day going over a fan club for stalkers.”
“They’re not stalkers...they love you.”
“Stalkers,” I mumbled again. I threw myself down next to her in a wooden chair. My head slumped against the table.
Dad hit my shoulders. “Go put some damn clothes on. I feel weird having to ask you twice now.”
So much for trying to decipher my feelings.
The afternoon was spent setting up my fan club website and signing my life away to Simplex and my dad. It was exhausting so I took a nap afterward.
The season was flying by and before I knew it, we were in Homestead and the Winston Cup career was promising when I won my fourteenth race there in Florida. I finished out my rookie season in the Busch series with a second place finish in the points and won the Rookie of the Year award.
Not bad.
As the leaves turned burgundy and began to fall, the nights got colder, and before I knew it, winter was here.
I thought maybe I would be able to take a quick breather but time was not something I was in control of any longer. Right after Homestead, I was off to Turkey Night, which I finally won. Then the Chili Bowl followed by testing of the new cup car.
Before testing started, I had a chance to get together with Justin after the Chili Bowl, which was welcomed. It was good to see him. I hadn’t seen him since Knoxville and I forgot how much fun we had hanging out.
“How’ve you been?” I asked taking a drink of my beer and then leaned back in my seat.
He shrugged.“Can’t complain.I lost my ride in USAC though.”
“Really?”This shocked me. “What happened?”
“Sponsors—they ran out of money,apparently?”
