Page 132 of Trading Paint

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Page 132 of Trading Paint

“I was hoping you’d call before the race.”

“Did you watch my interview this morning?” I groaned. I hated doing interviews generally because I never knew what to say. If I spoke my mind, they wouldn’t be happy.

“I did...a little eloquent but really, that’s you.”

“How have you been? How did your class go?”

“Good, I got an A so I guess it went well.Just three more months to graduation!”

“I think I’m more excited for you to graduate than you are.” I told her with a chuckle.

Alley, with Lane on her hip, made her way inside the motor coach I’d holed myself up in. With traveling so often these days, I purchased a Featherlite Motor coach. Most of the drivers had them and I definitely saw the advantages. You didn’t have to find a hotel room and you could sleep longer on race days.

Alley pushed a plate of tacos at me so I began eating while Sway talked about her classes for a moment. After ruffling Lane’s mop of wavy honey blonde hair, Alley went back outside with him.

“What are you going to do after yougraduate?”

“Well I’m sure Charlie has everything lined up for me...he wants me to be the General Manager.”

“I heard that...” I paused taking a drink of my water. “Is that whatyouwant to do?”

“Yes and no.” she admitted. “I miss you...I miss everyone. I had lunch with your mom the other day and it just reminded me how much fun I had with everyone.”

“I hope you mean me...I believeI’mthe one you like the most.”

She giggled. “Yes, I’d say I’m partial to you.”

“You probably can’t come out for the race, huh?”

“I’m not sure yet. I need to put some finishing touches on my Marketing Management assignment.”

“I understand.” I said before I gave myself away.

This was a significant step in my racing career but I couldn’t expect her to be there for everything, I wanted her to be but I couldn’t expect it. She wasn’t my girlfriend and I had to stop acting as though she was.

“I’ll try,” she offered. “But I can’t promise anything.”

“Well when you graduate...we need to get together at some point.”

“We could run away together.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah but there would be a lot of jealous girls if you ran away with me,” Sway teased with a giggle. I’d recentlydida magazine interview where all they talked about was how girls wanted to run away with me. Clearly, I’d just provided ammo for Sway.

“Shut up.” I groaned pushing my plate away. I wasn’t surprised I just eaten six tacos. I glanced at my phone and realized I needed to get to the pre-race activities. “I need to get to driver introductions but I just needed to hear your voice for a minute.”

“Just remember, you’ll do fine.”

“I know.” I rubbed my belly. I definitely ate too much.

“I...” Sway paused and let out a shaky breath. “I will see you soon okay?”

“Yeah, somehow...maybe I can make it out there for graduation or something.”

“I know you’re busy Jameson but please don’t forget whytonight...you’re racing in the Budweiser Shootout, that means something. This is what you worked for all those years.”

Honestly though, it hadn’t hit me how real this all was. I’m sure it would when I got inside the car but as of yet, it hadn’t. I think I was too full to feel anything else.


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