Page 158 of The Champion
Kristy was pretty and resembled Sway in a lot of ways,there was no denying that, but I also knew it really didn’t matter. No one wouldever fill the aching void I felt when Sway wasn’t with me.
“You know,” I began handing Kristy a tissue. “My wife,Sway and I went through something like this.”
“I know,” she nodded. “I read that somewhere.”
“What I meant was that even though you think you can’thave Colin, you can. He loves you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re right.” I offered. “I don’t know if he loves youbut I can tell you from a man’s perspective, he appears to.”
She was silent and then turned to hug me. Carefully,trying not to lead her on any more than I already had, I wrapped my arms aroundher returning the hug and then pulled her away to arms’ length.
“Go get him.” I told her with a wink.
There were times where I got lonely and I missed Sway butthe thought never crossed my mind to turn to another woman. Like I said, itwasn’t an option for me, never would be.
Another woman to frequently try her luck was Nadia.
Now Sway never came out and said it but I knew herfeelings toward Nadia. It was the same as every other wife whose husband racedin the series. They didn’t trust her.
I also never appreciated how Nadia thought she was betterthan our wives. She thought because she was out there with us that she wasbetter than them as though they didn’t have the drive to do what she had donein the sport.
Well to me, our wives had done more.
Nadia also thought the wives were gold diggers and nevertook the time to think otherwise. What she didn’t know was that, Sway, forexample, ran Grays Harbor Raceway most days, made sure everyone with JARRacings got their flight schedules; drivers were paid, raised our kids and keptme grounded.
To me, she had the hardest job out of all of us.
She was there when the spotlight wasn’t.
Something I knew a girl like Nadia wouldn’t be. Shereminded me so much of Ashley and Chelsea it was revolting.
But, I still was pleasant to her when needed.
Sometime after the summer race in Charlotte, I was at abar with Tyler having a drink when Nadia showed up. He’d yet to meet her so Iintroduced them and that was that. We parted ways for the night.
Only problem was when Tyler went to the bathroom, Nadiafound me at the bar.
“So what, you’re gonna ignore me?” she asked when shestood there for a good few minutes and I had yet to say anything to her. Thepaper wrapping on my beer was more interesting than conversation with her.
“I was trying to. You’re making it hard.” I told her andfinally looked at her.
She had green eyes that I never noticed until tonight.They shined in the lighting of the bar. But still, I wasn’t tempted by her eventhough I hadn’t seen my wife in over a week. Yeah, it would have been easy forme to act on impulse, driven with just hormones but that wasn’t me.
“You’re always an asshole, aren’t you?”
“How would you know?” My eyes focused on hers andlaughed. “You made your mind up about me a long time ago.”
“No, you made it for me.” She replied and motioned forthe bartender to get her a beer and one for me.
“I’m not always a bad guy.” I said looking at her again.
She smiled. “I know. I was just giving you a hard time.”Her hand came up and rested on my shoulder. “How bout a drink.”
Against my better judgment, Tyler and I had a drink withher. When Tyler left around midnight, I got up to leave and Nadia reached formy hand. I wasn’t comfortable with how close she was.
“Just one more?”
