Page 189 of The Champion
“Casten...if Iremember Monday morning at all—I remember you actually started that.”
“So...” he gave mea blank stare.
I kicked his leg at me. “You should apologize too.”
“Geez dad,” he groaned throwing his head back annoyed.“What do you take me for, some kind of idiot? I said sorry.”
“Good,” I picked him up out of his chair and threw himover my shoulder. “Now...let’s go cheeron your brother.”
He laughed.
“Put me down,” he wiggled laughing again when I squeezedhim harder. “You look ridiculous, put me down. I’m not a toy.”
My right hand scooped him into a headlock before settinghim safely on the ground. He smiled but rolled his eyes straightening his hat.“Have some dignity.”
“Do you even know what that means?”
“No, but neither do you apparently.”
Everyone filed into the stands when the cars lined up.Aiden, Spencer and Van made their way to us with Lane, Cole, Logan and Noahclose by. Who knew where Charlie had disappeared. Between the two of Aiden’sboys, Charlie was the worst. I had a feeling his was probably with my dadsomewhere. Whenever Charlie was a handful for Aiden, dad stepped in and laiddown the law with them. Most of the grandkids were petrified of Jimi, for goodreason.
Dad set fast time and was locked into the main withJustin, Ryder, Cody and Tyler. By the time the B-Main rolled around, there werefour positions open. Axel wanted one of those positions.
The stands were packed with fifteen thousand fans alleagerly awaiting to see what this sixteen-year old kid from Mooresville had tooffer the greatest midget racers in the world.
The race got off to a rough start when Shane Jenningsflipped on the second lap bringing out the red flag for ten minutes while theycleaned up the mess. That’s when the real fun began.
On the front row, Axel was lined up against an Australiandriver, Dylan Cottle.
Cottle had won events like the Hut Hundred, Turkey Nightand the Cooper Classic last year. He was tough competition but I knew Axel hadthe talent and patience to outrun him.
Off the track Axel was like me, impatient as hell. On thetrack, he showed fortitude in situations like this.
“He’s gonna choke.” Some kid behind us said. Spencer andCasten turned around to look back at the kid, glaring. “What?” the kid asked.“He is.”
Casten took Spencer’s fries loaded with ketchup andtossed them back at the kid, ketchup spraying him in the face. “Looks likeyou’rechoking now.”
That’s my boy.
Turns out, Axel didn’t choke as he stayed right withDylan all twenty laps and locked in a spot in the A-Main tomorrow night.
I called Sway to let her know and she told me Arie got atattoo. I was not impressed by this at all. My little angel was fourteen, shedidn’t need a tattoo. Apparently, it was small and on the inside of her anklebut still, this was notgoodnews to me. It just meant she was growingup and that depressed me.
Back at the hotel that night, it took a good hour to getmy hormone driven sixteen-year old son away from his girlfriend. They must havespent a good twenty minutes in the parking lot making out.
This time Justin was not impressed.
“This is not good.” Justin sighed closing the curtains sohe couldn’t see them any longer. His hotel room was right next door so wedecided to open up the mini-bar. “Your son better not break her heart.”
“I have no control over that.”
His eyebrow arched as he chucked an airplane bottle ofrum. “Regardless...put yourself in myshoes...think of that as Arie outthere.”
I leaned out the door of the hotel room. “Axel, get yourass in here!”
Justin started laughing tensely throwing back anotherbottle. “My point exactly,”
“You beat me...Ididn’t make it out here until I was nineteen.”
