Page 4 of The Legend
Cole andCasten took off to the backyard where the pool was being finished. For now, itwas a skateboard park for the boys and a very large hospital bill waiting tohappen.
“Jameson,”Sway watched them dig out their skateboards from the garage. “That doesn’t looksafe.”
“Logan’snot here. It’s safe.”
“Goodpoint.” She pushed a pile of steaks into my chest. “Get to cooking, champ.”
Havingjust come off my fifteenth NASCAR Cup Championship, my wife and familyfrequently called me champ. If I was being honest, I liked it.
I caughther by the wrist balancing the plate of steaks in my left hand. “You have somuch to make up for tonight.”
Shegrinned and purposefully licked her lips backing away across the slate patio, herhand lingered on my forearm. “Oh I plan to.” She caught notice of my jeansafter that. “I’d change before Aiden comes over. He’ll notice.”
She had avery good point. Hide the evidence.
Swaydisappeared to the kitchen with Alley when the rest of the family showed up. Ithought it was just Spencer and Alley coming over tonight but it turned out, aswith any given night we were all in town together, my sister Emma showed up asdid my parents. Before Aiden came outside, I changed out of my bleach stained jeansso he wouldn’t notice.
It wasboth nice and horrible having a large family since Sway’s parents were bothgone. Her biggest fear was growing old without a family. A family is what wehad.
Congregatingaround our dining room, I listened to the boys arguing. Axel, our eldest son,wasn’t here tonight because he was at Volusia Speedway doing promotionalappearances for the upcoming season. This past winter came with not only theannouncement of my dad retiring from racing, but with the news that my son wouldbe taking over his legendary ride in the World of Outlaws. I had mixed emotionsover that as didSway.
Most ofthe time was spent listening to Casten and Cole making the night eventful.Thankfully, Emma and Aiden’s twin boys were at a friend’s house and notinstigating these two.
Mydaughter Arie, our middle child, and Spencer and Alley’s daughter, Alexis, weresomewhere on these two hundred acres but who knew where they were. They usuallyfound entertainment where grown-ups weren’t. Being sixteen-year-old girls, youcan imagine their love for their parents.
They, atleast, showed up for dinner and then I knew they’d be out again. Sway and Itried to get her to be friendly but she thought we were the least cool peopleand rolled her eyes every chance she could.
“I triedcalling to see what I should bring but you didn’t answer.” Emma said toSwayas she shuffled a few dishes from the kitchen onto thetable. “And by the way, change that street name. It’s inappropriate.”
“I think Ilost my phone again,” Sway shrugged, “and you have to talk to Jameson about thestreet names. He had the signs made, not me.”
“We arenot changing anything!” I yelled into the kitchen smiling at Spencer.
Tommy,Spencer and I got together one night, albeit drunk, and made street signs on awebsite Sway had found. When they arrived, everyone excluding us boys thoughtthey were vulgar, rude and apparently now, inappropriate. I didn’t think theywere that bad. Who wouldn’t want to live on a street namedPoontown?I didn’t but Tommy did. We lived on Victory Lane naturally. Spencer lived onChasing Tail and Aiden and Emma lived onVagHill. Iknew eventually they’d take those down but it was funny to me.
“What’dyour dad say about it?” Cole whispered to Casten as they took a seat around thetable.
Castenshot Cole a frantic look.
“He didn’tsay anything.” Casten whispered back and smiled up at me avoiding his cousin.“How’s the shop coming along, dad? Did you get the lifts installed?”
“What didyou do now?” I asked sitting down beside Sway. She gave me a wink when my handbrushed her thigh under the table.
“Why doyou automatically assume I did anything wrong?” Casten smiled as though he’djust won the lottery. “Maybe I did something right?”
Let metell you something about my youngest son. He was here on earth for a good timeand nothing would stop him. And everything, I mean everything, was funny tohim.
Spencer,who was sitting on the other side of me, looked at Cole. “You couldn’t keepyour mouth shut for one evening?” His voice took on a fatherly tone but stilllacked authority and I knew what’d happened. He’d put the boys up to somethingand it backfired.
Castenraised his hand.
“Why areyou raising your hand?” Sway asked just about the time my parents entered thedining room with a few dishes of what looked to be pasta salad and pie. Thegirls followed close behind them holding their phones a few inches from thefaces.
Castenshrugged and smiled at Sway. “It seemed appropriate given the circumstances. Iwanted to plead my side of the case before it went to trial.”
“Weirdo,”Sway mumbled scooping salad onto her plate. “Stop watching those court shows.You don’t even know what you’re talking about and no, at fourteen you cannot beTommy’s attorney.”
“I didn’task to be his attorney.” Casten laughed and leaned back in his chair preparingfor an argument. He lived for this shit. “But if he needed me to support himthrough his legal battles, I would help. A good friend would.”
