Page 75 of The Legend
Limpinginside, my arm hung around over her shoulders, hers around my waist. “Do youthink we’re too old to be still doing it in cars and on bikes?”
Mylips found her forehead. “No. I think we’re normal and we’re making this whatwe want it to be.”
“You’reright. Now...” her smile was mischievous. “Wehaven’t done it in the shower since we moved in. Let’s get to that. The kidsare gone.”
“Youread my mind honey.”
Inever thought we were too old to be doing what we did. I never thought we weretoo old for a lot of things because we were in love. How many couples in theirforties could honestly say that? I knew a few who couldn’t. It seems that theolder you get, the harder it is to keep that love alive. You find yourselfpinched and looking for an opening anywhere. Our opening was this. We had ahealthy relationship. We fought, oh man, did we fight. She thought I followedto close to other cars when driving and that I never cleaned up after myself orthat I lost my temper too quickly. I hated that she yelled at me for followingto close or that we paid a maid to clean and she never did or that she and ourkids fueled my temper at times. The thing was, at the end of the day when I wasloose in the marbles searching for grip. She was exactly what I wanted.
Theutter expanse of emotions and feelings that I could have with her amazed meevery day. It was as if the two of us met in the middle of everything and thatbalanced us out. I could laugh with her, cry with her, though I never reallyhad, be coy with her and then be completely overcome with want by her. No onehad ever affected me that way and I had a feeling they never would.
11.Feature - Axel
Feature –This refers to the main event and the cars that made which it through the heatsto race in the final race of the night and pays the biggest payout.
Myparents, I honestly believe this, were the true meaning behind a love story.
When mostthink of my dad, they think of the NASCAR Cup series champion that he is, butnot my mom. He’s always just been Jameson to her. There’s a side to him thatonly she knows and will ever know. There are words that he says that only shegets to hear. There are feelings that he feels that only she knows.
That to meis a part of marriage. Trusting that the other person will let you be yourselfand not an image. You trust them with a part of yourself that no one sees.
I hadabsolutely no concerns about marrying Lily, none.
What I wasconcerned about was the bachelor party. If I had to guess it was because of mybrother and Cole. Or maybe it was Tommy and Willie? They were not the peopleyou wanted planning this sort of thing. When Tommy got involved, I was sure Ididn’t want to go. He was a forty-two year old kid and that would never change.
No onetold me what we were doing until the morning we got back from the Chili BowlMidget Nationals.
Casten,Lane and Cole were all in the kitchen of my condo, planning the evening whenTommy walked in with Willie. These two traveled as a pair most of the time.
“Hey kid!You up for tonight?”Tommy asked drinking milk from thecarton out of my fridge and then moved to the coffee pot to make his morningcoffee. He reminded me of my mom, he had to have coffee.Couldn’tlive without it.
One timewe were outside of Marshall Missouri heading to Terra Haute for a race. WellTommy hadn’t had coffee at that point and drove a hundred miles out of the wayjust to get it. When you’re racing on the outlaw tour, you don’t have time todrive a hundred miles out of the way. When we pulled into the pits as timetrials were going on, I think he learned his lesson on that one. It stilldidn’t stop him from seeking out coffee every morning, but he did invest ininstant coffee at that point.
I noticedhow methodical he was about concocting his coffee too. It was his master piece.
One packetof sugar, stir and taste. One container of creamer, stir and taste. Anotherpacket of sugar, stir and taste.
I wantedto dump a rogue packet ofSplendain there just tosee if his head would explode.
When hefinished his odd assembly, he stuffed a few more packets of sugar in hispockets before walking toward me.
“Hasanyone ever told you that you’re strange?”
“Yesactually. All the time,” Tommy laughed sitting down beside me on the couch.“Your parents used to tell me that.”
“Itexplains a lot.”
Castenwalked down the hall pulling a shirt over his lean shoulders. “Everything’s allset.” I didn’t like the way he said “all set” and if you knew my brother youunderstood.
“Hey Tommy...are you coming tonight?”
“Where?”Tommyquirked an eyebrow as the conversation seemed to pique his interest.
“Axel’sbachelor party in Jacksonville,” Casten replied.
“Why areyou going all the way to Jacksonville?”
“The girlsare here.” Casten gave us a look. “We need tobe somewhere else.”
