Page 74 of Trading Paint

We must have lost our entire set of wrenches that trip but we managed to finish changing out the engine as we barreled through the pit gates. Tommy’s hands were bleeding from bumping up against parts, I had a black eye from where Scooter dropped a crowbar on my face, and Scooter had a fat lip from where my hand slipped off a bolt and smacked him in the mouth,afterhe dropped the crowbar.

To this day, I hold my ground that was an accident.

We ended up setting fast time that night but didn’t do so well in the feature and finished seventh.

Later that night, another driver and friend of ours, Reece Wilcox, a tall southern driver out of Memphis, came walking up to our trailer holding up our wrenches. “Can you believe some asshole was throwing wrenches on the freeway?” Scooter and I exchanged a smile.“His loss.Got me and entire set by the time I reached Olympia.” Reece shrugged and walked off with my wrenches.

Aside from scrambling to another track each week, I also had to deal with other racers and their attraction toward my best friend and sister. It never failed, no matter what track we were at the men flocked to the girls. Alley was attractive—you could say that, with big tits, long legs and blonde hair, Spencer’s type. Not mine.

And Emma, well she’s my little sister but she had the cute thing down and men loved that shit, I guess. But what was harder than seeing men pick up on my little sister was seeing them flirt with Sway. Maybe I didn’t know how I felt about Sway or the reasons why I was attracted to her but I was and seeing other men and more specifically other racers swarming her in the pits was not something I enjoyed. Avoided actually and I did a lot of walking away during conversations just to avoid it.

Unfortunately, there were times when I couldn’t just walk away, like in Williams Grove in late October that year. It wasn’t long after Sway’s eighteenth birthday, I’d just placed third in the feature so I was slightly annoyed just by that and the fact that we needed to be in Lernerville later in the week had me thinking we should have left by now but no, everyone was standing around bullshitting and drinking. This happened after every race so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Besides Spencer and Alley, none of us were twenty-one, but that never stopped us from throwing back the beers after a race.

Parker Dunn, one of the biggest trash talkers in USAC, was another Silver crown racer who’d I began to get to know just based on the fact we were competing on the same series and I’d grown to develop a racing relationship with him, the kind where we showed each other respect on the track. That ended later that night when he crossed the line. The “Sway line” I’d built around myself and others.

“Hey,” Parker sat down next to me on the back of my tailgate after brushing off the dirt. Still suited in his uniform I could smell the mixture of methanol and mud. “Is Sway like your girlfriend or something?”

I took a slow drink of my beer, contemplating how I might answer that. It took me a few minutes and when I answered, it seemed I was trying to tell myself that same thing. “No, she’s my best friend.”

“Oh, okay. So she’s available then?” he asked looking over at her. I craned my neck forward to look over at her. She was standing beside Spencer drinking a beer, giggling at Tommy. Her hair was blowing with the subtle wind, her cheeks flushed from the cool crisp fall air. Wearing a black Bowman Oil hooded sweatshirt, she hugged herself to keep warm.

“No, she’s notavailable.”

“You said you weren’t dating.” His expression bewildered by my sharp threatening tone.

“Yeah,” I jumped down from the tailgate and leaned against it resting my weight on my arms. “She’s not my girlfriend but that doesn’t mean she’s available. I’m sure as shit not okay with her seeing you.”

“Why?” he glared my direction but looked back over at Sway.

“Because you’re a racer—nothing means anything to you but the next race.” I stood straighter.

He let out a dark laugh while raising his beer to his lips and then laughed again shaking his head. “I never said I wanted to date her. I’m just looking for a little fun. You stick around her so I’m assuming she’s a good time.”

It’s no surprise to anyone that knows me that I had a short fuse. I knocked the beer from his hand and punched him square in the mouth before he finished the words “Good time”.

Like I said, our friendship ended that night.

Walking back to the hauler, Sway caught up with me and pulled me aside.

“What’s wrong with you? I heard you punched Dunn?”

“I did.” was my only answer. My eyes focused on her lips.

“Why?”

This was another time, I reacted without using my brain; leaning forward to kiss her forehead.

“Because,” I mumbled avoiding her questioning glance. I couldn’t even look her in the eyes. “You deserve better than him and all he wanted was a one night thing.” I told her placing another kiss against her forehead before walking back toward my car.

That night, lying in the hotel I watched Sway sleep again. We could only afford one room so Alley and Spencer were in one bed while Sway and Emma slept in the other—I slept on the couch next to the bed.

I knew I had feelings for Sway but for the life of me, I couldn’t decipher what they meant to me. I wanted her but did it go beyond that?

Her body was amazing. I’ve always found Sway attractive but now, as she matured,Jesus Christ. There wasn’t a man alive that wouldn’t wish she was in his bed every night, including me.

The following weekend in Lernerville, Dunn and I still weren’t on speaking terms. It wasn’t uncommon for pit lizards to be hanging around our pit these days and the more races I ran, the more it occurred. It seemed there was at least a few hanging around at all times.

Before our heat races one brave girl made her way through the crowd gathered around while we made some adjustments to my car.

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