Page 71 of Send It
Lincoln’s eyes are pleading me not to tell him and if she doesn’t tell him I won’t.
“Just some petty drama.”
He eyes me suspiciously, “Does this drama involve you breaking Jackson Fairbanks’ jaw?”
I contemplate lying to him, but know that he’ll find out the truth eventually so I settle for, “Yep.”
“Damnit Colson,” he groans. “What the hell are we gonna do when you get arrested for assault and can’t race?”
“It’s my word against his,” I say.
He growls, “You gotta stop with the hot head act. You fly off the handle for shit.
“It was different this time,” I snap, causing Lincoln’s glassed over gaze to find mine.
He watches as Lincoln and I lock eyes and I know he’s understanding that it’s Lincoln. That she’s the reason and she will always bemyreason.
Leaving us alone inside the trailer, he walks out to talk to Ryan. I take Lincoln into my arms. She nestles her head into my chest and I rest my chin on top of her pretty head.
“This is my fault,” she sniffles. “No matter how hard I try to help you, I just keep making things worse.”
I pull away from her so I can look her in the eye, “I don’t care about the bike, Linc. I don’t fucking care and I’m sick of trying to please everyone. If you don’t race at Nationals, I just don’t care. I don’t want to see you like this.”
“I love you,” she sniffles. “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t tried to make you jealous with Jackson the night of the bonfire none of this shit would’ve happened.”
I raise my hand to wipe a tear from her eye but jerk away when I hear Reiss’ voice.
“Why are you touching her like that?” he says, disgusted, but before I can speak Lincoln stomps past him.
“Shut up, Reiss. He was just being nice.” She slams the trailer door on her way out, making my heart literally ache in my chest. I know she’s just playing the game, helping me cover my tracks that I’m not very good at covering.
“What’s her problem?” he asks. “She’s gotta be on her period or something. I’ve never seen Lincoln cry over a boy.”
My brows furrow in his direction, “This isn’t just crying over some boy. He touched your sister without consent, she’s upset about it. Have some fucking decency not to hassle her about it.”
“Woah,” he growls. “Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not the bad guy here. I don’t know why you feel the need to defend her honor like she’s your goddamn wife but she’s not. She’s my little sister.”
His words cut deep, but I keep my composure. “She’s my family too.”
Reiss’ features soften because he knows I’m right. We are all family and so what if I hope one day Lincoln is my wife.
35
Lincoln
In all of my years racing motocross I’ve never heard of the claiming rule. I’ve never witnessed a bike get claimed during a sanctioned event and never once thought that would be something that could happen this close to Nationals.
Jackson’s money really fucked Bane Racing over and it is all my fault. The shop that builds the bikes is located in Colorado and can’t rebuild another one in time. So, unless I’m gonna ride a practice bike, there are no other bikes to race.
After the race at East Bend, Landon Tate loaded Colson’s bike into his trailer and there wasn’t a single thing any of us could do about it. We just watched as it drove away.
I have never seen my dad so pissed off. I think he was seriously considering assaulting a nineteen year old ortwo. He didn’t, of course, but I could tell he was thinking about it.
We got back from East Bend yesterday and I haven’t seen Colson since. No calls or texts, and he hasn’t been by the house like usual. It’s almost like Reiss questioning him about touching me in the trailer scared him. He didn’t touch me again that entire night.
I cut the ignition off in the parking lot at Willow Hills and stared at the entrance. I've been seeing Colson’s Nana almost weekly now and we have developed somewhat of a bond. She is absolutely hilarious. I even walked in on her one day with no pants on, her entire bottom half, butter ball, booty ass naked. She proceeded to smack her ass and tell me, “If you don’t wanna see my tail then you better turn around, honey.”
We’ve laughed about that every time I’ve seen her since. Sometimes we talk about racing or my family. Sometimes she tells me stories about Colson’s grandpa, who passed away when she was younger, but my favorite thing to do is talk about Colson. In fact, I think she’s the only human on this planet that knows him as well as I do.
