Page 8 of Finding Jeremy
“Charred them just for you, kiddo,” Chaos replied.
“Thanks, Dad,” Jeremy said as his father placed two charred hot dogs on his plate.
Of course, he had to deal with his father’s grimace of disgust as Jeremy mixed a combination of mayo and ketchup to dunk them in before adding a pile of potato salad and a giant dill pickle to his plate from the containers on the picnic table near the grill.
“So now that you’re done playing roadie for your friends, what’s your plan?” Chaos asked as he flipped a couple of burgers.
“Get the dirt bike fixed and get back on the circuit,” Jeremy explained. “Aside from that, River, Meadow, and Haven made my position at the shops permanent. I’ve got regular hours, noon to close, rotating between the garage, the dispensary, and the gas station as needed.”
“Good deal.”
“Gray agreed join you and Haven at the races as part of the pit crew, if that’s still okay.”
“It’s more than okay,” Chaos said. “Trying to keep up with the shit you do to your bike is damn near a full-time job.”
“At least I have a backup now.”
“Backup’s a piece of shit at the moment,” his Pops declared. “You would have been better off with that Kawasaki I showed you in the online marketplace.”
“And I’d have grabbed it if it wasn’t gone before I called the guy,” Jeremy explained.
“Damn, okay.”
“I know the Yamaha isn’t much to look at right now, but we’ll get there.”
“It’s going to mean some long hours to get both bikes in optimal shape.”
“I know.”
“Alright, then the guys and I will start putting your primary back together once the parts come in. Ordered you a new engine. Don’t wanna hear shit about it either. You held up your end of the deal, so you can consider that my contribution for keeping your word.”
Jeremy sighed, squirming a little despite how thrilled he was at the prospect of switching the old engine out sooner rather than later. “I almost didn’t.”
“And why not?” Chaos asked, eyebrows narrowing into a scowl as he closed the grill.
“This afternoon’s concert was canceled due to some rampaging bulls,” Jeremy explained. “So, none of us got paid. Was gonna stay up tonight and try to tune up the Yamaha to get it ready for The Gauntlet tomorrow. Figured I could raise the money there and all would be good.”
The last thing he expected was for his old man to throw his head back and start laughing.
“What?” Jeremy asked as he dunked a hot dog in his rather pinkish sauce blend.
“Any other time and I’d be pissed as hell, but seeing as how you wouldn’t have been able to go through with that boneheaded idea in the first place, I can laugh about it,” Chaos explained. “I took that bike apart while you were gone so I could clean the gunk off everything and get a good look at exactly what condition every part and piece was in. Would have loved to see your face when you walked into the bike shed and found everything laid out on a tarp.”
Snorting, Jeremy just shook his head. He should have figured his old man would go ahead and start inspecting it despite Jeremy’s insistence that he was perfectly capable of taking it apart and go over it all on his own.
“So, how’d you get the rest of the cash?” Chaos asked, fixing him with a pointed stare. “And if you tell me you were hustling pool again, I’m gonna beat your ass.”
“I haven’t been near the pool hall since you yanked me out of there.”
“Good, you keep your ass out too. You can’t race from a hospital bed.”
Sighing, he stabbed the end of the hot dog into the sauce and swirled it to gather as much as possible on the meat. “I know.”
“Okay, so, how’d you get it?”
“Haven paid me early when he found out what I planned to do, and Gray threatened to beat my ass if I ever even thought about doing something so boneheadedly reckless again.”
“Good for him, but he’d have had to get in line behind me.”
