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He slept with her?
HE SLEPT WITH HER?
His lips parted and he heaved in a long-winded breath, then blew it out slowly, gearing up for what he never intended on telling me. “The night Jack died. We were at an event for Atry in Darlington.” His voice sounded gritty, like someone whose knees hit the dirt and was begging for nothing but an opportunity. Only that sound didn’t belong to him, wasn’t his style. “She didn’t even know I was married at the time. I was lonely after the win that night, couldn’t get a hold of you, and it went from there.”
His answer shattered my heart because of the day.
Why then? Why?
My hand connected with his cheek.
My palm red, his cheek matching. Silence spread throughout… I had his attention, clear to do with it what I wanted, say what I wanted, take back this lie and leave him with reality. I didn’t have to go along with this, and he knew it, right then, the evidence on his blazing cheek.
His brow furrowed and then his chest heaved in a heavy breath, just as mine did.
My thoughts felt numb, noises around me too loud to decipher where they were coming from. “Was that the only time?”
Say yes. Don’t do this to me.
“No….”
Who are you? Did you even love me, ever?
His answer shattered my breathing into gasping, because of the realization. He wasn’t who I thought he was. “When?”
Setting the bottle down on the counter, he didn’t look at me as he slid his hands into his pockets of his jeans, his head hanging low. His lips parted and I knew it was coming, the answer, the devastation that he wasn’t who I thought he was. “I slept with her again after the win at Homestead.”
You’ve destroyed any love I had remaining for you.
“And then you asked for a divorce,” I deduced, closing my eyes as I delivered the words through tight lips.
He gave me a moment to ask more, accuse, react, and then he nodded, muscles in his jaw locked.
You son of a bitch. You were cheating on me and made me feel like the one who caused this.
I didn’t think hearing that he cheated on me would hurt. But it did. I wanted to ask him about it, demand details I deserved to know.
“How many others have there been?”
His eyes cut to mine, a sideways glance that was brief. “Just her.”
Blinking out of the memory, I held back a sigh, biting back so much. And then I was angry. Fucking pissed.“That’swhy I didn’t stop Rager from beating the shit out of you tonight. You deserved it.” With my heart in my throat and my entire body shaking, I walked away from him and into the arms of the man I should have been with the entire time I had been married to Easton.
Cogging Torque – A measure of non-uniform velocity (e.g., jerkiness, momentary stalling, slipping.)
Have you ever watched teams leave the track after a race? The team guys jetted out of there. As soon as that checkered flag dropped, they were on a mission to get the fuck out of there and to the nearest car wash. From there, it was the next city.
Though we all traveled with the teams, our jobs after the race were entirely different. The drivers had to stick around and sign autographs, greet fans, and finish up with post-race interviews. And leaving for Outlaw teams meant loading up the merchandise trailers to the motor homes, getting on the road, putting kids to bed around midnight or sometimes one in the morning and then relaxing as we drove to the next city.
“You got room.”
Rager stuck his head out of the window, a scowl plastered on his face. “It doesn’t look like it on the camera.”
“Are you going to believe me or the camera? I’m standing here looking at it and you have about ten feet!” I yelled over the diesel engine of our forty-foot luxury motor coach we called home these days. And yeah, it was nice, but somedays, it was like being stuck in a cracker box and the walls were closing in.
With the light of the streetlamps above us, I squinted in the distance to see Knox and Hudson on Rager’s lap, both trying to steer the motor home with him and him yelling for Rosa to grab them.
“He’s gonna hit the—” Casten’s words fell away about the same time Rager hit the edge of the picnic table. “Table,” Casten finished.