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What mattered was being with Rager and our family we’d created out of love.
“HOW MANY ROOMSdo we need to get?”
I stared at the parking lot outside the hotel and the haulers lining it. “Probably four. Three for the crew guys. Who do we have this week?” I started naming off all the crew members one by one. “Tommy, Logan, Willie, Dave, Holt, Jensen, Tyler, Justin, Zac… Lane?”
“No, Bailey is with them. They have their motorhome,” Lily told me, squinting. “They were parked right next to you guys.”
I waved my hand around. I’d been so distracted the last couple days I hadn’t even realized it. “Right. So… wait, did your parents bring theirs?”
Lily chuckled. “Yes, Arie.”
Hayden wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “You’re worse than me this week.”
“It’s Vegas.” And I wasn’t lying. I always got a little foggy-brained whenever the Outlaws were in the same city as NASCAR. For good reason, as you could see. “Four rooms should be fine as long as Tyler and Dave are not in the same room together.”
For the most part, all the guys got along, but seeing how Dave had a thing for Josephine, Tyler’s niece, they weren’t exactly on speaking terms most days.
The girls and I made our way into the hotel lobby, booked the rooms only to have the really rude office manager tell us we couldn’t have the motor homes parked out there, only the haulers. “We’ll move to the truck stop up the street.”
“That’s fine.” Bitchy Brittany slid the keys across the counter. “Just make sure they’re moved soon.”
This wasn’t the first time we’d encountered this believe it or not. You’d think with the number of rooms we’d reserved they wouldn’t have a problem with a couple motor homes, but they do. We met the guys out back where they were pulling out Rager’s car to work on it. He wasn’t pleased, and neither were the crew guys that they hadn’t slept yet after the six-hour drive to California.
“You look like a damn idiot,” I told Casten as he danced in the gravel parking lot to “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown.
He spun around me, a drink in his hand, sloshing around in his plastic cup. “You’re just jealous because I dance better than you.”
“The fuck you do.” Stepping from the hauler, I glanced around the parking lot of the street behind me where our motor homes were parked. Around two in the morning, no way people saw us, aside from the boys of JAR Racing who were in fact changing out an engine in Axel’s car, and replacing the wing and front springs on Rager’s.
Ishouldbe sleeping, we all should be, but that wasn’t the life of a race team competing on a pro circuit. You stayed up at all hours of the night, dancing in the dark with your brother.
Shirtless and wearing nothing but shorts and a cowboy hat he stole from Willie, Casten tapped his foot to the music, hitting the Back button to play it again. “Show me. I bet you can’t keep up,” he egged on as the chorus began again.
Always the instigator.
“Give me my fuckin’ hat,” Willie mumbled, a spring in his hand, looking like he wanted to shove it up Casten’s ass.
“Mine now.” Casten spun around, bobbing his head.
The guys were tired. I couldn’t blame them for being cranky, but I also couldn’t resist my little brother being drunk in a parking lot. So I danced with him and showed him that even though I was a mom of four kids, I could still throw down and country line dance and twerk. I wouldn’t go as far to say I danced better than Hayden, because no one did.
Willie stopped and watched, smiling at Rager, who stood with his arms crossed against the side of the hauler. “Have you seen the movieIndecent Proposal?”
Rager didn’t budge but his eyes shifted to Willie. “The movie with Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson?”
Willie nodded, his brow furrowed in concentration at me. “Yeah, that movie.”
Casten spun around the other side of me, grabbing my hands to make me dance the last chorus with him.
Rager stared at him, blank faced. “Probably. Why?”
Shrugging, Willie pulled out his wallet. “Well if I was to offer—”
Knowing where he was going with that one, Rager scowled and shoved him back into the side of the hauler. “Fuck you,” he deadpanned, blinking slowly at him. “You couldn’t pay me all the money in the world for that.”
Willie laughed, picking himself up off the ground. “I’m just throwing it out there.”
“Yeah, well, stop. Don’t ever think about that again.”