“As do you, Remy. Thank goodness I kidnapped her, or I know you would have kept her to yourself forever.”
“Could you have blamed me if I had?”
She laughed. “I guess not. Just be good to each other, Remy.”
“I’m not you and Dad, Mom.”
“You know I worry that I somehow messed you up internally by staying with your father for as long as I did.”
“Are we really going to go over this again, Mom?” I didn’t know how many times I would have to tell her that she hadn’t messed up as a parent.
She sighed heavily. “No. Partly because I’m realizing I’m not as young as I used to be, and I’m so freakin’ tired right now. I’m going to have to call Lo and tell him to put me to bed.”
“Lo isn’t there?”
“He is. He’s outside with all of the guys, burning and blowing shit up.”
“Uh, can you be the one to check on Harlyn?” I hoped she had managed to make it under the covers, but if she hadn’t, I didn’t want Lo to be the one to find out.
“Jesus, this is where the whole mom thing gets weird. I don’t want to know why you need it to be me, but yes, I will be the one to check on her.”
“She wasn’t on the phone long enough,” either Cyn or Gwen yelled in the background.
I moaned and knew it was time to get off the phone before our nice conversation turned down in the gutter. “Just check on her, Mom.”
“I will, baby. I’ll take good care of her until you get here Monday.”
“Later, Mom.”
“You were talking to your mom for that long?” Jay asked. He grabbed a chair from behind the barrier of the VIP section and turned it backward to straddle it.
“Nah, not the whole time.”
He nodded his head. “You happen to see Frankie at all?”
“Not since the last qualifying. She took off when the car made it back to the pit.”
He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I saw her earlier. She got into it with Brooks.”
“Really?” I didn’t think Frankie ever talked to Brooks. Everything seemed to be communicated through Roc.
“Yeah, man. He came in asking Roc questions about the car, and Roc didn’t have the answers because he was asking about shit Frankie knew. She tried to talk to him, and he completely blew her off. I’m talking, she looked him right in the eye, and he ignored her.”
“What the hell?’ I whispered. “Wonder what that is all about.”
Jay shrugged. “I mean, I ain’t never really talked to the guy before, but it’s like a different level with Frankie.”
“She took off?”
“Yeah. Told him he could stick it where the sun don’t shine and threw a wrench at him.”
“Holy fuck,” I breathed out. “I bet he didn’t like that.”
Jay shook his head. “He told Roc he needed to talk to him in his trailer, and they both disappeared.”
“How long ago was this?”
“‘Bout an hour ago. I tried to track her down, but she was gone, man. A couple people saw her head off, but that was it.”
I sighed and tilted my head back. “Should have known something like this was going to happen. Not sure what Brooks’ deal is, but he seems to think that Frankie is invisible.” My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out to see Frankie had messaged me. “Speak of the devil.”
I’m taking off. Heading home early. Just letting you know.
“Holy fuck.” I looked up at Jay. “She took off, man. She’s gone.”
“Dammit, I was afraid of that.” Jay stood up and paced back and forth. “She’s probably leaving before Roc fires her.”
“You really think that?”
“That Roc is going to fire her? Fuck yeah. She threw a damn wrench at the owner of the car, Remy. You really think she can get away with that?”
I didn’t know what she could get away with. Frankie was the backbone of this team. Brooks may act like he couldn’t see her, but the rest of us knew the reason the car ran as well as it did was because of how talented Frankie was. “Right now, I don’t think she cares if she has a job or not.”
What the hell happened?
She answered almost instantly. I can’t deal with Brooks anymore. If I want to be ignored, I’ll just work for one of my brothers.
Frankie had three brothers. Luke owned and ran Jensen Auto with her brother Mitch, while Kurt owned a speed shop with his wife Leelee. She really did have good options if she went home, but the reason she got a job with Cummings Racing, was because she wanted to make a name for herself. A name that had nothing to do with Luke, Mitch, or Kurt.
You sure about this, Frankie? She was pissed off, but I didn’t want her to make a decision she was going to regret in the morning. Frankie, Jay, and I had all came to work for Cummings Racing at the same time. From where I sat, we were all in this together.
I talked to Roc. I’m suspended for a week. What happens after that I don’t know. Just need to get out of here for a bit.
It sucked that she was suspended, but it sounded like she still had a job. Let me know if you need anything.
“So?” Jay asked. “What in the hell is going on?”
I sighed and shoved my phone back in my pocket. “She got suspended. Still has a job for now, though.”
“What do you mean ‘for now?’”
“Who knows if she is going to want to come back, Jay. I think this is a much bigger deal to Frankie than we know.”
“Fuck. What the hell are we going to do about tomorrow?” he asked.
I shrugged. “That’s Roc’s problem. He has to know suspending Frankie is going to hurt the team.”
“Jesus. Just when we start doing good, this shit has to happen.” He ran his fingers through his short hair. “I’m gonna head to bed and pray this shit is all just a dream. We are so fucked without Frankie.” He wandered off in the direction to the hauler, his head bowed.
I looked up at the sky and sighed. It seemed like in life, you never had everything going good. You may have three things going perfectly, but there's always that fourth thing that is sitting and waiting to come and fuck your world up. Today, that thing was Frankie leaving the team.
We just had to make it through tomorrow, hopefully placing in the top five, and then pray things with Frankie would get worked out.
I just hoped when that happened, something else wouldn’t go to hell.
*
Chapter 24
Harlyn
“Look! There he is,” Meg exclaimed.
Lo looked over at her. “Babe, that is the tenth time the camera has panned over to him in the five minutes. You don’t need to yell every time they do.”
She smacked him on the shoulder. “You’re just jealous cause you're not the one who is on TV right now.”
Lo rolled his eyes and gently pushed her feet off his lap. “You act like he’s some Hollywood movie star. He’s the clutch assistant on a pit crew. Awesome, but not up there with a movie star.”
“He’s such an ass,” she mumbled.
Meg and Lo were camped out on the couch, while I had commandeered the recliner for the whole afternoon.