Duly Noted

by H. M. Shander

  “That’s a great story, Aurora,” Nate said.

  “It is. I didn’t like the lions, they were scary. And the other animals were okay. The hippos were pretty neat too, but I really liked those giraffes.”

  A cool breeze blanketed her, and she popped open her eyes. Nate stood with his hand outstretched and the passenger door open. Not a moment’s hesitation, and Aurora pushed against her seatbelt, which Nate discovered too late, he’d forgot to unlatch.

  He reached across her, unfastening it before pulling her out and into his arms. He planted a kiss on her, and she noted his lips trembled and shook. “You did it,” he whispered.

  She looked behind her to his car, and up into his face. His eyes were tired and worn out as if he shouldered the weight of many men. Tipping her forehead to him, she breathed out, “Thank you,” and relished having his strong arms wrapped around her. “What happened? I wasn’t supposed to be in the car when I came out of this.”

  “I don’t know. We hit a bit of traffic, but it’s not even one yet.” Firm hands ran through his hair, and then pulled down on his face. “I was afraid you were coming out of it, so I sped up. I was more than terrified that you’d start screaming and I’d endanger more than just our lives.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.” He rubbed her back in reassurance. “But I need to text your dad. Maybe he’ll have an answer.” He fired off a quick text. The phone rang back right away. “Hello, sir… We’ve made it, but I have a question.” He explained what happened and what he did to prevent her from losing control in the vehicle.

  While her boyfriend and father chatted, she took in the immediate area. They were parked beside a fifth wheel, and as she searched around, she saw another dozen more, either trailers or RVs. And semi-trucks with trailers. And regular trucks with flat-deck trailers. What kind of weird campground are we at? But the noises didn’t jive with a campground. A low rumble came from a distance. Engines revved, screaming at a high pitch. They reminded her of the sounds she heard late at night from her apartment when the window was open – the sound of a jerk off revving his motorcycle down the avenue, likely racing to show the world how much testosterone he had. But this sound was slightly different, and not like a motorcycle.

  Curiosity grabbed a hold of her, and she stepped out of Nate’s reach, walking beyond the RVs, trucks and trailers. Billboards hung everywhere, and a giant grandstand on the opposite side of an oval shaped race track. Oh my fucking god, he brought me to a–

  Turning on the spot, she glared as she faced him. “You brought me to a fucking race track?”

  He pocketed the phone, amusement on his face. “Yes. It sounds crazy, but this–” That dimple nice and deep as he pointed to the track. “This is my home away from home.” He turned her around. “That trailer, with the blue stripe, that’s where my family stays every weekend.”

  “You live here?”

  “Just Friday and Saturday nights.”

  “Do you watch the races?” She wasn’t sure what his answer would be, but she was sure as hell unprepared for…

  “Yes and no. I’m a race car driver.”

  “Fuck me,” she said as the world darkened.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Here she comes,” a voice said softly as Aurora moved and sat up.

  Her eyes jumped wide open as she gazed at the strange, unfamiliar people who stared at her. “What happened?” Her colour drained as she realised she sat on a gurney. What the hell? Beyond them were the open doors of an ambulance.

  Nate chuckled. “You fainted.” He rubbed her leg. “Guess I should’ve maybe said something beforehand?”

  “About you being a race car driver? You think?”

  He laughed. “Aurora, meet my family. This is my mom, Brenda.”

  “It’s so lovely to finally meet you.” Brenda enveloped Aurora in a tight hug.

  Aurora dusted off her hands. “I’m sorry, I’m all dirty.” She pointed to the dusty prints on Brenda’s shirt.

  A quick flick of her hands and the dust was gone. “Not a worry. You’ll fit right in,” Brenda said. “We’re usually dirty in one way or another by the end of the night. Grease stains or something.” One would never need to guess if Nate was her child or not, it was clear as day looking at her. They had the same brown hair with a hint of wave, and the same chocolate eyes. Her smile was nearly identical, but her lips were fuller. More ladylike than Nate’s. “Are you doing okay, honey?”

  Physically, she felt fine, but she was a trifle mad at Nate for not having said anything about his weekend life. Trifle. Truffle. “I brought truffles,” she said, gesturing to Nate.

  He walked to the car and brought them back their gift. “You’ll love them. She made them herself.”

  “Oh, you shouldn’t have.”

  Aurora said nothing and glanced around at the three other people still staring at her. Unable to meet their gazes, her own fell to the ground. There was grass, but it was in short supply. Mainly it was a dirt field. And sandals were not the appropriate footwear. Nor were the capris.

  Nate spoke. “This here is my little brother, Lucas.” He pointed to a thin, gawky teenager. This must be the brother he joked about her liking and he was right. With his strawberry-blond hair Lucas did not look like Nate. He must’ve taken after Nate’s father. Nate pointed to the lady standing beside Lucas. “My sister, Chris, and her boyfriend Max. He’s the on-site EMT.”

  “It’s Christina actually,” the average-height brunette said, shaking her hand. Much older than Nate, she looked more like Brenda’s younger sister rather than Nate’s older sister.

  Aurora nodded and shook her hand back, stammering, “Pleased…” A loud sigh. “Pleased to meet you.”

  A beep came from behind her. Max held her arm as he started up the portable monitor. “Need to double check.” He listened to her heartbeat and checked her blood pressure. “It’s a little high, but nothing to worry about.”

  “It should be higher,” she said under her breath. “I’m so embarrassed.” She tucked her head down.

  Max patted her arm, and whispered, “They’re great people, I promise. We’ve been prepped by Nate to expect the unexpected with you.” He unwrapped the monitor.

  “Surprise,” Aurora said, throwing her arms in the air, trying to lighten the mood. It worked as they laughed with her.

  Nate wrapped his arms around her waist. “That’s my girl.” He kissed her cheek as everyone started walking away.

  “Come on, we’ll give you a tour,” Brenda hollered out.

  “Give us a minute and we’ll catch up,” Nate said to his mom’s back. He looked at Aurora. “Feeling better?”

  “A little warning would’ve been nice.”

  “I was afraid to say anything.”

  “So you figured the only way to get me here was to drug me and throw it at me when I came around?”

  “Something like that.”

  She crossed her arms and pouted.

  “Look, if I’d said anything, would you have even continued to see me?”

  She glared at him and softened. “Probably not. Total deal breaker.”

  “That’s my point. I didn’t want you to give up on me because of this. I like you, like really like you. This – the race track – is a huge part of my life. And I want you to be a part of it.”

  She swallowed and took it all in. The billboards, the race cars, an entirely different side to Nate. “But… but…”

  “It’s not the same as driving on the street. I promise you. We’re more protected in the race car than in a standard car.” Her mouth fell open. “We have roll bars, and harnesses, and a head and neck system to prevent any head trauma. It’s safer than jumping on a trampoline.” He held her hand tightly. “No one has been seriously injured on this track and there have been a lot of accidents over the years.”

  “Not helping, Nate.” A tremor rippled through her body.

  “But no one has died or spent more than a day or two in the ho
spital.” Leading her down the edge of the track, he pointed. “See all the cars in the pit?”

  Holy shit! There had to be at least fifty, maybe more.

  “Now look at the track. It’s a quarter-mile track with the top speed in the ballpark of sixty miles per hour. The big races, like Daytona, they’ve been known to exceed two-hundred miles per hour.”

  “But it’s racing.” Her lip curled in confusion. This was so not how or where she expected to be spending her day.

  “And it’s fun. I’ll show you.”

  “Nuh-uh. I’m not getting into a car.” She dug her feet into the dirt.

  “Of course not. I would never do that.” He hopped the straight part of a wall between two rounded corners. “But I will give you a tour of the track.”

  “Wait!” she called out. “My pills please, just in case.”

  After throwing a variety of the drugs into a small pocket-sized container, she followed Nate over the wall and listened as he pointed out the complexities of the track. Where the start and finish line were – on the opposite side of where Nate parked his car – and how they were the same thing. He explained the corners and how corner one was the first turn after the start line, and two, three and four followed. They walked across the paved track, heading for the heart of the pit.

  “This is Lucas’s car,” he said, pointing to a beat-up lime green car with the word CHASER written across the body of it and a bright orange 67 on the door. “He called it that because he’s always chasing first place.”

  Lucas who had finished changing the tire added, “Someday I’ll get first.”

  “Yeah, someday,” Nate said, ruffling his little brother’s hair. “He’s in the feature stocks.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what that is.”

  “A class of drivers. We’ll leave it at that for now.” He walked a little deeper into the pit. “This is what I drive,” he said, proudly pointing to a white car with yellow and orange strips. A blazing 15 painted onto the door.

  “You drive this?” She sounded amazed and petrified in the same breath. Her arms wrapped around her stomach. This has to be a dream. Or a nightmare. My boyfriend’s a race car driver? The mental picture of him sitting in it made her head spin. It didn’t look safe.

  Focusing back on him, she missed the first part of what he said. “That’s why I couldn’t come any earlier this morning. I had to unload her and get her all set up before I picked you up. Then I could spend more time with you this afternoon rather than prepping the beast.” He tapped the top. “She’s all ready to race today.”

  Amazement in her voice, she looked around the pit and back to his face. “So this is what you do on the weekends, eh?”

  Nate nodded, still smiling. The look on his face said this was his happy place. “The season started up a couple weeks ago, and we run until the end of September. Every weekend.”

  “Wow.” She watched as a semi-trailer parked and a few guys ran to the back, lowering the ramp.

  “Everyone here,” he waved all around, “this is fun for them. Everyone loves the thrill of the race, and the social aspect of the entire family getting together.”

  “This is all family?” She couldn’t believe it.

  Nate laughed. “My surrogate family, aside from my family-family. Most of the people here are second generation racers, some third and fourth.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” He hadn’t stopped smiling. “Lucas and I are third gens.”

  Aurora blinked rapidly. “That’s actually–” She took a deep breath. “Pretty cool.”

  Nate grabbed a folding camp chair from beside a rolling toolbox and gestured for her to sit. His car was close enough to touch if she wanted. Not that she did. “You may see Grams around here tonight. She said she’d drop in later.”

  “Your Grams races?”

  “No, but she wishes. She helps out where she can. Like part of my pit crew.”

  “You have a pit crew?”

  “Yeah. Mom, Lucas, Chris, plus the other racers if need be. We help each other out.”

  “The things I’m learning today,” Aurora said. She was beyond thrilled to see Nate so euphoric and kept her focus on that. Otherwise, the moment she allowed her thoughts to drift, her stomach, followed closely by her racing heart, reminded her of what she needed – Xanax, with a Percocet thrown in for good measure. But the enthusiasm in his voice was almost contagious. Almost. He really did have a thing for cars. “What did Dad say, by the way, about the Isa?”

  “He doesn’t know.” Nate pulled his folding chair closer. “He suspects that maybe your heart was beating so fast from anxiety that it burned it quicker. He’s looking into it.”

  She slumped into her chair. “What about the drive home?”

  “I don’t know yet, but we’ll figure it out.” His hand rubbed the top of her thigh.

  “We’ll have to.” Nervous energy swirled in her head and chest as she watched the people in the pit milling around. Turning her attention to focus back on Nate, she said, “So tell me more. You said Lucas was in, what was it, future class? What about you?”

  “Feature stocks,” he corrected. “I’m in the super stocks.”

  “And that means what exactly?”

  “Each car looks a little different – like my Camaro differs from Bill’s Mustang, and is different still from Caleb’s Fusion–” His hand flew in different directions, not that it mattered. She didn’t know what car was what as she was pretty clueless about cars in general. To her four wheels and a steering wheel made a vehicle, but it was obvious to him it was more involved than that. “But we’re all the same under the hood. We all have to meet the same requirements, wheel size, engine size, etc.” He held her hand. “I can see I’m boring you.”

  “No, no you’re not. This is interesting.” A true smile spread across her face.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I may change my mind after watching you race, but for now, it’s interesting.” Like a child in a candy factory, she was unable to focus on any one thing in particular. There were cars and car parts everywhere, men and women walking around with tools and chatting about things she’ll never understand. But they all had something in common. Everyone looked happy to be there.

  “May I join in?” Brenda asked, pulling up another chair. She handed Nate two colourful strips of paper and a full-sized sheet. “Today’s bands and race schedule.”

  Nate looked it over, pointing to a few lines as he showed Aurora. “See here. I’m doing two heats, and then after the intermission, there’s the feature race, where being on the podium is a big deal. It gives us points and at the end of the season determines the overall winner.”

  “Have you ever won?”

  A shy smiled crossed his face. “Yeah, I was third overall last year and second the year before.”

  “Sheesh.” She stretched out her legs as her hip started to ache.

  “Aurora, can I grab you a drink?” Brenda asked. “It can get awfully hot in the pit so you’ll want to stay hydrated.”

  “I’m good for now, but thank you, Mrs. Johnson.”

  “Oh, honey, call me Brenda. Everyone does. Not even Grams goes by Mrs. Johnson.”

  Aurora laughed and felt herself relaxing, which surprised her given her circumstances and surroundings. Who knew she’d ever find herself at a racetrack? She wondered if her daddy knew where they were coming.

  Nate rose and placed the schedule on his chair. “Come on, I want to show you off.”

  “But don’t the races start soon?” She hesitated as she didn’t want to be shown off.

  “Not until five. But we have time trials before, and those will start in about an hour.” He pulled her into his arms. “But first, I want you to know where the safety area is. If – for whatever reason – you get overwhelmed, go immediately into that shack.” He pointed to a small shed-looking building behind his spot. Nate grabbed a marker and wrote his name across one of the wrist bands before securing it to h
er. “Flash this, and someone will let you in.”

  “What’s in there?”

  “It’s a small office. It’s a little soundproof too.” He reached for something off the top of his toolbox and showed her. “These are for you. Noise cancelling head phones.” He positioned them over her ears and she was shocked by how different everything sounded. The world muffled, the background noises gone and even the rumble of a nearby engine was greatly reduced.

  She pulled them off. “Wow.”

  “I know, right?” He placed them back. “Just in case. I want you to be comfortable here as much as I can help on my end.”

  “You’re really too sweet, Nate.”

  “I know,” he said smiling. “Now come on. I want you to meet the rest of the family.”

  She held his hand as he introduced her. There were so many people, and so many race car drivers, she knew she’d never remember any of their names. Only one she remembered, and not just because she was female as there were other lady drivers. Marissa Montgomery was a beautiful and tall blond, who had lust in her eyes for Nate. And it wasn’t hard to see. Aurora was many things, but she wasn’t blind. She didn’t miss the side eye Marissa gave her upon being introduced by Nate as his girlfriend.

  Leaving Marissa behind, Nate crossed the north side of the track and walked up the stairs to the open gate.

  He toured her around the grandstand, and bought her an ice cream from the concession before bringing her to the announcer’s booth at the top. “Quite the view from up here, eh?”

  She wasn’t all that high up, but yet she could see the entire track with the pit tucked into the middle. “Wow.” She took a bite from the ice cream bar.

  “I rarely get to see it from up here. Even on my weekends off, I’m in the pit.”

  “Weekends off?”

  “Yeah, not every class of drivers races every weekend. It’s rotated and over the season, I’ll have two weekends off.”

  “But on your race day, can you come up here to watch?” She fanned herself with her free hand. It was warm sitting in the full sun.

  “It’s not easy to go back and forth. They pull the stairs and guard the gate so that people don’t go onto the track. It’s a safety thing.”