The Way Barred

by Dominique Kyle

  That was perhaps an unfortunate sentence to end on, but I had genuinely forgotten for a moment the connection between Siân and the current bad feeling between myself and Pete. Luckily, Sue and Paul’s gazes were on Tyler and they were joining in my laughter over the picture I was painting of the two soppy men, and no-one except myself seemed aware of the massive glower that Pete directed at me.

  We moved next door and continued casual chat and speculation on the unannounced intentions of various drivers this season. And then Tyler got up and said he had to leave really early again, so he’d better retire.

  “You know the way,” Sue said. “Make yourself at home. Have a shower.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  After he left the room, Jo looked across at me and sighed and said, “I suppose this means you’ll need me to get the mattress out in my room again?”

  Paul looked straight at me and said. “No need for that is there Eve, you might as well share with Tyler tonight hadn’t you?”

  I stared at him like a rabbit in the glare of the headlights.

  “Well?” Paul raised his eyebrows at me. “Off you go then…”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jo staring in a bewildered way at her Dad.

  “Ok,” I said reluctantly. “Night then!” And I got up and got out of the room as fast as I could, without looking at Pete’s face.

  I tapped on the spare room door. Tyler opened it and looked a bit surprised. I walked in and closed the door with a snap, leaning back against it.

  “Shit, Tyler,” I announced. “Paul’s only gone and told me in front of everyone to come up to bed with you!”

  Tyler looked entertained. “I like the guy better every day! What’s he up to do you think?”

  “Forcing us to come out, I suppose.” My stomach was still all clenched up from the shock. “And I think maybe it was the sound of another firecracker being shoved up Pete’s arse.”

  Tyler grinned. “So am I going to become the next target then?”

  “Hope so,” I said devoutly, “If it takes the heat off me.”

  “Can’t wait!” Tyler seemed as though he was looking forward to it. “Life’s got so much more interesting since you came along Eve.”

  “You’ve been bored for a bit, haven’t you?” I suggested.

  “Yep,” he agreed. “It’s been so predictable for so bloody long now. It must have been great for Paul and Rudd when they had each other to fight it out with.”

  I went over to him and put my arms around his neck. I looked admiringly up at him. “How did you get so good at driving?”

  He smiled down at me. “I don’t know. I just always was. So are you.” He began to laugh as I looked in narrow eyed assessment at him. “You’re trying to work out if you’re going to ever beat me aren’t you?”

  I was of course, but I gave him a naughty look and said, “Maybe I’m trying to work out when you’re going to shut up and start shagging me…”

  He didn’t need a second invitation.

  It was a bit of a challenge trying to stay absolutely silent, particularly when we heard footsteps stomping along outside in the corridor, and Pete’s door slamming next door. But we managed. Next morning we got up and left before anyone was about. I wasn’t going to face Pete’s furious thundercloud expression over breakfast. Though what he had to feel sore about was a moot point. After all, he was the one who’d chucked me.

  Jo walked into work early and threw her bag down. She looked angry. “How could you do that Eve? How could you keep that a secret from me? How long has it being going on?”

  I realised now that it must seem such a betrayal. I blushed hotly. “I’m sorry Jo. It just sort of happened between Tyler getting that engine for me and the start of the season. Not long, honest. But I didn’t dare say anything because of the sort of thing Pete was already implying about why Tyler was helping me, which just wasn’t true! I thought I’d have time to break it to you gently but your Dad just outed us! Just like that with no warning! How did Pete take it?”

  “Badly!” She said abruptly. There was a short silence. “Not that he has any right to,” she added tersely.

  “Why do you think your Dad did it like that?” I asked. “I thought he’d just have a quiet word with Pete sometime…”

  She made a meaningful stirring sign with her hand.

  I nodded. “That’s what I thought too. He wants Pete to have a visceral reaction to Tyler – to compel him to take Tyler on.”

  She nodded. She looked stressed.

  “I’m so sorry Jo,” I said penitently. “I’m afraid it’s just occasional sex. We’re not in a long term relationship. We agreed that it was going to be just sex and cars…”

  “The car bit I can understand,” she threw at me.

  “Are you disappointed with me for getting over your brother?” I asked suddenly.

  She eyed me without saying anything.

  “You all kept telling me to Jo. You know that. It was destroying me. This is what I’m doing to get over it.”

  She looked like she was wondering whether to say something then bit it back.

  “What do you and your Dad keep not quite saying to me about Pete?” I asked curiously.

  She shook her head and turned away.

  “Jo?” I queried. But she wouldn’t turn round.

  Dad walked cheerfully into the barn with all his kit. He put his hands on his hips as he looked between the two cars and tut tutted. “What happened here?” He asked.

  “Pete and I had a professional disagreement,” I informed him.

  “And you both came out of this in one piece?” He marvelled.

  “Sort of,” I said and lifted my shirt to show my whole side going shades of blue, purple and brown. Pete was clearly too macho to let on to whether he looked the same.

  “Where do you want me to start?” Dad said.

  Later on, when Paul had arrived in and we were thinking about stopping for a cuppa, Dad said to me. “It’s your birthday soon. What chunk of metal would you like for it this year?”

  I saw Paul smile to himself.

  “None,” I said. “I want you to teach me how to weld.”

  Dad grinned. “I thought you’d never ask, lass.”

  Paul handed us two mugs.

  “I’ll buy you some kit then,” Dad said.

  “I’ve got a chap to agree for me to come over and see how they build their cars,” I told him as we sat down on the bench.

  Paul glanced sharply over. “Who’s that then? You haven’t mentioned this…”

  “The Reivers.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You must have been highly persuasive.”

  “Well Dad Reiver was a bit shirty with me, but his fifteen year old son got out of his Mini and said ‘Get with the programme Dad! Do you want new young people in the sport or not?’ And he caved in.”

  “That’s a bit of a coup,” Jo observed wandering over and taking the proffered mug off her Dad.

  “I’m going to try to get round them all in turn,” I informed them, “and it would be good if I knew how to weld before I went.”

  “She knows her own mind, your daughter, doesn’t she?” Paul said to Dad.

  Dad looked under his brows at Paul then put an arm around me and pulled me roughly to him. “Aye, I miss her like crazy.”

  I gave him a swift hug. “Do you Dad? I miss you too.”

  “You could come round more often,” he suggested.

  “You know she doesn’t want me there,” I said.

  “Oh God, what have I done?” Dad groaned. He put his mug down and put his head in his hands.

  “What do you mean Dad?” I asked, a bit worried.

  Jo and Paul glanced at each other and wandered discreetly off.

  “Can’t be helped Eve,” Dad tried to cover it up. “What’s done is done.”

  “Do you mean Pauline moving in and the appearance of Ethan?” I deduced.

  “It was all too quick wasn’t it?” He said. “You tried to
tell me that at the time…”

  “I don’t think I did,” I cavilled. Though I’d been thinking it of course.

  “You told me it with every reproachful look you gave me,” he said.

  “Kathleen predicted what would happen,” I told him. “She said ‘tick-tick-tick-dingaling’ to me before Pauline even moved in.”

  He looked blank. “What did she mean by that?”

  “Biological clock of course!”

  “So everyone could see it except me, could they?” Dad said bitterly.

  “Chin up Dad,” I jollied him. “He won’t be lying there shitting, puking and crying forever. Eventually he’ll become almost human.”

  Dad looked sideways at me. “Really? Because you’re nearly nineteen and I seem to remember that last time you were home you were lying there shitting, puking and crying…”

  I gave him a hard shove. “Oh shut up and get back to work you!”

  “You’re a hard taskmaster,” he complained with a twinkle in his eye. But he got back up and went back to the car.

  Then I asked him if he could go and help Pete with his. He went off willingly enough, but I could see Pete was quite embarrassed, as the first time Dad had ever met Pete, he had asked him to take care of me. And clearly, he hadn’t.

  Saturday, Birmingham again. Pete and I in separate heats. Then the Final. I started behind Pete, and when I caught up with him I could see he was striking a fast enough path through so I just got in behind him. Tyler soon caught us up, and he made a tactical decision to just tuck in behind me. So with the three of us bearing down on the field, everyone just looked in their mirror and got out of the way. Once we were at the front, I pulled out wide on a corner and let Tyler through. And then I sat back and waited to see what would happen. At some point, Tyler got past Pete without even touching him. So then Pete went for him. Not hard enough. Another go at the next corner. Tyler was ready for him. They tussled it out, both going wide as they did so on the last corner, and I nipped through to take the win.

  Paul smiled wryly at me as I returned to them.

  “I can only get away with that once,” I said to Paul. “What should I do next time to keep up the element of surprise?”

  “What did Tyler say?” Jo asked curiously.

  “He called me a cunning vixen, fairly good naturedly,” I reported.

  “But when I told him he was going to have to engage his brain now as well as his gears, he called me a cheeky pup and engaged his gears with a bit of a crash as he went off,” I added.

  Paul shook his head at me, holding back a laugh.

  “Poor Tyler,” Jo sympathised.

  I smiled sweetly at them. Stay unpredictable. That was the way through this, I thought.

  Grand National. Someone’s car lost all their brake fluid over the track. The surface became momentarily lethal. Pile ups galore. I could double my points in this. It was important not to get completely taken out. I navigated round the heaps of cars. Worked my way to the front, though I wasn’t quite sure if it was the front as the remaining cars were so spread out I wasn’t sure who was on what lap. Pete was going on the outside of a spinning car. I slowed for a millisecond waited for the spin to make the car level with the track edges instead of across my way and nipped through on the inside before it span back and I reappeared just ahead of Pete. Tyler had somehow got ahead in the chaos earlier. Now a yellow flag meant we were all trailing around in a line and equal again. As soon as we set off, Pete hoofed me out of the way, but not more than he needed to. So I waited till the last corner when he was heading in for his move on Tyler and just as his bonnet was about to make contact, I gave him a massive shove into Tyler, taking them both out of my way for long enough to shoot by and take the flag again.

  Tyler’s face was a picture. “Is this how it’s going to be from now on?” He said to me as he slowed up beside me.

  “Yup,” I said economically. “See you for more of the same at Skeggie tomorrow!” And then I drove off.

  Skeggie. Tarmac. Fay there as well. Pete and I both won our heats. Tyler won the Final and the Grand National. Pete was second in the Final and I was second in the Grand National. No big dramas.

  Tyler wandered over towards the very end of the meet. “Coffee?” He suggested to me.

  We went together and queued up at the refreshments van. I was pleased to see that the queue was really long so it gave us a legitimate reason to stand together for some time. He stood really close to me. I’d taken my driving overalls off, so he was able to run his fingers up and down my lower arm. The inner bit. He seemed to love doing that. He said my skin was so soft and smooth.

  “What are you doing for your birthday?” He asked.

  I shrugged. “Haven’t thought. It’s mid-week and it’s the massive four day Easter marathon straight after, otherwise I’d organise a girls’ night out.”

  “How about I come over and take you out somewhere?” He suggested.

  “Ok,” I agreed immediately. “That would be nice.”

  We moved a couple of places nearer the kiosk.

  He leant down and said into my ear. “Will you wear the dress you wore on our first date?”

  “Ok,” I agreed. Not that I’d counted it as a date at the time. “Why?” I glanced up at him when there was a bit a gap without him answering me.

  “Because that’s what you were wearing when I fell in love with you,” he said quietly, his eyes warm on my face.

  I stared at him. Then I glanced around to make sure no-one else had heard. Oh shit, this was all I needed! He ran his hands up both my arms this time, looking down at me so adoringly that I found myself melting a bit inside, despite myself. “Not here,” I said quickly.

  He managed to recover himself enough to be looking less particular when Devlin stopped beside us for a chat. This year Devlin’s car was behaving itself, and with Horrocks stepping back from the race for Silver, Devlin was back in contention. But then so was Tyler this year without his wife to hold him back, and so was I. Devlin obviously thought it politic to keep us both on the friendly side.

  Wednesday at work. “Happy Birthday,” Jo said to me. She’d brought some cream cakes in for everyone to celebrate and a card signed by her and Pete and one signed by Paul and Sue.

  “What are you doing tonight?” She asked.

  “Tyler’s coming over to take me out,” I said.

  She didn’t seem surprised.

  I felt a bit embarrassed that Quinn would see me coming out in the same smoky blue dress as the first time. I knew he’d notice. So I tried to pre-empt a comment by chatting casually to him over a cup of tea before I went to get ready.

  “Tyler’s coming. He asked me to wear the same dress as the first time…”

  Quinn raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh aye?”

  I looked suspiciously at him. “You say that in a tone that seems to mean something?”

  “It means he’s got it bad,” Quinn said with a smile.

  “Oh,” I said dismayed. I didn’t want to hear that. “Well that’s not what we agreed. We agreed casual sex and cars and nothing else.”

  Quinn’s nose twitched and a glint came into his naughty eyes. “Sounds like a mechanic’s wet dream…”

  “Oh shut up!” I snapped and retired to the shower.

  Tyler was dressed all nice and clean. He took me to a posh restaurant and between the main course and the desert gave me a small beautifully wrapped present. I weighed it in my hand.

  “Can’t fit much of an engine in that Tyler,” I said, only half joking.

  He smiled and said nothing.

  I was just slightly anxious that it would contain an engagement ring and that I’d be put in the most awful situation, but it didn’t. It was a pair of elegant gold earrings with smoky blue stones in them that matched my dress exactly. I smiled first in relief, and then I realised how sweet it was of him. No-one had ever bought me earrings before, and for a bloke to be able to match a dress he’d only seen once was quite a feat. I probably wo
uldn’t be able to do it myself without Jaimi along. I removed the ones I already had in, and replaced them with his. Then I tipped my head one way and the other to get them to swing a bit, and said, “How do they look?”

  “You look beautiful,” he said appreciatively, not quite answering my question.

  I could feel myself blushing as his eyes met mine with such a light in them.

  It turned out he’d booked us in at a really nice country hotel out on the moors and he was so loving and gentle I didn’t know what to do. I’d taken my work clothes with me so as not to have to come home first, but he didn’t want to let me go and kept putting off the time we left by a bit more and a bit more, until eventually I was late for work. Thankfully no-one at Entwistle’s seemed to care much and made jokes about it obviously having been a heavy night of celebration. Only Jo knew what I’d really been up to. I avoided her eyes. I didn’t want to talk about it.

  Easter weekend bonanza. Fay was away for Easter so Jo and I could relax. We couldn’t make both Northampton and Skegness on Good Friday, but the F1s were also at Skegness, so we were inclined to go there. Chesterton shale Stadium near Stoke on the Saturday was also a world qualifier for the F1s so that would provide extra entertainment, and our own world qualifier was on tarmac at the Mendips on the Sunday. Finally we had a choice to go on down to Devon with the Bristol one tactically placed the night before or be back at our home track Belle Vue with the F1s again on the Easter Monday. A decision that might depend on whether one of us had trashed either a tarmac or shale car. Phew! But worth it if we could pile up the points.

  I went to look for Quinn at Skegness. He was helping Rob out.