The Legend

by Shey Stahl

  “Jay,” Rex began again clasping my shoulders as he walked past us raising his eyebrows suggestively as if he knew what to expect from his comment.

  I saw my dad laughing out of the corner of my eye, actually he giggled, and Sway shook her head knowing the emotion warring in me and that I wouldn’t take well to him calling me that again.

  Swinging my legs around, I stood before him, my eyes level with his, knocking my drink over with the motion. “What was that...Rex?”

  “You’ve done it now Rex.” Randy said provoking the matter. Every time Rex and I were together, we’ve gotten in a fight.

  He shoved me, or maybe I shoved him. Either way, shoving took place. I took a swing first, or maybe he took the swing first. Either way, a swing took place.

  Shoving, swinging, and then that turned into some words and before I knew it, I was nursing a fat bloody lip and Rex had a broken jaw. Not many got away clean with my left handed pop. Unfortunately Rex had a left handed pop that was similar.

  My dad laughed at me sitting there glaring at Rex, breathing heavy, glaring and spitting blood as he left with my uncle. “So you don’t like being called Jay huh?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Hey dad,” Axel came into the room; finally without his hands or lips attached to Lily though they were holding hands. Lily sat on his lap, his hands draped over her legs as they sat next to me. “Have you heard about the winter race in Knoxville this year?”

  “No, I haven’t heard anything.” Then it dawned on me. That must have been the race Tommy was talking about the other day. “Oh, wait, Tommy may have said something about it.”

  “It sounds pretty cool. I think it’s the first winter race they’ve ever had.”

  “It is. Usually the weather is too wet this time of year.” I looked over at Axel. “You wanna race it?”

  “You mean with you?” he stumbled through his words appearing nervous. Lily sighed knowing he was.

  “Yeah with me...and the boys,” the three of us started talking about the race and the format that we heard they would be doing and agreed to look into it.

  Dad sighed wistfully. “That actually sounds pretty cool.”

  All of us knew my dad would never race again. I guess I couldn’t say that he would never race again, just that he probably shouldn’t. His head had endured a lot over the years and eventually that led to him deciding to retire.

  “What do you say we call it a night, champ?” Sway offered looking to me and I agreed.

  Sway and I left after that. Arie and Casten left with Spencer and Alley. Apparently they were all going shopping tomorrow, something Sway and I had no plans of doing.

  “We haven’t done it on a bike…yet.” Sway said to me when we pulled in our driveway. Her hands circled around and grabbed me. Of course I instantly started to get hard. This was something I had imagined many times.

  “It’s nearly December. Won’t you get cold?”

  Her soft hands gripped my shoulders as I lifted her up and onto my lap. Her legs were wrapped around me, pulling me into her warm center. “No, I won’t get cold. How could I with you here?”

  “Fuck Sway, this is so fucking hot.” I rasped tasting her cool skin. She shivered melting around me.

  “All I can think about right now,” she let out a soft moan, her hips working mine. “...is that picture with you leaned back in that chair and your head bent forward...so sexy!”

  I had forgotten about that one. Probably because once they had baby oil on me my mood turned to shit but damn, that photo shoot has gotten me a lot of lovin’.

  I chuckled against her lips, the sound vibrating and pushed her down on me harder this time, the sensation was just as gratifying.

  “Sway...” I breathed. I bent to kiss the swells of her breasts and she hitched her leg around me again gaining an angle we needed to make this work. I wasn’t going to be able to make this work. Grinding her hips against mine, she bent forward holding me against her chest.

  “It’s fucking freezing out her. You better get to this bearing alignment soon, enough assembly prep already.”

  Soon my jeans were unzipped and Sway had gotten her dress up and panties pushed aside.

  I paused for a brief second to take her in. With the light of our garage, her body seemed to glow under the moonlight. After twenty years together she got more beautiful every day. Reaching out, I traced my hand over her cheek before lifting her onto my lap again. Sliding inside of her, she gasped and threw her head back. We became frantic with one another, hands and lips fighting for control on a bike. It wasn’t happening and I nearly knocked it over a few times.

  I couldn’t put a name to the emotion that was coursing through my body, but something in her eyes met mine and I felt completely at home and yet on fire at the same time.

  She crashed her lips to mine, I winced from the cut but took what she gave anyway and I was shocked with the ferocity behind her kiss. Our lips locked and she clutched her hands to the back of my neck as she moved against me. A fire raged from our connected lips and warmed my chest, all the way down my body. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer so that she was flush against me and she moaned at the contact.

  She was illuminated by the moonlight. Her porcelain skin was set against the midnight blue dress that was pushed up around her waist. She was more than exquisite. Her perfect breasts were rising and falling with her labored breaths, and I could see her pert nipples straining against the lace.

  Ghosting my hands down her curves, I felt her skin ripple from my touch. Her trim yet hourglass shape was like heaven in my hands. I reveled in every inch of her with my fingertips, back up her curves and over her breasts, caressing, touching and feeling her.

  God she was fucking gorgeous. So much beyond my dreams I couldn't comprehend the sight before me. I reached up and swept a lock of hair behind her ear and she closed her eyes.

  And that’s when we heard. “Really guys? You couldn’t wait to get into your house?” Alley said avoiding the sight by holding a plate against her face. Closing her eyes she reached out and blindly held the plate out. “I came return the plate. Now I wished I hadn’t.”

  Laughing, I took the plate and said, “Let’s face it Alley, you’ve caught us doing worse.”

  Surprisingly she laughed, “You ain’t kidding.”

  Alley quickly left as we weren’t exactly in the position to be talking. Sway slumped against me and then drew back to smile. “Why does that still happen to us?”

  “Because we’re careless,” I whispered and then buried my head in her neck. “Now pay attention, we’re busy.”

  Regardless of being caught, again, there was no slowing down. We continued until we were both moaning. That was until I lost my footing and the bike fell over. Thankfully we were finished by that point.

  Limping inside, my arm hung around over her shoulders, hers around my waist. “Do you think we’re too old to be still doing it in cars and on bikes?”

  My lips found her forehead. “No. I think we’re normal and we’re making this what we want it to be.”

  “You’re right. Now...” her smile was mischievous. “We haven’t done it in the shower since we moved in. Let’s get to that. The kids are gone.”

  “You read my mind honey.”

  I never thought we were too old to be doing what we did. I never thought we were too old for a lot of things because we were in love. How many couples in their forties could honestly say that? I knew a few who couldn’t. It seems that the older you get, the harder it is to keep that love alive. You find yourself pinched and looking for an opening anywhere. Our opening was this. We had a healthy relationship. We fought, oh man, did we fight. She thought I followed to close to other cars when driving and that I never cleaned up after myself or that I lost my temper too quickly. I hated that she yelled at me for following to close or that we paid a maid to clean and she never did or that she and our kids fueled my temper at times. The thing was, at the end of the day when I was loose in
the marbles searching for grip. She was exactly what I wanted.

  The utter expanse of emotions and feelings that I could have with her amazed me every day. It was as if the two of us met in the middle of everything and that balanced us out. I could laugh with her, cry with her, though I never really had, be coy with her and then be completely overcome with want by her. No one had ever affected me that way and I had a feeling they never would.

  11. Feature - Axel

  Feature – This refers to the main event and the cars that made which it through the heats to race in the final race of the night and pays the biggest payout.

  My parents, I honestly believe this, were the true meaning behind a love story.

  When most think of my dad, they think of the NASCAR Cup series champion that he is, but not my mom. He’s always just been Jameson to her. There’s a side to him that only she knows and will ever know. There are words that he says that only she gets to hear. There are feelings that he feels that only she knows.

  That to me is a part of marriage. Trusting that the other person will let you be yourself and not an image. You trust them with a part of yourself that no one sees.

  I had absolutely no concerns about marrying Lily, none.

  What I was concerned about was the bachelor party. If I had to guess it was because of my brother and Cole. Or maybe it was Tommy and Willie? They were not the people you wanted planning this sort of thing. When Tommy got involved, I was sure I didn’t want to go. He was a forty-two year old kid and that would never change.

  No one told me what we were doing until the morning we got back from the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals.

  Casten, Lane and Cole were all in the kitchen of my condo, planning the evening when Tommy walked in with Willie. These two traveled as a pair most of the time.

  “Hey kid! You up for tonight?” Tommy asked drinking milk from the carton out of my fridge and then moved to the coffee pot to make his morning coffee. He reminded me of my mom, he had to have coffee. Couldn’t live without it.

  One time we were outside of Marshall Missouri heading to Terra Haute for a race. Well Tommy hadn’t had coffee at that point and drove a hundred miles out of the way just to get it. When you’re racing on the outlaw tour, you don’t have time to drive a hundred miles out of the way. When we pulled into the pits as time trials were going on, I think he learned his lesson on that one. It still didn’t stop him from seeking out coffee every morning, but he did invest in instant coffee at that point.

  I noticed how methodical he was about concocting his coffee too. It was his master piece.

  One packet of sugar, stir and taste. One container of creamer, stir and taste. Another packet of sugar, stir and taste.

  I wanted to dump a rogue packet of Splenda in there just to see if his head would explode.

  When he finished his odd assembly, he stuffed a few more packets of sugar in his pockets before walking toward me.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you’re strange?”

  “Yes actually. All the time,” Tommy laughed sitting down beside me on the couch. “Your parents used to tell me that.”

  “It explains a lot.”

  Casten walked down the hall pulling a shirt over his lean shoulders. “Everything’s all set.” I didn’t like the way he said “all set” and if you knew my brother you understood.

  “Hey Tommy...are you coming tonight?”

  “Where?” Tommy quirked an eyebrow as the conversation seemed to pique his interest.

  “Axel’s bachelor party in Jacksonville,” Casten replied.

  “Why are you going all the way to Jacksonville?”

  “The girls are here.” Casten gave us a look. “We need to be somewhere else.”

  What man, like Tommy, who had never been married and had slept with more women throughout his life than the combined total of playmates housed over the years at the playboy mansion wouldn’t want to party all night?

  “I’m in!” Tommy announced confirming my theory.

  “Great.” Tommy and Casten together wasn’t my idea of fun. The last time they were together dad had to bail his fourteen-year-old son and Tommy out of jail.

  What was worse was when Tommy, Willie, Casten and Cole got together. Cole was a little delinquent and Tommy had gotten all of them in so much trouble in Knoxville earlier in the year we were asked not to come back with them.

  “I don’t want to go.” I voiced my concern, not that it meant anything these days. “I want to stay home.”

  “You know what? You’re a jerk.” Casten said completely serious all of sudden drinking the same milk Tommy just did.

  “Tommy just drank from that.”

  “Asshole,” he spit the milk back in the container.

  “That’s awesome.” Tommy said apparently satisfied and then stood. “Let’s go. Traffic is a bitch this time of the day.”

  We left around noon that Wednesday night for Jacksonville Beach. My parents owned a condo there which Casten had somehow talked them into using for the night. It must have been my mom’s permission he obtained because dad would have never allowed that sort of thing after the street fire incident.

  All I knew was that I just wanted to get this over with and get on with the wedding. This whole thing had gotten way out of hand. I was beginning to understand why Tommy had never got married. Just the wedding was enough for most to say, “Nah.”

  Feature – Jameson

  “I can’t understand why you would let them go there alone.” I shook my head at my wife. “Casten isn’t even fifteen yet and Axel has no clue what he’s in for with Tommy and Willie with them.”

  “Oh just let them be boys.” Sway said curling up on the couch with her ice cream and a book. “Axel would probably like it if you went.”

  “It’s his bachelor party. Why would he want his dad there?”

  “For moral support,” she sighed giving me a look of don’t be stupid. “Think about who went.”

  She had a point. Tommy was not an adult. I don’t care how old Tommy was and Cole had an arrest record worse than Spencer and I combined. If I was honest with you, I was sure Willie had been to prison at some point in his life, or recently.

  After an hour, I decided to take Spencer with me to Jacksonville. They needed supervision. I wasn’t having my condo set on fire too.

  Spencer was all for a night of partying but I had to remind him we were going for supervision and not to act like children.

  We were only about two hours behind the boys so when we got there, I didn’t think it could be that bad already.

  I was wrong.

  Casten, Willie and Tommy had Axel strapped down with tie downs dumping shots of Fireball down his throat while he kicked and screamed and Lane took pictures and Cole video tapped it.

  It was like a torture chamber.

  Axel was never a big drinker. He was more into racing and didn’t have time for alcohol. They were determined to get him drunk tonight. And I do mean determined.

  “You guys are going to kill him.” I told them setting a case of beer on the granite countertop in the kitchen.

  Axel was squirming around coughing and gagging and mumbling something about leaving and killing his brother.

  Casten leaned back in his chair with his fingers linked behind his neck and an amused look on his face. “Uh-huh.”

  Axel jumped up and tackled him knocking him to the floor.

  “I swear to god Casten, I will kick your ass if you don’t stop.” He let him go after that and stomped down the hall to the bathroom, locking the door. “Leave me alone!”

  Casten’s grin was getting wider as I got worried about what he had actually planned. His lips curved into a broad smile. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

  “For you or him?” I laughed taking a beer from the case.

  “Me, naturally,”

  It took nearly four hours to get Axel out of the bathroom and I think the only reason he came out was because he was hungry.

  Spence
r and I sat back with our case of beer and watched the night unfold. The boys were entertaining and reminded me a lot of us in ways. It was like being an outsider to some of the madness we created at their age.

  To our surprise, Axel willingly started drinking around ten that night when Casten showed him a picture Arie took of Lily and a strip poll. Apparently, he told her he wouldn’t do anything crazy, turns out; she didn’t exactly say the same.

  So while his soon to be bride was pole dancing, he was behaving. That all changed after that text message and I saw a side of my son I never knew existed. It was actually like watching a video of myself at nineteen.

  “It’s my fucking bachelor party! Where are the girls?” Axel was loud, crude and wondering where the entertainment was.

  Casten assured him it was about to go down when the doorbell rang.

  I nearly fell out of my goddamn chair when this girl walked in wearing nothing, absolutely nothing and climbed in Axel’s lap while Cherry Pie by Warrant blasted through the room.

  He looked as though he wanted to die. Pretty much the same reaction all of us had, aside from Casten and Tommy who’d supposedly arranged this.

  “I’m leaving.” I told Spencer and walked outside while the girl wiggled around on my son’s lap. He was so drunk at that point; I doubted he even realized what was happening.

  I snuck a couple glances from the balcony to be sure Axel didn’t do anything he’d regret in the morning but other than that, I stayed out of the way.

  That was until Tommy came out.

  “Jameson?” he called completely shit faced and stumbling onto the deck outside.

  “Yeah?” I leaned forward in the chair I was sitting in so he could see me by the railing. “I’m out here.”

  “We have a tiny problem.” Tommy appeared, red faced and nervous.

  “What?”

  “The cops are here for a noise disturbance.” He said shuffling his feet, a sure sign Tommy had fucked up.

  “I told you the music was too loud.” I stood reaching for my beer.