Play By Play [6] One Sweet Ride

by Jaci Burton

  She climbed down in a hurry, anxious to get information from someone, but all she heard were mumblings about an ambulance and air flight and that the hospital had been alerted.

  She finally grabbed one of the crew members by the arm.

  “Is Gray hurt?”

  He gave her a short nod.

  Her stomach dropped. “How badly?”

  “Nobody knows yet. They have to cut him out of the car first, then they’ll helicopter him to the local hospital.”

  She reached for the nearby equipment, dizziness overtaking her.

  Cut him out of the car? Oh, dear God. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket to call Gray’s parents.

  *******

  EVELYN HAD WAITED WHILE GRAY HAD BEEN THROUGH X-ray and CT scans and then his parents had spoken with the doctors. Donny and Stacie were there with her along with Ian, so she was glad not to be alone.

  They kept the cameras out. The racing organization was great about taking care of feeding the media information.

  All Evelyn could do was sit and wait and pray that he was going to be all right. She couldn’t handle looking at the television, which was set to the sports station that had been replaying the crash nonstop.

  She’d looked once, seeing Gray hit from behind and sliding down the track. He’d been broadsided and had gone airborne before slamming into the wall. There’d been a chain reaction and he’d been hit again. Then again.

  It had been a brutal, horrendous crash. He was lucky to be alive and she thanked God for the organization’s safety requirements and the vehicle safety standards that the drivers always complained about but were the main reason he was alive right now.

  When the senator came downstairs, she stood, her legs shaking.

  He came over to her and took her hands.

  “He has a concussion and a broken leg and probably a couple broken ribs. He’s going to be fine, though.”

  Tears filled her eyes and she hugged the senator. “Thank you for telling us. How’s Loretta?”

  “Tougher than I thought she’d be. Carolina was packing to head this way. Loretta called her.”

  “Good.” She sniffled and smiled. “Is it all right if I see him?”

  “I’ll take you up.”

  She introduced him to Ian. The senator took a few minutes to speak with Ian, then he took her up via the elevator to the ICU.

  “He’s going to be fine, Evelyn.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You love him.”

  She didn’t even hesitate. “Yes, sir.”

  “He loves you too, you know.”

  She let the tears fall. “I was afraid he was going to die. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

  He squeezed her hand. “You’re not going to be without him. But he’s going to be pissed off about this crash.”

  She laughed through the tears. “I’m sure he will be.”

  When they got to the entrance of the ICU, she went and hugged Loretta.

  “God smiles on the idiots,” Loretta said. “Such a dangerous sport.”

  “But he’s so good at what he does, Loretta. You know as soon as he’s able, he’ll be right back out there.”

  She sighed and squeezed Evelyn’s hands. “I know.”

  “He’s pretty out of it right now, heavily medicated,” Mitchell said. “He might not be awake.”

  “I won’t be long. Thank you for letting me see him.”

  She was buzzed in and went to his room, pausing at the doorway to take a deep breath.

  Gray, her strong, indestructible hero, was hooked up to tubes and IVs, and was bruised, bandaged, and looked utterly broken. Pushing back the tears, she walked in.

  He was asleep. She sat in the chair next to him and slid her hand under his.

  “You have to heal, Gray. And take your time doing it, which I know you’re going to hate.”

  He didn’t move, and all she heard was the soft whirr of the machines.

  “And maybe think about slowing down for a few minutes?” She smoothed her other hand over the top of his.

  “I will if you will.”

  Her gaze shot to his. His eyes were half open.

  “You’re awake.”

  “I have the worst fucking headache.”

  Relief flooded her. “I’ll bet you do. That was some show you put on at the race today.”

  “Yeah. And a DNF. I hate not finishing a race. That’s going to fuck me up in the standings.”

  It figured he’d think about his position. “That’s probably the least of your worries right now.”

  “I’m screwed for this season, babe. That’s not good.”

  She caressed his hand. “I’m sorry, Gray. I know how close you were, how much this meant to you. But right now you have to focus on recovering. That has to be your priority.”

  He swallowed, licked his lips. “I’ll be back in a car in no time.”

  “Yes, you will.” Though the thought of him racing again terrified her. But it was who he was and what he did. What he loved. And she loved him. Which she was going to tell him. But now wasn’t the time.

  His eyes drifted closed. “You need to go help my dad become the vice president, you know. No more races to watch now.”

  His last words were slurred.

  “I’ll be back to check on you.”

  “Nah. I’ll be fine here. Go do your job, Evelyn. Go become president. I won’t stand in your way.”

  Now he wasn’t making sense at all. She got up and pressed a kiss to his forehead and left the room, because she knew his mom would want to come back in.

  “He woke up for a few minutes and talked to me. Now he’s sleeping,” she told his parents when she met them outside the door.

  “I’ll just head back in then,” Loretta told them.

  “I’ll meet you in there in a minute,” Mitchell said. He turned to her. “He really is going to be fine.”

  “I know that. I’ll head over to the convention hotel and handle things on that end so you can stay here tonight.”

  “Thanks.” He took a deep breath. “It wasn’t so long ago I would have let Loretta handle this. Politics would have been more important. Not that this isn’t an important time for me.”

  She laid her hand on his arm. “The campaign won’t kick into gear for a few more days. This is your time to be a father. Maybe make up for some of those things you lost.”

  “He told you.”

  “Yes.”

  His lips curved. “One of the things I’ve always appreciated about you is your brutal honesty, Evelyn.”

  “It’s not my job to pass judgment on you, Senator. But you do have some relationship building to do with Gray.”

  “He still resents me.”

  “That’s not for me to say. But he does need you right now. And that’s purely my opinion. It would mean a lot to him that you’re here.”

  “I’m worried about him. There’s no place I’d rather be right now than here.”

  “Good. I’ll take care of things on the campaign end. I’ll call you or text you if anything urgent comes up.”

  “Thanks.”

  She took off, but she wanted to be at the hospital.

  As she climbed into her car, she stared up at the rooms of the hospital.

  She’d always loved her job, and when she was away from it longed to be back at it.

  This was the first time she resented her job.

  She wanted to be with Gray. And her job was getting in the way of that.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  CRUTCHES SUCKED.

  So did having bodyguards and a fucking entourage of people who treated him like he might collapse any second. But those were his doctor’s orders—and his parents’, and the only way he was going to be allowed to attend the convention.

  At first he’d argued with his father, who told him it was absolutely unnecessary for him to be there, that it was more important for him to foc
us on his recovery.

  He’d been surprised as hell to find his father lingering at his bedside for so many days, when the most important political campaign of his career was happening. But his dad had told him that the accident had scared the hell out of him, and he’d wasted enough time on politics and hadn’t spent enough time with his son. A son, his father admitted, that he might have lost that day. And he’d already lost enough time with Gray. So the campaign could just go fuck itself.

  Gray had laughed at that, though it had hurt like hell to laugh.

  Maybe Gray had been blind to his father’s overtures all these years, because there was no way in hell the old Mitchell Preston would have allowed anything—not even Gray’s accident—to stand in the way of him becoming the vice presidential nominee.

  Granted, it wasn’t happening right after his accident, but face time with the media and with the delegates was so important.

  Still, his father wouldn’t budge, not even after Gray had been discharged from the hospital two days later and had been comfortably put up at a suite at the conference hotel. Being the prospective vice presidential nominee had its privileges, including getting an extra suite at a hotel that had been sold out a year in advance.

  His father had hired him a private doctor and nursing staff to oversee his care, which was totally unnecessary. He had a residual headache from the concussion, his leg had been set in a cast, and the ribs would eventually heal, though the ribs were what hurt the most.

  That and his pride. Losing out on this year’s championship utterly sucked. He hated letting his team down. But Ian had been to the hospital and had come up to the suite and told him the crew were just relieved he hadn’t died in that crash, a crash that had come about because of the circumstances of racing and nothing more. Cars got too close and bumped and sometimes the younger racers weren’t paying attention. Hell, he couldn’t even blame Cal McCluskey, who hadn’t even been in his vicinity at the time of the crash, though he’d been wrecked, too.

  Though apparently the crash had had a sobering effect on Cal, who’d hit the wall six cars back. He said his reaction time had been bad, that he could have avoided it if he hadn’t been drinking the night before. Cal admitted to being an alcoholic and had ended his race season early, deciding to enter rehab.

  It was a good choice—the right choice. Gray hoped Cal cleaned up and came back to racing the next season. He was a good, hard competitor and Gray wanted to see him come back clean.

  As for Gray, he’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he’d been the one to take the hit. A really bad hit that had cost his team the championship.

  Fortunately, he already had another driver lined up to drive the number fifty-three the rest of the season, because he sure as hell wouldn’t be doing any driving. The thought made him itchy and restless, but there was nothing he could do about it. And they were fortunate to have a week off so Ian could get Alex Reed ready and give him some practice time in Gray’s car.

  He was damn lucky to get Alex, who didn’t have a full-time ride this year. Alex would do a great job driving for him the rest of the season.

  Next year, though, Gray would be ready to climb back into his own car and kick some serious ass.

  In the meantime, he was free to soak up the convention.

  Pretty impressive stuff. Lots of speeches, which weren’t really his thing, but since he was holed up in the hotel, he got to watch Evelyn in action. He hadn’t told her he was at the hotel, and hadn’t spoken to her since he was discharged from the hospital.

  She was busy doing her job and he didn’t want to get in her way, so he had his mother tell her that he was headed home to Daytona, that he was tired, and they’d touch base after the convention.

  His thought was to surprise her, that maybe she’d get a few free minutes and he could hold her, kiss her, and finally have that conversation he’d wanted to have with her after the race on Sunday.

  Except the race hadn’t turned out like he’d expected, and they’d never had a chance to talk. He also knew her schedule here at the convention, since she was right by his father’s side. She was running constantly, meeting with delegates and press and working on that whole social media thing she did so well. So he sat back and did his recovery thing and kept tabs on her while also working on a few surprises for her that he’d maybe spring on her after this was all over with.

  His dad stopped by several times a day to see how he was doing, a fact that still shocked the hell out of him. He wouldn’t say they were close as a father and son should be yet, but his dad had gone out of his way to make Gray a priority, and that meant a lot to him, especially since his father had zero expectations of Gray making an appearance on the convention room floor. In fact, his dad had expressly forbidden it, which made Gray laugh since he was well past the age where his dad could forbid him to do anything he had a mind to do.

  And he had a couple things in mind.

  Starting tonight.

  *******

  EVELYN WAS RUNNING FROM ONE END OF THE CONVENTION floor to the other, her head filled with so many things on her to-do list she was grateful for the calendar on her phone, because her brain was utterly fried.

  She was exhilarated, and exhausted, thrilled and terrified, and so excited for Senator Mitchell. This was his moment, what they’d worked so hard for all these years.

  She’d listened avidly to every speech this week, excitement building each night for the upcoming Cameron/Preston ticket. She stood front and center, prepared to listen to more great speeches tonight, so proud of everything they’d accomplished.

  As one of Atlanta’s representatives spoke, Evelyn responded to a few emails that had gone unanswered while she’d been busy today. And maybe she’d been purposely throwing herself into every activity possible so she could focus on work and not on Gray.

  God, she missed him so much and wished she could be in Daytona with him, taking care of him. She was certain he had plenty of people watching over him. Loretta and Carolina both assured her he was being well cared for and she didn’t have to worry about him, but she couldn’t help herself. She felt both guilty and a little hurt that she hadn’t been able to see him since that night in the hospital, but that was the nature of her job. And also his choice.

  He hadn’t called her. She tried not to take that personally, or as a sign of things to come in their relationship. He had a bad injury, and was likely concentrating all his efforts on resting and recuperating, not on thinking about her.

  But her heart still hurt so badly, which was why she spent every moment of every day throwing herself into work.

  Besides, this was the way things were going to be. Her time with him was over. He had his life, and she had hers, and her job was about to go on overdrive for the next few months. She had no time for a relationship, no time to work on whatever it was she and Gray had together.

  It was time to sever the ties.

  “And now, I’m so proud to introduce, fresh off one very frightening injury at our local racetrack this past weekend, Senator Mitchell Preston’s son, Grayson Preston.”

  Her head shot up. Gray was here?

  He hobbled across the stage on crutches and her first thought was to rush up there to help him. But he smiled at the representative and made his way, albeit slowly, to the podium, to the raucous cheers of the crowd on the convention floor.

  He was in pain. She could tell from the sweat that beaded on his upper lip as she made her way closer.

  When the applause died down, Gray looked out over the crowd.

  “I’ve never been much of a public speaker. I’ve always let my driving do the talking for me.” He looked down at the crutches. “Sometimes my driving outlines my mistakes for me, too.”

  The crowd laughed.

  “But the one thing I know for certain is what Governor Cameron and my father, Mitchell Preston, can do for our country.”

  His speech was eloquent, impassioned, family orien
ted, and politically perfect. It was clear he spoke from the heart and his speech wasn’t practiced, nor had it been written for him. If it had been, she would have been the one to write it.

  And she hadn’t even known he was coming.

  “So I’m very proud to introduce you to my father, Senator Mitchell Preston.”

  The applause was thunderous, the people in the convention center already one hundred percent behind Gray’s father. Evelyn took it all in as Mitchell came out and gave his son a handshake, then a very gentle hug. The looks they gave each other were filled with genuine warmth.

  It was a perfect moment, and the media caught it all. But it was more than that, because Evelyn saw the bonding between father and son, and that meant more than anything.

  She stood and listened to Mitchell’s speech, one she’d helped him prepare. But her gaze followed Gray off stage. She wanted to go to him, to talk to him, but her job was to be there for the senator, so she stayed put while he spoke of the country’s needs and his ideas on how to fulfill them. She was so proud of him, and when he finished, the convention floor thundered its approval.

  It was a shining moment, one she was fully caught up in.

  It wasn’t until hours later, when all the interviews for the day were finished, that she was able to ask the senator about Gray’s appearance tonight.

  “I had no idea he was going to appear. I told him not to,” the senator said.

  “I thought he was in Daytona.”

  The senator smiled. “I put him up in a suite here at the hotel.”

  Her eyes widened. “He’s been here the whole time?”

  “Yes. He didn’t want you to know.”

  Hurt clenched her stomach. “Why is that?”

  “He wanted you focused on what you needed to do here, not on him. He said your job is your priority.”

  “I see.” How nice of him to make that decision for her, or to think she couldn’t juggle both. A familiar refrain, and one she’d heard before. “Is he still here?”