Holeshot

by Winter Travers

  “This is only your second season in the Cummings Racing funny car. Does it feel like home now?”

  “Cummings Racing is where I’m meant to be. I have an amazing crew chief, and a pit crew who set me up to win every race.”

  “One has to wonder what happened last week then when you didn’t even manage to make it past qualifying.”

  Damn. This chick knew how to hit me right where it hurt. “I was having a few staffing issues, and my head wasn’t were it should have been when I strapped into the car.”

  “You obviously fixed whatever problems you were having though, right? At least for Sundown.”

  I nodded. “Cummings Racing is back, and this weekend shows exactly what we have in store for the rest of the season.”

  She thankfully wrapped up her grilling, and I yanked the microphone off my shirt.

  “Thanks so much, Brooks.” She batted her eyes at me, and the viperous woman who had been sitting before me disappeared, replaced with someone I could instantly tell was about to try to get in my pants.

  “Not a problem.” I wasn’t going to give her anything more than that. I wasn’t interested in whatever she had to say. I had caught her chatting with Don and Ted, the two announcers of most of the big races, and she never had anything good to say about Cummings Racing.

  Hell, most people really didn’t have any nice things to say. “What are your plans for the night?” She flipped her hair off her shoulder and smiled. “I was going to grab a drink up in the press box if you want to join me.”

  I shook my head and handed the microphone to her. “I’m gonna hang with the crew and head back to Leeds Square in the morning.”

  “You’re sure you don’t need company tonight?”

  I looked around and caught the camera guy shaking his head. One had to wonder if this was a typical routine with her. “Got enough company, Susan. Thanks for the offer, though.”

  She scowled at me, and I was able to make it out of the press tent before she tried to sink her claws into me again. Blain was standing outside the tent on the phone. “Brooks,” he called. He muttered something into the phone and ended the call. “You’re all done for the day. You might have an over the phone interview with Dragster Weekly tomorrow. I was just on the phone with them letting them know they needed to snag some time with you before you won the whole AC Cup Series.”

  At least it was good to know that Blain had faith in me. Though I wasn’t as optimistic I was going to win the whole series. Even if you had the best car on the track, that only went so far. I needed to keep my head on straight and focus on the next race. “Just let me know a time, and I’ll make sure to be available.”

  He nodded and ducked into the press tent.

  My phone rang in my pocket, and I was surprised to see Susan’s number on the screen. “Hello?” I put the phone to my ear and ducked off to the side of the press tent.

  “Mr. Cummings?”

  “Yeah. What’s going on, Susan?”

  “We’re having a little bit of a problem right now.”

  I clenched the phone in my hand, and my heart sank. “What’s wrong?”

  “Your mother and I were watching TV, and I’m not sure what happened. She looked over at me and asked who I was. I explained that I was her friend staying with her for the weekend while you were away.”

  “What did she say?”

  She cleared her throat. “She told me she had no idea who I was and that I needed to get out until her son got home. She’s in her room right now with the door locked. I tried to talk to her, but she’s refusing to come out.”

  I instantly started jogging in the direction of my trailer. “Is she okay right now?”

  “She doesn’t seem scared, just agitated that I’m here. I’m unsure of what you would like me to do. I don’t want to upset her any more than I have.”

  “Brooks!” Roc hollered to me, and I waved him over as I continued to make my way to my car I had parked next to my trailer.

  “I’m on my way home, Susan. Just please stay in the house ‘til I get there. As long as she is safe in her room, leave her be.”

  “Will do, sir. I’m terribly sorry about this. I don’t know what happened.”

  It wasn’t her fault. It was the dementia. I had only witnessed her sudden confusion a couple of times, but I understood what Susan was going through. “No need to be sorry, Susan. Just please stay there. I should be to you guys in three hours.” I disconnected the call and shoved my phone in my pocket.

  “Where’s the fire?” Roc asked. He made his way to me, and his face fell the instant his eyes connected with mine. “What’s wrong?”

  No one knew exactly what was wrong with my mother, but Roc knew that something wasn’t right. “I need to get home right now. Can you just let the crew know they did amazing this weekend?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Sure. Of course. Is there anything else I can do?”

  He was giving me the opportunity to let him in on whatever was going on, but I didn’t have time to explain everything to him. “Just some things I need to take care of. I hate to leave you guys, but I don’t have any other choice.” I wished I did have someone else to help me, but I didn’t. With my father deciding to be a selfish prick, I was left to carry the burden of taking care of my mom. “Just get everything packed up, and I’ll see you back at the shop tomorrow.” I clapped him on the shoulder and didn’t wait for his reply. The longer I took to get to my mom, the longer she was locked away in her room.

  I grabbed my keys from the trailer, beeped open the locks on my Mustang, and slipped into the driver seat.

  It was amazing how quickly things changed.

  Not even ten minutes ago, I was celebrating winning the Sundown Nationals, and now my whole world was crashing down around me.

  I needed to get home.

  *

  Frankie

  “All right. Let’s get this shit all loaded up and then we can go celebrate a little bit.”

  I slipped the cover onto my toolbox and motioned to Remy to help me roll it onto the hauler. “You see Brooks lately?”

  I shook my head and positioned myself at the back of the toolbox to roll it forward. “Last I heard, he was doing a buttload of interviews.” That was one thing I did not envy Brooks having to do. Being on that side of the camera was not something I was interested in.

  “He left.”

  I looked over at Jay. “Huh?”

  “Say what?” Remy replied at the same time.

  “Yeah. I was pulling the trailer over by the gate that we had loaded already and saw him takeoff. I waved at him, but it was like he didn’t even see me.” Jay shrugged. “It was weird.”

  “What? That you were ignored or that Brooks left?” Remy laughed.

  Jay shrugged. “A little bit of both.”

  “You know where he went?” Remy asked me.

  I scowled and shook my head. “Not sure why you would think I would know where he went.” I was walking a thin line of being too bitchy. If I got too upset about Remy assuming I knew where Brooks went, it was going to throw up a red flag to him. “Last I saw him was when he was walking to the press tent.”

  “But you saw him.”

  I quirked my eyebrow and put a hand on my hip. “Uh, yeah. So did about five hundred other people. You might want to go ask all of them if they know where Brooks went if you think that’s why I would know where he went.” I put my hands on the back of the tool box. “You wanna give me a hand with this, Nancy Drew, or are you too busy trying to figure out the mystery of where Brooks went?”

  Remy moved next to me. “I would be a Hardy Boy, thank you very much,” he mumbled.

  “You’re odd. You know that, right?”

  He glanced at me with a smirk on his lips. “Have you met my mother?”

  I had. “She’s more eccentric than odd.”

  “What a polite way to call my mother weird.”

  I laughed and pushed on the toolbox. Remy and I loaded it into the hauler, then spent the n
ext two hours packing everything up to drive it back to Leeds Square where we were just going to unpack it all again.

  “You wanna grab a beer?” Jay asked.

  I really didn’t want to, but it was too early to head to bed. Besides, if I did try to go to sleep, I’m sure I would just lay there wondering about Brooks and where he went. “Yeah. Just let me change real quick, and I’ll meet you by your car.”

  “Screw that. We’re Ubering.”

  I waved my hand at Jay and walked to the hauler where I kept my bag. I pulled out a pair of clean jeans, and the email Harlyn had sent me with my flight info and Brooks’ phone number fell out. “I really need to clean this damn bag out,” I mumbled.

  After a new shirt and clean pants, I picked up the email and looked at Brooks’ number.

  Something bad must have happened for him to take off so quickly. Before he had been whisked away for interviews, I had heard him tell Ronald he would be back to celebrate with us.

  I punched his number into my phone and sent him a text, even though I knew shouldn’t. Hey. Awesome job today. I hope everything is okay. I added my name to the end of it and hit send.

  I didn’t want to seem like I was prying or overly concerned, but I wanted him to know I was thinking about him. Whatever the hell that meant.

  Every weird feeling I had toward Brooks was new as hell to me, and I had no idea what to do with them. I shouldn’t care that he left early. It was his life, and it really didn’t have anything to do with me. I just needed his ass in the car for every race, and other than that, I shouldn’t care what the guy was doing.

  But I did.

  I cared way more than any car chief should.

  *

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Brooks

  She was fine.

  By the time I had gotten to the house it was half-past nine, and I walked into the living room to see my mother and Susan watching TV.

  “Mom?” I called.

  She looked over at me and smiled. “Brooks? What are you doing home already? Susan said you weren’t going to be home until the morning.”

  I looked over at Susan, and she smiled, but I could tell she had so much to say.

  “Uh, I missed you and the track was only three hours away so I figured I would just make the drive home tonight.”

  She clapped her hands together and stood up. “Well, that’s wonderful of you. We get to celebrate your win with you then. I think we should have ice cream.” She gave me a tight hug and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I’m so proud of you.” She moved into the kitchen, and I looked at Susan.

  This was not what I was expecting to walk into. In my head, I had spun this horrible scenario where I was going to beg Mother to come out of her room and have to fire Susan. “Am I in the right house?”

  Susan stood up and clenched her hands together. “I don’t know what to say, Mr. Cummings. When I called you, she had been locked in her room for over an hour and I wasn’t sure of what else to do. I figured having you here would help to calm her down. After I hung the phone up with you, she came out about forty-five minutes later and acted like nothing had happened.”

  “What?” I whispered.

  She held her hands up and shrugged. “I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to call you and tell you not to come home, but then I didn’t know how long she would stay present in the moment.”

  “You could have called and told me she was okay, but I still would have come home.”

  “I figured as much, but I didn’t want to upset your mother. You had said when her memory slips, she doesn’t know what’s going on but acts embarrassed when you mention it when she’s having good days.” She stepped forward and wrung her hands together. “I truly apologize for upsetting you, Mr. Cummings. Had I known she would come back around, I wouldn’t have called you.”

  I looked in the kitchen and saw my mother pulling bowls down from the cabinet. She looked just like my mom. She moved with purpose and didn’t show signs that her mind was slipping. “You did the right thing, Susan. I’m not upset with you at all. Perhaps me leaving for such long periods isn’t good for her.”

  “You can’t know what’s going to set off an episode. I’ve dealt with this quite often. You can’t beat yourself up over this.”

  “Why don’t you two stop talking about me and come get some ice cream.” Mom held up a bowl and smiled. “I’m okay, Brooks.”

  Susan squeezed my shoulder. “Be happy for the moments you have your mother, Brooks. Don’t dwell on the bad.”

  She walked into the kitchen and talked to Mom like they were the best of friends. As if she hadn’t called me three hours ago upset by the fact Mom’s memory had slipped.

  I hung my head and ran my fingers through my hair.

  This was going to be my new normal, and I wasn’t ready for it at all.

  *

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Frankie

  What in the hell was I doing?

  I set the bag full of groceries down on the stoop and looked up at the monstrous house that belonged to Brooks Cummings. He could probably fit four of my duplex’s inside and still have room.

  “What are you doing here, Frankie?” I sighed and hung my head.

  After three days with no sign of Brooks, I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out what was going on with him. I tried to ask about him from Roc and Harlyn, but I couldn't exactly show an interest in his whereabouts without giving away the fact I liked him. Well, at least I think I liked him.

  Gah, I was a mess.

  Harlyn had finally taken pity on me and slipped me his address when I was nonchalantly trying to figure out where he lived. “Just making sure he's not dead,” I assured her.

  She scrunched up her nose and nodded. “Yeah, totally, girl. Just a welfare check.”

  And now, I was here on his front step with all the fixings for a lasagna and a bottle of wine. The wine was a last minute addition that I was now regretting and thinking of ditching in the bushes before I knocked.

  “Can I help you?”

  I jumped up and spun around only to fall into the bushes. “Or I could just ditch myself in the bushes,” I muttered.

  “Holy smokes. I’m so sorry, dear. I didn't mean to surprise you like that. I figured you would have heard me pull up. And close my door. And beep the locks on my car.”

  She held out a hand and hoisted me back up onto the porch.

  “Uh, yeah. I guess I was in my own head.” I brushed off my ass and picked a stray leaf out of my hair.

  The woman standing in front of me released my hand and looked down at the bag by my feet. “Dinner?”

  Who was this? She didn’t look anything like Brooks so I had no clue who she might be. “Uh, yeah. I just dropped by to see Brooks for a second.”

  She leaned closer and moved things around in the bag. “Lasagna takes a little bit more than a second, darlin’.”

  I cleared my throat and reached down to grab the bag. “You know what? I’ll just come by to see him another night.” Like never. I was already on edge getting the guts to come here, and I didn’t need Brooks’ housekeeper or whoever the heck she was on my case.

  “Nonsense,” she muttered. “I know Brooks and Christy will love the company.” She opened the front door and motioned for me to go in.

  My brain was stuck on the name Christy.

  Who was Christy and why did she throw her name together with Brooks as if they were a couple?

  “Darlin’, you’re gonna have to come in if you want to make lasagna. Unless you want to go around to the back patio and use the outdoor kitchen.”

  Of course Brooks would have an outdoor kitchen. I rolled my eyes and stepped through the door. I might as well get over the embarrassment of meeting Brooks’ girlfriend and be on my way.

  “Brooks,” the lady called. “I found a pretty girl on the front steps.”

  “I’ll be right there,” he called from the depths of the house. I looked around and tried not to act like I had
just stepped into a house that should be gracing all of the house shows on that home channel.

  “We’re in the foyer.” She smiled big and held her hand out. “So sorry I didn’t introduce myself before scaring you into that bush. I’m Susan.”

  I numbly shook her hand. “Uh, I’m Frankie. I work with Brooks.”

  “Oh,” she boomed. “He’s talked about you before. He was telling me a story about you the other day.” She beamed at me and squeezed my hand tightly. “You've got a lot of spunk in you, girl. I like it.” She winked at me and released my hand.

  “Oh, uh, thank you?” I was shocked that Brooks had even said my name, let alone told a story about me that didn’t make me look like a raging bitch. Hashtag winning.

  “Frankie?” Brooks stood at the other side of the room looking utterly shocked.

  Well, that wasn't exactly the reaction I had been hoping for. Susan had been happier to see me than Brooks. I waved lamely and took a step back which made me bump into the wall and stumble.

  Susan giggled and hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “I’ll just go check in on Christy.”

  Brooks had been staring at me and shook his head at Susan’s words. “She was sleeping the last time I looked in on her. So far, it’s been a good day,” he said quietly as she walked past him.

  She patted him on the shoulder and disappeared back the way he had come from.

  Can I say that after that quick conversation between the two, I was even more confused than I had been before?

  Who was Christy?

  She could be his girlfriend, but since he had talked about her being asleep and having a good day it made me think he might possibly have a daughter.

  Was it a friend who was vying for his attention but she was sick and was using her sickness as a way to get right where she wanted him?

  Jesus. Now who was the odd one? I was letting my imagination take over when all I needed to do was ask Brooks who Christy was. I just needed to get the words out of my mouth.

  He didn’t move toward me once Susan left, and I didn’t take that as promising. He wasn’t happy I was here. I should have at least texted him a warning that I was coming over. Although, I had texted him Sunday when he had left suddenly, and he never texted me back.