Fast Lane

by Jennis Slaughter

  The young man frowned at his sister’s tone, but did as she said. “You gonna tell me what’s goin’ on?”

  “Yeah I am.” Addison booked herself on a flight that was leaving for Savannah, Georgia the next morning at seven. Closing the MacBook, she looked her brother square in the eye. She knew in a few years he’d have to beat the girls off with a stick if it wasn’t happening already. “Clint, I’m gay.”

  “You’re gay...you mean that you’re kissing girls?” He scooted back his chair.

  “If you intend to be graphic about it, then yes, I suppose that’s part of it.” Addison narrowed her eyes, but kept her tone light.

  “Dad’s gonna kick your ass, you know that. Even if him and Momma aren’t together, and don’t look at me like that. I think that it’s hot you kissing another girl. Can I watch sometime?” Clint grinned.

  Addison paled when Clint had mentioned their father kicking her ass. “Clint, that’s gross,” she mumbled turning away from her brother. “When I get back from Georgia, I may have a surprise for you guys.”

  “Ooo, what is it? Ya gotta tell me Sissy.” He leaned forward expectantly.

  “Not until I know for sure I’m not about to lose my job and my girlfriend.” Addison stood up from the table and smiled at Clint before she walked into the living room to hug her sister goodbye, promising they would see her again soon before heading outside.

  Charlotte was talking quietly to Sven, but stopped as her daughter got near. “I was just telling Sven that he needs to keep us up to date with what’s happening. I gave him my numbers in case you get too busy to call.” She blushed a little.

  Addison smiled at her mom and hugged her tight. “He’s single you know,” she whispered in her mom’s ear, before leaning back and looking at the blush spreading across her mom’s face.

  “I know, but right now, I’m not, so let’s just see what happens. You go fight for your girl, Sweetie. I hope that she’s worth it,” Charlotte whispered back.

  “She is. I promise that you’ll meet her soon, and if all goes well, I’m going to have you guys come to Australia to see us race. Don’t tell Clint though, I want him to pass that Geometry test next week.” Addison smiled. “And I know, I won’t try to fix you up with anyone, promise.”

  Hugging her daughter, Charlotte stepped away and watched her walk towards her Jeep.

  The drive back to the quiet and secluded house Addison lived in was wrought with a tension Addison felt up and down her entire body. Sam believed those papers, those tabloids. And she hadn’t helped at all with that stupid letter. “God, I’m such an idiot!” She beat herself up during the drive.

  Sven wisely kept quiet and began to pack his bags while Addison did the same, preparing for the flight to Georgia the next morning. She had no idea how she was going to get Sam to see her, or what she was going to say, but she had to try.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  An hour after Becca left, Sam called Nick and arranged for a flight home to Georgia. Within a day, she was sitting astride a coal black stallion riding through the woods of her home. Tommy Dupree had left his daughter over five thousand acres of woods, lakes, stables and a couple of houses.

  She clicked her tongue and turned the horse back towards the stable. Whenever she decided to give up racing, horses were her next endeavor. Once at the stable, she dismounted and removed all the tack before she cooled down her horse. After finishing up, she ran the hose over her own head, washing away the dirt and grime.

  Shutting off the water, she shook her head and headed towards the house.

  “Just stop right there, young lady. If you think that I’m gonna let you track muddy boot prints all over my clean kitchen floor, you’ve got another thing coming.” This came from an older black woman standing at the back door of the big house, as it was called. Neely Jackson had worked for the Dupree family all of her adult life and had helped bring Samantha up.

  “Now Neely...what do you expect me to do? Take my clothes off here in the back yard in front of you and God?” Sam chuckled at her friend.

  “Child...I’ve seen you naked more times than all of your girlfriends combined, and God made you, so strip. I’m not going to tell you twice.” The woman stood with her hands on her hips, a wooden spoon in one of them.

  Knowing that she couldn’t talk her way into the house, Sam shook her head and started unbuttoning her work shirt. Pulling it off, she balled it up and was about to toss it up on the porch when Neely cleared her throat.

  “You place it on the stump like you’ve been taught,” Neely ordered.

  “Yes ma’am,” Sam answered, walking over to the stump of an oak tree that her daddy had chopped down when he first built the house. She wrung out her shirt and spread it out over the wood before she started unbuttoning her jeans.

  “Girl, why in the world are you wearing a black lace bra when all you are doing is riding horses?” the older woman asked. “Do you think that Ole Turbo thinks that you’re sexy?”

  “Now Neely, you taught me that a girl has to feel pretty to herself before she’s pretty to anyone else.” The blonde grinned as she tugged off her boots and placed them beside the stump. Peeling off her sodden jeans, she was left standing in a pair of boy shorts. Wringing out the jeans, she placed them over the stump and went to stand in front of the woman, with her arms spread out.

  “Okay, I’m as naked as I’m gonna get today, in front of you. May I please come in and get some clean clothes on?” The blonde laughed.

  Neely stood there, eyeing the young woman she thought of as her own daughter. “Ooo wee child. I can see why you’ve got the girls coming after you. You’ve got more curves than those racetracks you drive.”

  Sam posed like a model with one hand on her hip and the other behind her head. She drawled out, “Well, I do aim to please.”

  Taking the couple of steps away from the door to reach her charge, Neely swatted her on the ass with her spoon. “Get your white ass to your room and get dressed. I want you to go to town for me and get my groceries.”

  “Hey! That hurt....” Sam danced away before jogging to put on dry underclothes and another outfit. Buttoning her shirt, she headed into the kitchen to get the list from her friend. “Okay, so where’s the list? I’ve got tons of things I want to do.”

  The older woman handed her a folded piece of paper. “And stop by Buckley’s and see if my azaleas came in yet.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Sam saluted and jogged out of the house to her old Mustang and headed into town. Driving to the Piggly Wiggly, she parked and headed inside after grabbing a cart. Looking at the list, she then glanced at her watch and said to herself. “On your mark, get set and go....”

  She went up and down each aisle, grabbing only things that were on the list and nothing more. When she got in line to check out, she looked at her watch. “Not too shabby.” She grinned, took a step forward and then stopped.

  There in front of her in the magazine rack were the weekly tabloids, and even though she was used to seeing her face all over them, she was floored to see Addison’s face staring at her.

  One magazine had Addison doing shots with two blonde girls, another had her dancing with two brunettes, and the final one was of her leaving a club late at night in a rush to get away from the photographers aided by Sven. Some of the headlines were scathing. “Formula 1 has a new IT girl; Does McCloud’s girlfriend know her habits?”

  Sam stood there staring at the papers until a lady behind her bumped her with her cart. “Come on lady...it’s your turn and I got three hungry kids waiting.”

  She apologized, emptied the cart, grabbed the tabloids, and paid for everything on autopilot. Putting the groceries into her car, she drove back to the house, totally forgetting to go by Buckley’s.

  Emptying the car, she toted the groceries into the kitchen, and set them on the counter.

  “What did Buckley’s say?” Neely asked as she started to empty the bags.

  Sam grabbed the copies of the tabloids that she had bought,
a bottle of Jack and headed to her room.

  “Samantha...” Neely called out. “What’s wrong child?”

  Slamming the door to her room, the blonde placed the bottle on her nightstand as she remained standing, thumbing through the newspapers. Looking at each article, she didn’t pay attention to the tears that were tracking down her cheeks, wetting the paper. Each picture was different, each partner was someone new, and the blonde realized that she had been played a fool.

  Screaming her frustration, she ripped the papers to shreds, letting the remnants fall where they would before picking up the bottle, breaking the seal and downing a quarter of it before she stopped. She was planning on getting rip-roaring drunk for the rest of the day and then she would think about tomorrow.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  On the third day, Neely hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Sam and she was starting to become worried. Normally the young, confident blonde was striding around the farm, feeding the horses, checking the mares, making sure the foals had a good night and the fillies were in the far field.

  Frying up a few eggs, toasting some bread, and squeezing some fresh juice, the robust black woman plated her charge a luxurious breakfast to soak up all that alcohol. The trek to the back of the main house wasn’t difficult since Sam liked the bottom floor master suite that faced all the barns off the back of the house so she could make her rounds early in the morning, but she hadn’t done that for a while now.

  Opening the bedroom door quietly, she saw blonde hair spread out on the pillow and covers pulled over Sam’s face. Pursing her lips, Neely set down the tray on the divan in front of the flat screen TV in the lounge area before walking over and ripping back the curtains on all the massive windows. The once dark room was flooded with light as the cook turned around.

  “What the fuck! Close the curtains,” Sam’s voice rose from the bed. Her tongue felt like sandpaper and her head was exploding.

  Neely grunted at Sam’s tone, but bent over picking up the papers off the floor, looking at them curiously. The redhead in all of them wasn’t Becca. That girl was a hot mess if there ever was one. “No, get up and eat something. You’ve been in this room for two days; all you’ve been doing is drinking. Get your white ass up, and out of that bed.”

  “My white ass is staying in this room. Here no one can hurt me.” Sam covered her head with a pillow. All of her dreams had been of Addison; of kissing her, of her laughing and her gray eyes.

  “Sugar Pie....” Neely looked down at the magazines and set them on the bed before sitting down next to Sam. “Talk to me child.” Hesitantly, she picked up the magazines back up, looking at the attractive girl. “Who is she?”

  Knowing the woman wasn’t going to leave, Sam moaned and sat up. “Someone I thought would be different. Someone I fell in love with, Neely. Me...Samantha Dupree, fell in love with a virgin.”

  Getting out of bed, the blonde held onto the corner of the bed as the room began to spin. “I guess karma finally caught up with me.”

  The old woman shook her head with a tsk. “Samantha, sugar, have you talked to her? And it’s not karma; it’s all that Jack you’ve been drinking. Let’s get something in your stomach.” She got off the bed slowly, fetching Sam’s breakfast.

  “Neely...give me a break. One tabloid I would know that it’s someone trying to get back at me, but three! If it turns out that this is bogus, there are lawsuits that would break them. Why would they take the chance?” Sam headed into the bathroom to take a shower. She started with a blast of ice-cold water before turning it to slightly warmer.

  Getting out, she dried off and walked out into the bedroom to find that her friend had already changed the sheets and straightened the room. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “Yes I did, someone’s got to take care of your ass. I understand you’re not ready to talk yet, but I’d like you to at least eat some breakfast. The fillies need to be seen to, and I know the mares are all up for being shoed. The stallions need to be shoed as well, plus there’s some cattle that tore through a fence out back and it needs repairin’...” Neely rounded on her.

  Still wrapped in a towel, Sam walked over to the older woman, wrapped her arms around her, and laid her head on the woman’s shoulder. “Why can’t I have some happiness? I just want a little.”

  Neely softened and wrapped her arms around the wet woman. “Now, now child, reporters are the worst kind of scum in the world. I know that you be hurtin’ Sugar, but the best way to stop that hurt is to get up and keep movin’. I’m not telling you to get over her, I’m just sayin’, keep movin’,” she said, patting Sam’s back kindly. “Do you want to talk about it baby?”

  Hugging the woman, Sam let her go before walking into her closet and getting dressed. Pulling on a button down shirt, she walked back out. “Not right now, but I will later. Let me get some food in me and some work done, and then I will. I promise.” She walked back over and hugged the woman again. “Thank you Neely. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  “You’d be up shit creek without a paddle, now get some food in ya before ya leave. Dinner’s at seven on the dot, you know how I like you on time.” Neely swatted at Sam’s behind with the rolled up tabloids before leaving the bedroom.

  After Neely left, Sam sat down at the table to eat her breakfast. On the way to the table, she grabbed her iPhone to check her messages. Spearing a bite of eggs, she opened the phone to see that she had texts from Addison, Nick, and unfortunately, Becca. Without opening any of the messages, she deleted all from Addison and Becca. Looking briefly at Nick’s, she answered the ones that were important before turning off the phone. If it was an emergency, someone would call the house line.

  After finishing her meal, she took her empty plates to the kitchen to place them on the counter and walked up behind Neely to give her a hug. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  Patting the arm about her waist, the woman giggled. “You’d be skin and bones and no woman would have you. Now get out of here and get to work.”

  Smacking the woman on her butt, Sam headed out to shoe some mares. For the next seven hours, the blonde wrestled with stubborn horses while she listened to the farm hands talk about their families and what had been going on since her last visit home.

  Finally, around five, she called it a day and thanked the hands for their help. Walking up to the back of the house, she grabbed a brush that they kept there to clean off the dirt and she brushed off her clothes, not wanting to go through what she had a few days before.

  Stomping the mud off her boots, she opened the back door and made her way to her bedroom for a long, hot shower. Getting undressed, she got underneath the water, and sighed as it flowed over her. There in the shower, listening to nothing but the water, Sam had no choice but to think about Addison and the tabloids.

  The blonde didn’t want to believe that the younger woman would have gone out behind her back, but the pictures showed differently. Addison was alone for the first time in her life without someone telling her what she could or couldn’t do, and even though Sven was with her, it wasn’t his responsibility to tell her where she could or couldn’t go.

  Turning so that the water was hitting her back, Sam began to consider what she would need to do if Addison decided that she didn’t want to be with her anymore, but still wanted to drive. The blonde gasped at the pain of the thought, and fell to her knees. How had she let herself fall in love with someone younger and so naïve in the world? She would have to be strong and cold to Addison if she still wanted to drive. The company had already spent too much money for her to justify ending the contract, and the board would use that to roust her out. They let her do almost anything she wanted as long as she was bringing in money, but if they had to pay off Addison’s contact, that wouldn’t go over well.

  Standing up, she took a deep breath to clear her mind as she washed herself, before getting out and drying off. Putting on a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved t-shirt, she headed to dinner.

/>   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Dinner was over and done with, and the dirty dishes had been washed, so Neely was about to head to her room to watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’ when her phone rang. “Hello...?”

  “Neely, it’s Nick. I need to talk to you,” Nick’s voice sounded frantic.

  Settling herself down in her easy chair, the older woman took her time answering the flustered young man. “Nicholas...take a deep breath and calm down. Whatever’s the matter can’t be all that bad.”

  Nick took a few deep breathes over the line. “I know it’s late, but I just got off the phone with Addison McCloud, the driver Sam hired a few months ago to block for her. The one she’s hopelessly in love with! And she’s coming there.”

  Neely leaned forward and gripped the phone tighter. “She’s what? Sam’s been drunk for the past two days because of that girl and now she’s got the nerve to show up here? Ooo lawsey. There’s gonna be dust flyin’ all over the place when she arrives. Does she know how bad she hurt Samantha?”

  “No, because she hasn’t done anything. That’s the problem, I talked to Sven, the bodyguard Sam hired to watch Addi after...well, she hired him. Not only do they have the plane tickets straight to Arkansas where she lives, and nowhere else, but Neely, she hasn’t gone anywhere. Sven told me so.” Nick sounded completely convinced that Addison hadn’t done all the things the tabloids were claiming.

  “Well then, this does present a problem then doesn’t it? I mean, do I tell Samantha that this child’s coming or let them work it out between themselves and just stand by and referee?” Neely leaned back and propped up her feet on the ottoman.

  “Here’s the thing, I’m already in Savannah. When Addison gets here tomorrow, I’ll pick her and Sven up from the airport to drive them out there, and hopefully get the full story on the way. Neely, if we tell Sam she’s coming, there is no way in hell she’ll get anywhere near the main house before someone shoots her with a shotgun.”