“Yes, Dave. Your TV interview has been moved up. They want to do it live from down here, is that okay?”
“Sure.”
Dave said goodbye to Rob and then walked into the garage and found Vinnie. “What’s up?”
“I wanted a chance to talk to you about the track one more time before you went out.”
“I thought our strategy was for me to qualify on the pole so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting up front,” Dave said, grinning at Vinnie.
“Yeah, that’s our strategy, but I wanted to talk about the tires. I think we should scuff at least two sets.”
Scuffing was done during the practice laps. The team would mount sets of tires to be used during Sunday’s race on his car and he’d run on them during the practice laps. That way the tires would be scuffed by the track’s surface.
“Sounds good.”
Dave went out on his first set of practice laps and liked the way the car was handling, but he heard something in the engine that concerned him. The team checked it out while he got a quick drink.
“Hey, Dave,” Annie said, coming up behind him. She slung one arm around his shoulder, half-hugging him.
“Hey, yourself. What’s up?” he asked.
The past few weeks Jared had been absent from the race track and his sister hadn’t been herself. Her behavior wasn’t as somber as it had been when she’d been going through her divorce, but she hadn’t been as cheery as she usually was, either. And he was worried about her.
“Just wanted to see you before you hit your practice laps,” she said.
“Why?” he asked.
“No special reason. Just hadn’t seen you in a few days.”
“You still with Jared?”
“Yes. He asked me to move in with him.”
Dave was shocked. He hadn’t realized things were moving so quickly. “What’d you say?”
“I told him to ask me again after Homestead.”
There was confusion in his sister’s eyes. The kind of confusion that came from wanting something, but being afraid to go after it.
“Is it because of me? I’ve been riding him hard about taking good care of you,” Dave said.
“No, it’s not that. I mean it does complicate things that you and Tucker are rivals, but that’s not why I asked him to wait.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. God knew he stunk at heart-to-hearts, relationships, but this was Annie, the one woman in the world that he’d do it for.
“Maybe later. I don’t want to talk about it right before you race.”
“Later then. I’m booked solid with interviews and stuff. I’ll text you when I’m free…?”
He didn’t want to think about Jared asking Annie to live with him. What if he asked her to marry him? He didn’t want the guy for a brother-in-law when he still hadn’t adjusted to him dating his sister.
“Okay, we’ll talk later.”
Dave watched her walk away. He glanced back at his crew where they were working to get the car ready. He should be over there with them getting his head in the game. The track here was different, comprised of mainly right turns instead of left ones. He knew that fans loved the race track because of the superb views it offered them, but to be honest, it wasn’t one of his favorites.
He closed his eyes, envisioning the track and feeling the Gs his body would pull while he was going so fast and whipping around the track. But a loud crack of laughter drew him out of his head and the race he was running.
He glanced over to see Tucker talking to Annie and laughing. Dave’s hands tightened into fists. He wanted Tucker out of both of their lives.
When he turned around he noticed Vinnie was watching the other garage as well. And the other man looked like he wasn’t too pleased, either. Vinnie treated Annie like his younger sister.
“Vin, you got a minute to talk strategy?”
Vinnie turned his back on Annie and Tucker and walked over toward him. “I thought we already had.”
“You look like you’re going to go over there and say something you shouldn’t.”
“I just might. He’s only being all buddy-buddy with her to annoy us.”
“And it’s working, isn’t it?”
Vinnie grew still and stopped glaring over his shoulder.
“Let’s just hope that Tucker’s distracted by his goofing around with Annie. The Glen doesn’t treat distracted drivers very well.”
ANNIE SPENT THE DAY taking pictures of the track and her brother. But when evening fell and the parties and promotional gigs were well underway she found herself alone with Dave after an autographing session.
“Ready to talk?” he asked, as he they got on his golf cart and drove away from the crowds in the fan area and back to the motor home lot.