Ignite

Waldo cleared his throat behind me, causing me to turn around. Shrugging my shoulders, I motioned for Waldo to continue talking. “You have one-hundred percent of my attention. I swear.”

After talking for a bit about our strategy for tomorrow, Waldo walked me back toward my bus. “Anything new with the whole Stephanie thing?”

Frowning, I blew out a frustrated breath. “Nothing. We can’t trace a damn thing back to her. She was in town during both events. No leads on the person who delivered the phone. The only thing she said she did was send me the picture of me and Lola. Said she thought I would rather have it than her. Things have been quiet though, so maybe she came to her senses when the police showed up at her new job.”

Waldo rubbed his chin as he thought about what I had just said. “Here’s to hoping so.” Clearing his throat, he slapped my back and gave me a wink. “Go enjoy your evening with my beautiful daughter.”

My smile couldn’t possibly get any bigger any time someone mentioned Adaline. “I will. She wasn’t feeling very good yesterday, so I’m hoping she took it easy today. I’ll talk to you later, Waldo.”

“Get some sleep tonight for Christ’s sake!”

I laughed as I held up my hand and waved Waldo off. If there was one thing Adaline and I were lacking, it was sleep. Most nights, as soon as we hit the bed, we were tangled up with each other. I was waiting for the honeymoon-phase to be over, but Adaline was going strong and I wasn’t about to object.

On my way back to my bus, I was stopped a few times by fans asking me to sign things. I didn’t mind one bit. I would be heading to Texas next week to spend another day with the young boy I met last year at Texas Motor Speedway. Adaline and I had become rather close with the family, and I couldn’t wait to take him out on the track again.

By the time I got to my bus, I was ready to jump in the shower and take Adaline out to dinner. Walking into the bus, I was greeted by Lola.

“Hey girl. Where’s your mommy?”

Lola headed back to the bedroom and stopped right at the door. My heart leapt up to my throat as I looked at Adaline sound asleep in bed. Her hand was tucked up under her cheek as she wore the most beautiful glow I’d ever seen. I would have woken her up if I hadn’t thought she might still be feeling bad.

I peaked down at Lola and motioned for her to head out to the living room. Reaching for her collar, I slipped it on and checked my phone really quick before I headed outside.

The second the door shut, I heard a girl let out scream. My eyes widened and then relaxed when I saw my sister. With a shake of my head, I shot her a dirty look. “Jesus, Ashley. You scared the piss out of me.”

Laughing, she jumped into my arms as Lola barked and jumped all around. “What in the hell are you doing here?” I asked as I set my sister down and kissed her on the cheek.

“Can’t a girl come see her brother and support him on his first race of the season?”

My arm draped over Ashley’s shoulders as I chuckled and said, “Of course she can, but I thought she was doing a girls’ weekend with her friends.”

“It’s called planning big brother. Girls are kind of good at that. I just told my friends I wanted to do girls’ weekend in Florida, hit up a NASCAR race, and then hit the beach.”

As we walked along, I couldn't help but notice how many guys were staring at my sister. Taking a look at her, I couldn’t believe my eyes. When had she grown up into a beautiful woman? Her long brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she wore a TSU T-shirt and cut off blue jean shorts that showed way too much leg as far as I was concerned.

“Who all is with you?” I asked.

“The normal gang. There’s six of us all sharing a condo for the rest of the week right smack on the beach. Hell to the yes!”

Lola barked at another dog as I dropped my arm from my sister’s shoulder. “Don’t hook up with any of these fuckers here, do you hear me?”

Ashley stopped walking and I turned to see what was wrong. She stood there staring at me in disbelief as her mouth hung almost to the ground. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you really just say that to me, Emmit? Do you think I’m a whore or something?”

I stared at my sister with a dazed look. “Why in the hell would you think I thought you were a whore?”

Ashley waved her hands all around as she talked. “Oh, I don’t know, Emmit. Maybe because you just told me not to hook up with anyone.” Ashley walked over toward Malcolm, who had his back faced to her, and pointed to him. “Like I’m just gonna walk on up to some random guy and be like—” Tapping on Malcolm’s shoulder, he turned and looked at Ashley. The way his eyes moved up and down her body pissed me off instantly. “Oh hey you, random guy. Want to fuck?”

No words. I was too stunned to say anything. Meanwhile, Malcolm took advantage of my moment of shock and flashed my baby sister that smile that I knew melted the panties right off of women. “If you’re asking, I’m willing.”

Ashley turned back and looked at Malcolm. “Oh. Um, sorry Malcolm, I wasn’t really asking, and I thought you were someone else. Well, actually I thought you were just a stranger.”

Ashley must have noticed the way Malcolm was eye fucking the shit out of her because her body relaxed and she let out an awkward giggle. “So, how have you been?”

Malcolm glanced back over at me and pointed to Ashley. “No shit. This is little Ashley? You’re baby sister?” Turning back to Ashley, he stuck his foot in his mouth even more. “When did you lose the braces and pimples?”

Before I even had the chance to try and save him, Ashley threw her hands on her hips and went off on the poor unsuspecting bastard.