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Keith didn’t know Erica’s been racing. He got side-swiped with a double-whammy tonight—that his daughter’s been hiding something from him and that she got hurt doing it. And then I here come, strutting in like I belong here, and he’s never even heard my name.
“What happened?” I ask Jerry.
He tells me about Todd’s nitro going wrong and fire shooting out from under the hood. He tells me about Erica pulling Todd out of the car, and I shake my head at her brave stupidity. It’s not that I want to hold her back, but I can’t help but think she wouldn’t be hurt if she’d let someone else do the dangerous part. But that’s not who she is. And then he tells me about one last explosion and how Todd shoved Erica to the ground and took the brunt of the flames himself.
The whole racing crew plus Erica’s family listens in, though I suspect this is a repeat of what they’ve already heard.
“Good guy,” I say about Todd, which doesn’t begin to describe how thankful I am for his sacrifice to save Erica from anything worse. Jerry is stone-faced but nods, agreeing. “He okay?”
“Don’t know anything yet, about either of them. Emily’s doctor friend . . .” He trails off, looking toward the door like I did.
As if he conjured it, the doors open and the first thing I see is Dan smiling. He’s pushing a wheelchair . . .
Erica!
“Erica!” I shout as my mouth catches up with my brain. My strides eat the space between us.
She looks like . . . everything. She looks like . . . home. And also, a bit pale and dirty. Her legs are sticking out of scrub pants that have been chopped at the knee, leaving a frayed hem. Her calves and bare feet are wrapped in white gauze.
“Brody, what are you doing here?” she says, and my heart stutters. She doesn’t want me here? But then her eyes flick behind me to Keith, and I realize her hesitation isn’t about me.
“We met. He’s got questions. Later.”
Her arms open, and I hunch over to hug her. “Scared the shit outta me, Lil Bit,” I whisper in her ear.
She smiles big and bold, putting on a front for her audience. “Just another day of racing.”
I see her throat swallow as she looks to Keith. “Dad?”
Janice and Emily are bookending Keith, who’s breathing heavily and turning red. I think seeing that Erica is okay has relieved his initial fears, freeing him up to be angry at the situation he’s been thrust into.
“What the hell is going on? Do I even know you at all, Rix?” Hurt and betrayal thread through the words painfully.
“Of course you do,” Erica says, but she doesn’t sound certain. “I’m a racer, just like you taught me to be.” Better, stronger, and with pride.
Janice jumps in. “What did the doctor say?”
Erica looks to Dan. “Dr. Dan here says I have to keep the burns clean and dressed, and he gave me an antibiotic ointment prescription. I’m on concussion watch, but they don’t think anything’s wrong with my brain that wasn’t already a little bit wrong to begin with.”
Jokes? The woman’s got jokes after something like this? But I see the fear flashing in her eyes. More bricks, more walls, more façade. I don’t know why everyone thinks she’s this wild, devil-may-care creature. On the surface, maybe that’s true. But the truth is, she does everything for everyone else. Even now, comforting them with humor when we should be comforting her.
“It’s all on my discharge paperwork.” She points at the stack of papers tucked beside her in the wheelchair.
“It’s a little more complicated than that, but Rix has assured me that she’ll be a compliant patient. Right?” Dan prompts, and Erica nods, only a little sarcastically.
“Well, let’s get you home then. I’ll set up your old bed so that you’re comfortable,” Janice says, already mentally making plans to have Erica recover under her motherly care.
“Mom, I want to go home. To my home.”
Janice balks and Keith steps in. “Rix, don’t be silly. We’ll go home, and you can heal while you tell me what the hell’s been going on.” Keith eyes me again, still not having an answer he’s satisfied with. Though I think the greeting and hug between Erica and me made things pretty clear.
Erica looks at me, a question in her eyes. I blink, answering her easily. Seeing her, touching her, soothes something deep inside, and I’m not ready to drop her off at her parents’ and go to the farm alone. I thought I’d failed again when I got that call, that she’d left me too. And I feel like I’m getting a second chance, one I won’t fuck up.
She turns back to her parents. “I’m going home. Brody can take care of me and you can come over in the morning so we can talk everything through.” The no-nonsense, take-no-shit version of Erica is back in full force, leaving no room for compromise.
