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“Annie. How are your folks doing?”
“Good. Dad had a doctor’s visit early this week and they are pleased with the progress he’s making. Mom’s got him on a strict diet and exercise routine.”
“Your mom’s the only one that man listens to,” Reilly said.
“How true,” she said. Reilly left a few minutes later and she was alone with Jared.
“Busy morning?” she asked.
“Just the usual. I have one of my dad’s old partners and his family coming to the race this weekend. I thought Hal was going to show up in time for qualifying.”
“It was pretty exciting today, wasn’t it?” she said. There’d been a couple of minor wrecks during the practice lap; luckily they hadn’t involved Dave or Tucker. “I got some spectacular pictures of Dave as he pulled through the smoke of that last wreck. I can’t wait to pull up the photo and see if it’s as good as I think it is.”
“I’m sure it is,” Jared said. “Dave’s car was hot out there today.”
“I think they did something different with the engine mount. Vinnie said it made all the difference.”
Jared stared at her for a second before she realized what she’d just done?shared information from her brother’s garage with one of his rival drivers.
“Oh, man, can you please ignore that?”
He shrugged. “Was it legal?”
“Yes. They mentioned they’d stayed within legal limits.” She felt bad that she’d said anything to Jared. The way he was looking at her made her realize he wasn’t just thinking about Dave, but wondering if she’d said anything about what she’d seen in Tucker’s garage.
“It was totally unintentional. I don’t think of you as part of Tucker’s team all the time. Sometimes I just think of you as my boyfriend.”
“I know,” he said. “Don’t worry about it anymore.”
His cell phone rang and he answered it. She turned away from him to give him some privacy, all the while cursing herself. How could she be so lax? She knew that Dave hadn’t done anything illegal, but teams guarded their strategies closely. They didn’t want other drivers or crew chiefs to know what they were doing in their own garage.
“That was Hal and his family. Want to come and meet them?”
“Ah, sure,” she said, wondering if it was simply because he didn’t want to leave her alone in Tucker’s garage.
Doubt was insidious and she could remember how it built during her marriage. She stopped walking and Jared glanced down at her. “Do you still trust me?”
“Of course. I think you’ll like Hal. He’s always been larger than life to me. When I was growing up he’d always tell me tales that sounded like they were too fantastical to be true.”
She was very aware that he’d changed the subject but she let him. “What kind of stories?”
“Just his travels throughout Egypt and all of Africa.”
“What does he do?” she asked, interested in spite of the fact that she wanted to make sure that they’d resolved the issue between them.
“He was a banker, like my dad. But he didn’t like to stay in the office.”
“Your family is so different than mine,” she said. Her family was all about racing and she loved that.
“I know that. You have no idea how hard it was to find a place in NASCAR, coming from the outside the way Tucker and I did,” he said, starting to walk toward the garage entrance.
“I bet. But you’ve found your place now,” she said. “Jared?”
“Yes?”
“I know I’m being paranoid, but please tell me that you don’t think I’m telling Dave what Tucker’s doing in his garage.”
“Honey, I don’t think you’re spying on us. If you were you wouldn’t have slipped up just now and told me what Dave was doing. Okay?”
“Sorry if it seems like I’m overreacting.”
He leaned down, brushing his lips over her forehead. “I’m just hoping you don’t remember that I accused you of sabotaging Tucker’s car.”
“That’s part of what my concern stems from,” she admitted, deciding right then and there that she was going to stay out of both men’s garages until the Chase was completed.
“Well, I don’t think you’re up to anything nefarious at the track.”
And that was enough for now.
DAVE WON IN New Hampshire but was fined because his engine mount was too low. Jared hadn’t said anything to Tucker or the officials about what Annie had said. He was a little concerned that she might think he had. But she never brought the subject up.
