The track.If Wes was traveling around the country ...
“What about the track?”
Wes scooted forward in his seat and gave Mack a look so full of apology that she knew what was coming before he spoke. “I’m selling the track, too.”
She shook her head vehemently, physically rejecting his words. The movement made her dizzy and she clenched her teeth against the hot bile sliding up her throat. “No. No. You can’t sell the track.”
“Running a track was never my dream. My parents loved the track but I don’t have big love for it. You know that. I never had a head for business.”
Mack almost blurted all the ugly things that popped into her mind, things that would wound Wes and hurt her to say: Shaw wasn’t the only reason Mack stopped racing, Wes had a shit head for business and if she hadn’t stayed to manage the track it would have gone under a long time ago, he’d willingly let her take on more and more of the work until she was doing it all and he was merely the poster boy. Love and duty soured into a resentment she’d denied for years.
Even in her anger, she couldn’t hurt him. He’d raised her, championed her, loved her when there was no one else to do it. Caring for him had kept her alive that first year after Shaw was born. Wes wasunconventional, a little rough and messy, but he loved hard and wasn’t embarrassed to show or say it.
She loved him fiercely, but hated him in that moment.
Thirty years of codependency and Wes knew what she was thinking. “You been doin’ all the work, Mack. I know that. And if you’d get your head out of your ass, you’d admit that you hate it, too. You run that track like you’re serving a life sentence. Hell, you live your life like you’re in prison, afraid to step out of line.”
“No I don’t,” she said automatically.
“I ain’t stupid and you don’t hide it as well as you think you do. You’re not any better at running a business than I am.” Mack glared at her dad and he raised his hands in adon’t shootgesture. “Okay, better’n me, but still it ain’t for you. You were made to drive fast and take chances, Spec. You quit on yourself and I’m goddamntiredof watching it.”
The echo of Leo’s words was a kick to her gut. She didn’t need one, much less two men telling her to do more with her life.
“This from the man who told me to throw him in a ditch and keep driving?”
“I was in a bad spot after my wreck but I didn’t have much choice left. You’ve always had a choice, Spec. Stop being so scared and small.”
“Are you okay, honey?” Billie interrupted in an effort to defuse their tempers. “It’s a lot of information, and change can be scary. Your dad has been chewing on this for a long time.”
“As long as you’ve been living in my house? Was this your idea? Did you convince my dad to sell our entire life?”
Fury and betrayal burned in her chest, hot and wild. Mack welcomed the comforting familiarity of rage.
“You watch your damn mouth!”
“I want to know! Was it her fucking idea to trade our house and our family business for this ... this ... country castle?”
Billie waved Wes off, unbothered by their yelling. “It was our idea together. Honey, you’ve taken such good care of your daddy. You gothim through a terrible, awful thing. He’s where he is today because of you, but you don’t have to do that anymore. You deserve to live your life for you. And your dad, he deserves to live his life however he wants.” She slipped her hand in Wes’s. “You and your daddy deserve to have a father-daughter relationship, not a patient and caretaker, not business partners.”
“You have no fucking idea what my dad needs,” Mack spat.
“Listen,” Wes said, his voice irritatingly calm now. “I could live thirty more years or thirty more days. I want to travel again, to see oceans and mountains and I want to see them with Billie. No one in this family wants that damn track.”
Wes made a casual waving gesture with his hand as if this were all a hilarious joke. How could he tell her that he’dsold her whole damn lifewith that goofy smile on his face? She’d never get another shot with any IndyCar team. She had a GED and no work history or vocational skills outside of racing. She didn’t take vacations or have hobbies, didn’t go out for dinner with friends, or date, or spend money on herself. She lived for Shaw and Wes and the dirt track, and now she was losing them all.
If she lost those, she had nothing.
A second wave of terror hit her: If she had no track, no job, no source of income to return to, how would she ever repay Janet? She had no savings, no money of her own, and Kelley would use that against her in a custody battle.
I have money, I have lawyers, and I will bury you in court until you’re broke and alone.
“You didn’t even think to ask me if I might want to keep living in my own home? My job? Did not even ask me before you spent money I’ve busted my ass to earn?” Mack hated that she felt tears returning to the corners of her eyes, and she brushed them aside. Her anger smoldered into angst. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
Wes pointed a finger right at the center of her chest where it was sore from the seat belt. She hated that she noticed his finger shaking with light palsy. “Get out there and live a big damn life!”
“I have a kid,” Mack snapped. “I can’t pick up and move around the country like a maniac.”
Wes shrugged off her immature dig. “Shaw’s gonna be fine. You’re the one I’m worried about, Spec.”
