Dirt Driven (Racing on the Edge Book 11)

you still have to do it.”
Just because we all traveled most of the year didn’t mean we had to get out of schooling our kids, or paying bills. Two realities that followed everyone, regardless of your fame or fortune.
“Says who?” Gray planted her hand on her hip. For being only eight years old, Gray had the pre-teen attitude down to a fucking art. She could say fuck you with a look while the words never left her lips.
Hayden shifted Rowyn in her arms and brushed away her dark curls matted to the side of her head. “The State of North Carolina.”
“Ugh!” Gray flopped herself down in a chair between the motor homes. “Ugh” was Gray’s favorite word these days.
The crazy lady appeared at the door with Jonah and Jacen, Axel’s boys, trailing behind her as they stepped down from the steps. Josephine, or JoJo as the kids called her, was the tutor Lily and Axel hired for their kids, and somehow ended up with Gray. If this was a real school, having to teach Gray Riley was like an out-of-district transfer you didn’t want.
“Gray, honey, are you finished?”
Gray placed the book over her face. “Nope.”
JoJo stepped down off the last step. “Do you need help?”
Beside me, I felt an elbow resting on my shoulder. Hudson glared at Dave right away and tried to push him away from me, but it didn’t work. “Do you think she has a school uniform and a ruler?”
Dave, oh Dave. How would I have described this guy who showed up at a track and never left the JAR Racing team? I couldn’t, really, because I tried not to get to know him. We kept him around because he was an amazing cook. I was sure that was how he’d gotten himself on the payroll ten years ago. Cooked the team dinner and they hired him.
If you were looking to get a job with a race team but you had no car experience and weren’t mechanically inclined? Learn to cook.
Dave was mechanically inclined though. He replaced Grady, a story for another day, as the fabrication specialist. He was a master at assembling wings. And if you were one of the unlucky bastards who had to do this job, you understood why it wasn’t the best job on the team. Dave, wild as fuck, was a horrible influence on almost everyone. And responsible for a few divorces with the team guys.
Watching Josephine kneel next to Gray and Hayden, I pushed Dave’s arm off my shoulder before Hudson bit him. It had happened before. Believe me, my kids are like feral animals. Don’t mess with them. “I don’t want to know,” I told him. “She’s too young for you.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me. “How so? I’m only forty-two. Per midlife crisis rules, I’m allowed to get a girlfriend half my age.”
I stared at him, confused. “There aren’t rules for a midlife crisis.”
He blinked slowly, as if I should know this. “Yes there are.”
There was no sense in arguing with Dave. Willie had been doing it since he met him and it hadn’t gotten him anywhere. “Shouldn’t you be doing something?”
He smiled Josephine’s way. “I am.”
“I meant not staring at her.”
“Oh, probably.” He held up tongs and snapped them at my face. “Making hot dogs.”
“I want a hot dog!” Pace wrapped himself around Dave’s leg. If you had food, Pace was your friend. If you didn’t, he usually ignored you.
I grabbed a hold of Pace. “You’re going to see Grandma.” I leaned into Dave. “You’re not allowed to be alone with my children again.”
“I lost them one time.” He laughed. “Rosa does it daily.”
“You lost them at a zoo. We found Knox trying to befriend a gorilla.”
“In my defense, I wrote my phone number on his arm.”
“Yeah, I’m sure the gorilla totally intended to call before eating my baby boy,” I grumbled, walking away from Casten’s motor home.
My mom was outside their motor home, ready to handle the kids for the night. “You’re not watching tonight?”
“We’re gonna watch on DIRTVision tonight.” Mom smiled and gestured inside their motor home where she had my brothers’ kids, and mine running around. Between my two brothers and me, my parents had eleven grandkids. And you would never know it looking at her. She had it down to an art. Always aware of everything they were doing, and gentle, understanding. It also helped that on the side of their motor home they had a seventy-inch television and a stash of candy.
Rosa walked over to us, her fanny pack on, and two corn dogs in her hand. “I’m here to help,” she told my mom, handing her a corn dog.
Mom adjusted the JAR Racing hat on her head. “You mean you’re here to drink wine and make fun of the pit lizards?”
Rosa sat down in a folding chair outside the motor home and pulled a juice box from her fanny pack. “Exactly, sister.”
Shaking my head, I handed my mom the diapers for the night. “Okay. I’ll be back after the main, and then I’m going to help the girls close down the merchandise trailers.” I handed Hudson over to her and she frowned.
“Has he eaten anything today?”
“He had some yogurt earlier, crackers he found on the ground, and my boobs.”
“Who’s that?” Pace asked from beside me, pointing at the chocolate-haired boy trying to play with him and handing a toy car with Easton’s number on it.
“Sorry about him!” a voice urged from behind me. “He loves other kids.”
Mom, Rosa, and I all turned around at the same time to see Jessie, Easton’s assistant and now wife. Yep. He’s remarried now. I didn’t know he had a kid though. Even Lexi, my cousin whose husband raced in the series with Ethan hadn’t said anything about him having a child. Or maybe I hadn’t been paying attention.
Rosa grinned at me. “I love all this drama.”
“Shut up,” I whisper-shouted.
“Hey, Arie,” Jessie greeted me, smiling and adjusting her bag on her shoulder. “I hope you don’t