Chapter 35
Chapter thirty-five
Gavin
CenturyLink Field | Seattle, Washington
Gavin watched Johnny standing in the back of the BikeMax pit with a clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other.
He tipped the eraser up to his lip and stared at his notes.
He looked good in skinny jeans and a Craige Lee jersey.
He spoke briefly with Joe Fischer, their head mechanic, and nodded a lot.
He marked on his paper. Then his brows scrunched up, and he raised his head, catching Gavin’s gaze.
A smile crept over his face, filling Gavin with pride that he was the one who put that lovely happiness there.
“Hey, Gavin.” He pranced across the pit and stopped in front of Gavin, going up on his toes to plant a quick kiss. Johnny seemed totally comfortable there—in Gavin’s world.
“Hey to you, cutie. Ready for the races?”
Johnny thumped the end of his pencil against the clipboard. “You know, we seem to get in a lot of parts and stuff from vendors and sponsors that don’t even fit our bikes.”
“Yeah?” Gavin didn’t have time to deal with that kind of thing. Johnny surprised the hell out of him with how quickly he figured it out. “It happens.”
“Yeah, but it’s inefficient. I think these people would feel better supporting us some other way. This isn’t helpful and it’s a waste of their money.”
“It’s not stuff we’ve solicited.”
“But it could be. Like this.” He tapped the clipboard again. “Pro MX has parts we could use, but they’re sending the wrong thing. If we reach out to them, we could change that and change the bottom line.”
“Yep, sure could.”
“So?”
Gavin could barely contain his happiness, choking back a laugh, trying hard not to even smile. He loved this side of Johnny. Keen and eager. “That’s why I hired you, babe.”
“Babe?” Johnny smirked.
“Yep. Babe. Handle it. Reach out.”
“I don’t have any contacts with these people.”
“Do some name-dropping. Tell them who you are. You work with me at BikeMax. That’ll open some doors.”
“Hmm...” Johnny made a note in the margins of the paper.
“I can get you a tablet for that.”
“I have one. But this is the inventory form from when they took in the parts. Sometimes it’s easier to look at the source.”
“You’re fuckin’ amazing, Johnny, but how about we go watch some races?
” This week’s race was going to be something different.
Something new. The organizers initiated a triple-crown style event, where they ran three Main Events and totaled points based on finishing position to determine an overall winner.
The top finishers of all three races had the best chance to win.
He hoped Craige would be one of them. It would be great for BikeMax publicity, not to mention the prize money.
“Oh, yeah! Don’t you have Ryker Brennan starting?”
“No, this is the west. It’s Clay racing.”
“Oh, I thought he was in this race? Didn’t you say that?”
“He’s started training. We put him with Zeke Hill, that coach out in North Carolina.”
“Ahh... This is still confusing.” Johnny pressed his lips together firmly, making Gavin want to kiss them again. Instead, he wrapped his arm around his shoulders and squeezed.
“Come on. Clay qualified well and has a decent gate.” He needed a good start for this event.
The best finish for all three races won the overall event and was awarded points, but no extra prize money this round, which made making the points even more important.
Clay was doing well, but he wasn’t first in points.
Winning tonight would give him a much-needed boost. There were only a few races left in the season.
As they walked out to the track, Johnny commented on the parts again and why Toyota hadn’t sent more.
“We’re not a factory team. They aren’t our main sponsor, but they do support us.”
“They could still do more. Remind me to ask Joe what would be the most beneficial. I’ll see if I can get a little boost from them. Now that we have a full team, they should be willing to pony up some extra resources.”
“I love the way you think.” He kissed the side of Johnny’s head and led him away from the main stadium seating.
“Where we going?”
“You’ll see. Come on.” Gavin had thrown his weight around, and his money, and managed to get them club-level seats. Johnny would like that.
He ushered Johnny to the 200 level and showed a security guard his passes.
They went inside a room decked out with nice carpeting and black leather club chairs arranged in a seating area.
A large bar off to the right offered refreshments, and a row of high tables with white leather chairs lined up along the window.
Johnny gasped. “What is this? Ohmy—” He looked around, stepping farther into the area. His eyes lit up, all sparkling like blue diamonds.
“You like?”
“Yes. What? I mean, wow, Gavin.”
“Sit.” He nodded toward the tables along the window. “I’ll get us some drinks.”
He watched Johnny bounce over and pull out a chair.
He slid into it while gazing out the window.
His mouth hung open. The view would be spectacular.
From these seats, they could see the entire track.
They had one of the best views in the stadium, though Gavin was pretty sure it wasn’t the view that impressed Johnny, but the luxury.
He could still watch the race and actually be there but not feel dirty.
When Johnny sat in the regular seating stands, he still imagined dirt could get on him or something like that.
It was irrational, but that didn’t matter.
For at least one race, Gavin could give Johnny something more, so he had.
He got a couple of rum and Cokes and headed back to the table. Johnny took one of the plastic cups from him. “Thanks.” He sipped. “Mmm...thanks again.”
“You’re more than welcome, Johnny.”
“I like this. Can we afford it?”
“Sure. It’s only one race, but if our team keeps going like this, next season we might be able to score a few more.
” They didn’t have the money some of the bigger teams like Apex and Princeton or the factory teams had.
Those teams always reserved the club seats, but BikeMax had jumped up in standings this year, faster than expected.
That made Jack Wolfe and the other investors very happy.
Johnny liked supercross a lot more after getting involved with the business aspects of it, rather than just watching the races. Gavin loved working with Johnny and watching his excitement grow as he learned more about the industry.
He looked out over the track. The racers tore down the track in a pack of color and dirt.
It took him a minute to find Clay...in third.
Not bad. It would be a good race, but Gavin preferred watching Johnny.
He studied Johnny’s face, watching his eyes jump over the field.
More than anything, Gavin couldn’t wait to go home with him.
He couldn’t wait to take Johnny back to his house for the first time.
Gavin pulled up to his house and parked his Audi in the garage. “Home sweet home.”
Johnny smiled softly. “So… I finally get to see where you live. I’m nervous.”
“What? Why? What’s to be nervous about?”
“I don’t know.” Johnny got out of the car and looked at him over the roof of it. “This is where you live. It says a lot about you.”
“Then we should go through the front door. First impressions and all that.” He pointed to the garage door opening.
“Let’s go.” Johnny walked out into the bright California sunshine. It glistened in his hair, making it look more blond than usual, the same way it had in Morocco.
Gavin led him up to the front door. “This is it.”
“Wow. I’m digging this already, Gav.” The front door was a modern entrance that gave an impression of what to expect inside.
It was a tangerine orange with window slits across it in a row from top to bottom.
The door handle was a long silver pull, rather than a knob.
The house around it had been painted a soft gray and white for the most part, but brick accented the steps and facing under the front window, a light enough color that it didn’t take away from the rest of the aesthetics.
The windows had crosshatch framing and took up the whole front of the house.
It wasn’t very wide, but it was long, stretching the depth of the lot.
Gavin pushed open the door, so Johnny could see the length of the inside.
“Nice.” He could see straight out to the back patio.
“I’ll give you the full tour. Then we can grab our bags.”
“Great.” Johnny’s eyes grew wide as he took in the front room with the double-sided fireplace that broke the space in two. Gavin’s flat-screen hung above it on the side with the large comfy sectional sofa, but Johnny slid around to the other side. The more personal side.
A large, blown-up picture of Gavin on his dirt bike from when he was about fifteen years old featured above the mantel.
It’d been taken before his career ended.
Johnny ogled it, then turned to inspect the bookshelves that lined the far wall.
They made an inverted triangular shape, each one shorter than the one above it, and each shelf was filled with books and knickknacks.
“Some of these are classics, and others...” Johnny pulled one off the shelf. “Sci-fi?”
“Yeah. I love it. Especially Timothy Zahn, classics like Niven. But, uh, I’m digging this one, lately.” Gavin pulled his copy of Leviathan Wakes off the shelf. “They made it into a TV series.” He handed the book to Johnny.
“James S. A. Corey?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“I’m not familiar with that. On TV?”
“Yeah. The Expanse.”
“Oh! I’ve seen commercials for that. We should watch it.” He handed the book back to Gavin.
“You like Sci-fi?”
“Eh—I can take it or leave it as a whole, but a good story I like regardless of the genre. Right?”
Gavin leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. “Agreed.”
“I like that you like it. This space feels like you.” Johnny thumbed over his shoulder. “Is that picture of you?”