Chapter eight
Nix
Why I stayed at the hotel while Cole went to the track to get his stuff from the trailer, was beyond me.
I wanted to hold his hand through all of it.
Helping him and protecting him meant something to me, but I had to let him figure his shit out and be an adult.
So, I watched quietly as he got ready to go, tugging one of my t-shirts on with his track pants—commando.
My dick was really interested in what was under those loose pants.
“This okay?” he asked, tugging the bottom of the shirt.
“Yeah. Of course. I’ll catch up with you later. I’ve got a few things I need to take care of, then I’ll meet you at the track. Okay?”
He didn’t simply nod and say bye. No, this new and improved—if you asked me—Cole crossed the room and bent down to kiss me on the lips.
“Thanks for everything. I’ll see you.” He tugged at my hair and smiled.
Despite how warm that made my heart, when the hotel door closed behind him, cold loneliness swept over me.
Could I really do this with him? We would have a million good-byes like that one.
With me traveling to film and him to race.
When would we ever be home? Would he move in with me in Atlanta?
Would he find his own place? Would we spend most of our relationships in one hotel or another across the US?
Too many questions, and not enough answers.
And honestly, it was too soon to be thinking about all of that.
And I shouldn’t be wanting so much from him this early.
Hell, we didn’t even have a relationship. We had one night. One.
But I liked him a lot, more than I should.
I sighed and got in the shower, got dressed, and fired up my laptop. I needed to look at some of the footage from yesterday. So, I was seriously into the review when Jason knocked on my door calling out, “You decent in there, man.”
I got up from the little desk to let him in. He gave me a quick bro-hug then pushed into the room. “Looking at film?”
“Yes. What else?”
“Thought you might be, uh…I don’t know, hanging with Cole?”
“Is that the new euphemism for sex now?”
“I don’t know, are you having sex?” He lifted an eyebrow, scowling at me.
“None of your business, dude.”
Jason laughed, breaking the tension. “I don’t really care anyway. Except if it effects our documentary.”
“It won’t.” I blew him off, but we had a bigger issue. “KTM cut him yesterday. It’s early on, but it’d be smart for him to get on another team quick. Maybe we could help with that?”
“Help? How?”
“Well, you’re connected. What about that new Toyota team?”
He plopped down on the bed, clasping his hands together in his lap. “Gavin’s team? BikeMax?” Gavin was a good friend of Jason’s. They’d known each other a long time, and Jason had a habit of writing great stories about his racers.
“Yeah. If he’s not interested, maybe he can tell us who would be? But I think he might fit in there.” I hoped so, anyway.
“I don’t know, man, you know about Parker Shannon, right?
The douche-bag homophobe who was arrested for harassing gay riders?
They’d sponsored him after he left KTM.” He pointed at me.
“And don’t think your boy wasn’t in on some of that.
KTM protected him, because he was winning races, but now…
it’s probably why they decided to cut their losses.
His name is, well, if not blackened, it’s at least smudged. ”
“Why don’t we let Gavin make that decision?
” I knew I had an ace in the hole with that one.
That would be his dick in my mouth, and hopefully more.
Cole was delicious, not that I was sharing that with anyone.
And knowing he was actually gay and in some kind of thing with me would certainly convince Gavin.
“Okay. Okay. The worse he can do is say no.” He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen.
“Yo, Jase, what’s shaking?” The voice came through the phone but didn’t match how I thought Gavin would sound. It was higher, more fun.
“Hey, Johnny. We’re looking for Gavin. We have a proposition for him.” Well, that explained it—not Gavin.
“We? Who’s we?”
“Me and my documentary partner, Nix Braumere.”
“Oh, you want to come over and film our guys?” Johnny laughed. He sounded carefree. I wasn’t sure I could put his face to his name or voice though.
“No,” Jason answered. “This one is on injuries, but we might want to do an interview with Gavin at some point, since that’s what ended his career.”
“Yeah, he’d be interested in that. He likes to talk about how he made the switch from the track to the back room.” Johnny giggled at that. “What else is going on?”
“I might have a racer for him.”
“Oh, that sounds juicy.” More laughter from the phone. “I’m sure he’ll want to chat about that, if he’d ever get out of the shower.” I heard some commotion, maybe knocking on the door, faint voices.
Jason leaned over while that was going on and whispered, “Johnny works with Gavin, but they’re getting married soon.”
Then from Johnny, “Okay, here you go boys.”
“What’s going on, Jason? Johnny says you have someone for me to check out?” This time the voice on the phone fit my image better. It was deep and growly, and maybe not in the mood for any bullshit, but I could have been reading into that.
Jason took over. “Yeah, I have Nix Braumere here with me. Can I put you on speaker? He’s involved with this.” He had already had them on speaker, but I figured he felt it polite to ask before the conversation moved forward.
“Fine. What’s up?”
Jason took a deep breath and let it out. “KTM is cutting Cole Lindt.”
“Cole Lindt? What makes you think I’d be interested?” Yep, he sounded pissed.
“I don’t. You might or might not, but you might also know someone else who would be?”
“Hmm…Well, I was planning on bringing Jakov Hranic over from the European series, but his visa application fell through. So, I do have a spot, but I’ll be honest with you.
My sponsors aren’t going to be thrilled with Cole and the shit he started with Shannon.
We can’t afford any trouble on that front. ”
“Hi, Mr. Peri. This is Nix. I wanted to let you know that Cole wouldn’t be a problem.
His record has been clean since all of that, plus…
uh…we’re sort of together. So, that prior shit would not happen again.
But we’re not out. This is new, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t share that unless you had to. ”
For a minute, there was nothing from Gavin. I thought we’d lost him.
Jason cut in, “This could be something big for both Cole and BikeMax. Cole’s going to want to move fast. It would be beneficial for him to get on a team before KTM makes the announcement.”
“I get that, Jason.” I heard him suck in a deep breath.
“I’ll think about it. I’ll talk to my partners.
Maybe set up a meeting, but I’m not promising anything.
Plus, he’s coming off an injury. I don’t know how that’s going, but I saw he had a top ten finish yesterday, then didn’t ride the second moto. ”
I had to set that straight. “That was KTM. They cut him after the first race and sent him home, basically. It wasn’t nice.” That wasn’t entirely true, but honestly after that little meeting in the trailer, Cole was in no shape to get on the track.
“I bet. Those suits can be vicious.” Then Gavin laughed, and I could hear Johnny laughing in the background. I liked these two and hoped Cole would, too. Hoped he’d get on their team, rather than another factory ride that seemed cold and sterile. Cole needed a new family.