Chapter 21 YellaWood 500 #8
The infield at Talladega was finally ready and the bus brought them all in to the site of the Veronique Photo Shoot.
Mark was anxious as he helped Tina onto the raised platform, his hand slipping onto her bottom as he was trying to push her up from behind.
His face went red as a tomato, but Tina just smiled down at him from above.
Carry moved into position and Cassie took her spot beside Carry on her right, while Wendy flanked her on the left.
Tina stepped in beside Wendy and Katie stepped in beside Cassie.
Each held up the bottle for their scent.
Veronica moved in front of the girls, making sure everything was exactly as she wanted it.
She nodded to James and the cameras started flashing.
After about twenty minutes they did a reposition and highlighted each scent individually with Veronica.
Finally, they allowed the NASCAR drivers to come up on the stage to take pictures with them.
As they were drawing to the end, Veronica began pulling tickets out of the raffle hat and the driver or his family in attendance would win a free bottle of the scent from the girls, starting with Miss Vanilla Rose.
The photo shoot ended and Carry was elated to be the first to get to take a ride on the track with one of the drivers.
Veronica was pleased to go second. Billy was surprised when they informed him that he would be taking a few laps with a driver.
Still, it was Molly who shrieked with joy the loudest when it was announced that she’d get to ride along for ten full laps at two-thirds speed.
David smiled, knowing that Ben had arranged this specifically for Molly, the biggest racing fan at Pimico.
Greg had just leaned back with Keith the whole time.
“Keith, I know you are here for security, but coming to the Synagogue this morning. Was that really necessary?”
“Greg, as quietly as I can tell you right now, Cassie is in grave danger, and so is Carry if they don’t visit the Matriarch upon their return from this trip.”
“How do you know that?” Greg asked with deep concern.
“I got about ten minutes alone with Cassie in the kitchen last night as I was raiding the ice cream again.” He paused.
“Cassie had been watching me, waiting for an opportunity to speak alone.” He looked around before continuing.
“She was called before the Matriarch just before the trip. Jenny told her that her patience with this plan to convince Carry to rejoin the family and pledge fealty to her was running thin.”
“That’s rather difficult, isn’t it? Carry can’t go into the family,” Greg protested.
“We’ve got no choice, and Cassie can’t tell Carry. It’s up to me, but I can’t get time alone with her without drawing suspicion from Wendy and Katie.”
“What do you want me to tell her?” Greg asked.
“Tell her we’re going to modify D-54 to K-1.” He glanced around. “Give her this document; ask her to memorize it then destroy it. Nobody can know what we are going to do.”
“I’m guessing this is a ‘her eyes only’ thing?” Greg mused.
“If you don’t mind, Greg. The less you know, the better right now. Millard has been watching them, but for now it’s that he’s protecting them rather than stalking. But he has orders to make sure that Carry comes in or dies.”
“Have you told her this?” Greg asked his composure starting to come apart.
“Relax, Greg,” Keith said with a hand on his arm. “You get her the document, and I’ll try to brief her at the barbeque tonight or at the pool.”
“If you can’t, let me know. I want Carry to be fully aware of the risks she’s taking.”
“It’s her call, Greg. For once, you have to let someone else take the risk. Just like you did in that third quarter of the championship game by bounce-passing to me so I could drive the lane and confuse their defense from that point forward.”
“That was a great play,” Greg smiled in the memory. “That was the most god-awful layup I’d ever seen, but it did go down in the end.”
“Yeah, watching it circle the rim three times had me nervous, especially since I’d drawn the foul. That guy really hit me hard with his body. I think I can still feel it to this day.”
“But you got up and drained that free-throw which gave us a lead from which we never looked back until that last play.”
“That three pointer of yours was a thing of beauty. I still can’t believe you put that up from the corner of the half-court marker and hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
” Keith shook his head. “You shot that with what, half a second left? And it took a full second just for the ball to get there.”
Carry was hanging out beside Billy as he once again worked the grill, making the burgers that he’d become famous for.
Ben and Cassie were right there as Ben was learning how Billy did everything.
Surprisingly, Wendy and Aarie were hanging around because Wendy wanted Aarie to learn how to grill like an American.
Greg hung out by the pool with Lisa, Molly, Janet and Denny.
Thomas and Greta were in the pool playing water basketball against David and Tessa.
Keith was of course, right in the thick of things being the referee for the game.
Greg opened the bottle of beer and took a drink.
Janet hit him on the arm, getting his attention.
“Hey Garrelson. Stop hogging all the brewskis!” Denny called. Greg just started passing bottles from the cooler to his right until everyone was served. “See, you aren’t totally useless out here,” Denny said and they burst out in laughter.
“He’s definitely out of his element,” Lisa observed. “He doesn’t know how to relax at all,” she was saying when Veronica emerged from the mansion in her bikini.
She walked past Greg, slowly moving right in front of him so he couldn’t miss the movement of her hips swaying back and forth as she continued to the pool.
Greg almost dropped his beer, and everyone noticed.
Greg was finally fully relaxing, something he just didn’t do well.
When Veronica reached the edge of the pool, he sat up and put his beer down.
“I’ll join you,” he said moving quickly beside Veronica.
She turned to him and smiled. “I know you are challenging me here,” he whispered.
“But I have the right to spend time with you in the pool don’t I? ”
“Since Carry’s hanging around Billy?” she asked and the sting of the question hit him hard. He frowned but she smiled at him. “It’s alright to feel a bit jealous of him, but he’s harmless.”
“Why are you sticking up for her like this?” he asked softly as he took her in his arms.
“Because you are the one who has to choose. Just like we told you at that dinner. We aren’t going to force you or beg you.
We just need you to make sure of your own heart and decide because both of us deserve to know who will be with you and who won’t.
It’s not fair to either of us to just keep going in a vicious circle with you.
I’m not going to get in her way and she’s not going to get in mine.
We only agreed that we don’t kiss you in front of the other.
” Veronica held him tight. “that doesn’t mean that I can’t hold you tight for a moment, darling. ”
Carry spun around to look toward the pool when Cassie tapped her hand twice.
She saw Veronica holding Greg tight and a small wave of jealousy washed over her.
She instinctively closed her hands, and was completely shocked when Billy yelped, “OUCH!” She gasped as she realized that she was holding Billy’s left hand in her right hand.
No, not holding it. Nearly crushing it. She dropped his hand and reacted with fear.
“I’m so sorry Billy,” she said as apologetically as she could.
“That hurt, Carry. Don’t you know your own strength?” he chided her. “I nearly lost that burger I was flipping. What’s going on with you suddenly?”
“I’m sorry, Billy. I didn’t even know I was holding your hand.”
“Neither did I until you crushed it with your death grip. What’d I do to you?”
“Nothing, Billy. You didn’t do anything,” she started to plead.
“He did,” Cassie said and thumbed toward Greg.
“Oh,” Billy said softly, suddenly understanding. He wrapped Carry in his arms to hold her close and comfort her. “Don’t let what he does with Veronica bother you.”
She looked into his eyes, as if pleading for mercy. “I’m so sorry Billy. I didn’t even know,,,,” she was saying when he kissed her firmly on the lips. Wendy, Cassie and Aarie gasped as he did.
“Do you feel better now?” he asked and she looked up at him stunned for a half a second then kissed him back with passion.
“Yes,” she said in a sultry voice. “I feel much better now,” she smiled brightly at him, trying to understand the shock on his face. “Is something wrong?”
“I think we just kissed,” he admitted as if the scene was replaying in his mind and he was just starting to understand what had instinctually happened that shouldn’t have. “I’m sorry. I think I crossed a line I wasn’t supposed to, Carry.”
“I don’t mind, Billy,” Carry admitted. “It felt nice to be kissed like I was the only thing that mattered.” She looked at him closely then said, “I think Mia made a huge mistake, and maybe I might benefit from that.” She continued to gaze at his eyes.
“You’d be easy to love, Billy.” She smiled at him then winked. “Yes, very easy.”
“Shut Up!” Greg yelled at his alarm going off at four am.
“It’s still dark out you stupid clock!” He finally found it and shut it off.
He rolled back into place and pulled the blankets up on his shoulder before he realized that someone else was in the room.
Slowly he sat up and let his eyes adjust to the lack of light.
He suddenly realized that the window shades were drawn closed and he was certain he hadn’t done that. “Is someone there?”
“Yes, Greg,” Carry replied softly.
“Carry?” he called in the darkened room. “Is that you?”