Elec’s mother tucked her arm through Tamara’s and whispered, “It’s okay, sweetie. Wrecks happen. He’s fine. Put on a brave face for your kids.”
Tamara blinked and nodded. Kathy was right. She could see that Hunter and Petey were scared. “It’s alright,” she told them, even if her voice was shaky. “Just a little wreck, happens all the time.” She reached out and took Hunter from Elliot. Her daughter was too heavy for her to carry, but she gave her a hug before setting her back on her feet. She reached for Petey and squeezed his shoulder.
Glancing back at the TV, she saw paramedics were pulling Elec out of his car. The camera panned in as they were removing his helmet. His lips were moving, though he was clutching his ribs with his right arm.
Relief flooded her.
“He looks just fine,” Elliot said and the relief was evident in his voice as well. “Talking and everything. They’ll have to take him down to the medical center, per the rules. What do you say we all go down and check on him and let him know that next time he shouldn’t be daydreaming behind the wheel?”
“I don’t think it was his fault at all,” Hunter said, some of the color restored to her face.
Petey hadn’t said a word at all and that worried Tamara. “It’s okay,” she told him. “Elec is fine.”
He just nodded and crammed a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
The wide eyes and white faces of her children hit Tamara hard. They cared about Elec. He had filled a void in their life and they would be devastated if something happened to him.
That scared her.
All of a sudden a lot of things scared her.
ELEC rested his hand on the tape binding his ribs as he sat on the gurney, and tried not to be annoyed. He hated, absolutely hated, not being able to finish a race. It was one, a matter of pride, and two, a matter of losing points in the cup race. He had considered going back out there and running his last eighty laps since finishing last still gave you points, whereas not finishing gave you none. Then he had tried to stand up and walk across the room and nixed that idea. It felt like he had a bear on his chest, and he didn’t think he could climb into his seat.
Next week, though. The doctor said it would take six weeks for his four cracked ribs to heal completely but he figured he would be pretty pain-free by the following week and all he was doing was sitting. He could handle a few hours in the car, no problem.
There was a knock on his door, which he assumed was the nurse with his discharge instructions.
It was actually his family, who were all smiles to see him sitting up. He knew a wreck was scary for loved ones sitting and watching, and he had had his crew chief call his parents and Tamara as soon as he was out of the car and pretty sure there wasn’t all that much wrong with him.
“Hey,” he said. “How was that for a roll?”
His father said, “Had a little trouble in turn two, did you?”
It was an old racing joke. Everything was blamed on turn two.
His mother shook her head, bemused.
Eve said, “I think you’re a publicity hog. All anyone’s been talking about all weekend is you.”
“Yeah, I wrecked just to get the spotlight. And I paid off the other two cars to take me out so I could land on camera.” Elec grinned at her. “Brat.”
Hunter and Petey came into the room then with Tamara, and Elec waved them over to him.
“Hey, guys, what’s up? How’s the race? You see who won?”
“Can I hug you?” Hunter asked, looking nervously at his bandaged chest. He hadn’t put his shirt back on yet because he wasn’t sure he could manage the sleeves.
“Of course you can hug me,” he said, and opened his arm so she could slide in between his legs and hug his waist. He fought the urge to wince as pain shot through his chest, but he hugged her back, tweaking her ponytail. “Thanks for coming to visit me.”
He turned to Tamara’s son. “What’s up, Pete?”
Pete didn’t say anything, just looked warily around the hospital room. Elec wondered if he was remembering his father’s wreck. Tamara had never told him if Pete had been there.
Somehow he had assumed he wasn’t, but he didn’t know that for a fact.
Elec looked past him, and met Tamara’s gaze. She looked pale and pinched, her arms across her chest. “Hey, beautiful,” he told her. “Forgot to look where I was going today.”
He smiled at her, but she didn’t smile back.
His mother noticed the look on Tamara’s face and she said, “Elliot, Eve, let’s take these kids for a snack and give Elec and Tamara a minute alone.”
“Right. Good plan,” Elliot said.
Hunter gave him another squeeze but she went with his parents willingly enough, which made him happy. Petey followed, although he was still way too quiet for Elec’s tastes.
“Hey,” he said, trying to slide off the table to get to Tamara since she was still hovering in the doorway. “I’ve had a hard day, baby. I could use a kiss.”
She did come to him then, and she touched his cheeks, brushed his hair back off his forehead, glancing down at his bandaged ribs and wincing. Then she kissed him softly, her arms twining carefully around him.
“The good thing is I’ll have some extra free time this week. We can go ring shopping,” he told her, trying to inject some levity into the situation. He wasn’t that banged up, all things considered, and he didn’t want it to be a big deal.
To his shock and horror, she started sobbing in his arms, her shoulders rocking, her tears wetting his cheeks.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m alright. It’s not a big deal.”
She just shook harder and Elec lifted his arms carefully and rubbed her back to try and soothe her. It made him feel wonderful that she cared that much at the same time it terrified him. He didn’t know how to deal with this, nor did he like that he had scared her that much.
“Shh. It’s alright.”
But then she pulled back from him and her face was contorted in anger. “It’s not alright!”
she said, swiping at her face. “It’s not even remotely alright. You could have died out there!”
Uh-oh. How the hell did he answer that one? “I’m fine. It’s just a few cracked ribs.”
“But you could have died. It’s a huge risk you take every week going out there.”
Shit, this was about racing. He needed to nip that in the bud. Racing had its dangers, but so did life in general. “I could die choking on a piece of chicken.”