hello, hello! Not the story I thought I'd be posting next, but hey ho! This was inspired by a prompt over on The Fic Lab and I kind of ran with it...
Disclaimer: this is fiction and I've taken liberties with some of the MX stuff. Athough I've researched, please appreciate there may be inconsistencies between this and real life racing/events.
Thanks to Monica for correcting my many misplaced commas, and to Mel, May, Meg, Ciara and Lauren for pre-reading. You're the bees knees 😘
I have a group for my fic stuff on Facebook if you want to keep up with me there, it's called 'Here For The Tea'.
• o n e •
"What you dooooin'?"
Edward didn't look up from his bike. Instead, his focus remained on the torque wrench in his hand, tightening the bolts on the oil filter cover. His tongue crept out, just enough to meet his bottom lip as he secured the last one firmly in place.
A tut. He heard it, the noise of annoyance when he didn't immediately respond to the little voice that had sung the question at him. A foot being stamped on the grass, a protest at being ignored.
It was a kid, he thought, and they could just wait the thirty seconds it would take for him to finish the damn job off.
He wiped dirty hands on a rag at his side before he paid any attention to the little person standing to the right of him. When he did finally glance over, he had to bite back a bark of laughter.
There she was, barely taller than the wheel arch on his truck; her arms crossed, and the sourest of expressions on her face. She was grubby, with tangled brown hair—remnants of a red popsicle around her mouth. She pushed a little pot belly out on purpose as she swayed with the weight of boredom, digging plastic glitter shoes into the grass, soft wet soil coating the toes.
Edward pushed longer hair back out of his eyes and stood from where he crouched, bare chested, his jersey tied around his waist, too hot and humid to be wearing all his gear just yet.
"Gettin' ready," he replied.
"Are ya racing?"
"Yeah," he said, off-handedly.
"Are ya famous?" she said, inching closer.
Edward did laugh then.
"Guess so, in some circles."
"My mom says I drive her 'round and 'round in circles."
As if to prove a point, the girl spun on one foot before overbalancing and stumbling into the bike.
"Whoa, kid," he said, grabbing her arm and steadying her, letting go just as quickly. "Watch the bike. I gotta race that."
She righted herself before she dragged a sticky hand along the seat and down onto the brand new tires, slotting small fingers into the deep tire treads that would soon churn up dirt as he ripped around the circuit in less than an hour's time.
"Are ya good? Do ya do 'em tricks? Like the sooperman?"
"Yeah, I can do those," Edward told her, finding the rag and wiping down the smears from the seat. "Well, I used to," he added, looking at the red scars on his arm.
A high-side crash last year broke his collarbone, his right arm in four different places and lrft him with a bleed on his brain. After months of sitting alone in his house, down a girlfriend, up a dog, and a metal cage pinning his arm together, he was itching to get back to what he enjoyed best: racing.
He'd grown up on dirt bikes on the farm his grandparents owned, learning to ride as soon as his legs were long enough to reach the pegs. He and his older brothers spent spring through to fall building new tracks in the woods and the fields; mounds of dirt, sweat, and a heap of fights to get there.
He got good fast.
There was nothing he loved more than the brap sound of a dirt bike, the smell of gasoline, burning rubber, wet earth and dirt; the adrenaline rush as he blitzed whoops and made a smooth landing on the backside of a jump after being airborne.
"My daddy did 'em until he couldn't no more," the little girl said, matter-of-factly.
"Oh, yeah?"
Edward tried to show interest, but he wasn't great with kids he had never met before. He had a niece and nephew but he'd known them since he could hold them in one arm; kids he didn't know were a whole different ball game. He looked around, expecting to see an adult hovering nearby, but there was no one.
Edward frowned, concerned now the little girl was all on her own.
"Yup." The girl smacked her lips together at his side and then uttered two words that made his head drop to peer at her again. "He died."
He watched as she rubbed her hand along the tires of his bike, a jolt of sympathy for her. She was barely four or five, if he had to guess.
"Sorry to hear that."
The girl stopped and patted the bike as she gazed up at him with deep brown eyes.
"My mommy gets sad," she whispered.
"I'm sure she does." Edward paused. "Where's she at, anyway?"
The girl shrugged, like it was no big deal, and then he felt slightly annoyed. Hadn't her mom realized she'd wandered off? There could be any number of sick fucks wandering around.
"She was talking, and talking, and it was booooring." The girl swiped brown shoulder length hair off her face. "I like bikes more than talkin'."
"Me too, but that don't mean you should run off from your grown-up; yeah? Anythin' could happen to you. Sure she's having a heart attack right now, missing you. We should find her before everything kicks off."
Edward glanced at his cell, knowing he didn't have long before they expected him to show up at the pits, and then onward to the track and the first of two races today in the 450 class. But—but he couldn't just leave the kid alone. Apart from Emmett who'd gone to get the admin side of things done, he was on his own. This was all on him.
Resigned, he sighed.
"Where were you before, with your mom?" he asked, crouching now so he was on her level.
"Over there, somewhere." She pointed her index finger vaguely toward the village of food and merchandise stalls and trucks, set up to cater to the crowds, the place already bustling with people.
Edward stood straight again, holding out his hand to the kid. "Come on. Let's go find your mom."
They walked into the sea of people, Edward muttering the occasional 'hey,' when someone recognized him. That was the kinda thing he was used to, and it felt good that people still remembered who he was; that he hadn't just been forgotten about.
What he wasn't used to was the small pudgy hand in his. Or how the little girl swung on it, or how she got distracted and pulled him over to pet dogs, then somehow convinced him to buy her another popsicle, and a light up flashing wand.
The longer they walked, the thicker the crowd got, and when someone walked into the girl and all but knocked her over, Edward hoisted her up into the safety of his arms.
After another minute of wandering, her head came to rest on his shoulder, hair tickling the bare skin of his tanned shoulders.
"I love being this tall," she said in his ear. "I can see everythin'. Don't you get dizzy being up so high?"
Edward smiled. "Nah. Are you sure your mom was around here?" He stopped and spun around in a slow circle, letting her see all the trucks and stalls, a riot of color and sounds and smells.
"Uh, I don't know."
"Remember any of the tents? Or any of the cars, or—"
"That's me!" the little girl said suddenly, straightening in his arms and craning her head as panic filled shouts reached their ears.
"Kasey? Kasey!"
"Mooooom! Mommy!" she yelled, waving a hand vigorously.
A dark-haired woman twisted her head in their direction, and then she was weaving her way toward them at a run, tearful and pale.
"Kasey? Oh my God, there you are!"
Edward set Kasey down carefully on the grass and watched as she flung herself into the open arms of her mom; scooped up and peppered with kisses.
Her mom pulled back cupping Kasey's face in her hands, and it was the first good glimpse Edward had of her.
High cheekbones, a tattoo on her neck... older than him, he reckoned. Maybe late twenties…and really fucking pretty.
"Don't you ever do that again," she said sternly, wiping thumbs over Kasey's cheeks. "You scared me to death. You could have been hurt, or worse. God! Kasey!"
"It's okay, Momma," Kasey sighed dramatically as she shrugged off another cuddle. "Ya were bein' bor-in' talking to Auntie Rach. An' look! I found a biker. A real one. He's gonna race!"
The woman's eyes met his over Kasey's shoulder, slowly drifting down his bare chest, the jersey at his waist, his bright orange pants, right down to his boots, before flicking back up to his face. Edward scrubbed a hand over his hair, not knowing quite what to say.
The woman stood up, and despite her reddening cheeks she stepped toward him, Kasey's hand now firmly held in hers.
"I'm so, so sorry. Thank you so much. I was going out of my Goddamn mind—I turned my back for one minute..."
She brushed loose hair back, shaking her head, her top rising high on her stomach, tiny black shorts and long legs ending in Converse that had seen better days.
"Hey, no worries. She's okay, yeah? No harm done. She's a good kid."
The woman looked away, wiping away a tear, and then sniffed, choking on a laugh.
"Know much about kids?" she challenged, raising an eyebrow at him. "You're barely out of high school. She's a complete handful."
Edward looked down at her and shook his head. "Naw, come on. I'm older than that. And I have a niece and a nephew." He looked down at Kasey, spinning her light up piece of plastic crap with her hands, still not really seeming to grasp the seriousness of what she'd done.
"He bought-ed me a popsicle, Mommy, and let me pet some doggies an' then he bought-ed me this!" She waved the wand in her mom's face.
"You did? Christ, Kase," she sighed, a hand planted to her forehead before reaching into her back pocket. "Here let me pay you—"
"Hey, it's okay. It's the little things, right?" Edward didn't want to make a big deal out of spending ten bucks. He had a better idea. "Maybe you can buy me a drink after the races are over instead."
He flashed her a grin, kinda hopeful. She studied him for a second, eyes narrowed.
"Are ya gonna win?" Kasey asked him excitedly. "I want ya to win."
"Tell you what... if I do, I'll dedicate it to you. How 'bout that?"
Kasey squealed, jumping in the space between them.
"You really don't have to do that," her mom insisted, half exasperated. "She's gonna run away all the time now if she gets treated like this."
"Nah, you won't, will you?" Edward said to Kasey. "Promise me and your mommy you'll never do that again?"
"Uh-huh. I swear." Eyes large and round, Kasey tried to arrange her fingers into a scout's honor, failing miserably.
"Good. Looks like we're sorted. I'm Edward by the way."
He offered his hand, glad when the woman took it, her own small and soft in his.
"I know who you are," she replied, almost accusingly. "Bella."
"So, you do know I'm not just outta high school, huh, Bella?"
He grinned, tilting his head, feeling cocky as her face broke out into a genuine smile that matched his own, before her lip disappeared in between her teeth, reining it in.
"Maybe."
In the distance, a loudspeaker called all competitors to the pits. Edward backed away slowly, mouth still curled upwards.
"So, I'll see you two later?"