I hope you all had a good holiday season! My family was able to share what may be our last with a sick family member over Christmas and for New Years I got a new daughter-in-law and three beautiful grandchildren! My oldest got married on New Years Eve! At least even he should be able to remember his anniversary!
Thanks for continuing to read and review.
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Chapter 76
After Bo's win on the drag strip, the bikes started lining up on the round track for a heat race that would determine the starting line up for tomorrow's feature race. Today's starting poitions had already been drawn earlier at the drivers meeting.
No sooner than he'd seen Bo cross the line ahead of Brodie, Jeb exclaimed, "Alright! Luke tell Bo he did a good job will ya? I got to get my bike and head over to the other track.
The loud speaker came to life with a high pitched squeal causing some of the crowd to cover their ears and groan complaints. Then the announcer said, "Alright, as you can see the bikes and cars are starting to move over to the round track, ... ah in this case it's more of an oval. Anyway, we've seen what these guys can do on a straight away, so what do you say we see how they handle it with a left turn at the end."
The crowd sent out excited cheers.
Luke told Amber with excitement dripping from his voice, "Let's go see Bo and see if the car needs any adjustments then we can head over and watch Jeb!"
That was 'just' what Amber wanted to hear. NOT. But, she had been to enough such events to know if she wanted a chance for any fun later she'd have to be content to follow along or risk loosing this guy to some other girl. She looked at Luke's broad shoulders then her eyes fell to his jeans for a split second before she replied, "Sure."
When Luke had his car and cousin in sight something signaled trouble as he picked up his pace, "That was great Bo! What's wrong?" He said cutting right to the chase.
Bo wrinkled his brows and wondered how Luke knew him so well, "Well, I won, but I also blew the brakes."
"Brakes? Bo you were running a drag race you don't use a brake in a drag race." Luke said.
Bo glared at his older cousin, "Then how did you propose I stopped before wiping out that there big ol' barn?"
Luke only then looked up to see the large barn used for the live stock at the fair. He frowned when he saw how close the end of the race way was to the old barn before squatting down to look under his car while clenching his jaw against the pain from his ribs. Luke saw the problem as soon as he was eye level of the brakes. "Bo get the jack out and pray that in that box in the back Cooter put us a wheel cyclinder in there."
Bo popped the hood and dug around in the box of spare parts Cooter thought they should take with them, "Luke you ain't gonna believe this, but Cooter is a genius!" He took the box and handed it to Amber, "Give this to Luke while I get the jack."
Amber looked strangely at the box that Bo was handing her before taking it. When she agreed to come give out the fliers today she had planned on finding a guy to spend the day, possibly the weekend with. What she did not figure on was spending the day with a guy who was working on a car.
By that time Luke had some how managed to get into a sitting position by the wheel where the cylinder was blown and waited for Bo to get the tire off. Luke knew better than to fight with the lugs on his car since they had been put on at the garage with the air tools. He opened the tool box looking for the tools needed to do the job. When he went to try to turn the bleeder screw it was stuck. Luke took out a small hammer and tapped it gently. When it still didn't release he took a cheater bar and put over the end of the socket to give him more leverage without having to use as much bodily force as he normally would. The rest of the job went off easily, but Luke was beginning to feel the effects of leaning and reaching over as he finished bleeding the brakes.
Bo got out of the car where he had been pumping the brakes so that Luke could bleed them and could tell Luke was hurting. "You know I could have done that."
Luke merely nodded. Yes he knew Bo could have managed the simple repair, but opted to do it himself since being able to stop a vehicle was as important as one that ran good. After he managed to get up with Bo's help Luke went back to the trunk of the car, looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him as he took out the mason jar for a healthy couple of drinks before tucking it back in his bag.
Bo said, "Now we can go see how Jeb is making out in the race.
As Luke and Amber started off ahead of Bo he noticed that Luke had moved Amber's arm from around his ribs to his waist. Bo knew he should have insisted on changing that wheel cylinder.
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After a very simple ceremony, with the decorative unofficial marriage license tucked in her purse, Beverly and Cooter Davenport were off to start their new life as husband and wife. Before heading to the motel the Justice told them about, Cooter made a quick stop at the local garage. Inside he saw the man he had talked to last night at the road house where he'd delivered Boss's shine to.
Wayne, the owner, addressed the customer before actually looking up from invoices, "Can I help you?"
Cooter replied, "Well, I was hoping to be able to help you."
The reply took Wayne a bit by surprise until he saw the young man he'd talked to last night at the bar. "Well, I see you were serious last night. I've had a lot of young men talk to me about a job and never show up."
"Oh yes Sir, I was very serious last night. I told you I would be here today and here I am. I hope I'm not to late and that you are still needing a hand." Cooter said.
Wayne was an older man about Cooter's father age. He studied the young man before him then asked, "You said you had your own tools and you know your way around under a hood of a car?"
"Yes Sir, I brought all my tools with me and I've been under cars or their hoods since I could crawl." Cooter said.
Before Wayne could reply a car pulled in driven by a young lady about Cooter's age.
Cooter had already wrinkled his face in pain as he heard the cars engine that had obviously been ran far too long with the water pump down. He whistled low, "Wonder how long she's driven that with that water pump down?"
The older man looked from the car to the young man before him, "When can you start?"
"When do you want me here?" Cooter asked.
"How about Monday morning, seven sharp." The man said.
Cooter replied, "I'll be waiting on you when you get here."
"I'll start you out at a hundred and fifty a week, plus ten percent of each car you work on. If you are as good as you told me last night we'll talk again next Saturday about raising that a might. I pay every two weeks. Your first payday will be on the eighteenth." Wayne smiled and shook the young man's hand. There was something about him that Wayne liked.
At the car Cooter smiled at his new wife, "I start Monday."
Beverly let out a breath she had been holding since Cooter had told her about the job he had lined up. She knew things would be better for them if he was working when her family found out about their marriage.
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Back at the race track the bikes were just going into the final lap when Bo, Luke and Amber arrived at the oval track.
Kevin Windham was a nose ahead of Blake Horton who was just a couple feet in front of Jeb. In fourth place, Charlie Sun was a half a lap away. With all three riders giving their all as they rounded turn four in to the final straight stretch, Kevin Winham the eldest rider there had indeed showed the young whipper snappers how it was done as he crossed the line just before Blake who was followed by Jeb and Charlie.
Luke exclaimed, "Alright Jeb!"
Bo frowned, "Alright Jeb? He finished third!?"
"They pay the top three in all races this weekend Bo." Luke explained.
"Really? Well, then OK!" Bo said.
When Jeb was greeted by his cousins he was fussing and fuming. "Luke I need some tools. This thing runs better than this. I've got a plug fouled or something."
"Sure thing, We'll get the tools out of my car before Bo sets up for his race." Luke said.
Amber seen what was going to happen even before it did. She knew Luke was going to end up helping work on his cousin's bike while she stood around twiddling her thumbs.
In the last race of the day, Bo managed to come in just ahead of Mark McCormick who was about a half lap ahead of Enos Straight who was followed closely by Turk Folley.
With the car and bike repaired and the racing action over for the day Luke and Amber had just enough time to grab a bite to eat before the fireworks began. Instead of watching the fireworks with the crowd, Luke suggested they slip off to a much more private place to watch them, of course ol' Luke was planning to made a few fire works of his own.
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Later that night after Daisy had showed up for the fireworks the four cousins bid their racing friends and Luke's new friend good night and headed toward Jeb's house. Daisy had told them that Jeb's room had been set up for the three of them before she left.
Pulling up to the dark farm house where only the kitchen and back porch light was on, all four of the cousins knew that Pauline Duke and the twins were already in bed for the night.
Luke had been sipping on his pain medication in the form of Jesse's shine since he'd worked on his car. Now he was feeling pretty good except for the dull pain he was feeling in his ribs which could be sharp when he breathed. He knew between the brake job and his time with Amber which was much tamer that his last night with Ruby that he had surely over done himself.
Once in the house each set to getting ready for the night while being as quiet as possible. Jeb knew that Luke was hurting and gave him the bed opting to take one of the roll a way cots across from Bo in the other cot. With the early July heat, Luke decided to take the folded extra blanket on his bed and use it with his pillow to be able to sit up some in the bed instead of laying flat. He'd managed to put his bag with his liquid pain relief near the bed. He had a feeling he'd be sipping it on and off the rest of the night.
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NOTE: If you have already read this chapter, you'll notice that I have taken down the last paragraph. It won't change, just will fit better over all in the next chapter. Sorry if this confusses anyone. Thanks for reading! Dixie