Off the Track Series, Book 1
Amelia has a last name that opens doors. A last name she didn't ask for, but can never shake. A legacy. Legacy be damned, she wants to make it on her own. And she has. After years at EPSN, she lands the job of a lifetime...
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I wake up with the sun, the cold side of the bed being enough to actually stir me.
Charles.
Today is a hard day for him. He hasn't said it, but everyone in the motorsport community knows this is the anniversary of Jules death.
The fact that it falls on race day only makes it that much heavier.
I toss on a robe, noticing the curtains flowing in the breeze to tell me just where I can find Charles. I slowly drift out that way to find him robed and sitting on a patio chair in complete silence gazing up at the sky. His posture says everything he doesn't.
"Hi," I whisper because good morning just doesn't seem to fit. To his credit, he turns his head to face me with the smallest smile on his face. No words cross his lips, but we can both feel his heart ache. "You okay?"
I join him on the chair, pulling my legs to my chest and my head to my knees.
"I miss him." He says simply, voice breaking.
I ache for him. "He'd be so proud of you Charles." I tell him the words I heard a thousand times after my mama passed away. By my mama floated in and out of my life. She wasn't a pillar on which I depended... I can't imagine the pain of loosing both the two most important men in your lives.
My words prompt tears to swell in his eyes, "I would give anything for him to be in the seat I am." He means the word he says, a dam of tears he'd be holding in breaking at the words.
The distance between us is suddenly feels far too much and I find myself pulling my frame into his lap. When I wrap my arms around him, Charles immediately drops his head into my shoulder and just sobs. Closing my eyes, I just hold him. Hold onto him like if I do it well enough it'll soak all the heart break out of him.
It is wrecking to see him like this.
I wish I could take the pain away, but I know that's impossible so I just hold on while he grieves.
His body is shaking with the pain, his arms gripping onto me like I might float away if he let go. The emotion of it all brings me to tears, for this beautiful man, for all he's lost, for everyone who lost someone too soon.
I don't know how long we sit like this. Enough time that the sun is fully risen and that dull ache your body feels after a long cry starts to set in.
When his tears finally subside, I pull his head into my hands and gaze into his eyes. The pain is clear on his face, but so is the strength. "I know it hurts. But you are his legacy Charles, he lives on through you." I all but whisper.
