The Family Secret

~ Five ~

LONG CHAPTER INCOMING!!!

Connie's POV:

I wish I could say that knocking back the two hefty glasses of bourbon had given me the courage to explain everything to Chase but if I did, it would be a lie. Nothing in this world could prepare me for the story that I was about to tell. Not even time. Sure, I'd known that Chase would eventually find out about his paternity given his love for all things genealogical but that didn't mean that I hadn't held out the briefest hope that he never would. But here we are, him pissed off and hurt –and rightfully so.

Finding a spot on the wall, I focused on it as I took a deep breath for courage and began to tell the story.

"In order for you to understand all of this, I need to start from the beginning, I mean the very beginning." I said, not taking my eyes off the spot I had chosen to focus on. I felt Chase shift on the couch a second before I heard the glass bourbon bottle clink against the glass on the table. I waited until he had returned to his reclined position on the couch before I spoke again.

"I was six the first time I ever went to a race. Your grandfather took me. It wasn't what the races are today by any means. Just a dirt track and guys in cars that they worked on in their spare time. They used every spare dime they could scrounge up to make their cars better. Everyone had a dream of making it a sport that was slowly gaining traction but they all knew that not everyone would make it." I said, a smile coming to my face as I thought about that experience. Mama had been mad that daddy had taken me to the track in one of my Sunday school dresses. The red clay of the dirt track had ruined the dress but daddy had brought me a new one to make up for it even though buying the dress had taken away from his weekly allotment of cash that was his to do with what he wanted. "Anyway, Daddy and I were sitting on the bleachers watching the race when a father and son sat down beside us. The father looked to be about daddy's age and son about mine. I was shy at first, not really understanding what was going on but unable to take my eyes off the cars as they zoomed around the track. But as the night wore on, the son – I'm guessing you know it was Dale by now– and I became fast friends, running up and down the bleachers playing tag. When we weren't doing that, we were standing at the fence watching the cars go round and round the dirt track sending red dust flying from beneath their tires with each pass.

"The two of us were standing at the fence as we waited for the next race to start. Dale, who the father had left with daddy and I, pointed to a car that was just pulling onto the track, telling me that it was his daddy, Ralph. Dale and I watched as the cars lined up for the start of the race, Ralph on the front row. It was my first time at a race and I didnt know anything about it but I knew that starting at the front of the line was a big deal. I remember commenting on that and Dale telling me that his daddy was starting in second place.

"Dale and I watched as Ralph dominated the track and the other drivers, cheering him one each time his car flew by the spot we were sitting. As the laps ticked off, it was evident that Ralph was a great driver, that he could go far in the sport. But it was the look on Dale's young face that told me that he had been bitten by the racing bug too. The smile that came across his face each time his daddy passed by, the loud cheers he screamed when his father would block someone from passing him, the energy that came off him in waves as the laps counted down, all told me that there would be a day that Dale would be in a car driving just like his father.

"When the race was over, Dale ran to his father who was sitting at the finish line celebrating his win. Daddy had lifted me up onto his shoulders so that I could see what was going on around me. He heard me cheering on the man that we had both just met tonight and vowed that he and I would make this a weekly thing and that we would always cheer for the man that had won at my first race."