Sweet Carolina by Roz Lee Read Free Book Online

up?” he asked.
    She answered without looking up. “Not much.
Just checking something. We had a shimmy like you reported once
before. Someone left a bolt out of the mounting block. It's a
simple fix, if that's what's wrong.” She pulled her arm out and
stood, brushing a stray lock from her face with her forearm. “All
present and accounted for. We'll have to look elsewhere.”
    “It felt like it was in the wheel,” he
said.
    “Like I said, just checking all the
possibilities.”
    “Got it,” Chet called from under the car.
“We'll have to change out the shock on this side, but then she's
good to go.”
    Caro praised Chet and Pete for solving the
problem so quickly and turned to go. Dell caught up with her before
she reached the hauler. “Hey, wait up,” he called.
    She continued on, only stopping when she
wrapped her hand around the door latch. “The car should be ready to
go in a few minutes. See if you can get her back on the track as
soon as possible.”
    “Will do, boss. I was wondering… would you
like to get a burger with me tonight?”
    “You go ahead without me, Dell. I've got a
lot to do tonight.” She opened the door, but stopped and turned
half-around. “I'm sorry. Race weekends are busy for me. Maybe next
week?” she asked.
    Dell nodded. “Next week then.”
    He made a few more practice runs before
calling it a day. He had a few hours to himself, a few hours too
many. He caught a ride to the hotel and cleaned up before heading
out to one of the local bars. With only qualifying tomorrow, and
the race on Sunday, one beer wouldn't hurt.
    The place was packed with race fans and Dell
kept his baseball cap on, pulled low over his brow. He found a
table in the corner and settled in. A waitress took his order and
he put his feet up on the extra chair, leaning back with the bill
of his cap pulled over his eyes. Conversation was lively all around
him. Two couples occupied the table to his left; their conversation
divided along gender lines. Dell tuned out the female talk about
the best diapers and zeroed in on the men's conversation. He
listened as they speculated on whether Everhart would finally win a
race this season or go down as the driver with the longest losing
streak in Cup history. Dell mentally cast his vote for the history
books, but remained silent.
    His meal arrived and he took his time,
savoring the excellent burger. The table on his right emptied, only
to be grabbed up again by a group of men with mouths as big as
their beer bellies. Dell tried to tune them out, but he would have
needed noise-proof headphones to do it. Between the four of them,
they had an opinion on every aspect of racing, none of which were
based on any version of reality Dell knew of. He finished his
burger, signaled the waitress for his check and was about to leave
when their conversation turned interesting.
    “How about that Sadie Hawkins?” one of them
asked as the rest guffawed and contributed more inappropriate
comments about the woman.
    “Heard she was shagging the crew chief,” one
said.
    “That old man? Naw, I heard that's how she
got Dell.” another said. “I'll bet he's driving more than her car.”
They all laughed at the remark, adding a number of lewd comments
that resulted in more laughter. Dell sat back and listened briefly.
He didn't care what people said about him, hell, it had all been
said a dozen times: but when it came to Caro, he didn't like what
he was hearing. These people didn't know her. They just didn't want
a woman invading what they perceived as their territory.
    “Maybe he'll knock her up and send the little
woman home where she belongs.”
    “If he doesn't, someone else will. I bet she
spreads those legs of hers for anybody with a dick.”
    Dell had heard enough. He rose from his seat,
removed his cap and held it tightly with both hands to keep from
belting one, or all of them. Two steps brought him to their
table.
    “Excuse me,” he said. Four faces turned to
him. He waited