A clap of thunder rattled the hotel room windows, followed immediately by a second rumble, sounding like a demented drum roll by the god of thunder himself.

“Bonzer,” Colin muttered sleepily from his hotel bed as he rolled over onto his back. The forecast of rain meant unavoidable delays at the track and he hated the tension generated when everyone stood around restless from waiting. Not that he had any other pressing engagements; although the team was well disciplined and his presence wasn’t required at every scheduled event, he felt the responsibility to his employees and most importantly, his business partner, to present handson attitude. Besides, he found it had a way of keeping him out of trouble.

It was a long time in coming, but Colin had discovered that he enjoyed looking after his team. There was a certain satisfaction in knowing that he’d earned their respect and had pulled together a dedicated crew. Even though it was unlikely that Roadrunner Motors would make it into the top five by the end of the season, they were definitely among the top ten to keep an eye on. Although many on the circuit considered his stepping down from driving to have been a monumental mistake, there was no mistaking that his replacement driver was a force to be reckoned with. Colin knew how to spot a winner; Richard Fuentes was a dark horse, but his pedigree was as blue blooded as Team Unser or Petty.

He stretched his legs and stared at the ceiling, feeling a sleepy sense of pride in what he had accomplished since the break up with Carrie. More than once he’d fought the urge to give her a call and share his insight into his new sense of purpose, but figured that doing so would be mistaken on her part as a ham-handed attempt to get her to leave her new life in California and come back to him. While not entirely untrue, he knew that he lacked the finesse to keep it hidden; better to just sign the monthly check to the divorce attorney and keep his focus on the future. The past would take care of itself.

He did however find an encouraging ear back home in Vermont with Lachlan. He wasn’t sure how it all came about, but one evening out of the blue his brother had given him an unexpected call to shoot the bull and somewhere between exchanged tales of what was happening in each others’ lives, the old friendship was reconnected. Anecdotes of fatherhood sandwiched between the shared experiences of running a business somehow worked their way into a conversation about dream cars. When Lachlan mentioned his plans to buy a ’64 Barracuda, Colin’s eyes lit up with an idea.

“Let me help you rebuild the engine.”

Lachlan’s laughter vibrated in his ear. “Mate, I was just about to ask if you could tear your sorry arse away from the track for a bit and do just that. You could stay here with me and Jess. I was planning on taking a few days off towards the middle of July; reckon you could swing a visit around that time? We’ve got two new babies makin’ their appearance in a few months and there won’t be another opportunity until next summer.”

Mid-July was less than three weeks away. Colin almost begged off, but reconsidered. What was keeping him from taking some time just for himself? Of all the places he could think of, visiting with family and checking in to let everyone (especially Riley) know that he was healthy and well was more appealing than life on the road. The thought of sleeping in a bed with air dried bed sheets and being awakened in the morning by the scent of freshly brewed coffee instead of some drunken couple shagging in the hotel room next door had a certain appeal, as did the promise of real home cooked meals.

“Your wife won’t mind? I’ve heard that it’s not good to surprise a woman when she’s expecting. ”

Lachlan assured him that he’d clear it with Jessie, setting the date tentatively for the 15th. “It’ll be apples, mate. Egan’s moved into his new home and Enid just moved into the granny flat in back. Amanda’s sleeping through the night and wait’ll you see how big she’s grown.”

Babies had never much fit into Colin’s lifestyle, but ever since the news of Carrie’s miscarriage, he’d been feeling the twinges of regret. Perhaps it’d be interesting to spend time around a nipper, as long as he wasn’t asked to change any nappies.

The arrangements were set and later when he announced his plans for time away to the team, he could have sworn he heard a collective sigh of relief.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” his pit boss Jared Stone assured. “But it’ll give us a chance to see how well we can do without you hoverin’ over us all the time.”

Everyone in attendance laughed in agreement, except for one. Colin noticed that Richard’s sister, the team’s only female employee and ace mechanic Vickie Fontanelle stood off by herself, a troubled expression on her tired face. He turned his attention back to the group.

“Just don’t do anything stupid, mates. We've had a bad enough time with living down old George over there chasing that bloody tire across the track.”

He was referring to a particularly embarrassing incident several weeks back when George somehow let a tire get away during a frenzied pit stop. The footage of him chasing it across the open track made it onto the national news. Thankfully, only egos had gotten hurt as a result, but it was still hard to live down. Someone on Tony Stewart’s team had even printed up tee shirts displaying the Roadrunner team logo with the silhouette of a man chasing after a runaway tire. They were currently going for thirty bucks a pop and were considered collector’s items.

Over the days following his announcement, Colin made a point of keeping an eye on Vickie as he tried to gauge what might really be the matter. While he didn’t dissect the reasons behind his sudden interest for her well being, he was puzzled by her behavior. At the beginning of the season she was as loud and boisterous as the rest of her team mates, trading insults and carrying her weight as well if not better than most male mechanics he had known. But he quickly began to notice that the rest of the crew seemed to give her a wide berth; it wasn’t anything overt or tangible, but they seemed to sense that she was troubled and being men, dealt with it by leaving her alone. After a couple days of watching, Colin decided to address the issue.

He decided to take her to dinner. Nothing romantic or overly fancy; just a nice little place with good food where the music wasn’t too loud, and just maybe he’d be able to get to the bottom of things. He suspected that Vickie’s change in behavior was directly related to the deaths of her husband and daughter. Maybe life on the road wasn’t providing her with the distraction that her brother Richard had hoped for when he’d asked Colin to take her on. Anyone on the circuit could keep busy from dawn to sunset, but what happened between the hours of sunset and dawn, Colin knew only too well.

When he arrived at the garage to pick her up, Colin noted that Vickie had changed into a flower-print sundress and had even put on a little makeup. She still had the same sad, distracted expression that was causing him concern, and he again hoped he could find the right words that might get her to trust him. He wasn’t known for any brilliant flashes of insight, especially where women were concerned, but he was going to give it his best shot.

He needn’t have worried. The moment after they arrived at the restaurant and were seated at their table by the elderly hostess, Vickie started to cry. Fighting off a sense of panic he handed her his napkin. She responded by reaching out and taking his hand.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been trying so hard to hold it together and I don’t know why this is happening now.” She gave a loud sniffle.

Colin squeezed her had reassuringly. “No worries, love. Do you reckon you can trust me enough to try talking about it?”

She closed her eyes in embarrassment and took a couple of deep breaths before answering. “I think I want to give you my notice. I know it’s wrong to quit before the season’s over, but I don’t think I can do this any longer.”

He felt a sense of protective anger coming on, but held it in check. “Has anyone been harassing you? If any of those blokes are making you uncomfortable, I’ll take care of it.”

She shook her head and looked even more miserable. “It’s nothing like that ….Colin”

She’d always just addressed him as “Boss” with the rest of the crew, and while it felt uncomfortable at first to address him by his first name, when it also felt kind of nice. “I never dreamed that I’d ever pick up a lug wrench again when I got married. In fact, I’d promised my husband that I wouldn’t. He had this idea that it wasn’t something that a woman should do.”

Colin knew that if he asked the obvious question that he was stepping into dangerous territory, but his curiosity was piqued. “Didn’t it bother you that he felt that way?”
.
Vickie shook her head. “Not at first. In the beginning I kind of liked it. See, I grew up in a garage surrounded by a bunch of men. It was all I knew until I met Gary. He was attending divinity school in Wisconsin and had come with a few friends to catch the race at Indy. We met up in one of the little clubs afterwards and I guess it was love at first sight. He was so sweet and soft spoken, but really smart. He treated me differently from all the other guys I knew; you know, opening doors for me, buying flowers. Falling in love was easy.

“He kind of thought he was rescuing me from a life of depravity on the road. He used to say that traveling with the circuit was no place for a lady, and all I’d ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. We got married soon afterward and I went to beauty school while Gary finished out his studies. I got a job right away right after graduating with a local salon and I was doing pretty good. It was fine while Gary was still in school, but after he graduated, he had trouble finding a job.”

Colin chuckled softly, but then regretted it. “Sorry, I guess I never thought of a minister facing unemployment.”

Vickie nodded in understanding. “Neither did Gary. For some reason, he was never really happy with any of his assignments. He took one job after another, and then he got an offer for a position with a church in Montana. I hated leaving the salon, but felt that he needed my support and packed up my curlers and scissors and moved right along with him. Problem was, there were no beauty salons in the town we lived in, and three months later, I was pregnant.”

Colin started to get an idea where Vickie’s tale was going, but he didn’t interrupt.

“Long story short, right after our daughter Lana was born, Gary decided that Idaho was a better place for us to settle. For the next five years, we repeated this same process to the point where I felt like I was living in a movie or something. Ever see “Groundhog Day?” It was kind of like that.”

Their waitress came ask if they were ready to order, but Colin asked her to give them a few more minutes. He turned his attention back to Vickie. “How did you feel about all that moving around?”

Vickie blew her nose again. “I hated it. But I still believed that I could be the supportive wife. I eventually went back to cutting hair, even though Gary was really pissed when I did. We had this huge fight about how I was being selfish by not being there at home where he needed me. Finally we separated, but he wouldn’t leave me alone. For the next five years we'd get back together for a while, and then Gary would change jobs we’d separate again. The night of the accident, we’d both finally decided to get a divorce. To be honest, I was relieved, but Gary was really broken up over it. We had met for dinner to discuss the details and had just picked up Lana from the babysitter’s house afterwards when the accident happened. The police report called it an unfortunate accident, but I know in my heart that Gary swerved over the dividing line on purpose.”

She started to cry again and this time Colin couldn’t help himself; he put his arm around her shoulders and gave her what he hoped was a comforting hug. “Jesus, Vickie, I’m so sorry.” Suddenly it all fit into place and the unfairness of the whole situation burned a small hole in his soul.

Vickie didn’t pull away. “Colin, I need to start my life over. I can never bring back my daughter and maybe some day I’ll be able to forgive Gary, but being back on the circuit and living this nomadic life is only putting me right back where I was. I just can’t do it any more. “

“Where will you go?”

Vickie shook her head. “I don’t know, but I figure I can always renew my license and go back to cutting hair.”

It was then that an idea took hold in Colin’s mind. “Ever been to Vermont?”

Vickie pulled away and looked at him intently from red rimmed eyes. “No.”

“Come with me when I go home on vacation.” He held up his hand when he saw her expression of shock. “Nothing like that, love. I’ll be staying with family in Stowe, but I have a big house in Burlington that’s only an hour away and you can stay there and think over what you want to do. If you like the place enough and think Burlington might hold some possibilities, I’ll hire you on to look after the house as a sort of caretaker. You could maybe find a job with a number of hair salons in town if you decide to stick around.”

It was if the weight of the world was suddenly lifted from her shoulders. “You’d do something like that? Colin, I could never pay you back.”

He wasn’t about to hear any of that kind of talk. “Consider it my way of keeping a promise to your father and settling any anxieties your brother might have.”

Vickie looked puzzled. “I know all about the arrangement with Richard, but what about my father?”

“He worries about his only daughter and as his friend, I’m going to make sure that he has one less thing to worry about.”

Vickie started to cry again, but it was only for a moment. She fought to pull herself together, but not before kissing Colin on the cheek. “I promise not to be a burden.”

The waitress came again and they placed their orders. Neither one of them felt like eating much, but they both felt good about the evening and their decisions, for very different reasons.

Four days later they were all in New Hampshire, facing the possibility of rain.