The Race For A New Life

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

There was a knock a couple hours later, making Rae finally slip out of bed. Opening the door to see who it was, she let Grace in to do her make-up. A few minutes later and one handprint gone, Grace got a text and had to leave. Rae then got dressed and started to head out. When she opened the door, Lacy was there with a sour look. “Morning, Lace”, Rae said with a smirk. “What? No coffee this morning?”, she joked. She then proceeded down the hall with Lacy following her. “No, that’s not what’s bothering me”, Lacy said. Rae arched an eyebrow, “Okay? So then, what’s up?” Lacy grabbed her arm and made Rae to face her. ”You know exactly what’s bothering me! Do you really think that I’m that blind or stupid?!”, Lacy asked. Rae looked bewildered at her, “Lace...” “Don’t you ‘Lace’ me!”, Lacy said pointing a finger at her. “You think that I haven’t noticed what you’re doing? Just taking whoever you want! First Matt, then my sister, and now my boyfriend! I will not stand aside and let you do this!”, Lacy cried. Rae looked at her completely shocked and didn’t know what to do or say. “You better watch your back, Rae Holmes!”, Lacy then said with venom.

Right then William showed up, “Lacy! Back off! Now!” Lacy turned her head to look at him, “Oh sure, protect the little pretty princess!” She turned back to Rae, “Heed my words! You will regret it!” And with that she left William and a very confused Rae. William put a hand on Rae’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”, he asked with concern. Rae gave him a small smile, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” “Are you sure? I can go get Graham for you”, William then said. Rae put up a hand to calm him down, “No, no. Really, William, I’m fine. I think she’s out of it.” William nodded and walked with her to breakfast and then to the cars.

As she and William got to the cars, Rae started looking around. A few yards away, Lacy and Graham were arguing. Which really wasn’t surprising. Not far from them were her parents and the Travers parents going over protocols. She then turned her head to the other direction to see Matt was looking at her with a predatory smirk. Rae automatically stopped in fear, and William took immediate notice. He looked where Rae’s eyes were going. He put an arm around her and moved her towards her car. “Okay, so here we are!”, he said. “Thank you, William! I really appreciate it!”, she said. “Anytime, if you need anything, please let me or Graham know”, William said with a smile. Rae smiled back, “I will, trust me!” William bowed his head to her and left for his and Graham’s station.

Otherwise, everything was going well race wise. There really wasn’t any tension between the drivers. That was until Lacy and Grace caught up with Rae and Darren. Rae looked over to see Lacy giving her a death glare. She then looked over to Darren, who had a confused look on his face. “What’s her deal?”, he asked. Rae shook her head and shrugged, “No clue. She tried to accuse me of taking people from her.” She turned her eyes back to Lacy, only to see Grace arguing with Lacy about driving. Both Rae and Darren watched as Lacy and Grace’s car go to the side of the road. Then they saw Grace making Lacy sit in the passenger’s seat. Both Rae and Darren snorted that Lacy was put in the passenger seat for acting like a kid.

When they got to Minnesota, the race stalled. There had been some really bad storms earlier. Apparently, the lakes, or at least some of them, were overflowing. Which was a major concern for everyone. William radioed everyone, “Hey everyone! Please be careful! There were a few bad storms a couple of days ago, so some of the roads are going to be dangerous.” Rae deeply sighed, “Well this is going to be fun.” Lacy looked over to Grace, “I should be driving through this part.” Grace glared at her out of the corner of her eye, “Once you learn to stop being a child, then yes, you can drive.” Lacy then huffed in defiance and crossed her arms across her chest. Meanwhile, Graham flipped a switch causing his vehicle to be ready for any bad puddles or flooded roads.

As they continued on, the weather conditions worsened. After driving through more rain, they all thought they would be fine in North Dakota. But once they got there, a string of bad luck had started to happen. About half of the vehicles were having problems. Some of the drivers had gotten food poisoning and couldn’t continue in the race. Forcing the ones who could drive to combine drivers. So instead of the twenty teams, it had gone down to fifteen. Rae’s Impala had to have all the tires replaced within two hundred miles’ total. Which was weird because they were brand new tires. Lacy’s Ferrari lost power, resulting in needing a new ignition put in. Then Graham was having an issue with the manual gears with the Mustang.

Rae had the radio playing music and was bopping her head to the beat while Darren was on his phone texting someone. “Who you texting, Dar?”, she asked. He looked over to Rae, “No one really.” She shot him a look out of the corner of her eye, “Uh-huh.” He rolled his eyes and sighed, “Really! It’s no one, just Lacy, okay?” Rae had a confused look on her face and tried to say something, but didn’t. Suddenly the car started to stall and Rae pulled over. She popped the hood and got out of the car. Once the hood was up, she saw steam encasing her. When it cleared, Darren was standing next to her. “What else could go wrong with this car?”, she said while still recovering from the steam. Darren put a hand on her shoulder, “It doesn’t help that we are in the badlands.” Rae looked stunned, “Oh God! Really?!?” “Hate to say it, but yep”, Darren said as he went and opened the trunk. He came back with a jug of coolant. “Okay, so, we just need to wait like what, twenty minutes?” Rae nodded, “Yeah, about that. Hopefully dad doesn’t kill us later.” Darren nodded in agreement.

Lacy and Grace had just passed Rae and Darren before they had an issue with their own car, again. Grace got out of the Viper to see what the damage was. “Oh boy, this is going to be fun”, she said as she rubbed her face. Lacy asked as she was texting someone, “What’s the problem?” Grace walked over to her, “Get out of the car.” Lacy looked bewildered, “What?! Why?” Grace walked over and opened Lacy’s door, “Get out! We have a flat and I don’t want the extra weight on the jack.” Lacy huffed and reluctantly got out, “Don’t expect me to change the flat. I just got my nails touched up.” Grace rolled her eyes, “I’ll do it. I can’t believe you participate in this race while you prefer your life as a model.” Lacy just continued to text who she was texting, “Look who’s talking, Miss Julia Child. Shouldn’t you be at your restaurant?” Grace turned to her sister, “I trust my staff, thank you very much. Also, who the hell are you texting?” Lacy swiveled her body, “Oh… no one.” Grace narrowed her eyes at her sister, not believing a word that she said. With a deep sigh, Grace went back to switching the flat for a new tire.

Luckily everyone made it into Montana without any major issues. Once they had parked, only Rae got out of the car and desperately wanted to go take a shower. As she headed for her room, she was startled by someone wrapping their arm around her shoulder. She immediately relaxed when she saw it was only Graham. “Hey, are you okay?”, he asked with a look of concern. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine”, she said. “You just scared me that’s all”, Rae then explained. Graham gave an apologetic look to her before saying, “Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that you made it to your room without any problems.” She offered him a smile, “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Graham then tightened his hold on Rae as they went towards her room.

When they got to her room, Graham opened the door for her. Rae stepped over the threshold, only to look back at Graham. “Are you going to come in?”, she asked. Graham shook his head, “Nah, I want to give you some space. Especially after what happened the other night.” Rae automatically looked down to the floor at the reminder. She wanted to say something, but felt ashamed. Graham noticed her turmoil and went into the room closing the door behind him. He gently placed his hands on her shoulders, “Hey, it’s okay.” She shifted her weight, “No, it’s not. I didn’t want you to know or worry.” He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. Rae surprised herself by having her own arms wrap around his torso. “I know that you’re having a hard time with this, but you are not alone”, he then said trying to comfort her. Rae moved her head to where it was directly under Graham’s chin. “I know”, Rae basically whispered. “And thank you. I really do appreciate it”, she continued to say. Graham then kissed the crown of her head. “I have to admit. I had to try so hard not to kill him for what he has done to you”, Graham confessed. She smiled at that thought and looked up at him. Rae found herself forgetting the situation in Graham’s stormy blue eyes. Graham then moved his hand to caress her cheek, and slowly leaning down to kiss her. Ghosting his lips on hers, his phone suddenly rang. They quickly parted and he looked at the phone to see who was calling. Graham then silently said ‘goodnight’ and left the room. Rae was basically left wondering what had just happened while she stood in the middle of her hotel room.

After her shower, Rae changed into clean clothes and went to go get something to eat. When she opened the door, there was a bouquet of red roses waiting for her. Looking down the hallway, she didn’t see anyone. Quickly putting the bouquet on the table in her room, she proceeded to go to the lobby. Turning the corner, Rae saw Grace and William talking to each other while holding each other’s hands. ‘About time’, she thought as she waved at them when she passed them. When she finally got to the lobby, Rae noticed Graham and Lacy arguing again. She tried to walk by without gaining any attention. However, Graham did a double take as she passed. Giving her a look of concern, he tried to finish his argument with Lacy. But luckily Rae located her parents and joined them.

Upon entering the restaurant, the Holmes family were seated in a corner booth. After giving their drink orders and viewing the menu, they started talking about the events of the day. “It’s too bad about the tires, but it could be worse”, said Russell. Rae and Darren gave each other a look. Susan noticed it immediately, “What happened?” Darren frowned at her, “What do you mean, ‘what happened’?” Russell raised a hand, “Hold it right there, I know.” Suddenly waving his finger in between him and Susan before continuing to speak, “We know when there’s something that you haven’t told us. So, drop the act and tell us.” Rae moved a strand of hair behind her ear, “Nothing really … we ran out of coolant and had to wait before we could continue.” Russell gave them a look that would even scare the devil. “What?!?”, he said. “And this was with the Impala?!?”, he demanded. Rae and Darren nodded in agreement. “Yes, sir”, they said in unison. Russell rubbed his face forcibly, then looked to his wife. “The Impala. The Impala!”, he said with gruff. Susan put a hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down. “Yes, I heard, it will be okay”, Susan soothed. Russell sighed, “Okay, okay, okay. The next couple of days you are taking the MIRAY. Understood!?” Both Rae and Darren nodded like their lives depended on it.

The waitress then showed and dropped off their orders before proceeding to leave and to let them eat. “So, anyway, have you two heard any of the latest gossip?”, said Susan. “Which gossip?”, asked Darren with an arched brow. Rae doesn’t look impressed, “Yeah, which gossip since there’s so much with everybody.” “Well, Lacy and Graham have been having a lot of arguments out in the open”, Susan wiggled her eye-brows. Rae rolled to eyes to her dad, who only shrugged. “Apparently Lacy has a lover on the side. Of course, Graham argued that they weren’t together, so he didn’t care”, Susan continued to say. “Of course, he didn’t care. Lacy is just a drama queen”, said Rae. Darren flinched at what Rae said. “Anyway, what’s up with Grace and William?”, asked Rae. Susan gave a look to Russell, “Apparently, they have been dating for over six months now.” Rae and Darren both gave incredulous looks. “Wow! Okay didn’t see that coming”, said Darren. Rae scratched her chin, “Huh! Well thinking back, they were always together one way or another. Oh well.” Once they finished their dinner and headed back to the hotel, Darren walked Rae to her room to make sure that she didn’t deal with any unwanted company. He said a quiet ‘goodnight’ to her once she had made it into her room.