Revved Up Hearts (4 page)

“Good.”

“So what is on the agenda for
today?”

Bryan had a public appearance that afternoon between practices. It would be Dawn’s first real work as Bryan’s personal assistant. She spent the morning making sure there were plenty of 8x10 photos for him to sign and lots of pens for him to sign with. She ironed the clothes he was going to wear and cleaned his motor coach.
He’s a slob
, she thought to herself.
I come all the way here to clean up. I could’ve done that in Arkansas. Oh well, it pays good money.
Well, at least she managed to make a dent in the mess. Bryan had told her on the first day that he was a slob, and after cleaning up after him, she knew that he hadn’t been
joking.

She watched practice that morning and then went to the local children’s hospital with Bryan. It was so sad to see those sick kids. What had they done to deserve
this?

Nothing. It just wasn’t fair. She said a silent prayer for all the kids and their families. But even though they were sick, most of them were in good spirits. They sat up and smiled at Bryan. They were truly glad to see him. They hugged him and shook his hand. Most of these kids knew more about NASCAR than Dawn did. Bryan spent as much time as he could with each child. He hugged them and signed autographs for kids, parents, and staff. He must’ve posed for hundreds of pictures. Dawn took several for herself. As they left, all Bryan said was, “I pray every day that my daughter never even has to see the inside of a place like
this.”

They got back just in time for the final practice before the races tomorrow afternoon. Bryan blew a tire on his last lap and hit the wall, totally destroying the whole front end of the car. It was one of the scariest things that Dawn had ever seen, and it made a horrible noise. She hadn’t thought about crashes when she took this job. Now she knew she hadn’t prepared for it. They had a backup car available, but they didn’t want to use it yet. They would try to repair the damaged car first. Dawn ordered Chinese food and went to a local grocery store for plenty of sodas and water. It was going to be a long
night.

“You don’t have to stay, you know,” Bryan said about ten that
night.

“It’s okay. I’m not really all that tired,” Dawn said, but a yawn just then gave her
away.

“But what are you learning
now?”

“That the guys are hilariously funny when they are this tired and that Ted is taking his frustrations out on that fender because he had to cancel a date tonight to
work.”

Bryan laughed. “It serves him
right.”

Jeremiah entered the garage just then. He stopped to scan the room, smiled when he spotted Dawn, and walked toward her. “I called your room to see if you wanted to go to a club or something. When you didn’t answer, I thought you might be here. I can’t believe you are still
here.”

“I’m mostly watching them work. I can’t go to a club. I don’t drink, and I quit the bar scene after college. Besides, I’m not cleaned up, and my hair is a total
loss.”

“You don’t have to drink. I can’t. I just like to watch people and listen to music. You can go back to the hotel to change, but I think you look just fine,” Jeremiah
said.

Dawn thought about it. It would be nice to see what the night life of Daytona Beach was like. God wouldn’t mind as long as she didn’t drink, would he? She decided to
go.

“Okay.” Dawn smiled. “Are you sure that you don’t mind
waiting?”

“Not at all. Things don’t really get hopping until about eleven or
so.”

Dawn turned to Bryan. “Is it okay if I go, boss?”

“Only if you promise never to call me boss again.” She heard him say from under the hood of the
car.

“Okay. Bye, Bryan.”

“Have fun!” Ted yelled from under the
car.

The club was packed when they arrived about an hour later. Dawn’s hair was pulled back into a loose braid. Gold butterfly clips helped hold it in place. She had changed into a red dress that hit her at the knee. It had one gold flower above her heart and spaghetti straps. There was a slit in the side that showed a little leg. Combined with the high heels she wore, her slim legs looked a mile long. It was very modest compared to some of the things worn by other women at the
club.

Oh man
, Jeremiah thought when he looked at her.
She’s
beautiful.

The line into the club stretched around the block. “We’ll never get in!” Dawn
exclaimed.

“Oh, yes, we will. Watch me work.” He grabbed her hand and headed toward the front of the line. He barely said two words to the doorman, who dropped the chain to let them pass through. The crowd that had been waiting for hours was not too happy, and they voiced their displeasure as Dawn and Jeremiah slipped
inside.

“How did you do
that?”

“Places like this love to have celebrities visit. It attracts business because fans will try to get in just to see us. Others want in just to see who might be there. Paparazzi hang around outside, hoping to get lucky enough to snap a picture that they can sell to a local paper or gossip rag. It’s all free publicity for the club.” By this time they had made it to the bar. Dawn was upset. Jeremiah said he didn’t drink. She hadn’t agreed to this. “I can’t have anything alcoholic tonight. I’m going to order a soda. Do you want
one?”

“Yes,” Dawn said, but she was still a little confused. She thought he had said at the garage that he didn’t drink, but just then he said he couldn’t have anything alcoholic tonight. What did it
mean?

He got two sodas, handed one to Dawn, and then grabbed her hand while looking for a
table.

He found one in the corner. While it was still noisy, it was quiet enough that they could talk without yelling. The dance floor was packed as the DJ played the latest hip-hop and R&B songs. “Do you like the music?” he
asked.

“What?”

Jeremiah leaned in closer so she could hear him. He could smell strawberry. He thought he had smelled it yesterday at the beach, but he hadn’t been sure. Now he knew it was her. He liked it. “Do you like the music?” he repeated, a little louder this
time.

“It’s okay. It’s a little loud. Being a country girl from Arkansas, I prefer country, but I can listen to just about anything except
rap.”

“Do you line dance or two-step?”

“I could do both at one time. I even won an electric slide contest once. But it has been a long time since I tried either. I haven’t done the bar thing in a long
time.”

“I know what you mean. It’s fun to watch other people, but I don’t come to places like this to pick people up, if you know what I mean. I like to hang for a little while, but I usually get bored and go home. Anyway, they aren’t playing country right now, but would you like to
dance?”

This isn’t my thing,
she thought.
But isn’t this part of the experience?
“You bet,” she decided. He got up and helped her from her chair. He took her hand again and led her on to the dance floor. Since he was a step ahead, Dawn took an opportunity to check him out a little. He wore black Dockers that emphasized his lean waist with a dark-green shirt. She had noticed earlier that it was the same color as his eyes. They had only been dancing for a few minutes when the DJ played something they could salsa dance
to.

“Can you salsa?” she
asked.

“Yes,” he said as he placed his hands on her hips. She put her hands on his shoulders, and they began to sway to the music. She moved so gracefully. He had just met this girl. After their encounter on the beach, he knew she had been hurt.
Take it slow
, he thought,
and don’t do anything to scare her
away.

They had stopped talking and now there was an awkward silence between them. Maybe this had been a bad idea after all. She should’ve told him no, left the garage, and went back to the hotel and to
bed.

At that, she stopped and started looking around. It was as if she were looking for a way to escape. Since they were no longer dancing, people on the dance floor around them started to stare. Just then, the song ended. “I’d like to go back to the table,” she said. The table they had occupied earlier was now taken by another group of people. She slid into one side of a booth, and he slipped in on the other. Then he took her hand and squeezed. She tried to pull away, but he held on
tight.

“You confuse me,” he told her. “One minute you act like you really like me in a more-than-friends way, but when I try to get close, you pull away. Why?”

“I don’t want to talk about
it.”

“That is what you told me yesterday. I think I deserve a little bit of information. You don’t have to tell me
everything.”

“I just ended a serious, long-term relationship. I do like you, but I’m not ready to start anything
new.”

“I take it that ending the relationship wasn’t your
idea.”

That made her laugh. “No, it wasn’t.”

“What
happened?”

She didn’t reply at first. There was another moment of awkward silence. “I told you something about me. Now you tell me something about
you.”

There she goes again, changing the subject when she got uncomfortable,
he thought. It was okay. She had opened up a
little.

“What do you want to know?” he
asked.

“Where did you grow up?” she
asked.

“Cedar Springs, Montana.”

“Cool. I’ve never been to Montana but always wanted to go. When I think of Montana, I think of cowboys and cattle. Did you live on a ranch?” She wanted to
know.

“No. My mom was a high school art teacher and my dad managed the local movie theater. We had a house in town, but I had plenty of friends who lived on ranches. They taught me how to ride horses. I spent my summers in the hayfields to make money,” he
answered.

“Do you have any brothers or
sisters?”

She hit a nerve with that one. There were things that she didn’t want to talk about, and he didn’t like to talk about this one. But it had been so long ago that it didn’t hurt that badly anymore. “I had a younger sister, Elizabeth, but she died when she was ten and I was
thirteen.”

Jeremiah looked down and played with his drink napkin. Dawn squeezed his hand in
sympathy.

“I am so sorry. How did she
die?”

“She was riding her bike to a friend’s house. A lady in a car wasn’t watching where she was going, ran a stop sign, and hit
her.”

“Oh, my goodness. That must have been
awful.”

“I wanted to die too. We had been so close. My parents took it really hard, and they were never the same. They divorced about a year later. They said that Elizabeth’s death didn’t have anything to do with it, but I never believed them.” He hadn’t looked up during the entire story, and now his napkin was in shreds. “I don’t think they could look at each other or the house or me without thinking about her. So they divorced and sold the house. Mom and I moved into an apartment closer to the school where she worked. The movie theater where Dad worked was part of a chain, so he got a transfer to a bigger theater the next town
over.”