Was this doll commonly available at the many souvenir booths that lined the parking lots and roadways to the huge racing stadium? Since it was not in a box, and there were no labels on it or any of its garments, Ellie suspected it was a handcrafted one-of-a-kind. For Annie? From what Mace had told her, Walter had been very close to Aidan and his daughter, virtually a member of the family.
She could hear the whispered roar coming from outside of engines being gunned and tuned. A few days ago she would have frowned at the noise, but this morning it called out like rock music at a concert. There was something about speeding along at a hundred and eighty miles an hour, feeling the grumbling vibrations of engine and road shivering through her flesh that excited her soul as well as her body.
The air was charged as she exited the coach and walked toward Aidan’s RV. This was the last race of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season. The people she encountered along the way, men—and a few women—in team uniforms, family members—mostly women and children—all displayed the same kind of nervous energy she felt, that jittery anticipation of an important event.
She mounted the steps of Aidan’s coach and was about to knock when the door opened and he was facing her.
Unexpected exhilaration swept through her. She wasn’t supposed to have this kind of response to the mere sight of a man, but he was so close.
“Good morning.”
Returning his smile was easy, unconscious, uncontrollable. “Good morning.”
“Come on in.” He widened the door and stepped back.
Waiting to greet her were a woman and a girl. Ellie focused instantly on the six-year-old. She had straw-blond hair, brushed straight back off her shoulders, and her father’s mountain-lake blue eyes. A lovely child with smooth, flawless skin and pleasant features, but Ellie’s experienced eye immediately discerned bone structure and a sensuous mouth that would one day make her a beauty.
“This is my daughter, Annie,” Aidan said with obvious pride, “and Mace’s wife, Beth. She helps with Annie’s homeschooling.”
Ellie greeted Annie first, extending her hand. The girl was understandably reserved but not bashful. She took Ellie’s hand firmly and said hello in a strong voice.
Reaching up, Ellie shook Beth’s hand, as well. She was an attractive woman in her late thirties with short dark hair and intelligent brown eyes. Her greeting, though pleasant, was more wary.
“Can I get you some coffee?” she asked.
“Oh, please,” Ellie responded gratefully. “I tried fixing some in Walter’s RV, but what came out…you could have read the fine print of a sales contract through it.”
Beth laughed. “Well, you can’t read anything through the mud this guy concocts, I promise.”
“I like my coffee strong,” Aidan declared in self-defense.
“First, though,” Ellie said, “I have something for Annie. I found this in the coach. I think Uncle Walter was going to give it to you for Christmas, but that’s more than a month away, and I thought you might like to have it today.”
She removed the doll from the bag.
Annie peered at it for a moment before her eyes lit up.
“Oh, isn’t that nice!” Beth exclaimed.
Shyly now, Annie took it, as if it were a sacred object.
Ellie caught the smile on Aidan’s face and realized he wasn’t studying the doll but his daughter. The love in his eyes almost brought tears to her own. What would it have been like, she wondered, to have had a dad who looked at her that way?
“What are you going to call her?” he asked Annie.
“We can play with names today until we find the right one,” Beth said.
“Can we call her Walter?” Annie asked.
“That’s pretty much a boy’s name,” Aidan told her.
“How about—” Ellie stroked her chin “—how about Waltera? You could shorten it to Tera.”
Annie gazed up at her and a new grin brightened her face. “Tera! That’s a nice name. Isn’t it, Daddy?”
“I think it’s a perfect name.” He glanced over at Ellie and the warmth of his smile this time threatened to melt every bone in her body. Her heart skipped a beat.
Aidan checked his watch. “I’ve got to run.” He bent down and planted a kiss on top of his daughter’s head while he clasped her small shoulders. “Have a good time with your new doll.”
“Daddy, I know you’re going to win the pole today.”
He stroked her cheek. “Keep those positive thoughts, kid. I can’t promise I’ll win, but I can promise I’ll do my best.”
“That’s what really counts,” she replied, proud of her wisdom.
She walked him to the door and stood on the raised platform to bid him farewell and good luck.
Ellie stared at the retreating figure, at the wide set of his broad shoulders, at the way the jumpsuit hugged his narrow hips. She was probably imagining rather than seeing the play of leg muscles as he dodged around people.
“Shall we finish our coffee?”
Ellie jerked sharply to her right at the sound of Beth’s voice, only then realizing she’d been so mesmerized by the man running away from her, she’d forgotten about everybody else.
“I think you should kiss my daddy,” the six-year-old declared.
After a moment of shock, Ellie asked, “You do? Why?”
“’Cause he likes you.”
“He does, huh? Did he tell you that?”
“Yep. He said it’s hard not to like someone who’s so in love with herself.”
Ellie decided she should have quit while she was ahead.
Beth chuckled.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MACE OFFERED Ellie the opportunity to watch practice and qualifying laps from the top of the pit box, and for a brief time she did, but then she decided to sit in the stands and experience events as a spectator, since Annie was too young to be in the garage and pit areas. Ellie enjoyed wearing a headset, now that she knew how, and listening to the chatter between driver and team, but spending time with Aidan’s daughter today seemed more important and more fun.
In her twenty-four years, Ellie had spent very little time with young children. She’d never had a babysitting job. A few of her friends had married, but once their kids were born, she either didn’t get to see them very often or when she did it was in situations where the children were left with others so the parents could get away for a few hours’ respite.
Now she felt entranced by this precocious six-year-old who could rattle off statistics, explain rules and keep up with what was happening on the track while Ellie could barely distinguish one car from another as they zipped by in a blur.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” Beth commented during the lull between practice laps and qualification trials. “Definitely her father’s daughter.”
They watched the qualification laps and were ecstatic when Aidan did indeed take the pole.
Ellie said goodbye to Annie and Beth after that and sat in on the team meeting that followed. When it was over, Aidan invited her to have dinner with him and Annie. She didn’t take long to accept.
She expected it to be in a restaurant, but Aidan grilled chicken pieces on the stovetop hibachi in their motor home, baked sweet potatoes in the convection oven and popped in a tray of homemade biscuits at the last minute. Annie prepared the green salad—actually she took it out of its plastic bag—while her father mixed his own vinaigrette dressing. Ellie, whose culinary skills didn’t go much beyond scrambling eggs and putting presliced bread in a toaster, was impressed and humbled.
“You don’t know how to cook?” Annie asked.
Ellie scrunched up her mouth. “Afraid not.”
“Daddy can teach you. He’s really good.”
“I can see that.”
“You should ask Santa to bring you a stove for Christmas,” Annie said.
Ellie laughed. “I already have a stove, a pretty good one, too. I just don’t know much about using it.”
“Maybe Santa will bring
you a cookbook then.”
They ate leisurely and talked about everything. The upcoming race, of course. Annie’s schoolwork. The places Ellie had visited in Europe and North America.
Ellie started to help Aidan clear the table, but he would have none of it. She was a guest. She started to protest. She didn’t want to be treated like a guest.
“Why don’t you teach Ellie how to play Clue,” Aidan suggested to Annie, “while I load the dishwasher.”
“Will you play with us, Daddy?”
“If Ellie isn’t too tired.” He smiled at her, and she felt her insides flutter.
“I’ll do my best to keep my eyes open,” she commented.
Ten minutes later he joined them on the floor around the coffee table. Over the next couple of hours they laughed and conspired. When Aidan announced it was time for Annie to get ready for bed, Ellie felt as disappointed as the child.
Annie said good-night and gave Ellie a big hug. Ellie hugged her back with more enthusiasm than she would have expected. Spending the day with the girl had been fun, but it had also been satisfying in a way Ellie had never experienced before.
SATURDAY WAS the NASCAR Busch Series race. Ellie spent part of the morning at the garage with Aidan, Mace and the team, listening to them discuss the upcoming competition, who were the favorites, the tactics they could expect to use and how they might impact the next day’s race. She didn’t understand much of what they were talking about—hardly any of it, in fact—and shied away from constantly interrupting them for explanations. So she joined Beth, her boys and Annie in the stands.
She’d seen tapes of races with big crack-ups, but seeing them live in front of her was more scary and exciting than she could ever have imagined. Later, Beth invited her to join them for supper at their RV.
Aidan showed up just before nine o’clock to take Annie home. She and the boys were stretched out on the floor watching TV. He looked tired, yet keyed up, motivated. Tomorrow was the last race of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season.
“Why don’t you walk Ellie to her RV while I get Annie’s things together?” Beth suggested. “The program they’re watching won’t be over for a few minutes.”
Ellie was about to protest. She didn’t need an escort, but of course that wasn’t what this was about.
“Thanks for giving Annie two such wonderful days,” Aidan said when they were outside and beginning their stroll to Walter’s motor home a few spots away. “She really enjoyed being with you.”
“I’m the one who needs to say thank you,” Ellie replied. “I can’t think of the last time I had so much fun. She’s a great kid, Aidan. You can be very proud of her and of yourself. You’re a good daddy.”
The poses they’d each assumed on their first meeting were gone now, replaced with a contented humility she wouldn’t have believed possible for either of them.
“She’s the world to me.”
“And she adores you. It can’t be easy for you bringing her up by yourself.”
He didn’t protest or try to minimize the challenge. “You do what you have to do, Ellie, and pray it’s the right thing.”
They reached Walter’s RV.
“Have you got time to stop in for a few minutes, or do you have to get back right away?”
“I think Annie will forgive me if I’m a few minutes late, as long as I’m there to tuck her in.”
As Ellie had noted, he was a good daddy. She opened the motor coach door, went in, turned on the light, deactivated the alarm and motioned him inside.
“Since you’re not driving tonight, can I offer you a beer or glass of wine? I noticed the coach driver left the refrigerator and bar well stocked.”
Aidan chuckled. “Walter liked a toddy or two before turning in.”
“Apparently with a host of friends,” she said.
This time Aidan laughed. “He wasn’t a big believer in solitude.”
“I have a feeling I would have liked him. What can I get you?”
“Beer is fine.”
“Coming up.” She went to the fridge, got out two bottles and used an opener to remove the caps.
“You’re having beer, too?”
She snickered. “My tastes aren’t all champagne.”
“I didn’t mean—”
She laughed as she clicked the neck of her bottle against his. “Yes, you did. And well deserved, too. I owe you an apology for that first night. I’m not usually such a stuck-up—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish, because his lips were suddenly pressed against hers.
Her eyes widened in shock, then closed in welcome surrender. The two of them fumbled to place their untouched bottles on the counter behind her, then his arms were around her and the kiss became more than the mere touching of lips.
Her breath caught. Her senses were filled with the taste of him, the stimulation of his body pressed against hers.
Both were breathing heavily when they finally broke off.
He grinned. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you since the night you arrived. I almost did in the hotel lounge—”
“I wished you had. But I can understand why you didn’t.”
“It would have been wrong then,” he said.
“And it’s right now?” she asked playfully.
“You think we ought to make sure?” His blue eyes glittered in a teasing smile.
“I hate uncertainty, don’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
If the first kiss was tantalizing, this second one was earthshaking. She’d been kissed before. She was no ingenue in that regard, but Aidan’s kisses were so much more intense.
Sleep that night was fretful after that mind-blowing second kiss. It wasn’t fair, she told herself, for him to taunt her like that and then leave. His fingers had dragged through hers as he went through the door, as reluctant to go as she was to see him leave. The tingling spark he’d left behind certainly hadn’t died down. Her active mind kept replaying the way his lips met hers: the way his mouth covered hers; the sensation of his arms surrounding her; the feel of his tall, strong, hard body pressed against her.
No, she decided, over and over again, she’d never been kissed like that.
SHE FOLLOWED THROUGH on his parting invitation and showed up at his coach Sunday morning to join him and Annie for breakfast. Aidan greeted her with eyes that said he wanted to kiss her again, and Annie literally jumped at her arrival. It was a strange and wonderful phenomenon, one she’d never encountered before, being made to feel so welcome, so special for just being herself.
“Daddy is making blueberry pancakes,” Annie announced. “My favorite. He lets me put the blueberries in and mix it all up.”
“I bet they’re going to be good.”
“There’s a cup,” Aidan said with a cockeyed grin. “Help yourself.” He nodded to the corner of the counter where a team mug sat in front of the coffeemaker.
Ellie prepared her first morning shot of caffeine with cream and sugar. She usually drank the second cup black, although, on her first sip, she decided she may have to reevaluate that strategy. She added more cream.
She’d just taken an invigorating mouthful of coffee when he served up a huge stack of the purply flapjacks, along with a second platter of sausage patties, a tub of butter and a small pitcher of warm maple syrup.
They sat down to eat, Ellie taking a seat next to Annie, across from Aidan. She was uncomfortably aware of him glancing up at her as he piled his plate high.
“Are you really going to eat all that?” she asked.
He answered with a laugh. “I’ll lose about ten pounds out there today on the track, most of it water, but a lot of nutrients, too. A man needs his carbs to keep up his strength.”
Ellie raised her brows in amusement and took another mouthful of fruity pancake. “Carbs to keep up your strength, huh? I’ll have to remember that.”
She could feel the slow, knowing grin building across from her, but she didn’t dare raise her head to confirm it. It was difficult en
ough not to blush at the thoughts going through her mind.
Twenty minutes later, they were finishing their breakfast, when Mace, Beth and the boys showed up. Aidan gave Annie and Ellie each a kiss on the cheek, then the two men left.
Beth smiled as Ellie watched them go, rubbing her cheek where Aidan had kissed her so fleetingly.
This last day of the season, Ellie divided her time between the grandstands and the garage and pit areas.
When Aidan got caught up in a multicar pileup, her heart was in her mouth. The spinout slowed him down temporarily but didn’t stop him.
Halfway through the race, after four caution flags had been raised and three cars eliminated, Ellie leaned over to Beth and asked, “Are you sure this is fun?”
Beth just laughed. “Doesn’t make any difference. You’re hooked.”
Ellie grinned back. The woman was right. “I’m that obvious, huh?”
Beth’s eyes twinkled. They both knew they weren’t talking just about NASCAR. “Some things are hard to hide.” Then she added, “And some people aren’t very good at hiding them.”
Aidan came in third. A good, strong ending, even if it wasn’t a win. They’d known from the outset he had no chance to take the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series this year, but finishing third in this race ensured he’d have a sponsor for the upcoming season, and that he would be in a strong position during contract negotiations. It also increased the value of the team.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MOST OF THE MOTOR HOME drivers had started pulling their RVs out of the infield shortly after the race began in order to get a head start on the traffic that would jam the roads for hours afterward. Race car drivers, their families and crews would leave later by car and plane, eager to get a start on their long winter vacations. Those who chose to hang around would put up at local hotels.
“Annie—” Beth addressed the little girl “—how would you like to come on home with me and the boys? Your dad can pick you up tomorrow.”
“Can I? Did Daddy say it was all right? I want to play with Ruckles.”
Ruckles was the Wagners’ young cocker spaniel. Because she and Aidan were on the move so much, Annie wasn’t able to have a pet of her own, but Beth’s parents lived right next door to the Wagners and were able to take care of their dog and goldfish when the family was away.
A NASCAR Holiday 2: Miracle SeasonSeason of DreamsTaking ControlThe Natural Page 16
