“So you really like him?” Bryan asked.
Dawn nodded.
“Does he know how you feel?”
Dawn shrugged. “I guess, but I really don’t know for sure.”
“How does he feel about you?”
Another shrug was Dawn’s only answer.
“You two need to talk,” Bryan advised. “Have you talked to him today?”
“No. I called, but I got his machine. I was about to try his cell but that’s when you walked in.” They sat for a moment without speaking then Dawn said, “Thanks for listening to me, Bryan. I feel better.”
“You’re welcome. Come by the house sometime and talk to Valerie. I bet she’ll have some tips to help you cope with being the girlfriend of a NASCAR driver,” he said as he got out of his chair and headed toward the door.
“I’ll do that,” Dawn said. “Thanks again.”
“Anytime,” he said and walked out the door. She watched him leave and noticed that there on the table by the door, in plain sight, were the videotapes she had been looking for.
Dawn tried Jeremiah several more times that day, and he never answered. This worried Dawn. She tried one more time before leaving the office for the day. It rang four times and went to voicemail, just like all the other times. Dawn remembered that Jeremiah had given her his address when they met. She looked through her pocketbook until she found it. Dawn thought this was in one of the newer additions on the lake. There was only one way to find out.
She drove to the entrance of the gated community and was met by a security guard. She gave her name and said that she was there to see Jeremiah Jones. The guard closed the window to his little building, and Dawn could see him checking a computer screen. He must not have found her name because he came back to the window and said, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but your name is not on the list. Mr. Jones just got home a few minutes ago. If you don’t mind to wait just a little longer, I can call him to see if it’s okay.”
“That would be great. I don’t mind waiting,” Dawn replied. At least that answered one question, Dawn thought as she waited. He hadn’t been home, so that’s why he didn’t answer his home phone. Had he not answered his cell because he was somewhere where he couldn’t get a signal? Dawn tried to think of what she was going to say to Jeremiah when the guard came back to the window.
“Sorry about the wait, miss. Mr. Jones said to add your name to the list and for you to come on up. Do you know the way?”
“No, but I have the address.”
“Go to the first stop sign and take a left. Go through the next two stop signs and then a right at the third one. That will put you on his street. His house is all the way at the end.
“Thank you,” Dawn said.
“Have a nice day, ma’am,” the officer said as he pushed a button under the window and the gate opened.
Wow, Dawn thought as she drove through the neighborhood. These were some very nice houses. It was a warm day for February in North Carolina. There were children playing in some of the yards. She wondered who some of Jeremiah’s neighbors were and what they did for a living. She didn’t know much about real estate, but none of these houses could be more than a few years old. She drove by some that were still under construction. Dawn spied the house at the end of the street and whistled. The sight of Jeremiah’s house reminded Dawn that she was a poor kid from Arkansas. She could only dream of living in a house like that. Like the others, it was new, but unlike the others it was a two-story. It was off the street enough that she had to drive a little ways down a gravel driveway. It was far enough from the other houses to have some privacy but close enough that his neighbors could watch his house while he was gone. He had a huge yard with a maple tree by the corner of the house. The tree was small now, but someday it would be huge and majestic and the perfect place for a tree house. The house itself was in the style of the old Victorian houses. It was white with dark-green shutters, trim, and roof. There was a huge porch that looked like it went all the way around the house. The front door was a heavy wooden door with intricate glass above and on both sides.
Jeremiah came outside and leaned on the porch railing as Dawn’s car stopped beside the house. His hair was damp. He wore baggy carpenter pants with a red polo shirt and flip-flops. He walked down the steps and opened the door for her. “I’ve only been home for about half an hour. I had just gotten out of the shower when Chuck called to say you were at the gate. I had barely enough time to get dressed before you got here. I left my cell phone at home this morning. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Dawn said as Jeremiah helped her out of the car and led her up the steps. “I was worried about you after your accident yesterday. I thought maybe you were really sore and didn’t feel like answering the phone.” She could see a small bruise above his eye where the bump had been yesterday afternoon.
“No. I’ve been out at a friend’s house, working on some late model cars he has. I was a little sore, but a couple of hours in the hot tub this morning took care of that. Would you like to come inside and see the house?” he asked.
“Of course,” she answered.
He opened the door for her and led her inside. The inside of the house was like something straight out of Better Homes & Gardens. “My mom did most of the interior decorating. If I had done it, the place would’ve looked like a cheap bachelor pad with a pool table, a recliner, a cooler, and a beanbag chair,” Jeremiah said, and Dawn laughed at the mental image. “I picked out a few pieces that I liked, like that leather couch and matching recliner, Mom did the rest. She picked out the rest of the furniture and paint so that everything went together.” It was obvious from the look on Jeremiah’s face that he was very proud of the house and especially the job his mother had done to make it look nice.
“It’s beautiful, Jeremiah,” Dawn told him. “It looks like something out of a magazine.”
“Thank you. I’ll tell Mom what you said. It’ll make her very happy. Would you like to see the rest of it?”
“Yes, I would.”
Jeremiah grabbed her hand and showed her all the rooms. Besides the living room, there was a modern kitchen with all stainless steel appliances. The refrigerator was pretty much empty except for milk, orange juice, and beer. Jeremiah showed her a freezer full of pre-packaged meals that just had to be microwaved. “I’m not much of a cook,” he confessed. There was also cereal and canned food in the pantry. In the middle of the kitchen was an island with a couple of stools. “This is where I eat most of my meals. There is a formal dining room, but I never use it.” That was the next room that he showed her. The walls were honey beige, and the centerpiece of the room was a huge cherry dining room table with eight matching chairs. A matching china cabinet with white dishes sat in the corner, and a matching buffet along the wall completed the set. A beautiful crystal chandelier hung above the table. A flower arrangement sat in the middle of the table. “The flowers aren’t real. I’ve lived here for almost a year, and the only time I come into this room is to show it off to company,” he told her.
Then he took her to the last room downstairs. This was the bachelor pad that he had mentioned earlier. There was a pool table, an air hockey table, and a foosball table. He told her that the ratty-looking sofa and recliner were leftovers from his college days. There was a very large flat-screen TV on the wall with lots of videogames and movies underneath it. There was also some sort of steering wheel that must be for some driving game. “I get online and play against other drivers and fans. Some know my screen name, but most don’t. The tracks on the game are just like the tracks that we race on. It can be good practice.” Of course the bean bag chairs were there, too. He pointed to a closed door and told her that it was his basement. “It’s unfinished now, but that will be my office when I start my own race team.”
They went upstairs next. The first room on the right was the room his mom stayed in when s
he visited. It was very pretty and very feminine. The walls were pale green. Jeremiah told Dawn that the quilt on the bed had been hand-stitched by his great-grandmother. The room on the left was his dad’s. It was decorated to look like a hunting cabin with dark wood paneling on the walls and hardwood floors instead of carpet. The furniture was upholstered with camouflage material. The bedspread was also camouflage. He told her that both bedrooms had their own bathrooms. Dawn didn’t go into any of these rooms. She just peeked inside. Dawn thought it would be an invasion of privacy. There were a couple more bedrooms and another bathroom down the hall. Jeremiah said they had never been used.
The room at the end of the hall was Jeremiah’s master bedroom. As he opened the door, he did warn her that it might be messy. The walls were dark blue with lots of pictures. She didn’t go into this room either, but she could tell that some of the photos were racing or hunting, but most were of family. A desk with a laptop and a bookshelf full of books was against one wall. Beside the book shelf was a comfortable-looking chair, footstool, and floor lamp. There was a big picture window directly opposite the door. The sunset would be beautiful there in about an hour or so. There was another flat-screen TV on the wall opposite the bed, but this one wasn’t as big as the one downstairs. All the furniture was an unfinished-looking pine that was in contrast to the dark walls. The bed wasn’t made, and the dark-green sheets could be seen under the multi-colored comforter. “Did you decorate it yourself?” Dawn asked him as she kept looking around. There were two unopened doors that Dawn guessed were the bathroom and closet.
“Yes,” he answered as he looked around at his handiwork. “My mom and others have told me that it doesn’t really match, but I like it.”
“If you like it, that’s all that matters,” she said as she turned to walk back down the hall.
“That’s what I think. Thank you,” he said as he shut the door and followed her.
“Is dark-green your favorite color?” she asked him.
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“I’ve noticed it a lot around you. You wore a dark-green shirt one of the first times we met. The shutters and roof of this house are that color, and so are the sheets on your bed. Isn’t your truck green, too?
“Yes.” He laughed. By this time, they had walked back into the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink? I’ve got some cans of soda in the pantry if you don’t want what you saw in the fridge.”
“I’d love a Mountain Dew if you have one.”
“I do. Have a seat, and I’ll fix one for you. She sat on one the barstools while she waited. Off to the side, she noticed a set of French doors that she hadn’t seen before. They led onto a large wooden deck with a view of the lake. The sun was starting to set. This would also be a great place to watch the sunset.
“So you noticed the color of my sheets,” he said when he walked back into the room. She jumped in surprise. She must have really been concentrating on the sun.
She did her best to ignore the comment, but her blush gave her away. He didn’t say anything as he walked to the refrigerator and filled two glasses with ice. “Can we go out there?” she asked when he handed her the soda. Their fingers brushed as she took the cold glass from him. Hot and cold at the same time, she thought.
“Of course,” he told her as he led the way. He pointed to a table and chairs once they got outside. He pulled a chair out for her that faced the lake. Jeremiah took a chair beside her. “The great thing about this house is that I can watch the sunset from either my bedroom or my deck. I could see the potential of the lot and see what a great house could be built here. I couldn’t believe that no one had bought this property and built on it. I snatched it up as fast as I could.”
“The house is very beautiful. So you designed it yourself?”
“I had this mental image of what I wanted. I knew I wanted to see the sunset over the lake. I found an architect that could read my mind and draw up the blueprints exactly the way I wanted,” he told her as he looked out over the water to watch the last of the sunset. They both watched in silence for a few minutes as the last of the day’s light began to fade away.
“Beautiful,” Dawn said.
“Very,” he replied. She turned away from the sunset to look at him. He was stretched out in his chair with his ankles crossed and his fingers locked behind his head. He wasn’t looking at the remaining sunset over the lake. He was looking at her, and the look in his eyes told her that his comment had been about her, not the scenery. “Is that the only reason that you came to see me today? To check on me after the wreck?”
She blushed again and looked down. “No.” She nervously played with a lock of hair that had fallen into her face when she looked down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him sit up straight. Then she watched him as he pulled his chair closer to hers.
“Why did you come see me?” he asked. The question was only a whisper. She barely heard him but felt his breath on her face. She kept her head down. She didn’t know where to begin. He waited.
After a moment, Dawn let out a deep breath and began. “I barely slept a wink last night. I kept seeing the wreck over and over. I wished I had never looked at that video footage.”
“Why?” he asked. “You saw me afterward and knew that I was all right.”
“I know,” she said. She still hadn’t looked at him. “For some reason it didn’t hit me until I got home last night. Then all the what-ifs started. When I did finally go to sleep, I dreamed of the wreck. Except this time with all different endings, and all of them were bad.”
“What if what?” he asked her.
All of the air was suddenly sucked out of her lungs. She couldn’t breathe, much less answer the question. Oh God, help me, she thought. Why had she started this? She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.
“What if what?” he asked again. This time his voice begged her for an answer.
“What if I lost you!” she exclaimed as her head snapped up to face him. She could feel the hot tears running down her face. No turning back now, she realized. “Ever since I met you, I have been coming up with all these reasons to keep you at a distance. My ex-fiancé broke my heart. What would the girls in my youth group say if I acted opposite of how I had taught them? But all the while, you kept chipping away at all my defenses. You let me know how you felt, but I kept pushing you away. But at some point, you must’ve gotten through because the thought of you being seriously hurt or killed scared me to death. The truth is that I can’t imagine my life without you in it,” she finished as she turned back to look at the lake and wipe her eyes. Now that the sun had gone down, the cool night air was moving in. She shivered slightly, but the relief at saying how she felt warmed her. Now she only had to wait for his reaction.
She didn’t have to wait long. She felt his hand cup her chin and gently pull it toward him. She looked at him and he smiled. “I want to look into your eyes, your beautiful blue eyes, when I say this.” She saw a tear in the corner of his eye. “What took you so long? I have never liked a girl the way I like you. I had noticed you before the incident with the toolbox. I thought you were so pretty. I could tell that you were looking for something. I was going to help you just as an excuse to talk to you. I’m not sure if the toolbox thing helped me or hurt me.” He paused to wipe a tear from her cheek before continuing. “I have never chased a woman the way I have with you. I never had to. Usually, a girl falls victim to my charm at the first attempt.” They both laughed at his joke. “The fact that you didn’t drove me crazy. A couple of times I wanted to walk away, but I couldn’t. Don’t you know that you had me hooked from day one?”
“No, I didn’t,” she answered as she reached up to place a palm on his cheek and caress his face. He took a moment to close his eyes and enjoy the feeling. He looked at her once more and continued.
“I don’t know if you fully realize it or not, but yo
u have changed me. I told you once that I had been raised in church but that I got away from it after my sister died. Since I met you, I have been reading my Bible again. When I told my mom that I went back to chapel, she cried. I admit that I went for the wrong reason—to spend time with you—but once I was there, I really listened. It all started coming back to me, and I knew I had to get back to God.”
“Oh, Jeremiah, that’s wonderful!” Dawn exclaimed, and new tears welled up in her eyes.
“I’m not where I need to be, but I’m working on it,” he said. “I was reading in Matthew the other day where it talked about a ‘pearl of great price.’ It made me think of you. The man in the story sold everything he had to buy the pearl because it was so valuable. You are that valuable to me. I would do anything for you. The next Sunday that we don’t race, I want you to go to church with me. I want you to be there when I rededicate my life to God.”
“Jeremiah, you can’t do it for me.”
“I know, and I’m not. I know that I’m a sinner and that Christ died for me. I’ve always known that, but I wanted to control my own life. I didn’t really trust him because of what happened to Elizabeth. But I see how you live your life, in total submission to him, and I see the joy and peace you have. I recognize that it is because you have given God control of your life, and he has given you those things. I want the same. I know that I’m headed down the wrong road and I’m headed to the wrong place. I’m ready to change direction.”
“Then don’t wait, Jeremiah,” Dawn begged. “Don’t you remember that the Bible says that we are not promised another second. Your life and the risks you take every time you get in that car should remind you of that.”
Revved Up Hearts Page 14
