“What?” he asked her.
“Sit with me while I call home and tell my family what happened.”
“Okay.”
Dawn had pretty well kept it together until her mom answered the phone. Dawn broke down and cried as she told her mother what had happened. The two of them cried together, and Dawn made her mom promise not to tell her dad until he was healthier. Dawn knew that once her brothers found out they would be tempted to go after Kevin when he got home. Her mom would tell them, and Dawn would e-mail both of her brothers tonight and beg them not to do anything. Kevin wasn’t worth it. Dawn hung up the phone and cried on Jeremiah’s shoulder. He just held her and let her cry. Telling her parent something like that was one of the hardest things she had ever done. When Dawn felt better, they walked out of the office to find Bryan. He gave her the rest of the day off to go to the courthouse so that she could file the papers to make the restraining order permanent. After that, Jeremiah drove them through a burger joint for lunch and took her home.
“I want you to get some clothes and stuff,” he told her once they were in the house. “You’re staying at my house tonight.”
“No, I’m not,” she told him as she took a seat on her couch.
“Yes, you are.” He stood in front of her with his hands on his hips.
“No, I’m not,” she repeated.
“Well, you’re not staying by yourself,” he said as he took a seat beside her. “If you won’t go to my house, I’m staying here.”
“Jeremiah—”
“Don’t argue with me. We don’t know where that creep is. He said it wasn’t over. He might be watching you, waiting until you are alone.”
“I can’t believe he did this,” Dawn said, changing the subject. “He was always so nice and sweet. What if I had married him?” she asked with a shudder.
“Thank God you didn’t,” Jeremiah answered as he pulled her into his arms. “Thank God you didn’t.”
Again, they just sat in silence, holding each other. Valerie found them that way when she came to check on Dawn. “Bryan called me and told me what happened,” she said as she looked at Dawn’s cheek. “That’s already starting to bruise. Does it hurt?”
“It’s throbbing.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Jeremiah asked as Valerie went to get an ice pack and something for pain.
“I was enjoying the company.”
“Bryan is madder than I have ever seen him,” Valerie said as she returned with a couple of pills and a glass of water. “He keeps saying things like ‘if anyone ever treats Lena Violet that way…’”
“Thank you,” Dawn said as she took the pills. “Where is the baby?” she asked.
“At the house with my mom,”
“Tell her that she can’t stay here by herself until we know that Kevin is out of town,” Jeremiah pleaded his case to Valerie.
“He’s right, you know,” Valerie said as she sat in a chair across from Dawn.
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be proper for me to go to his house or for him to stay here.”
“So go to our house,” Valerie said.
“It sounds like a good idea to me,” Jeremiah agreed.
“I don’t want to impose,” Dawn told her.
“It wouldn’t be an imposition,” Valerie said. “It’s settled. You’re staying at our house tonight.”
“Don’t I get a say in this?” Dawn asked.
“No!” they both answered in unison.
Dawn stayed with Bryan and Valerie for the next few days. Jeremiah came over every night after work. The four of them had a Bible study on Tuesday night, and they agreed to make it a weekly thing. They all left for Bristol on Thursday afternoon. Dawn called her mom to let her know that they had arrived safely and to check on her dad. Everyone was relieved to know that Kevin had been spotted in town. The local police had gone to his house and served him with the restraining order and let him know that charges had been filed against him in North Carolina. Dawn was thrilled to know that she could go back to her own house, alone, when they got back to Charlotte.
Bryan and Jeremiah raced each other to second and third place finishes in Bristol. Thanks to lapped traffic, neither one of them could make a run at Sean Vaughn in the end. As they left, Dawn told them that short-track racing was her new favorite thing. She loved the big tracks, but seeing forty-three cars race around a half-mile track was something totally new to her. She absolutely loved it.
Dawn and Jeremiah were spending more and more time together. When they weren’t together, they were sending each other text messages. Sometimes they were just to say hi or I miss you. Dawn knew that Jeremiah was studying the Bible on his own because he would send her messages about the newest thing that he had discovered there. Some of the questions that Jeremiah came up with were fascinating. Some were fairly easy to answer, but others were more difficult. But it was a joy just the same, because she could see the desire in his heart to learn as much as he could and draw even closer to God. Jeremiah was teaching her as well. Some of the insights that he came up with were amazing. Dawn had studied the Bible her whole life, but sometimes Jeremiah would read something and get a meaning out of it that Dawn had never thought of before, even though she had read that particular passage many times. Wasn’t the Word of God wonderful!
Jeremiah had changed in other ways as well. He no longer pressured Dawn for sex or other things that made her uncomfortable. He said he understood now what she had been trying to tell him. He wasn’t going to do anything to upset her. They still kissed, but the pressure for more was gone. Now they could sit for hours on the couch, watching TV or reading the Bible. She never had to ask him to back off because he was going too far. A couple of times, he didn’t even kiss her good-night. He had just hugged her tightly before he left her house to go home.
Others had noticed a change in Jeremiah as well. His buddies had complained when he quit coming to the Tuesday night poker game. He couldn’t, he told them. That was Bible study at Bryan and Valerie’s house. He had also closed the game room at his house on Sunday and Wednesday nights. If he wasn’t at a race, he was going to be at the Lord’s house, not at his house playing pool. Jeremiah also began to really participate in chapel before the races. Before, he had just sat there. Sometimes Dawn had thought that he wasn’t even paying attention. But that Sunday after he got saved, he stood up and told the preacher that he had something to say. Then he had testified about what had happened to him the Monday before. Everyone had listened, occasionally giving a “Hallelujah,” “Praise the Lord,” or “Thank you, Jesus” to something that Jeremiah had said. The preacher let Jeremiah give the closing prayer for the service. Afterward, everyone there had stopped by to shake his hand before leaving. Dawn had never been so proud. Jeremiah was also witnessing to others. Some had truly been open to what Jeremiah was saying, but others, not so much. A crew member from another team, one of Jeremiah’s old drinking buddies, had threatened to punch him in the face if he didn’t leave him alone. Jeremiah’s response was that he would be praying for the guy. With every change Dawn saw in Jeremiah, she knew that she was falling deeper and deeper in love with him. She knew that he liked her a lot, but she didn’t know for sure if he loved her. They had never said the words to each other. Several times, Dawn had almost said the words to him but had stopped because she was afraid he didn’t feel the same and wouldn’t say it back.
Nothing much happened the week leading up to the race in Texas—nothing for Dawn anyway. She had everything scheduled for the next two weeks until the Easter break. Dawn ordered some new 8x10s of Bryan. She showed him some of her work and asked if she could make a few for him to use. Bryan liked her work but told her that he was under contract with a local photographer for his headshots. Maybe when the contract expired. He also liked her ideas for improving his website. Bryan told her to give the photos and ideas
to the webmaster that maintained the site. He would get it taken care of. She asked Travis to do the first blog and profile. He agreed. All that was accomplished by Monday afternoon. She walked around the shop to watch the guys work and to take some pictures, but they were busy and didn’t have much time to spend with her. She spent most of the next two days surfing the Internet and playing online solitaire.
Jeremiah called and texted Dawn several times each day, but she only saw him Tuesday night for Bible study. He was also busy getting ready for Sunday’s race. Dawn, Bryan, and the rest of the crew left early Wednesday morning. Dawn’s phone rang while she was standing on the tarmac at the airport waiting to load her luggage. She read the text from Jeremiah, “Hello, beautiful.” She looked around. Two planes over, Jeremiah and his crew were loading their stuff into their plane.
“No time to walk over?” she asked.
She saw him look at his phone, smile, and type something back. “No. Running late. Dinner tonight?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Okay. See you then,” was his response. She started to text back but saw him wave before stepping onto the plane.
Dawn looked for Jeremiah when her plane landed in the Lone Star State. Flying was getting easier. Thank you, Lord, for that. She didn’t see Jeremiah anywhere. His crew had probably already landed and left. Dawn went to the track with the crew and helped them unload gear. She had just put a computer monitor on a shelf when someone goosed her from behind. She jumped and screamed. The whole crew laughed. Dawn whirled around and smacked Jeremiah on the arm. “Ouch,” he said as he rubbed the spot where Dawn had hit him.
“That’s not funny!”
“Yes. It was,” he argued. She heard several of the guys around them agree with Jeremiah.
“Okay. So maybe it was, a little,” she finally agreed and laughed. “But please don’t do it again,” she asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck. His arms came up around her waist to pull her closer. He kissed her, and the crew whistled and cheered. Dawn pulled away and blushed. “You promised me dinner, remember?”
“Yes, how about some real Texas BBQ?”
“That sounds great.”
“Good. I won here last year, and they are having a barbeque in my honor tonight. Can you be ready by seven?”
“You bet. Let me finish here and go to my hotel to shower and change. I’ll meet you back here at seven.”
“Great.”
Dawn was back at Bryan’s garage stall at 6:45 p.m. She was dressed in jeans, her old cowboy boots, and a red long-sleeved western shirt. She hadn’t dressed like this since she went to a rodeo with Kevin last year. Dawn looked around, but Jeremiah was nowhere to be seen. From a distance, she saw a good-looking cowboy walking toward her. On second thought, make that a fine cowboy. She looked around again, but no Jeremiah. She glanced toward the cowboy again. Now he was close enough for Dawn to see his face. It was Jeremiah. He was dressed in black from his black cowboy boots to his black cowboy shirt. He was carrying a black Stetson and a yellow rose. He finally approached and gave her the flower. “Will you be my Texas rose?”
“Yes.” She took the rose and stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss. She told him how she had admired him from a distance and he laughed.
“Do you like what you see from up close?”
“Definitely.”
He leaned down to kiss her again. “You know we could ditch the dinner and go back to my motor coach,” he suggested.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?” he sighed.
“You know the first reason,” she told him.
He nodded. “You’re right, and I know it. But when you look that good, sometimes I forget. What’s the second reason?”
“You’re the guest of honor. You’ll be missed.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said and offered Dawn his arm. “Let’s go.”
Dawn had a wonderful time at the barbeque. It was an outdoor dinner with red-and-white checkered tablecloths on the picnic tables. There was pulled BBQ pork for sandwiches and BBQ ribs to choose from. Green salad, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, and homemade bread was served with a choice of iced tea or soda. She saw a dessert table off to the side and vowed to check it out later. Dawn filled her plate and followed Jeremiah to the head table to sit with the track owner, Jeremiah’s owner and crew, along with other NASCAR dignitaries. The food was delicious. Dawn ate until she was stuffed. Then she sat and listened to all the speeches. Dawn didn’t know that the driver didn’t get to keep the trophy when it was presented to them in victory lane. She learned that everyone took photos with the trophy but then left without it. The track owner or race sponsor would have the trophy engraved with the driver’s name and then have it shipped to them later. The officials at the track in Texas chose to keep the trophy until they could have a party and present it in grand Texas fashion.
After the meal and speeches, the tables were cleared out of the way and a band was brought in for dancing. “Do you want to dance with me again?” Jeremiah asked. It made Dawn remember the first time they danced.
“Yes,” she answered as she took his hand. Dancing with Jeremiah was different this time. The first time, they had just met and he held her loosely. This time, however, he held her closer, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. They slow danced to a George Strait classic. Then the band kicked up the tempo, and they two-stepped to an early Brooks & Dunn hit.
When the song was over, Dawn and Jeremiah moved to sit back down, but Jeremiah was stopped by another driver’s wife. “We requested ‘Achy Breaky Heart.’ Come line dance with us.”
“I don’t know how,” Jeremiah said.
“Don’t lie to me, Jeremiah Jones. You danced it with us last year.”
“Okay,” Jeremiah said to the woman before turning to Dawn. “Dance again?”
“I never learned this one.”
“Seriously? Where were you in the nineties?” he said, teasing.
“Arkansas,” she shot back. “I tried, but I just never got it.” Jeremiah started to say something else, but his friend grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the dance floor. Dawn sat and watched. The other women swarmed around Jeremiah. She thought that she should be jealous, but the way he kept looking at her while he danced, every time he faced her again after a turn, she knew that she had no reason to be jealous. At least not from him, anyway.
The next dance was another line dance, the electric slide. “Do you know this one?” he asked from the dance floor.
“Yes.”
“Then get out here,” he told her as he motioned her toward him. She did as she was told, and he made room for her next to him. They danced almost non-stop for the next ninety minutes. It was quite a workout.
Later, Jeremiah walked Dawn to her hotel door. “I like it when we can get to the track on Wednesday afternoon,” he told her after he unlocked her door and turned on the room light. “It gives us time to see the sights of the town we’re in or just hang out before the work starts.”
“What time will you get to the track in the morning?” she asked him.
He thought about that one for a second as he leaned against the wall. “Probably around eight, same as always. What about you?”
“A little later than that, I think. I’m going to skip my jog in the morning since I did all that dancing tonight.”
“True,” he said as he pushed himself away from the wall. As he did so, he put his hands on her waist, pulling her close. He nuzzled his head against her neck. “You smell so good,” he told her. “Have I ever told you that there aren’t many things that I don’t like about you?”
“What do you not like?” Dawn asked, stepping closer and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. It was slightly damp from dancing.
“Nothing that I can think of,” he whispered in her ear. “Especially when
you are doing that.”
“Sorry,” she said, dropping her hands to her side and trying to step away from him. But he stopped her. She looked into his eyes as his lips lowered to hers. She stepped back into his embrace and let him deepen the kiss. She would never get tired of this. Standing in his arms and kissing him was the greatest. She knew now that she loved him with all her heart. She knew now that this was the man that the Lord had made for her. Unfortunately, because of her upbringing, she couldn’t bring herself to be the one to tell him first.
Dawn got to the track around lunchtime the next day. She had called Bryan to see if there was anything for her to do. He said no, and she slept in. When she did finally arrive at the garage stall, Bryan and the guys were eating subs that they had gotten from a local sandwich shop. The only one who said anything about Dawn’s absence was Ted because he had been sent to get the sandwiches. The crew got back to work and Dawn cleaned up after them. When she was done with that, she walked over to Jeremiah’s garage stall, but he wasn’t there. One of his crew told her that he was at a groundbreaking ceremony for an addition to the track. Construction would begin Monday as soon as the races were over.
As it turned out, Dawn didn’t see very much of Jeremiah all weekend. As the reigning race winner, he was needed at every ceremony or event at the track, not to mention the countless interviews he had to do. She saw him once from a distance as she was leaving the track and he was going to a TV appearance. He waved and she waved back. He sent her several text messages asking her to meet him somewhere, but it was always when she had something else to do. He didn’t have any free time at all. She finally caught up with him at chapel on Sunday before the race. “Hey good looking, where have you been?” she asked.
Revved Up Hearts Page 18
