Short Track Lovin' ✅

Chapter 45: Talk of the Garage

Thursday, July 6

Chase walked into the garage, smiling as some crew members from fellow teams walked over to ask how he was, followed by some other drivers. He simply answered their quick question, thanking them for the well wishes.

He makes his way into the motorcoach area, smiling as he lays his eyes immediately on Sarina. He walks over, pulling her close without any hesitation, followed by a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm surprised you survived a day without me," he comments as she rolls her eyes. Barely was the key word in that equation as her mind ran through everything that came before her lap the day prior. Thankfully, she had a truck to focus on for practice to keep her sane.

"Just be glad that you haven't heard half of the crap around here yet," she tells him as he looks at her confused. Did he really want to know at this point? There seemed to be enough comments sometimes from those close to them. "You got my text about Briscoe, right? Well, he was one of many with comments." Chase firmly wraps his arms around her.

"Listen, those comments don't bother me at all. I'm here to do my job, and that's drive a racecar as far as I can and try to win for my team. If anybody wants to try and create other drama around us for whatever reason, let them, because it doesn't faze me – same as the pressure, and whatever else. All that matters to me is what we have, together." She smiles as she lifts his sunglasses off his face, looking into his eyes. She knew most people would have pushed her away by now. She knew that getting this second chance didn't just come easily. She just hoped she didn't blow it.

"Do you realize how special you are?" He chuckles as he takes his keys out of his pocket, twirling them around. He then reaches over, unlocking the door for the motorcoach.

"After you...." Sarina heads in first, with Chase going to follow her, before a hand lands on his shoulder.

"Can we talk first?" He hears and feels like rolling his eyes immediately as he turns around to face his mom. He thought he had dealt with this already. "Are you sure by what you told her? I mean, there's going to be lots said. People are going to question your actions based on being with her after what Chris did. People are going question everything about her due to her brother, and her background – the same questions that I've been reminding you of. Are you ready for that to be thrown in your face?" Chase nods his head.

"Just like I told you on Monday, and will repeat 10 times over if need be, I have her back and nothing is going to change that," he informs his mom. "Her brother's actions are not her fault. That is his fault for choosing to do that for whatever reas-"

"What about the fact that she let it go on for longer than it should've?" Chase crosses his arms, having asked the question himself initially. However, the more he replayed what happened, the more he thought about the words of advice from Alan.

"There was no concrete evidence pointing him to the crime prior to Ryan's admission and them finding the vials. Secondly, she loved her brother and wanted to believe in a future together reunited just like they were when they were younger. It's understandable that she didn't believe it. You wouldn't believe it if someone close to you decided to do something like that, would you?" Cindy lets out a sigh, shaking her head. Her worry wasn't about to just settle for everything he was saying, no matter what.

"But you said it yourself – you didn't know whether you could trust him. That should've been a warni-"

"It was a warning, and she did approach him so it wasn't like she didn't take any steps. I was guarded more than she was without a doubt, and reasonably so based on what happened. However, I will admit that I started to believe in the change for awhile there before a couple off-key conversations happened. So while you want to accuse her, you can accuse me the same thing because I also trusted him a little there."