Lies || Ryan Blaney

2.1 - Nothing

Courtney

I did not expect anything of the offseason to be like it was. Between holidays and birthdays, we were also selling my house and trying to get everything together for the birth of our son and the upcoming racing season. Bubba had taken some time to help with moving things out of my house into the other during some days, while I worked with my realtor to get it sold as quickly as possible. On the other days where everything was calm for a while, Ryan was trying to get the final touches on the nursery done. 

After Ryan surprised me with a soft fleece blanket with our baby boy's name along with some racing flags stitched all over it, I was told the room was off-limits for a little bit. After that, things started coming in the mail, and even if I wanted to see what was inside the packages, I was shut down at the door. A knowing grin on the fully bearded man. Not even the pout or threats of tears would work to figure out what he was planning. 

The one afternoon the tears had spilled over was because I tried to see the return address on a large box that came in the mail. It was covered with a layer of snow from sitting on our porch. Early February was hitting us hard, a vicious cold front had snow falling harder than I had seen it fall in North Carolina. Ryan had just come in from the kitchen after grabbing a cup of coffee to see me. When he set the cup down, telling me not to worry about it is when I lost it. Over the last few days, my hormones were all over the place.

Seeing Ryan looking perplexed had me trying to stop the ever-flowing tears from falling. With a sigh falling from his lips, Ryan set the box on the couch before pulling me into his chest.

"Don't cry, babe." With one hand rubbing soothing circles on my back, his voice a small whisper. Placing a gentle kiss on my head, I tried to relax. When the tear streaks dried, I took a deep breath before pulling away. "I'm sorry. I know you want to keep this nursery as a surprise, I'm just getting restless over here." Ryan's blue eyes met mine, a look of understanding passing over them.

"Don't apologize. It's just a couple more days and then it will be done. Then you can go an do your nesting in there." He tried to joke, earning a small glare in response. So I went into nesting mode, big deal. The clean and dirty clothes were washed multiple times, and I was rearranging cabinets three or four times a day, and let's not even mention how many times I've tried to clean the spare room that held all of his race day gear.

At least I hadn't tried to clean his man cave. Granted it was the only room that had things from all his years of racing that I feared to touch. Not because he'd be mad, but because I knew how clumsy I could be anymore and I was not going to take a chance of ruining anything. I was not going to be the blame for breaking a trophy or collectible of his.

"A couple more days my butt. I probably won't get to see it until we're bringing the boy home from the hospital at this rate." I grumbled, my mood shifting completely as I remembered what he had said.

"It'll be before he makes his appearance, babe. I'm sure Amanda is going to have a fun time trying to keep you away from there this weekend while I'm away." He gave me a tiny smirk, knowing he was correct. Sticking my tongue out at him only earned me a laugh. 

It definitely wouldn't be the first time that I have tried to sneak my way in, but now the regular door was changed so it could be locked. 

"Come on, you can help me get the rest of my stuff put together." He took the package to set down on the stand, grabbed his coffee, and led me to the room I had been trying to organize without success.

________________________________________________________________________

"Oh shit." My eyes were wide as I watched my husband throwing his HANS device at the car that took him out of the first race of the season. The replay showed the contact of the blue and green car that all but blasted the Menards yellow car into the wall. 

"Jones better watch it. Ryan will be on a war path to kick his ass if he starts that shit again this year." Amanda had the same expression I wore as we listened to him give his interview. I could tell that the curse words were on the tip of his tongue as he spoke but Ryan being himself reigned in his bad mood and acted like it was nothing. 

The thing I hated the most was another driver trying to screw someone out of the race when it wasn't even close to finishing. There was nothing to gain by being stupid like that.

Not even two minutes after the interview, I was on Twitter seeing the reaction from the racing community. I wouldn't be getting a message from Ryan until the end of the race, or maybe after another caution. With the layout of the track, all cars that were out had to sit in the infield. That also meant that he had to sit there while Jonathon held onto his phone in the standing area.

"If what Twitter is saying is correct, Jones had commented on Ryan brake checking him and that's why he fenced him." Amanda turned her phone over, showing me the tweet that said it was from his radio after the incident. I wrapped the green woven blanket back around my arms as I sat back on the couch, my anger bubbling.

"How in the hell do you brake-check someone while at a small track like this? It's smaller than Martinsville. Your gas and then slam on the brakes. If you're paying attention it's not brake checking it's racing." I rolled my eyes, feeling the hormones wanting to rip into the other driver.

My comment didn't warrant a reply, as we both knew that someone wasn't paying attention and wanted to blame it on the other party. When the laps dwindled and we watched Joey win the inaugural race, I finally got a message from Ryan telling me he'd be home as soon as he could. I sent a reply back before setting my phone down and joining Amanda in the kitchen.

"What would you like to order for dinner?" Amanda skimmed through the cabinets, noticing we were down to the wire with things. We were going to go shopping tomorrow to stock up on this before the baby's arrival. Thinking on it for a minute, I decided to grab one of Ryan's favorites to try and cheer him up. After that cluster, he needed good food and some cuddles to help turn his mood back around.

"I'll order it, you go rest on the couch until it gets here." I didn't need to be told twice to take it easy and relax. Although, I didn't make it fully there before I was hunched over along the back of the couch. It was just a brief contraction of pain that was more around the top of my belly than where I figured it would be. In the moments after it happened, I tried to remain calm because I was positive it was just Braxton Hicks playing tricks on me again just like they had the other night. Ryan had about passed out whenever the first one hit, immediately thinking we needed to go to the hospital. Brittany had been a big help in knowing that any of the books didn't give so I could almost tell the difference. Or well there was that and the fact I didn't have another one for a couple of hours. They were inconsistent and didn't last long. Steadying my breathing, I sat still to make sure that everything was fine, when a few minutes had passed by, I figured everything was fine.

"Are you okay?" Amanda had come back into the living room. Her eyes seemingly knew what just happened. 

"Just false contractions again. Nothing to worry about." I tried waving her off, knowing that everything was okay. Almost as if it was meant to be, another ripple of pain came this time a lot more intense than the last and a lot farther South than any previous pains. The cry that escaped my lips must have scared Amanda because she was frantic as she moved to my side, grabbing my arm so I wouldn't fall. When the feeling passed, her eyes were wide as they looked into mine.

"That didn't seem like it was nothing, Court."