If You Could See Me Now

33

Monday was a travel day and all they did was get on airplanes and drive home. Other than that, Maddy simply admired her new ring.

She got on Twitter a little bit that day but didn't see anything important until she saw an engagement photo.

"Aww that's cute," she smiled, opening the tweet to see the familiar background, "Wait,"

"What?" Ryan asked, coming into the room with a very tired and cranky Luke.

"That's us. That's our engagement. It's on Twitter. Did you announce it?" She asked, looking up at him but almost knowing he didn't.

"No,"  he shook his head as he sat down beside her with Luke in his lap, "Click the picture,"

She did as he said and pulled up the account of a fan that had been lurking and posted the picture with the caption, "RYAN GOT ENGAGED TO MADDY!"

There were a ton of congratulations tweets for them, a few shocked reactions, and a few angry ones. A few she's not good enough comments or some that said they'd only been dating for a short while and they wouldn't last.

"Don't you dare listen to them,"

"I'm not. It shouldn't even be up," she sighed, looking at the fan's account.

"I know. I'll call my PR guy and start to get something worked up. I'm sorry honey,"

"It's not your fault," she said as she shut her phone off and looked at him. "I'm sorry for both of us. Neither one of us got to announce it,"

"We gotta tell moms and dads," he told her, kissing her head as she pulled up the FaceTime app and FaceTimed her mom.

"What's up mad," she asked, not looking at her phone as she was typing something into her computer at work.

"Look at the phone," she chuckled as she held her hand up to it, showing off her ring.

"No way Maddy," she said, shocked as she picked up her phone.

"He proposed last night,"

"Who proposed last night?" Jay asked, coming out of his office.

"Ryan," she chuckled, holding the phone up.

"Oh yeah. I knew that. He asked for my blessing,"

"When did you guys talk?" Maddy asked, looking between her fiancé and dad.

"I FaceTimed him in my pit box before you and fans got there," he chuckled, kissing her head.

She just grinned and showed her dad the ring, before talking a little and getting off the phone.

"God people on Twitter are circulating that picture everywhere," she sighed, looking at her feed again.

"I know. I'll get it taken care of. I promise," he said as he looked at Luke sleeping on him, "Little man passed out,"

She smiled and snuck a picture of her little boy before looking at her phone again. She didn't know what to say or do. She knew Ryan would take care of it.

——————

It only took a few days before they were set to be a guest on the Dale Jr Download. Ryan was the cup series champion now and that was a big part of why but also because of the engagement being spoiled. Lisa and Dave were coming to stay with Lukas so they could go and not worry about him while they talked.

"There they are," Dale said as they walked in the door, "A power couple in Nascar. Maddy and Ryan,"

"Thanks for having us Dale," Ryan said as they both sat next to each other in front of the microphones.

"Well, obviously you're here because you won that trophy, you got the championship. How was that the other night?"

"I don't remember as much in the car as I thought I would. I remember Brad pushing me a little but other than that, I just remember hearing my crew chief telling me we got it and then she and Luke were in front of me," he told the 2 of them.

"What was your reaction?" Mike asked Maddy as she just smiled.

"I saw his car cross the finish line and I almost had to do a double-take because it's so fast. But as soon as I saw him stop and start doing donuts, Lukas and I went down,"

"That's always the best feeling when your kid comes running for you,"

"It was," Ryan chuckled, "seeing both of them after was the best end for the season,"

"There was another reason for you guys to be here today. Something got leaked on Twitter, and it didn't seem too pleasing to you both,"

"I'll let you take that one," Maddy smiled a little.

"Well after everyone was gone in victory lane, I asked Maddy to marry me and she said yes. So we are engaged," Ryan beamed, squeezing Maddy's hand.

"Then you, Maddy, found it the next morning?" Mike asked.

"Yeah. We had been traveling home from Phoenix and usually on travel days we just veg out at home afterward. So he was trying to get Luke down for his nap and I was just going through Twitter and saw an engagement photo. It's the oh ya know "that's cute" reaction and then I looked closer and realized it was us,"

"That was probably not what you wanted to see,"

"Not at all. I immediately asked him if he announced it and he told me no. I believed him obviously and we started looking into it and there it was. Someone was lurking," she explained, hating that she was having to even be upset about it at all.

"How'd you feel Ryan?" Dale asked, looking across the table at Ryan.

"I knew she was a little upset about it and seeing her upset, makes me a little upset. I was also just a little miffed because that's our moment, we should be the ones announcing it," he stated, squeezing Maddy's hand again.

"That's a big moment and that's something that you guys should be able to announce,"

"I agree,"

They talked a little more about the upcoming off-season and the championship before the 2 of them headed home to see their little guy.