From The Ground Up

Ten

Both of them had trouble sleeping but neither of them expected the other one to be awake.

Kamdyn had gotten up and gone downstairs, sitting on the couch as she scrolled through her Twitter or X as it was now.

"Can't sleep?" He asked, sitting on the couch beside her.

"No," She shook her head, setting her phone in her lap, "You can't either?"

"Nope,"

"Got something on your mind?" She asked, looking at him as she moved the blanket in her lap.

"Maybe. But I need a beer beforehand,"

"It's 3 in the morning," She chuckled, looking at him as he grabbed a few beers and handed one to her. "What's going on with you?"

"You've been here what? A month?" He asked, looking over at her as she took a quick sip of her drink.

"2 and a half weeks," She nodded, "A very rough 2 and a half weeks but being here and not being alone...It helped a lot,"

"I'm glad,"

"Spit it out Ryan," she chuckled, taking one more sip of her beer.

He hesitated for a moment before going for it and kissing the girl sitting next to him.

Kamdyn melted the second he kissed her, wanting to pull away but she couldn't.

"How long have you been waiting to do that?" She asked the second they broke apart.

"A long time," he nodded, "Sorry I didn't think,"

"I think the alcohol did that for you," she chuckled, getting up and tossing her bottle out, "I'll see you in the morning,"

"Wait, Kam,"

"What's up?" She asked, turning back around as she was at the steps.

"Can we talk about that?" He asked, seeming slightly nervous as he asked her.

"Yeah," she nodded, going back to the couch and taking her favorite spot.

"I've been trying to figure out how to ask you,"

"You know you can just ask," she chuckled, "Not like I'm some blind date,"

"Didn't want to ruin anything we had at Penske,"

"Leave that to Macey," she chuckled, "We can give it a try, and if it doesn't work, things go back to the way they were,"

"Alright," he nodded as both of them got up.

"Now it's time for bed and I'm bringing you with me," she grinned grabbing his hand and taking him up to her bedroom.

"How many blankets do you have?" Ryan asked as she peeled back layer after layer.

"Just 4," she shrugged, "I get cold at night,"

"Couldn't tell," he chuckled, slipping into one side while she got into the middle.

"You wanna watch a movie?"

"Weren't you the one that just said we need to sleep?"

"We don't have to be up early for any flights this weekend," she grinned.

"Or we could just lay here and talk,"

"About?" She asked, looking at him from her spot on her pillow.

"What I don't know about you,"

"Tim got me the job in the first place," she smiled.

"How did you know him in the first place?"

"He and my dad were buddies. My dad always wanted to work in the sport but never got a chance to. He was a teacher for 36 years and loved it too much to give it up," she explained, "He's been a silent father figure to me since I lost both of my parents,"

"How did I never notice this?"

"You had other things to worry about," she chuckled, cuddling up as she yawned slightly, "What else do you want to know?"

"How long you've been thinking about this?" He asked, looking down at her as she thought about it.

"A little after last season ended,"

He just nodded and thought of anything else to ask but by the time he came up with anything else, Kamdyn was sound asleep.

——————

The weekend of the Coke 600 was nothing but rain. Practice on Saturday was canceled, and qualifying was also canceled but gave Ryan the 8th starting position based on NASCAR's logistics. Sunday was also rainy but they were at the track and hoping that if the rain stopped, they would at least be able to get started.

"Are you going to talk to him finally?" Ryan asked as he came up behind Kam, who was looking at Tim like she was going to bring up the Macey issue.

"I don't know," She sighed, "I just want to make sure it's the right decision,"

"Why would it be wrong?"

"I don't know Ryan, I just don't want it to look bad on my part," She said as she started to walk in the opposite direction from where Tim was standing.

"Macey hurt you Kamdyn. I don't know why this is such a hard decision. You said it last night, Tim is like a father to you so why is it so hard for you to talk to him about someone that physically hurt you?" Ryan said as he stopped her, "You're hurting yourself by doing this and I'm saying that as your friend, as your boss, and as your boyfriend,"

"Are you doing this with me or am I doing this on my own?"

"Do you want me there?" He asked, willing to do anything she wanted him to when it came down to this situation.

"Do you still have the camera footage?"

"I didn't have it in the first place," He shrugged.

"Are you lying?"

"No," He shook his head, "You didn't want me to so I didn't. Can you get it?"

"Probably," She shrugged, looking at the camera app until she found the right video. She only really turned the motion on at night, when someone was in her office, or when she left the office for a minute. It wasn't hard to find so once she did, she showed it to Ryan before they both decided to go to Tim and show him what really happened that day that Ryan took her to urgent care.

Surely, Macey wouldn't like this but neither cared. The girl was dangerous and crazy at this point. She needed to be dealt with.