Whole Lot More

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

"I'm coming to Boston!"

"What? You're coming here? When?"

"This weekend. We have the race in Richmond on Saturday night, and then I'm flying out there. We have next weekend off, so it won't even be just for a quick visit, either."

"How long are you going to be able to stay?" Brynne asked, the sudden excitement that had showed up for him, was evident in her voice now, too.

"Probably four or five days. I have to make it to Jersey still, too, because I promised my family I'd come visit, but I told them I wouldn't be there until mid week. So, until then, I'm all yours!"

The giddy feeling she felt rumbling through her stomach was too much for her to contain, as a squeal of pure, raw joy emitted from her throat.

Her mind began to run through everything they were going to have to do in the few, short days he'd be there. She was going to take him to Fusion, that was a no brainer. She'd introduce him to Tara and the rest of the girls, definitely.

They'd have to take in a Red Sox game. She loved her Red Sox too much to not drag him to a game – kicking and screaming if she had to.

If the weather was nice, they'd definitely have to have a picnic in the park and go walking through Downtown Boston. Go shopping.

They could just hang around her apartment and watch a movie. Relax. Do something he hardly ever got to do and just be himself; no one else. And she could just be her normal, goofy self, too.

She could cook dinner for him; it'd been so long since she'd cooked dinner for a man. And they could sit at the table, candles lit and eat and drink some wine.

God, it'd been so long.

She could introduce him to all the little old ladies that lived in her apartment building and always mentioned how she needed to find herself a man.

Introduce him as what, she didn't know. They hadn't labeled what they were yet, and she wasn't going to push it, either. She was just going to be herself around him, and maybe that would be enough to show him just what there was possible between them.

"Brynne?"

She blinked rapidly, and realized she'd completely zoned out on the entire conversation. "Huh?"

"Are you okay?"

"Sorry... I kind of zoned out there for a second."

"More like a couple of minutes... I'd thought we got disconnected there for a second or something."

"No, my mind just kind of drifted away with the thoughts of everything I have to show you, and everywhere we have to go and things we have to do. I got carried away for a minute, there."

The movies, she thought, they'd have to go to the movies and act like teenagers all over again. It'd been so long since she'd been to the movies, too.

"Anything fun?"

"Oh, lots of stuff. Trust me, we'll have a good time."

"As long as I'm with you, I know it'll be a good time."

And what was even better, is she could tell that he really and truly meant it. They weren't words spoken to get her to believe in everything he was saying; they were honest and they were the most true words she'd ever had spoken to her by a man before.

*~*

He groaned.

It had been a long ass week. Longer than any week he'd ever had to go through before.

It was Friday, and he was at the track. But the track was the last place he wanted to be at the moment. How he'd managed to make it from Tuesday to Friday, he had no clue. But he had, and now all he had to do was last one more night and through a four hundred mile race and he'd be on the next plane to Boston.

The roar of forty-three engines should have been enough to bring his mind back to where it was, but it definitely wasn't. No matter what he managed to do, he just couldn't seem to get himself to focus on the track, the car and the race.

He'd just qualified tenth; how that had happened, no one had a clue, because his practice times had definitely not been the best.

"Maybe the fact that twenty four hours from now I'll be in Boston and with Brynne is helping me focus when I get in the car, rather than hurting my concentration," he mumbled.

That's all he'd had to hear all weekend long was how distracted he was acting. From Josh, from Junior, even from Bono. You name the person and they'd probably mentioned to him how distracted he seemed.

As far as they knew though, it was because he was excited to get back home to Jersey and see his family. No one knew about him stopping in Boston besides his parents, Julie and Brynne.

He'd know that if he told anyone else about it, not only would he never hear the end of it, but he was sure that somehow or another it'd get back to Kaleen that he'd stopped in Boston, and then he'd have to answer numerous questions about what was in Boston.

That he definitely wasn't in the mood for.

A sickening thud broke through his reverie and he cringed as he heard sheet metal ripping and car after car collisions with the wall. And that was all from his motorcoach, which meant the hit was that much harder.

Why he hadn't raced in this Busch race, he didn't know. He'd had the option too, and now that he thought about it, it would have kept his mind off of Boston some more, but when he'd said no, Junior had gladly taken the opportunity. Besides, it was more logical for him to drive it anyway; he'd always been good at this track, and a little bit of extra practice never hurt anyone.

He looked up at the clock on the wall and sighed when he realized only five minutes had passed. Five long minutes. But, he was five minutes closer to being on a plan to see Brynne.

*~*

Brynne scrambled around her apartment, putting everything in its proper place and attempting to make it look neat.

It wasn't working.

She had exactly twenty minutes before she had to leave for work and to her it didn't seem like entirely enough time to do what she had to do.

"Why in the hell didn't I just take tonight off?" she groaned, wanting to kick herself for not taking Tara up on her odder. After she'd heard that the infamous Martin was coming for a visit, Tara had been more than happy to offer to take over for Brynne, just as long as Brynne brought him around while he was there for everyone to meet.

Of course, she had been planning on it from the beginning.

She knew though, that if she hadn't worked tonight, she'd be driving herself – and probably Julie, too – absolutely crazy, not to mention she probably wouldn't be able to convince herself to go to sleep.

So, working was probably the best thing she could do for herself tonight.

Glancing up at the clock, she cursed herself when she realized she was most definitely going to be late now, and her apartment still looked like a tornado had torn through it.

God, she wished it were Saturday night already.

*~*

He'd been sitting there – undisturbed – in the silence (or as silent as he could get) of his motorcoach for an hour and a half. An hour and a half that felt like an eternity. And still, it wasn't Saturday night.

He nearly jumped out of his skin, though, when his cell phone broke the silence around him. And he groaned when he saw Kaleen's number. She was really the last person he wanted to talk to at the moment.

Not only was she a thorn in his side, but the further along in her pregnancy that she got, the worse the mood swings got. She had been so hit or miss lately. One minute she'd be calling him to ask him if they could do dinner and the next she was calling to bitch at him for not being around enough. He just couldn't seem to win.

He silently wondered which one it'd be tonight.

"Hello?"

"Martin, baby..."

Sighing, he rubbed his forehead, "What is it, Kaleen?"

He knew she was sitting in her house more than likely with a huge pout on her face – just like normal. It was what she did when she thought she'd get her way.

"Do you really have to go to Jersey and see your family?"

He couldn't believe the nerve of her. "You've got to be kidding me, right?"

"No, of course not. I want you here for my doctor's appointment, Martin. This is your baby, after all. And what if something happens? What am I supposed to do without you here?"

He rolled his eyes, "That's what 911 is for, and hospitals. But listen to me, Kaleen. I'm going to say this one time, and one time only. I haven't seen my family in months; since around Christmastime. I'm not going to give up seeing my family because you ask me to. No way, no how. No matter what you have to say, it ain't happening. So get that through your head right now."

He could sense the pout of all pouts present on her face and he was hundreds of miles away. "Well, can't you like take me with you? I'd love to meet your family, Martin! And go baby shopping with your mother."

If they even knew the baby exised...

"No," he said firmly, "No, you're not coming with me; I'm not introducing you to my family and I'm not coming home after the race. No, no, no. Got it?"

She huffed. "Fine then Martin, I see how it is."

A dial tone met his ear.

*~*

Saturday Night
After the race

He'd never been so relieved before to have a race over with. Or to finish twentieth. His car had been fighting with him all night, so to finish twentieth with the car he had been driving, was good in his eyes. The never ending night had finally ended.

And with his poor finish, he hadn't had too many media obligations to fill. When Josh told him merely forty-five minutes after the race was over, that he was done, he wanted to jump up and down like a little boy on Christmas morning.

Instead, he asked Josh if he'd drive him to the airfield. He'd somehow managed to convince Junior that he wanted to drive the short distance back to Mooresville, and let him use his jet.

Midnight came, and Martin found himself embarking onto the jet, letting the pilot know the change in plans. They were going to Boston.

And he couldn't help but think one thing: Thank God.

*~*