Whole Lot More

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Five

Brynne shifted her weight from foot to foot, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable just standing there and witnessing the father/daughter reunion. She was saved when Deana shuffled to the door wondering who was out there and why it was taking so long for Peyton to come back.

She rolled her eyes when she saw Peyton clinging to Martin's neck. "Pey-Pey honey, let your Daddy breathe a little bit."

Peyton pulled back and looked at her mother, before easing her way down to the ground. "Let's go inside... I have coffee on."

Martin held the door open as Peyton slid in and then looked at Brynne and smiled. "After you, baby."

His smile was infectious, and she couldn't help but smile herself when she felt how much he had relaxed just in the presence of his daughter.

She could feel her heart pounding, and the butterflies in her stomach giving her a stomachache. She'd never been any good at meeting relatives – not even in past relationships – and the simple thought that what these two thought about her might change everything made her nauseous.

With a deep breath though, she took tentative steps through the door, looking at the house around her as she followed the sound of Peyton's little voice.

Pictures lined the walls, all of them containing Peyton with numerous of other people. But she stopped at the picture of Martin holding Peyton right after she'd been born.

Tears stung his eyes in the picture, and the sight along made tears come to her eyes. He would make such a good father if he gave himself the credit and Peyton was around more often.

"She wasn't even ten minutes old in that picture," he whispered, "And I was scared shitless. I had no clue how I was going to be a father when my heart lie with racing. But Deana is amazing, she's an amazing mother and an amazing woman, and she doesn't hold it against me for pursuing my dreams. I wouldn't be where I am right now if she hadn't of told me she'd never let me see my daughter if I stayed in town and threw my opportunities out."

"Sounds like you owe her a lot."

He nodded, "I do. This house was only part of what I owe her. Her and Peyton deserve to live comfortably and I make sure they do."

"That's what makes you the wonderful man you are, Martin. Anyone else in your shoes would just completely forget about your daughter out on the road. Wouldn't come home to visit or anything."

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that. Live knowing that I had a daughter out there who didn't know I was her daddy. Granted she might not see me very often, but I still make sure she sees me and I talk to her all the time. If we go a day without talking, that's a miracle. Deana swears she's going to grow up with a phone attached to her ear; she loves talking on the phone."

"That's cute."

"Daddy!"

Martin smiled lopsidedly at Brynne and nudged her to keep going, "The little monster is calling us. We better go, before she comes looking for us, herself."

They didn't have to walk but two rooms over into the kitchen to find Peyton, her hands perched on her hips and a pair of sunglasses shading her eyes.

"See my new glasses, Daddy? Mommy bought them for me, she said they're all the fashion."

He grinned and shook his head, "You're talking about fashion already, Pey-Pey? You're only five!"

"Actually," her hands were still on her hips, "I'm five and a half."

"Five and a half, huh?"

"Yep. Five and a half. Which means I'm almost six." Martin dove in and grabbed her by her sides, lifting her over his head and tickling her until she was squirming to get out of his grasp. And the minute her feet hit the floor, she grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall towards her room.

Deana stood behind Brynne watching the look on her face after seeing Martin and Peyton together. "He's really good with her, especially given the fact that he doesn't see her a lot."

Brynne turned around and smiled sheepishly at Deana, before nodding. "I notice that. I told him he should see about bringing her to the track. She'd love it there, not to mention there's so many other kids milling around there that she'd be bound to have fun."

"He's worried about the media," Deana shrugged, "I don't know much about it since I'm nowhere near it, but I have to trust him that if he thought it was the right thing to do, he'd bring her with him."

"Yeah, the media can be hounds. I haven't been to the track much, but even in the little time I was, I saw that. I just don't think it's fair to you or Peyton that the media run his life so much that he can't be around more."

"Peyton doesn't necessarily like it. She misses him from the moment he walks out the door, and sometimes she complains about it badly, but we make do."

"You've done a good job with her," Brynne smiled, "She's polite and absolutely adorable."

Deana grinned, "She's also going to be a terror when she hits her teenage years. That's when you'll see Martin bringing her to the track, so he can keep an eye on her and keep the boys away."

Brynne laughed, "She looks just like the two of you."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should," she smiled.

In the quick silence that encompassed them, they could hear Peyton squealing in her room, and Deana couldn't help but smile. "Come on, let's have a seat. Who knows how long they'll be in her room. She'll probably want to show him everything new she's gotten since the last time he was here, and trust me... there is a lot of new stuff. She's going to end up being a fashion designer someday. The other day she actually said that something was "all the rage" this year. I couldn't believe my ears."

"That's cute, and hey... at least you know what to push her into pursuing, even at such a young age."

"That's a good point," she nodded as she walked to the refrigerator, "Would you like something to drink? We have soda, water, tea, milk, juice..."

"Water is fine." Deana set it on the table and slid onto the stool across from her.

"So Brynne tell me about you. Besides what Martin has told me."

"What exactly has Martin said?" Brynne asked, cautiously.

"Oh, nothing bad, trust me. Just that he really liked you. And I told him he better not screw this one up. He has a thing with that. For some reason he always screws everything up. I try to tell him he probably has commitment issues, but he won't listen to me."

"So far so good with the commitment issues," Brynne smiled.

"So how did you guys meet?"

Brynne shook her head and laughed, "This is one funny story."

"Well, as long as you didn't meet like he met the last one..."

Her head perked up, "How exactly did he meet the last one?"

"Ah, at a strip club him and the boys went out to in Charlotte. She was one of the strippers there, and yeah... you know guys. I knew from just the sounds of her that she was out for money. Girls can just tell those things, ya know? And the guys apparently can't."

"Oh, we definitely didn't meet at a strip club, nor am I a stripper. And there's no reason I'd be out for money, I have plenty of my own. I own a club in Boston."

"Is that where you two met?" Deana asked.

"Actually, no. In fact, Martin didn't even know about the club until a couple days ago. But how we met is a really weird story."

"Weird? How so?"

Brynne laughed quietly and shook her head, "Actually, he IM'd me one night and asked who I was. And we got talking and he told me who he was, but I didn't believe him. Not at first. In fact, I just thought he was some little kid saying he was Martin Truex, Jr. and trying to pick up girls, ya know? It wasn't until Speedweeks in Daytona that I found out it really was him when he went on television and said hi to me."

"Wait, he IMed you?"

"Yeah," Brynne ducked her head, "Like on the internet."

"I'm really behind the times on this technology stuff. Having to keep track of a five-year-old is enough of a life for me, that I don't hardly venture onto the computer."

The two shared a laugh together, before Brynne continued. "We talked for a while on the computer though, and then he got brave and asked for my number and I gave it to him. He actually called me, too. I never thought he would. But we talked day in and day out on the phone any free minute we could, learning anything and everything about each other. And finally, one day me and my friend Julie made a plan to meet him – it was a surprise, though. We planned the whole thing and the weekend of Talladega we finally met."

"The weekend he won. That was the first time you guys, won?"

"It was," Brynne nodded, "The crew told me I had to come back every weekend because I was a good luck charm. Unfortunately, with owning the club, I couldn't keep myself away from it for that long."

"That's definitely one of those stories that people always talk about being a great story to tell their children and grandchildren."

Brynne smiled, "Maybe one day it will be."

*~*

Martin sat on his daughter's frilly pink bed, and watched as she waddled around the room attempting to find all the new stuff she'd gotten since his last visit.

This was something they always did.

She'd show him all her new stuff, and he'd tell her all about the new stuff he'd gotten – the toys she'd eventually have to come down to North Carolina and try. This time though, there was only one important thing that he'd gotten in his life since his last visit, and he was bound to see what she thought of her.

She came over to him with a new pink purse that matched her pink sunglasses and grinned, "Isn't it pretty, Daddy? Me and Mommy picked it out, and I have matching clothes with it, too."

He couldn't help but shake his head, she was all about the pink and he was so going to be in trouble when she got older and boys started taking interest. He'd have his gun locked and loaded and ready to threaten anyone who got near his beautiful daughter.

"It is pretty, sweetie. And speaking of pretty, come here for a second." He patted a section of her bed next to him and she dutifully put her stuff neatly back into the closet before she came over and sat on the bed with him.

It was obvious she'd gotten her neatness from Deana, because he was the absolute farthest from neat that a person can be.

The endless pits of brown that he knew matched his own, stared back at him, waiting for him to begin. If only he could figure out the words he wanted to say.

"You know my friend, baby?"

"The lady that came with you?"

"Yeah, her. Brynne."

"She's pretty, Daddy. Not as pretty as Mommy, but she's pretty."

"Well, that's nice to say. You'll have to tell her that, I'm sure she'd love to hear that. But baby, what do you think about her?"

Peyton shrugged, not really understanding what he meant. "She's nice."

"Nice?"

"Well, I don't really know her Daddy, but she's nice. And pretty."

"Well, she's my girlfriend. Do you know what a girlfriend is?"

She nodded, "I'm gonna have one someday! Only a boy!"

"Not anytime soon," Martin muttered, "But yeah... Brynne is my girlfriend and I like her a lot. And I want you to like her too, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy."

"Besides she mentioned she might take you out for ice cream sometime when we're here..."

"Really?" Peyton squealed, "I'll really like her then."

"I'm sure she'd like to hear that, too."

"Do you love her Daddy?"

Martin froze. "Um... I don't know if love is the word for it right now, baby. But I like her... a lot. And I think I do love her, or will eventually."

"Is she gonna be another Mommy to me?" Peyton asked, her brown eyes shining up at him, curiously.

He brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "Eventually, I think she will."

*~*