Whole Lot More

Chapter Thirty One

Chapter Thirty One

"Why do you look so nervous?"

Brynne's eyes shifted over to her right, looking at Martin who stood next to her, smiling down on her. "Why do I look so nervous?" He nodded. "Because there's a lot of people here who I don't know, who are important to NASCAR and your company, and it's nerve wracking for me."

Martin smiled slightly and placed a chaste kiss on the back of her hand. "Don't worry so much about it, okay? You're doing fine and everyone's going to love you. And if they don't, it's their problem."

"How reassuring, Martin," she joked, rolling her eyes. But inside it was bothering her. She wanted so badly to fit into his North Carolina life. She'd easily fit into his life as it'd been back in New Jersey. His family loved her; now it was this family that she wanted to love her, too.

"I thought it was. Now come on, there's some people I want you to meet, then I fully expect you and me to be out on the dance floor."

*~*

Dale and Martin were out schmoozing with their sponsor representatives when Brynne managed to sneak away and join Julie at a table in the corner.

"How are you managing to hold up?" she asked Julie as she slid into the chair next to her best friend.

"Oh, I'm perfect. You have no clue how weird and thrilling it is to hear Dale Earnhardt, Jr. introduce me to people as his girlfriend. It's like everything is a dream..."

"Wait until he introduces you to the family, it'll be worse. But maybe we'll ease you into it a little better than Martin did."

Julie laughed. "I sure hope so. Because I don't want a repeat of the "small" get together in New Jersey."

"Yeah, small my ass. There had to be at least one hundred people there. All staring at me. It was terrible."

"But it went well?"

"It did. Thankfully. They all love me, and to be honest, I felt really comfortable around all of them."

Silence spanned between the two for a moment before Julie gasped slightly. "Oh my God, Teresa Earnhardt is so heading our way right now."

Brynne's eyes quickly shifted and watched the older woman come closer to them. Butterflies danced in both of their stomachs.

"Maybe she'll pass right by us and go talk to someone else?"

"Brynne... there's nowhere else to go. We're practically sitting right against the wall, there's no one around and there's no doors anywhere around us. She's definitely coming our way..."

"Oh God..."

Through wide eyes, the girl's sat there and watched, unable to move at all. She was definitely coming their way.

Julie's throat dried up and all she could do was blink. She was dating the woman's stepson after all, and who knew what would happen if she didn't take a liking to her.

There was definitely no doubt in their mind where she was heading when she stopped at their table and smiled at them slightly.

"Ladies..."

"Hello," Brynne squeaked out.

"I take it you two are Brynne and Julie?" They both nodded and were slightly relieved when she smiled. "Well it's good to finally meet you two; you seem to be all my drivers can talk about these days."

"Really?"

Teresa laughed at Julie's genuine surprise. "Of course! Those two boys are really taken with the two of you; more so than I've seen them with anyone lately. I say its about time, personally. They do need someone to keep them in check and keep their life as normal as possible away from the track, and it seems to me as if you girl's have been able to achieve that so far."

"Wow."

She laughed again, the genuine astoundment of the news to the girls apparent in their eyes, and it definitely made the girl's relax.

"Anyway, I'm going to get out of your hair. I just saw you sitting over here by yourselves and thought I'd introduce myself. It was nice to meet you both, and hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

"Nice to meet you, too," Brynne smiled.

Once Teresa was out of earshot Julie sent Brynne a look. "That was..."

"Weird."

"Yeah," Julie nodded, "Very weird."

*~*

After talking with Teresa, none of the other people in the room were really that intimidating. At least not to Julie. She'd met her boyfriend's stepmother and been told, she was all he had been talking about lately.

To her, that was enough to settle the butterflies in her stomach.

But for Brynne it was a completely different story.

There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, and she didn't know what it was. Something just kept bugging her.

"Brynne?"

"Huh, what?" she asked, pulling her attention back on her friend sitting across the table from her.

"Where in the hell were you? I called you three times before you showed any sign of hearing me."

"Sorry," Brynne sighed, "I just have this annoying nagging feeling that something isn't right or something is going to go wrong. And honestly, I'm comfortable where I am now."

"Well, what's this all about?"

"I don't know..."

"I think you do."

She hesitated.

"Brynne..."

"So maybe I do."

"Well... tell me."

Brynne sighed, shaking her head slightly. "I don't know. Back when we were in Boston, it was my territory. I knew everything around me, I knew what there was to do, and I knew there were no secrets..."

"And?"

"I don't know... when we were in New Jersey and he told me about Peyton... I was just genuinely shocked. And it got me thinking... if he could keep that from everyone – including me – what the hell else could he be keeping to himself, ya know?"

She knew she probably shouldn't be talking about it here, seeing as only three people in the room knew about Deana and Peyton, but she couldn't help it.

"I understand," Julie nodded, "And I understand where you're coming from. If I found out Dale was keeping something like that from me, I'd wonder the same thing. But you have to trust Martin, or this relationship is going to go nowhere. You have to trust that another 'secret' isn't going to just pop out of the woodwork when you least expect it. You have to push all these fears and anxieties away and enjoy what little time the two of you have together in both your hectic lives."

Julie took a deep breath, and was happy when she saw Brynne smile slightly, nodding her head.

"You're right. I was just being insecure. I've known Martin for months, and granted he just let me in on a huge secret in his life, I have to trust him and our relationship. After all, I was the first one he told about Peyton... that has to mean something."

"Exactly," Julie nodded, "Now, let's change the subject since the main person we were talking about is headed our way right now."

Brynne looked over her shoulder and smiled as Martin strolled over to the two of them, looking absolutely adorable in his khakis and button down shirt.

"What are you two doing sitting over here all by yourselves?"

"We're hiding from all the big, bad important people who scare us," Brynne told him.

Martin laughed. "Well Junior and I saw Teresa over here earlier..."

"Yeah, and Julie just sat there and blinked up at her," Brynne grinned.

"I did not!"

"Jul, I love you, but you so did!"

"Fine, fine, fine," Julie said with a roll of her eyes, "I give up. I did. I froze up. But she's Dale's stepmother and what if she doesn't like me?"

"I don't think you have to worry about that Julie," Martin replied, "Because she's already told us she loves you two. I think she also mentioned something about if we didn't see what was right in front of us this time, she was going to be deeply disappointed in us." He laughed at the two girl's relieved expressions, before leaning down and kissing Brynne lightly. "Now come on, let's go have some fun."

As the two girl's led the way over to Junior on the other side of the banquet hall, Martin knew the next couple of weeks with the two of them around was definitely going to be interesting.

*~*