Whole Lot More

Chapter Thirty Eight

Chapter Thirty Eight

Junior grabbed all of Brynne's belongings - without Martin's help of course, and headed for the airport to meet the girls.

Martin was still in denial that Brynne was actually going home, and couldn't believe that his best friend was helping Julie get Brynne out of town without seeing him, and making him miserable in the process.

He just didn't seem to get that it was his fault that he was miserable, all he would have had to do was tell Brynne from the beginning and they would be okay right now.

Instead he lied and everyone was miserable.

Junior walked into the airport and spotted Julie and Brynne sitting down, waiting for him. He took one quick look at Brynne and knew his best friend's misery was nothing compared to Brynne's.

At that point, Martin was lucky that Junior was his best friend.

***

"Hey babe," Junior said as he walked up to the girls, "Hi Brynne."

Brynne looked up at him with sad eyes and a sad smile, "Hi Dale."

"You ready to go home?"

"As ready as I will ever be," Brynne sighed. As if on cue, they announced her flight was boarding, "I guess that's my cue."

"We'll walk you to your gate," Julie told her.

"Thanks."

The walk to the gate was silent, the mood sober. It had barely been a day since Brynne had arrived in Florida, and now she was leaving just as quickly.

"Thanks for helping me, guys."

Julie turned her best friend into her arms, "Everything will be okay Brynne. Go home, curl up with Lucky and just cry this all out. Life will go on, but it may take awhile. And remember I love you, and if need me to, I can take a week off of work and come stay with you. We can sit in our pajamas and eat ice cream and watch chick flicks for an entire week."

"I think I will be okay," Brynne smiled, "But I will let you know, I promise."

Next it was Junior's turn, and as he wrapped his arms around Brynne, he whispered in her ear, "Martin may be my best friend, but I think he's stupid. You're a great girl Brynne, and right at this moment Martin doesn't deserve you."

Brynne sniffled as she pulled back, "Thanks Dale, that means a lot, you don't even know how much."

"Last call for Flight 191 to Boston."

"I really got to go guys, but thank you for everything. Tell everyone I'm going to miss them." With one last look over her shoulders and a little wave, Brynne walked through the gate and out of Martin's life.

***

"So I still don't know what happened."

Junior looked at his girlfriend and sighed, "Martin's ex-girlfriend is pregnant and psycho. She apparently approached him soon after he started talking to Brynne, but he didn't tell anyone - even Brynne. She's apparently been threatening to tell Brynne for awhile if Martin didn't tell her, and finally she made good on a threat."

"So Martin's ex ruined a good thing?"

"Basically yes - and she really is off her rocker. And best thing - Martin doesn't even know if the baby is his."

Julie shook her head, "And all he had to do was tell Brynne and none of this would have happened."

"Yes."

This certainly made Julie - and Junior for that matter - think about things. One little lie like that could ruin everything.

***

The rest of the ride back to the track was in silence, but almost as soon as the car was stopped in the driver's lot Julie was throwing the door open.

"Where ya going?"

"To tell him exactly how stupid he is."

Junior didn't stop her, knowing that in order for Julie to ever be able to look at Martin again she needed to go see how torn up he was.

Not that it would change anything, but at least she would know that Brynne wasn't the only one suffering.

Julie was considerably ahead of Dale and didn't even bother to knock on the door - it was a courtesy she didn't feel she owed Martin at the moment.

The utter quiet of the coach was disturbed by her throwing the door open and Martin looked up from where he sat on the couch staring at the wall when he heard someone enter the coach.

"You," she yelled, pointing at Martin, "You don't deserve my best friend. She's completely miserable and it's all your fault - and she won't let anyone help her because she can't trust anyone and it's all your fault. I had to sit there and watch her cry and then emotionally shut down over you, and if one thing is for sure, you deserve no one right now."

Junior walked up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder, "You done, babe? Martin looks like he wants to be alone again."

"Yes," Julie huffed, marching off the coach in a hurry.

"Sorry man," Junior shrugged, "If I didn't let her get it all out she'd never be able to look you in the face again."

Martin went back to staring at the wall when he heard the coach door firmly close.

***

Brynne had stopped and picked Lucky up from the kennel, explaining to the attendant that her trip had been shortened. She still paid them the full price and left before they could try and give her money back.

She was just happy to see her dog and the feeling was mutual. Lucky had practically knocked her over when they let him out, and she just laughed. It felt good to laugh, but she knew laughing wasn't going to be something she would do often. She had nothing to laugh about at this moment.

"Come on boy, let's go home." Home was where she felt most comfortable and where she wanted most to be.

Her apartment was dark when she opened the door and let Lucky in, but she felt better almost immediately. She could barricade herself at home away from everyone and heal.

Because right then healing sounded great.

"Lucky, come here boy." Lucky jumped up on the couch with her and curled into her lap. "I wish it didn't have to be this way boy. I wish he wouldn't have kept it from me from the beginning. Maybe then I'd be able to forgive him; maybe then I wouldn't have had to give up the life I could see for myself. Maybe a lot of things; but it doesn't matter; nothing matters anymore."

Her hand ran up and down her dog's back and she let herself remember the good times. Remember when he IM'ed her for the first time. How she hadn't believed him until that one day on the television when he'd mentioned her name.

Hearing his voice for the first time over the phone. The look on his face the first time they'd met. The magic of their first kiss. And the utter feeling of unsuppressed joy when he had told her he loved her for the first time.

It all came back, but so did the tears.

***

It had been two days since she'd left. In two days she hadn't called him - he wasn't really sure if he expected her to or not. But he hadn't called her, either.

He'd made his decision, if he didn't hear from her by the time the race was over he was going to call her.

It was race day and his mind was anywhere but at the track. The awesome car he'd had the first day they'd been there was still awesome, but the driver wasn't.

As he heard the most famous words in auto racing, his mind was still on Brynne.

***

Lap 14.

It'd all been over by lap 14. He'd managed to get in a wreck and be done for the night by lap 14. All because his mind hadn't been completely on the race and he had gotten caught up in someone else's mess.

The cameras were waiting outside when he walked out of the infield care center and he grimaced. He really didn't feel like dealing with the media right now.

"Martin, what happened out there?"

"It's so hard in the first couple laps - everyone is everywhere and there's just so much stuff going on all around you that if you don't have your mind 100% on the track, your chances of making it through the entire race are slim to none."

The reporter latched onto the hook Martin had inadvertently thrown out there. "Are you saying your mind wasn't completely on the track?"

But Martin was already pushing his way through the crowd of reporters, towards the golf cart that sat waiting to take him to the airport.

In Boston, Brynne knew exactly where his mind had been.

***

Martin got himself comfortable in his seat on the plane before he took his phone out and dialed her number. He knew he had to do it before his mind could talk him out of it.

The line rang six times before her voicemail picked up. 

"Hi, this is Brynne. I'm sorry I can't take your call right now, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message, I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can."

Just hearing her voice drained all the tension from his body, but that moment was short lived as the beep brought him back to reality.

He didn't leave a message - this time.

***