Life at Best

Chapter Three

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Chapter Three

Brynne sat at dinner with her parents the next night, silently contemplating things.

"Honey, is everything okay?" her father asked, "You've been awfully quiet all day."

She looked up and smiled at her parents, "I'm fine. Just thinking about things, a lot is all."

"About what?" Amy asked.

"Julie called last night and told me she's getting married!"

"Well that's wonderful for her, sweetie. Isn't that great news?"

Brynne nodded, "I am so incredibly excited for her. She wants to get married in December, which only gives her four months to plan the whole wedding, and she wants me to go down to North Carolina to help her plan."

"Oh like go visit and give her some ideas?" her mother asked.

"Not exactly Mom," Brynne sighed, "She wants me to go down to North Carolina and stay down there until the wedding. She says she has no clue what she's doing, and she needs my help."

"And what did you say?" her father questioned.

"I told her I would think about it, and I am thinking about it. I need to think about this long and hard before I make up my mind."

"Do you think that's a good idea, sweetheart? I mean, Martin is in North Carolina and so are a bunch of memories, some which bring back some not so great feelings for you. Do you think it's smart that when you are finally getting yourself back where you want to be and on steady ground that you head back down to North Carolina? Do you think you can handle that?"

"I don't know," she confessed, "But I feel like I have to at least try for Julie. She is my best friend; she has been there for me through thick and thin with everything that has happened, so I feel like the least that I owe her is to go down to North Carolina and help her plan the happiest day of her life.  Whether I am happy with my life or not doesn't matter, this is about Julie and I think I want to do everything in my power to help her have the happiest wedding day possible."

*

Life had somewhat settled for Martin.

He found himself slipping into a routine of sorts.

Get up. Go to the shop. Leave the shop. Go see Kinsey. Come home. Think about Brynne. Go to sleep. And then the day would be on repeat again.

All forms of contact with Brynne had proved futile. She had not called him when she had gotten back into town, and he often wondered if maybe she hadn't really been out of town in the first place. She hadn't returned any of his calls, e-mails, text messages, nothing.

He really didn't want to give up, but it was hard not to feel discouraged over the fact that she didn't even want to talk to him much less see him.

Martin often thought about heading back to New York again just to see if he could get her to talk to him, but with Kinsey and work, it was hard to try and find time. He had barely seen Deana and Peyton recently either, things had just been that crazy.

He had been trying to put his heart, soul and mind into the racecar, feeling like he at least owed it to his team to act like he wanted to be out there every weekend.  The last thing they needed was to be having a crappy season, and have it be his fault.  Not only did he owe it to his team, but he owed it to his fellow competitors who relied on him to be of the right mind when he was on the track with them.  So, he had been pouring himself into work and into Kinsey to keep his mind off of Brynne.

And while it didn't necessarily work all the time, she was only on his mind every other minute rather than every minute of every day.

Things with Kaleen were still on the rocks. Kinsey was a month old today, and he still couldn't see her unless he went to Kaleen's to do so, which he did every day when he was in town.

She acted as if she couldn't even stand being around him the little time he was in her house, but that was a lie. She was still upset that he didn't want to be with her; she had thought for sure when Kinsey was born, they would immediately become a happy little family. And unbeknownst to Martin, she had done everything in her power to try and make that a reality.

*

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. strolled into the shop with the biggest smile on his face, it was apparent to anyone with open eyes that he was extremely happy about something. And while that wasn't something that was necessarily unlikely to see on any given day, he seemed happier than normal.

They said women glowed while they were pregnant; someone could fight an argument saying he was "glowing" as he strutted around the shop whistling away.

He nodded and casually said hello to everyone he passed before poking his head in his best friend's office with a grin on his face.

Martin looked up at Junior and narrowed his eyes at him, realizing something was definitely up with him today, but he was not quite able to put his finger on what it was. "What's got you so happy man? Is Julie pregnant?"

"Pregnant, what? Why would you say that?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. Just trying to figure out the last time I've seen you this happy... and I don't think I can. Got to be something big."

"I asked her to marry me last night."

"And she actually said yes to your ass? What the hell was she thinking?"

"That hurts Martin, that hurts really bad. I thought you were supposed to be my best friend. Is that anyway for the best man to act towards the soon-to-be groom?"

"Best man? Is that your way of asking me to be your best man, Junior? You could really use some work on your creativity... please tell me that's not how you proposed to her!"

Junior rolled his eyes, "Martin, will you be the best man in my wedding?"

"Sure," Martin shrugged, "Why not?"

"Awesome," Junior said sarcastically.

Martin laughed, "No but seriously man, I'd be honored to be your best man and congratulations. I never thought I would see the day that non-committal Dale Earnhardt, Jr. would actually choose to settle down and ask someone to marry him!"

"Yeah well, I don't know what I would do without her every day, and she was talking about having to go back to Mississippi soon; I couldn't let her do that.  I couldn't let her ever leave me.  I had to do something about it, and I'd had the ring sitting around for the last couple weeks, so..."

"So when's the big day?"

"Sometime in December, I gave Julie the option to pick when. But we want to do it during the off-season."

"That doesn't leave much time to plan..."

"I know," Junior nodded, "That's why Julie called Brynne last night and asked her to come stay in North Carolina until the wedding and help her get everything planned and ready..."

And almost as quick as Junior had popped into Martin's office he was gone, leaving Martin with that little tidbit of information. Question was, would Brynne actually come back?

*

Junior had a huge smile on his face when he walked into the house that night after work, greeting Julie in the kitchen with a big kiss. "Well hello beautiful fiancé!"

Julie giggled, "I can't get enough of hearing that!"

"Well I'll say it as much as you want to hear it baby!"

"What's got you so giddy?" Julie asked.

"I asked Martin to be my best man today," Junior told her, "He of course said yes, because who could say no to this face?"

She smacked his shoulder and giggled when he pulled her into him, "I couldn't say no to that face, that's for sure!"

"And for that I'm so glad. But I also happened to mention to Martin that you had invited Brynne – as your maid of honor – to come stay down in North Carolina until the wedding to help you plan."

"What did he say to that?" Julie asked.

Junior shrugged, "I'm not sure, I didn't give him a chance to say anything before I left, but I'm certainly hoping I gave him a good kick in the ass to start planning what he's going to do when she does get down here. Those two need to get back together already!"

"I agree," Julie nodded, "I just hope she does decide to come down and help; I will be more than happy to give her a giant shove towards Martin. I miss them both being happy."

He kissed her forehead, "She's your best friend, and she is not going to let you plan this wedding by yourself. She is going to come, I just know it."

*

Two days later Brynne sat at dinner with her parents; it had been a rough couple of days figuring out what she was going to do, but in the end the answer had been so obvious from the beginning and she didn't really know why she had even had to think about it in the first place, maybe just the nervousness of thinking about going back.

"I've made a really important decision," Brynne spoke up out of nowhere.

Her parents looked up from their plates of meat loaf and mashed potatoes and looked at their daughter, both of them putting their forks down and giving her their full attention.

"What's that sweetie?" her mother asked.

"I know that this wedding is really important to Julie, and she has been there for me through thick and thin, through everything that has happened; what happens to her matters to me so much."

"What does that mean, Brynne?" her mother asked, quietly.

She looked up at her parents, already predicting the backlash she was going to see from this, the negativity they were going to feed her through their vibes about the decision she had made.  But honestly, she was a grown woman. She may have been going through a really rough spot in her life and maybe it wasn't the absolute smartest thing to do for her sanity at the moment, but she knew she needed to help Julie and she knew she needed to face Martin, even if only to tell him how much it hurt her that he had picked things up again with Kaleen again so soon after their end.

"I'm going to go to North Carolina and help Julie plan the best wedding ever."

***

To North Carolina we go!!