Minutes to Midnight

Hands Held High (Chapter 8)

"With Hands Held High into a sky so blue.." 

//Shay's POV// 

Welp today's another day at the hospital here in Vegas. The doctor just left with some really good news that Ryan should be waking up from his coma soon. It could be within a few hours or the next day or two. Which is fantastic news in my opinion. It's been so long since I've had an actual conversation between Ryan and can see him looking at me with his pretty blue eyes. Once he wakes up the doctors want to schedule him appointments for back home in Mooresville, North Carolina. I have been talking to Whitney and when her and Austin got back to North Carolina they went by and picked up our sweet dog Sturgill to take care of him while we are still out here in Vegas. Since Ryan's family is still out here in Vegas with me we have been taking turns either sleeping at the hospital or sleeping in the Motorhome that was with us. We have also been taking plenty of showers, eating, and changing our clothes do fresh clean ones.  Like I mentioned before I have still been trying to work and get stuff together for the boutique while being in this hospital. 

Before this whole craziness had happened with the wreck and all I was supposed to be going to meet and talk with Samantha Busch about doing a collaboration with us and her clothing company. I was able to FaceTime with Samantha and explain the ideas that we had in mind; she said that she would be honored to do a collaboration with us. She thinks that it is a great idea for us to do this collaboration with Racing Wives coming up soon. Samantha said that she had actually already knew about our boutique and semi knew both Whitney and Emma. I thought to myself hmm maybe she isn't so bad after all, she might just put up a rough front to look good in front of her family, in-laws, and the media. Now that we have Samantha's stamp of approval we can get to work on making some cute clothes and taking some really fun pictures together. Samantha sent me some pictures that she had and I sent her a few that we had made for us to announce the collaboration to our social media accounts. 

@TheCheckeredFlag&Co :We are so excited to announce that we are partnering up with Samantha Busch for a fun collaboration. Can't wait for everyone to see this collection. Don't forget to check out Racing Wives soon on CMT. Thank you to @SamanthaBusch and @AvantitheLabel .  This collaboration will be sold in both boutiques and at the pop up boutique that is coming to all of the racetracks! 🏁🏁 #RCRRacing #TeamPenske #GoBlaney #GoAustin #GoKyle #KBM #JoeGibbsRacing #RacingWives   

We posted to all of our social media accounts, Whitney posted on hers, Emma posted on hers, I posted on mine, and Samantha posted on her accounts plus her clothing line account. Within minutes we were getting shares, comments, follows, you name it. This collaboration is going to be one for the books. Both Whitney and Samantha are going to be part of the official cast of Racing Wives while Jordan and I are considered to be "friends of the wives" on the show since we both date 2 of the drivers. Jordan dates Denny Hamlin and while I obviously date Blaney. After I had finished with all of the posts Ryan's sisters Erin and Emma wanted us to go out to lunch right up the street from the hospital while Dave and Lisa sat with Ryan. Lisa and Dave told us 3 before we headed out that if anything were to happen that they would immediately call us. We have been waiting for so long now, so we are all on edge about when he will decide to wake up. Erin, Emma, and I decided to go to this cute little restaurant across from the hospital that also had a fun rooftop garden and bar on top. We wanted to eat inside the restaurant but we were definitely going to go up to the rooftop before leaving. Emma and I sat together on one side of the table while Erin sat on the other side across from us. Emma wanted to run some ideas by me for the boutique. We also really want to get Erin involved with modeling for us and hopefully joining in as a marketing consultant. 

Emma wants to make a few fun racing themed graphic tees that we could wear. She wants the shirts to be easy to dress up and dress down with either shorts and converse high tops or some tighter jeans and a pair of high heels. She said we could even make Samantha one as a little surprise and a "thanks for working with us." I think that it is a really cute idea and that it can be a good piece of clothing that can sell at the track. We asked Erin what she thought about everything and she really likes that idea as well. Once she graduates from the University of Alabama she would love to come and work for us at the boutique. She only has a 2 semesters left of college and then she can officially work with us! 

———————> Time Skip————————-> 

We took a few pictures upstairs at the rooftop garden before deciding it was time to head back to the hospital. When we arrived we gave Lisa and Dave their to-go food that we had ordered for them so they can go eat. We decided to all go and take turns sitting with Ryan. Emma went first and was telling him about our new plans that we had for the boutique. From us collaborating with Samantha Busch to having Erin come and work with us after she graduates soon. She also told him that his sweet little nephew Louie misses and loves  his "uncle Ry Ry" so much. After Emma came out Erin went in and wanted to speak to him for a little bit because she knew I wanted to talk to him too before time was up or anything like that. Erin told him about this being her last 2 semesters of college and that she was excited to finally be done. She told him that she plans to come back home to Mooresville and come and work at the boutique with Emma, Whitney, and I. When she came out it was my turn to go in. I walked in and sat down in the chair beside his bedside where both of his sisters and parents had been previously sitting. I reached out and grabbed his hand and held it in mine. I began telling him about how we have some really good things planned for the boutique coming up soon like the pop up shops at the tracks to the collaboration with Samantha Busch and finally the cute graphic tees that we want to design for us to wear. I also told him about CMT wanting to do a reality show about the "Racing Wives"; Whitney is gonna be one of the featured wives while I am just a friend of the wives because of me being in a relationship with him. 

//Ryan's POV// 

I could hear everything that my parents were talking about before I heard both my sisters and my girlfriend Shay come back into the room. The girls decided that they wanted to take turns coming in one by one individually and sit and talk to me. Emma told me all about the plans that her, Whitney, and Shay had come up with. I am so proud of all of them , but I am especially proud of Shay, I know how hard this has been for her continuing to sit here in this hospital trying to stay positive while also getting work done. I already have plans of wanting to propose to her soon once it gets back to normal. I have realized since being in this accident that she is the one that I want to be with for the rest of my life. I heard her come in the room and start telling me everything from the boutique to being somewhat on Racing Wives and that she loves me so much. I could tell in her voice that she was getting upset and starting to cry. That hurt me because I was trying to wake up from this coma so I could comfort her. I heard the rest of my family come in and all comfort her. So why not try for myself to get her attention by waking up. I knew that she was still holding my hand so I decided to give it a harder squeeze back...which resulted in her start freaking out and getting everyone in the room all worked up and excited to see me wide awake and smiling at them. 

A/N: This chapter has been written for a few days now. I was waiting for a time to perfect it before I wanted to publish it. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks about this chapter. This was one of the longest I have written being over 1500 words. Happy to see that Blaney got the pole for the race on Wednesday! All my love- MK