Life at Best

Chapter Twelve

This may be one of, if not my favorite chapters of the story (so far and in the future of what I've written ahead).  I had so much fun writing it and I hope you enjoy it too!  Song lyrics are from Last Time I Say Sorry by Kane Brown and John Legend and I Don't Love You by Lindsay Ell!

Chapter Twelve

Junior sat in the driver's seat of Julie's SUV with a giddy look on his face, waiting for Julie and Brynne to make their way out to the car where he'd been sitting for a good 15 minutes waiting for them, slowly growing impatient.

He laid on the horn until he saw Julie stomp out of the house, Brynne trailing behind her with a scowl on her face. "Impatient much?" she grumbled.

"Woman," he grunted, "You wanted me to act excited about all this wedding planning shit... well, this is me acting interested and excited."

"That's just 'cause we're going to do a cake testing..."

He shrugged as if saying 'what's your point' and said, "Beggars can't be choosers baby."

Julie rolled her eyes amid Brynne's giggles from the back of the car at the antics of the two of them. "Well then Romeo, let's get this show on the road."

"Anything you for you mi'lady."

*

"This is my kind of wedding preparation," Dale mumbled as the four of them walked into The Wow Factor Cakes in downtown Charlotte the day before they'd be leaving for Richmond for the race that weekend.

Julie chuckled and shook her head at her fiancé, Brynne rolling her eyes behind them. "Honey, they don't give you full slices of cake, only little pieces so you can get a good feel for the flavor and taste..."

"But we can try as many flavors as we want, right?"

"Well yeah, but is that really necessary?" Julie asked.

"I like cake," he responded with a shrug, "So yeah, I want to try them all to get the full effect. And they won't tell this face no." The smirk on his face said it all.

Julie rolled her eyes, "Cocky much?"

"Better be careful dude," Martin spoke up, "You eat too much cake and you might get fat, then you won't be able to fit into your tux we just got fitted for, and do you really want to go through all that again?"

"Shut the fuck up Truex, no one asked for your opinion," Junior growled. Julie laid a hand on each of their shoulders and clicked her tongue, "Now, now, now children, we are in public so we have to behave as such."

They chuckled and shook their heads as they walked through the front door, Julie laying back a little bit and walking in with Brynne who was hanging back from the group quietly, "You okay Bry?"

"I'm good," she smiled slightly.

"I think you're lying, but I'm not going to push you too much right now, let's get in there before the boys eat all the cake on us."

Julie and Brynne walked in and found Martin and Junior sitting down at a little countertop, talking to the owner who obviously seemed to be a NASCAR fan. Julie sat down in the open chair to the left of Junior, leaving the seat between Junior and Martin open for Brynne. She slid into the seat quietly, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Martin when his hand lightly brushed hers. She caught his eye and they shared a little smile before their attention focused in on the conversation before them and of course, cake.

*

The girls sat in the motor coach on Friday waiting for qualifying to finish up and looking through all the notes and important details they'd written out for the wedding over the next couple weeks. To-do lists, appointment dates and times, little details of things they needed to remember to do or bring, anything you could think of that pertained to a wedding was written on their lists with important little notes or details scrawled next to it.

"It feels good to keep checking things off the to-do list," Julie whispered.

"Yeah," Brynne nodded, "Our main focus at this point has to be my dress, the flowers, what we're going to eat and invitations, right?"

"Yep." Both their heads whipped up expectantly when the coach door opened, and Junior walked up the stairs.

"Hey. The Harvick's are having another barbeque, wanna head over?"

The girls shrugged, knowing they really didn't have much else they could do at this point for the wedding being that they were in Richmond for the weekend and most of their other details needed to be taken care of in Charlotte, so they really had no reason to say no.  "Sure."

Everyone was congregated around the outside of the Harvick's, drinking and chatting away. Junior and Julie headed towards the hosts as Brynne spotted an open seat next to Martin, figuring what the hell?  Might as well get it out of the way.  He glanced at her over his sunglasses as she slid onto the chair next to him. "Hey."

"Hey, what's up?"

She shrugged and relaxed back into the recliner, "I haven't seen you girls around much this weekend."

"Julie and I have basically been locked away in the coach all weekend trying to finalize as many wedding details as we could manage and set up appointments for everything else that couldn't be taken care of from the track for this coming week when we get back home. Life will be less hectic when everything is booked, and we don't have to worry about anything until like the two weeks before the actual wedding."

"I can definitely say at times like this that it's good to be a man... you get fitted for a tux and have to show up on your wedding day and other than that, there's not really much a guy needs to worry about."

Brynne rolled her eyes. "What a guy thing to say. I would expect that out of Junior, but I expected better out of you, Martin Truex Jr."

His shoulders hitched up and down with laughter, "Well, you know, what can I say?" They lapsed into a somewhat awkward silence before Martin broke the silence by glancing at her over the top of his sunglasses again, "Do you want to go for a walk or something?"

"Sure," Brynne shrugged.

They got up from their chairs and headed away from the group in silence, until Martin could no longer handle the silence between the two of them. "So how are you, Brynne? How have you been?"

"I'm fine." Martin grabbed Brynne's hand to stop her from walking, causing an electric shock to shoot up through her hand straight to her heart at his touch. His eyes connected with hers, as if he felt it too, willing her to be honest with him. "Okay.  I've been okay. I'm surviving and getting through day to day. At this point, that's all I can ask for." Brynne held her hand out in front of her to motion for the two of them to keep walking, Martin following her lead as she continued their walk. "Honestly, Julie and I have accomplished a lot for the wedding in the last few days which takes a lot of stress off, and right now my focus has to be on making this day the greatest day ever for my best friend. Beyond that I can't really have many expectations, I can't do that to myself right now. Or to Julie. She needs 100% of me right now."

Walking side by side, his hand kept brushing against hers; she wasn't sure if he was doing it by accident or on purpose, but it was causing her heart to do some crazy things. "Well, if you need help with anything, I'll help with whatever needs to be done."

"Thanks Martin, I appreciate the offer." She smiled at him. "So how have you been? How is the baby?"

"Surviving. Making it day by day. Kinsey is growing like a weed. And I see her as much as I can. But things are complicated on that front."

"Complicated?"

Martin sighed, his forehead wrinkles coming out full force showing his concern, he knew Kinsey and obviously with Kinsey, her mom were at one point a sore subject for Brynne, but she brought it up, so he assumed she had a grasp on it.  His hand nervously ran across the back of his neck, his 'nervous tell',  "Kaleen is a little –"

"Psycho?" Brynne filled in.

He chuckled, "Yes, Kaleen is a little psycho... and as of right now, the only way I can see Kinsey is if I go over to her house or if I take the two of them somewhere or to an appointment or something like that. At this point, none of my friends or my family have met my daughter."

"Oh."

Martin sighed again, knowing that talking about Kaleen was a sensitive subject for Brynne, and he wanted nothing more than to shield her from hurt, but if there was one thing he had learned in this whole fiasco their relationship had turned in to, it was that from here on out he needed to always be honest with her. It was the only way they were ever going to have the possibility of having a future.

"I know. The whole situation is a mess..."

"It is a mess, and I know your life is busy and you're gone half the year, but Martin you deserve more than that and Kinsey deserves more than that. You deserve to see your daughter when you want to and not when you're blackmailed into it and Kinsey deserves to get to know you away from Kaleen and to get to know your family and friends. And if nothing else, I hope you see that. See how much you deserve."

He grabbed Brynne's hand to stop her from walking and had to talk himself out of kissing her. He couldn't afford to push her away by pushing her too hard, so instead he folded her into his arms and held her tight, sighing with relief when she relaxed in his arms. This was the first time in months he had her in his arms, and he could only hope this was the first time of many to come.

Over Brynne's shoulder he saw Kaleen slink into another driver's motorhome, grinding his teeth together in annoyance and frustration. Brynne was right, he deserved more and so did his daughter.

*

Sunday night they all made their way back to North Carolina and found themselves out celebrating Junior's win at Richmond earlier in the day. And much like when anyone else won, the alcohol liked to flow.

Julie and Brynne sat at a table doubled over laughing at Delana and Kevin Harvick up on-stage singing Britney Spears on the karaoke machine. The bar had closed down to anyone who wasn't involved with the NASCAR circuit - and hadn't been personally invited by the man of the night – to give the driver's, their friends and their significant others some privacy to celebrate.

Martin and Junior were up at the bar grabbing the girls another round of drinks as Julie watched Brynne stare off into her own world. "What's on your mind best friend?"

Brynne sighed and just shook her head. She had told Julie about what had happened when she had taken a walk with Martin the other night while they were still at the track, just trying to get another person's perspective on the situation. All her best friend had done was remind Brynne of all the good times she'd had with Martin. And it seemed there were many more good times than bad.

"Just thinking."

"About Martin?"

"Well yeah... sort of. Just about the whole situation... I want to forgive and forget... I mean, I think I've forgiven him, but I don't know if I can forget as easily..."

"I mean that's going to be up to you Brynne to know when the time is right. Just remember, at the end of the day the two of you still love each other, only you will know if that will be enough."

A couple hours later the girls were drunk. They'd already gotten up twice and sang 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and 'I Love Rock 'n Roll' and everyone seemed to be having a good time. But Martin was driving Brynne crazy.

His hand kept brushing hers and brushing her leg and it was making her think negative thoughts and good thoughts and bad thoughts and naughty thoughts all at the same time. She didn't know what was up or what was down at this point. She attributed that partially to the alcohol and partially to Martin.

"Where did Martin go?" Julie asked Junior.  He had snuck away while the girls were whispering and giggling back and forth - the alcohol painting their cheeks pink and their eyes red.

"I think he said he was heading to the bathroom or the bar or something..."

All of a sudden they all heard a voice that they all recognized come through the karaoke system as the opening chords of a ballad started.

I won't say I'm sorry over and over
Can't just say I'm sorry, I've gotta show you
I won't do it again, I'll prove my love is true
I hope the last time I said sorry
Is the last time I'll say sorry to you