Brynne sat outside the leasing office of Providence Park Apartment Homes in South Charlotte and nervously wrung her hands together. She was twenty minutes early for her appointment with their leasing agent and it was giving her way too much time to overthink everything even though she knew this was where she wanted to be and what she wanted to do.
And Providence Park was absolutely perfect – she would have her own covered patio or balcony (depending on if she ended up with an upstairs or downstairs apartment), an attached garage, in apartment laundry room and a gas fireplace – and that was just the amenities offered in her apartment. The community itself had so many more things to offer – a swimming pool, fitness center, shareable library, postal center, community center and a dog park among other things. And best of all – she would have her own space again.
She continued flipping through the pamphlet her real estate agent had provided her with, and the more she looked at it the more she felt her anxiety ease away... this move felt right, it felt like home. Her new home.
When 9:00am rolled around, she climbed out of Julie's car and wiped her sweaty hands on her pants before walking up and into the leasing office.
The girl behind the desk smiled at her as Brynne let herself in and asked, "Hi, can I help you?"
"Yes, my name is Brynne Matthews, I have an appointment at 9am..."
"Ah yes, Miss Matthews, my name is Sophie Baxter, I spoke to you over the phone. Come on in and take a seat please." Brynne sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk and smiled. "So, are you new to the area?"
"I'm currently coming from the Boston area, but my best friend and her fiancé live here and so does my boyfriend, so I'm currently shuffling between both of their houses and just looking for a space to call my own again!"
"We can certainly help you with that! So we do lease's in 6 month, 1 year or 18 month terms, or we can also do it on a month to month basis at a higher price rate, but our most popular options tend to be the 12-18 months range."
"I definitely think I want to stick with a 12 month lease."
"And you can make that kind of commitment Miss Matthews?" Sophie asked.
Brynne nodded, feeling like she was currently on the hot seat, her hands and forehead sweaty. Was there someone there recording her for a TV show? "I have no intentions of leaving the Charlotte area, I'm planning on building my life around this city."
"Okay, and obviously after the 12 months is up, you can resign your lease for another 12 months, or choose to go with the 6 month or 18 month option or even month or month, or if you choose to, to terminate your lease." Brynne nodded, acknowledging that she understood her options. They were really no different than any other place she had ever lived. "Okay, so our next step will be to get you to fill out this application –"
"Actually," Brynne interrupted, "I took it upon myself to print the application off before I came and fill it out, including all my previous landlord references."
Sophie laughed lightly, "An overachiever are you?"
"No, just a woman who knows what she wants when she sees it."
"I like that Miss Matthews, and I like you. So nothing can be official until we look in to your references and background information, but would you like a tour of the property while you're here?"
"Please call me Brynne, and yes I'd love that!"
Sophie grabbed a set of keys off her desk and nodded towards the door, "I have a golf cart out back, we can use that to get around the community quicker."
*
Brynne climbed back in to the car feeling lighter and happier than she had in a long time. She really hoped everything worked out with all their background information check, because she really could see herself fitting in here well and really being able to turn this place into a home for herself.
And even better – it would keep her in Charlotte near Martin and Julie.
Going back to New York or finding another place to start over besides North Carolina was the last thing she wanted to even think about doing, so she was all in here. Charlotte or bust.
*
Martin had changed his shirt four times and his tie more times than she could count, and still continued to pace back and forth in front of the mirror.
"I don't know about this one either..."
She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind to keep him from pacing anymore, and also to provide him with some sense of comfort. "Babe, you look fine. Great even. You looked great in the first shirt you had on. You're just nervous, I understand that. But go in there and treat it just like you did the last time and things will be fine... and even better, this time I'll get to be in there with you for support. We can get through this. We will get through this. Don't get yourself too worked up, please."
He turned around and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him and crushing her body against his. "What the fuck would I do without you Brynne?"
"Walk a hole in your floor and show up to court in nothing because you can't settle on an outfit?" He laughed and she placed a kiss on his neck glad she could make him laugh and hopefully ease some of his tension away. "Are you ready to finish getting dressed and get on our way? We don't want to be late."
What he didn't know is that Brynne had coordinated to have plenty of supporters for Martin in the court room today – including his parents. They had known court was coming, but Brynne had contacted them with the date and time and they had made the trip down to support their son – and their new granddaughter – in court. Of course Julie and Junior were going to be there too among a few of their other friends, but Brynne had put that together on her own, wanting to surprise Martin with the amount of support he was going to have in this new adventure they would be starting together with Kinsey.
"How about this one?"
Brynne smiled and ran her hand down his chest, "Perfect. It makes your eyes pop."
"I don't think the judge is going to care about my eyes Brynne..."
"Well, maybe it'll be a female and she'll think you're attractive or they'll be a fan... you never know, babe..."
"Okay let's get out of here, crazy."
*
Martin was surprised when they walked in to the courthouse and he saw many familiar faces. He looked down at Brynne and she shrugged her shoulders, "I thought you could use the extra support today." They were all huddled outside the courtroom doors and as soon as they opened them, filed in and sat on the left-hand side of the courtroom in the rows of seats behind the table Martin was sitting at. His parents filed in and sat next to Brynne, followed by Julie and Junior and Kevin and Delana Harvick. And to his surprise, both Busch brothers and their spouses followed Josh in and sat down behind everyone else. Recently they had been hanging out with Kyle and Kurt more often, but it still took him by surprise that they would show up here and show their support... he knew it shouldn't though, because NASCAR was a giant family. If he would have told his entire team this was happening today, they would have all been here too. These people were only here because Brynne had arranged this all, and for that he was grateful. Especially when Kaleen walked in by herself. There wasn't a single other person who walked in with her or who sat in the rows of seats behind her.
He watched as she glanced at all the supporters in the seats behind him and her eyes kind of grew wide and glassy – maybe she finally realized she was outmatched here. All he wanted was visitation and they could have done this the easy way, but she always made things harder than they needed to be. She quickly turned towards the front of the courtroom and decided to ignore the group.
The judge entered from his quarters followed by a gentleman walking in from a door to the left side of the courtroom, everyone standing until the judge pounded his gavel and told everyone to be seated. "Let's get formalities out of the way, this is Bradley Anderson, he is our court reporter... he will be recording everything going on in this courtroom today for us. My name is Judge Michael Mathers, and I'm a family court judge. Today we are here to figure out visitation rights for Kinsey Lynn Montgomery, correct?"
"Yes."
"Yes sir."
"And you've both chosen to not be represented by an attorney today, correct?"
"Yes."
"That is correct, sir." To be honest Martin hadn't even thought about obtaining an attorney, but knew that in the future he probably should at least contact one in case something did come up, so at least he would have an attorney at the ready who would know the details of his current situation.
"And I am talking to Mr. Martin Truex, Jr. and Miss Kaleen Montgomery?"
"Yes judge."
"Yes sir."
"You both have already tried the mediation route, correct?"
"Yes we have," Martin answered.
"And were unable to come up with a resolution during mediation?"
"That is correct sir."
"I have an annotation here from the mediators that looks like what you were asking for visitation wise Mr. Truex... please correct me if I'm wrong or if something has changed since mediation, okay?"
"Okay sir."
"In mediation you were asking for current day visitation to be every other weekend, pick up day being Thursday until Sunday night with traveling to be included due to your occupation."
Martin nodded, "Yes sir."
"And you offered that once Kinsey got old enough to attend school you were willing to switch your visitation days to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Thursday until Sunday, with you acknowledging that it would be your responsibility to provide transportation to and from school if transportation wasn't available and your responsibility to assist in the completion of all school work that is assigned?"
"That is also correct, sir."
"You even went so far as to include holidays in your initial request – requesting holidays to be split so you both would get time on all holidays. With the suggestion of one of you getting Kinsey in the morning and afternoon, approximately 9am until 2pm and the other parent getting her in the afternoon and evening, approximately 2pm until 8pm, with the offer to swap times each year if agreed upon by both parents."
"That also sounds correct, sir."
"Birthdays and Christmas are always the hardest because everyone feels entitled to time on those days. So your suggestion on birthday was split time, with the discussion on split time being able to be done at a later time because some years you could be traveling for work on her birthday. And for Christmas, one parent would have Kinsey Christmas Eve until Christmas Day at noon at which time the other parent would get Kinsey from noon on Christmas Day through the overnight that night. And that holiday would swap every other year?"
"Yes sir."
"And those were the only requests you had?"
"Yes sir, that is all I was asking for."
"And Miss Montgomery, you did not agree to these terms in mediation correct?"
Kaleen sighed, "No I didn't."
"And which terms did you not agree to Miss Montgomery?"
"Um, all of them sir."
The judge slid his glasses down his nose and stared at Kaleen for a good, long minute before looking back up again, "There wasn't a single one of these visitation agreements that we just discussed Mr. Truex requesting that you could not agree to?"
"No sir not really."
"And may I ask why Miss Montgomery? You must have some good reasoning behind not letting your child spend time with her father." Everyone could hear the judgement behind the judge's words.
"Um in Martin's profession sir, he travels which he mentioned. But when he travels it requires him to be in a race car for hours at a time multiple times a weekend. So, who would watch Kinsey while he was busy?"
Before the judge could answer Brynne, Julie, Delana, Linda and Samantha Busch all stood up and raised their hand, their voices in unison saying, "I would watch her!"
The judge chuckled a bit before turning his attention back to Kaleen, "Now that we've established that Mr. Truex has some plan in place for who would watch his daughter Miss Montgomery, was that the only issue you had?"
Kaleen swallowed uncomfortably, feeling all eyes on her and knowing that the judge had her exact words from the mediation session in front of him, so he knew exactly what she said that day. "I feel like when Martin has Kinsey he would be introducing her to so many other females – as evidenced by all the women who just offered to watch her while he was working – and I'd prefer my daughter not to bond with that many other females."
"That's rich coming from you Kaleen!" Martin had had it with this chick, he was done. "You're at the track almost every weekend now with a different driver and my daughter and you don't see me over here saying you're letting her bond with too many males. Two of those females who just spoke up are my mother and my girlfriend, they're going to be around her one way or the other, so get over it!"
Brynne reached over and placed her arm on Martin's shoulder, squeezing gently, trying to calm him down a little bit. He knew he shouldn't have lashed out like that in the middle of the court room, but he couldn't help it after Kaleen had had the nerve to voice that as one of her concerns.
"I'm going to be frank with you Miss Montgomery, the excuses that you have to keep your daughter's father away from her are absolutely immature, and after the things I've seen over the years in this courtroom, there are some mother's who have to practically beg their child's father to have anything to do with a child they helped to create, so for you to sit here and try to use these excuses as reasons to keep him away from his child, please grow up. A father has rights when it comes to their child, and if all he is asking for at this point is every other weekend and to split holidays I would consider yourself lucky, because I've seen father's come after for far more before."
"I – I –"
"I think we've heard enough Miss Montgomery. If we've covered all visitation requests on behalf of Mr. Martin Truex Jr. in regard to visitation of Kinsey Lynn Montgomery, then I'm ready to make my decision." Everyone quieted right down. "While her mother Kaleen Montgomery still stands as her primary caretaker and holds residency rights, I'm going to grant the following visitation requests to Mr. Truex: every other weekend, with pick up being on Thursday and drop off being on Sunday night when he arrives home, we can include what visitation will change to once Kinsey starts school in there just so you all don't have to come back before to get this all documented again – school visitation will be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with Mr. Truex providing all transportation to and from school if transportation isn't available. Holidays will be split – one parent receiving the child from 9am until 2pm and the other parent receiving the child from 2pm until 8pm – I will leave it up to the two of you to decide if you swap times for holidays every year and who gets what time for the first year. I do want to throw in here though, Miss Montgomery will get Kinsey for the entirety of Mother's Day, whereas Mr. Truex will get Kinsey for the entirety of Father's Day each year. Birthday's will be split equally, with birthday parties taking place on other days within your own visitation times, you may split birthday visitation like normal holiday visitation if you'd like. And Christmas will be as you all asked for it – one parent will get Kinsey Christmas Eve until noon on Christmas Day, whereas you will then exchange custody of Kinsey and the other parent will get her from noon on Christmas Day overnight until the day after Christmas, and this one will switch every year. I would like Mr. Truex included in the communication of all of Kinsey's doctor's appointments and medical records and all school records, too. Do you have any questions?"
Martin's leg bounced up and down excitedly as he was trying to hold it all in. "When does this all start?"
"Your first weekend will be next weekend Mr. Truex, you and Miss Montgomery may decide where you will meet to exchange custody. If there are no more questions, you folks are all set. Thank you and please if you have any questions, call and ask. The court will mail you a copy of the visitation paperwork within 7-10 business days, I suggest keeping a copy on hand somewhere in the case of the police ever needing to get involved in a custody situation, because they will ask to see your custody paperwork to settle the dispute. Thank you."
The judge got up and walked back in to his quarters, the court reporter heading back out the door as Martin stood up and turned towards his 'cheering squad'. Brynne wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips, smiling up at him slightly. "I told you everything would be okay."
Before Martin could reply they heard a screech and Kaleen stomped her feet the entire way out of the courtroom. Everyone looked at Martin and shook their heads and he just rolled his eyes, "Real mature, huh?"
"Seems like the next 18 years of your life will be very interesting," Kyle joked.
"Please don't remind me, I try not to think about that portion of the baggage that comes along with my daughter." He grabbed Brynne's hand as he walked up to everyone that had come, "I want to thank you all for coming here to support me today, I sincerely appreciate it."
"We wouldn't want to be anywhere else." He shook all the guys hands and gave all the women hugs as they walked out of the courtroom, Julie whispering to Brynne to call her later on their way out the door.
Martin's mom engulfed him in a hug once it was just the four of them left, his dad putting his hand on his shoulder and squeezing lightly as he leaned in to his son's ear and whispered, "Son, don't let that girl go." He knew his dad was right, not that he intended to let her go, but this had secured that for him. Brynne was it.
His mom had tears streaming down her face as she pulled away, still holding his hand, "In a couple weeks when you have Kinsey again we'd like to come down and meet her, okay? Just let us know once you get everything all settled with your visitations and getting her settled in to your house."
"I will mom. The off season is coming up, too. Once we get through Julie and Junior's wedding we can probably make a trip up there with Kinsey, I want Peyton and Deana to be able to formally meet her too."
"Okay honey, keep in touch, will ya? And let me know if you need anything, anything really, even something super small. We do have to go though so we don't get home too late with our long drive back home. I love you."
"I love you too, mom. Thanks so much for coming today, you don't know how much having your support in there meant to me."
"Don't thank us sweetheart, thank Brynne. She's the one who coordinated it all with us coming down and being here. She's a good catch. Let's not mess it up this time."
He looked over his shoulder at Brynne talking animatedly with his dad and smiled, "She sure is and I have no intention of messing anything up this time... I learned my lesson the hard way last time."
*
They settled back in his truck with sighs of relief, knowing that the fight may be long from over, but they had won the first battle.
"So now what?" Brynne asked.
"I don't know. We get Kinsey next weekend, and I think from there it goes every other weekend and we have to figure out who gets when for the upcoming holidays."
"I feel like we're completely unprepared for that, babe. We have nothing for a baby..."
"Well then I guess we have to go shopping then."
"You hate shopping," Brynne laughed.
"I love anything I get to do with you."
"Smooth Truex, real smooth."
He started the truck up and drove them to the closest Babies 'R Us, where they parked and grabbed a cart as they walked in to the store.
"You think one cart is going to be enough?" Martin asked.
"No probably not, you should probably get one too."
He grabbed another cart and they headed into the store. "So, what does a baby need?" She laughed out loud at him, he was such a guy.
"Well, they need somewhere to sleep," Brynne told him, "For at the track it's probably going to be easiest to have her sleep in a pack 'n play because of the size restrictions, but at the house she's going to need a crib. Then bedding for both. Diapers – lots of diapers and wipes. We need to buy her clothes and toys. And a car seat so she has something to ride around in in the car and on the flights to and from the tracks. You can find a stroller and car seat combo which is really cool because the car seat fits right into the stroller and when she gets older, she can just sit in the stroller. Right now it may be easiest to get a strap on baby carrier to carry her around the track in – you can wear it on your front or your back... I actually saw Kaleen carrying her that way at the track a couple weeks ago. She's also going to need a bathtub, towels, bath toys, all bath soaps... they have these little bouncers and walkers that are really cool and kind of intended for kids her age that don't walk yet to encourage them to walk. Play gyms for them to lay on so they can play on their back and stomach – this helps to strengthen their neck muscles and work on their muscles during tummy time. A high chair of course so she has somewhere to sit and eat when she starts eating baby food. Bottles, sippy cups, formula. Oh! And you can't forget the baby monitors! You can get traditional baby monitors which are just the sound ones, or you can get these fancy ones they have now that show videos of the baby in their room, too! Then there's the health kits and thermometers, Tylenol for when she's not feeling well, and a diaper bag to put all the stuff into that we have to carry around with us..."
His mind looked blown and he looked completely overwhelmed. "Jesus Brynne, I don't even know where to start..."
"How about we just start in the first aisle and go up and down all the aisles and then we grab what we think we need and put it in the carts. One aisle at a time, so we don't get ahead of ourselves or too overwhelmed."
Brynne was a lot better at this mom thing than he felt he was currently being at the dad thing, so he just gripped her hand and nodded, "Yeah, let's go..."
"Have you given any thought as to what theme you want to do the nursery as?"
"What? A theme? For what?"
"Yeah a theme," Brynne nodded, "Like what decorations, paint and bedding you want to go with that all matches to give her room one central theme."
"Kids rooms have to have matching décor now?"
Brynne laughed, "I love you baby, but you are so clueless sometimes. Leave the nursery decorating to me."
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Three hours – and plenty of money – later, Martin, Brynne and a sales associate were wheeling three carts full of baby accessories out to Martin's truck thanking God that the bed of his truck had a cover over it, because otherwise they did not know where they would be putting all of this stuff.
But in the end, they had everything they were going to need for Kinsey and that was really all that mattered.
Once everything was loaded in the truck Martin climbed in with a sigh, "I'm officially exhausted."
"Shopping will do that to you, babe."
"Baby shopping is the worst."
"Well, most people don't have to baby shop for everything at once on such short notice... if we would have known ahead of time that this was going to for sure have been the outcome of the court date I could have thrown you a baby shower for Kinsey or something. You know your family and everyone at the track would have loved to go crazy buying some of this stuff for you... we just couldn't wait and do that and chance not having everything we need for her next weekend when we get her."
He grabbed her hand and interlocked their fingers, kissing the back of her hand. "We'll have to have a little welcoming party for Kinsey once we get through the holidays and the New Year, invite all my family and all of our friends... before Daytona next year. Just give everyone a chance to officially meet her if they haven't already at that point."
She smiled back at him, so happy that they were including each other in all of their future plans it seemed, "That sounds like the perfect plan baby. A 'Meet the Baby' baby shower."
*
Brynne and Martin had ordered Chinese on their way home from their shopping trip and eaten it on the couch in front of the TV before they'd gotten to work on the nursery, successfully getting the crib assembled, décor hung up, a dresser placed, the rocker assembled and in place and some of her toys put together and in her room too. The rest would have to wait for another day when they weren't so worn out from the crazy emotional day.
They lay in bed later that night, holding hands and looking up at the ceiling. Both felt exhausted, but at the same point not tired enough to apparently make their bodies shut down so they could fall asleep.
"Brynne?"
She rolled to her side and looked at him. "Hmm?"
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and caressed her cheek, "Thank you."
"For what?"
Martin rolled to his back and looked at the ceiling again, collecting his thoughts for a moment before rolling back to his side and grabbing her hand in his again. "For being here, for pushing me to go after visitation and sticking around through all of Kaleen's shit. I would not have blamed you for running away from all my baggage."
"Babe," she leaned over and kissed his nose lightly, "I'm the queen of baggage, trust me, I couldn't turn my back on you and Kinsey like that. Not when the three of us just started making memories together."
The three of us.
He liked the sound of that.
"I love you."
"I love you too, Martin."
He pulled her body into his and kissed her forehead, "I'll never go another moment of our lives together not telling you that as much as I possibly can."
***
I've been attempting to edit this chapter for the last 2 1/2 hours but the race is distracting me, so here it is.
