Revved Up Hearts (25 page)

“I’m sorry, Dawn, but Cole and Jesse just started fighting over a bicycle. I gotta go settle this. I love you. Bye,” her mom said in a
rush.

“Bye,” Dawn said, but she didn’t think she heard her. “There is no way in the world that I could do what that woman does for a living.” Dawn laughed as she hung up the
phone.

The next race was in Fontana, California, just outside of Los Angeles. Jeremiah won that race last year and left for California two days early to do publicity for the race. He sent Dawn flowers on Wednesday and called her at least once every day. She missed him. It hadn’t even been two days, and she missed him so much. She had it bad. The first thing she did when she got to the track on Thursday afternoon was look for Jeremiah at his garage stall. He wasn’t there, and she was so disappointed. She tried him on his cell phone, and he didn’t answer. He never answered his cell phone. She would have to ask him why he even had one. She went to Bryan’s garage stall and read a book while she watched the guys work. Dawn was so engrossed in the story of her book that she didn’t even know when Jeremiah got there. He snuck up behind her and goosed her. She threw her book and screamed. Jeremiah, Bryan, and all the crew who had been watching hooted with laughter. Dawn blushed then laughed with everyone else. She got up to give Jeremiah a hug, but he had something else in mind. He pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers. Instead of pulling away like she had done so many times in the past, she stepped into his embrace. They enjoyed their first long kiss. They had been so excited about Jeremiah’s salvation decision on Monday night that they hadn’t kissed before Dawn left. They hadn’t seen each other since, because Jeremiah left early the next morning. He had joked about it Tuesday afternoon when he called her and told her that she had better be ready when he saw her again. She was not disappointed. She blushed when the kiss was over and saw that Bryan and all the crew were still
watching.

“Do you have any plans for this afternoon?” Jeremiah asked
her.

“No. I was going to sit here and read until it was time to order supper for the crew. Why?”

“I have to go back into the city to do a TV interview. I was hoping that you’d come with
me.”

“Can I go, Bryan?” Dawn asked her
boss.

“Yeah. I guess we can use the phone for ourselves later. Go and have
fun.”

“Thanks,” Dawn
said.

“Yeah. Thanks, man.”

“No
problem.”

Jeremiah linked fingers with Dawn’s as they walked out of the garage stall. “I need to go by my hotel room to get my purse. Do we have
time?”

“Yeah, and grab your camera.” They drove into LA, and once again, Dawn was excited. “Is this your first time in
LA?”

“Yes. Can we do some sightseeing after your
interview?”

“You bet. That’s one of the reasons that I wanted you to come with
me.”

“One of the reasons? What are the
others?”

“Those would be surprises,” he
teased.

“No
hints?”

“No
hints.”

“Okay. If it has to be that way.” They stopped in front of the TV studios. “What show are you
doing?”

“That is surprise number one. I’m doing
The Daily Wrap-up
.”

“With Todd
Graham?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, my. I can’t believe that I’m going to meet Todd Graham. He is so
funny.”

Jeremiah started to answer, but a valet approached the truck. Jeremiah got out and handed the young man the keys. “It’s a rental. Be careful.” Then he walked around to help Dawn out of the
vehicle.

“Don’t they provide you with a car and driver?” she asked as they walked toward the
building.

“They offered, but I said no,” he
answered.

“Why?” she asked, but he didn’t answer while he held the door open for her. He put his hand on the small of her back as she passed. He was such a gentleman. Once they were both inside, she pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head so that she could look at him. “Why?” she asked
again.

“Isn’t it obvious? I like to drive,” he told her and gave her a quick peck. He started to kiss her again, but they were greeted by a member of the staff who introduced herself as Becky. Becky escorted them down the hall to an elevator. Dawn listened as Becky filled Jeremiah in on what was going to happen. Once out of the elevator, Becky led them to makeup. “This is the worst part,” Jeremiah said as he took a seat in the
chair.

“All you big, tough guys say the same thing,” the makeup artist told him. “My name is Bobby, and this won’t hurt a
bit.”

Dawn grabbed her camera and snapped a couple of pictures while the makeup was being applied to Jeremiah’s face. He didn’t say anything but gave Dawn a dirty look. “They won’t end up on the Internet or anything. I won’t even print them, but I bet Wes and the guys will get a kick out of these,” Dawn
teased.

“No way,” Jeremiah said. “I’ll pay you good money to delete those before anybody sees
them.”

“We’ll talk later.” After makeup, they went to
wardrobe.

“Is what you’re wearing now what you want to wear on the show?” the older lady asked. Jeremiah was wearing a royal blue polo with his major sponsor’s logo on the front. With it, he wore black slacks and black dress shoes. Dawn thought that he looked really
nice.

“Is there anything wrong with it? I’m contractually obligated to wear something with my sponsor’s logo when I do
TV.”

“It that case, I guess it’ll
work.”

“Thanks,” Jeremiah said, but the woman had already returned to the garment she was repairing and didn’t
reply.

Then they were taken to a dressing room that had Jeremiah’s name on the door. “I hope I can have that when we’re done. My mom would love to have it.” They went inside to wait until they were called. There was a table and chairs with a fruit basket and snacks. There was also a small refrigerator with assorted beverages. They had been told to help themselves to whatever they
wanted.

“Do you want anything?” he asked
her.

“Just a bottle of water,” she told him as she took a seat on the sofa. Jeremiah got himself a package of crackers and a soda. He then took a seat beside
her.

“I found something in the Bible last night that I didn’t understand,” he said as he handed her the bottle of
water.

“What?” she asked, but the door opened before he could continue, and Todd Graham walked
in.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m on my way to start taping, but I wanted to drop by first,” he said as he crossed the room to where Jeremiah and Dawn sat. Jeremiah stood, and the men shook hands. Then Todd shook hands with Dawn. “Is everything okay?” Todd asked. “Is everybody treating you
okay?”

“Yes. Everything’s great,” Jeremiah
answered.

“Great. Becky is at your disposal. Let her know if you need anything, and she’ll take care of it for you.” Todd had just enough time to pose for pictures with Dawn and Jeremiah before he had to leave. They watched the monologue on a TV monitor in the dressing room before they were taken to the green room. It’s a room right beside the actual studio where guests wait for their turn. From there, they watched Todd interview his first guest, a big-time actress who was promoting her latest movie. When they went to commercial, Becky came to get Jeremiah to take him to the studio. He waited behind a wall while Todd introduced him. Then Jeremiah walked around the wall to greet Todd and shake his hand again. Then the two walked the short distance to the interview
area.

“Now, you were involved in quite a crash last week, weren’t you?” was Todd’s first question when they were both
seated.

“Yeah. It was the worst of my career,” Jeremiah
answered.

“I think we have footage of that,” Todd said. “Can we show that?” Dawn looked away from the monitor while they showed the wreck. She couldn’t watch it again. “So what were you thinking during that?” Todd asked when the footage
stopped.

Jeremiah said, “I can’t repeat that on TV, Todd.” The audience laughed at Jeremiah’s
joke.

Todd said, “I understand that. But seriously, you walked away from that. How?”

“The cars are
that
safe. When I get in the car, I am strapped in to the point that I can barely move. The major cause of injury in an accident like that is the bouncing around, but when you’re secure like that, you’re going to be okay. I mean, I was sore the next day, but that was nothing compared to how bad it could have
been.”

“So you’re racing at Fontana this weekend. You won that race last year. What are your chances of winning again on
Sunday?”

“Pretty good. We brought a car that is almost identical to the car that we won with last year. We came out here and tested with the #91 Dodge before Christmas, and it ran a little better than last year. If we can keep that up, we should be able to add another trophy to the case on
Monday.”

“So have you gotten to enjoy any of this warm Southern California
weather?”

“No. I’ve been in town since Tuesday, but I’ve been busy with race stuff. I’m free this afternoon, and I’m going to take a friend to see all the
sights.”

“I met your friend backstage. She is very pretty. Are you just friends, or is there more going
on?”

“I like her a lot, and she likes me. At this point we’re seeing if there is anything more to our relationship than friendship.” There was a groan from the women of the
audience.

“Sorry, ladies, but it sounds like Jeremiah Jones is no longer on the market,” Todd said, and the women groaned again. “Well, I’ll let you go so that you can continue with your date. The NASCAR race at Fontana is Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Thank you for joining us, Jeremiah.”

“Anytime, Todd.” They went to commercial, and Jeremiah shook Todd’s hand one last time while a stagehand removed the microphone that Jeremiah was wearing. Then he went into the green room to get
Dawn.

“How did I do?” he asked as he took her
hand.

“Great,” she
answered.

“I didn’t know he was going to ask about you. Was that
okay?”

“Yes. It was neat to be the subject of celebrity
gossip.”

“You are such a good sport,” he said as he gave her a hug. “Now let’s go to surprise number
two.”

Dawn waited in the truck while Jeremiah went back inside to change into the jean shorts and tennis shoes that he had brought with him. He told her that he didn’t want to do a lot of walking while wearing dress clothes. When Jeremiah returned, they only drove for a few minutes before Dawn saw what she hoped was his next surprise. “That’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where they have the handprints of all the movie stars. Is that where we’re
going?”

“Yes.” Jeremiah smiled at Dawn’s obvious
excitement.

“I’ve always wanted to see this.” They parked a couple of blocks away and walked to the historic theatre. Jeremiah tried to walk, but Dawn practically ran and dragged him along behind her. “Have you ever been here
before?”

“No. I was going to come last year, but the car had a vibration that had to be fixed, so I didn’t
come.”

“So we are doing this for the first time
together.”

“Yes,” Jeremiah said and pulled her closer so that he could put his arm around her shoulders. They both lost track of time as they walked around the grounds of the theatre. The people here were movie buffs, and not NASCAR fans. No one bothered Jeremiah as he walked. Jeremiah took Dawn’s picture as she put her hands in Marilyn Monroe’s handprints, and Dawn took one of Jeremiah as he stood in John Wayne’s boot prints. All the movie legends were here: Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, Gene Kelly, and Clint Eastwood. It was amazing to stand in the same places that all these famous people had stood. Another tourist took Dawn and Jeremiah’s picture together in front of the famous building. Dawn’s stomach growled, and she looked at her watch. It was after 6:00 p.m. She hadn’t eaten since lunch. No wonder she was getting hungry. Jeremiah heard and declared that the growling stomach meant it was time to move on to the next surprise. They were almost back to the truck when Jeremiah asked, “Do you know where you
are?”