Revved Up Hearts (27 page)

“I don’t have time to take a
shower.”

“How long do you shower?” he
joked.

“You know what I
mean.”

“You’ll be
fine.”

“Are you
sure?”

“Yes. It’s warm tonight, and we’re all wearing fire suits. By the time the race is over, we’ll all be very ripe. You’ll be the cleanest of the
bunch.”

“That’s
gross.”

“C’mon.”

Dawn sighed. She wanted to go see him so there was no use in arguing with him. “I’ll be right
over.”

Dawn got there right after the start of the race. She climbed up the pit box to sit behind Wes. “What’s going
on?”

“Not much. We’re only twenty laps into the
race.”

“Oh.”

“So, you and Jeremiah are getting along pretty well, huh?

“Yeah, I
guess.”

“He really likes
you.”

“I
know.”

Wes thought for a moment before continuing. “I’m telling you this because Jeremiah doesn’t do anything halfway. He either goes at something full throttle, 100 percent, or he doesn’t go after it at
all.”

“If you’re afraid that I’ll hurt him, I won’t.”

“I know that you wouldn’t intentionally, but when a guy like Jeremiah goes at something and fails, he gets
hurt.”

“I
understand.”

“He’s been hurt before, but you helped him reestablish his relationship with God. A lot of us, me included, have tried for years to do that and failed.” Wes spoke, but he never took his eyes off the action on the track. “There were so many times when I tried to witness to him, and he wouldn’t listen. I tried to show him by example what it was like to be a Christian. Sometimes he would make comments that he had noticed, but most of the time he would not. There were times when I wanted to hit him upside the head with a Bible, but I’m pretty sure that would be a sin.” Dawn laughed. “My point is that God used you to bring him back. If something goes wrong between the two of you, I don’t know if he’ll stay with it. If he does turn his back on God again, I don’t know if anything could ever get him
back.”

“No
pressure.”

“It wouldn’t be you. I didn’t mean to imply that. It’s just the type of guy that he is. If something hurts him, he doesn’t want anything else to do with it after that. He’s not the type to give second
chances.”

“I understand what you are saying. But if that is true, how can he race week after week? I know that he’s been hurt, but he keeps on
racing.”

“I don’t know. Passion, I
guess.”

“We’ll just have to pray that he develops such a passion for God that nothing can put it
out.”

Wes’s only response was a
nod.

Dawn started to say more, but it was time for a pit stop and that took everyone’s full attention. Pit stops are so cool. They were definitely Dawn’s favorite part of the race. It amazed her to watch the crew fill up the gas tank, change four tires, and make any necessary changes to the car in under fifteen seconds. While the car was being taken care of, Jeremiah stuck a couple of fingers out of the window net and waved at Dawn. She waved
back.

“Keep your mind on the race, brother,” came Wes’s voice over the headset. Dawn blushed at being caught. The pit stop went smoothly as did the rest of the race. Jeremiah came within half a car length of a second place finish. Dawn was waiting on the ground behind the pit wall when Jeremiah climbed out of the car. He took off his helmet and gloves and threw them back into the car. He took a step toward Dawn, and she climbed over the pit wall toward him. He was stopped by a news crew, so she had to wait. Jeremiah did several interviews in a row before the reporters moved on to the next driver. He walked the rest of the way to Dawn. She tried to hug him, but he put his hands up to stop
her.

“Sorry, babe. I wasn’t joking about stinking after the race. I’m so sweaty and gross. I don’t want to get you
dirty.”

“Not even a hug for coming in
third?”

“I can’t resist, but just a quick one.” They hugged, and then he helped her back over the pit wall. They held hands as they walked toward the motor coach. “I’m starving. I think I’m going to shower and then hit the burger joint across the street. Will you wait on me to clean up and then go with
me?”

“Why don’t I go get the food while you clean up and bring it back to the
coach?”

“That sounds great,” Jeremiah said. They walked the rest of the way to the motor coach so that Jeremiah could give Dawn some money. “Hey, one more thing. There’s a little store near the burger place that sells homemade ice cream. I’d love some mint chocolate
chip.”

“How do you eat like that and stay so thin? I used to eat like that but had to give it up to lose all my
weight.”

“I sweat away a lot of calories in that hot
car.”

“I didn’t think about that,” Dawn said and took that money he offered. “I’ll be back in a few
minutes.”

It took longer than expected because the restaurant was so busy. Everyone who was at the race must have been there. Dawn picked up a bacon double cheeseburger with the works and onion rings for Jeremiah. For herself, she got a grilled chicken sandwich. She went across the street to get the ice cream, but they were out of mint chocolate chip, so she got a half gallon of death by chocolate instead. Dawn’s hands were full as she walked back to the motor coach. She couldn’t open the door. She knocked, but Jeremiah didn’t answer. She kicked and that didn’t work either. Finally, she put the bags down and opened the door to the motor coach. She held it open with one foot while she picked up the bags and entered the coach. “Jeremiah,” she called as she put the bags on the table. “Jeremiah,” she called again but he still didn’t answer. She walked down the hall to the bathroom door. It was open and the shower wasn’t running. She took a few more steps to peek inside his bedroom door. There on the bed was Jeremiah, sound asleep and snoring like a
chainsaw.

Dawn didn’t sleep well that night. She couldn’t remember what she dreamed but knew that she had several bad dreams. She also knew that she had done a lot of tossing and turning. Finally, around 5:00 a.m., Dawn gave up on trying to sleep. She flipped on the lamp beside the bed and picked up her Bible. She turned to Galatians. Dawn enjoyed reading these letters by Paul to the early church where he explained God’s grace and freedom. This book of the New Testament always made Dawn think about her salvation and what Jesus did for her. It made her take a moment to be thankful for everything. She would have to share this with
Jeremiah.

Dawn marked her place so that she could continue later. Then she got out of bed, took a shower, and got ready to go to the track. She checked out of the hotel around 7:00 a.m. After stopping at the hauler to store her stuff, she walked over to Bryan’s garage
stall.

“Dawn. Dawn!” She looked around to see who was calling her name. Jeremiah was jogging toward her and waving. She stopped and waited for him to catch up. “Sorry about last night. I got out of the shower and sat on my bed to put on my shoes. I woke up around three and ate my cheeseburger and ice
cream.”

“It’s okay. I know it takes a lot out of you when you
race.”

“But I hated doing it. I sent you for food, and then I didn’t get to enjoy it with
you.”

“Maybe next
time.”

“It’s a date. So, are you headed to Richardson’s
stall?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll walk with you.” It was still early, and not all of the crew members had gotten there yet, but Bryan was there. The three of them sat around eating doughnuts and drinking coffee. When Dawn arrived in Daytona a few weeks ago, she was told that Jeremiah and Bryan didn’t like each other. It turns out that that wasn’t true. The truth was that the two men had never gotten to know each other. So when the wreck happened and the two men didn’t speak to each other, the media and the fans assumed that there was a big feud. But since Dawn had come along and started dating Jeremiah, the two men had become friends. It turns out they had more in common than just racing. Both were avid outdoorsmen who loved to fish and deer hunt. Both also wanted to go into broadcasting after their racing careers were over. Now the three of them sat there talking, telling jokes, and planning a weekly Bible
study.

The rest of the crew started arriving, and the chaos of race morning began. The car was started, and it was running fine, so it was sent to prerace inspection. Bryan, Dawn, and Jeremiah went to chapel. Ironically, that morning’s scripture was in Galatians. She could tell that Jeremiah was interested. That was a good sign. Dawn didn’t stay for the drivers’ meeting. She had to make sure everything was ready so that they could leave right after the race. She was finished and had just sat down to take a short break when Bryan came back into the
garage.

“Jeremiah wants you to walk through driver introductions with him before you do prerace ceremonies with me. I told him that I’d send you
over.”

“Okay. I’ll see you in a little while.” Dawn walked over to Jeremiah’s garage stall. As soon as she got there, he gave her a kiss then handed her his helmet. She held it with one hand and his hand with her other while they walked down pit road. Dawn waited while he was introduced to the crowd, and they cheered. Some drivers got booed during driver introductions, but Dawn didn’t hear a single boo when Jeremiah’s name was called. From there, they walked to Jeremiah’s car. They said a quick prayer, and Dawn handed him his helmet. Then she gave him a quick peek on the cheek before going to Bryan’s
car.

The race went off without a hitch. Bryan finished fifth, and Jeremiah got another third-place finish. Dawn got home late on Sunday night and went straight to bed. She forgot to check her cell phone before going to sleep and was surprised to have over thirty missed calls, voicemails, and text messages.
Something must have happened back home
, she thought. She hoped her dad was okay. She called home to check
in.

“Hey. What’s going on? Did I miss something?” she asked when her mom answered. “Is Dad
okay?”

“Your dad is fine. He’s still asleep,” her mom answered. “No. You didn’t miss anything. You’re
it.”

“What does that
mean?”

“I don’t watch the NASCAR races, but everybody I know who does has been calling since yesterday
afternoon.”

“Why?”

“You really don’t
know?”

“All I know is that I have all these calls on my phone. I never get this many calls. What’s going
on?”

“Apparently, the TV people were interviewing James Fowler Jr. before the race yesterday. At the end of the interview, the cameraman zoomed out to show both James Fowler Jr. and the reporter. When they did, you were seen in the background giving Jeremiah Jones a kiss.” Dawn was speechless as her mom continued. “You’re the biggest news to hit this little town in a long
time.”

“Is it good news or bad news?” Dawn
asked.

“Mostly good. Everybody is so excited. They want to know when you are bringing him here. The only bad thing is that people want to know why we kept it a
secret.”

“We’ve only been dating a
week!”

“I know, but no one else
did.”

“What are you telling
them?”

“That you just started dating and that’s
it.”

“This is bad,” Dawn
said.

“Why?” her mom asked. “People are happy for
you.”

“I was the subject of gossip when I broke up with Kevin. I don’t want to go through that
again.”

“I didn’t think about
that.”