Revved Up Hearts (7 page)

“No, thank you. I couldn’t possibly eat anything
else.”

“Well, they have the best chocolate cake here. I can’t come here without having a slice.” Jeremiah said as he motioned for the
waiter.

“Jeremiah, have you noticed your admirer?” Dawn
asked.

“What?” Jeremiah looked
around.

“You probably can’t see him because he’s kind of behind you, but there’s a little boy, who looks to be about nine. He hasn’t taken his eyes off of you since we got
here.”

“Really?” Jeremiah turned around and spotted the brown-haired kid. When he did, the boy quickly looked away. Jeremiah looked at the little guy’s parents and motioned the boy over. At first the boy shook his head no, and his face turned beet red. Then his father took him by the hand, and they walked over to Jeremiah and Dawn’s table . At first, the little boy was too shy to even look at Jeremiah. “Hey there, buddy. What’s your
name?”

The little boy continued to look at the floor. The boy’s father gave him a gentle poke and told him to talk to Jeremiah. “Forgive him,” the dad said. “He’s shy, but he’s your biggest
fan.”

“Wow. My biggest fan! I’d really like to know his name.” The boy muttered something but never looked up. “I’m sorry, man, but I didn’t catch that. I can’t sign an autograph if I don’t know who to sign it
to.”

That got the boy’s attention, and his head snapped up. “My name is
Martin.”

“Nice to meet you, Martin,” Jeremiah said as he extended his hand to him. The boy looked at his father to make sure it was okay. When his dad nodded, Martin grabbed Jeremiah’s hand and shook it
vigorously.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Jones.”

“Mr. Jones?” Jeremiah looked around. “Is my dad here? He’s the only Mr. Jones I know. I’m Jeremiah.” Jeremiah was rewarded with a huge grin. “How old are you, Martin?”

“Ten.”

“Are you
married?”

“No! Girls are
gross!”

“Not all of them.” Jeremiah looked at Dawn and winked. Then he turned his attention back to Martin. “What do you want to be when you grow
up?”

“Either a doctor or a race car
driver.”

“What about a doctor who takes care of injured race car
drivers?”

Martin’s eyes got big as saucers. “I never thought of that!” he exclaimed. “Would you let me take care of
you?”

“I hope I never get hurt, but if I do, you can definitely take care of
me.”

“Did you hear that, Daddy? I’m gonna be Jeremiah Jones’s
doctor.”

“Yeah. That’s great son,” the dad
said.

“Do you have something that I can sign for you?” Jeremiah asked
Martin.

“Yes!” the boy said as he handed Jeremiah a trading card that had Jeremiah’s picture on
it.

“He has carried that card with him everywhere since we got to Daytona, hoping to meet you and get you to sign it,” the dad
said.

Jeremiah pulled a pen from his suit jacket, signed the card, and handed it back to Martin. “There ya go. Anything
else?”

“Would it be too much trouble to have my picture taken with you?” The shyness was gone
now.

“No problem at all.” At that, the dad went back to their table. He came back with a camera and Martin’s
mom.

“Thank you so much for all this,” she said. “It’s so nice of you to take time away from your evening for my
son.”

“No problem at all. I always try to do everything I can for my
fans.”

Martin stood right next to Jeremiah and smiled his biggest smile as Jeremiah put his arm around him. Martin’s dad took the picture. “Thank you, Jeremiah. Thank you so much.” Martin
said.

“You’re
welcome.”

“What about one with the whole family?” Dawn
asked.

“Sure,” they all said at the same time. Dawn took the camera from the dad. Then Mom and Dad went to stand behind Jeremiah and Martin. They were all smiles as Dawn snapped the
picture.

“My friends are not gonna believe this!” Martin
exclaimed.

“They will when you show them the picture,” Dawn told him when she turned the digital camera around and showed him the image on the
screen.

“Oh, wow! Dad, look!”

“Wow. We’ll take this home and have it blown up to an 8x10. You can take it to school and show it to
everybody.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Martin’s mom said as she took Jeremiah’s hand and held it. “You haven’t just made my son’s day; you’ve made his whole year.” The lady had tears in her
eyes.

“Anytime. I love doing
it.”

About that time, Jeremiah’s cake arrived. The family said thank you one more time and then left to let Jeremiah enjoy his dessert. Jeremiah took Dawn by the hand and looked deep into her eyes. “Thank you,” he
said.

“For what?” Dawn
asked.

“For understanding. The last girl I went out with never would’ve let me interrupt our date to spend time with a young fan. She never would’ve pointed Martin out to me, not to mention let me talk to him and sign an autograph. You even offered to take a picture. ”

“She sounds very
selfish.”

“She was. She had to be the center of attention at all times. Her time with me was
her time
, no one else’s. She would’ve been here for my visit with Martin, but she would’ve sat there with her arms crossed and done nothing but glare at me. She would never have made a scene in front of them, but now they’re gone, she would’ve been giving me a major cussing right
now.”

“I don’t like her. I don’t know her, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like her if I did. How long did you date
her?”

“Not long. Only about a month, I think. It didn’t take me long to realize I wasn’t going to put up with that. I don’t want to talk about her anymore. It’s spoiling my appetite,” he said, just before taking a big bite of chocolate
cake.

After dinner, Jeremiah and Dawn walked out on the restaurant’s balcony, overlooking the ocean. The full moon was high in the night sky. Its reflection shone brightly on the water. The gentle sound of the waves crashing on the beach was so relaxing. A cool breeze was blowing, and a jazz band could be heard from somewhere in the distance. It was breathtakingly beautiful. She leaned on the railing to take it all
in.

“What are your plans for this week?” Jeremiah asked as he joined her at the
railing.

“Bryan has a couple of sponsor appearances and a photo shoot, but other than that, my week is free. I have a cousin who lives in Orlando. I may go see her one day. What about you? Do you have any
plans?”

“Nothing. I’m gonna hang out and take it easy. It may be my last chance for a
while.”

“I understand,” Dawn said as she shivered. This may be Florida, but it was also
February.

“Are you
cold?”

“A
little.”

“We shouldn’t have come out here. Take this,” he said as he put his jacket over her shoulders. He kept his hands there and rubbed lightly. “Better?”

“Much.” Dawn leaned in closer as she put one arm around his waist and put her head on his chest. “Thank you.” They stood like that for a few moments just enjoying each other’s closeness, listening to the music and the ocean. Dawn could feel Jeremiah’s heartbeat. Everything seemed to just come together all at once. It was the most relaxing thing Dawn had experienced in a long time. Jeremiah’s hand had drifted down to Dawn’s back, where he held her
loosely.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Jeremiah
whispered.

“I
am.”

“There is only one thing I can think of that would make this even
better.”

“What would that
be?”

“I’ll show you,” he said as he tipped her face toward him. She looked deep into his green eyes then at his mouth as he lowered his head and brushed her lips with his. He lifted his head just enough to look into her eyes. He gave her a moment to decide if she was going to let him continue. She looked at him for another second but then dropped her head and took a step back. Jeremiah let his arms drop to his sides. “Did I cross a
line?”

“No,” she said as she shook her head. “Part of me wants to kiss you again, but I can’t.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” he
asked.

She looked at him and shivered again. “Yes, but it’s cold out here. Can we go back
inside?”

“Of course,” he said as he put a hand on the small of her back and led her inside. They went back to their table where Jeremiah ordered them coffee. He sat back in his chair and waited. She had been looking down, smoothing out the linen tablecloth.
She’s doing it again,
he thought
. She’s nervous, so she’s not looking at
me.

She looked up at him. “This is difficult,” she said with a
sigh.

“Take your time,” he told
her.

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and began. “I was engaged. I was a good girl. I didn’t date much in school. I couldn’t let that interfere with my studies. I had to get into a good college. I did. Once out of Mom and Dad’s house, I tried to be wild—drink and party—but I couldn’t. My parents raised me in church. I would go to the frat parties and drink a little, but I would remember how I was raised, feel guilty about how I was acting, and
leave.”

“Psalms says, ‘Raise up a child in the way he should go, and he will not depart from it,’” Jeremiah said. That surprised Dawn. “My parents raised me in church, too,” he continued, “but after my sister died, we stopped
going.”

“Wow.”

“I’ve always meant to go back, but I always find an excuse not to. Anyway, I shouldn’t have interrupted. Do you want to finish your
story?”

“Yeah,” she
answered.

“So I graduated from college, went back home, and found a good job. I taught Sunday school and got involved with my church’s youth group. I loved it. I was happy. I didn’t really mind the fact that I wasn’t dating because I stayed busy with all those other things.” She paused as the waiter brought them coffee. She added some cream and sugar to her cup, then took a sip. She continued, “Then my cousin’s wife decided to set me up on a date. I was hesitant at first because blind dates had never worked out before. But I agreed and went out with her cousin Kevin. We hit it off instantly. He was the first guy that I let myself be comfortable
around.”

“What do you mean by
that?”

“My best friend from high school, Tina, was the type to wear her heart on her sleeve. If a guy was nice to her for two days in a row, she was in love. She trusted so easily and got her heart broken so many times.” Dawn blinked back tears as she struggled to
continue.

“And it was best friend Dawn who stepped in, picked up the pieces, and told her that everything would be
okay”

“Every time. Because of that, I built up my defenses. I was going to protect myself and my heart. No one was going to hurt me that way.” Dawn took another sip of coffee. Looking down, she continued, “Tina was killed in a car accident just a few months before our fifth-year class
reunion.”

“Oh, no, Dawn. That’s awful.” He leaned in close and put his hand on her
shoulder.

“She was the sister I never had. I thought I would go crazy. Everything made me think of her. I would see a cute guy that I knew was her type, and I would think to myself, ‘I can’t wait to go home and call Tina.’ Then I would remember that I couldn’t call
Tina.”

“Honey, I understand,” Jeremiah said as he gave Dawn’s hand a comforting squeeze. “My sister loved pink. She was the typical girly-girl, and everything she owned was pink. It was a long time before I could look at anything pink without crying.” He wiped a tear with his other hand while he spoke. “I understand why you felt the need to protect yourself. So what happened with
Kevin?”

“I really liked him. At first, I tried to find a reason not to. You know, I wanted to end things my way before he hurt me, but I couldn’t. I decided I was tired of playing that game. The more time I spent with him, and the more I got to know him, the more I found myself falling for him. He lived in another small town about twenty miles away. He was just as involved in his church as I was with mine. It was difficult at first, but we took turns going to church with each other on Sunday nights. We dated for ten months. He was supposed to go to my youth group service one Wednesday night, but he called that day to say that he was sick. He was going to stay home. That night, Lindsey, the youth pastor at my church, got me up front to help with the lesson. Imagine my surprise when Kevin walked out from where he was hiding, hit one knee, said he loved me, and proposed. They had set me up. I was shocked. I cried. He cried. Everybody cried. Then I said yes, and everybody cheered.” Dawn laughed at the
memory.