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Chapter 2
The track was busy as it usually was on a race day. Emily made her way through the fans and continued toward the haulers where she was sure to find her husband.
“Hey Emily what are you doing here?” Kevin Harvick, a driver and good friend of her husband’s stopped her before she made it through the door.
“Last minute decision.” Emily smiled. “It’s Dega afterall. Did he really think I was going to sit at home and watch it on TV?” Kevin laughed and gave her a hug. “He inside or is he at a meeting?”
“Nope…he’s inside. The driver’s meeting let out about ten minutes ago. Go on in. Delana will be happy to see you too.” Kevin nodded toward the sliding glass door. “Tell her I headed to the pit to get ready.”
“Will do. By Kev.” Emily waved as he walked off. With a deep breath, she went inside. The air conditioner was a nice relief from the hot Alabama sun that was beating down outside.
Emily said hello to a few crew members and quickly headed toward the lounge at the back of the hauler. Inside she found her husband suiting up for the Busch race.
“I’ve always loved a man in a uniform.” She said with a grin as she leaned against the door frame. Tony Stewart looked up, surprised to see his wife. “Miss me?”
“I thought you weren’t coming. After the fight and all.” He zipped up his fire suit but made no move toward her. “I figured you’d just stay home.”
“It’s Talladega. Why would I stay home?”
“Don’t you mean Daleadega?” he asked turning his back to her. Emily bit her lip and refrained from rehashing the argument all over again. “Your boy ain’t racing today.”
“I read the entry list already.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you ever think that I came to see my husband race today and tomorrow?”
“Sure whatever. It’s your lie, tell it anyway you want to.” He grabbed his driving gloves from the table and pushed past her. Emily counted to ten and made sure he was outside before she turned and went after him.
“Will you get over it, Tony?” she yelled after him when she was outside and within earshot of him. A few people stopped and stared. Tony turned around and looked at her. His face gave her the impression that they’d talk about it later and not near the media and fans. If Tony was anything, it was private. He hated the media knowing his personal business. “That’s right. I told you to get over it.” She caught up to him and gave him the same glare he was giving her. “Later!” he hissed at her. “I have a race to win.”
“You could at least be happy that I came down here. Hell, you didn’t even give me a hug or a kiss. Not even a “I missed you the last couple of days.” She started walking after him when he walked away from her. “You used to.”
“That was before you cheated on me.”
Emily stopped dead in her tracks, her face turned white. This wasn’t a continuance of their fight from Tuesday morning. That was something that should have blown over quickly. All she had done was say DEI dominated Talladega and that Junior was the one likely to win on Sunday. Either him or one of his DEI team mates. Tony had been in a bad mood to begin with that morning and didn’t want to hear the proven facts and that had caused an all day fight until he left for Alabama that afternoon.
They stared at each other, neither knowing what to say. Emily knew Tony was waiting for her to respond. Except she didn’t know what to say. Her mind was going a mile a minute.
Her phone beeped letting her know someone was trying to direct connect to her. She took it from her pocket and looked at the display. Damn, he always knew when to call at the worst times. Before he could come back over and say anything, she connected to him.
“Mom, I just got to the track, let me call you once the race starts.” She let go of the button and then quickly shut off the phone. Tony watched her. “My mom loves that direct connect. You should have never gave her a Nextel.” She tried to smile at him, but Tony just glared. Without saying a word, he turned and continued to the pit.
Emily sat with Delana Harvick in the #33 pit. Delana could tell that something was wrong between Emily and Tony; after all, she had been the one to set the two up on a blind date two years ago. She would have never guessed that they would have gotten married six months after that, but they did and Delana was happy for them.
“So what are you two fighting about this time?” Delana asked writing down Tony’s lap time on a clipboard. “Not the whole baby issue again.”
“No.” Emily shook her head and glanced at Delana’s clipboard. Tony’s lap time was the fastest on the track. He was keeping a good pace with the leader who happened to be DEI’s Busch driver. “Just something stupid.”
“I see.” Delana blocked the sun from her eyes and tried to scan the cars that were coming down pit road. “If you ever need to talk, you know where I am.” She reached over and gave Emily’s hand a squeeze. “Being a driver’s wife isn’t easy. And I can’t imagine being Tony’s wife on top of that is a picnic either.”
“It has its moments.” Emily laughed and looked at her watch. They still had a good two hours to go in the race and that was without cautions or red flags. Not to mention, the “big one” hadn’t happened, which it always did at Dega, so that gave her even more time. “I’ll be back before the race is over. I promised my mother a phone call.” Delana nodded, but didn’t pay much attention to Emily as she climbed down from the pit box. She hated lying to her friend, but Emily needed to find out how and what Tony heard. And there was no better way to find out than to go to directly to the source.
Emily made sure she was out of the pit area and heading in the direction of the coaches before she pulled out her phone and turned it back on. She stopped behind Ryan Newman’s hauler and hit the direct connect button.
“So am I still your mother?” his voice came through once she released the button. “I’d think of all people I’d be your dad. You can call me daddy if you want.” He laughed and Emily tried not to smile.
“Where you hiding today?”
“Pit box for Martin.” He said quietly. “Walk on down.”
“Fuck that. You need to meet me somewhere. We have a major problem.”
“I’m watching the race. Your husband is kicking some ass. He took over first about five minutes ago and he’s going strong.”
“Good, great, fantastic.” She muttered. “Listen, I’m not going to the pits to talk to you. You have ten minutes to meet me at your coach. Yours still the one with the flames and shit?”
“Yeah…but I’m watching Martin.”
“Tony knows.” There was silence and finally he connected again.
“Be there in ten.”
Emily flipped her phone shut and shoved it in her pocket. Today was going to be a bad day.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. pulled up on his golf cart ten minutes later to find Emily sitting on the steps of his coach. He unlocked the door and let them both in. Emily sat down on the couch and put her head in her hands.
“How exactly does he know? We hardly see each other, only talk if you’re at the track and he’s racing or if you stayed home. Hell, last night was the first time I saw you alone in a month.” He paced the room trying to think things through. “We’ve been careful.”
“I don’t know. We got into it outside of the hauler on the way to the pits and he said something about me cheating on him. Then you called and I had to say you were my mom.” Emily looked up at Junior. “I have no idea how he knows. Did anyone see us last night or leaving this morning? I told you we shouldn’t have left at the same time this morning.” “Everyone should have been here by 7:30. We left at ten.” Junior sat down next to her and took her hand, only to have her pull it away. “So what, this is it? You get caught and you want nothing to do with me?”
“I get caught? I’m sorry, but I’m not the only one going down on this. You better believe that if he asks me I’m telling who I was screwing around with.”
“That’s just what I fucking need. It getting around I was fucking my best friend’s wife!” Junior yelled as he stood up. “Can’t you fucking handle it without bringing me into it?”
“Who do you want me to say I was having an affair with, Junior? Kurt Busch? Like he’d fucking believe that. I’m almost positive that he knows it’s you.”
“How?”
“I so don’t need this right now. Not with the shitty year I’m already having.” Junior walked to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.
“And I do?” Emily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’re just as guilty as me! Don’t think you’re getting out of this scot-free.”
“I’ll deny it.”
“What ever, Junior. I should have known that you couldn’t handle it if we got caught.” Emily got up and walked to the door. “Nice knowing you.” She walked out leaving Junior staring after her. |