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Chapter 4
The driver’s meeting was at eleven the next morning. Tony left Emily sleeping in bed and got ready to go. He ran into Junior as they walked to the tent near the Nextel hauler.
“Hey.” He said walking up to Junior.
“Hey.” Junior rubbed his eyes. “You look like shit. Did you not sleep last night?”
“Not really, Emily and I were up talking pretty late.” Tony nodded at Kevin Harvick who waved as he walked in the tent. “We’re having a baby.”
“Oh yeah? So you finally decided to have one?” Junior asked.
“No, she’s pregnant now. She just told me last night. She’s like two and a half months.” Tony said with a yawn.
“What?” Junior stopped and stared at Tony. “What do you mean she’s pregnant?” Tony looked back at Junior. “She didn’t tell me!”
“Why the hell would she tell you before me?” Tony asked. Junior shrugged. “I guess it happened at Daytona. She’s due middle of November.” They walked into the tent and found some empty seats. Junior hardly paid attention to what everyone was saying. He tried his best not to look pissed off, but he wasn’t sure if he was hiding it well. He needed to find a way to talk to Emily before Tony got back to the coach.
Thankfully, Tony had decided to go to the hauler right after the driver’s meeting and asked Junior to go tell Emily on his way back to his own coach.
“Just tell her I’ll see her in the pits. Zippy wants to go over a car setup with me.” Tony said before heading off on a golf cart with Zippy. Junior nodded and hurried to Tony’s coach. He walked in without knocking. He could hear the shower running in the back so he sat down on the couch and waited for her to come out.
Emily turned off the shower and dried off, then wrapped a towel around her. She quickly changed into jeans and a t-shirt before heading into the kitchen to get a glass of water. She screamed when she saw Junior sitting there.
“What the hell are you doing?” She asked when she had calmed down. “Do you always come into people’s coaches without knocking first?”
“You were in the shower.” He said calmly. “You wouldn’t have heard me anyway.” Emily got a glass of water and stayed in the kitchen. “When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?” she asked.
“You’re pregnant.”
“Oh that.” She set her glass in the sink and went back into the bedroom to finish getting ready. Junior followed her and grabbed her arm before she could make it to the bathroom. “Junior!”
“Oh that? That’s all you can say? You’re pregnant with my kid probably and that’s all you can say?”
“Why don’t you broadcast it a little louder Junior? The windows are open.” Emily yanked her arm back from him and went in the bathroom to pull her hair up in a pony tail. Junior glared at her and went to the window.
“Emily Stewart is pregnant with my baby!” He yelled out the window. Junior stepped back from the window and crossed his arms over his chest. Emily rushed out of the bathroom and slapped him across the face. “Truth hurt?”
“Get out, now!” She yelled at him.
“I want to know if it’s mine.” He yelled as she pushed him toward the front.
“It’s not. It’s my husband’s!” she hissed at him. “Now get out of here and shut the fuck up.” She slammed and locked the door once he was out of the coach.
Emily made it down to the pits right after driver introductions. She stood with Tony at his car while the National Anthem was sung. Tony was very standoffish and when he climbed into the car, he didn’t even attempt to kiss her before putting on his helmet.
“Good luck.” Emily offered leaning into the car. Tony pulled his helmet down, but didn’t say a word to her. “Real mature, Tony.” She slapped him on top of the helmet and turned away. She had a ways to walk back to Tony’s pit since it was near the entrance of pit row.
She stopped at Martin Truex, Jr’s car and stuck her head in the window.
“Hey.” She smiled at him. “I wanted to tell you congrats on the win yesterday. You kicked ass.”
“Thanks Em!” he winked at her. “Go tell my bossman that I didn’t need him yesterday after all since he took off like a bat out of hell so I heard.” Emily laughed. “Seriously, I gave him shit last night.”
“You’re not? He said he had dinner with you and Smoke last night.” Martin said as Bono walked up to the car to talk to Martin.
“Anyway, good luck today Martin.” Emily waved at him and kept going down pit row. She saw Junior sitting in his car and walked past him. He yelled something out to her, but she ignored him and headed toward Tony’s pit box.
“So lil’ Miss Emily, I hear that congratulations are in order for you and Smoke.” Zippy said as she climbed up on the pit box and put on her headphones. “About damn time we’re gonna have a little smoke runnin’ around. When you due?”
“Middle of November.” She said as she adjusted her sunglasses. “Tony tell ya or did you hear a rumor?”
“Tony told me at the driver’s meeting. He’s telling everyone.” Zippy smiled at her as the cars started out onto the track behind the pace car. “My guess is he’s a happy daddy.”
“Amazing concept since he hasn’t talked to me all morning.” She shrugged and leaned back.
The race seemed to go on without a hitch and Emily wondered if the big one was ever going to happen. She hoped it didn’t since both Tony and Junior were working together and both of them led for a few laps.
“Go low!” Tony’s spotter yelled into the headphones. “Low, low.” Emily and Zippy jumped up to see if they could see what was going on.
“Holy shit.” Zippy muttered as the big one happened. Emily screamed when she saw Junior nearly escape the carnage that took out a minimum of 25 cars. “Tony’s ok…he made it through.”
“Thank God.” Emily sighed with relief. “Junior ok?”
“He’s fine. Looks like the DEI boys all made it through. Narrowly, but they did.” Zippy gave her a quick hug. “I thought we were going to go a whole race without a wreck.”
“Jimmie got into someone.” Tony came across the radio. “He needs to learn to fucking drive! He almost took out Junior too!”
“They’re saying Junior caused it, Smoke.” Zippy leaned into the monitor to look at the screen against the glare of the sun. “He bumped Riggs and got him loose.”
“Bullshit. Junior doesn’t make mistakes like that. Not at Dega.” Tony went on.
“They’re red-flaggin’ everyone. Stop where you’re at.” The spotter broke in. Emily looked at Zippy who was writing things down on a clipboard.
“Can I scan the channels on this thing?” Emily asked Zippy. Zippy handed her a different race scanner. She put it on scan all until she found Junior’s frequency since Tony wasn’t talking.
“I’m starving. I don’t think I can wait until I get home to eat.” Junior came across the radio and Emily tried not to laugh. That was classic Junior, always thinking with his stomach. “Dude, they’re doing the wave in the stands.”
“Junior you asleep in there?” She head Pete cut into Junior’s radio.
“Hell no, I’m flippin’ people off.” Junior laughed causing Emily to bust out laughing. She covered her mouth when Zippy looked at her confused. Emily smiled at Zippy who went back to talking to Tony on the radio.
Finally the 43 minute red flag period was over and Emily discarded the race scanner and put the headphones back on before Tony made it into the pit for a tire change. She couldn’t help but laugh at Junior when he was caught napping in the car. He always seemed to be hyper during red flags where Tony just leaned back and relaxed; only talking to Zippy and the spotter.
Emily, along with everyone else was getting extremely anxious as the race wore on. Talladega was fast, but it was long. She stood up and watched as the cars flew past the pits. She was silently rooting for Tony and the DEI boys. All four of them were strong, but they couldn’t get past Gordon whose car just had all the horsepower.
“Not again!” Emily cringed at lap 186 when Johnson hit the wall and took out Martin, who in turn took out Junior. Junior hit the wall and slid down a good 50 feet. “Johnson needs to learn to fucking drive!”
“Man you sound like your husband.” Zippy laughed motioning her to sit back down before she fell off the pit box. “Calm yourself down. Tony’s still in second.”
“That fucker took out Junior!”
“Inadvertently.” Zippy reassure her. “I’m sure he didn’t say, ‘I’m taking out Junior now.’ That would be stupid.”
“I’d love to hold that man down and pluck his fucking eyebrows out with a hot pair of tweezers.” Emily crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the screen.
“What is with you and this Junior fangirl shit?” Zippy looked at her. “You’re sounding more like Junior than Tony now that I think about it.” Emily shrugged. “You should really stop hanging out with him.”
“He’s Tony’s best friend, not mine.” Emily mumbled. She was gonna have to bite her tongue the next time she felt the need to have a Junior outburst over something.
The race ended with a green-white-checker finish. Gordon came in first with Tony right on his heels. Zippy and Emily jumped up and hugged each other, pleased with the fact that Tony did so well. She climbed down from the pit box, ready to congratulate her husband as he pulled into his pit box.
Tony climbed out and pulled off his helmet and immediately was given something to drink. Emily waited until after he was interviewed before walking up to him.
“Nice driving out there, Buddy.” She said with a smile. Tony surprised her by grabbing her in a bear hug and then kissing her hard on the mouth.
“We had a damn good car!” Tony threw his arm over her shoulder and led her to the pit stall next to his who happed to be Junior’s. “I tried Junior, it just wasn’t working.”
“It’s all good man. Johnson needs to own up to his mistakes. That was all his fault both times.” Junior shook hands with Tony. “Congrats to on second place. Damn good driving out there. You’re fun to race with.”
“So are you.” Tony laughed.
“Congratulations to the both of you on the baby too.” Junior looked right at Emily and smirked. “It’ll be interesting to see what this kid is going to look like.”
“What do you mean by that?” Tony looked at Emily and then at Junior.
“Well we have Emily who’s obviously cute and then you.” Junior laughed. “That’s all I meant.”
“Don’t quit your day job there, Budman.” Tony slapped Junior on the shoulder. “We’re outta here, I have some celebrating with my wife to do tonight.” Tony winked at Junior as if it was an inside guy joke. |