April 15,2000 – Talladega – Day before the Diehard 500

Noelle pulled her hair up in a pony tail and tried to shield her eyes from the hot sun that was bearing down on her. Being on black pavement only made it worse as the temperature rose to close to 90 degrees.  

“And here we have pit row.” His arm waved out to the left pointing in the direction of where the cars would pit throughout the race. “Now over here is the garages.” He turned the small golf cart sharply, nearly missing a guy in a racing uniform. “Move it or lose it!” The guy flipped him off and kept walking. “Sometimes you got to be a little tough on those rookies.” Noelle just nodded. Here she was, riding in a golf cart with a race car legend, Dale Earnhardt. She still couldn’t believe she worked for him at Dale Earnhardt Inc. It had only been a month and he had invited her to a race. Not a bad way to start off a new job as a sales rep.

“I’ll introduce you to my kid, unless you’ve met him already.” Dale looked at her and Noelle shook her head. “Ok…he’s over here.” Again, the golf cart was turned sharply and Noelle had to grab hold of the front of it so she didn’t tumble off the side. “You sure are quiet. Are you sure you’re one of my sales reps?” Noelle nodded. Dale gruffed and slammed on the brakes, lurching the cart forward to a stop. She was never so thankful to set foot on the hot pavement. “Junior! Get your ass over here!” Dale’s voice bellowed over the sound of people in the garage who were working on the car.

“What did I do now?” A tall blonde guy with piercing blue eyes and dressed in a red racing fire suit came out from the front of the car. He glanced at Noelle and then looked at his dad. “Teresa know you’re hanging out with the younger women?” Noelle could almost see a smile form on Dale Sr’s lips.

“This is Noelle. Show her around some. And be nice or your ass is mine. I don’t want you running off my employee like you did the last time.” Dale Sr got back on the golf cart and zoomed off in the direction that they had come from.

“Umm…” Noelle stammered and looked at the ground.

“I’m Junior.” He held out his hand and Noelle shook it. “I guess you can hang with me for a while. At least until Dad gets back.” She followed him into the garage where he pulled a chair out and motioned for her to sit. “You old enough to drink?”

Noelle let out a laugh and then covered her mouth. “I’m twenty three.”  Junior nodded.

“Want a beer?” He handed her a Budweiser and then sat down next to her. He opened one himself and took a long drink. She raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m done for the day. Qualified in the top ten, did the required media shit and the rest of the day is mine. So if I want to drink, I’m going to drink.” Noelle nodded and took a long drink of her beer. “Your story is what?”

“I’m a sales rep for your dad’s company. Come to think of it, I’m working on the bud account now. Making sure everything is in check, fulfilling necessary orders.”

“I don’t care about that; I could find that out by pulling your file in personnel.” Junior laughed. “I want to know about you.”

“Noelle Nicole Mathews. Born October 15, 1977 in Charlotte. Never left until two months ago when I moved to Mooresville to work for your father. Graduated from college with a degree in Business Administration. What else do you want to know?”

“I’ll let you know.” He handed her another beer. “Let’s go for a walk.” He unzipped the top of his fire suit and let it hang around his waist. Noelle looked him over and sipped her beer so he wouldn’t see her smiling. They walked down to another garage where Junior disappeared inside and then came back out with another driver. “Matt this is Noelle. She works for DEI.”

“Nice to meet you.” Matt held out his hand for Noelle to shake. “See you already got her drinking your sponsor.”

“Actually, she’s working on that account.” Junior laughed. Matt shook his head. “I’ll catch you later. My dad wanted me to show her around.” Noelle turned and started walking away after saying goodbye.

“You gonna hit that?” Matt asked as both men watched Noelle as she stopped to talk to one of the DEI employees that were roaming around. Junior chuckled. “You’re stupid if you don’t. I didn’t see a ring on her finger.”

“I’ll let you know if I do.” Junior slapped Matt on the back and hurried to catch up with Noelle.

As the day went on, Noelle had to admit that she was having fun with Junior. They talked about music and what movies they liked. He took her for a practice run in one of the two seater cars built just for that purpose. The entire time, she felt like she was going to fly out the window. She had no idea how fast they had been going, but she knew it was faster than she wanted to. 

“Well?” Junior climbed out of the car and watched as she walked around to the driver’s side. “What did you think?”

“I’ll take riding with your dad in a golf cart anytime over that.” Noelle handed the helmet over to him. “But you’re a damn good driver.” Junior grinned and they headed back to the garage.

After dinner with the DEI employees, Noelle was walking to her rental car when her cell phone rang. She dug it from her purse and looked at the caller ID. She didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?” She asked.

“Hi, It’s Junior.”

“How’d you get my number?” Noelle stopped and turned around and looked back toward the infield.

“Never mind how I got it. Have you left yet?”

“No, haven’t even made it to the parking lot.”

“Good…stay where you are. I’ll be there to pick you up in a few.” He hung up before she could say anything else. Noelle flipped her phone shut and glanced around. How was he going to know where she was? She hadn’t told him.

Ten minutes later, Junior showed up on a golf cat. He patted the seat and smiled at her. She got on and he whizzed off, back toward the garages.

“You’re going the wrong way.” She laughed as they slowed down next to his transporter. He shut off the engine and got off. He held out his hand and helped her off.

“Nah, wanted to show you this before you left.” He led her inside and showed her where he hung out between media events, meetings, autograph signings and practices. She looked around and was amazed to see a kitchen, full bathroom, lounge area and even a bedroom with a king size bed.

They sat down in the lounge area and talked for a while. Junior pulled out the play station and handed her a controller.

“You play?” He asked as the screen flashed on the TV. Noelle shook her head. “You’re kidding.” He pressed a few button and the next thing she knew, they were head to head on a race.

Right off the bat, he was ahead of her. She tried her best, but she didn’t know what buttons did what on the controller that she was holding. When Junior won, she threw the controller on the floor and glared at him.

“You have more than one advantage.” She said getting up and walking toward the kitchen where she had set her beer on the counter. She retrieved it and walked back to where he was still sitting on the floor.

Junior reached up and pulled her down so that she was sitting in front of him. He restarted the game and then handed her the controller. When the actual race started, he reached around her and put his hands over hers and helped her with the buttons. Overall, her car ended up third with Jeff Gordon winning the race.

Noelle turned her head toward him to say thanks and was met by a kiss instead. She froze, a little shocked at what he had just done. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her against his chest, and he kissed her again, this time deeper. Her mind was swirling and she couldn’t get it to stop. Finally realizing what was happening; she pushed him away and got up.

They said nothing and just looked at each other. Junior turned a little red as he got up and excused himself to go into the back room. After five minutes, he didn’t return. Noelle walked toward the back and saw him sitting on the bed with his head in his hands.

“What are you doing?” she asked leaning against the door frame. He looked up at her, but said nothing. “You going to take me to the parking lot or are you going to let a woman walk all alone out there in the middle of the night? I’m sure your dad would just love that when I tell him.” He looked at her again and she stuck her tongue out at him, causing him to smile. She walked over and sat next to him.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered. “I should have done that.” Noelle bit her lip. “I couldn’t help it. I’ve been thinking about doing that all day.” She couldn’t help but admit to herself that she was attracted to him as well, but she hadn’t expected him to kiss her.

“It’s ok. It was nice.” She smiled at him. He grinned and then ducked his head down again. Feeling a little brave and noticing the tension that was filling the room, she reached over and smacked the Bud hat off his head, sending it sailing to the floor.

“Hey!” Junior sat up and saw Noelle grinning at him. He tackled her, pushing her back onto the bed. “That’s my favorite hat.”

“Oh like you don’t have a ton of them just lying around.” Noelle giggled when he started tickling her. “Quit it!” He stopped and looked her in the eye. He brought his lips down to hers and kissed her gently, waiting to see if she was going to resist, when she didn’t, he deepened the kiss.

When things started to progress further, Noelle had to pull away. She sat up to catch her breath.

“What did I do?” he asked, still lying next to her. She shook her head. “Noelle?”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” She licked her lips and looked down at him. She felt her skins prickle when he ran his hand over her back. His hand slowly slid underneath her shit and unclasped her bra. Noelle sucked in her breath as he sat up and slowly moved his hand around to the front and massaged her breast. His other hand moved her hair away from her neck and she closed her eyes as he began kissing and nibbling on her neck. “You don’t waste any time do you?” Her voice came out in a whisper as his fingers gently pinched her hardening nipple.

“Then tell me to stop.” He whispered in her ear. “You say the word and I won’t go any further.” Noelle’s head and body were telling her two totally different things. It was as if they were fighting against each other. Her head was throwing up the red flag telling her to stop, this was her boss’s son and if he found out, she’d surely be fired. On the other hand, her body was waving the green flag, telling her that it was ok and that she wanted this just as much as he did. “I’m attracted to you, if you haven’t figured it out by now. Unless you don’t recognize the subtle flirting I’ve been doing with you all day.” He laid her back down on the bed and smiled down at her.

“I’m not one of your racing groupies, remember that.” She whispered between kisses. “I’m your employee.”

“Not my employee.” Junior corrected her. “You’re my dad’s and Teresa’s. I work for them. So you’re a co-worker.” He lifted her shirt up over her head and tossed both her bra and the shirt onto the floor before leaning down and sucking on her nipple. Noelle let out a moan and ran her hand through his hair. “Shit…if you moan from just that, I can’t wait to hear you when we do something else.” She laughed and smacked his arm. “So what’s the answer before I get to the point of no return?”

Noelle lifted herself up on her elbows and looked him in the eye. Did she dare tell him no? Or did she go with what she wanted and that was to have a night of passionate sex with someone she was obviously attracted to and him to her?

“Shut up and kiss me.” She said with a sly smile.

“Hell yeah.” Dale kissed her long and hard. He was going to make sure that this was a night that she never forgot.

Chapters: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25/26/27/28/29/30