Revved Up Hearts (29 page)

“What?” he asked
her.

“Sit with me while I call home and tell my family what
happened.”

“Okay.”

Dawn had pretty well kept it together until her mom answered the phone. Dawn broke down and cried as she told her mother what had happened. The two of them cried together, and Dawn made her mom promise not to tell her dad until he was healthier. Dawn knew that once her brothers found out they would be tempted to go after Kevin when he got home. Her mom would tell them, and Dawn would e-mail both of her brothers tonight and beg them not to do anything. Kevin wasn’t worth it. Dawn hung up the phone and cried on Jeremiah’s shoulder. He just held her and let her cry. Telling her parent something like that was one of the hardest things she had ever done. When Dawn felt better, they walked out of the office to find Bryan. He gave her the rest of the day off to go to the courthouse so that she could file the papers to make the restraining order permanent. After that, Jeremiah drove them through a burger joint for lunch and took her
home.

“I want you to get some clothes and stuff,” he told her once they were in the house. “You’re staying at my house
tonight.”

“No, I’m not,” she told him as she took a seat on her
couch.

“Yes, you are.” He stood in front of her with his hands on his
hips.

“No, I’m not,” she
repeated.

“Well, you’re not staying by yourself,” he said as he took a seat beside her. “If you won’t go to my house, I’m staying
here.”

“Jeremiah—”

“Don’t argue with me. We don’t know where that creep is. He said it wasn’t over. He might be watching you, waiting until you are
alone.”

“I can’t believe he did this,” Dawn said, changing the subject. “He was always so nice and sweet. What if I had married him?” she asked with a
shudder.

“Thank God you didn’t,” Jeremiah answered as he pulled her into his arms. “Thank God you didn’t.”

Again, they just sat in silence, holding each other. Valerie found them that way when she came to check on Dawn. “Bryan called me and told me what happened,” she said as she looked at Dawn’s cheek. “That’s already starting to bruise. Does it
hurt?”

“It’s
throbbing.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Jeremiah asked as Valerie went to get an ice pack and something for
pain.

“I was enjoying the
company.”

“Bryan is madder than I have ever seen him,” Valerie said as she returned with a couple of pills and a glass of water. “He keeps saying things like ‘if anyone ever treats Lena Violet that
way…’”

“Thank you,” Dawn said as she took the pills. “Where is the baby?” she
asked.

“At the house with my
mom,”

“Tell her that she can’t stay here by herself until we know that Kevin is out of town,” Jeremiah pleaded his case to
Valerie.

“He’s right, you know,” Valerie said as she sat in a chair across from
Dawn.

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be proper for me to go to his house or for him to stay
here.”

“So go to our house,” Valerie
said.

“It sounds like a good idea to me,” Jeremiah
agreed.

“I don’t want to impose,” Dawn told
her.

“It wouldn’t be an imposition,” Valerie said. “It’s settled. You’re staying at our house
tonight.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Dawn
asked.

“No!” they both answered in
unison.

Dawn stayed with Bryan and Valerie for the next few days. Jeremiah came over every night after work. The four of them had a Bible study on Tuesday night, and they agreed to make it a weekly thing. They all left for Bristol on Thursday afternoon. Dawn called her mom to let her know that they had arrived safely and to check on her dad. Everyone was relieved to know that Kevin had been spotted in town. The local police had gone to his house and served him with the restraining order and let him know that charges had been filed against him in North Carolina. Dawn was thrilled to know that she could go back to her own house, alone, when they got back to
Charlotte.

Bryan and Jeremiah raced each other to second and third place finishes in Bristol. Thanks to lapped traffic, neither one of them could make a run at Sean Vaughn in the end. As they left, Dawn told them that short-track racing was her new favorite thing. She loved the big tracks, but seeing forty-three cars race around a half-mile track was something totally new to her. She absolutely loved
it.

Dawn and Jeremiah were spending more and more time together. When they weren’t together, they were sending each other text messages. Sometimes they were just to say hi or I miss you. Dawn knew that Jeremiah was studying the Bible on his own because he would send her messages about the newest thing that he had discovered there. Some of the questions that Jeremiah came up with were fascinating. Some were fairly easy to answer, but others were more difficult. But it was a joy just the same, because she could see the desire in his heart to learn as much as he could and draw even closer to God. Jeremiah was teaching her as well. Some of the insights that he came up with were amazing. Dawn had studied the Bible her whole life, but sometimes Jeremiah would read something and get a meaning out of it that Dawn had never thought of before, even though she had read that particular passage many times. Wasn’t the Word of God
wonderful!

Jeremiah had changed in other ways as well. He no longer pressured Dawn for sex or other things that made her uncomfortable. He said he understood now what she had been trying to tell him. He wasn’t going to do anything to upset her. They still kissed, but the pressure for more was gone. Now they could sit for hours on the couch, watching TV or reading the Bible. She never had to ask him to back off because he was going too far. A couple of times, he didn’t even kiss her good-night. He had just hugged her tightly before he left her house to go
home.

Others had noticed a change in Jeremiah as well. His buddies had complained when he quit coming to the Tuesday night poker game. He couldn’t, he told them. That was Bible study at Bryan and Valerie’s house. He had also closed the game room at his house on Sunday and Wednesday nights. If he wasn’t at a race, he was going to be at the Lord’s house, not at his house playing pool. Jeremiah also began to really participate in chapel before the races. Before, he had just sat there. Sometimes Dawn had thought that he wasn’t even paying attention. But that Sunday after he got saved, he stood up and told the preacher that he had something to say. Then he had testified about what had happened to him the Monday before. Everyone had listened, occasionally giving a “Hallelujah,” “Praise the Lord,” or “Thank you, Jesus” to something that Jeremiah had said. The preacher let Jeremiah give the closing prayer for the service. Afterward, everyone there had stopped by to shake his hand before leaving. Dawn had never been so proud. Jeremiah was also witnessing to others. Some had truly been open to what Jeremiah was saying, but others, not so much. A crew member from another team, one of Jeremiah’s old drinking buddies, had threatened to punch him in the face if he didn’t leave him alone. Jeremiah’s response was that he would be praying for the guy. With every change Dawn saw in Jeremiah, she knew that she was falling deeper and deeper in love with him. She knew that he liked her a lot, but she didn’t know for sure if he loved her. They had never said the words to each other. Several times, Dawn had almost said the words to him but had stopped because she was afraid he didn’t feel the same and wouldn’t say it
back.

Nothing much happened the week leading up to the race in Texas—nothing for Dawn anyway. She had everything scheduled for the next two weeks until the Easter break. Dawn ordered some new 8x10s of Bryan. She showed him some of her work and asked if she could make a few for him to use. Bryan liked her work but told her that he was under contract with a local photographer for his headshots. Maybe when the contract expired. He also liked her ideas for improving his website. Bryan told her to give the photos and ideas to the webmaster that maintained the site. He would get it taken care of. She asked Travis to do the first blog and profile. He agreed. All that was accomplished by Monday afternoon. She walked around the shop to watch the guys work and to take some pictures, but they were busy and didn’t have much time to spend with her. She spent most of the next two days surfing the Internet and playing online
solitaire.

Jeremiah called and texted Dawn several times each day, but she only saw him Tuesday night for Bible study. He was also busy getting ready for Sunday’s race. Dawn, Bryan, and the rest of the crew left early Wednesday morning. Dawn’s phone rang while she was standing on the tarmac at the airport waiting to load her luggage. She read the text from Jeremiah, “Hello, beautiful.” She looked around. Two planes over, Jeremiah and his crew were loading their stuff into their
plane.

“No time to walk over?” she
asked.

She saw him look at his phone, smile, and type something back. “No. Running late. Dinner
tonight?”

“Yes,” she
answered.

“Okay. See you then,” was his response. She started to text back but saw him wave before stepping onto the
plane.

Dawn looked for Jeremiah when her plane landed in the Lone Star State. Flying was getting easier.
Thank you, Lord, for that.
She didn’t see Jeremiah anywhere. His crew had probably already landed and left. Dawn went to the track with the crew and helped them unload gear. She had just put a computer monitor on a shelf when someone goosed her from behind. She jumped and screamed. The whole crew laughed. Dawn whirled around and smacked Jeremiah on the arm. “Ouch,” he said as he rubbed the spot where Dawn had hit
him.

“That’s not
funny!”

“Yes. It was,” he argued. She heard several of the guys around them agree with
Jeremiah.

“Okay. So maybe it was, a little,” she finally agreed and laughed. “But please don’t do it again,” she asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck. His arms came up around her waist to pull her closer. He kissed her, and the crew whistled and cheered. Dawn pulled away and blushed. “You promised me dinner, remember?”