--Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude-- Jimmy Buffett
CHAPTER 1
Dale and Keith each pushed a cart down the aisle of their local Walmart as the kids threw item after item in each of them. Mandy was thankful that in Mooresville, seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr. walk through a grocery store was a common thing and they were left to shop in peace. Belle, who didn’t like to be too far from her daddy, ever, was riding in the cart he was pushing. Hailey, who was fighting a cold in the middle of July rode in the basket Keith pushed, Garrett and Dani Lee ran ahead of the carts getting into everything they shouldn’t be. Mandy and Taylor followed behind talking about the upcoming school year.
The quads were starting the first grade in a month and would be turning 6 very soon. Taylor was now in the 4th grade and would be nine at her next birthday. Mandy draped her arm over Taylor’s shoulders, "So what theme are we going with this year for school?"
Taylor shrugged, "I don’t know."
"Nascar notebooks. I want daddy’s books." Belle yelled as she pointed at the shelves of folders and notebooks.
Dale grinned. "That’s my girl." He kissed her forehead as he reached for the folders. Keith laughed as Garrett grabbed at anything with hockey on it, mainly with the Hurricanes logo on it, Dani Lee went for the dolphins and sea turtles and Hailey just laid her head against Keith’s chest.
"She feels warm again." Keith said laying a hand on her forehead.
Dale reached over and felt her. "You have the baby Tylenol?"
"Mandy does. Hey, Mandy give me Hailey‘s medicine, I will go get her some juice and sit with her while you guys finish up." He lifted Hailey out of the cart and took the medicine from Mandy.
Dale kissed her cheek. "What kind of stuff you want for school sweetie?"
"Barbie." She moaned in a voice that broke Dale’s heart.
"I’ll get them for you, Keith is going to get you your medicine, ok?"
She nodded as they wandered off and Mandy started pushing the cart. Dale grabbed Barbie notebooks and pencils and then they hit the lunchbox and backpack aisle. 3 kids went running by them pushing, grabbing things off shelves and yelling.
"Man, do people not control their children anymore. Where are their parents?" Dale asked obviously agitated at the children.
Mandy looked from Dale to Garrett and Dani Lee, who were climbing up the shelves of lunch boxes. "Dale don’t you think you are being a little hard on them?"
"No, come on, you don’t let your kids run wild through stores." He said as he grabbed a Barbie lunch box for Hailey and fished around back on the shelf for a #8 for Belle. "We will get one from aunt Kelly." He told Belle when he couldn’t find a lunch box for her.
"Dale, honey, I know this may come as a shock" Mandy bit her lip to stifle a giggle. "But we are one of those families."
He looked at her, shock in his eyes. "What? No we aren’t." Hearing a thud he turned to look at Garrett, who was up 2 shelves with his hands on a hockey puck shaped lunchbox and had already thrown a fish shaped one to Dani Lee. "Garrett, get down from …" He looked from them to Mandy and she just smiled and nodded. He sighed deeply.
She draped her arm over his shoulder, laughing. "It will be ok honey, just think how many more fans you will get when they find out the Earnhardt family is just as dysfunctional as theirs."
"You are not funny." He said as he grabbed Garrett off the shelf. "Ask, do not climb up the walls. Do you never learn?" There had been many a hospital visit for Garrett and his no fear attitude through the years.
"Crayons." Garrett yelled as Dale sat him down.
"Markers." DanI Lee yelled as she followed her brother down the aisle. Dale just sighed and followed after them.
Mandy just busted up laughing and followed them all down the aisle when she realized they hadn’t gotten anything for Taylor. "Tay. Not seeing anything."
"Whatever."
"Dale we will be right there. What’s up?"
"I don’t know. I don’t care, what ever you want to get."
"You are the one who has to look at them everyday, I want to get something you will like." She noticed Taylor eye Dale, then look down at the ground. "Ok, spill it, what don’t you want your father to know?" Mandy whispered.
Taylor looked at Mandy, "I don’t want any of this."
"Then what do you want?"
She eyed Dale and when she was convinced he couldn’t hear them. "I don’t want to hurt his feelings."
"Honey, what is it?"
"I want…I was hoping I could get the back to school kit from Chance 2."
Mandy eyed her knowing what she was getting at. "So, I am guessing, you don’t want the Jr. Motorsports one?"
Taylor looked to the ground suddenly embarrassed. "Stephen." She whispered.
Mandy grinned realizing that her daughter had her first crush. "I think we can do that."
"Really, what about dad?"
"He won’t care, I promise." Mandy knew he wouldn’t care at all, he was going to be too freaked out when he learned his daughter was old enough to be getting crushes. "Come on looks like he needs help." They rejoined Dale and Taylor grabbed Garrett as he ran from the crayons to the glue and scissors. They finished up with the school supplies and found Hailey and Keith in the café drinking juice. "How’s my girl?" She took Hailey from Keith and he grabbed the basket as they headed for the doors.
"Hey." Dale said loud enough for all the kids to hear. Suddenly, Taylor grabbed Garrett and Dani Lee’s hands and they didn’t fight her. They may have ran around the store but they knew that when they walked out that door they stayed close to Dale and Mandy and they held hands. They had spent too many years at the track and around the garage area; safety was one thing that even at the age of 6 they paid attention to.
They had come in two separate cars and after they loaded the kids and bags into Keith’s minivan Mandy grabbed Taylor and told Dale to go with Keith. "Why?"
"We are going to go get Taylor’s supplies and we will stop and get the lunchbox for Belle from Kelly."
"Why can’t I go?" Dale whined.
"You really going to leave Keith with all these bags and the kids with Hailey being sick?" She kissed him on the cheek. "Now go. Love you and see you in an hour."
Mandy and Taylor got in the car and headed for the Chance 2 offices. 3 years ago Dale had bought out Teresa’s half of the business and moved the main office and shops to a new location, which was actually on the same property as their new house but they had bought so much acreage over the years that it seemed like it was on the other side of town. The company flourished quickly and they added 2 more cars to the team. Martin Truex Jr. had become one of the hottest faces in Nascar, and now at 30 he had turned down multiple contracts with other companies to stay with Dale. He was now driving a Cup car full time and Paul Menard and Stephen Wallace were the drivers of the two Busch cars. Kelly was the president of the company helping Dale, who had never gotten use to the business end of racing. He knew how important it all was and he had learned a lot and understood most of it, he just wasn’t ready to sit behind the desk yet. Mandy had taken over as Public Relations for the Chance 2 teams and between the three of them all the teams were becoming the cars to beat on any given Sunday.
"Hey Kel," Mandy said knocking on the open office door.
"Hey guy’s, come on in. What do I owe this pleasure today?"
"We need school supplies. Gonna run down to the shop, thought we would stop in and say hi."
"Cool, I’ll walk with you." They headed down to the gift shop. "So how is everyone?"
"Hailey is still sick and the others are as rotten as ever." They walked into the shop. Taylor headed to the notebooks and pencil packs.
Mandy grabbed a Dale Jr. lunchbox for Belle then stood back and let Taylor choose what she wanted. "So, what are we getting?" Kelly asked.
"Letting Taylor pick what she wants, this is for Belle." She held up the lunchbox.
"What does she want?" She eyed Taylor who was going over the shelves.
"Stephen’s stuff."
"Really?" Kelly’s eyebrows raised.
"Yeah, someone has a crush."
"June know yet?" Kelly asked with a giggle knowing how her brother would react, hell she remember a few years ago when her own daughter got her first crush.
"Nope. We’re going to let it be a surprise."
"He’s gonna freak when he finds out his baby has a crush on one of his drivers."
"Oh yeah, that’s an understatement. Speaking of babies how is Ralphie?"
Karsyn was now 11 and Kelly and Jimmy had decided to add to their family 2 years ago and were blessed with a son Ralph Lee, they figured if Dale wasn’t going to use the name they would. "Mean as ever, teething, so he’s biting now."
"Yikes, I remember that stage."
"Mom?"
Mandy joined her daughter. "Yeah hun."
"Can I get the whole set?"
"Get what you want, you didn’t get anything at the store. Oh, I need a backpack for Belle also." Mandy said as she turned towards Kelly.
"Can you grab me one to?" Taylor asked.
"Tay, get what you want." Mandy asked grabbing one with the Chance 2 logo on it for Belle.
"I want that one." She pointed to the Chance 2 bag.
"You sure? Don’t worry about your father if you want the other backpack you can get it."
"No, I want this." She said placing all the notebooks into the orange, black, and white backpack.
"Ok, let’s see. Backpack, lunchbox, folders, notebooks, pencils, pens, binders, that all?" She looked at Taylor who just nodded. "Ok, ring it up."
"You want to sign off on it?" Kelly asked looking for the paperwork.
"No I will pay for it." She handed the credit card to the clerk and the three of them headed out the door. Taylor hugged Kelly and got into the car. "We will see you later." Mandy said to Kelly.
"Give my love to everyone." She waved as the car disappeared out of the lot.
Later that evening after dinner and the kids were in bed Dale was separating the kids’ supplies into piles. "Hey, what’s with all the Wallace stuff?"
"Uh, that’s Tay‘s school supplies." Mandy said as she busied herself doing anything else.
"What? Why?" Dale was confused. "Why would Tay want Stephen’s stuff?"
She looked at him like he had two heads not believing he hadn‘t figured it out. "Dale, she has a crush on him."
"What? Oh no, I don’t even think so. She’s only nine. Hell, she’s not even nine yet. He‘s what…oh hell, how old is he…, how in the hell…"
"I know honey, its ok, breath. She’s almost nine and seems to have her first crush. You’re going to have to deal with the fact that she is growing up. This is only the beginning, you had better start dealing with it now. Cause once you get over this, you’ve got 3 other daughters right behind her not to mention a son that is going to be a heartbreaker and every parents worse nightmare."
"But she‘s just a baby."
"No honey, she’s really not. She’s damn near pre teen and"
"Preteen? Oh no, I don’t even think so, I have 4 more years till she‘s a teen."
Mandy walked over to him and sat next to him draping an arm over his shoulder. "Yes you do, that would be the definition of preteen. Dale, she is embarrassed about it and was scared she was going to hurt your feelings by getting this stuff. She doesn’t know how to deal with these new feelings she has and doesn’t need you making things harder."
Dale saw the look and new Mandy was serious and he didn‘t want to embarrass or hurt Taylor. "Ok, hell, next thing you are going to tell me is that she’s getting married. She’s nine." He said again with a pout.
Mandy smiled. "You know we are going to have to think about the sex talk soon." Mandy giggled at the horror stricken look on his face. "Not tonight, but we have to start thinking about it. I know they will be doing sex ed in school soon and God only knows what she has already heard from her friends and I don’t want her figuring it out on her own."
"I am going to be ill." Dale said finishing up the piles of supplies.
Mandy laughed. "Come on, I’ll help take your mind off of it." She winked as she wandered off down the hall.
"Ok, I guess." He kicked at the ground like a small child as he followed her to the bedroom.
She stopped at the foot of their bed and turned to him. "Oh, well if you don’t want to…" His mouth captured hers before she could finish the statement. She laughed as they both fell onto the bed and started pulling each other’s clothes off.