Resolution
Notes: Thanks again, so much, for the reviews. I love reading them. You guys are great!!!!!
Chapter 6 Resolution
Ty and Carly got to his office, and closed the door. “What happened to what’s-her-name?” Carly asked.
“She left. In kind of a hurry. I hope you didn’t scare her away!” He said. “But then, maybe that would be a good thing..”
Carly’s eyebrows went up. “Really?” She asked. “You mean that, Ty?”
“Don’t change the subject! We need to straighten this out, between you and me. Come over here, and sit down.” He walked her over to the couch in his office, and they sat down.
“Ok. What was that crack about me not wanting you here?” he asked.
“First off, I am sorry I interrupted you. I lost my temper, and I was wrong. But I want you to know something. When I get into people on the racetrack, that’s not temper. That’s just racing. I have to race them hard, because they are racing me extra hard because I am female. I cannot let them bully me, or you will have a wrecked racecar every single week. If they push me, I have to push back twice as hard. You saw what happened with Jimmy Spencer. I did not provoke him, ever, not even last year. I won’t roll over and play dead, but I didn’t provoke him. When Dale and Jeff went after him in practice, that was temper. But somehow, it’s ok for them.” She paused to wipe tears from her eyes. “Did you see the Busch race last weekend?” Did you see me push Dale around on the track? Did you see him pushing me around? Did you see Jeff Burton try his hardest to get me out of his way?” Ty nodded. “I’m friends with both those guys. I know they respect what I can do with a racecar. That’s why they push me. What kind of a driver would I be if I just pulled over and let them pass? Maybe I’d be fit to drive an Ice Cream Truck.” Ty laughed. “And then there’s guys like Spencer or Robby Gordon, who don’t like me, what do you think they do? And what should my defense be? I have to race them as hard as I can. I cannot give up. It’s not temper, it’s persistence. It’s racing. And not just any kind of racing. I’d be dead if I ever got into an Indy car. That’s stock car racing.”
Ty looked down. He took her hand in his. “You know, you’re right.” He smiled. “You see, Carly, that’s exactly why I did want you in our racecar. I guess I couldn’t describe it the way you did, but we saw that you have what it takes. You have to admit, though, you can be a little rough at times. But now I have a better understanding of what goes through your head when you’re doing it. I’m sorry about the temper remarks. You do kind of have a temper though, but then so do the other drivers that we employ. I guess I just expected you to be different because you’re a girl. And that’s not a good assumption, I guess.”
Carly laughed. “Hey, it works to my advantage sometimes. Lots of guys assume the same thing.”
“But Carly,” he continued “ I never once had second thoughts about hiring you. In fact, I was the one that pulled that whole meeting together right after you got your trophy last year. I knew Childress was after you, and I wanted to make sure we got you first. And then the Budweiser reps were already there, and they were kind of frantic too. Not to mention Dale Jr.” Ty looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You should have seen him. He was chasing me all around saying “TY- you gotta get her. She can drive! She can drive the hell outta that car. And she’s smart! Ty- hurry!” He mimicked Dale, laughing. “You left quite an impression on him that last race. He didn’t realize that we’d been watching you all year. So, are you ok with this?”
“I think so.” She said. “But what about this rumor? How did it get started?”
“I have no idea! Jade was going to go to the radio station and try to get a tape of the announcement. We’ll try to figure it out from there. But you need to get used to this. This happens all the time. To everyone. And rest assured, Carly. If there ever were a problem, I would tell you first. I promise you. And you’ve got to know that Dale Jr. would never do that to you. He’s not that kind of person. Not at all. So if this ever happens again, and you haven’t talked to me, then it’s false. Ok?” he smiled.
She smiled back. “Ok. Thanks Ty. Now tell me about Pamela Morgan.”
“Oh- talk about tempers! I know you’ve talked to Teresa about this. And I figure that you’ve probably got Junior’s take on it. I gotta admit, I tend to side with Junior. I have to respect Teresa’s wishes on this. So do we all. You included.” He laughed. “But she is…well…a piece of work, to say the least. I hope you don’t get on her bad side. I know you are tough enough to handle it, but it won’t be pretty. Just bear in mind that this is a favor for Teresa, ok? It won’t be easy, though. Just deal the best you can, ok?”
“Ok. I’ll bite my tongue. I’ll be good. I hope…” She winked. They both stood up. “So how many people do you think are gathered up out there, just waiting to see who is bleeding the most?” Carly asked, looking at Ty’s closed door.
“Oh, I’m sure there are at least, oh, 15 or 20? What do you think?” he said, chuckling.
“Yeah, that’s a good guess.” She said. “Ok- you open the door.”
“No, you open it.” He teased.
“No, it’s your door, you open it.”
“You had no problem opening it earlier today, so you open it.”
“So it’s your turn, so you open it.” She laughed.
“You win!! I’ll do it. But first I want to listen.” He quietly tiptoed over to the door, and put his ear to it. “Yep, there’s people out there! Ok. Real quiet, so we don’t scare them away. I want to see how many there really are. Ready?” he whispered.
“one, two, three…” He shoved the door open. People scattered like marbles. “I dunno, Carly. Maybe 10, 15? What do you think?”
“You’re pretty close! They ran too fast for an accurate count. Good call on your part, bud.” She gave him a hi-five. She strolled out of his office, and went over to the office she shared with Dale.
~~**~~
Meanwhile, back at Teresa’s office, Dale was staring in disbelief at the tape player. “It is my voice, but I didn’t say that. I didn’t call no radio station. You got to believe me!” he said.
“I believe you, son.” Teresa said. “But where did it come from?” They played it again.
“Yeah, Carly will be driving the ARCA car. I don’t know about Bud. Probably not. She’ll be gone. This weekend.”
“Could it have been bits of a previous interview, chopped up and re-recorded?” Jade guessed.
“No…” Dale said. “That’s a phone conversation, I had with Kelley. Yesterday. We talked on the phone, and we talked about a bunch of things. I told her that Carly would be driving the ARCA car. That I didn’t think Pamela would be able to handle it, that she’d be gone. That Carly might have to drive it this weekend. The remark about “I don’t know about Bud,” I was talking about my cats. About Bud. Someone has tapped my phone, or Kelley’s! Call the police, right now. This has gone too far.”
“But who would want to do such a thing?” Teresa said. “Who would have it in for Carly? Uh oh, what about the evil ex- boyfriend?”
“He’s in California. Verified by Mark. This call happened after he was back out west.” Dale answered.
“Then I just don’t know who would do this!” she said.
“Oh, lets see now, Teresa. Who did you just invite back into our lives?” Dale glared at her.
“Junior, she would have no reason to do this! How could you think that?” Teresa said.
“She wants to drive a racecar, doesn’t she? We already have a girl driver, don’t we? If Carly were gone, Pamela just might figure that we’d give the #81 car to her. It’s a possibility!” Dale reasoned. Then he shut his eyes and sighed. “Just call the cops. Someone has tapped our phones. I gotta call Kelley on my cell.” He pulled out his cell phone. He called his sister, and told her what was going on.
“Ok sis. Love ya! Bye” he hung up. “I gotta go check on Carly!” he said as he turned and left the office.
“Hey- Junior.” Jade called after him. “We still need to be in Kannapolis in 30 minutes!”
“Gotcha.” Dale mumbled as he walked off.
~~**~~
Carly had gotten to her and Dale’s office, and shut the door behind her. She was really exhausted. She called Rick Hendrick, and explained the situation. Then she called Rusty Wallace. Then she started to listen to all the messages on her cell phone. Most of them were Dale and Steve, and Jeff. She put her head down on her arms. She fought back tears, but a few leaked out onto her arm. She didn’t care, she just wanted to rest.
After she had managed to relax for a few minutes, and finally stop the tears, the door to the office creaked open.
“Hey.” Dale said softly.
Carly responded with a muffled “Hey” without even lifting her head.
“You still employed here, or are you Jeff’s new teammate now?” he asked, jokingly. He walked over to where she was sitting with her head down. He leaned over her, engulfing her in his arms. He kissed her on the cheek.
She smiled. “Why do you always make me feel so good?”
“I dunno.” He laughed. “You didn’t answer my question…”
“Well, I thought about playing a joke on you and packing all my things in a box, and leaving… but I knew you would see right through me.” She giggled. “So, instead I’m just resting. I’m exhausted. And I’m still your teammate. And I love you.”
He smiled. “I love you too. Now we have to get going.” He kissed her again, and stood up. “Where’s your red shirt?” he asked.
“Home. I got a spare though.” She dug it out, and changed real quickly, hoping no one would walk in. “So did Jade get to the bottom of the radio thing?” she asked.
“He got a tape. It is my voice. But not my words, exactly. Someone tapped my or Kelley’s phone, taped a phone conversation and then chopped it up, and created a false statement. Then the boneheads at the radio station played it. It’s not even that good! Who did you say first called you about it this morning?”
“Steve Waid. But he was nice about it, at least.” She replied. They left their office, and met Jade and Ty in the hall.
“Hey, Carly, you ok?” Jade asked her.
“Yeah, thanks Jade. Just another one of life’s little freak-outs!” she laughed.
~~**~~
They walked down to the garages. Each team had a “show car” that was painted up to look like the racecar, but was a street legal car. They had roll cages in them, five point seatbelts and semi slick tires on them, but they could be driven on the highways. They were going to take the two Budweiser show cars to Kannapolis. Dale went over towards the #8, and Carly naturally followed him.
“No, Carly. Over here!” Ty said. “Junior, you and Jade take the 8. Carly and I will take the 81.” He tossed the keys to Carly.
“We need more quality time. Ok, Carly?” he smiled. “Besides, I’ve never actually driven with you in a racecar. I have a feeling that this is as close as I want to get!” he laughed.
A slow evil grin came across Carly’s face.
“Nah uh uh!!” Ty said. “I know what you’re thinking!!” Everyone laughed. “Just stay behind Junior!”
“Ty, you know I just can’t do that!” she laughed. “How good are these bumpers?”
~~**~~
Note: Chapter 7 is the conversation between Carly and Ty while they drove. Its short. No cliffhanger. Actually, there are a couple of chapters coming up that only have minor cliffhangers. And then the rest have big ones. Cause I know everyone loves a good cliffhanger!! Chapter 8 will be up in a couple of days!! Thanks again for reading and reviewing!!
