DISCLAIMER: I do not own any race drivers or make any profit off of them in this story. They are here for background. Please do not get offended.
"Your motor home is over here, Mr. Earnhardt," Kim said as she motioned to the black fortress that would house Dale Earnhardt for the next two weeks. She had already settled Junior into his own and was finishing off her list as she saw the ponytail of long hair out of the corner of her eye and felt her knees weaken. No one else had hair like that, hair that she knew the feeling of when she ran her fingers through it, hair that framed the face that she loved dearly.
"Are you all right ma'am?" Dale asked as she barely nodded her head yes before looking over to make sure it was Tommy and then sprinting off. She did not want to run into him, not now. She needed some space from him, some time to think this all out and suddenly the race track was feeling too small. "That's odd."
"I'd say," Will said as he walked up to the man and watched the woman fleeing. "Funny, she looks familiar. What do you say Tommy?"
"Hmm?" Tommy questioned as he looked over at Will and he smiled.
"The girl…in the pink…running off in that general direction," Will said as he pointed and Tommy's eyes widened. He would know her anywhere, even if she did look different from the last time that he had seen her. He could tell that she had filled out in some areas and had more curves than he remembered, but she was the same woman, the woman that haunted his dreams, that made him feel complete. "What?"
"I know her," Tommy managed as Dale gave him a thorough look.
"You're new to the sport aren't you?" Dale asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and then turned back to watching the girl as she ran.
"She broke up with me, four years ago," Tommy muttered as the other two men exchanged a glance and then walked away to talk on their own. They could tell that there was no way to get him to forget what happened or to stop him going after her.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Kim murmured as she paced back and forth in front of her mobile home. There was no way that he could be here, not now. She had thought he would arrive last minute or hell, even late, but he was here, now and she had no clue how to face him.
"You're not gonna do yourself no good mumblin' like that," Earl said as he walked up to Kim and she let out a sigh. She had been working with Earl for the past two years at the racetrack and they had a type of system between themselves on how things ran. She would get everyone settled in and do all the day time work and he would be there at night to hold down the partying. "Now, what's happened Ms. Hart?"
"Old boyfriend just showed up," Kim said as Earl gave her a curious gaze.
"Do I need to go beat him up?" Earl asked as Kim shook her head no and then ducked behind him as Tommy passed by the RV. "Nice, so why ya hidin' from him?"
"I broke up with him, four years ago, right after I found out I was pregnant," Kim said as Earl raised his eye brows and she let out a sigh. "He doesn't know that I've had a baby, doesn't even know that I was raped."
"You told me all of this the first day we started workin' together. Why didn't you tell him?" Earl asked as Kim let out a sigh and then sat down in one of the lawn chairs that had been provided.
"How do you tell the man you love that he won't be your only one?" Kim asked as Earl passed her a coke and she took a long gulp. "Tommy deserves better."
"No, he deserves the truth, for better or for worse, you should tell the boy, otherwise I see things gettin' ugly 'round here real quick," Earl said as Kim nodded and then watched him walk away. Earl had been good to her ever since she had come here searching for a job and she knew he wouldn't lead her astray, she just hoped that Tommy didn't kill her when he found out the truth.
"She didn't just disappear," Will said as he followed after Tommy, who was still searching for the mystery woman.
"You don't know Kimberly Hart," Tommy said as Will looked over at him and Tommy finally let out a sigh. He was frustrated, hell, he thought that he would be able to track her down easily enough in this mix of trailers, but somehow he had gotten turned around. "She's been disappearing for the last four years on me."
"Come on, she can't hate you that much," Will said, jokingly as Tommy shook his head. He wasn't sure what emotion Kim felt for him now, but he was sure that it wasn't hate, not after seeing the fear in her eyes as she scurried away from him.
"I won't say it's hate, but it's definitely something and if I had to guess, it's probably something that I don't want to know about, but I have to know," Tommy said as he caught a flicker of pink and then ran off, leaving Will in confusion.
"Damn," Kim muttered as she looked behind her and saw Tommy breaking through the crowds as he headed towards her. She could not continue to run scared, she knew that much, but this was not the way that she wanted to explain everything to him.
"Kimberly!" Tommy yelled as she came to a stop and hung her head before she felt his hand on her shoulder. "Kim…"
"Hey, Tommy," Kim whispered as she looked down and he reached over for her hand, which she gently pulled away. "We've got a lot to talk about."
"Look, I don't want to know if you're married, I just wanted to say hi," Tommy said as she looked up at him and let out a long sigh. Leave it to Tommy to be noble about all of this. She, however, could not let him continue to suffer because of something that had happened to her close to four years ago.
"I'm not married and we really do need to talk, although this might not be the best of times. You need to focus on the races," Kim said as Tommy shook his head and smiled down at her.
"How about tonight? My treat?" Tommy asked as her face fell and he gave her a confused look. "Something wrong with that?"
"My babysitter expects me to be home by five this afternoon and I don't think Jason would mind staying late, but…" Kim trailed off as Tommy's mouth fell open. "I just said that out loud, didn't I?"
"Babysitter?" Tommy asked as Kim nodded her head yes and he stared at her.
"It's not what you think, Tommy, but I don't want to talk about it here. If you don't mind coming back to my place tonight, we can order something and then talk," Kim said as he barely nodded and he then grabbed her hand.
"Is this the real reason you left me?" Tommy whispered as Kim barely nodded her head yes and he nodded before he gave her a hug. "I'll meet you outside my RV at four then?"
"Yeah," Kim said as he turned and walked away as she let out a long sigh. She did not notice the girls that were giving her the evil eye for snatching up someone that was obviously an eligible bachelor so quickly. The only thing that she felt was a sudden sense of panic, there was so much that Tommy didn't know and she didn't know how he would take any of it.
