Chapter 138 You Can't Win Them All
Being at the track without Andrea seemed so odd to Case. Even though she’d only been to two races, and he’d driven in hundreds, if not thousands, he’d grown accustom to having her nearby.
He couldn’t blame her for not being there, though, not when she had such a huge award show later that day. Case never started a race he didn’t want to win, but it would be easier to make sure he got to the ceremony at a decent time if he didn’t win today. That wouldn’t stop him from pouring his heart into the race, though. As he took the checkered flag Sunday afternoon, all thoughts about what he’d be doing later that afternoon flew out the window, and all he could think about was passing the other cars and getting to the front.
He’d started in eighth place, which wasn’t bad, but he needed to try his best to get to first place.. Brad and the rest of the team had done some work on his car since qualifying, and it was running better. Unlike Daytona, this was not a superspeedway. There was no drafting here. No one bumped or pushed. It was more like Las Vegas, a track he’d also ran well at, even though he hadn’t won.
The race went on without a lot of cautions. In races like this, Case had a lot of time to think. Even though he had to pay attention to what he was doing, the cars were spread out quite a bit by the middle of the race, and he found his mind wandering.
He couldn’t help but think about Andrea. They’d been officially dating for about two months, which didn’t seem like that much time, but he already knew she was the one for him. The more time they spent together, the more he considered asking her to marry him. There was no question in his mind he wanted to marry her. Sure, it would be difficult to balance his races with her movies, but they were making it work and would continue to do so.
He wouldn’t be a racecar driver forever, for that matter. He currently in his late twenties, which meant he had another ten or twelve years maybe before he’d start seriously considering hanging up his helmet for good. The longer he raced, the better his chances were of getting seriously injured, something he wasn’t wild about. If he retired at forty, Andrea would still be young enough to have kids. Would she want to wait that long?
Did she even want to have kids at all? They hadn’t talked about it too much. He thought she did, but maybe he needed to ask her. Late night talks had revealed a lot of information about each of them, but he hadn’t asked that question specifically.
Another topic that had never come up was why Andrea was so afraid of storms. While he’d only seen her have a panic attack the one time, he hadn’t been around her any other times when there was even so much as a rain cloud in the sky. The closer they got to spring, the better the chances were that the circumstances would change. He hoped she’d tell him the truth about that at the next opportunity because it broke his heart that something had hurt her so severely that she reacted that way.
“Ten to go,” Truitt said in Case’s ear, bringing him back to the race. He was in fourth place, and the leader, Buck Buchannan, had a six second lead on second place. Case had twenty seconds to make up. Chances were he wouldn’t be able to do that, not unless a caution came out. He hoped one didn’t. Fourth place wasn’t so bad. He would take it if it meant no torn up cars and no one potentially getting hurt.
He had to keep an eye on Whiskey, though. He’d been caught up in a wreck earlier in the race, and his car was limping around the track, pretty badly torn up. It would be easy for him to pretend he’d had a malfunction and wreck Case. It was clear the old man still had it out for him. He’d given him an evil look during the driver’s meeting.
“You’re coming up on Whiskey. Be careful,” Truitt said over the radio.
“Ten-four,” Case said, meaning he understood. Case could see another car was going to pass Whiskey at about the same time. Both of the other cars were lap cars—which meant they were not on the lead lap, and therefore, had no chance of winning. Case timed it so that the other car was between himself and Whiskey, and even though Whiskey lost control slightly as the other two cars went by, he didn’t wreck or hit either of them. Crisis averted.
When Buck took the checkered flag, Case was happy for him. It had been a while since the man had won, and he deserved it. Perhaps more importantly, Case could leave without having to give many interviews. He needed to get to his plane, get in his suit, and get to the award ceremony. He knew he wouldn’t be there in time to walk in with Andrea, but he wanted to be there to see her accept her award. He had a good feeling about her winning. Things seemed to be looking up for her, now that Sarah was being nice. With any luck, they’d stay that way.
Case wasn’t used to putting his life into luck’s hands, but at the moment, it was working out, so he was willing to take it. He pulled his car into pit road, fired off a few quick interviews, and then headed to the golf car so he could get away from the track and to his plane in time to see the most beautiful woman in the world get what was coming to her.
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