Playing With Fire

Amber pulled her sunglasses down from the top of her head and placed them over her eyes as the bright Daytona sun shone on the track. She felt excitement surge through her veins as she headed for the top of Tony’s hauler. Unlimited practice was about to start and she wanted a good view. Tony had wanted to know how everyone else’s car looked and that automatically became her job so she needed spot with a good view of the track.

She hadn’t been onto of the hauler long when she heard engines starting to fire. A smile crossed her lips and she waited to see the first car hit the track. A few minutes after that first car hit the track, Steve joined her atop the hauler. “Your dad got you checking out the competition?” He asked as they watched Tony take his first lap around the track.

“Yeah. Now lets just hope everyone makes it through practice without any wrecks.”

“We need to get through without anything going wrong. We really can’t afford to be tearing up cars this early in the season this year.” Steve put his headset on and began asking Tony a few questions.

Amber’s eyes followed her dad’s car around the track a few times. He wasn’t at the top of the speed chart yet but everything looked good. She then turned her attention to a few other cars out on the track, comparing how they looked against how her dad’s car looked. She easily fell into a rhythm of looking between her dad’s car and the others and that rhythm wasn’t disrupted until she saw the familiar combination of blue and yellow pull onto the track. Amber’s eyes were immediately diverted to Martin’s car.

It had been a month since she’d last seen him. The last look she’d gotten of him had been right before she’d walked out of the elevator at their hotel that night. She’d flown out the next day and hadn’t ran into him back in North Carolina. A part of her was glad she hadn’t seen him since that night. She was fairly certain that he had no interest in making things any more complicated than they already were. However, she had a hard time keeping her eyes off of his car.

Amber hadn’t told anyone what had happened that night, keeping her deal with Martin in tact. She was surprised at how easy it was to keep quiet about it. She had expected that it would be difficult to keep from telling Chelsea everything but it wasn’t. She guessed that was because it still didn’t seem real to her.

As she watched him run laps she let herself go back to that moment in the elevator. If she concentrated hard enough she could swear that she could still feel his lips on hers. She allowed herself to relive that night for a moment and then focused her attention back on the track. He was pulling off the track by now and her attention moved back to the other cars that were running.

Later that night, she headed towards her dad’s motor home to tell him about the other cars in practice. She figured he’d had enough time to eat something and get whatever else he needed to do done. When she arrived at his bus she knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. It took Tony a little more than a minute to open the door. “There she is!”

“Hi, Dad. Do you have a minute?”

“Kinda.”

Amber followed him inside and spotted Martin and Ryan Newman sitting at the table. Seeing Martin shocked her for a minute, having not expected to see him yet. She quickly regained her composure before either Tony or Ryan had the chance to see something was wrong. “Hey guys. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Your dad was bored so he called us. We’re playing some poker,” Ryan said, motioning to the table.

“I can see that,” She laughed. “Who’s winning?”

“Martin,” Tony grumbled.

“Not for long,” She heard Ryan mumble.

“You guys mind if I watch?”

All three men answered no so she sat down at the one empty chair at the table. She watched as they played, being careful not to let her eyes sit on Martin for too long. It was close to half an hour after she arrived when he looked her directly in the eyes. She fidgeted under his gaze and quickly diverted her eyes away from him.

When their game ended, Ryan was the first to stand up to leave. Martin made no attempt to stand up or move at all. Instead he briefly glanced at Amber. After what felt like hours to Amber, Tony stood up and headed for his refrigerator to get something to drink. As soon as his back was turned, Martin leaned across the small table. “We need to talk. When you leave stop by my bus.”

“Which one is it?” She whispered, trying to hurry before her dad turned around.

Martin grabbed the pen and tablet she had sitting in front of her. He flipped it to the last page and quickly wrote his phone number. “It’s the one with the Tundra in front. If you can’t find it, call.”

“Are you two whispering?” Tony asked, turning around. He had thought he’d heard something but he wasn’t sure.

“Nope, I was just looking through my notes here,” Amber said, giving her dad a calm smile.

“Must be hearing things,” Tony shrugged.

“Well I’m gonna go. See you tomorrow, man.” Martin stood up.

“See ya.” Tony sat down on his couch.

“Bye, Amber.”

“Bye, Martin.”

As soon as the door had closed behind Martin, Tony looked at his daughter. “So how’d practice look?”

***

It was later than she expected when Amber left Tony’s bus. Once in the coach lot she started looking around. She was sure that she could find Martin’s bus. The problem was that she didn’t want to be seen. She had never been inside his bus but she had seen it before she just hadn’t paid close attention. Now I wish I would have paid a little better attention when I was coming over here, she thought.

It took her a few minutes but she spotted Martin’s and headed for the door. She knocked once and he opened the door a lot quicker than Tony had. They both stepped inside before there was the chance for anyone else to see them. “So what did you want to talk about?” Amber asked.

“You don’t believe in small talk do you?”

“Not when I’ve been told we need to talk.”

“Will you at least sit down? How have you been since the last time I saw you?”

Amber sat down beside him. “I’ve been good. How have you been?”

“Confused,” Martin ran a hand over his head, “incredibly confused.”

“Oh so you want to talk about that night huh?”

“Not so much that night as just things in general.”

Amber sighed, “Martin, what exactly do you want to talk about? Its been a long day and I’m tired. You’re confusing me.”

“Apparently kissing you was a terrible idea because it just made things worse. I like you a lot but you’re still Tony’s daughter!”

“And eleven years younger?”

“You just had to remind me didn’t you?”

“I’m just repeating what you said that night,” She smirked.

“What do we do? Just act like it never happened?”

“What do you want to do?”

Martin groaned, tossing his head back. “I want to ask you out to dinner. But that really isn’t possible for us.”

“Because my dad might try and kill you?”

“There is no might about it. You think he hated your last boyfriend? Imagine how’d he’d react if you went out with one of his friends.”

Amber nodded, knowing Martin was right about that. “So then we act like it never happened I guess. Hell, I don’t know what to do.”

“How are we supposed to act like it never happened when we see each other every week? We’re going to run into each other. I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place.”

Amber looked over at him, suddenly not feeling so confused anymore. “I’m glad you didn’t.”

“What?”

“I’m glad you didn’t keep your mouth shut. I’m glad you said something. Just like I’m glad I got my secret out.”

“Yeah but now where do we go from here?”

Amber watched as Martin stared at the other side of the room. She could see from his eyes that he was stressed out and her being there didn’t seem to be helping any. “I’ll tell you where we go from here. You forget it ever happened. I’m just your friend’s daughter. We don’t have to be close to each other that often and I’ll stay away as much as I can. Eventually we’ll both forget it happened. Problem solved,” She leaned over and pecked his cheek. “Good luck this season.”

Martin watched as she got up and headed to the door before he stood up. “Wait.”

Amber froze less than two feet away from the door. She wasn’t sure why he was telling her to wait. She was sure she’d just solved their problem. “Why?”

Martin was standing in front of her before she realized he had moved. He saw the confusion in her eyes and he understood it. He still wasn’t sure what he was doing and he was sure it wasn’t a good idea but he was tired of thinking about everything. He kissed her and unlike the first time there was little to no hesitation on her part before she kissed him back.

When he pulled his lips away, Amber wrapped her arms around his midsection, needing to steady herself. She’d been caught completely off guard by him for the second time. She’d gotten over the shock of it quicker this time but now that she could breathe again she suddenly felt unstable on her feet. “Are you going to keep doing that?” She asked. “Because its going to be hard for me to walk away if you do.”

Martin chuckled, “Trust me, it wasn’t my plan when I said we needed to talk. Maybe I don’t want you to walk away.”

“I thought you couldn’t do this?”

“I don’t know. But I want to. The problem is I’m not ready to deal with your dad yet.”

“Or the age difference or the fact that I’m your friend’s daughter.”

Martin groaned, “Quit bringing it up!”

“You’re the one that brought it up to begin with. Those were issues you had, not me.”

“You mean they don’t bother you?”

Amber thought about it for a moment. “No. Stranger things have happened.”

Martin laughed, “That’s quite the outlook on things.”

Amber smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m a simple girl.”

“I can’t take you out yet. I’m not ready to deal with that…” He trailed off, trying to figure out how to word it.

“Shitstorm?” Amber lent.

“You are definitely your father’s daughter.”

“I told you I’m a simple girl. If you really want to take me out to dinner then instead of going out get take out or something. And who knows, things might not work out between us anyway. If they don’t then we never tell anyone what happened. If it does and we want to tell someone we cross that bridge when we get there.” She let go of Martin, finally feeling steady on her feet again.

“Well that’s such a positive outlook. It might never make it to the point where we want to tell anyone.”

She shrugged again. “It is a possibility!”

“Do you not believe in the fairytale ending, Miss Stewart?”

She grinned, “What do you think?”

Martin backed up, sitting on the arm of his couch. He pulled her forward gently so that she was only standing a few inches from him. “I’ve learned not to assume anything when it comes to people. So answer my question.”

She ran a hand through his short hair. “No, Mr Truex,” she followed suit in addressing him, “I don’t believe in the fairytale ending. If its worth having its worth working for. If its worth keeping its worth working to maintain it. And good or great things always come with the risk of failure.”