Page 7 of Driving Force

“Hi,” I reply. I feel myself blush just looking into his beautiful green eyes.

“You look beautiful, and these are for you.” He hands me a beautiful flower arrangement.

“Thank you, you don’t look half bad yourself,” I say with a wink, which makes him smile even more.

“Are you ready to go?” he asks.

“Yep, let me just put these in some water,” I say, before grabbing my purse as we head out the door.

As we walk toward his truck. I’m kind of surprised he drives a blacked-out Ford F250. I was picturing him as a top-down sports car kind of guy. So, it’s great to see he doesn’t take himself seriously and think he needs to be flashy. I feel my girlfriends staring at us. Turning around, we wave goodbye, just like I’m in high school out on my first date. Ryan meets me at the passenger side, opening my door for me. It surprises me a little because guys don’t do that as much as they used to, and it is refreshing.

I thank him, and he says, “My mom would kill me if I didn’t open the door for a lady.”

“How very gentlemanly of you,” I say, batting my eyelashes at him.

I buckle my seatbelt. As Ryan starts the truck, a song by Morgan Wallen, “Chasing You,” comes on the radio. Smiling to myself, I can’t help but think this could be a great night, and it makes me laugh just a little, which catches Ryan’s attention.

“Care to share with the whole class what’s so funny, Miss Cash?”

Looking over at him, I say, “I was just thinking we may have more in common than I thought. Well, at least your music taste isn’t terrible. I love this song. I’m a fan of all kinds of music. Right now, I have New Country on repeat with my Spotify, but who knows? Tomorrow it may be 70s Rock or Elton John all day. At one point, I had The Greatest Showman soundtrack in my head for almost a week, so I’m kind of all over the place.”

“I got to say I wouldn’t have pegged you as an all-over-the-place kind of music girl if I was a guessing man, to be honest,” he said.

“Yeah, I get that. My parents didn’t leave the radio station on anything specific for longer than a verse, so I jump around a lot. What about you?” I ask, wanting to find out more about him as we head toward the bar. It’s a short ride to the Twisted Pear around the corner.

“I love all kinds, but lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of New Country, Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs styles. But if you were to look at my Spotify List, you would find almost anything on my playlist also.”

“Is there anything you listen to on race day that you normally don’t at other times?” I ask.

“Huh.” He taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “I guess I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest. It’s just whatever I have on my playlist at the time, I don’t have a race day playlist, but maybe I should,” he replies with a laugh.

As we round the corner to the restaurant, I’m relieved to see it isn’t crowded. My phone pings as I start to get out of the truck, but Ryan is at the door helping me out.

Chase:

I had a great time today. Maybe we can go on a real date soon.

Putting my phone back into my purse, I reach for Ryan’s hand. When our fingers touch, a spark goes up my arm. That is something that I haven't felt before. Looking up to thank him, I can’t help but wish he would kiss me again sooner rather than later. But hey, we’ll start with dinner and see what happens.

Walking up to the Twisted Pear, I can’t help but be relaxed talking with Tinley. She makes all my nerves go away with one look. If this is how a relationship is supposed to be, then go ahead and sign me up because I’m a goner for his woman.

There isn’t a huge crowd—at nine o'clock on a Sunday, I would hope not—so I breathe a sigh of relief that I don’t have to worry about us being bothered by race fans coming up to ask for autographs. I want to focus on the dark-haired beauty in front of me. Tinley makes her way to the hostess stand and requests a table. They’re able to seat us right away.

As we walk toward the back of the restaurant, I place my hand on the small of her back. She looks up at me with the sweetest smile, and I want to kiss her in front of everyone to let them know she’s mine. I shake my head at the thought.

“Your waitress will be right with you,” the hostess says, snapping me out of my caveman thoughts. I thank her and ask Tinley if she has a preference about which side of the booth she sits on. “If you don’t mind, I usually face the door in case a crazy person was to come in. My dad taught me a long time ago to always be alert when out in public. So I naturally take the seat facing the door,” she says.

I can’t help but chuckle a little at the notion of her protecting us. There’s that caveman again.

“I’m fine to sit with my back to the door so that you can keep an eye out for us, but you do realize that I’m supposed to protect you, right?” I say with a wink.

“Maybe so, but also, it will keep all the eyes off you if you’re not facing the door, and I know that you would keep me safe, even if we just met,” she says, then adds, “Well, Ryan, tell me about your day.”

“It was actually very eventful.” I reach across the table for her hand. “I met a beautiful woman at the track. Had a decent run today, but it wasn’t what it needed to be to win, but that’s part of the game, and now I get to be out with said beautiful woman tonight.What about you, Tinley?”

“My day was different from any other I’ve had since moving here, that’s for sure. My first NASCAR race, which I have to say, was a lot of fun. Going into it, I thought it would just be a lot of drunk race fans. Don’t get me wrong, there were, but it was the most fun I have had in a long time. Met a nice guy in the garage area and got grilled by my girlfriends once we got home because of the smile on my face.” A hint of pink tints her cheeks at the comment. “And now I am having dinner with said guy. I’d say I had a pretty good day, also.”

It's so easy talking to Tinley during dinner, and I want to find out more about her. “What made you want to go into publishing?”

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