Unchartered Waters ✅

Chapter 54: Burnouts in Nashville

Alex's POV

Wednesday, December 1 – Nashville, Tennessee

There were several cities that you could travel to and have a lot of fun.

Nashville was one of those. It was a place where you wanted to go hang with friends, go to cool places, check out the variety of bars, and make memories.

Perfect setting for banquet weekend.

While the past years had been full of fun times with friends, including laughs with a variety of people, it was the furthest thing from my mind this year as I felt arms wrap around my waist.

"I missed you," I hear whispered in my ear, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up immediately. "All I wanted to do was repeat what we did on my birthday. I almost rushed my ass to North Carolina to see you before flying out here."

"I missed you too," I reply back, tempted to say even more. I mean, let's face it, we were in a public place right now. We were standing around with fellow drivers, celebrities, NASCAR staff, media, and oh yeah, there were fans. What if we were spotted? I don't think we could pawn off this look as typical teammates. Ah heck, probably nobody is paying attention. Let's face it – the focus is on Kyle as he's your champion. There's also others getting set to start their burnouts before us. "That's why I plan on making every party appearance short tonight, so we can have a party for two."

"You better impress me with your burnout so that way I feel obligated to give you a prize later, Alex." He then lets me go, just like that, and walks away.

That's it? I don't get to answer back in response and retort? I don't get a kiss, or anything? Fuck man, that is shitty treatment for having to spend 48 hours without your sexy ass.

For the record, my burnout experience went terrible. Let's just say that I should not be trusted with fun toys because I always find a way to break them. How does one break the transmission as they get started to go? However, since I am smarter than the likes of Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, I managed to still pull off some greatness. In fact, I rate myself much higher than Kevin as I didn't require a push off.

I also can say misery has company, thanks to Tyler Reddick and Martin Truex Jr. also equally screwing up. Why can't one of these events ever go smoothly?

Now on the other hand, Chase is still a master at these things. He still pulled off his signature slide and some nice donuts to keep the fans entertained. Okay, it wasn't the best of the night – Penske gets points for creativity, and Kyle Larson kicked everybody's asses which is somewhat fitting, but he definitely earned a lot more kudos than me.

With my sponsor hosting festivities in town, I knew I couldn't just leave the event without a single word. I at least had to make an appearance, which is what I did. I went to the post-event, mingled with a bunch of people – enough to say that I was there, and tell others, before thanking Andrea and the staff for their great time.

I made my way to the hotel, realizing he had slipped his room key in my pocket when he was flattering my sexy ass. Smooth Elliott, real smooth. I should expect that from you, I suppose.

I find myself to the floor that I need to reach, getting off the elevator and heading down the hall to the room. I debated stopping at my own room first, changing out of this firesuit, but that'd just waste time. Considering he didn't have a big sponsor obligation, I knew he'd probably beat me back here.

I slip the key card in the door, letting it open, and quickly entering without a pause – I didn't need to get caught here now. I let it slip close, making my way inside. It was the same layout as my room, which was no surprise as I heard we both got suites per the plan.