Love in Victory Lane (A Chase Elliott FanFic)

Chapter Eight

Ryan spoke to Emily, smiling at her and staring into her eyes. "How's your food?" he asked while gesturing to her hotdog and fries.

"It's delicious," she laughed shyly.

"That's great," he chuckled. "This diner has the best junk food this side of the Tennessee line."

"Yeah, it's pretty good. Never ate here before, but I've always heard about it and wanted to try it out." She stared into her lap and then looked up at me with an expression of Oh crap. Help me! I looked back at her and telepathically told her to calm down and just talk to him. She obviously got the message, because she turned to him and asked, "You excited for the race tonight?"

"Heck yeah!" Ryan exclaimed. "Ready to go out there and win! Do you think I can win?" he asked. Emily just laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Who is your favorite driver?" he inquired. "It better be me," he procliamed while laughing his adorable laugh.

Emily sorta looked torn between a rock and a hard place, and I knew why. She wanted to tell Ryan yes it was him, but she did not wanna lie, because Chase was really her favorite driver. She laughed and replied, "Well it would be awesome for you to win if Chase Elliott can't."

Ryan faked a look of horror and disappointment. He asked in a sad, shocked voice, "I'm not your favorite driver?" Emily looked humiliated, but Ryan quickly reassured her he was just playing by softly poking Emily in the arm and saying, "I'm just messing with you. A lot of people like Chase more than me."

Emily laughed and said, "It's not that I like him more than you. I like you a lot." She realized this could be wrongly interpreted and quickly added, "As a driver. I like you a lot as a driver!" She blushed so much when she said it.

Meanwhile, I looked at Dylan, who had turned in his seat and was watching Emily and Ryan's conversation. His laughing expression he had earlier was gone, and it was replaced with a serious expression mixed with a little bit of jealousy. When Ryan poked Emily's arm, I saw Dylan clench his jaw and tense up as if he did not want Ryan to touch her. Was he really becoming jealous of Ryan? Did he want Emily all to himself?

Ryan laughed at Emily's reply and blushed a little bit. "I gotcha," he said.

Emily laughed and looked around, and when she did, Dylan quickly looked away and laughed. It was an awkward, almost forced laugh, but it was a laugh. Maybe he was not jealous after all. Maybe he was just thinking about something. I decided not to read too much into Dylan's behavior.

My thoughts about Dylan were interrupted by someone sitting down in the chair beside me. It was Chase. I shifted in my chair nervously, but I forced myself to look at him. He stared me in the eyes and his beautiful teeth showed as he began to smile. This weird feeling washed over me; I suddenly found myself thinking about kissing him and wanting to so badly.