Three Little Words

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Summary: Chad Knaus reflects on three little words.

AUTHOR: Mick
EMAIL: mick@cryptoffic.com
RATING: G
CHARACTER: Chad Knaus/Chandra Johnson, Chad POV
WORD COUNT: 852
DISCLAIMER: If I owned them I'd be too busy to write this stuff. Just fiction, folks! I own NOTHING and am affiliated with NO ONE mentioned here. Not the drivers, not the teams, no one. This is all fiction and fun. In other words...NOT REAL, NOT REAL, NOT REAL. ;-)
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He was restless and he wasn’t quite sure why. Everything in his life had changed so drastically in such a short amount of time and he couldn’t figure out exactly how or why. One moment everything was on track, going just how he’d planned it. Next thing he knew, all his plans were pushed aside and his life was a mess. Not a bad mess, though. Nearly everything had changed but he’d thought it all for the better.  That is…until three little words changed it all. Three tiny, seemingly simple words that held far more weight than he was prepared to handle. He was a man capable of many things, but he wasn’t capable of what those words entailed. And so he lost the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Chad Knaus was a man of many talents. At fourteen he was crew chiefing his father’s race team and leading them to championships. He worked his way from a shop sweeper to a rear tire changer for the Rainbow Warriors to one of Ray Evernham’s golden boys. He led a first class team to unheard of heights in his and Jimmie Johnson’s first season together. His life was devoted to winning, hard work, and being the best. He was most content when he running on two hours of sleep, eight cups of coffee, and pure adrenaline. He had one love in life and that was his racecars.

Then SHE came along. When Jeff and Amanda introduced Jimmie to Chandra, Chad thought he was doomed. All Jimmie’s spare time that had once been devoted to racing suddenly went to her. Chad resented her for a long time, until he got to know her. They wound up hitting it off, getting along incredibly well to the delight of Jimmie. After all, who wanted their crew chief and girlfriend at each other’s throats?

As Chad and Chandra grew closer, it became obvious to them that their feelings went well beyond friendship.  They did a good job of keeping things at bay; after all, she and Jimmie were engaged to be married. Part of Chad wanted to steal her away but the other part was relieved. He didn’t have time for a girlfriend when his entire life revolved around his career. Both got thrown for a loop, however, when after less than two months Jimmie and Chandra’s marriage was on the rocks. They wound up splitting after Jimmie confessed to seeing someone else -Dale Junior.

Determined to stay friends, the two kept up appearances, looking to all the world like the happy couple they pretended to be. Chad could see it in her face that while Chandra was happy for Jimmie, she badly wanted the same for herself.  After several weeks of skirting around the sexual tension, they finally gave in to their emotions. That night had been incredible and Chad soon found himself more often than not leaving Ron Malec in charge so he could have some time with her. He’d call her from the shop on his coffee runs or lunch breaks. The two became inseparable.

Of course, then she had to go and say it. One night about a week after the chase ended, they’d been laying in bed after a heated little interlude and she’d looked up at him with her chin on his chest. He’d asked what was on her mind and she’d whispered, “I love you,” in a whisper he almost couldn’t hear.

The wind had gotten knocked out of him and his head reeled. Chad Knaus knew about a lot of things, but love wasn’t one of them. He’d looked at her in complete shock, no idea what to say. The hurt at his lack of response was clear in her eyes, but still he could think of nothing. She’d gone on to tell him it was okay if he didn’t feel the same, that she just wanted him to know, but he knew she was lying. She wanted desperately for him to say it back, but he couldn’t say it because…

Chad sat up quickly in bed. It’d been a week since that night and they’d barely said two words to one another. It suddenly occurred to him that he DID love her. He’d spent every free moment of the past week thinking about her, wanting nothing more than to hold her and talk to her; hear her laugh and see her smile.

He jumped out of bed and pulled some clothes on before running out to his Porsche. He fired up the engine and sped to her house, pulling up less than a foot from her porch in the center of her circular driveway. 4AM be damned, he had to tell her NOW, he thought as he rang the doorbell repeatedly. When Chandra pulled the door open a moment later, looking to kill whoever was on the other side, she stopped short when she saw him. Before she could speak, he pulled her to him, kissing her hard. When he finally pulled away again, her face in his hands, he whispered, “I love you too.”

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Mick - mick@cryptoffic.com