Weekly Routines

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“Very funny, Harvick. You gonna let me in or not?”

“Not ‘til you tell me where you got that fancy ass coat from.” This coat is NOT what Junior normally wears. The material is fancy, wool or cashmere maybe, with buttons down the front! Who wants to deal with buttons on their damn coat? Might be why he has it unbuttoned. At least what he has on underneath is Junior: a t-shirt with some funky logo on the front and a pair of regular, old jeans. No scarf around his neck cause if there was I’d be asking what they’d done with the real Junior.

“Why? You want one? Cause Jeff and Jimmie will sure ‘ppreciate knowing their taste in fashion has the Harvick seal of approval.”

“Looks like an HMS gag gift that went wrong.”

“If this is a gag gift I’ll take one of ‘em every year. Saves me from having to shell out the money myself.” Step aside to let him in and he’s got a six pack of Bud in hand again this week along with a bunch of Tupperware containers. Guess he gave up on me stocking the fridge with Bud. Good thing too cause I still haven’t.

“Cheapskate.”

“You’re one to be talking. You didn’t get your wife an anniversary gift.”

“Every day’s Christmas for her. She’s married to me.”

“I wouldn’t think that’d be something to be happy about.” After I’ve closed the front door, I lean back against it and shrug. D and I aren’t into the cards and flowers thing. That’s just the PR image companies have built around those “special” days. No, we’re beyond believing all that hype. It doesn’t matter if we don’t do something on those “designated special” days, we’d rather do something for each other that really matters. Maybe I buy her a little teacup dog cause they won’t take up half couch or maybe she lets me sink twelve grand into dirt models. It’s those types of things that matter.

I wonder if Junior will ever get that. I bet part of it’s the type of girls he likes to hang around. They all seem to be a lot more materialistic than D, but then someone like D just might not work with someone like him. Tilt my head down at the stuff in Junior’s hands. “What’s with the Tupperware?”

“DeLana making a food run again?”

“Don’t think so. Might be playing with LO in the yard. Why?”

He lifts the Tupperware slightly. “Kelley loaded me up with food she’d cooked. Gonna take me weeks to get through it all so I thought I’d share.”

“She a better cook than D?”

“She’s a’right. Nothing like MeMaw but no one’s like MeMaw. Still some nights I’d rather eat Kelley’s stuff than anything I can cook up.”

“This gonna be a regular thing now? The food and stuff. You don’t need to bribe us, Earnhardt. I think it’s safe to say your spot on the show isn’t going anywhere.” Head toward the kitchen so I can give a proper food critique on Kelley Earnhardt’s cooking skills.

“I ain’t bribing you, Harvick. If it’s that big a deal, I’ll just suffer through the weeks of leftovers.”

“Hi Junior. Is Kevin giving you a hard time?” D walks in from the balcony with LO tucked against her side in one arm. She sets LO on the ground and I have to smile when Junior stands extra still as LO scampers around his feet.  I bet he’s afraid he’ll step on her.  Shake my head because I know LO can take pretty good care of herself.

“When isn’t he?”

“It’s all in good fun, D.”

“Oooh, what do you have there?” D comes over and pries the lid on the topmost container up to peek inside, forcing Junior to stop his LO watching so he can prevent D from toppling the whole stack.

“Leftovers from Kelley’s place.”

“You bring them for us? How sweet. Give them here and I’ll put them away. When are we grabbing dinner, Kevin?” She takes the Tupperware from Junior, leaving him with his beer and moves behind the counter.

“I dunno. After we do the show or we could eat now? Either of you hungry?” June shakes his head as D pulls open the refrigerator . “D?”

“After the show’s fine with me. These need to be refrigerated, Junior?”

“Yeah, then when we’re ready they’ll just need a reheat.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem since D’s good with the microwave.” June chuckles then once D’s done shoving the Tupperware in with the “pretty” orange juice, water bottles, and premade meals, we head upstairs.

As we head into the studio, Junior asks, “When’d you guys make it back Monday? I got back around noon and that shot the rest of my day.”

“You out partying?” Slide my headset around my neck as D settles into her chair and Junior moves over to the mini fridge to refill it with the pack of Bud he brought.

“Nah, just wanted to get home. I heard Knaus and the team got themselves back by eleven. Talk about insane dedication to his job.”

“Like you don’t think about racing 24/7.”

“There’s thinking about it and there’s being in the shop. What time did you guys gets back anyway? You one of the early ones?”

“Yeah, we were already at the airport when we found out and driving back to the track wasn’t worth it. We hit a hotel for some shut eye then headed back to the airport when the pilot called. What’d you do all night?”

“I hung with Bowyer at the poker tables. You know he has the worst poker face ever? You can spot his tell from a mile away.” He tucks the Bud toward the back of the mini fridge and hands me and D Amstels then snags a Bud for himself.

“Damn right and don’t go teaching him any tricks for covering that up. He’s the easiest to win money back from and I want to keep it that way. He still bleeding money like water?”

“Oh yeah. You shoulda seen the wads of cash he pulled out to buy back into the game. It was insane. Richard really paying him enough to do that?” He moves to sit in his chair, stretching his legs out in front of him.

Shrug at Junior and play with the wires for the microphone. “Probably not, but this is Bowyer we’re talking about. It’s all sorta gone to his head.”

We both turn to look at D when she mutters, “You can definitely say that again.” June shoots a look at me and I tilt my head motioning for later. He probably already has a good idea what D’s talking about. It’s just better to not talk about Athena’s backstabbing, boyfriend stealing, ex-friend with D in the room. That sets her off in a rage that lasts the rest of the day.

Turn the microphone on and tap it once. “We all set to get this thing done?” At nods from both of them, I hit the record button and we’re off to another week talking about the issues and ignoring the ones that aren’t for the public to hear.