Chapter 10/Epilogue

Chapter 10/Epilogue

"Well, we made it," Denny called out as he climbed out of the SUV in the parking lot where he'd told their girlfriends and Joey's parents to meet them that evening. Kyle had barely stepped out of the SUV when he heard his girlfriend's voice. "KYLE THOMAS BUSCH!" she shouted. "HOW DARE YOU RUN OFF LIKE THAT?!" Denny's girlfriend said nothing. She merely balled up her left fist as if promising to give him a black eye to match his right one.

"Listen here, you two," Denny said. "We've had it rough. We've been snowed in. We've been frostbitten. Kyle just about froze to death. We've abused each other with a flashlight. We've been attacked by a killer squirrel. And we blew a tire on the interestate and about flipped over and had to push the thing two miles in the freezing cold to a gas station while Joey held the steering wheel and stuck his head out the window like a dog and waved at every semi-truck that drove by and kept hitting the brakes. So if you're planning on chewing us out, beating us up, or doing whatever you're planning on doing, go for it, cause it can't be worse than anything we dealt with yesterday or today.

The girls looked at their driver boyfriends for a moment. "OH YOU POOR MAN!" they both cried at once, embracing their respective drivers. Denny and Kyle looked at one another and gave each other the thumbs up sign.

"Hey guys!" Joey shouted, pulling out of his embrace with Sabrina in which he'd been locked since climbing from the SUV. "We need to do this again!" "Sure thing, Joey," Denny called without looking as he embraced Jordan." "Yeah, I mean soon. It'll be fun! We should go back to Vegas or something!"

"Vegas," the two women whispered at the same time. Kyle and Denny looked at each other somberly. "He said the V-word. Here it comes." They each looked at their girlfriends, who's faces had contorted into ones of anger. They slapped their driver with their right hand, ironically turning Denny and Kyle's faces right to Joey. He shrunk behind Sabrina, trying to hide from their steely glare....





"So, how was your trip to the mountains?" JD Gibbs asked with a wink as Kyle and Denny sat alone at a table, having a Coke. "Put it this way," Kyle said. "I wish this was the Hendrick Christmas Party so I could be a case deep into some alcohol right now." JD laughed and walked away, leaving his two drivers alone.

They scanned the crowd of employees dancing the night away as Christmas music blared. A jolly fat man normally seen in a red suit was even in on the action: former JGR driver Tony Stewart. Santa was there too, though.

"You know, Joey would be enjoying this," Denny said. "Yeah, if he could talk," Kyle added. They grinned at each other mischeviously. "So, when do you think that super glue will wear off? "Surely by Daytona...I hope."

A little later, Stewart walked up. "So how are you two losers doing?" he asked, leaning against the table and crossing his arms. "Just peachy, Smoke," Kyle replied. "How about you?" "Oh, enjoying the bachleor life, but nothing on the level of you two mountain men," he said with a wink. Kyle and Denny grumbled. The whole story, from the aftermath of their Vegas fiasco to their return from the cabin and everything in between was already legend in NASCAR circles.

"Anyway, the reason I'm over here is I wanted to know what you two have got planned for January...outside of trying to get back in your gals' good graces." "Nothin' much," Denny shrugged. "Me either," Kyle added. "Well good, me and some of the boys are gonna do a little trip of our own and we wanna bring you two along." "We'll think about it," Kyle said. "Think about it, huh?" Denny asked, recalling Kyle's response to him saying he would "think about" the mountain trip.

"Well good," Tony said. "Here, this is all you'll need." He pulled a small spray can out of his pocket and handed it to Kyle, then walked off laughing.

"What is it?" Denny asked as Kyle grumbled. Kyle simply passed the can over to him, where Denny read the magic marker label out loud.

"Squirrel Repellent."



THE END....?






Okay yeah it really is the end...






Maybe....








Yeah, it is. I promise...