[chapter eleven]
Disclaimer: If you've heard of them, I don't own them. Everything else is mine, so no stealing, pretty please. ;-) Warning: Contains "colourful" language.
**
"Hi." Kendall said breathily into Jeff Gordon's ear as she stood
behind him. "Remember me?"
Jeff whirled around to face Kendall, a smile slowly spreading across his handsome face. "How could I forget the beautiful blond that Jimmie managed to wrangle?" He said flirtatiously.
Kendall choked back a laugh and instead gave him a flirty smile in return. "I'm flattered you remember me."
"Where's Jimmie?" Jeff asked, looking around for his teammate curiously.
"He's…gone, and I'm…lonely. I was hoping we could go somewhere and…talk." She said, batting her eyelashes in what she imagined was almost a comical gesture. She raised one eyebrow for good measure and watched the light bulb practically appear above Jeff's head.
Jeff grinned. "Follow me."
Kendall silently trailed after her fiancé's boss, trying to mentally rehearse the speech she was planning to deliver to him. It had been a whirlwind week…a marriage proposal from Jimmie, house hunting, packing her things. The one thing they hadn't done was tell Jimmie's team about his decision to keep Kendall around on a more permanent basis.
Jeff opened the door to his coach with a flourish and used his free hand to grope Kendall's bottom, urging her towards the door. Kendall stopped short of the door and politely but firmly removed his hand from her backside. Jeff looked at her quizzically, then in abject horror as she yanked off her blond wig and kicked off her very high heels, bringing her nose to nose with Jeff. "Remember me?" Kendall repeated.
"What…what's going on?" Jeff asked, looking around frantically, as though expecting the candid cameras any moment.
"I knew if I approached you as myself, you would have me thrown out of here. Besides, I wanted to see if you would really mess around with someone in Jimmie's life. I'm here to tell you, don't mess around with me. In any way." Kendall said, her voice calm and even.
"I…I never told him to…" Jeff stammered and Kendall held up a hand.
"Listen…I know you don't like me, you don't approve of me, and you don't think I belong here. I don't think I belong here either, but I belong with Jimmie. If he's here, I'm here. I've never gone looking for anyone's approval but my own, and I'm not about to change to fit some corporate image you have laid out for Jimmie. If his career were ever to be damaged by me, you know I would take care of it myself before I would ever expect you to babysit him or his image." Kendall said in a rush, trying to get through all her words before Jeff could have her thrown out of the track for real.
"Kendall, seriously…" Jeff began before Kendall interrupted him.
"Jeff, I need you to know…I'm strong, I'm opinionated, I'm different, and I don't fit some mold of the perfect person in this little subculture. I just thought you might understand all that, seeing as how you are exactly the same way - or were when you started. And yet, they haven't run you off yet." Kendall explained. "Can't you give me a chance, just like everyone gave you?"
Jeff laid a friendly hand on her shoulder, searching for her eyes. "You've got me wrong, Kendall. I do like you - I think you're cool. I just…you can understand where I was coming from on the whole image thing, right? I mean, I had the same thing happen to me when I started. I went from being a hick with a bad moustache and no fashion sense and no girlfriend to…" He waved his hand around vaguely. "That wasn't my doing. It was everyone else's. You know what I'm saying?" Jeff asked, his eyes pleading with her. "And I never would have hit on the blonde you if I thought Jimmie was still in the picture. I just…I thought you were hot."
"You really have a thing for blondes, don't you?" Kendall teased and Jeff laughed.
"You're hot as a brunette too, Kendall. You just aren't my type. You scare me." Jeff teased in return.
"Truce?" Kendall asked, her voice neutral.
"Truce." Jeff agreed. "But do me a favor…if you're going to cuss a lot, don't do it on camera anymore, okay?"
"Don't worry…I'll make
Jimmie pay the fine." Kendall said with a wink.