You were born a heart breaker
Let them down easy kind
You don't know how to fake
You're more whiskey than wine
A pedal to the floorboard
You're a howl at the moon all night long
I can try to hold on
Lord knows you're a wild, wild woman
You're a natural, one of a kind
You're a wild, wild woman
Girl, you know you drive me wild
Wild woman

Ryan's POV

I woke up to an empty bed and the smell
of bacon cooking. I didn't know whether to smile or be a little afraid because if I was not mistaken, Sam didn't cook.

As I walked to the kitchen, I heard her speak, and figured she was talking to the dogs. Sure enough, Sturgill and Shelby were sitting at her feet practically drooling over the smell of bacon, and silently hoping something tasty might fall to the floor.

She was wearing one of my shirts, and not much else, which I didn't understand why because she had clothes of her own here. I wasn't going to complain however. There is nothing sexier than your gorgeous girlfriend wearing your clothes, especially when she had legs like that.

Before I could approach her, I heard her speak. "I'm sorry Tom, that's just not going to work."

Who is Tom? That's when I noticed the Bluetooth headset in her ear.

"That's not going to work either. William already has something scheduled with Axalta at that time."

Ah, Willy had her working this morning. She looked at me, rolled her eyes, and made a hand gesture indicating "yap, yap, yap", and I fought the urge not to laugh. She took a sip of coffee and went on in a polite, yet firm tone. "He has to eat at some point. The only availability he has on Friday is at 2:00."

She paused for several moments, I guess this Tom person was rather long winded. When she set her coffee cup back down, she accidentally knocked the paper plate with a few strips of bacon onto the floor. As expected, Sturgill and Shelby pounced on the food, nearly tripping her in the process. I quickly shooed the dogs away, and took over attending to the rest of the bacon, that was burning on the stove. She shot me a grateful look and resumed her call. I expected her to be frazzled, yet she looked anything but. She was used to multitasking, for the most part anyway. Too bad I was too late to save the bacon, as I placed the charred strips onto a fresh plate and paper towel.

"Oh, it's your son's birthday? How old is he?"I heard her ask. I had a feeling she was about to work some PR magic with this Tom person.

Pause

I threw the ruined bacon into the trash, placed the pan in the sink and continued to eavesdrop.

"Is he a fan?" She asked, her voice was warm and friendly.

Pause

"Here's what I can do. If we can set you up for two, I'll throw in a couple of hot passes for your wife and son and some merch. Since he has nothing else for the rest of the afternoon, I'll also make sure William sets aside some time with your son. We'll get plenty of photos and some autographs. Does that sound like a good birthday?"

Pause

"No, thank you Tom. It's really no trouble. As much as I have to take care of my driver, I also want to take care of our partners as well. I'll leave those passes at the gate for you, and I look forward to meeting you too."

She disconnected the call, and smiled, looking rather pleased with herself, as she should. I was impressed.

"You're really good at what you do. Willy is lucky to have you." I said, realizing that this was the first time I had really seen her in action doing her job. I knew she worked hard, and William was always quick to sing her praises, but I guessed I really never got a chance to see her work because we were usually doing our own thing at the track.

"Thank you." She blushed a little. "A new partner came aboard at the last minute, and I was having a little trouble fitting him in. His son is turning eight, so I figured Will wouldn't mind spending a few minutes with a young fan. I just want to make everyone happy." She was way too modest.

"I'm thinking I might steal you away from Willy so you can come work with me." I said with a grin, the wheels in my brain started spinning. How great would that be?

She laughed. "I don't think Drew would appreciate you saying that. He works his ass off for you, and you know it."

"I'm being serious Sam. Drew may be leaving after this season. He's looking at other opportunities with less travel. Just think what a great team we would be."

Her smile faded. "I don't think that would work Ry."

Damn. She shot that idea down quick.

"Why not? I think working together would be amazing." I argued.

She shook her head. "No. I think it would be a terrible idea. Aside from the fact that I love working at Hendrick, I think it's important for our relationship that we maintain separate work places. Not only is it a bad idea to mix business with pleasure, but I need something for myself. I told you that before. We already see each other enough on the weekend, as well as during the week, if we start working together, it may be too much."

That kind of hurt. Although she hadn't actually said the words, her implication was that maybe we would get sick of each other. She also probably had it in the back of her mind that maybe we wouldn't work out and would still be stuck working together. Was it so bad that I wanted her with me more than she already was? I loved her dammit. This was like her refusing to move in with me, only this felt worse.

"So what your saying is you don't think we are going to last, so you don't want us to work together because it would be too awkward if we break up." I sighed.

"That is not at all what I'm saying Ryan. The thought of us not working out has never crossed my mind. Why are you even thinking that?" She glared at me.

"What else am I supposed to think, Sam? Either it's that, or you just don't want to be around me that much. Are you sick of me already? Are you trying to tell me you need more space? I understood why you didn't want to move in with me, but I thought you might like us working together. I'm sorry I even brought it up." I then began to realize how irrational I was sounding. In some way, I was no better than her ex. For some reason, she brought out this possessive streak in me, and if I wasn't careful, I might start pushing her away.

"If I wasn't so pissed off, I might find this laughable. You are so quick to jump to conclusions and make assumptions just because you are not getting your way. This has nothing to do with any worries you think I might have about our relationship, which I happen to think is pretty damn good. This is just like me wanting my own place. I need to maintain my independence for myself. My self worth took a huge hit in the last years, and I am finally getting that back. I have come way too far in my life over the last few months to let that slip away. I'm sorry if you can't understand that, and I'm sorry if you think I am having any doubts about us, but I'm happy with where we are. I think that when we get time for each other during the weekend, it makes it that much sweeter. I've given you everything I can, more than I thought I was capable of, and if you are too much of a dumbass to get that, then you are shit out of luck."

My jaw literally hit the floor. Her blue eyes flashed wildly with anger, and I may have pushed her a little too far. Certainly not the first time.

Before I could pick my jaw up off the floor, I realized the room had filled with smoke, and then the alarm began blaring.

"Fuck." She jumped out of her seat and ran to the oven. As soon as she opened the oven door, the kitchen filled with more smoke. I turned on the exhaust fan and opened the window, and finally the alarm shut off.

I looked at the cookie sheet filled with charred round discs that I assumed were biscuits, and began to laugh before I could stop myself.

"I'm glad you think this is so goddamn funny." She snapped, glaring at me.

"I'm sorry baby. This just reminded me that you are not perfect after all."

"I never claimed to be perfect." She said softly, almost too softly, and I braced myself for her to go off again.

"I know you haven't, but you're damn near perfect to me." I hoped my words would soothe her.

"I have no desire to be perfect, and I just wish you didn't take it so personally that I don't want us to work together." Surprisingly, she wasn't going off, she almost sounded sad.

"I get it Sam, you need your independence. I'm not your ex. I told you before I'm not trying to control you, I just thought working together might be fun."

"Yeah, it probably would be fun, but we don't have to work together to have fun." Now she sounded like she was trying to soothe me.

"I'm sorry." I said, feeling like an ass, that possessive streak getting me in trouble again.

"So am I. I do understand what you are saying Ryan, I'm just happy where I am right now. Where we are. I don't want to mess that up. I'm sorry I suck at cooking too." She smiled sheepishly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "C'mon. I'll treat you to breakfast."

******

After breakfast at Waffle House, we went back to Sam's house so she could pack for our short trip to New York. Although she was excited to go, being she had never been before. She was pretty nervous about leaving.

"Are you sure Erin doesn't mind watching Shelby? She's still working on potty training and she still cries a little at night. What is she going to think when I'm not there to hold her. What if she thinks I'm abandoning her? Maybe I shouldn't go." She sighed, looking conflicted.

"Erin can't wait to get Shelby all to herself. She's going to be fine Sam. Sturgill will be there with her, so she'll have him to comfort her. You sound just like a mom dropping her baby off for the first time." I tried to assure her.

"This is my baby that I'm dropping off for the first time." She reminded me.

"You're going to make a great mom one day." I said, the words just rolling off of my tongue. Could I actually see myself having kids with her?

"Hopefully not for a long, long time. If ever." She laughed.

An alarm went off in my head. "Do you not want kids one day?" I asked, my heart sinking as I waited for her response.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I really never saw myself with kids."

My heart sank even further. I hoped she wasn't serious about never wanting kids, because this could be a deal breaker.