‘You must miss him, does that have any effect on your performance on the track?’ This time, I do snort at their ridiculous commentary.
‘I think my lap times and overall finishing place today speaks for itself .’
Shooting Elijah the glare he’s become so used to he hurries us along the press line and we’re quickly back in the garage with our second family.
I have a second family. It’s bizarre to think about having one, let alone two. Yet the Hendersohm family have looked after me for the last three years and then when I leave them, I head home to the Walkers. I can’t wait to become a Walker, even if Kian doesn’t know yet that I’m planning to take his name.
* * *
‘I can’t believe how much progress you’ve made in the last couple of months. The panelling in the guest room looks amazing. Who knew my fiancé was such a dab hand at DIY?’
FaceTiming is something we’ve got really good at over the last season and a half of being apart. Missing someone the way I miss him when we’re on opposite sides of the globe is a new experience for me.
The first month of last season, when Kian was at home and trying to settle back into normal life, was the worst. To the point I actually flew home for two days between the Saudi and the Australian Grand Prix’s. Whilst money isn’t an object, and I’ll charter a private jet every day of my life to see Kian if I have to, it was probably really stupid considering how much the jetlag messed me up when I returned to Australia.
Now we have healthier coping strategies, and Anders loves Kian so much he’s happy to let him join us on the road whenever he feels like it.
‘I hope you still think so when you see it up close. It looks better on screen, I think.’ There’s sweat dripping down Kian’s forehead as he works on the extension we had built earlier this year.
I was able to be at home with him for the whole of the British Grand Prix, and then I left for three-and-a-half months, and when I came home the cottage had basically doubled in size and we had acquired eight animals.
He obviously didn’t actually build the extension himself, but he’s decorating and furnishing every inch of it to perfection. I convinced him to start a social media account to chart his progress, and it now has over a million followers on Instagram and TikTok, thank you very much.
‘You know what I’d love?’ I say. ‘A pool.’ I’ve been dropping subtle hints about us having one on the property – there’s so much land it would definitely be possible – but Kian’s been reluctant to agree.
‘An outdoor pool in the UK just seems so pointless. Like, we get two weeks of summer and that’s it. Plus, the maintenance is a hassle.’
‘We’ll get a pool boy,’ I suggest.
With a roll of his eyes, Kian replies, ‘Yeah, you’d love that, wouldn’t you?’
‘Not as much as I love you.’
‘Wow, being engaged has made you cringeworthy, Harper.’
‘You love it.’ And I know he does. He embraces every bit of me, from my competitive stubbornness to the cringey way I express my love to how I hog the duvet. I have no doubt about that. Not anymore.
I’m just about to suggest maybe a quick round of phone sex or at least ask if I can watch Kian beat off in our new guest room, but I’m quickly interrupted by loud knocking on my bedroom door.
‘What’s going on?’ Kian asks, the noise loud enough for even him to hear.
I peer through the keyhole to find both Elijah and Johannes lingering in the hallway. ‘Just a couple of jokers,’ I say. ‘One sec.’ I lower the phone and unlock the door to let the pair in. ‘Say hi to my fiancé.’
I practically shove the phone in both of their faces but they only laugh. ‘Kian, please ask your man when he’s gonna be tired of that word. He’s gonna wear it out!’ Elijah’s playful tone only makes me laugh.
He and I have become close in the last eighteen months. We work well together as a team, and we’ve had some great success too. He’s also happy to listen to me go on about Kian for hours, which I also like.
So yeah, maybe I’ve made a big deal of this engagement, but Kian asking me to marry him means more than anything in the world. More than any championship, cup or million-pound brand deal.
Because it means he wants to keep me around forever. That’s not something anyone has ever wanted of me before, and I’m finally not afraid to embrace it and show it off to the world. I deserve it, I deserve him, and I deserve to be happy – thank you, therapy! I don’t worry anymore that he’ll up and leave me.
It’s not a development that happened overnight, by any means. It’s probably why I flew home for two days and gave myself chronic jet lag – to make sure he was still interested. Yet here I am, ready to commit to forever. I’d do it tomorrow if Kian would let us, but he wants to have everything just right – the cottage, the extension, the barn, the off-season timing.
That’s his gift to me – the perfect wedding. And mine to him – is that I’m going to become a Walker. I want to take his name, because the Walker family have embraced me and welcomed me in a way that has changed my life.
Another thing that’s very different about our lives now is the way we’re all starting to lean in to farm life. I was very sceptical at first, but both Kian and Grant were obsessed and I saw how happy it made them both. Grant has cut down on his work trips significantly, and he and Kian have been developing Chastity’s land together. It has become a beautiful bromance and it makes no one happier than me and Elise.
With Cassie in school and Jesse approaching nursery age, Elise is finally back finishing her nursing degree, and because Grant is home more, her dream job is something she can pursue again. I couldn’t be prouder of both the Walker twins.
