“Well,” Dario said and then paused. “Oh.”
Now he gets it.
“Yeah,” Rocco hissed. “Oh. Fucking. Oh.”
“It couldn’t be. How many women drivers are there in Formula 3?”
“Exactly one,” Rocco said, his jaw tight.
“Do you know what she looks like?”
Rocco shook his head. “All our interaction has been on social media. I suppose it’s possible we might have crossed paths somewhere at some point. But if we did, I don’t remember. I don’t have any image of her in my head except something to the effect of an annoying, arrogant, asshat, bitch,” he spat.
“Yeah,” Dario said, a tone of amusement in his voice.
Rocco watched his cousin’s face crimson until that olive complexion of his resembled a hothouse tomato. He was holding his breath. And Rocco knew why. He wanted to laugh.
He wanted to laugh.
Real.
Bad.
CHAPTER FOUR
ROCCO
She’s got plenty of experience,” Casey said. “Been racing since she was a kid, like you, Rocco. Go-karts, all the rest of it up to Formula 3.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s any good,” Rocco bellowed.
He made a point of speaking loudly. She was somewhere behind him, standing a few feet away and talking to one of the mechanics. He wanted her to hear him.
How the hell was he supposed to race on the same team as Nico Angelini?
“And,” Rocco added, “it definitely doesn’t mean we need a third driver, let aloneheras a third driver.”
Casey glanced behind him. Probably looking to see if she’d heard. Rocco knew he was making the man uncomfortable.
“Well, we’re not— We don’t see it— We’re not thinking in terms of #1 and #2 drivers. We’d like to think of this as a team. We plan on supporting both drivers—equally.”
“What do you meanboth?” Rocco demanded.
“Well, uh, she’s not a third driver.”
Rocco gaped. He now knew what people meant when they felt like there was steam coming out of their ears. “Are you telling me she’s the second driver? She’s going to actually race?”
Casey hesitated. “Again, we’re not thinking of either of you as the #1 or #2 driver.”
“You’re forgetting,” Rocco grumbled. “I haven’t saidyesyet.”
“Look, I don’t know how much you saw when she was driving that retired F1 car, but she knows her way around a track. I can show you footage of some of her races.”
Rocco remained silent.
“Look, this isn’t just me,” Casey said. “I’ve been talking this over with the owner, the technical director, the director of engineering, some of the mechanics and technicians. They’re just as impressed as I am.”
Rocco was fuming. He felt himself getting ready to say something only the biggest douchebag would say. There was hardly a moment’s hesitation before he threw himself headlong onto the heap of the Ghosts of Douchebag Past.
