Testing goes smoothly, and everyone is closing up shop for the day. We have one more testing day tomorrow. Matteo suggests we all have dinner together and relax for the night. I want to join them, but I have River and I don’t want to keep pushing him on the crew. I head to the trailer we have for the kids. That was a huge help when Matteo told me that they will provide child care for me. He said sometimes the other guys need to bring their kids too, so they have someone there for all testing and race weekends.
“Hi, Mama!” River smiles as he sees me coming.
“Hi, baby, did you have a good day?”
“Sì. That’s ‘yes’ in Italian.” He giggles.
“I hope it’s okay, I was teaching him little words,” Lucia says as she smiles at River.
“I don’t mind at all. In fact, I love it.”
“I will see you both tomorrow,” she says as she hugs River and then me.
“Thank you so much,” I say as I take River’s hand.
“Where we going, Mama?”
“Well we need to figure out what we want to do for dinner. We can order in or Mama can cook something.”
“You’re not coming with us to dinner?” I hear a voice say behind us.
I jump a little and turn to face Emerson.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I laugh. “You didn’t scare me. And no, I have River and I don’t want the crew to feel like he’s always around.”
“He should always be around. And no one will mind,” he says as he takes River’s other hand.
“Where we going now?” River asks him.
“We’re going to have dinner with everyone, if I can convince your mama.”
“Can we, Mama?”
How can I say no to them? They’re both looking at me with puppy dog eyes. I sigh.
“Are you sure? I really don’t want to make anyone mad.”
“I promise, you won’t,” he says as he picks River up and then takes my hand.
“Maybe you shouldn’t hold my hand? The guys might see it as favoritism,” I whisper to him.
Emerson stops and looks at me. He waves Matteo over.
“Can you take River for us? I need to talk to Sawyer.”
Matteo looks at me and I nod. Shit. Am I about to get fired? Emerson takes my hand again and leads me to his trailer. I see some of the crew smiling as they watch us. Do they know I’m about to be fired?
Emerson motions for me to sit and he brings me a cold water.
“Thank you,” I say as I watch him. I’m so worried about what he wants to talk to me about. He finally sits down next to me. And takes my hands in his.
“First of all, my crew would never judge you for anything you do. We’re a family and you’re a part of it now. And second? I need to know if you’re with someone, or if River’s father is in your life.”
I don’t know why he needs to know about River. But I don’t feel the need to hide anything from him either.
“River doesn’t have a father,” I say as I watch the expression on his face.
