Page 80 of First in Line

A pair of black briefs robs me of the sight of his muscular bottom, and I sigh with disappointment. “Come on. I’ll reheat the leftover Chinese.”

He exits our bedroom, and I force myself out of bed. I grab his discarded T-shirt, slip it on, and after a stop by the bathroom, I join him in the other room. He’s just finished filling up two plates with fried noodles and salt and pepper wings, and he shoves one in the microwave before turning it on.

“Have you ever heard of Wesley Pryce?” I ask, leaning on the table opposite him.

“The name’s familiar. Who’s that?”

“He owns Altron. They make commercial and private planes. And on the side, he has junior Formula teams.”

“Oh, right. I race them a lot.”

“And you beat them a lot, too.”

“I’m that good, yeah.”

His cocky smile makes me shake my head. “Well, he also has teams in Formula 3 and 2,” I continue.

“I know, yeah.”

“And for the past few years, he’s actively been working on building a Formula One team as well.”

“Wait, really? How do I not know that?”

“He announced it a couple of years ago and has been working on his application since. I hear the other teams don’t really like it when there’s a new player in town, so it involves a lot of politics and pocket greasing.”

“Okay. So, what about Wesley Pryce?”

“The FIA just approved his team’s entry application.”

Jax’s interest is officially piqued, and he leans back onto the kitchen counter, crossing his arms over his bare torso. “Keep talking, princess.”

“This means he can now start developing his Formula One cars. And even with his company’s aerospace expertise, it’ll still take another two, maybe three years to get all the testing and fine-tuning down so they’re ready for their first season. And once they are, they’ll need skilled drivers behind those wheels.”

Now he understands what I’m getting at, and something lights up behind his eyes. “You’re thinking I could be one of those drivers.”

“Yes. I looked into it, and it would make sense for him to hire one veteran, whom he’ll probably poach from another team, and then a rookie, who would cost him a lot less but still make the team fit the requirements. It’s likely he’s already been actively scouting for his rookie in his own F3 and F2 teams.”

“Which I’m not a part of.”

“No, but you could be. I’m not sure why they haven’t reached out to you yet. Maybe they’re only interested in the usual karting background. But, as we’ve established, you’ve been beating his F4 drivers a lot. So, he should definitely take you as a serious contender. All we need is for him to hear about you. Which he probably would have if you weren’t stuck in a backmarker team.”

Jax processes everything, brow furrowed as he does. The microwave dings, so he takes the plate out, picks up a pair of chopsticks in the cup by the sink, and hands me everything. “So, how do we make him notice me? Do we reach out?” he asks, putting his own plate in the microwave.

I grimace as I sit down. “I’ve been trying that already.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’ve been sending emails to his team principal for the past three months, but they keep ignoring me. I’m not an actual manager, so they don’t take me seriously.”

“Fuck them.”

“We could do that,orwe could try to approach him in Vegas next week. I’m sure he’ll be there for the convention. It would be the perfect opportunity. And the timing couldn’t be better. You could get into his Formula 3 program now, do a year of that, then one season of Formula 2 to prepare for the big Formula One launch.”

Jackson ponders heavily, eyes upfront but attention within.

“Racing for a brand-new team could be risky. We can’t know if the cars will be up to par.”

“He’s injecting billions into this project. I’m sure the cars will be fine. And it’s better than waiting for an existing team to have an opening, isn’t it? At least this way will be an actual pipeline to becoming an F1 driver.”