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Then he pulls away, leaving me in a lust-fueled haze, adjusts himself, fixes my dress, and opens the door.
“Come along, future Mrs. Ballentine,” he holds his arm out for me to take, “we have a gala to get back to.”
“You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?”
“Nope.”
Twenty Two
Marina Bay Street Circuit - Singapore
Cole
The Singapore night race is, hands down, the most grueling of the year with its intolerable, stifling humidity.
We’ve been here for a week sauna training and acclimating to the climate. The street circuit requires exacting concentration and intense preparation and, even then, it’s a battle to avoid mental fatigue for the two-hour duration.
So, I cut Liam some slack even though he’s been hovering and scolding me all week about energy conservation and filling me up with fluids like I’m a water balloon.
“You can have a banana,” he tells me, my stomach growling on the way to the garage.
“I don’t want a banana. Or another salad. Or more fish.”
I want a good, old fashioned, greasy American cheeseburger and a regular—heaven forbid—full-sugar Mountain Dew. I’d stab someone for a Mountain Dew right now.
“And I don’t want to look at scratches down your back from your girlfriend every time I ice you down, but yet, here we are,” he tips my water bottle at me.
“Em okay? She’s not used to this heat.”
“Yeah. Worried about the race, but fine. Heard her on the phone talking to her parents earlier. Nervous about the visibility between it being a night race and now raining. But then it turned into giggling and ‘Cole this, Cole that’ and I walked away before I threw up,” he makes a girly voice and jazz hands.
“Thanks for watching out for her, man,” I laugh and slap him on the back. “This will be a big enough shit-show with Edmund out again.”
“I haven’t heard any updates on him, have you?”
My head drops, and the smile on my face fades. I have a terrible feeling about Edmund and can’t stomach the thought of losing him. He started coughing up blood weeks ago. The whole team is feeling his absence as we wait for more news.
“Waiting for more test results,” I shrug.
Edmund has always looked out for me, he’s guided me around every circuit since I was eighteen. My eyes and ears outside the car, he’s kept me safe, led me to victories, and every other Sunday, I trust him with my life.
He’s been more of a father to me than Stan ever was, really.
“I don’t like that James is your stand-in again. It did not go well in Italy.”
“No shit,” I add.
Italy was a nightmare having to work with James, the junior engineer replacement. I felt like Dante out there, ignoring calls and arguing over the radio the whole time.
I don’t trust James. He doesn’t know me or how I drive. He doesn’t know what I need to hear and how I need to hear it when I have one-thousandth of a second to make a decision.
I felt like I was not only driving the car, but I was also my own engineer, my own strategist, and my own pit crew. I should have been on the podium but finished in fourth, instead.
“Silas and I argued about it, but he won’t let Emily stand in for Edmund,” I add and hand Liam my empty drink bottle. He immediately gives me a full replacement.
“Why not?”
“I don’t know, I think it comes down to the fact that she’s new and she’s a girl.”
