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Damn him and his beautiful Cheshire cat grin.
I ran up to Luca and jumped into his embrace. His arms wrapped around me, crushing me ever so lightly, but I didn’t care. I looked down at him, and his beautiful brown eyes were staring back at me.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again!”
“I don’t know… it did get you to confess your love for me, Amore. I might have to try it again.” I slapped Luca on top of the head as he laughed, very unimpressed with his joke.
“Just shut up and kiss me.” I didn’t have to ask him twice. Luca pressed his lips to mine, deepening the kiss as the Hermes team around him started to “ooooh” and “aww” at the two of us. Luca spun us around a couple of times before setting me back down, our foreheads still touching as he pulled me closer to his chest.
“What can I say? My heart burns for you so much my car caught fire.” I groaned at his cheesy joke, but I knew my cheeks were blushing. “Go get that trophy, Cara. Tonight, you’ll get yourrealprize.”
Before I could respond, I felt Lizzie pulling me away from Luca. “You’ll see lover boy back at the hotel,” she joked as she pulled me towards the cool-down room.
Noah and Henri were already inside the room, both of them staring up at the TV, huge smiles on their faces as the footage showed my radio chatter with Mel during the car fire. Noah turned when he heard me enter the room, a cheesy grin donning his face.
“Lover boy doing okay?” I gave Noah a pointed look, placing my items on the P2 column.
“You know Luca,” I sighed, “not even a car on fire can stop him from making the lamest jokes.”
“Glad he’s okay. That looked scary from my rearview mirror,” Henri said with relief.
“Very…” I agreed in a whisper, knowing that F1 TV was filming our private moment. Henri nodded, backing away a bit before taking a sip of water, continuing to watch the race highlights.I knew we all felt it, the sudden awareness that it could have been us and it could have gone differently.
After the podium celebration, I saw Henri motion for me to come over to him. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, a huge grin on his face.
“So…. youloveLuca, huh?” I looked over at my brother Henri, who had a smirk on his lips. He was amused by this situation, a staunch change in demeanor from when we started this whole ordeal.
“What if I said I did?”
“Then I would be happy for you, Peaches, very happy.” He grinned at the surprise on my face. I wasn’t expecting him to be so accepting of this.
“Why the change of opinion?” I asked my brother, shock laced my voice.
“Because he’s good for you. And he loves you, very much. I can see it in his eyes, his body language. He’s good for you. Plus… he accidentally told me in the paddock the other day,” Henri chuckled.
“And you kept it from me?” I exclaimed, poking Henri in his ribcage.
“Peaches, you’re the one who was too stupid to see it. Lily literally told you in the hotel room earlier this week, and you sat there goingwoe is me, it couldn’t possibly be true.” I gave Henri another jab, but I couldn’t keep a smile off my face.
“As long as you’re happy, Peaches, then I’m happy for you.”
“I am happy – for the first time in a long time, I feel very happy.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
START OF SOMETHING NEW
Luca
When I looked into my rearview mirror, I could see Georgia directly behind me. Her pace during the Austria Grand Prix pace was impressive, and there was barely a two-second gap between us. I knew she would be relentless the rest of this race – there was no stopping that woman. Valkyrie’s speed in a straight line was incredible, and it would take some serious defending to keep her behind me the rest of the race, but I was determined to do so, determined to beat the woman I loved.
And then, when the podium celebration was over, I was going to tell her just how much I loved her – make her myactualgirlfriend. I was going to tell her how much my heart longed for her, tell her how I wanted to be a better man just for her.I wanted to tell her that she had made me a better man.
But as I started to turn into a corner, I began to smell something burning. It smelled like my engine was on fire.
“Luca, pull over now,” my race engineer demanded. I immediately did as he said, trying not to let the slight panic in his voice get to me. “Are you ok? Can you get out?”
“It’s very hot. I’m a bit stuck,” I called back into the radio, but all he kept saying was, ‘Luca, can you hear me?’over and over again. I realized he couldn’t hear me, so I stopped pressing the radio button. I looked outside the car, but the emergency crews were nowhere to be found, and the car was getting hotter by the second.
