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I could sense that Luca was annoyed that Henri had bagged himself an invitation, and I couldn’t blame him. I was thrilled to see Henri, but I also didn’t have to spend every waking moment of my race weekends with him, only to have to spend the entire following week with him at the factory. This was Luca's opportunity to relax before we continued into the next stage of the season, which involved several doubleheaders. Henri's competitiveness was overwhelming at times, and I had no doubt that he intended to bring that with him on this vacation.
Luca had decided to invite Edward and his girlfriend Lauren early, which, truth be told, I was thrilled about. The friendship between Luca and Edward was a unique one. They had several years of difference in age, and yet they had the reputation of being two of the closest drivers on the grid.
I woke up that morning and threw on a new royal blue bathing suit set that Lauren had gifted me when she and Edward came aboard. I threw on a white sun dress over it and made my way towards the kitchen area, where breakfast was being served. Seated at the table were Luca, Henri, and Edward – already digging into their breakfast, all while they planned the day’s activities. As I walked in, Henri patted the seat next to him as he handed me a mimosa.
“So, Peaches, we were thinking today would be a lovely day to race jet skis,” Henri announced. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luca roll his eyes, but I kept my laughter to myself. Hermes' golden boy never stopped racing.
“Henri, have you ever contemplated that not everything in life is a race?” I asked, already knowing the answer I was going to receive from my brother, but I couldn’t help myself. I heard Edward and Luca snicker a bit to my left.
“If it has an engine, we race it,” Henri replied as he narrowed his gaze towards me. “Unless, of course, you’re scared I’m going to beat you.” Oh Henri, he always knew what to say to get a rile out of me. My mother said she knew we were going to be athletes because we had been competing since the day we were born.
“Oh, don’t worry, Henri, I’m happy to show that I’m the better Dubois both on the track andon the water,” I grinned, much to the amusement of Luca and Edward, who were now openly chuckling away at our antics.
After a few more bites of breakfast, Luca’s father entered the kitchen area and announced that the jet skis were fueled and ready to go. By now, Lauren had woken up and had joined us on the back deck, where Edward was attempting to get her onto the back of his jet ski, albeit with some protests from Lauren, who insisted Edward was going to go much too fast for her.
“How about this,” Edward proposed, “A little race between the couples – see who is actually the best couple on the grid.” Luca let out a huge grin, and before I could protest, I was being lifted by huge hands onto the jet ski that Luca had claimed for himself.
“Umm, excuse me,” I protested, quickly shifting to the front of the jet ski, putting my hands on the steering bars. I turned back to Luca, who was still standing on the dock.
“Who said you get to pilot? Maybe we should let the Formula 1 leader take this one.” I stuck my tongue out at Luca, who just flicked me off, but he hopped onto the back of the jet ski, wrapping his arms around my waist.
“Fine by me, Principessa,” he whispered in my ear, “Who am I to complain about having to snuggle up to a beautiful woman in a bikini?” With that, he shifted forward a bit, wrapping his arms even tighter around my waist. I could feel his breath close to my neck, and I immediately felt something stir inside of me, my mind flashing back to Sunday night where Luca’s mouth was somewhere else entirely. I was glad that I was facing forward because I knew my cheeks had gone completely red.
“You guys ready… or are you going to keep flirting over there!” I heard Edward yell out, pointing to where we were meant to start the race. I turned back to the boat, where I could see Henri and Hugo waving at me. Hugo had a smile on his face, but Henri had an expression that I couldn’t quite recognize.
As Luca and I arrived at the starting line, I heard Hugo blow a whistle from the boat, and we were off into the sun, racing our hearts out on the jet skis. We had agreed not to go too fast so Lauren could cope with the jet ski speed, but clearly our definition of ‘not too fast’ was different than hers. As we arrived at the finish line, I could see Edward and Lauren some ways behind us, and I laughed as they approached the finish line. Lauren had a look of terror –and anger– on her face. As Edward turned around and gave her a kiss, I saw her features relax, and she playfully shoved him a bit.
“This is the last time I agree to race with any Formula 1 driver,” Lauren chuckled.
“Promise I was going slow!” Edward raised his hands, signifying that his promise was told with a scout’s honor. Lauren just responded by pushing him into the water.
As we arrived back at the yacht, I heard Hugo and Luca's parents clapping for us. I stood up on the jet ski and took a bow, only to find myself in the water two seconds later, having been pushed in by Edward. I bobbed my head up out of the water and started kicking my legs at him, splashing him in the process.
“Asshole!”
Hugo reached his hand out, and I took it, pulling myself up out of the water. I took off my life jacket and rinsed off in the shower on the deck. When finished drying off, Hugo handed me a margarita.
“So, Georgie, how did the photoshoot go?”
“Better than expected. I’m a little nervous about the GQ writer; this was all so different. Instead of an interview, he just observed me and Luca throughout the day, occasionally asking us questions between shoots. It was all a bit strange,” I responded honestly.
“I’m sure it went fine,” my brother assured me. “Lizzie told me it should be out right before the race next week, so hopefully, it brings some good press with us to Baku.” I hoped Hugo was right, for both Luca and my sake. This article was huge for us and our teams, and we had to nail it perfectly.
As I finished my margarita, I heard Henri call me over, “Hey, let’s get that race in before you get too drunk on Margaritas!” I raised my glass in the air, and then downed the rest of the drink. If I was going to race on vacation, I was going to do it with margaritas and mimosas.
As the four of us drivers hopped onto the jet skis, we discussed the course and agreed on a start and end point. We lined up at the starting line and waited for Hugo to blow the whistle. Luca’s father had somehow managed to find a megaphone on the yacht, and he handed it to Hugo, who was more than happy to become our announcer for the day.
As soon as the whistle blew, the four of us were off on the jet skis. We probably looked ridiculous to the other boats in the area, but we didn’t care. Nothing was more important to a Formula 1 driver than winning, and as soon as I heard the whistle, all thoughts and cares about just letting Henri win so he would stop bothering us to race were gone – the competitiveness was definitely hereditary, and I had never been one to back down from a challenge.
As I started the last lap, I saw Henri in front of me. Luca was right behind me, and I knew by the look on his face that he was smack-talking me. Just as I was about to turn the jet ski, something suddenly jumped out of the water, causing me to lose control as I tried to avoid the jumping fish that had popped out of the water.
For a moment, everything went black.
I knew I had been thrown from the jet ski. I landed on the water face first with an impact that felt like I had hit a ton of bricks. There was an intense ringing in my ears, and I could feel myself in the semi-cold water. After a few seconds, I felt my head pop above the water, my life jacket bringing me to the surface. I wanted to open my eyes and call for help, but I couldn’t – my entire body felt frozen, and there was water in my nose and airways, causing me to cough uncontrollably.
After only a few more moments, I felt someone next to me, grabbing me from behind and pulling me closer towards them and onto my back. As I finished coughing up the final bits of water from my lungs, I opened my eyes to see Luca staring at me, a look of absolute panic in his eyes. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.
“It’s ok, I got you...” Luca soothed, rubbing his hands up and down the back of my life jacket. “Just keep breathing. You’re okay,” he said over and over again, his hold on me tightening. Behind me I heard a noise and turned to see Hugo and Luca Sr. in the mini speedboat with Hugo’s hand outstretched towards me. Luca helped lift me up onto the boat, before taking his dad’s hand. I coughed a bit more, and my breathing started to steady. My body felt like I had just done an all-day, full-body workout.
