Racer

“I talked with your mom.”

“I know.”

“I embarrassed myself. I got super emotional.”

“Lucky her.” His voice is low and husky, tender.

I laugh.

“I’ve fallen for you, so hard, harder than ever. I’m obsessed with you, Racer. With everything about you. Your hot bod, and your gorgeous eyes, and your confidence and how fun and good you are,” I say, breathless at my admission. “And I’m really scared.”

He curses under his breath and laughs a bit, one hand running down that gorgeous face before he looks at me sideways, his blue eyes twinkling as he reaches out and embraces me, pulling me to his side. He peers down at my face. “I’d have given anything to hear you say that.”

“Anything?” I ask with a frown.

“Anything.”

“Not the championship,” I tease.

“Not that or what will I impress my girl with?”

“You don’t need to impress me.”

He reaches out to rub his thumb along mine. I lift my index finger, and he takes it in his and draws me close, and then his big hand is engulfing mine.

His sister comes over, and Racer signals.

“And that’s my sister Iris, as you know. Pain in the ass, this girl,” he says as she comes over, and he rumples her hair and she scowls at him, but looks at him with love in her eyes.

“There’s nothing as exciting as this, but this is absolutely nerve-wracking, I don’t know how you do it,” she says.

“I’m asking myself the same question and coming up blank,” I admit, laughing.

“Racer!!” I hear his family yell from the stands, even to where my dad and I stand in our pit area, waiting for Racer to get weighed and the official results to be announced.

“U.S. rookie driver Racer Tate is drawing the crowds today at the F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of Americas, and with his first-place finish, something formidable is happening, and that is that the top, record-holding team of most F1 championships has something to worry about …” the announcers are saying, and I smile to myself, my chest swelling with pride as he finally steps off the scale, removes his helmet, and heads straight for me.

I’m already up on my toes, waiting for the quick peck on the lips he always gives me before he lets the rest of the team hug and congratulate him.

Except this time he reaches for my hand and draws me to his crowd, “Let’s go out to dinner. All of us. On me.”

The dinner with his family is fun, and delicious (we’re at a famous U.S. steakhouse and eating protein and carbs like starved people), but it’s also a little crazy. We occupy nearly half the restaurant, and between my brothers and father trying to get to know his parents and sister, I barely get to see Racer—we’re both too concerned with our parents getting along to pay attention to anything else.

Racer ends up heading over to where my brothers are, and I get a chance to talk to Iris, who I instantly like because she not only looks like him, in girl version, but because she seems genuinely sweet and concerned for him.

“Dad told us you helped my brother when he was at the hospital. I think that’s great of you,” she says, still seeming to be wary around me.

“I’d have killed him if he didn’t tell me,” I admit, scowling at the mere thought as we have the best steak and potatoes I’ve had in ages.

“Really?” She laughs. “Most girls wouldn’t want to bother with these things. I know twenty-two-year-old girls who are out just partying and having fun, not as driven as he is.”

“I’m not most women. And I love him,” I admit, saying the last with emphasis.

After that, she seems to warm up to me. “Is he a bully?” She glances at her big brother with love in her eyes but seems to want to have something to talk about with me. “He’s such a bully with me, always scaring off any guy who wants anything with me,” she complains. “I even promised him that one day, when he really liked a girl, I’d scare her away too. But I don’t want to scare you away.” She pauses, her voice softening. “You’re good to him. I’d never seen him hooked on a girl. Never would be with the same one for more than a night out or two.”

Her gaze turns wistful, and my heart is melting in my chest, then Iris goes on laughingly, “But for my pride’s sake, because once he scared away a guy that I really liked—I need to say that I at least tried to scare you away. So please know that he’s terribly bossy. And so confident it’s irritating because I’m quite awkward and the opposite.”

I burst out laughing. “You’re not awkward, not in the slightest.” I think she’s charming and honest, and I’d have loved to have a sister like her to balance out my three brothers. Now there’s a set of bullies for you. “Why did he scare the guy you like?” I ask, confused.

“Because he wasn’t good enough for me. He said that if he’d cared he’d have been impossible to scare off in the first place.”

“Hmm,” I say, pursing my lips, terribly amused about my protective Racer. “Well I agree with you,” I say, and him, I think to myself, trying to keep our interaction going. “He’s a bully, over-confident, and completely bossy,” I state, noticing Racer raising his eyebrows across the room, and I realize he heard every word I said because he winks—proudly—as if all of this were a good thing.

“He just heard and winked at me,” I tell his sister.

She groans, glances past her shoulder, where he winks at her too, and she laughs and shifts back to me. “Yep. That’s my brother. You could be saying the worst things about him, and he’ll still puff his chest out like everything about him is golden.”