Chapter 6
The flight from Brussels to Nashville seemed to last a lifetime.
It was like the Le Mans twenty-four-hour race of flights; it dragged on so long it felt like she’d been ten thousand feet in the air for a whole day.
In reality, it was only around eleven hours with a stop for fuel.
But still, she’d had eleven hours to sit and mull over the chaotic weekend she’d just experienced.
The post-race parties at Faith and Julien’s farmhouse were not for the faint hearted, and this one had been even wilder than the Revolution team bonding party.
She was certain every driver on the grid had been in attendance, and the mechanical bull, a longtime Revolution Racing tradition, had been violated to the point where they had managed to break it before she even got a chance to show them how it was done.
Even her dad had been invited and had a go on it before waking up still drunk at three a.m. and hitching a ride back to the hotel in someone else’s cab, so he didn’t miss his flight home. Whether they let him on the plane whilst intoxicated was a different story.
She was sitting in the back of a blacked-out SUV now, racing on the back burner for at least a few days, en route to some random road amongst the trees where Jesse was waiting for her.
She was nervous– not to see him, but because pulling over in a car like this and getting into a beefed-up pick-up truck was going to look like a drug deal or kidnapping or something, not like the reunion of two loved-up celebrities trying to hide away from the world.
Her car had barely stopped before she was jumping out of it, closing the gap and wrapping her cowboy-boot-clad calves around Jesse’s waist, nearly knocking his hat from his head.
‘Hi, baby.’ He held her tight with one arm, pushing her hair back with the other and planting a kiss on her. It was a sweet, innocent kiss but it was filled with months’ worth of affection they hadn’t been able to give, and it left her wanting more.
‘Hi.’ She kissed him again. ‘I missed you.’
‘I missed you more. Trust me.’ He gazed into her eyes and she admired the ocean-blue hues of his own.
There was nothing like this. Sometimes the weeks and months apart were worth it just for the feeling she got when they saw each other again.
But if she told him that, he might not do crazy things like fly her halfway across the world in the middle of his insanely busy tour just to lie tangled up in bedsheets for two weeks.
‘Ahem.’ Her driver coughed, subtly gesturing to Savi’s suitcases which he was waiting to put in the trunk of Jesse’s truck for them.
‘Sorry, man. Here, I’ll do it.’ Jesse grabbed them and did it himself, tipping the driver generously. So generously, in fact, that Savi’s eyes nearly fell out of her head.
‘Thank you, sir. Let me know if you need me at all over the next two weeks.’
Just like that, they were alone at last. He held the passenger door open for her, ever the gentleman, and snuck in an extra kiss as he buckled her in. ‘Will never get tired of doing that.’
‘Well, then I’m in for a treat.’
Jesse’s truck was one of Savi’s favourite things about him.
It wasn’t flashy or over-the-top, it was a beat-up old Chevy that he’d had since high school and it belonged to the same guy she’d fallen for, before fame got in the way.
Not that there was anything wrong with him being famous, she just sometimes missed that tiny snippet of a summer when it was them against the world.
Now it felt like it was the world against them.
‘So, tell me about the race.’ He removed one hand from the steering wheel and placed it on her knee, causing goosebumps to rise. ‘What was your personal highlight?’
‘Overtaking Marco,’ she laughed.
‘No shit, I bet that felt good.’
‘I’m no stranger to the fact that he’s a better driver than me, all the guys on the team are.
For now, at least. Us girls are new to this level of endurance racing, with a car as fast and as high spec as this.
But knowing I’m capable of that so early on in my career with the IEC?
Makes me wonder where this will take me. ’
‘Formula One, baby.’
‘I don’t want to race in that championship,’ she laughed. ‘Endurance racing has my heart, you know that. I like the unpredictability, the challenge. The longer a race is, the more chance that things can go wrong or they can change. It feels like more of a fight.’
‘Wouldn’t you give it a try?’ Jesse eyed her and squeezed her upper thigh. ‘Would be a hell of a legacy to leave behind one day.’
‘I’d consider a season. Or a spot as a reserve driver, maybe.
But if it meant sacrificing my place on the team or dropping out of the IEC and risking not getting back into it, absolutely not.
Besides, F1 is a whole different ball game.
What if I failed?’ Savi had never really suffered from a fear of failure, but endurance racing was what she was good at.
So many drivers switched between the two and were great at one and not so great at the other.
She knew of F1 drivers who had come across to the IEC, stolen the spotlight and had all the fanfare, and then flopped so badly that they’d either gone back to what they knew or retired from racing entirely.
It was just different. And as much as Jesse always encouraged her to shoot for the stars, this was her dream. She was right where she wanted to be.
‘Enough said,’ he smiled. ‘There are snacks in the glove box, by the way. I stocked up on your favourites.’
She dived straight in, her eyes lighting up at the sight of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. She was lucky that they were easy to find in Europe. ‘Tell me about the tour, then. What’s the latest?’
‘Uhm, well, my manager is pregnant. So that’s a real pain in the ass.’
‘Sapphire’s having a baby?!’ Savi gasped. Sapphire was one of very few people who knew about Jesse’s relationship status, and that was only because she along with his PR team were responsible for helping to keep it under wraps. Savi had met her a few times.
‘Yep,’ he replied, popping the ‘p’. He didn’t seem happy about it at all.
‘Let me guess, you’re sulking because she’ll have to go on maternity leave?’ She ripped open the packet and bit into chocolatey, nutty heaven.
‘Yeah! She’s been my manager since day dot. So I’m gonna have to find someone else while she’s raising a kid, and then what if she doesn’t come back?’ He seemed genuinely stressed out, but Savi couldn’t help but find it amusing.
‘That’s just life, Jess. People move on. But I’m sure Sapph will come back to you, she’s the one who got you to where you are.’
‘Exactly! I can’t do it without her.’ He put his other hand back on the wheel and Savi missed the warmth of his touch.
‘You can. But anyway, you’re stressing over something that might not even happen.’ She held out the rest of her peanut butter cup for him to take. More to shut him up and get him back into cheerful-boyfriend mode. The boyfriend who was focused on living in the moment.
‘Sorry, this trip is supposed to be about us and I’m already complaining,’ he sighed, stopping at a red light. Savi silently leaned over the centre console, forcing him to look at her.
‘Hey, I love you.’ She traced his jaw with her fingertips and was met with a kiss. It started out slow, and then it became a race against the traffic light system. How long did they have before he had to hit the accelerator?
Approximately thirty seconds, apparently, as a car pulled up behind them and hit the horn. It was typical that on such a quiet road, they would still be interrupted. ‘Shit. Quit distracting me, Sav, you know I can’t resist you when you get all cute on me.’
Savi felt her heart sink a little. That had happened a few times lately when she was with him or talking to him.
He hadn’t told her he loved her back for a while, and although he wasn’t a words of affirmation kind of guy and showed her how he felt with physical touch instead, it still played on her mind every time she said it and he didn’t.
The cabin came into sight three hours later, after a very bumpy ride on a dirt road that was sure to have damaged Jesse’s truck. He spent a fortune keeping the thing running but he refused to cave and buy himself a shiny new one, even with the millions he earned.
The cabin, however, was very shiny and very new.
It screamed dollar signs. A-frame cabins like this one were popular in California and Jesse loved the architecture, but he wasn’t a California type of man.
It sat amongst hundreds of trees, and you really wouldn’t know it was here unless you were looking for it.
That was what made it the perfect hideout for the two of them.
They had spent winters holed up here, some visits extended because they were snowed in.
When the sun set and moonlight descended on the mountains, the cosy, ambient lighting from inside and out turned the dark and moody black structure into a luxurious sanctuary.
Inside, Jesse had decorated with white, black and soft grey with faux fur rugs, cushions and blankets everywhere, making nights in front of the log fire a dream.
Savi loved spending time here, with him, away from everyone and everything.
Even if he had got Wi-Fi installed last summer so he could work from home when needed.
‘Home sweet home.’ Savi dropped onto the sofa and put her feet up on the oak coffee table, admiring the landscape from the floor-to-ceiling window. They never shut the blinds here, choosing to soak in the views and wake with the sun.
Jesse dumped the bags by the front door and closed it behind him, sealing them into their perfect, private bubble.
Until they ran out of groceries and had to make a trip into town, that was.
He peeled his jacket off, placed his cowboy hat on the sideboard and made a beeline for her.
‘You keeping the boots on while I devour you?’