CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER seventeen
David wished Oxbow polos weren’t so form-fitting. Every ounce of fat he’d gained over the week showed itself in the way the fabric rubbed against it instead of obscuring it with the draping. He kept his arms crossed as often as possible to keep it hidden, but as he completed simulator prep for Texas and attended his meetings, he caught the mound of his stomach when he walked by mirrors or reflective glass. Everyone on the team had probably noticed his weight gain by now.
Jacob met up with him on his walk to the medical area for their weekly stat check—the part of the week David dreaded most. Formula America was stricter about drug testing than other series, so every driver had to have a blood sample collected weekly. Formula America only tested five drivers at random, but most teams tested samples on their own to get ahead of any issues. Tracking their weight and blood pressure helped identify changes that might contribute to a failed test, or something. David tended to tune out when they talked about drugging. He’d never even smoked weed.
“Hey,” David said, greeting him with a curt nod.
Jacob cuffed his arm. “Filling out again, Jochmann? Nice. Any secret sauce I gotta know about?”
David paled. So his weight change was noticeable, then. Leave it to Jacob to state the obvious—and Jacob was the only person who would benefit from telling him.
“I’ll be back to the right weight soon,” David said quickly. “We tried a change this week, and it obviously didn’t work.”
‘We’ being Noah, and the change being Noah’s forced meals. David nearly puked every time he finished a whole chicken and rice bowl, no matter how flavorful Noah made it.
Jacob cocked a brow. “Didn’t work? Something’s definitely working.”
David shuddered, but tried to hide it with a glare. “Yeah. Thanks, mate.”
“What? You look swole.”
David bristled. Calling out his weight gain was one thing, but calling him swollen? “Seriously? Are you and Finlay collaborating on jokes now?”
Jacob made a face, but Pratik, the medical director, stepped out to meet them before he could reply. “Good to see you, boys. Ready to go?”
David was thankful for American healthcare laws that dictated they be tested in separate rooms. He grabbed his urine test cup and shooed Pratik away to take his drug test piss in peace.
The exam room was nearly identical to the ones at the race tracks. David flipped the Do Not Disturb sign and stepped inside as Jacob said, “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do anything!”
David shut the door behind him and pulled down his pants enough to piss. Even after this, he’d have water weight contributing to his total increase. And it would definitely be an increase, even though Noah had taken his scale away and hidden it somewhere.
Once his sample was done, he screwed the cap onto the jar of urine, washed his hands, and stepped out of the exam room to flip the sign back around. He heard the distant murmurs of Jacob and Pratik talking. He still had a few minutes if they were taking Jacob’s blood first.
He sat down on the exam table and waited, pulling out his phone to pass the time.
Heading your way soon , Noah wrote. You want anything to snack on in the car? Carrots?
David’s stomach shriveled at the thought of downing more calories. And carrots had so much sugar. He’d rather eat sawdust.
No , he replied. Thank you though.
Noah replied immediately: what about my carrot? ;)
David rolled his eyes, but some of the dread left him. Having Noah around for the past few days had loosened so much tension. He no longer feared his breezeway or parking garage, since Noah was always looking out for him. They seemed to have scared Klaus off for the moment. At least, according to his sister’s Instagram photo of Klaus and his mother having tea with her in Germany.
Is it a carrot or an aubergine? David replied.
Noah didn’t reply right away. Maybe he was getting in the car. Or Klaus had—
No. Klaus was in Germany.
I had to look that up , Noah finally wrote. The word you’re looking for is EGGPLANT. And yes, it is.
David cocked a brow at his phone. Eggplant?
‘Merica, baby!
Oh. As usual, the Americans had a different word for something everyone else in the world called an aubergine. Eggplant made no sense—nothing about aubergines made him think of eggs at all. Americans.
Pratik knocked on the door and stepped inside. His smile was completely forced, and David knew that meant Pratik had also noticed his weight gain.
“Ready?” Pratik asked, holding the door so David could complete his walk of shame to the scale.
David set his phone aside and nodded. Let’s see what the damage is.
******
Thirty minutes later, David was ready to throw up. He’d devolved into cold sweats in the lobby as he waited for Noah to arrive. Seven pounds. He’d gained seven pounds in under five days. Seven. Fucking. Pounds. He’d expected five at most—he’d been very careful to only eat as much as he had to to appease Noah. Now he had seventeen pounds to lose instead of ten to make his goal weight loss of thirty pounds.
Why was he such a fucking failure?
His phone buzzed with Noah’s arrival text. David pocketed it and held his breath as he pushed out into the afternoon sun, jogging down the block to where Noah’s Aston Martin Vantage waited for him. He focused only on the car, not daring to look at the other pedestrians as he picked up speed.
He opened the door and hefted his backpack in first before plopping down onto the leather seats. Noah immediately locked the doors and reached over to squeeze his thigh.
“Everything okay?” Noah asked.
David shook his head. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he forced them away as quickly as they came. He couldn’t cry over seven pounds. At least two of them were water weight, surely. So really, he was on the mark with five.
Noah rubbed his back, but it felt like someone petting a cat’s fur the wrong way. “Tell me what’s wrong, baby.”
“Please get away from here,” David breathed. “I don’t want to be here anymore. Please.”
Noah swerved back into traffic as easily as he merged back into the race after a pit stop. The Aston growled as Noah weaved through cars, away from Oxbow. Distance didn’t help—the problem was stuck to his hips and thighs.
“You wanna talk to me?” Noah asked, reaching up to blindly smooth back David’s hair as he drove.
“I can’t,” David choked out. “Oxbow stuff. Bad news.”
I’m going to be half a second behind if I don’t lose this weight.
He leaned against the window. Caroline’s Beverly Hills doctor wasn’t too far away. She was meeting them at the clinic, and they would find out the baby’s gender. Today was supposed to be a good day. An exciting day.
“You know I won’t say anything to anyone,” Noah murmured. “I would never do that, David. If you want to talk about what’s bothering you, I’m here. I can try to help you work through it. Did Hugh say some shit?”
Hugh was too smart for that now. He’d used Kyle to say everything for him: got pratik’s report. let’s talk tomorrow.
David knew what that translated to: You’re fucking fat.
“Please pretend to be excited when we get there,” David decided to say. “I need this to go well. I don’t care if you’re faking it and I can tell; I just need you to pretend this is what you want.”
“Hey, hey,” Noah soothed, gently massaging the back of his neck. “I know this is big. I want to be with you for this, okay? No one’s forcing me.”
David knew better than to believe that. He was basically forcing Noah to come, even if they were pretending otherwise. He could already feel the resentment building up in Noah, pound by pound.
“Do you have any guesses on if it’ll be a boy or a girl?” Noah asked, clearly trying to guide David toward something happier.
“I don’t really think that far,” David admitted. “I just think about holding a baby. I don’t think about a boy or a girl.”
Noah thumbed over the bone at the nape of David’s neck. “Yeah, I guess it doesn’t really matter. You’re going to be such a great dad, babe. I know it; Caroline knows it.”
“I don’t want to be a dad alone,” David said pathetically.
Noah looked at him out of the corner of his eye, and David knew he’d gone too far when he saw the color leave Noah’s cheeks, like his life had been sucked out of him.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They were supposed to be a happy couple, winning races and celebrating with each other. They were supposed to be bickering about how they would spend the week after their victories and who would stay in whose hotel room.
Instead, Noah’s racing dreams were dying with each bit of scar tissue forming on his wrist tendon, and David was on course to lose his championship the more weight he gained.
“You’re not alone in this,” Noah said. “I want to support you in everything, Davey Jones. I love you.”
The words echoed in the silence. Each time Noah said he loved him, David lost a little belief in it. It wasn’t Noah’s fault—all the blame rested squarely on David, and he knew it. He was the one who hadn’t been careful and got his ex pregnant; he was the one gaining weight; he was the one on the verge of crying in the passenger seat over the consequences of his own actions.
David closed his eyes. It couldn’t get worse. Surely, God wouldn’t let things get any worse.
******
Noah frowned as they pulled into a tiny parking lot in Beverly Hills. It took David a moment to see what he was looking at, but when he spotted a teal Corvette Stingray in the parking lot, he sighed. Jacob’s car was unmistakable—no one in LA with any self-respect would drive a car like that.
“She didn’t tell me he was coming,” David said.
“At least I have a date for this now,” Noah joked, but it fell flat.
David emerged from the car and wrapped his arms around his middle, trying to hide the noticeable lump of stomach beneath his shirt. Noah rested a hand on his back, rubbing there as they walked up to the entrance of the clinic. The sign read, Serenity: Enjoy the Magic of Motherhood , in an elegant script. Caroline had chosen a place a bunch of actresses used for their pregnancies.
They stepped into the lobby, where everything was a different shade of pink, accented with the same green Caroline had picked as one of the nursery colors.
Caroline stood at the counter, shifting her expensive-looking purse to rest against her hip as she wrote things down on a clipboard. An absolutely gorgeous receptionist smiled at her with lipstick the same color as the lobby. Jacob leaned against the counter, totally captivated by her.
“Is this dad?” the receptionist asked, tilting her head to look at Noah.
Of course. A girl as beautiful as Caroline should be with a man like Noah, not his pudgy counterpart.
“Ah, David,” Caroline said, grinning at him. She strode over and gently held his arms to give him a kiss on each cheek. Her perfume smelled beachy.
“Hi, Caroline,” David said as he reciprocated her greeting. He gently squeezed her hip. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel good. Nervous, but good,” Caroline said. She smiled at Noah and reached out to briefly touch his arm—more of a greeting than she’d ever given him in the past. “Thank you for coming.”
Noah dipped his head. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Good to see you, Caroline. You look great.”
Caroline gave David a sly smile. “See, David, that’s how you subtly bring up that my boobs are bigger.”
Noah slapped a hand over his mouth and choked out a laugh while David turned red all the way up to his ears.
“What the hell did I miss?” Noah asked, hooking an arm around him.
“I’ll tell you later,” David muttered.
Jacob was fully leaning against the counter now, chatting up the receptionist. David realized they were both still wearing their Oxbow team polos and probably looked like weirdos compared to Caroline’s matching skirt and top and Noah’s Dior collared shirt.
“I have to fill out some paperwork, and there are some questions I need your help with,” Caroline said. “Do you mind?”
“Of course not,” David said. He took Noah’s hand, and they headed over to the counter. The receptionist glanced at his and Noah’s hands, and her brows ticked up as far as her Botox would allow them to move, but she kept her mouth shut.
Caroline retrieved the clipboard and said something in French under her breath to Jacob. Right. Jacob seemed so American that David forgot he was fluent in French. Jacob stuck his tongue out at Caroline but left the receptionist alone to follow them to a collection of plush chairs.
“Now, do you have any allergies?” Caroline asked as she turned a page in the paperwork packet.
David shook his head as he sat down. “None that I know of.”
Caroline checked a box on the sheet. “Any family history of heart disease?”
David racked his brain. His mother would know the answer immediately. “Um. I can’t think of anyone who had heart problems, but I don’t know.”
Caroline checked another box. “Cancer?”
“I think my aunt on my mom’s side,” David said. “I don’t remember what kind, though.” His mother’s siblings didn’t speak to her anymore, not since Klaus made a commotion at some family event before David was born.
“High blood pressure?”
David shook his head. “Not that I know of.”
“Mental illnesses?”
Unease rippled up David’s spine. Jacob was sitting there, listening to all of this. What if he told Hugh that David suspected his father had some kind of mental disorder? Nothing had ever been diagnosed, but maybe saying that would prompt Jacob to tell Hugh, and Hugh would order some kind of test.
Can’t have a driver with a rotten brain driving a million-dollar car , Hugh would say. David could already hear the disgust in his tone.
“No,” David finally said, then flinched. Not telling the truth might make the doctors do something different—maybe something that would hurt the baby. “Well, nothing any doctors have ever talked about.”
Caroline wrote more on the sheet. Noah’s lips brushed his shoulder, and David reflexively leaned into him for support. He looked down at their hands. Swipes of black ink curled up Noah’s wrist in stark contrast to David’s pale skin.
“Okay, I believe that is it,” Caroline said, her accent spinning through the words. She looked up at Noah. “Oh, yes—Noah, would you mind sending me your parents’ address? I’d like to invite them to Paris for the baby party.”
David froze. Noah merely smiled at her and said, “Sure. I don’t think I have your number, though. Probably good to rectify that, huh?”
Caroline pulled out her phone, then handed it over to Noah to put his number in. Noah pulled his hand from David’s to type, then handed the phone back to her.
“How do your parents feel about this?” Caroline asked, pushing her hair behind her ear. “I mean, they haven’t even met David yet. I find that a bit strange, if I am being honest.”
David shriveled when Noah glanced at him.
“My parents don’t really like leaving Tennessee,” Noah explained. “They only come to one or two races a year. Makes my mum way too nervous—and last season made that a lot worse with my wrist.”
“Of course,” Caroline said, setting the clipboard on the chair beside her. She looked much older in the way she carried herself. “But what do they think about all of this?”
She wasn’t going to let Noah escape the question. David squirmed on Noah’s behalf, but he wanted an answer too.
“My parents support David and me completely,” Noah said, but David sensed a lie. “Quite frankly, they’re cautious about becoming too involved. Well, I say that, but I’m sure my mum is converting the guest room into a nursery right now for when the baby visits.”
David felt more than he saw the tension rise in Caroline. She sat up straighter in her seat, and her smile flickered. “Well, that’s very nice. I can’t wait to meet them. David has only talked about how wonderful they are.”
A door opened, and a woman in scrubs stepped out. Her scrubs were the same pastel pink as everything else in the clinic. “Caroline Rousseau?”
Caroline stood, clutching the clipboard. “Let’s go, David. Boys, we’ll be back soon.”
No room for argument. No hope for Noah to come with them.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” David said, meeting Noah for a chaste kiss. “See if you can convince Jacob to get rid of that ugly Vette.”
The nurse glanced between him and Caroline but said nothing before leading them back to the exam room. Caroline took a shaky breath, and David put an arm around her for support.
“I’m glad we’re doing this together,” he said.
She gave him a nervous smile. “Me too.”