Chapter 41
Max
“Oh, neto, we’re so happy you’re here,” Grandma Severino says, smiling up at me while cupping my face. Tears well up in her eyes.
My grandfather comes over and tells her she’s scaring me in Portuguese.
She swats at him before dabbing her eyes with the cloth in her hands. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you look so much like your father.”
I swallow the lump in my throat.
“We’re so proud of you,” she says again.
“This is a very big weekend for you, neto,” my grandfather adds.
We’re in Sao Paulo for the Grand Prix. This weekend is big for so many reasons. Not only is it one of the final races of the season, but if Travis and I rack up enough points this weekend, we could pull out the win for the Constructor’s Championship.
“And your girlfriend is so beautiful,” my grandmother adds, glancing over at Annalise who’s on the other side of the living room playing with my younger cousins.
Tomorrow is when most of the rest of my team will arrive to set up for race weekend.
Annalise agreed to come with me a day early to spend time with my family.
This is one of the first times that I’ve come early to visit them before a race. For many years my mother had me convinced that they didn’t want much to do with me after my father’s death.
I hate that I believed her for so long.
“When are you going to marry her?” my grandfather asks.
“Soon,” I reply in English.
“Soon, what?” Annalise asks, sidling up beside me.
I wrap my arm around her. “I’m going to make you my wife.”
She cocks her head sideways.
“That’s not really what you’re talking about.”
My grandfather chuckles, understanding our conversation.
“It is, princess. Soon as I win the championship, I plan on convincing you to be my wife.” I decided this not long ago.
“Neto, I think you’re scaring her,” my grandfather says with a smirk that reminds me so much of mine when I’m teasing someone. The same smile my father had when he teased me.
“Why didn’t you bring your teammate?” my cousin, Valentina asks, approaching us with a glass of lemonade for my grandfather.
He takes it, kissing her cheek.
“He chose not to come,” I say flatly.
Annalise elbows me.
I give her a look. “He didn’t.”
“I’m not sure he invited him,” she tells Valentina, which makes my cousin laugh.
“Are you two still not getting along?”
“He’s pissed because I’m on the verge of snatching the title from him,” I gloat.
My relationship with Travis has improved in the past few months.
We’re no longer at one another’s throats, and we manage to get through a dinner together when either Annalise or Alyssia insist we go out for a double date.
But we’re still competitors, and as it stands, we’re tied in points for the championship.
A competition I have every intention of beating.
But I respect Travis’ drive to win, and I’ve gotten a sense that he respects mine. More so he’s come around to the fact that I’m deeply, utterly, and irrevocably in love with his sister. That seems to have won me a begrudging friendship that neither of us expected.
“Dance with me,” Annalise says when the music gets turned up and those around us start dancing to the upbeat tempo.
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”
I take her by the hand and lead her to the dance floor … that’s really just the grassy backyard of my grandparents’ home. When I pull her body against mine, our hips sway but not at all in time with the music. We move to our own beat. I look down into her eyes and see my entire future.
“How’d your call go?”
Annalise bites her lower, taking a breather before she answers. “She’s tough,” she admits.
“But she’ll come around.”
“How do you know?”
She lets out a whoop when I take her hand and spin her around before pulling her into my arms again.
“Because you are the best damn agent in the business and Bree Walters could ask for.” I kiss the corner of her mouth then her lips because I love kissing her.
Also, because I’m proud as hell of her.
Once she officially turned down the opportunity to go back to working with Travis, she got to work connecting with his agent to get her start.
Norm wanted to hire her to his firm almost immediately.
She took a few weeks to learn the ropes and figure out if working with a big agency was the right move or if she wants to work independently.
In the end, her friend, Jennifer, convinced her to join forces and create their own agency.
Now, they represent both professional baseball players and motorsport drivers.
That is, if Bree Walters actually signs the contract.
They’ve gone back and forth for a while now, and though Annalise hasn’t given me all of the intricate details in order to keep her prospective client’s privacy, I have a feeling she’s going to pull it out.
Whether or not Bree ends up on the Formula 1 grid next season is another matter altogether.
“I love you,” she says before laying her head on my shoulder.
We’re dancing, her in my arms, swaying even though the music is fast paced. When I glance over to where my grandparents sit, watching their children and grandchildren, my grandmother smiles brightly as she points at Annalise.
“You still haven’t spoken to your mom?” Annalise suddenly asks.
Sighing, I shake my head. “No,” I answer in almost a snarl.
My mother has tried multiple times to reach out to me after I cut her off. When that failed, she went public, going to more than one sports podcaster to talk shit about me publicly.
It wasn’t until she tried to insinuate that I went after Annalise as a means to get back at Travis that I had my legal counsel slap her with a notice to keep her mouth closed about me and Annalise or else there would be consequences.
I haven’t heard much from her in the weeks since, but I know she’s not going to go away so quietly.
“She believes I owe her my life,” I say. “I’m better off without her.”
Annalise answers by lifting onto her tiptoes and pressing her lips to mine.
“We should get back to the hotel. You have a big day tomorrow.” She grins.
God, I love her.
That smile almost made me forget what’s on my agenda for tomorrow. An hour before the race, I’m taking out Amato’s classic car that hasn’t been driven publicly in over twenty years.
It’s also my father’s car. I’m going to drive in my father’s car around the Sao Paolo track in front of thousands of his fans.
The last one he ever drove. I finally agreed to do it.
“Are you nervous?”
I shake my head at the question. “Because I know you’ll be there.”
After giving her a kiss, I take her hand to lead her over to my grandparents so we can say our goodbyes. They, as well as the rest of the family, are reluctant to see us go, but they’ll be in the pit tomorrow, cheering me on.
I regret that this is actually the first time I’ve invited my grandparents to see me race.
“They’re here now,” Annalise says when I tell her this on our way to the hotel.
I squeeze her hand, not letting it go even as we slide out of the backseat of the chauffeured car. The moment I bring her hand to my lips, imagining all of the ways I plan to ravage her before we both fall into luxurious sleep, a hotel employee behind the front desk stops us.
“Ms. Townsend, we have a message for you.”
Annalise looks surprised, noting she didn’t have any missed calls. “Shoot, I think I forgot my cell at the pit.”
She keeps two cells. One for work and one for personal reasons ever since she became an agent.
“You can get it in the morning,” I say as she takes the message from the receptionist.
“It’s from Bree.” She glances up at me. “I should give her a call.”
“You can use my cell.”
“I’ll call from my room. Don’t give me that look.”
I hate that she has her own room. Yes, she’s brought most of her belongings to my suite and is sleeping with me, but she’s gotten her own room to be able to take business calls, which she’s had quite a few of in the day we’ve been here.
“I won’t be long. I swear.”
I start to offer to come with her, but I know she’ll protest and it’s important that she has privacy for business.
“Meet me in my room,” I insist when I drop her off at her hotel room door.
She holds up the key.
My stomach twists with some unidentifiable emotion. I brush it off as separation anxiety. It’s clingy as fuck but I don’t like being away from her for too long. Thank God she’s chosen a career that has her traveling on relatively the same schedule as I do.
As I ride up to my suite in the elevator, I laugh at how much of a clingy bastard I’ve become in the months since falling for Annalise.
In my room, I shower and decide to check to see if I have any messages since I haven’t looked over my phone in a few hours. There’s a brief text from Edwin telling me he’ll be out at a party for most of the night. My mouth falls, frowning as that feeling comes back.
Edwin wasn’t too thrilled when I told him that I decided to take the race coordinators and Amato’s front office up on the offer to drive my father’s car, finally. I still can’t figure out why he seemed more upset about it than me.
I think about Harry, who I’ve talked to every week over the past few months, and even visited me in Monaco. He’s had his interest in F1 reignited and, at times, I consider asking him his thoughts on becoming my agent.
I shake that idea off for more consideration in the off season.
Checking the clock, I notice it’s been almost an hour since we parted ways. That weird feeling in my stomach grows in intensity.
“Hey,” she answers my call almost instantly. “I was just about to call you. I did leave my cell in the pit along with my tablet.”
“Where are you?” I ask, sitting up. There’s noise in the background that doesn’t sound like a hotel suite should sound.
“I came out here to get my phone and tablet because—” She stops short.
“Because what?”
“Hang on,” she almost whispers.
I don’t like this at all. I don’t like that she’s out at the pit by herself at night. It’s not super late, and there is security throughout the night to protect the vehicles and all of the other team equipment, but it’s still not sitting with me.
“Annalise, what’s wrong?”
“What are you doing here?” Alarm rattles her voice as she asks the question.
“Anna—” I call but there’s a sharp noise and then silence. “Hello? Are you there?”
No response.
My heart pounds inside of my chest as I dial and redial her number. Again and again there’s no answer. On the fifth time I give up and dial another number.
“Max?” Travis answers after a couple of rings.
“Something’s happened to Annalise.”