Chapter 35
Travis
“Travis, are you all right?”
Drake’s worried voice crackles through the intercom. I blink a couple of times and try to shake my head, but the constricting helmet and HANS device I wear make that impossible.
They’re also the reason I’m only slightly dazed and not much, much worse.
“Fuck!” I curse into the communication with my team. I don’t have to see it from the outside to know this crash is the end of my race.
“Travis, are you okay?” Drake asks, his voice more insistent this time.
“Yeah,” I answer tersely before reaching up to pull myself out of the car. I examine the crumpled red pieces of the front of my car smashed against one of the race barriers.
Soon I’m surrounded by the safety team as they work to clear out the debris while also helping me out of the car and to another vehicle that’ll take me back to the first aid section to be checked out.
Sometime during all of the chaos of people checking on me and getting back to the paddock, I remember that Alyssia is here, watching.
Shit!
She most definitely saw that accident. Above and beyond trying to figure out what the fuck happened that caused my car to spin out, I need to lay eyes on Alyssia. To make sure she’s all right.
“Travis, how’re you feeling?” My team principal is the first to meet me as I arrive at the paddock.
“Where’s Alyssia?”
“What? Wait, what happened out there?” He presses a palm to my chest when I try to move past him.
The rest of my team rushes around me, assuring themselves that I’m okay. Even after I’ve been checked by first responders, they all know it’s honestly a little too early to tell. Adrenaline still pumps through my body, insulating me against much pain.
I’ve been in enough of these accidents to know I’ll be sore as hell later on. Probably will have some bruising, but that’s par for the course.
Alyssia doesn’t know that.
A crash from the outside looks a lot worse than from the inside.
“Wait, talk to me, what happened out there?” Drake asks.
“Just give me a minute.”
He sidesteps when I try to move around him again.
I start to push him out of my way when Norm calls me from the opposite side of the garage.
“Glad to see you’re okay.” He pushes his way through to stand beside Drake. “Not being able to finish the race sucks, but there’s probably a way we can spin this.” He snaps his fingers. “Oh, your sponsorship deal with—”
“Get out of my way,” I tell my agent through gritted teeth.
His eyes bulge and he takes a hesitant step back.
“Travis?” Annalise’s voice captures my attention.
I brush past a few of my team members to get to my sister. “Where is she?”
Her forehead wrinkles as I ignore the hustle and bustle around us. There’s still a race going on and Skyland is still in it.
“Is she okay?” I ask Alyssia. “Was she rubbing her shoulder?” I ask before she can answer my first two questions.
“Her shoulder? What?”
“If she’s rubbing her shoulder that means she’s scared. If she—” My words catch when I look up from my sister and see Alyssia slowly descending the stairs.
Her watery eyes meet mine, and I pass my sister and shoulder my way through the crowd of Amato crew and even the rest of my family to get to her.
“Travis?” Her voice is wobbly as if she’s afraid to say my name louder for fear I’ll disappear.
I pull her into my arms. “I’m okay,” I say into her ear so that only she can hear.
“Are you sure?” she asks, pulling back to inspect me for herself.
Right now, I hate myself.
Knowing I’m the person that’s put this fear in her eyes makes me want to claw my own chest out. A battle rages inside of me to scoop her up and take her back home where it’s just the two of us, or to follow team protocol and carry on with the rest of my work.
I’m still obligated to do post-race interviews, speak with my team, and most of all figure out what the hell happened out there.
It has me question what the hell I’m doing all of this for. Is the price of a championship worth it, if it terrifies the woman I lo—
“Travis, we have to get you checked out more thoroughly. That was a nasty accident and then there’re some interviews you need to finish,” Drake calls from behind me, as if I’m unaware of the drill.
I hug Alyssia to me again and kiss her. It’s too brief for my liking, but I know if I don’t pull away now I never will.
And where will that leave me?
I release Alyssia and turn to my sister who’s never far. “Take care of her,” I tell Annalise in her ear.
Each step away from Alyssia feels like a blade slicing through my heart.
Tingles run through my body as Alyssia runs her finger along my belly, tracing the largest bruise there.
She’s been quiet for the past ten minutes we’ve been lying in bed, staring at one another. Well, I’ve been watching her while she’s examining the bruises that’ve formed along my abdomen and chest as a result of today’s accident.
While I could’ve hidden them from her by wearing my shirt to bed, I wanted her to see that I really am fine after what happened today.
After all of my post-race interviews and going over with my team about what happened, we assessed that something went wrong with one of the tires. Once I got caught in another driver’s downforce, things got messy, and in Monaco it doesn’t take much to end up in the wall.
This is the last place I would’ve wanted a crash to end my race. Not over pride solely, but because this is one of the few races where my entire family is here.
And, most importantly, Alyssia.
“Does it hurt?” she finally asks while still tracing her finger along my skin.
“No.”
She frowns as she lifts her eyes to meet mine.
“Much,” I add.
Her mouth quirks into a small smile.
“There was a moment …” She pauses, swallowing. “Annalise was with me. She told me the moment she heard your voice when you told your team principal that you were okay.”
I lean in, kissing her forehead. I’m grateful for my sister. My family is used to this type of thing, though I know it’s not easy for them to see me crash either.
Guilt burns through my chest at the reminder that I’ve put everyone I love through the difficulty of watching me crash at some point.
My hand finds its way to Alyssia’s belly.
“My mom hated my racing,” I say as I look at my hand resting on top of her swollen belly.
“She seems like your biggest fan,” Alyssia says, surprise in her voice.
“She is … always has been. Doesn’t mean she always liked it.”
I adjust my head on my elbow and raise my other hand to run my thumb over her jawline.
“How did that change happen?” she asks.
“My first go-kart racing championship. My entire family came out: grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and of course Mom, Dad, and the sibs.”
She snorts, grinning.
“But I got overconfident. I tanked in qualifying. Came in second to last. After that, I knew it would be nothing more than a humiliation ritual to go out and compete. So, I decided I was going to walk away.”
“Let me guess. It was your dad who talked you up and told you there was no way you were going to quit.”
I shake my head.
“It didn’t even get that far. I knew my dad would’ve been disappointed, so I went to my mom instead. I figured it would be easy to get her on my side since I knew she wasn’t a fan of my racing. Then Dad would have to be okay with it.”
Alyssia cocks her head to the side. “She refused to let you quit.”
I nod. “Told me not only was I entering that race, but I was going to give it my all, no matter what. And if I didn’t, I would be grounded for three months.”
Alyssia chuckles. “No way.”
“I kid you not. I knew she was serious and I knew even if I gave it my all, I’d still lose because I was starting so far behind.”
“But?”
“I did what she said. I gave it everything I had.”
“And you won,” she says, eyes looking expectant.
“Not quite. I came in third, still an accomplishment given where I started. It wasn’t until the next year that I won the championship.”
Alyssia’s eyes sparkle as she caresses my cheek.
I turn and kiss the inside of her palm, remembering all of the new reasons I have to win now. This time it’s to make the woman I’m falling in love with proud.