CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CECI AND CLARKE
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ceci and Clarke
Ceci
Ceci congratulated Nico, thrilled she’d come in second even though Anker hadn’t made the podium. It was Nico’s best showing yet.
She raced for the Maverick team, the same team Rocco drove for. They had been rivals when they’d first become teammates, but they weren’t rivals any longer. Now they were a couple.
And an adorable one at that.
It was a mystery to Ceci how they managed to maintain a relationship. Both were highly competitive and wanted to win. But what did winning look like when it meant the person you loved had to lose? How could you ever really want them to win when it meant you’d lose?
Ceci shook her head. “How do you and Rocco do it? Anyone can see how happy he is that you came in second. And yet, he came in third driving the same car built by the same engineers and technicians. How can he be happy?” She paused.
“How can you be, when he beats you? There’s no way of getting around the fact that when one of you wins, the other one loses. ”
Sighing, Nico shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that I’m happy when he wins. Maybe when you love someone, they become a part of you. So, as long as one of you wins, you don’t lose.”
Knitting her brow, Ceci shook her head, doubtful.
Such a thing seemed impossible to her.
I guess love really does change a person. Or can. With some people.
Just then Rocco’s sister, Isabella, and her two daughters, Sofia and Beatrice, came up.
Rocco was lucky. There were always family members at his races. Aunt Delilah and Pixel showed up when they could. But they couldn’t attend every race.
The girls made a grand, sweeping bow to Nico.
“Milady, we commend thee,” they said in unison.
Sofia placed her hand over her heart. “Thy swift speed has succeeded in vanquishing the Black Knight from the kingdom.”
Beatrice mimicked her sister. “Now the people may live in tranquility and peace.”
Ceci and Nico burst out laughing.
Isabella shook her head. “They’re into knights now. You know the Knights of the Round Table …”
Ceci nodded. “I see. Who’s the Black Knight?”
“Who do you think?” Nico asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Ian?”
Nodding, both Nico and Isabella laughed.
Ceci chuckled. “I guess that makes sense.”
Isabella turned to Nico. “I was going to ask if you and Rocco could watch them after you’ve finished your press interviews. One of my friends from college who I haven’t seen in years is here in Barcelona.”
“Sure,” Nico said. “I just don’t know when we’ll be finished. Can I give you a definite time when I have a better idea?”
Inspiration struck.
“I’ll watch them,” Ceci blurted before Isabella had a chance to respond.
Both Isabella and Nico turned with puzzled expressions while the girls began jumping up and down. “Yes! Say yes, Mamma! Please let us go with Aunt Ceci.”
Even though she wasn’t a member of the family, she had the honorary title of aunt. Rocco and she had been friends for years. And his nieces knew her well.
Isabella frowned. “You sure? It’s Barcelona. Don’t you want to go out?”
Ceci shook her head. “No, it’ll be fun. We’ll order in. I don’t leave until the day after tomorrow, and they’ve hung out with me before.”
“Pizza!” the girls cried. “We want pizza!”
Nico grinned. “Do you ever not want pizza?”
They looked at each other as though this were a serious question that required some thought. Then they quickly shook their heads.
“Except when we’re with you, of course,” Sofia said.
“To be sure,” Beatrice agreed. “No pizza for you, Nico. We almost lost you.”
Sofia nodded. “And it was all because of pizza.”
Beatrice sighed. “Most definitely. All because of pizza.”
Ceci chuckled. “What?”
Nico shook her head. “Don’t ask.”
Ceci smiled. “So what do you say, Izzy?”
“Okay,” Isabella said. “If you’re sure.”
Oh, I’m sure.
Her date with Sir Stick Up His Ass was tonight. This time it was his choice where they’d go and what they’d do. He won today’s race and Anker was shut out. It was the first time this season that had happened. And she wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
There was a question that had been haunting her. She’d thought about asking him more than once and told herself she hadn’t because the dates after Austin had been so chaotic. But a part of her wondered if she hadn’t asked because she hadn’t wanted to hear the answer.
Where did he get the idea that going to her father’s house was doing something nice for her? She had to have given it to him. But how? What had she said that led him to think that? She didn’t even remember inviting him.
She did, however, remember that kiss. The one outside the bar and the one in the presence of her father.
Did Clarke remember? They hadn’t kissed since. Maybe he’d been swept up in the moment, and everything that had happened since put any passion he’d once felt in the deep freeze.
If there was anyone who might view tonight’s date with more apprehension than her, it would be him, given the way every other date since Austin had ended.
In Emilia-Romagna, while walking through the Piazza Maggiore, they’d been mobbed by press and fans who’d asked Clarke how it felt to date a woman who kept beating him.
Clarke grabbed her hand and took off to flee, only to trip on the stone of shame behind the Fountain of Neptune.
The result? A cut on his right cheek. Then there was the date after the race in Belgium.
Another altercation between Ceci and a man at a club resulted in Ceci once again shoving Clarke aside.
This time, the other side of his mouth ran into the bar’s edge.
In Hungary, it was a busted nose, and in the Netherlands, a cut on his jaw that required stitches.
He’s probably going to be thrilled when he hears I have to cancel tonight’s date.
Just then Ian Anker walked up to Ceci and Nico. That spiky blond hair and those cobalt-blue eyes were radiating fire. He was pissed, and the only guy who could make a scowl look like a grin.
Beatrice and Sofia stepped forward, holding their hands out like traffic cops.
“Thou shalt halt, Black Knight,” Sofia commanded. “For thou art vanquished!”
“Indeed, thou art,” proclaimed Beatrice. “Thou art banished!
“Go hither!” they cried in unison.
He grinned. “I’m the Black Knight?”
They nodded emphatically, crossing their arms and glaring at him.
He mimicked them, crossing his arms as well. “Then,” he sneered, “that would make me Sir Percy.”
Sofia and Beatrice frowned at one another.
“Does he mean Sir Percival?” Beatrice murmured in a low voice.
Sofia shook her head. “But Sir Percival isn’t the Black Knight.”
“And,” Anker growled, narrowing his eyes, “that means I have the Ebony Blade.”
The girls looked like goggle-eyed fish staring out of a fish tank.
“What is the Ebony Blade?” they cried.
“It’s a sword that was carved from a meteor by Merlin and given especially to me. It renders the one who wields it invulnerable. And that would be me. So long as I have it, no one can touch me.”
They gasped.
They began to whisper to each other. “It isn’t right that he should have it. There must be something we can do. Let’s discuss it over pizza tonight.”
Facing him, Sofia lifted her chin. “We shall conduct a roundtable this eve, and we shall find a way to … to …” She looked at her sister, but Beatrice shrugged, shaking her head.
“Nullify the blade’s power?” Ceci suggested.
Nico nodded. “Or neutralize it?”
Nodding and smiling, the girls’ eyes brightened.
Sofia turned back to Anker. “What they said.”
“Yeah,” Beatrice added. “What they said.”
Anker chuckled. “Well, good luck with that. In the meantime”—he sidled up to Nico and slung his arm around her shoulder— “Congratulations. That was one slick move you made there toward the end to get past me.”
“You liked that?” she said with a wry smile.
“I did. How’s about trying it out again tonight?”
Ceci rolled her eyes.
Before Nico could respond, Rocco—tall, dark, and determined—came up behind Anker, took his arm off her, and pushed him aside, slinging his own arm over her shoulder.
Anker smirked. “So, Rocco, how does it feel coming in behind your woman?”
Grinning, Rocco looked over at Nico. “I’d come in behind her any time she lets me.”
Ceci watched Nico blush as she nudged him. Nico was as tough as nails in concrete. She never blushed. Except around Rocco.
Anker shrugged. “Let me know when you figure out that Ebony Blade Hex, ladies,” he snarled to Sofia and Beatrice before walking off.
The girls began eagerly whispering to each other.
“A hex. That might work,” Sofia said.
“Most definitely. And to be sure,” Beatrice added.
Nico turned to Ceci. “I can’t believe you got Roxanne Windsor to take Anker on as a client next season.”
“Yeah,” Rocco said. “How’d you manage that?”
Ceci shrugged. “I have my ways.”
Just then Clarke approached.
Ceci noticed Nico glancing at Clarke and then back at her.
They may have convinced some of the outside world they were actually dating. But Ceci doubted they’d convinced anyone in the paddock.
Nico leaned over and whispered in Ceci’s ear, “I bet I can guess how you managed it.”
Before anyone else could utter a word, Beatrice and Sofia stepped forward.
“All hail, noble Sir Clark,” cried Sofia.
“Most definitely,” exclaimed Beatrice. “You have vanquished the evildoer.”
“Indeed, and brought peace and prosperity back to the people.”
“To be sure.”
Clarke
Clarke hesitated. He was tempted to laugh, but bit his lip. The girls seemed so serious.
Isabella cupped her hand and told him in a low whisper about their obsession with knights.
He caught Ceci’s watchful stare out of the corner of his eye and could guess what she was thinking: Sir Stick Up His Ass won’t play along. He doesn’t have it in him.
Clarke placed his hand over his heart and bowed deeply. “Fair ladies, the honor is mine. May fortune ever smile upon thee, and may I prove myself worthy of thy kindness.”
The two girls beamed.
After he stood up, he then bowed to Nico and finally Ceci. “Had I known I would meet such fair ladies this day, I would have taken greater care in polishing my armor, my words, and my wit.”
Nico and Rocco laughed.
He winked at Sofia and Beatrice, who giggled.
The girls ran up to Ceci. “Aunt Ceci, can we have gelato?” asked Sofia.
“After pizza?” added Beatrice.
She turned to Clarke. “Oh, that’s right. Sofia and Beatrice are coming over. I’m going to watch them. So, I guess this changes our plans. We can scrap tonight if you want. I’ll understand.”
She sounded disappointed. Was she? Or was this a ploy to get out of tonight’s date?
Sofia tapped his arm. “You should come too!”
Beatrice tapped the other. “Most definitely.”
He watched Ceci.
She thinks I’ll cancel.
He stepped back and bowed deeply to Sofia and then again to Beatrice. “How could a knight refuse such a gracious invitation? And now, fair maidens, the sun sets, and so too must I depart. Until we meet anon, fare thee well.”