Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Once again he had surprised her, but really, should she have been? They were both dancing around the attraction between them, neither of them wanting to admit that there could be anything more than sex.
But could there be?
“So...no money,” she joked. But what did he want? She wondered sometimes why she never found a normal guy who just wanted to chat on a dating app and then meet for a meal. Instead she had this...something she wasn’t sure she actually minded.
“I feel like it might be better to talk about over dinner. I had a plan,” he said.
“But that’s not going to work,” she said. “You can’t bring something like this up and then let it go. That’s not how this works. You said you had a proposition for me.”
She’d been told she was too blunt. Her aunt Tilly had warned her more than once to slow down and let her tongue catch up with her mind. It never hurt to give something a thought or two before she blurted it out. But that didn’t really suit her. It never had.
“Um, so, today at practice I clocked the fastest time I’ve ever had.
We did it three times to see if it was a fluke.
There was a new setup, but that isn’t enough to get the kind of speed I got out of the simulator today.
It was everything coming together for me.
And I think that was because of last night,” he said, turning away from her to look out the window.
She lived on the other side of the park, and their views were different. She moved over to stand next to him.
He had just articulated what she’d felt today.
Sex had been sort of a detox of all the junk that had been plaguing her lately, and she wouldn’t mind trying it again.
But she knew from the past when she had tried to justify a relationship—the one with Jose—it hadn’t really worked.
She feared what she had with Inigo would quickly become something different than what had happened last night, especially since there was still bad blood with his sister.
“I had a moment of clarity today too. I think it was talking to you that made it possible.”
“I want to do more than talk,” he said sardonically.
“I figured,” she said. “But that helped me. You gave me some perspective that I hadn’t been able to find before this.”
“So we can hook up for me and talk for you,” he said, then shook his head. “That sounds even crazier out loud than it does in my head.”
She had to agree it did sound crazy. “I can’t go on the Formula One tour with you.”
She wasn’t going back there again. All of those cities were tied to memories of Jose and now tinged with the fact that he’d been playing her the entire time. She didn’t want to have to deal with that. Not now that she was sort of getting herself back on track.
Inigo rubbed the back of his neck, turned to put his drink on the bar and then walked back over to her. “I don’t even know if you’re what is making a difference in my driving.”
“So?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I had a vague idea of what I was going to suggest, but being here with you, there’s no way I can do it. There’s something douchey about saying to a woman, hey, let’s hook up so I can see if sex is making me better at my job.”
She couldn’t help the smile that broke across her face.
She shook her head. This. This was exactly why she was here in his apartment, despite the fact that he had said some truly mean things to her in the past and would probably do so again.
He was unpredictable and at the same time so honest..
.which was why she knew he’d say something to her again that would hurt.
He didn’t have that bullshit filter that most of the men she dated in the past had.
The one that allowed them to say things to her that she’d believe even though they were lying.
“No, you can’t say that. But I’d be willing to try it again,” she said. “I like you, Inigo. We can’t ever have a relationship, because as much as I don’t like Bianca, she’s your sister. But the sex is good, you’re funny and I enjoy being around you.”
He tipped his head to the side, studying her for a few minutes.
It felt longer than waiting in the line at Ralph’s during rush hour.
She had no idea what he was hoping to find in her expression, so she tried to look neutral and then started to feel self-conscious.
She ended up just turning to stare out the window.
Snow was falling, and from up here it looked peaceful. Like being inside a snow globe.
From up here she could have one of those picture-perfect lives—the one that her followers on social media thought she had. She reached for her phone. But the reflection off the plate glass didn’t make a good photo.
“What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you and trying to figure out if I can capture the pristine snow falling on the city. From up here it seems...”
“Ideal.”
She nodded. Ideal. That was a good word.
“So are we doing this?” she asked.
“Let’s have dinner and then decide,” he said. “When you mentioned Bianca, it made me realize that I hadn’t thought of how this would affect anyone but you and me.”
“We are the only ones who have a stake in this,” she said. Was his sister really going to be mad that he was dating her? Probably. Marielle would be ticked off if one of her brothers had dated a girl that had cheated with her ex. She sighed.
“Okay.”
Dinner was good, but honestly, Inigo wasn’t in a frame of mind to savor it.
He wished he’d stuck to his plan, but instead he had sat awkwardly across from Marielle thinking about the dumb-ass way he’d propositioned her.
He’d meant to be smoother about it. To be Mr. Charming for once in his life.
He should have called Diego. His older brother was good at knowing the right thing to say.
But he didn’t really want to let his family know that he’d been sleeping with the woman Bianca hated.
Over and over as they ate the meal, that was all he could think of.
Marielle was working hard, trying to keep the conversation going, but he knew he was giving her nothing.
Just one-word answers and long drawn-out silences between topics.
He’d never been this awkward with a woman.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he took it out to see that Keke was downstairs and wanted to come up.
“Uh, one of my bosses is here,” he said to Marielle.
“Okay,” she said. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No. I’ve been so horrible, I need a chance to make it up to you. Let me see what he wants,” Inigo said.
He texted that it was okay for him to come up. “At least we will have someone to help make conversation.”
“Yeah. I had no idea that I would ever work this hard to talk about nothing,” she said.
“I’m sorry. It’s not like me to say something inappropriate to a woman and then totally shut down,” he said.
“I know. I get it. We really shouldn’t be doing this. It doesn’t matter if you think I’m the reason you drove faster today. Given our connection through Jose, we can’t ever do this,” she said.
“I know. I had forgotten,” he said. “I mean, not really. But when I see you, Marielle, I don’t think about Jose or the past. But it is there.”
Before she could answer, he heard Keke’s hard knock on the door and went to answer it. The German stood there with a big grin on his face, filling the doorway. Next to him was his wife, Elena.
“Sorry to stop by unannounced, but I had an idea that I wanted you to think about tonight,” Keke said, coming in. He glanced over at the table and saw Marielle then looked back at Inigo.
“You have a date?”
“Yes, I do,” he said.
“See, I told you to call first,” Elena said. “Nothing can sway him when he starts thinking about racing,” she added to Inigo.
She brushed past Keke and walked over to Marielle. She introduced herself and then suggested that they take a bottle of wine and get comfy. “It’s supposed to be date night. Our first in three months, but Keke...well, racing is his first love.”
“Woman, you know I love you more than racing. But Inigo and I need to discuss this. I promise we won’t be more than thirty minutes.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Elena said, then looped her arm through Marielle’s and led her to the sofa in front of the fireplace.
“Sorry,” Keke said, turning to him. “But this is important. Remember how we changed the setup on the second run today?”
Inigo nodded, but his attention was divided between Keke’s explanation of how he could shave possibly up to a second more off his time by shifting at a different moment and watching Marielle pour two glasses of wine for herself and Elena.
Keke kept talking, but all Inigo could hear was the women’s laughter. Finally his friend and boss put his arm over Inigo’s shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. He’d just spent the evening trying to convince himself that Marielle was the key to winning and now...he was getting the message that maybe he hadn’t thought this through. His gaze drifted over to the women, and Keke noticed.
“It’s not always easy to balance racing and a woman,” Keke said. “Elena had her own thing, which made it easier for us. Is she the woman that Marco mentioned?”
Inigo turned away from them, walking to his den area, and Keke followed. “I wonder if today was a fluke.”
“That’s why I’m here. One of the strengths that I had as a driver was the ability to analyze not just the car and the setup but also my physical well-being. What was going on in my head and my body. I stopped by so we could work through that,” he said.
“I had spent the night and morning with Marielle,” Inigo said. “You know I’ve been careful about keeping myself focused on driving and not allowing anyone to distract me, but she’s different.”