Chapter 26 #2
“Pff. Was mental. And I’ve totally fucked things with my brother.” He stares out the window. “All those years following Graham’s playbook, trying to prove I don’t even know what anymore.”
“Reece understands more than you think.”
“I don’t see how. I’ve been running my own brother off tracks just to make our father happy. Keeping tabs on him for Graham.” He huffs a breath and shakes his head, his expression filled with bitterness.
“So change.” Easier said than done, he knows, but... “Be the driver and the brother you wanted to be before Graham’s voice got so loud in your head.”
Wyn grunts, then looks back at Nico. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sí.” He figures it’s about Petra, but Wyn surprises him again.
“You and Nicolina seem so close, but I don’t see how with all the time spent away. It’s a twin thing, innit?”
“A twin thing?” Nico laughs. “I don’t know. Maybe? But I think it’s more a family thing. We protect each other. Always have.”
“Even when you’re competing?”
“Nia and I never compete. Not the way you mean.” Nico shifts, remembering Nicolina before her accident, how she’d loved climbing.
“She’s always been my biggest supporter, even when she was winning her own competitions, and even though we rarely see each other.
” Nico taps his phone. “We talk or text every week.” He shakes his head.
“I can’t imagine not being in contact with my sister. ”
“Fuck, that’s mad beautiful, Nico.”
“It’s not easy being separated so much.” The memory of her tears after Junior, of her broken pelvis after the fall, of all the times he couldn’t protect her.
Wyn nods slowly, frowning. “Can’t imagine someone giving a shit about you even if you binned it last weekend.”
Nico shrugs. “Nia and I choose each other. Every time.”
“Choose?” Wyn’s face screws up, like he can’t comprehend that word.
“To put family first.”
“Huh.” He looks out the window again. “I wonder if Reece and I could be like that.”
“Be brothers instead of rivals?”
He nods. “Yeah.”
“There’s only one way to know.” Nico leans his seat back. The lack of sleep is catching up with him fast. “Lo siento. Necesito una siesta, chico.” He needs a nap.
“Worn out from all that racing?” That’s more like the Wyn Nico’s known for a decade.
“Shut it.” But he’s grinning back at the jackass as he closes his eyes.
The next thing he knows, they’re landing in la Ciudad de México. Arrival, transport with a security detail, and hotel check-in pass in a routine blur until Esteban appears at his hotel room door wearing a Honey Bunny tee shirt. “Ready to work?”
Nico points at the shirt. “?En serio?” Is he serious?
His physio ignores him, grin as wicked as a summer day is long. “Or too tired from your evening aerobics?”
“Is it too much to ask that you remain professional?”
Esteban snorts. “Sí.” He ushers Nico out the door and leads him to the hotel’s fitness center. “I need details.”
“About my workout preferences? I think we should focus on—”
“You and TenP doing the nasty?” Esteban unrolls a mat. The city’s high altitude means going slow. Today will be stretching, low weights, and walking. The drivers arrive early to give their bodies time to adjust to the lower oxygen. “I bet that was quite a workout.”
“Dios mío.”
“That what she said?”
“I’m not discussing anything with you.”
“No? Because social media says there was plenty to discuss. Multiple times.”
“Social media. ?Qué mierda!” he mutters and accepts the band his friend gives him.
Esteban is undeterred. “I should thank her. Stamina is important in this sport.”
“Fuck you.”
“Upper back stretch first,” Esteban instructs, still grinning. “Unless you’re too exhausted from last night’s workout.”
Nico focuses on the pull of his back muscles instead of his oldest friend’s smirk. “Don’t you have actual coaching to do?”
“This is coaching. Making sure my driver isn’t too distracted to perform.”
“I’m not—”
“Going to tell me how many reps you performed last night?”
“Hostia.” But he can’t help laughing. “You’re worse than Nia.”
“No, this is an assignment from Nia. She texted me this afternoon.” Esteban adjusts Nico’s form. “She says you’re not responding to her messages fast enough.”
“Because I’m busy.”
“With other people?”
Nico pauses. “You know, I could fire you.”
“You could.” Esteban hands him water. “But who would help you maintain the stamina for all this extra training?”
Nico shakes his head. “I hate you.”
“No you don’t.” He takes the band and guides Nico into the next position to help stretch and open up his chest. “Now, about that podium kiss...”
“No.”
“The one that’s all over every news outlet?”
Nico ignores him, or tries to, as he folds forward over his left leg, stretching out his intercostal muscles.
“That every journalist in México is going to ask about?” Esteban’s grin widens.
“Lárgate.” It means piss off and is something Nia usually says, jokingly, to Esteban.
He snorts. “So you’d rather discuss what happened in her hotel room after?”
“Can we focus on actual fitness, Esteban?”
“Oh, I’m focusing. On your improved mood, your obvious... satisfaction.” He demonstrates the next set. “Your general post-coital glow.”
“My what?”
“You’re practically radiating, hombre. Like someone who’s had their—”
“If you finish that sentence, I will actually fire you.”
“World rocked? Dreams fulfilled? Championship hopes and other things raised?”
Nico focuses on stretching the other side of his chest instead of responding.
“Though seriously. You look happy. Both of you do. Even with all the complications.”
“Yeah, well.” Nico shifts his body, engaging as many muscles as possible with one stretch. “She’s worth it.”
“Wait, are you getting all romantic about Hayter?”
“You’re fired.” Nico doesn’t even look up.
Esteban just laughs. “Some shit talk is worth it.”