Chapter 16
Savannah needed solitude, and that was exactly what Marco’s tiny home country could offer her.
An escape from reality, some peace and quiet.
And more importantly, someone to remind her just how special she was.
He could do that for her, just until she figured out who she was in a world without Jesse.
Marco wasn’t lying when he said he had grown up in luxury.
While he had been open about his upbringing when Savannah had asked, bringing her here was a whole different ball game.
Thankfully he knew his family were still in Switzerland visiting his brother, and the only people here were the housekeepers.
Her eyes would fall out of her skull if she saw the way his parents dressed just to sit around at home.
Not a day went by when his father wasn’t in a full suit or a shirt and trousers.
He was ready to drop everything and run to a business meeting at any given moment, and he frequently held them at the family home.
They would petrify Savannah, and he knew she’d be self-conscious of her own choice in clothing.
If only she knew his mum had a pair of cowboy boots hiding in the back of her walk-in closet.
Despite the stupid amount of money they had accumulated in their joint bank account, his family were incredibly down to earth and he was proud of that fact, grateful for the way he had been raised.
Everywhere they travelled, they volunteered with the local community, educated themselves and immersed themselves in the culture.
They’d built schools, hospitals, hotels which only hired local people and paid above minimum wage.
And the rest of the world didn’t know about any of it.
His parents didn’t like to brag, and they kept their social circle small.
His brother had taken all the money out of his trust fund and donated it to a medical research programme the same week he turned eighteen, and then promptly moved to Switzerland to meet a girl he’d been talking to online and started from scratch.
But Marco knew this was intimidating. From the tennis court and the swimming pool to the marble floors and multiple garages filled with sports cars, mostly gifts from car manufacturers for just…
being a racing driver. It was a lot. And he wasn’t oblivious to the fact Savannah hadn’t come from money and was probably afraid to touch anything in there.
‘I never realised you still lived with your parents,’ she murmured, hovering in the doorway to the kitchen.
After a guided tour, during which she had been stunned into silence, that was all she had to say?
He was wondering if he should’ve booked her into a hotel or rented an apartment for the sake of a week. She might feel more comfortable.
‘I have an apartment, but there’s only one bedroom.
I didn’t think it was appropriate, plus it’s in a building full of racing drivers and you would have been hounded by them all.
They’re nosy. You have your pick of three rooms here, and my family won’t be returning home until we’re en route to Brazil for the race. ’
‘I bet your apartment doesn’t have a tennis court,’ she laughed nervously, finally choosing to join him at the kitchen island, while the family chef whipped them up some pancakes. Vegan and packed full of protein and chocolate chips, just how he liked it.
‘No, but it has a pool. On the roof, not private. And a community gym, too, which I don’t use because I crammed as much equipment as I could into the spare bedroom. The reason for me not having an extra bed.’
‘You know what my gym is back home?’ She watched the chef work. ‘Running the hiking trails and horseback riding. Mocha and I go out for hours sometimes.’
‘Is it not dangerous, running the trails? Isn’t the bigfoot out there?’
‘I stay close to the ranch. I’ve grown up there, I know what to look out for.
And bigfoot isn’t real, idiot.’ She rolled her eyes, and he grinned at her.
He liked it when she called him an idiot.
It made him feel like they were getting closer, close enough that they could insult each other without consequence.
‘So, Cowgirl. Is there anything specific you’d like to do while you’re here?’
‘Am I allowed to indulge in the life of Marco De Luca for a while? Go to the casino, play some tennis, swim…’ She took a bite of the food that was put in front of her. ‘Eat these incredible pancakes. Oh my god! Maybe I do need a chef.’
‘If you want to live my life, you’re gonna have to ditch the cowboy boots for a few days. Those won’t fly in a place like this,’ he laughed. ‘I’ll have to drag you out on a sunrise run.’
‘Sun rise or sun set ?’ Her eyes widened.
‘Rise. Shouldn’t you be an early bird, growing up on a ranch?’ He took a forkful off her plate, too impatient to wait for his own to be ready.
‘Getting up early was Weston’s thing. I always stayed inside and helped get breakfast ready for when he and Dad and the ranch hands came back from their early morning jobs.’
‘So, if you’re not up by nine every morning to run or train, I’ll have to set the fire alarms off to get you out of bed. Noted.’
‘I am capable of waking up early, I just prefer not to. I have enough of that during race week. Please also note that I am in mourning following the end of my relationship, so go easy on me.’ She scowled, but in all honesty, she didn’t seem as devastated as he had worried she’d be.
He had even got in touch with Esme in case he needed back up, since she was the only friend who had known about Jesse.
Her reaction had been explosive, and Savannah’s phone had immediately lit up with a flurry of messages from her best friend.
But she hadn’t shed a tear in front of him since first leaving the restaurant, and she had hardly mentioned it on the flight to Monaco.
Wasn’t that a sign that it had been the right thing for her, whether the choice had been hers or not?
‘I will take it into consideration. Eat up, I’ve got something really cool to show you.’
‘How can it possibly get cooler than everything I’ve seen so far?’
‘Trust me.’ Marco gratefully accepted his pancakes from the chef. ‘Give me two minutes and we’ll head upstairs. You’ll like it, it’s right up your street.’
He scoffed his food down, thankful that he’d taught himself this recipe so he could have them any time the chef was off, or if he was in another country.
His mum could cook, but as the family hotel business grew and grandkids came into the picture, she had hired someone to take care of things. Most days, the house was empty, so their personal chef had shifts at their Monaco hotel, too, and helped curate the menu.
‘How on earth did you eat those so fast?’ Savannah watched him, her expression a combination of awe and disgust. ‘That’s not human, Mars.’
‘I was hungry,’ he shrugged, getting up from his seat and putting both plates in the dishwasher. He had never been one to leave things lying around for the housekeepers.
‘There’s hungry and then there’s whatever that was. You’re like a vacuum.’
‘I like pancakes. Those you guys ordered for me from room service in Spa were right up there with some of the best I’ve had.
’ He used to hate mentioning that debacle, but now he could laugh at his misfortune.
Yes, he’d embarrassed himself. But he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Well, aside from falling for someone he couldn’t have.
He was right in the middle of making that mistake now, stood in his kitchen.
But he wasn’t going to cry about it in front of anyone or declare his feelings in a garage full of people.
‘This surprise better be good.’ Savannah followed him up the staircase, constantly stopping to admire photos on the gallery wall. It was pretty much all Marco and his brother in black and white candid shots, from their teen years to now. ‘Your brother looks like you.’
‘Don’t tell him that. He got papped once, back in the early days of my career, by someone who thought he was me. He’s rejected every comparison since. But yeah, you can’t tell us apart in some photos.’ Marco pointed out one where they had matching football shirts.
‘I’m adopted, so my brother looks nothing like me.’ Savannah smiled fondly at the mention of her brother, a common theme. She obviously thought a lot of him.
‘You’re adopted?’ He didn’t know why that shocked him so much.
‘Yeah. My parents were friends with my biological mum who died during childbirth. She had made arrangements so if anything were to ever happen to her, my parents would take me in and raise me like their own.’
‘Savannah, I’m so sorry…’ He didn’t know if he should put his hand on her shoulder, hold her hand, or give her a hug, so he just stood looking at her, hoping he was doing a good job at hiding his adoration for her.
‘It’s fine. I don’t know any different. I have an amazing family, I’m very lucky that they were there when I needed them.
When my mum needed them.’ She didn’t look sad about it, she looked at peace.
He wondered if her adoption was one of the reasons she fought so hard for her career, so she could give back to the people who had given her everything.
‘The surprise is just at the top of the stairs here.’ He pushed open the door to his safe haven: a room dedicated to his racing simulator.
Jasper had got him a new one at the start of the year with all the upgrades and extras he could ask for, and Marco had painted the room black and added neon lighting and huge wrap-around screens.
When he sat down in the racing sim seat, it was like he was in the Revolution car.
He even had temperature control in there so he could practise for the warmer races.
The closet held his team merchandise and old racing suits, and one wall was lined with trophies and helmets.
It was heaven for any driver, his own personal shrine.
‘Wow, Monaco. This is next level.’