Page 19 of Game on, Love

“Well, now that you’ve suddenly turned into a wise men, what’s your suggestion then?”

He grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “Start with Vedant. Talk to him. Properly. No more of this half-hearted, ‘I’ll show up and be polite’ thing you’ve been doing.”

I sighed again, rubbing my temples. That was the last thing I wanted. But I couldn’t help but think that maybe he was right. Maybe I had been avoiding it for too long. And somewhere, the avoidance had stopped saving me from their reactions but instead had started to make things worse.

As the realisation settled in my chest, I felt a lump forming in my throat. I wasn’t ready to admit that, not yet.

I needed to change the topic.

“You’re such a pain in my ass, Beauman. I’m going to need much more than just an exclusive to balance the scales.” His grin widened as he leaned back in his chair.

“What do you want?”

“I don’t know yet, but when I do, Iwillcall in that chip, and you can’t say no.” I narrowed my eyes, but he was barely moved.

“If that means we’re good, then deal.”

I sighed. “Yeah, we’re good.”

Axel stood up, holding the ends of his towel. “Good. Because I’m not letting you stay mad at me for too long; life’s too short.”

Ain’t that the truth.

I watched him walk away, shaking my head at how easily he could brush off conflict. I leaned back in my chair, staring at the busy paddock. Axel was right, annoyingly so. I couldn’t keep avoiding the issue with my brothers forever. But for now, I needed to take things one step at a time.

And for the first time in a while, I wasn’t entirely dreading what that next step might be.

7

Raina

THERE WAS A PINdrop silenceas the chequered flag was waved, signalling the Q2 session was over.

The tension was palpable in the hospitality tent as they replayed Vedant’s timed lap. What would’ve been a perfect lap was now under review. I watched it again, hoping that I was wrong, but he had gone off at the last corner, slightly but with almost all four tyres over the white line.

‘Stay in the car, mate.’His radio message from his race engineer displayed on the screen. But a second later, the graphic from Race Control popped up.

RACE CONTROL - CAR 7 [PATEL] TIME 1:32.017 DELETED - TRACK LIMITS - TURN 19

There was a collective gasp around me, fans cursing at the screen while media personnel and journalists looked at each other wide-eyed.

My heart dropped.

That was his one and only timed lap. So, not only did he get knocked out, but tomorrow, he would be starting down the grid in fifteenth, at the hardest race on the schedule. The timing and place could not have been worse, especially since he was defending his championship. Axel had such a great start to the season, and he was marginally in the lead, but there was still a chance.

Everything was already on the line, and I had seen first-hand how hard he’d been pushing himself all season but to top it all, Iknew that if there was any track he wanted to win at, it was this one.

Axel and Vedant had crashed last year at this very track. The year before that, he had a puncture that took him out ten laps in, and the year before that, he wasn’t even able to start the race.

Vedant shared his love of this track with me and Ma, and every year, he has tried to win it and failed. But today, when he was arguably in the fastest car on the grid this weekend and still qualifying that low, must’ve crushed him.

I glanced at my camera that was running in front of me, recording my reactions for my channels as I debated leaving now to go see him.

He had been there for me when I needed it and helped me without me having to ask.

But the question was, would he want me there?

I bit my lower lip as Axel’s words ran through my mind again.

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