Page 29 of Rush
‘Everyone step back, please!’ Julien called out. ‘Sorry, we don’t have time to stop. Thank you all for being here this weekend and for the support.’
As her teammates walked her back to the safety of the hotel, she couldn’t stop the panicky feeling from overruling all sense of reality. Her whole team was going to know this was something she had to deal with, and she was embarrassed about it. Brett may have been ready to open up about his own struggles, but he’d earned enough respect from the world over his more than a decade-long career for his voice to be heard. Savi wasn’t quite there yet.
‘I’m gonna come hang out in your room for a bit, just until I know you’re okay.’ Marco buzzed them up to the sixth floor and took her bag from her, fumbling around until he found her key card.
‘Let me know if you need anything. I’m right down the hall, Savi.’ Julien disappeared while Marco and Savi headed to her room in silence. Aside from her heavy breathing.
‘This is so embarrassing,’ she mumbled.
‘Hey…’ He placed a hand on her arm, stopping heroutside her door. ‘No, it isn’t. It happens to the best of us. Nobody is immune to this kind of thing, Cowgirl.’
‘You?’ She blinked up at him.
‘From time to time, yes.’ Marco gave her a reassuring smile and scanned them into her room, ushering her in. ‘Take a seat, I’ll get you something to drink.’
Savi clambered onto the bed and hugged one of the spare pillows to her body, still trembling slightly and struggling to steady her breathing. There wasn’t enough oxygen in the room. Her life had got so out of control so fast and there was no way to stop it now. She was at a stage in her career where she had to constantly worry about being recognised everywhere she went in Europe, and it was all because of a man. Two men. One of whom, thanks to their growing connection as teammates and friends, was willing to deal with the onslaught of attention, and one who cared for her enough that he was in no rush to put her in a position where that attention was crippling, so she couldn’t go anywhere or do anything across the globe without being criticised.
If she couldn’t handle this with Marco, how would she handle it with Jesse? They were on two opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to fame and popularity and Savi was too weak for any of it.
‘Here.’ Marco handed her a bottle of water straight from the mini fridge. ‘Got to hydrate, replace the liquid lost from those tears.’ He sat down on the edge of the bed and dabbed at her rosy cheeks with a tissue.
‘Sorry.’ She gulped down some of the icy cold liquid, finally feeling more human now she was in the comfortof the four walls she’d been calling home for the last eight days.
‘Don’t apologise. You feeling better?’
‘I think so,’ she nodded, batting his hand away. ‘I can wipe my own tears, Monaco.’
Marco laughed and handed her the tissue, his fingers brushing against hers so fast, if she wasn’t so hyper-aware of every sensation her body was feeling right now, she might have missed it. Savi inhaled sharply. At some point, they had crossed a line from teammates to what could be a real, genuine friendship, rather than just one of circumstance.
Maybe it was because they had been thrown together in the most unlikely of circumstances, or maybe it was because Marco was warm and kind and he made Savi feel like she could let her walls down every now and then. He was someone she could feel safe with when her whole world was being flipped upside down and she was thousands of miles from everyone she loved. He had brought home to her. Plus, it helped that he kept calling her Cowgirl and liked learning about her life growing up on the ranch.
He had practically begged to visit and meet Mocha one day. He hadn’t grown up around horses; the closest he’d gotten was a donkey ride in Greece, so Savi had told him regrettably that Mocha would be too much for him to handle. If, and it was a strong if, he ever did visit her home in Wyoming, he’d be lumbered with Java. He was smaller and calmer, and they used him to teach the local, more advanced kids.
‘We’ve still got a few hours until dinner. Why don’t wewatch a film? Unless… you want to call Jesse. Or you just want me to leave. I don’t mind.’ He looked at her like she was made of glass and she hated it. Right now, it felt like she was. But Marco knew the fiery side of her, that had been his first impression of her when they were introduced and until now, was the only side of her he knew. She didn’t want to lose that. This was a blip.
‘I’d like you to stay, only if you agree to a few alcoholic drinks from the mini fridge before we go out.’ She gestured at the fridge which was tucked under a desk. Why did so many hotel rooms have desks? She was sure the likes of Faith and Lucie used them when they disappeared to work onGirls Off Trackand continue cementing the future of women in motorsport, but she’d rather do business in the restaurants and bars of hotels.
‘We’re going to have to order some room service wine, all they’ve got in there is champagne.’ He turned his nose up. ‘I’m sick of that stuff, I managed to inhale it through my nose at the last podium. Surprised the cameras didn’t catch me gagging.’
‘I’ll call down, then,’ she laughed. ‘Red or white? Or perhaps you’re a rosé kinda guy.’
‘Red it is,’ he chuckled. ‘But we’ll wait to drink it until your heart rate is back to normal, alcohol isn’t going to help your anxiety.’
‘My heart rate is just fine, see?’ She didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but she grabbed his hand and placed it on her chest, right over her heart.
It was only when his breath hitched in his throat and he swallowed nervously that she realised her breasts wereexposed in the camisole she was wearing. This wasn’t what friends did, and it was certainly crossing the line that Jesse had not yet drawn, but she had just felt so at ease, so comfortable in Marco’s presence, that she had momentarily forgotten he wasn’t Miko or Kodie or Esme. He was her male teammate, her fake boyfriend, and her real one might well have punched him square in the face had he walked in and witnessed it.
‘Yeah, mine isn’t…’ he whispered. ‘Let’s watch that film.’
As Marco shuffled into his spot on the bed next to her, Savi tensed up, and in that same moment, her walls shot up sky high. She needed him to meet Jesse, see the love they shared, so she was certain he wouldn’t read into whatever the hell that was.
12
Marco was fucked. There was no other way to put it. Despite being publicly snapped all over his teammate, his phone had been blowing up with late-night texts from models and socialites. He’d spent the past few months wrapped up in bedsheets with anyone who’d shown interest, within reason, trying to wipe any trace of Esme Keelan from his mind. And it had worked.
He could watch Esme and her girlfriend walk down the pit lane hand in hand and not bat an eye. He could attend dinners with both of them present and be genuinely happy that they had figured it out, because he had accepted that Esme wasn’t the woman for him.
Only now, he was ignoring those texts and calls and avoiding every woman on his roster, and it wasn’t because he was still heartbroken. It was because Esme’s friend, his teammate and his fake girlfriend, had weaselled her way into his heart without even trying, and was the only thing on his mind except racing. All the time. He woke up thinking of her, fell asleep wishing she were next to him, and spent his days watching her across the garage and thoroughly taking advantage of every second he was allowed to touch her. This wasn’t just another infatuation; there was something special about his favourite Wyoming cowgirl and unfortunately for him, he was falling hard and fast.
