Page 44 of Rush
‘Like you did with Esme?’ she sniggered. ‘Sorry, that was really mean.’
He pretended to gasp and clutched his chest. ‘You’re cruel, Cowgirl.’
‘She confessed it wasn’t one-sided,’ Savannah reassured. ‘You just weren’t the one.’
‘Never am,’ he sighed.
‘Likewise, apparently.’ She gave a sad smile. ‘We’ve just got to have some patience.’
As Savannah started unpacking her suitcase and hanging clothes in the walk-in closet, Marco let his mind race with thoughts of her living under his roof, wearing his shirts and sharing his pancakes every morning. Beinghis. But she was in no position to entertain his fantasies right now,which meant that she just couldn’t be right for him either. So, while he would be patient in his journey to finding his soulmate, he would never quite understand why the universe kept sending him women who were perfect for him but would never feel the same way.
17
Monaco was beautiful. Savi had complained about waking up at the crack of dawn to exercise on her first morning there, and then never again. By the end of her visit, she had been the one waking Marco up even earlier, begging to run further each day.
Their feet pounded the pavement day after day for an hour plus, all the hurt over Jesse fading with every step. Then they’d come home and have their protein pancakes and take it in turns on the racing sim for a few hours. Post-lunch was time for tennis which, it turned out, Savi was great at. Better than Marco, who’d had thousands spent on a coach. Dinner was always at a fancy restaurant, Marco’s treat despite Savi’s insistence, and they spent every evening in the casino or at a bar. They’d seen botanical gardens, museums, cathedrals, and soaked in every ounce of history Monaco had to offer.
Savi had fallen in love. With the country, the house, the port, the boats. All of it. It was so different from what she knew, and she’d never give up the ranch life forever, but she was incredibly grateful to have had a taste of the high life. Of course, with her position on a team like Revolution Racing, she could have this all the time if she wanted it. But home was home, and it was where her heart belonged.
She especially wished she was at home now, not in themiddle of a pre-quali autograph session with thousands of fans, most of them solely focused on her and Marco and demanding every detail. People were always invasive during these sessions, but security were edging closer and closer with every interaction. The team had insisted Savi and Marco sit on the end of each table, so they were next to each other, but it was pulling attention away from their teammates and Savi felt weird about it. This was their moment too.
The camera crew were acting like they weren’t there, but at least Bea was getting shots of the others, too. In fact, the head photographer for the IEC and a close friend of the team had made it her personal mission to draw the focusawayfrom the new couple, for the sake of their sanity. Still, Miko and Kodie were clearly irritated that the media were blatantly ignoring them. Savi could feel the fury radiating from her teammates, and she knew there was not a damn thing she could do to make it up to them. She didn’t ask for this. She would just have to do damage control, take every opportunity she could to bring the attention back to them.
‘People are so rude,’ Kodie muttered. ‘Like, hello, we’re sat right here.’
‘I’m sorry, Kodie. I don’t like this either.’ Savi spared a quick glance at her teammate, noticing her clenched jaw and harsh scowl and trying not to take it personally. She knew her friends were annoyed at the situation, not necessarily at her.
They may have thought Savi was a winner; she was bound to get sponsorship deals and brand deals because of the fanfare surrounding her relationship with a fellowdriver, it was the dream scenario for a rookie, but she wished she could switch it off and on. She hadn’t been thinking about any of that when she agreed to this, she’d just been thinking about the photos and what they could do to her reputation.
They signed a seemingly endless collection of autograph cards, model cars, flags, t-shirts and caps, so many fans wearing Revolution Racing’s signature red, black and white zebra print merchandise. It filled Savi’s heart with joy and was one of her favourite things about the job. To know that these people were here for the same reason as her; motorsport was everything to them. Life in Sheridan was quiet, mundane. This was nothing like that.
She was a key part of something important for the first time in her life, and she couldn’t wait to go on Faith, Lucie, Bea and Esme’s podcast later in the year and share her journey with millions of young girls.Girls Off Trackhad blown up and its success had played a pivotal role in Jasper hiring an all-female team. She might not have made it this far had they not done the work. Sure, there were smaller manufacturers with all-female teams in other race championships, but they were the only team at the top level. That was why this was so significant. They were setting the standard, showing up the multitude of teams who didn’t give female drivers a second thought.
Signing the last red baseball cap with a black marker pen, Savi popped the lid back on and waved goodbye to the dwindling number of fans who hadn’t quite made it to the autograph table. They had an hour set aside on qualifying day and another hour on race day for this, but there werealways some left at the back of the queue who they just didn’t have time to see. Revolution ran on a tight schedule with very little wiggle room but that was how Savi liked it. She liked to be busy, it helped kick her into gear and put her in the zone. Forget about the millions of questions directed at her love life.
‘On to the media building next please, everyone. The room is jam-packed with journalists and we’re on a tight schedule!’ Jasper rallied behind them, herding the team out of the garage and across the paddock.
‘You okay?’ Marco threw an arm around her.
‘Stressed,’ she sighed, traipsing behind the team.
‘Anxious?’ He pushed for more.
‘No, it’s not that kind of stress. I just know they’re going to bombard us in here, too.’
‘It’s just part of it, unfortunately. The press liaison will direct the questions the best they can, try to keep it to a minimum. But there will be a few.’
‘Kodie and Miko aren’t happy.’
‘I know. They’ll get their time to shine in there, don’t worry. Not every journalist will want details of our relationship, only some. And it is their job to ask about that, too, so try not to get too upset about it when they do. If your teammates kick off in the aftermath, Jasper will tell them the same thing,’ he reassured her.
‘Thanks, Monaco,’ she smiled.
‘No worries. Sit on the opposite side to me, okay? It will make a statement to the media that we’re not here to talk about us.’
They walked into a buzz of excitement and the flashesof cameras, more than seventy journalists all watching them take their seats, their chairs lined up in row after row. The higher-ups from the IEC and Revolution Racing stood at the back as usual, monitoring their employees.
Savi knew of press conferences that had gone awry in the past: drivers swearing, making inappropriate comments, arguing with one another and landing themselves and their teams in trouble. Abandoning all their media training because the pressure got to them. Revolution’s drivers consistently oozed professionalism, and Savi could only hope the girls would follow suit.
