Page 31 of Retrograde
‘Yeah, but Esme makes me nervous, and it was super obvious in the original footage.’ He shrugged nonchalantly, like he hadn’t just admitted to his feelings for Esme.
‘Esme’s cute, huh?’ Lucie teased.
‘Oh, don’t start. She’s always wearing bright yellow with a massive smile on her face. It’s hard not to be drawn to her.’
‘Would you like me to put a good word in?’
‘No, I would not.’ Marco’s cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink. ‘Besides, I don’t need advice fromyou, thank you.’ He picked up a bunch of grapes and a cube of cheese from Lucie’s heaped buffet plate.
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘It means, I know your secret.’ He winked and turned on his heel, leaving Lucie sitting there in silence.
She pressed the export button on her editing software and abandoned her laptop under the watchful eye of Jasper’s wife, who was attending this race as his guest, while she scuttled away to find Faith, who may be about to deal with Lucie’s unleashed hell.
‘Jensen.’ Lucie flung the door to the trailer open, expecting to find Faith working away. Instead, she found her and Julien in a compromising position on the sofa. ‘Oh, God.’ She was never sitting on that sofa again. They were mostly clothed, but that was beside the point. It was like walking in on her brother.
‘Oops, sorry!’ Faith stuttered, having the decency to look embarrassed.
‘It’s Jensen-Moretz now,’ Julien stated.
‘I don’t care. My eyes are burning.’ Lucie covered them with her hands to emphasise her point. ‘I think I’m actually blind.’
‘Don’t be dramatic, Luce. I am just loving on my wife.’
‘I think I might throw up.’
‘Jules, play nice,’ Faith scolded her husband. ‘Time for a chat?’
‘Please.’ Lucie peeked through her fingers to check all their clothes were back on.
‘Julien, out.’ Faith shooed him out of the trailer.
‘If I need to yell at anyone, you just let me know!’ he called out over his shoulder.
Once Julien had shut the door, Lucie eyed Faith suspiciously. She sat on the sofa, eyes wide, looking totally innocent. ‘Wait, amIbeing yelled at? Did I do something?’
‘I don’t know, did you?’
‘Stop talking in code, Luce. What’s up?’
‘Did you tell De Luca that I almost slept with Brett in Vegas?’
‘Absolutely not! Lucie, I haven’t even told my husband. He has his suspicions, of course, but my lips remain firmly sealed. Your secrets will always be safe with me.’
‘Okay.’ Lucie blew out a breath, feeling guilty for semi-accusing her. ‘He said he knew my secret, and I panicked. Sorry.’
‘I think Marco just has eyeballs. Don’t you read the comments on the team account?’
‘Well, as long as Brett doesn’t know people are talking about it, I don’t care. He’s got too much on his plate to be worrying about his love life being in the media again.’
‘You really are a wonderful friend to him, Luce. To all of us. You’re a proper mother hen in all the best ways.’ Faith jumped up to give Lucie a hug. ‘Right, come on. I let Jules distract me for too long, let’s go shoot some vlog footage.’
‘Sunny, can you help me?’ Brett popped his head out of the trailer’s bedroom a couple of hours before the race, a round pair of designer sunglasses perched on his nose. The irony of her nickname being used in that moment made her laugh.
‘What do you need?’ Lucie joined him to see multiple PR boxes on the bed, where Brett had spread out an array of sunglasses and was studying them.
‘I’ve been sent these by our new sponsor, but I have too many options. My sunglasses collection now beats Julien’s. They’ve sentsomany.’
