Page 5 of Retrograde
‘Is the something a puppy?’
‘Oh yeah, got you a chihuahua. She’s sitting in here with the windows up, suffocating in the heat,’ Brett teased as he opened the door and leaned across to the passenger seat.
‘If you knew me at all, you wouldn’t even joke about that. Do I look like a chihuahua kind of girl?’ She raised a brow as he turned around, a small gift bag in his hands.
‘You’ve got the attitude.’ He thrust the bag into her hands. ‘Open it.’
Lucie tossed the tissue paper out and let it float towards Brett, who caught it effortlessly. There were two things inside, one being a small box of Belgian chocolates. She studied the card which described each one. Champagne-filled truffles, pineapple and passionfruit pralines. These wouldn’t last the day. Once she and Faith had done most of their social media duties for the six-hour race, she would likely demolish the entire lot and blame it on stress. Lucie relied on rushing up and down the pit lane and all around the circuit during race week to keep her fitness levels and body in check. There was no personal trainer and gym time in her schedule.
But that wasn’t the gift Brett was urging her to open as he took the chocolates from her so her hands were free. At the bottom of the bag was a ring box. Luciecould feel her face flushing from the moment she spotted it. ‘Anderson?’
‘Just open it, Luce! We haven’t got all bloody day.’
She lifted the lid to reveal a yellow sapphire oval-cut star ring staring back at her. It looked like an engagement ring. Anyone who didn’t know their relationship would think it was an engagement ring, only Lucie knew that wasn’t the intention behind it. ‘Brett, it’s beautiful.’
‘I know it’s a bit of a weird gift to buy your best friend of the opposite sex, but I couldn’t help myself. I always say you’re like sunshine in a bottle, and that’s what it reminded me of. And I might have ordered the matching earrings… drop earrings, I think they’re called? They’ll be waiting at our hotel in Vegas in a couple of weeks, so you can wear them out.’ He was grinning from ear to ear, clearly so thrilled with his find.
‘Thank you.’ She did all she could not to tear up, and instead buried her head in his chest and tried not to sniffle too loudly. Thank the heavens for the car that started up in the garage next door, muffling the sound. She was quite a sentimental person, and this gift was personal. It showed her friend really understood her.
‘Of course. Maybe… don’t put it onthatfinger. We don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about us, do we? I got it in the same size as that opal one I got you for your birthday years ago, so it should fit on your index finger. We can’t have the fans running wild again, that was overwhelming to say the least.’ He grimaced, remembering when a photo had gone out with his hand on her ass last season and the fans lost their minds on social media.
Without much to go on, the fans rocked up to multiple races over the course of the season with actual signs and flags in the grandstands, all of them ‘shipping’ Lucie and Brett. Lucett. There were still fan edits floating around to this day, and as more fans found them, more of these videos popped up online. Their bosses found it hilarious, as did Brett, but Lucie was embarrassed every time and still hadn’t learned to brush over it.
‘Fits perfectly,’ she beamed. ‘Right, you’d better hurry up. Race starts soon.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ He saluted and walked off to find his teammates with a spring in his step.
Lucie wandered back in, tracking down Faith and trying to hide her hand so she didn’t blind her friend with the massive, shiny gemstone that now adorned it. Her plan failed when she realised that to do her job, she needed to put the chocolates down.
‘What the hell is that?!’ Bea got to her before Faith did, dropping her DSLR camera on sight and letting it swing from the sparkly strap around her neck. ‘Lucie, that’s gigantic! Who gave you that?’ she gushed, tugging on Lucie’s hand.
‘Brett.’
‘We keep telling you, that man adores you,’ Faith interrupted, eyes nearly falling out of her skull when she saw it. ‘Jesus, how much did that cost?’
‘I know he adores me, he makes that very clear pretty much every single day. That’s why he’s one of my closest friends.’
‘No, but like… Lucie. Come on. No guy buys a ring like that for afriend.’
‘He always goes on a little bit of a spending spree before and after a race. Plus he was on holiday when he saw it so he got it on a whim.’ Lucie shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it. Gifts were his thing, and she wasn’t the only woman he had purchased jewellery for. He’d got his sisters necklaces, Faith earrings, Bea a bracelet. ‘Stop acting like he got down on one knee. It’s just a sweet gesture.’
‘Uh-huh. You know, you still haven’t told me if he’s ever got down onbothknees for a very different reason.’
‘Goodbye, Beatrix. The race is starting.’
Lucie’s cheeks were practically crimson by the time she about-turned out of there. Her mind couldn’t help but take her back to a night that neither she nor Brett spoke about with their friends. Ever. And yet with how vividly the memories were replaying in her head right now, she would be surprised if Faith, who was stood next to her filming the commotion in the garage, hadn’t caught on.
‘Earth to Lucie?’
‘Huh?’ She blinked twice, forcing herself out of her daydream.
‘I said, can you get closer to Brett and Marco and film their reactions to Julien’s race start? We can use it on stories and in the recap vlog. They’re already waiting at the monitors.’
Lucie headed towards them to do exactly that, but despite trying her best to get into work mode, shecouldn’t deny that the yellow sapphire glistening in the sunlight wasn’t almost as big a distraction as Brett himself winking directly at the camera when he noticed her coming up beside him. This was going to be a long six hours.
3
‘What kind of idiots decide to travel across two countries thedayof an event?’ Lucie scoffed, fiddling with the string attached to the gold balloon she had just filled with helium.
