Page 33 of One Summer in Monte Carlo
Now everyone’s attention switched to the large TV screen set up by the Sainte-Dévote corner. As Nanette watched the screen, Zac flew past the Hôtel de Paris on his way towards the Horseshoe Bend for the first time.
Nanette hoped that the race would be trouble-free. Monaco Grand Prix might be a firm favourite with the drivers because of the challenges the street circuit gave them, but Nanette knew that simple fact alone made it one of the most dangerous racetracks in the world. There was simply nowhere to go if something went wrong – a puncture or driver error here could have serious consequences and these modern cars were so fast.
Racing out of the tunnel and coming back down towards the harbour, Zac was continuing to pull away from the cars behind him and had already put five seconds between himself and the rest of the field when he roared past the apartment again starting his second lap.
Boris and two of his guests moved back into the sitting room soon after the start and began talking quietly amongst themselves, occasionally glancing at the race on the small television on the sideboard. Nanette, fetching a bottle of water from the kitchen, strained to hear what they were saying as she walked past but caught only the words ‘money’ and ‘yacht’.
Zac stayed comfortably ahead for the race, his team providing him with two perfect pit stops to keep him in the lead. Nanette, watching him climb the hill past the Hérmitage Hotel on his sixty-ninth lap, knew that with just nine laps left, he was finally on target to win the Monaco Grand Prix with a nineteen-second lead over the car in second place.
It was lap seventy-two when disaster struck. The driver in fourth position misjudged La Rascasse corner and drove into the wall. The uninjured, but frustrated driver, climbed out of his car, shaking his head sadly at the crowds. Yellow flags were waved and the safety car was soon out on the track and the drivers were forced to slow down to stay behind it. Under racing rules, all cars were forced to keep to their current positions – overtaking was not allowed whilst the safety car was on the race track.
By the time the track was cleared of the crashed car and its debris, there were only two laps of the race left, all the remaining cars had bunched up behind each other - and Zac’s unbeatable nineteen-second lead had disappeared. As the safety car left the track, everyone watching held their breath, willing Zac to stay out of danger – and out front, knowing that he would now have a real fight on his hands to win the race that before the crash he’d led from the start.
As he negotiated the chicane before the swimming pool complex for the final time, the second and third cars were just seconds behind him, but it was Zac who rounded La Rascasse and roared across the finishing line first to take the chequered flag.
Nanette joined in the spontaneous cheering that erupted along the balcony. Despite all that had happened between them, she couldn’t help but be pleased for him.
‘Can I go down and watch the presentation?’ Pierre asked, excitedly.
‘We’ll come with you,’ Jean-Claude answered, knowing Nanette wouldn’t let Pierre go alone and Mathieu wouldn’t leave his guests.
Downstairs, the mechanics and other team members were crowding around the barriers, watching Prince Albert, Princess Charlene and the rest of the royal family who had appeared, ready to present the trophies.
Nanette, Jean-Claude and Pierre managed to squeeze into a small space alongside the presentation stand. Standing there watching the ceremony as a jubilant Zac received his trophy from Prince Albert and held it aloft, Nanette felt a certain sense of déjà vu washing over her. How many times had she watched similar ceremonies and then been at Zac’s side as he’d partied through the night? Now, as the champagne was shaken and sprayed everywhere, she joined in with the general noise of the victory celebrations, but her feelings were somehow detached from what was going on around her.
Running across the track to give the champagne bottle to his mechanics, Zac waved to Pierre and saw Nanette and Jean-Claude standing alongside him. Immediately, he changed course and came over to them.
‘Congratulations, Zac,’ Nanette and Jean-Claude said together.
‘Thanks.’ Zac looked at Nanette. ‘Dinner, tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up at eight o’clock. No excuses. I need to talk to you urgently.’
And he was gone back to his mechanics, leaving Nanette no time to refuse – and angry with his assumption that, of course, she would accept his invitation. An invitation that had sounded more like an order she had to comply with.
‘That man is bloody impossible,’ she muttered under her breath.
‘I agree,’ Jean-Claude said. ‘I tell him no for you if you like? And you come to the villa with me tomorrow evening? In case he…’ Jean-Claude left the rest of the sentence hanging in the air as he looked at Nanette seriously.
‘Thank you, JC. Maybe,’ Nanette answered gratefully. ‘I need to think about how to handle this.’
22
A loud bang on the road outside the apartment block woke Nanette with a jolt early on Monday morning. Startled, it took her a second or two to realise it was the workmen starting the long process of dismantling barriers and stands and returning Monaco to its normal state for the next ten months.
Lying in bed for a few more moments, Nanette thought about Zac and his dinner ‘invitation’. She had talked more about it to Jean-Claude last night before he returned to his villa.
‘I still have questions I’d like Zac to answer,’ she’d said. ‘Maybe this is my opportunity. Perhaps he’s decided to talk to me – answer any questions I have about…’ her voice had trailed away. ’Maybe he just wants to take me out to dinner and knew I wouldn’t willingly consider it, so he didn’t give me a chance to refuse. Although I can always phone him and tell him no way.’
‘I think he is a man who does not like the word no, and in my experience, Zac Ewart never does anything without a reason,’ Jean-Claude had said quietly.
‘True,’ Nanette had agreed thoughtfully. ‘But I think I’ll go and try to take advantage of the situation. Once, whatever it is that Zac wants to talk to me about urgently is over, I’ll ask him a few questions of my own. Insist he gives me the answers I need.’
Jean-Claude had sighed as he’d taken her hands in his. ‘I don’t trust him, Nanette. Make sure you take your mobile. If you need me, call me. Promise?’
Nanette had smiled at him. ‘I promise.’ It was a long time since a man had worried about her, wanted to protect her. But, in all honesty, it was just dinner in a Monaco restaurant with an ex-fiancé and she could always walk away.
For several seconds, Jean-Claude had held her gaze before letting go of her hands and saying goodnight.
All day, as she went about her normal routine, Nanette thought about Zac and the evening ahead of her. She knew that Zac, master of the unexpected daredevil manoeuvre on the race track, was a lot less spontaneous in real life. When she’d first worked for him, she’d realised he was a man ruled by his head rather than his heart. Later, when they were romantically involved, she’d got to know the softer side of Zac that very few people ever saw. But even then, when they were really close, she accepted that he wasn’t the easiest or the most romantic man on the planet. Oh, there were presents on her birthday and at Christmas, some expensive, some not, but unexpected gifts of flowers or chocolates for no reason or just because he wanted to treat her were rare.
