Page 26 of Homecoming

Ian

I couldn’t get out of the meeting fast enough.

The whole time, while other people were watching the footage of the race and reviewing it lap by lap, my mind was in a whirlwind.

Lola was here.

Lola was back.

I haven’t seen her in over two weeks. The last time we were together was the weekend of our first kiss.

I was falling for this girl, and doing it head-first.

She was nervous and had regret written all over her as she informed me she was set to go back to New York to get things rolling for the Gala.

“Lola, I can hardly resent you for doing your job,” I said. I understood-but that didn’t mean I wanted her to leave.

“But… This just happened, and-” She moved her hand between us, implying that we were together.

We were a couple.

Fucking hell, I loved the sound of that.

“You want to say that you just became my girl, when really you were one for most of your life,” I teased.

“Well…” she tilted her head and stretched her lips in a flat line, but her eyes were laughing.

“Don’t lie, woman. You know you were always mine.” I gathered her in my arms, and said softly, “Just as I have always been yours.”

She fitted her face perfectly in the underside of my jaw and started humming softly. It gave me goosebumps hearing and feeling how relaxed she felt around me.

How it took no effort to just be with Lola.

After a long kiss, I helped her to pack up and kissed her again at the door of her hotel room.

The fact that we were headed in opposite directions of the globe was a mindfuck.

But I was determined to make it work.

Texts, phone calls, and face time it was.

It was torture.

And I was ready to see my girl again.

It was still surreal seeing her again after all that time. At times, I couldn’t believe she was mine, really mine. But in those moments I was near her, or just talking to her over the phone, connecting with her, it was the only time I felt like I belonged. After years of not having one, it felt like coming home.

I ripped the headgear and all but ran out of the room.

I was afraid she wouldn’t be there. She would be gone.

I was wrong.

She was standing there on the pit lane, almost at the same exact spot she seemed drawn to right from the start, the entrance of the team’s garage, talking and laughing like she had no care in the world.

And who knows, maybe she didn’t?

I hoped that was true.