Page 107 of Until The Lights Go Out

“Never would I ever,” she gasped.

“And is this a new team for F2 or?”

“Nope.”

“Okay…”

“It’s owned by Kaz.”

“Holy shit, wow,” I gasped. “Okay, what level? Like a new junior league or new training team?”

“Nope.”

“Spit it out! You’re killing me!” I sighed out, throwing my hands in the air.

“They want me to be a test driver this summer on some super secret Kaz project!”

I screamed so loudly this time the entire restaurant looked over to us, a few employees rushing over and asking if we were okay. We blushed in embarrassment before I explained we were celebrating a huge achievement.

“No fucking way!” I repeated over and over again, and Serena beamed back at me.

“It’s happening, we’re both killing it in the racing world!” Serena’s eyes glassed over in emotion, making me pull her in for a hug.

“I’m so damn proud of you,” I whispered, holding onto her tight. All the work, the endless hours, the hundreds upon hundreds of races and networking and being so absolutely flawlessly her.

“But you can’t tell anyone.” Serena wagged her finger as we pulled apart from the hug.

“Ah! Of course, promise.” We toasted our wine as someone came out with the biggest chocolate cake slice I’d ever seen in my life. Three golden candles flickered to life on top of it. The waiters smiled and clapped to a little tune as they delivered it, making Serena beam under the attention as I soaked in the moment, trying to remember every single second of it. Somehow, among all the chaos of life, we had both made it into our dream world. Sure, it looked a little different than we had originally planned. Different careers and different paths, but we still ended up together doing what we had spent a lifetime chasing—Formula One. We laughed until we both had glassy eyes. As she leaned forward and blew out the candles, her eyes shining with happiness, I tried to memorize every detail, the glow of the candles, the sound of her laughter. Because years from now, when the whole world knew her name, when she was standing on podiums and racing against the best drivers on the planet, I wanted to remember this version too: the girl who never stopped believing, who fought for every inch, and had just made her biggest dream come true.

“Here’s to women in sports!” Serena beamed after blowing out her candles and leaning into me.

“Here’s to us fucking killing it.”

“Here’s to us.” She beamed back.

Too soon had Serena needed to get back home to New York, and I was packed up on a plane to our next destination. This time, however, I was sitting next to Theo, on his private jet. He was fussing over making sure I was comfortable. An array of drink options lay before me: juice, wine, champagne, water, tea. I leaned over, trying to suppress a deep yawn.

“Coffee? How could I forget to ask for coffee?” Theo tapped his head and began to get up.

“Stop that,” I shushed him and pulled him back down next to me, leaning onto his shoulder. He immediately stilled and relaxed at the contact.

“You’ve just been doing so much, I wanted this to be relaxing and nice and—” He was babbling. Honestly, if you would have told me this when I was on a plane coming to join the world of F1, absolutely terrified to see the boy who broke my heart a decade ago, I would have laughed right in your face. Because here I was, half asleep on Theo Bauer’s shoulder as he put an arm around me and let me melt into him. On his private freaking jet.

The world had a damn sense of humor.

“How was lunch with Serena?” he asked. Theo had unfortunately been called away with work all day, and I hadn’t seen him till we were packing up our bags in our connected rooms and heading out the back of the hotel through the garage into a tinted car. It was rather exhilarating—the whole sneaking around thing.

“It was good.” I yawned again. “But I can’t tell you more. I am bound by blood.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, leaning over and leaving a kiss along the crown of my head. “Good though?”

“Very good.”

“Good,” he sighed, tiredness taking over him as well.

“Never thought I’d take a nap on a multi-million-dollar private jet,” I said lazily, trying to keep my eyes open.

“Get used to it, Red.” I could feel his body rumble under me as he laughed low. Soon I was drifting off, surrounded by his scent and warmth. I fell asleep thinking over and over again how I didn’t want to be anywhere else, than right here, falling asleep in Theo’s arms.