A race win will do just fine.
12
Truth
After the podium and the press, Harper’s team boss, Stefan, calls me to his office. I’m still in my race gear, and I’m itching to get out of here and hop a plane back to France. It’s only four thirty now. I figure, if I’m lucky, I can get there by nine. I should’ve asked Ines what time they were thinking of taking out the breathing tube. I’ll have to call the hospital again after I’m done with Stefan.
I’m expecting a quick congratulations or a chat about our game plan for the rest of the year—I’m only twenty-seven points off Mahoney now, still well within championship range—but instead, after a brief greeting, Stefan slides his cell phone toward me. It’s open to the same damn article that Matty showed me this morning. I’d honestly forgotten about it, after the call with Ines and the race.
I let out an impatient breath. “I don’t have time for this.”
Stefan frowns. “I only need to confirm that it isn’t true, before we request a retraction.” He shakes his head. “It is despicable, what these people will do in the wake of a tragedy.”
“I wasn’t dating Antony Costa,” I say.
Stefan nods. “I didn’t think so.”
He pulls his phone back. He never believed that article, I can tell. This is just an item on his to-do list.
The next words spill out of my mouth entirely without my permission. “I am dating Jacob Nichols.”
Stefan blinks, and my heart stutters to a stop.
I can’tbelieveI just said that.
“Well,” Stefan says. Then he clears his throat and tries again. “Well.”
He stares at me for such a long time that my palms start to sweat. Somehow, I manage to hold his gaze.
“You... don’t have migraines,” he says finally.
Color rises to my face. “No, sir.”
He rubs a hand over his mouth, back and forth. “I... need to think about this.”
I swallow hard. “Yes, sir.” I rise to my feet and then turn back at the door. “His doctor called earlier, from France. They think he might wake up tonight.”
Stefan looks at me for a long moment, then he clears his throat again. “We’ll get you a flight out.”
I almost leave, only to turn back once more. Stefan raises an eyebrow expectantly. “Something else?”
“I want Brian fired,” I blurt out. “Or—replaced, or whatever.”
This, somehow, seems to surprise him more than anything. “Fine,” he says.
“Really?”
He shrugs. “He is not well liked.”
I blink. “Alright. Thanks.”
He nods and watches me steadily until I mumble a goodbye and slip away.
Heather the PA accompanies me back to the airport. She doesn’t question our return to France and stays mercifully silent on the plane, putting in earbuds faster than I do and opening her laptop to an old episode ofThe Office.
The whole flight, I replay my conversation with Stefan. I can’t believe I told him about Jacob. An awful sickness spreads through me every time I remember it. What was it that he said?I need to think about this.
Think about what? How to deal with the press if it ever gets out? Or... my future with Harper?
