We reached the top both out of breath and laughing. The view stretched out below us like something out of a film. Whitewashed buildings tucked between olive trees, the Aegean Sea shimmering in the distance. She turned to me, cheeks flushed and temples glistening with sweat, and grinned.
“Okay,” she said, breathless. “This was worth skipping breakfast."
I pulled her in by the waist, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “Told you."
She wore a bright pink sports bra and the tiniest pair of workout shorts I’d ever seen. Her hair was up in a ponytail, strands stuck to the back of her neck. I clocked it before she did. She hated when her hair clung to her skin, which was why she always braided her hair when she knew she’d be driving.
I reached for the clip she kept hooked to her pack, took the tie out, and raked my fingers through her scalp before twisting it all up for her. I secured the clip in place and stepped back, admiring my work.
“You’re getting good at that,” she teased.
“Practice makes perfect.”
And I had practiced quite a bit back home in the countryside. I’d play with her hair while we watched movies or when she pored over telemetry and data late into the night. Studied how she pulled it up. Learned how to braid—messily, but still. She had a lot of hair, thick and long, and if the one thing I could doon days she felt sick and vomited was help her with this mass of hair… I would.
We turned back to admire the stunning view. Whitewashed buildings spilled down the hillside. The cerulean sea stretched all the way to the horizon. But nothing came close to how she looked at me.
I knew I wouldn’t remember every detail of the view, but I would remember her.
We didn’t talk for a while. Just stood there together, shoulder to shoulder, breathing in the fresh air. I dropped my arm and slipped my hand into hers. We stayed like this, not speaking. There was something sacred about the quiet.
Eventually, she sat on a sun-warmed rock and unlatched the water bottle from her pack, offering it to me before taking a sip herself.
I sat beside her, body still humming from the uphill climb, and finally let myself think about the call with my parents. They’d been surprised, sure, but not disappointed like I’d feared. Or hurt that they didn’t know about the engagement or retirement before any of it was decided.
It was all just love and pride and understanding.
Mum cried from joy, relief, and the deep, shuddering kind of feeling only a mother has when she knows her child is safe. Her words, not mine, after all the turmoil she’d felt during my childhood.
Dad had looked stunned for all of two seconds, then nodded like he’d known all along. Told me I was doing the right thing and that he could breathe easier knowing I wasn’t alone in the world anymore. I’d already accomplished what he’d set out for me to do.
And, of course, the flagrant relief that their only child wouldn’t be strapped into a machine designed to go ungodly, dangerous speeds for a living.
"She loves you for you, not for who the world thinks you are," he’d said. "That matters more than anything."
It stuck with me. The way they didn’t see my retirement as a loss. They saw it as a new beginning and more of a life than what the restrictions of a driver offered me.Us.
They’d seen the toll the sport had taken on me. The years of being built up, broken down, torn apart, and stitched back together for the sake of a legacy.
And now they saw her. They saw the peace she brought me. The happiness I didn’t have to fight for. The way we were planning a whole life.
And I think for the first timeever, my parents looked at me and didn’t see just a race car driver.
They saw their son. A man who was hellbent on living a private life and somehow came out of it with a girl who loved him anyway.
I reached for her hand again, pulled her knuckles to my lips, and murmured against them, “Still with me, love?”
She smiled, soft and sure. “Toujours.”
We sat there until the sun started to shift in the sky. Then we stood, stretched, and started the hike back down. She pointed out flowers blooming along the path. I teased her about how hangry she’d be in an hour if we didn’t eat soon.
She grinned. “I’m already starving. You ready to go?”
I nodded. "Did you pack snacks or are you just hoping my love will sustain you?"
"Loveandprotein bars. God forbid you go more than two hours without eating."
“It’s not my fault you wear me out, you wee succubus. I’m an emotionally growing lad. I require lots of food to survive your wrath and recover from the things you do to me.”
