We walked back to the front door of their suite, and I did the unexpected. I leaned in, and held out my arms for a hug. Lucia’s eyes practically bulged right out of her head. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed.
“It’ll be good! This is good!” she assured me. I pulled her close, let out a breath I had maybe been holding in too long, then pulled away. We locked eyes.
“It’ll be great,” I replied.
“Love you, and you look great!”
“Thank you, I feel good,” I replied. I wasn’t great with the whole ‘I love you’ thing. Maybe it was because my family also didn’t say it a huge amount. But Lucia was an ‘I love you’ slut. It was shocking in the beginning. I had known her less than a day before she shouted she loved me as we parted ways on the circuit. But she was persistent in the best way. Those damn DeLucas really slithered into my heart or whatever.
24
MATTEO
Ihad showered and dressed by the time the click of the hotel door caught my attention. I slightly let my brain spiral into stress in the time since Nicola had left. Was I about to be cut from my dream team? Probably not, but a lecture was imminent. That alone made my anxiety spike. I’d yet to have confirmation about my contract renewal. Moretti Racing typically renewed in even years, two- or four-year contracts. The first contract was two years, but I had hoped I was proving myself, earning enough points, bringing in sponsors, and putting in the work to get a four-year contract like Carlos was on. I had a few other teams reach out, trying to vie for my attention with pretty prices and promises. But Moretti Racing was my home, my childhood dream, one that I wasn’t done fulfilling. A team I wanted to take to the top, to win a championship, to get a first-place podium finish. And doing anything to piss off the boss was just straight up stupid. Yet here I was, head over feet for his own daughter.
Did I think that through?
Probably not.
But from the moment I met her, I was no better than a moth to a flame. I knew I would get burned, but I just kept flying closer.
“Hey,” a soft voice jarred me out of my endless thoughts. “You look lost in your head,” she noted, walking up to me, her hands finding my arm, drifting up to my cheek. “Come back out of there.” She smiled. Her smiles were soft with me, unlike any I’d seen outside in the world. Like they were real and reserved for just me. It made me want to scream from the top of the rooftops like some lovesick sap that I was the luckiest bastard to exist, to have her here with me, to have her be mine.
“Hey,” I replied and leaned in for a kiss. She met me halfway; her lips were soft and warm and felt like home. “Got caught in the cobwebs is all.”
“Don’t stay up there too long.”
“You tend to pull me back.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You have quite the effect on me, Moretti,” I sighed.
“You’re nervous?”
“Trying not to be? But yeah, I was hoping for news of my contract renewal this year, not to be sitting down with my girlfriend’s dad for the first time.”
“Woah” She put up her hands at the ‘G’ word, playfully. “What happened to slow, DeLuca?”
“Sorry, not girlfriend,” I smirked. “The woman I want to spend every day with who’s also my boss’s daughter. Better?” She rolled her eyes at me in response.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting to have my father meet my not-boyfriend today either, but here we are.”
“Not-boyfriend, huh?”
“Something like that.” She kissed me. “Let’s get out of here.”
While walking to the car, Nicola surprised me by slipping her hand into mine before we left the lobby doors. It wassuch a small act, but it felt like this huge thing, like blocks placed together, perfectly matched. The flashes and shouting of paparazzi was not surprising, especially since the bombshell exclusive that dropped last night.
“Matteo! Nicola!” the crowd shouted. Nicola held her head high, shoulders back, and smiled to the crowd.
“You two made up after last night’s fight?” someone shouted. I followed Nicola as she confidently walked the short way to the car, ignoring the comments and holding onto my hand tightly. I opened the door for her, letting her slide in first, before I followed suit.
“What did we fight about, you think?” she asked, cracking a smile and raising her eyebrows. I rolled my eyes.
“Who the hell knows.” The media spun things however they wanted to—it was chaos transformed into catchy headlines that sold.
“Oh!” she sang, turning her phone to me. “Big fight apparently!”
