“Hi,” I breathe.
“Hi,” she whispers back against my lips. “I was watching.” She grabs her phone and wiggles it in front of me.
“Good.” I stand, tossing my balaclava on the sofa next to her. “I’ve got to do a quick briefing and press meeting. Shouldn’t be more than an hour.”
“Okay.” She smiles, closing the lid of her laptop and pushing her headphones down around her neck. “I think I am going to pop back home after the race tomorrow. Spend a week or so there. Plus, I have a meeting with my agent.” She licks her lips.
“I’ll come with?” I furrow my brow, already the thought of not being with her sinking anxiety into my chest.
“Course.” Her eyes dance with mine “My place is tiny compared to yours, though.” She giggles softly.
“Baby,” I croon, “we could live anywhere and I would be happy, as long as I was with you.”
She pushes to her feet, her arms locking around my neck as she kisses me.
“I’ve got to go,” I groan and she presses her forehead to mine.
“I’ll see you soon.” She beams, pushing onto her tip toes and stealing one last kiss.
Sitting in briefing,I drum my fingertips on the table. Glenn and Pascal are talking about some small changes they’re having to make to the car following reports of us not keeping within the regulations. It’s bullshit, but it happens.
“Is this going to have a big impact?” Cowan asks and I turn to look at him.
“No, it’s miniscule. But because it’s been reported, and found, we need to remove it.”
Sighing, I tilt my head back to look at the ceiling.
“And our qualifying places still stand?” he asks.
That’s the big question. If the FIA deem it to be reason for our laps, then this could look really bad for us.
“At the moment, yes.” Glenn flits his eyes to Pascal and I shake my head side to side. “You both drove really well today I can’t remember the last time we had both our drivers in the top five.” His eyes bounce between mine and Cowan.
“Why did you touch the car?” My tone is sharp as I look at him, narrowing my gaze.
“Sorry?” Glenn raises a brow.
“Why did you add something to the car when we have all told you not to?”
Glenn scoffs a laugh. “It was a small upgrade.”
“An upgrade that wasn’t needed. An upgrade that could now cost Cowan and I our qualifying.” Cowan agrees next to me.
He swallows, his throat bobbing. “We had been speaking to the analysts about how we could make the car even better.”
“It didn’t need to be better; it needed to be kept the same as it was. It’s been amazing and now, because you were told by the tech gang, you did it anyway?”
Pascal puffs his cheeks out.
“Did you know about this, Pascal?”
He flicks his eyes to mine. “I learned about it five minutes ago.”
“Shit.” I half laugh. “What is it that you changed?” I ask, looking away.
“We made some changes to the power unit.”
“Oh my God.” A laugh bubbles out of me, and I swear it’s not funny, but I am past it.
