He nods and smiles sheepishly. "Yes. I just don't want this to be a fryer-to-frying pan situation. Where we save my son from one problem by creating another."
“Mr. Allard… Louis. I won’t be hurting your son’s reputation in any way, for any reason.” I turn to face Louis, leaning my arm on the railing.
“But I’m more worried about his heart with you.” He turns to face me and a soft smile hits his mouth as he takes in the shock on my face. “He’s different since you started this… project. He’s got ajoieI haven’t seen in him in years. Not when he’s out of a race car, anyway. And I know why you took this position. I’m the one who laid out the deal. You want a position in my company. You don’t want a boyfriend.”
"I think you're just being an overprotective dad," I assure him, trying not to let the entire tone of this conversation panic me, which it desperately wants to do. "Gabe and I were acquaintances before this arrangement, so there's an ease that comes with that. Your son isn't… he's all those things you mentioned—bold and brash—but he is also smart. He knows what this is. He's just not the type of person who does anything with less than one hundred percent, so he's giving this everything. We agreed we'd sell it, hard."
“You think?” Louis still seems skeptical. “I feel like he’s never fully invested in anything. But he seems invested in you.”
“I think he likes to act like he doesn’t care about things sometimes,” I reply. “But he cares.”
I’m slightly uncomfortable talking about Gabriel with his dad. It feels like I’m breaching a trust, but I have to remind myself I’m employed by Louis, not Gabriel. I owe Louis, not Gabriel. Fuck, this is getting complicated. That’s a red flag.
I clear my throat and take a final sip of my now cold latte. I pull myself off the railing. “We should head to the garage. See how he’s doing.”
The first roar of an engine on the track fills the air and Louis nods and walks with me. I drop my latte mug in the cafeteria, and we make our way in silence out of the paddock and to the garage.
Once there, I tuck into a corner to keep from bothering anyone. Mechanics and engineers are rushing about and Bob and Zack are seated in front of a monitor there, instead of on the row with the engineering director and others just outside the paddock. Louis doesn't feel the need to cower in a corner like I do. He struts about the place like he owns it because he kind of does. He walks over and plucks a set of headphones off a holder and stands in front of Zack, blocking his view of the monitor, to watch Sterling and Gabriel do laps.
I have no idea how it's going, but everyone seems pleased until they don't. Suddenly Bob and Zack both start swearing. The mechanics all drop their heads into their hands. An engineer jumps out of his seat and runs off somewhere. I pull myself up from where I was leaning against a wall and uncross my arms. My eyes find Louis, who is the only one not reacting.
I sneak myself over to the monitor to stand behind him and I see a Mayflower car in the wall. Pieces of red, white, and blue carbon fiber are scattered about the track. My heart leaps into my throat. “Gabriel?”
Louis shakes his head. “Samuels. That’s why everyone’s upset.”
Oh.
“Is he okay?” I ask, and Louis nods again. My eye catches Samuels already on the other side of the wall, helmet tucked under his arm and a scowl on his face.
I retreat back to my corner, but I can’t stop thinking about how worried I was. I mean, yes, it’s normal to panic if you think someone you know might be injured but I was… well, the reaction was intense. And completely uncontrollable, which is a bit nuts.
When practice is over, and Gabriel's car is being moved into place in the garage, a few people walk over and high-five him as he pulls himself out. Louis is downright thrilled, wrapping his son in a big hug and slapping his back as he grins. So clearly Gabe did okay.
I slowly make my way over as he’s tugging off his helmet and all his protective gear to expose his handsome face. He’s grinning and he immediately turns his head to find me. And then I’m grinning. “It went well?”
He laughs and pulls me into a hug. “You didn’t watch?”
“I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way,” I say and as he lets me go I shrug.
"You make sure he gets a headset and a place to watch for qualifying, okay Dad?" Gabriel says and Louis nods. Then Gabriel looks at me again. "I had the second fastest time out there."
“That’s incredible!” I say as my jaw drops.
"The car felt really great. I like the track. Tires had a little trouble at first because it's still really hot from the day but the actual race will be later at night so I think the grip won't be an issue and I’ll have a better start.”
Louis squeezes his shoulder again. An engineer walks over and turns to Gabriel. "Can you email me a breakdown of things? I have to go handle the Samuels situation."
“Yes. No problem.”
I am clueless about this sport, which really makes me an idiot. I should have asked Billy more questions growing up. “So, I guess Samuels’ crash was a pretty big deal if it’s all hands on deck?”
Gabriel hands his gear to someone, his gloves, helmet, balaclava, and motions for me to walk with him. “No. It wasn’t that bad actually. But they always focus on him. He’s their star. I usually do my updates and debriefs with them via text or email.”
“What?” I blink and he shrugs like it’s no big deal. I let my eyes scan the garage now.
Both Bob and Zack are huddled together with Sterling in the corner by his mangled car. There’s every mechanic in the place, except for two, working on Sterling’s car. The void on Gabriel’s side of the garage is more than noticeable.
“He doesn’t need all their meddling anyway. He’s doing fine,” Louis announces and then starts asking Gabriel about the practice session.
