Reese shook her head, smiling, and leaned her forearms on the balcony railing beside her. Barcelona stretched wide and bright below them now, the city fully awake in the morning sun. Somewhere down the street a scooter buzzed past, and the smell of fresh bread drifted up from a bakery in the distance.
In a few days, Reese would be back in the car again, chasing hundredths of a second around another track somewhere else in the world. That part of her life wasn’t slowing down. But for the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel like everything.
Reese glanced sideways at Sloane, who was watching the city with that calm, thoughtful expression she always wore when she was taking the world in.
Loving her had changed something fundamental inside Reese.
For years, racing had been the center of everything. It had been the goal, the obsession, the thing that made every sacrifice make sense. Airports, hotel rooms, missed birthdays, lonely nights staring at unfamiliar ceilings. She’d accepted all of it as part of the deal.
But somewhere along the way, without Reese even realizing it, Sloane had become the reason the rest of it mattered. All of it led back to her. To someone waiting at the end of the race.
Reese reached for Sloane’s hand again, lacing their fingers together. She looked down at their hands. “We just fit,” she said simply. The sentence she’d never get tired of saying.
Sloane turned toward her immediately, smiling that soft, certain smile Reese knew she’d spend the rest of her life happily chasing.
“And you’re really feeling okay with all of this?” Sloane asked.
Reese pulled her closer and kissed her, slow and easy, the kind of kiss that didn’t need urgency anymore. Instead, she used it to communicate every damn thing she was feeling.
“Yeah,” Reese murmured when they parted. “I’m more than okay. I just can’t believe this entire year. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“Me too.” Sloane rested her forehead against Reese’s and sighed a happy sigh. “Venice is going to look so good on you.”
Reese smiled. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “If it means I get to wake up next to you every morning, inour home, then it definitely will.”
“Our home,” Sloane breathed. “Best words ever.”
Below them, Barcelona hummed with life, the rest of the season stretching ahead with more races, more flights, more hangouts with The Starting Grid in someone’s hotel room. But for the first time since she’d climbed into a kart as a kid, Reese knew exactly where the road would lead her back to.
And she couldn’t wait to get there.
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
The Mojave Desert stretched wide, and around Willow Springs International Raceway, the asphalt ribbon of track cut through the surrounding pale sand, as if someone had drawn it there with a marker. It was quiet there that day. Just their group, there for a little fun during the offseason.
Reese leaned against the pit wall, sunglasses pushed up into her hair as the wind, warm for February, rolled across the valley.
Six months ago, she’d been standing on a balcony in Barcelona, trying to imagine what her life might look like with Sloane fully in it.
Turns out the answer was: better than she’d even dared to picture.
Venice Beach had quietly become home. Not just her address between races, and the three months of the offseason, but something real. Their mornings started slow—sunlight spilling through the windows while they stayed tangled in bed far longer than either of them intended. Some days, they ran along theboardwalk before the crowds woke up. Other days, they didn’t bother leaving the beach house until noon.
Afternoons meant sand and salt air, lying side by side on the beach with the Pacific stretching endlessly in front of them.
But evenings were the best part.
The smallest outdoor cafés with string lights and tables squeezed onto sidewalks. Shared plates. Cold wine. Sloane’s hand resting casually on Reese’s thigh like it belonged there.
And the nights …
Well.
Reese smiled to herself.
Safe to say neither of them had suffered from a lack of enthusiasm in that department. They were adventurous in bed, loving, and deeply satisfied.
