“Congratulations!” Ceci said, giving Nico a hug.
She turned to Clarke. “You too, Sir Clarke Kent. Oh, look at that. Your tie is crooked.”
It wasn’t. But it was once Ceci got her hands on it.
Nico eyed the man with curiosity. Clarke, who just a moment before had exuded that effortless calm he was known for, now seemed shy, almost awkward.
“There now,” Ceci purred, having finished fussing with his tie. “So how goes it, Sir Clarke, in your search for that damsel?”
His chin dropped to his chest as he shook his head, but Nico could see he was grinning. After a moment, he lifted his gaze and pinned those warm brown eyes on Ceci.
“Not so well. It’s tough these days for a knight—with or without the shining armor.”
“Is it now?”
“You haven’t been able to find even one?” Nico asked.
“Oh, I’ve found more than one. There are plenty of damsels to go around.”
“Ah, I see.” Ceci held up her finger. “But finding one in distress, that’s the difficulty.”
“No, plenty of those to go around too.”
Nico laughed.
Ceci frowned and then snapped her fingers. “Ah, I think I understand. There’s an overabundance of stock. The difficulty lies in making a choice.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not it.”
“Clarke!” someone shouted. “Over here! There’s someone I want you to meet!”
Relief flooded his face. “Excuse me, ladies,” he muttered with a slight bow.
Once he’d left them, Ceci shook her head. “Hard to believe that guy can be such a brute on the racetrack. Once he’s off it, I can’t decide whether he’s traveled forward in time, having come to us from the early nineteenth century, you know the Regency period, or journeyed back in time, having come from the future. I sometimes wonder if he’s really a super sophisticated robot made of carbon fiber and bioplastics rather than flesh and blood.”
“I don’t know, Ceci. He seemed very much flesh and blood when you had your hands on him.”
“Really?!”
“Have you ever seen carbon fiber and bioplastics blush?”
Ceci burst out laughing. “It’s fun having you on the circuit.” She glanced around. “Now, where’s your teammate? I should congratulate him too. Ah, there he is. Guess I’ll wait. It looks like I might be interrupting something.”
Nico turned to see Rocco talking with Carolyn Wickham. She wondered if Ceci saw what she saw. A handsome couple engaged in an intimate conversation.
Ceci sighed. “It must be difficult to have been a driver, to know this business better than a lot of men, and to be relegated to the passenger seat by your husband just because he’s the one with the money.”
“Carolyn was a driver?”
“F3 some years back. When you think about what you have to put up with, what I had to put up with, just imagine what she had to put up with.”
Rocco watched Carolyn walk away.
Race forBlue Jet Lightning?
Suddenly, Dario and Celeste were by his side.
“I didn’t know Ian Anker could dance,” said Celeste. “He’s not half bad.”
