“Or Jessica Drew,” she heard Beatrice shout.
“Or Saturn Girl,” they shouted in unison.
“Aha!” Charles said.
Nico swung around. “Aha, what?”
“I know what he’s doing.” Templeton had popped his head out of Charles’s pocket. He looked at Charles and then at Nico. His black eyes were bright, and he was bobbing his head up and down.
Charles smiled. “You know too, don’t you, Temple?”
Nico wrinkled her brow. “You do?”
“You don’t?”
Puzzled, her only response was to stare back at him.
“Nico, don’t be Snow White. It’s not a good look on you.”
“Like a woman,” Rocco went on, “carrying on the legacy of Formula 1 drivers like Lella Lombardi and Maria Teresa de Filippis. A woman who’s got what it takes to get to Formula 1 and works her ass off to stay here. A woman who not only has to endure a lot to get to Formula 1 but has to endure even more once she’s made it. The kind of woman who won’t quit and inspires hope in others, like my nieces Sofia and Beatrice.”
Nico felt her eyes mist. She sniffed.
“Here,” Charles said, tapping her shoulder.
As she turned, he handed her a tissue. She could hear the reporter shout again.
“But wait, Rocco! You didn’t answer my question. Is it true? Are you leaving Maverick for Blue Jet?”
When Nico turned back, he was no longer on the podium. He was gone.
She’d see him again next season. He’d be racing, and so would she. But they’d no longer be teammates. It would be different.
She sighed. She was happy for Rocco. Really, she was. But now it hurt too much to be here.
“Come on, Charles, let’s go.”
Charles gripped her arm. “Not just yet.”
He was smiling at something over her shoulder. When Nico turned around, she saw Rocco standing there, smiling down at her.
“I’m not going anywhere, Nico. I like my team. Can you put up with a— What did you call me?”
Charles leaned over Nico’s shoulder. “An annoying, arrogant, asshole, prick.”
Rocco laughed. “All that?”
Charles smiled. “It’s really quite impressive when you think about it.”
Rocco nodded. “It is. So, can you put up with all that next year?”
Nico stared. She heard the word loud in her head—yes, yes, yes!But when her lips parted, no sound came out. Until she flinched from a shove in the small of her back.
Charles leaned in and hissed in her ear. “Nico Angelini, so help me, if you insist on leaving your brain in Brainerd, neither Templeton nor I will come to visit.”
Right.
She smiled. “I think I can manage.”
