I walk over to Sawyer and Matteo.
“Good morning,” I say to both of them.
“Morning.” Matteo smiles as he backs away slowly. Yeah, he’s not being obvious. I shake my head at him.
“How was the rest of your night?” I ask Sawyer.
“It was good. I must have been more tired than I thought. I was watching a TV show and the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off.” She chuckles.
“I’ve had days like that, mostly on race days. I’m good until after dinner, then all of a sudden I’m down for the count.”
She laughs as she listens to me. I wink at her as I leave and head to my trailer. It took all my willpower not to grab her and kiss her. As I’m getting ready, my da joins me.
“Do you think that Sawyer and I could be together without the rest of the crew thinking differently of her?” I ask him.
“I think it’s a tricky situation. You’ll need to make sure that you treat her the same way as all the others during races or testing. But I do think you can make it work.”
“Maybe if I talk to the guys and let them know first? Make sure if any of them have any issues, they can tell me.”
“But they may not say anything, for fear of losing their jobs.”
“I’d never fire someone for voicing their opinion. And I’d like to hope that they’ve all been with me long enough to know that by now.”
My da nods. “I agree. And I think talking to them first is a good idea.”
“I’ll do it tomorrow. Maybe I’ll call another team dinner. Thanks, da.”
He comes over and hugs me. “You’re a great man, and your mam is going to love Sawyer and River.”
“I think so too.” I smile as we head back to my garage.
Sebastiano: I hear Emerson has a woman now. When do we all get to meet her?
Emerson: WTF. How do you even know about her?
Ezra: …
My brother has a big mouth.
Celestino: Who is she?
Giovanna: PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN
Emerson: I have testing. You all need to shush
Ares: Did you just shush us?
I laugh and put my phone away. I have a feeling that I’m going to come back to a lot of texts from all of them.
Sawyer
I’ve been to GP races back in the States. I was fortunate to get a pit pass and race tickets from a professor I had in college. He made it a group trip with the class. And because he knew that I didn’t have extra money, he even helped me raise the funds for my plane fare and hotel room. That was when I knew my dream was to work for a GP team. I’ve been really lucky when it’s comes to work, that same professor helped me get a job on a local dirt bike racing team. They were the ones to help me apply to Emerson’s team. They wrote me letters of recommendation and sent videos of me while I was working. They all knew what my goal was and I love them for helping me get here.
With my last team, we had to sign papers saying that we wouldn’t date another team member. But when I got here, I never had to sign one. I wonder if it’s just something that you know not to do. I did have to sign an NDA, we’re not allowed to share information with anyone outside of our team. All our information stays within Emerson’s team and Easton’s team. I’ve heard that they also share information with Elias and Ezra’s teams. But until I know for sure? I’ll just stay with my team, it’s safer that way.
Now, Emerson. Holy fuck. I’m so screwed. All I think about is him, and last night? I dreamt of him. I dreamt that he came back and professed his love for me. It hasn’t even been one whole day and I’m already dreaming that he’s in love with me. And then the way he was acting this morning? I thought he was going to kiss me. But I have to admit, I wouldn’t have said no to him.
Watching him during testing is amazing. The guys are all showing me the data I need, and they also said that I don’t have to get it all on my first day. That most of them took months to learn what was needed. I love that there’s no competition between us. No one’s trying to be better than the next person. Everyone’s goal is for Emerson to be the best rider on the grid.
