Are we even the same people anymore? How could we be? When he left the States, he was eighteen. Now, he’s almost twenty-six, he makes millions of dollars per year, has his pick of women and has traveled across the globe a hundred times over.
Have I changed?
“Which one is Liam, again?”
“Australian physio,” I remind her.
“Is he hot?”
I huff, I have too much on my mind to think about Liam. “They’re all hot, okay?”
“Are they hiring any photographers?” She giggles.
“I wish. It would be nice to have another girl here. Maybe you can visit me soon,” I tell her, but then I need to go. Qualification is starting soon, and, like it or not, I need to face the music.
I shake the water off myself and emerge from my hiding spot under the tree. I probably look like a homeless person.
Up ahead, I see Liam walking down the service road on the way to the garage and, he has enough sense to have an umbrella, so I sneak in underneath it with him.
“Hey. You look cold. Are you cold?” Liam feels my cheek.
“I’m fine, you don’t have to babysit me,” I nudge him with my sho
ulder.
“Boss says I do,” he smiles back at me.
“I’d rather you worry about him.”
“I hate when his dad is here,” Liam says knowingly. It has been a tense two nights, and we’d all like Stan to return to the troll bridge he lives under.
“Where’s he at, anyway?”
I hope he isn’t in the garage during qualification. Qualification is stressful enough as it is, the drivers are at max speeds with no fuel in the cars, and now it’s raining. It creates a lightweight rocket ship with no grip, and then Belgium thought it should open up the skies to make matters worse.
“I left him in the beer garden with a bottle of whiskey and two grid girls. Hopefully, that entertains him long enough to stay the hell away.”
Cole has to be so embarrassed. For a short while, Stan was acting as Cole’s manager and, I’m sure, taking a chunk of his earnings. I only got the online gossip blog story version, but from what I read, Cole’s job was at risk if Stan continued to manage him.
Cole fired him and hasn’t had a manager since. I can only imagine the third world war that must have caused. I wish I could have been there for him. Maybe I should have contacted him, I don’t know. But he’s the one who left me, refused to take my calls, or respond to my letters.
When we make it inside the garage, I shake off my soaked raincoat and take my seat. It’s damp, cold, and grey. I rub my hands over my arms to get rid of the goosebumps.
The drivers are running wet tire compounds today because of the rain, so I’m eager to see how they perform for the first time. Edmund’s had me working with the aerodynamic team the last several days, then he was out sick for a while, so I haven’t had as much time to harass Olivier about the information I still don’t have.
I feel Cole enter the garage before I even see him, my heart rate picks up, and my senses go on high alert. He and Dante stroll in, both tall and full of swagger, though I can tell Cole’s still on edge. He’s been cracking his neck all weekend and does it again now.
Dante’s either in a good mood or trying to cheer Cole up. I see him make a hand gesture like he’s squeezing melons and Cole chuckles with his eyes down and shakes his head. Liam notices Cole’s neck cracking tick, too, and Liam—always watchful—swoops in and starts feeling Cole’s neck muscles.
Cole slaps his hands away, and the two of them start laughing and joking, and it makes me happy to see Cole smile again. They chat for a second, then both turn to look at me.
I don’t even pretend that I’m not staring anymore, there’s no point. I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to, Cole Ballentine is beautiful.
I quirk an eyebrow up at them both, they’re clearly talking about me. Then Cole struts over to me. He walks like an alpha predator moving through the jungle, and I forget to breathe.
His eyes are intense and locked onto mine as he crosses the garage. He reaches the stool I’m sitting on, shrugs his dry Imperium jacket off, and slips it over my shoulders.
I peer around Cole’s frame and scowl at Liam for tattling. He shrugs and throws his hands up.