He walked into a dimly lit cavernous room, the smell of grease, sawdust and petrol making him breathe deep. A sense of wellbeing settled over him as he took in the changes since the last time he had visited.
Miller walked past him, clearly impressed by the view of a twisting track that took up most of the space.
She wrinkled her nose. ‘It smells of stale chips.’
He hadn’t noticed that.
‘I think the kitchen is the next thing to be overhauled. This is the little kids’ area,’ he explained, walking towards one of the barriers. ‘The bigger kids’ track is out back.’
‘Do we have time to see it?’
‘Sure—hey, Andy?’
‘Tino. I wasn’t expecting you.’ A tall, lanky man in a plaid shirt that had seen better days and grease-streaked jeans loped towards them.
Tino clasped his friend’s hand. ‘Andy, this is Miller Jacobs. Miller, this is my centre manager and fellow visionary, Andy Walker.’
‘Hello.’
Miller took Andy’s hand and Tino was slightly annoyed with himself for automatically stepping into her personal space when he registered Andy’s very male appraisal of her.
They might be sleeping together right now, but that didn’t mean she belonged to him in any way. The words he’d thrown at Caruthers at the weekend—“Miller is mine!”—reregistered in his mind and pulled him up short.
‘Tino?’
He blanked his expression and cast off the unsettling notion that he’d well and truly crossed into a no-go zone with Miller. ‘Sorry, I missed that last bit.’
‘I said the main track is finished,’ Andy repeated. ‘Did you get my text last Wednesday?’
‘I did. That’s why I thought I’d stop by.’
‘Come on. I’ll show you.’
Clamping down on his worrying thoughts, Tino followed Andy towards the rear of the building and out into the bright sunshine, shielding his eyes as he took in the track.
‘It’s huge.’ Miller exclaimed behind him. ‘Like a mini-racetrack.’
Tino smiled. ‘That’s because it is.’
‘I know that,’ she scoffed. ‘I just wasn’t expecting it to be that big.’
‘Want to go out on it?’
‘You mean walk around it?’
‘Not walking.’ He turned to Andy. ‘Any chance you can pull a couple of carts out?’
‘Sure.’
Andy grinned like a happy Labrador and Tino enjoyed the look of surprise on Miller’s stunning face.
‘I’ve never driven a go-cart before.’
‘There’s nothing to it.’
Five minutes later they were both kitted out in helmets and gloves, and once he’d fixed Miller into her cart he climbed into his own.
‘We’re not racing each other,’ she informed him nervously.
Wondering if she would get the bug, he smiled. ‘Remember it’s just like driving a normal car only the gears are on the steering wheel and there’s no clutch. Right foot is accelerator and left is brake. Other than that there’s nothing to it.’
He watched as she revved the engine, unexpectedly distracted when her face glowed. ‘One more thing,’ he called above the throaty whine of the carts. ‘These engines are more powerful than the usual carts, so go easy on the first few laps. I’ll go first, so you can follow my line as you learn the track.’
‘Ha—you’re going first because you can’t stand being second.’
Valentino smiled. She’d got that right.
He gunned his engine and put the cart into gear. The carts were fixed with a side mirror, so he kept his eye on her as they did a couple of laps.
Both he and Andy had designed the carts, and he was impressed at how well they handled.
After five laps he pulled his cart to a stop near the starting line and waited for Miller to pull up beside him.
‘How was it?’
Her face was flushed from the light wind and her eyes were glowing with excitement. Oh, yeah, she definitely had the bug.
‘I think you could turn me into a speed demon.’ She grinned. ‘This is amazing. But they seem a bit powerful for kids.’
Valentino found himself once again captivated by her smile, those eyes that shifted from aquamarine to almost indigo when she was aroused. ‘They’re for big kids. Teenagers, adults. This is a specialised track.’
‘Great to hire out to corporations for bonding sessions.’
‘Maybe.’ He hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.