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Serena’s face flashes before me, her perfect eyebrows up at her hairline, her curls flying as she screeches to a halt a few steps in front of me.

“Hi.” I pull her to me in a fierce hug. “I missed you!”

“How are you here?”

“It’s a long story, but I’m here for Nicky.”

Her answering smile is dazzling. “Then let’s go see him.”

She links her arm through mine and with Matt following closely behind us, we make our way down to the track and as close to the podium as the heaving crowd will allow.

“He’s pretty low energy for someone who just won his fifth world title, hey?” Serena comments as we watch Nicky finally, slowly make his way out of his car. His head is hung low as he congratulates Nate, who came home in a distant second.

“He must be exhausted.” There’s a twinge in my chest and I rub it as I watch him hug his team of mechanics, all of whom are almost delirious with excitement. The level of their energy compared to Nicky’s is stark in contrast. “That race must have taken it out of him.”

“Hmmm,” Serena mutters. “Except he’s been this way for weeks now.”

I flush at her pointed look, clearing the emotion from my throat as Nicky steps up to be interviewed.

“Nicky, you are the World Champion for the fifth time. How does it feel to be part of an elite group of drivers to achieve this?” Max Duvall asks.

“It’s unbelievable, Max,” he replies, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. “I have to thank my team for making this happen. For all the people back at the factory who worked incredibly hard to get the car ready for this year and get it back on track after that little stumble.”

The crowd from Vortex Motors goes crazy, including Serena next to me. Her high-pitched screech is close to deafening me.

“Speaking of that stumble, what do you have to say to those people who doubted you’d get here? Who said you were going to fumble this title win?”

Nicky’s expression darkens; he holds his body still, but a muscle jumps in his jaw. “Those people were wrong.”

Serena yells “Heck yeah!” next to me.

“I never doubted we’d get the car right again. I was never distracted. I was never not focussed. I just wish everyone could have been as confident as me.”

My heart squeezes painfully in my chest. He’s talking about me. He’s wishing I’d trusted in him—in us—as much as he did. What he doesn’t know is that the person I couldn’t trust was me .

Max thumps him on the arm. “Well, my friend. This is a big day for you. For the team. Do you have anything else you want to say?”

Nicky rubs his thumb over his jaw in his oh-so-familiar ‘I’m thinking’ gesture. “There’s one last person I have to thank.” He turns to look out at the crowd and it feels like he’s looking at me. “Cherry, if you’re watching this back home. I won the whole thing. Just like you told me to.”

My vision blurs and I feel rather than see a hand yanking me forward.

“Get up here,” James growls over the buzz of the crowd.

I’m pushed to the front of the crowd as Nicky’s teammates and friends make way for me.

“Yeah, you did,” I yell out before I can think better of it.

Nicky’s chocolate eyes dart to mine and I hold my breath as a cyclone of emotions cross over his face. In the blink of a millisecond, he shoves the microphone into Max’s chest and strides over to where I’m standing.

“Cherry?” His fingers whisper over my cheeks, like he’s not sure I’m really here. Like if he handles me too roughly, I’ll disappear.

“Congratulations, World Champion,” I whisper, clutching the front of his race suit in my hands and pulling him closer.

“What are you doing here?”

I lean forward to speak into his ear, ignoring the buzz of the crowd around us as they realise what is happening. “I forgot to tell you something before I left.”

He leans back, a wrinkle on his brow. “You did?”

“Yes.” My lips stretch into a grin. “I realised I forgot to tell you I’m in love with you. And that, if you’ll have me back, I never want to be apart from you again. ”

A smile worthy of a World Champion grows on his face. “Is that so?”

Conscious of the people around us and the cameras pointed at us, wishing we could have had this moment in private, I gather my courage around me like a cloak and nod.

“Yes. I’m sorry I left like I did. If you give me a chance, I’ll try to explain.

But I want you to know that I never once stopped loving you.

That I think I’ve always loved you in one way or another. My whole life.”

The last word had barely left my mouth before his lips were on mine. His kiss is tender, a mere brush of his mouth against mine, and is over far too quickly.

“I love you, too, Cherry. None of this is worth it if you’re not by my side.”

I lean forward to kiss him again, only this time my lips are met with air instead of Nicky’s delectable mouth.

“You have to go.” Someone in a suit, looking important and impatient, pulls on Nicky’s arm and he reluctantly lets them.

“I have to go do a thing.” He points up to the podium and I laugh, happy tears now dripping from my lashes. “You’ll be here when I get back? You’ll wait for me?”

My jaw hurts from smiling and I blubber out a shaky ‘yes’.

I’ll wait for him forever.

With hearts in my eyes, I watch him as he’s guided away from me, halting at the doorway to the cooldown room to turn back to me.

“I love you!” he yells, much to the thrill of the crowd.

Giggling, feeling drunk with love, I blow him a kiss. “I love you, too, Mr World Champion.”

He grins and with a last lingering look, he turns and walks away to claim his trophy, his title and his status as F1 legend .

Serena, Matt, and James gather around me to watch the podium ceremony, and as Nicky celebrates with a gusto equal to the level of what he’d just achieved, I pinch myself to make sure this is all real.

Nicky loves me. He wants to be with me. I’m finally in a place to feel worthy of him; of receiving his love.

Who would have thought at the start of the season when I arrived with a security pass that wouldn’t even grant me access to the track, that I’d be here today, in love with the man of my dreams?

In the race towards love; I’m the one who ended up winning the whole darn thing. And my prize, it turns out, was well worth fighting for.