Page 26 of Green Flag (StormSprint #2)

Luca

Portugal was one of my favourite race tracks. The Algarve was somewhere I could happily stay forever. Every time I came back, there was something new for me to do: kayaking, caving, and swimming with dolphins.

My dates with Everly were the thrill of my week.

Everything in her presence became fun. Whether it was watching Marco train her at the gym or ending up side by side celebrating on a Sunday night, everything with her felt easy — even when it was for show.

My arm around her shoulders had been something I’d only dreamed of when her photos came up on my feed over the last few years, and yet…

here I was, having to rein in my excitement.

Even not pretending and just being in her presence was thrilling.

Breaking into one of the trailers for her missing sunglasses gave me a new kind of adrenaline rush — not from the risk, but from being the one she turned to.

She disarmed me without even trying.

And when she couldn’t find them, pouting her lips in frustration, I wanted to buy her a new pair on the spot.

Cris didn’t want to show he cared about Everly’s new ‘relationship’, but he did. It was obvious in the looks he gave her.

Besides our conversation in the meeting room, he hadn’t spoken to me about Everly.

For the next two races, we spoke only of the sport.

“We’ve got to go bigger,” Everly said one morning in my trailer, legs crossed on my bed, looking at a picture a tabloid had posted of us on a night out for her birthday in Amsterdam.

She’d shown me earlier, zooming in on how her very bare thighs were on my lap in the club.

I’d had to turn back to my game before I remembered just how I’d ended that night, standing outside of her hotel room door, desperate to knock.

“We need to really push him if he’s going to consider letting you go. ”

“How?” I asked, playing on the new StormSprint PlayStation game. It was coming out in December for Christmas, but we’d been given the beta version to promote.

I was just as shit at it as I was at actually racing.

At least I was better than Nix. He was in the same game as me, chuckling in my headphones to himself, arrogant that though he was awful at the game, he was the best in real life.

Everly, however, was becoming a natural with the games we played most afternoons in our — my — trailer as we plotted.

“What if the music video for the StormSprint song was a bit… spicy?”

My frown was deeper as my bike veered around the corner. I checked I was on mute so Nix wouldn’t overhear. “I’m not really a model, Everly.”

She scoffed. “Now you’re just being modest.”

For a few minutes, she was silent, flicking through her book. But the topic was still on her mind. “An interview? With a photoshoot?”

Immediately, my mind went to Nix’s interview with his fake girlfriend, Clara, a few months ago and I shook my head at how completely awkward that had been.

Not just because Livie was also in the room, but because it seemed obvious they weren’t together.

“Wouldn’t want that to expose us.”

“But we need expos ure .”

She did have a point. If I wanted to piss off her dad, we were going to have to make our ‘love’ more pronounced. I hated the pressure of pretending around her, because being with her felt so real, it almost convinced me it was.

“My mum always said to fake it until you make it,” I told her as my bike crashed. I’d have to practice two sports now. Hopefully, it wasn’t a sign of how this afternoon’s qualifying would go.

“My mum always says if you want to do it, you’ve got to put all your effort in.”

“Nice crash,” Nix laughed in my ear.

I unmuted my headset. “Alright, asshole. I remember only one of us crashing out of second.”

“I’m the only one of us to have been second.”

Touche.

“You and Livie would come to dinner with us, wouldn’t you?” I asked, loading up another game. “If we went out.”

Everly shuffled down the end of the bed to my side.

“Yeah, Livid and I would be up for that.” His nickname for her always made me smile. “As long as a few other people were there. Not like a date night. But something smaller, yes.”

And I’d realised what I’d done too late.

Everly leaned into my face, eyes wide with excitement. Over her epiphany.

“Great. Yep, we’ll sort out the details,” I said quickly before closing down the game and turning to her, ready for her onslaught of questioning.

“Was she there with him?”

I shook my head.

“She was the other night when you played. I knew I recognised that voice!”

“They’re friends,” I retorted.

She cocked a brow and tilted her head. “Sure, Luca Mendes.” There was a beat of silence. “He’s been really hard to get hold of. Maybe I should get a copy of the game and track him down.”

How I wanted to grab her and throw her back on the bed to distract her from my slip-up, or stop her from trying to make me jealous. But we were friends. Just friends.

And really good ones.

“You hardly talk about your mother.”

She shrugged. “I appreciate you trying to change the subject for the sake of your friend, so I’ll let you. But they are together.”

I trusted her. But I knew Livie wouldn’t.

Her job was at risk with this. Which is what I wanted mine to be.

“They’re not in a relationship. He had an interview at his home. They have to spend a lot of time together with the charity Nix has started, and the interviews and…” And I was making a mental note to text Nix that little lie later.

“Got it.” She sat back on the bed, the book she’d been reading dismissed on the side. “I take my mum’s advice on everything. She’s not around much to ask for anything specific, but she’s full of so many phrases that I kind of live my life by them.”

“Like what?”

She breathed in deeply as if struggling with where to start.

“Tough times don’t last, but tough people do…

” Yeah, I saw that in everything Everly did.

“Chase your passions, not just a salary.” She laughed and shook her head.

“That one has been harder to follow than others. And one of my favourites is to surround myself with good people.”

I raised a hesitant finger to my chest, mouth hanging open in mock shock.

Her mouth twitched. “And then that went out of the window when I started here,” she teased, tsking. “Now I’m simply surrounded by the worst of people.”

My hands grabbed her by the waist and threw her back on the bed with me as I tickled her sides. She cried out, kicking and pushing me off. “Luca!”

“I’m the worst, am I?”

“Yes!” she wheezed.

“The worst? ”

“No!” Her laugh was strained as she wriggled. “You’re the best. You’re the best. I swear.”

I stopped and, leaning over her, I had to stop myself from bending to kiss her. I might be the best, but I wanted all of her worst.

Her breathing eased as she looked up at me, and for a second, I thought she might want it too. But it would be different. Sober. Meaningful.

With the power to hurt.

If I were to be with anyone, though… it would be her. Things were easy between us. Fun. But it wasn’t real. There were no expectations for me to let her down.

“You’ve got a meeting at Ciclati,” she said and cleared her throat, grabbing my bicep to haul herself up.

“I’ve got a massage first,” I told her and it had the desired effect. She froze, one foot stuck on the floor. Her grip tightened around my arm.

“What do you get done?” she asked, releasing me and pushing her hair back as she pulled up a sock. Her voice was tighter than usual, though she tried to pass it off as being casual.

It was no more than being a little territorial…the same as I was with her.

There was nothing in it.

“Everything,” I said. “A full body. It’s great before and after a race.”

“Everything, huh? Your ass?”

I laughed through my nose. “Nah, that’s about the only thing covered. Though I only lie on my front.”

“I can give massages,” she said and finally stood, her back to me. “I mean, I’ve had no training, but…”

“I wouldn’t want to push my luck,” I said with a dramatic sigh. “You’d take one look at this naked body and — boom — lovestruck.”

There was no denying I spent far more time in Everly’s presence than I’d ever imagined. And when I wasn’t with her, I was overthinking every exchange we’d had, letting myself gain hope in little details.

Like her jealousy over my massage.

She threw me the biggest eye roll I’d ever seen. It probably hurt her eye muscles.

“I have some tours to give.”

“Livie said you had some good feedback last week,” I said to her, trying not to beam with pride. Of course she had.

She nodded, reaching for her jacket on the floor. “I was the most requested tour guide of the weekend,” she said proudly, with a curtsy as she stood.

“Maybe you’ll give me a tour. I can see how you’ve improved.”

She frowned, breathing a laugh. “Because you need one, huh?”

“I don’t know these tracks so well. Sometimes, I do get a little lost. When I’m around a certain grid girl, my thoughts get hazy. I could end up anywhere.”

She lightly slapped my arm. “Don’t lie. You’re the worst flirt.”

“But I thought I was the best?”

She rolled her eyes but I covered her hand with my own, keeping her hold on me.

“Luca Mendes, someone might think you have a crush on me.”

“That would be the plan.”

But her hand slipped out from under mine and she was gone in seconds, carrying her shoes instead of putting them on.

And I hated the idea that I’d pushed it too far. Because I never knew when to stop.

* * *

Don shouldn’t have been the one to tell me.

Not when he was to blame.

The roaring of the bikes qualifying was the only sound other than the gasps, the ‘sorrys’ and the sniffles from those Don had just told.

“I’m sorry,” he’d said, his voice broken like my cousin’s body. “They’re going to turn off Alv’s life support tomorrow.”

I’d been mid-conversation with Sally, but I couldn’t recall what we’d discussed. The only sound I wanted was the bikes. All I wanted was the absence of emotion.