Page 54 of Retrograde

Planning a wedding that the bride didn’t know about was either the best idea or worst idea Brett had ever had.

His first full season back on track had been smooth sailing, with Lucie holding his hand both physically and emotionally.

Sure, he could have done it without her, but now he didn’t have to.

He would never have to be without her again.

Those few months between leaving Tuscany and seeing her at Christmas had been hell, but they had been a necessary hell.

He had learned to live without her, and he’d continued his healing journey, but he would still always be the best version of himself with his sunshine girl by his side.

Discovering that she loved him too had felt even better than the day Jasper told him he could come back to the garage three races earlier than planned.

He had grown to love therapy so much that his sessions still hadn’t stopped almost two years after he’d started them.

Never again would his friends be forced to pick up the pieces, pull him out of a downward spiral.

He would never let himself get even close to being in that position.

Finally, instead of being in retrograde, he was moving forward.

He had even started campaigning for better, wider mental health awareness within the motorsport industry, using his own experience as the driving force behind his campaign.

He’d been lucky to have the support of his team, and he knew a lot of other teams and sponsors wouldn’t have been so open to working with him to turn a negative into a positive.

Today wasn’t just about marrying his best friend.

In classic Brett Anderson fashion, he had bought their dream home.

A farmhouse in Malmedy, right down the road from the Jensen-Moretz property.

Lucie had complained so many times over the years about wishing everyone could be in one place, and now they were well on their way.

He only hoped Marco and Bea would one day follow suit.

Lucie was clueless. About all of it. They were straight off the back of another Revolution Racing championship win, and she had spent two weeks in London and Berlin with Esme and Bea, hosting the pop-up workshops they’d been planning for Girls Off Track.

Faith was here, helping him with interior design in between looking after the twins.

He was so proud of Lucie and the hard work she’d put in to securing the future of motorsport, this surprise was the least he could do.

It was the bare minimum of what she deserved.

He hadn’t got down on one knee and proposed, but she’d known marriage was on the horizon.

She’d been sending him photos of rings for months, telling him how she wanted her flowers and what music she wanted to walk down the aisle to.

What she didn’t know was he had been making notes.

She had so much stress on her shoulders, he wanted to take the additional stress of wedding planning away and do this for her.

Having said that, he had only decided on a date three weeks ago and now, as she was ten minutes away, he was the stressed one.

‘Brett, stop panicking,’ Rosa patted his arm reassuringly. ‘She’ll love it.’

‘What if she’s late? The musician has another event straight after, I only managed to get him on board because I promised to fly him out to a race of his choice next season.’ He checked his watch for the third time in ten minutes.

‘You left Bea in charge of getting her here. Trust me, she will be on time.’ Faith laughed at his furrowed brow. He’d be asking Bea for advice on Botox, at this rate.

‘Twins are ready!’ Julien walked outside with his youngest daughters, one in each arm, wearing matching pale purple dresses. Lucie’s signature colour. There was lavender everywhere, but his favourite part was the arch they would stand under to exchange their vows.

‘And Jazzy has the rings?’ He whipped his head around until he spotted Jasmine walking out in her lilac satin gown. She was perhaps the most excited out of everyone.

‘Yeah, hey, can we take the twins’ shoes off? Emmie hates them.’

‘Of course. You keep hold of them; I’ll do it.’

Brett had been loving staying in permanent uncle-mode since they were born.

He was rooting for Faith and Julien to have a boy one day, because he wanted a kid named after him, too.

Anderson Mars was a great option to honour both him and Marco, and he’d been vocal about it, which earned him death glares from Faith, who had hated every moment of pregnancy.

Faith and Julien had gifted everyone with Emmeline Lucie and Margot Bea Jensen-Moretz, named after two of the most important women in their lives, and for now, they were enough.

Brett and Lucie were warming to the idea of children of their own, although the adoption route was looking like the path they would choose, if they did decide to be parents.

The bonus of Brett and Lucie’s new home being on a long gravel road was that it was quiet, and they could hear every time a car turned onto it. So, when they heard Lucie’s Jeep coming, he dug deep for his courage and prepared himself for the biggest question of his life.

‘Brett, have you got the ring?’ Esme whispered.

‘Yep.’ He nodded and squeezed his hand around the black velvet box.

If he was confident in anything, it was that he’d got this part right.

He didn’t know much about rings, but it was amethyst and gold and everything she said she wanted.

He’d consulted her sisters, her mum and her best friends and between them, they’d had one custom designed for her. This entire wedding was a joint effort.

‘It’s time, Anderson.’ Marco clapped him on the shoulder in the exact same way he did before every race, and Brett stepped forward.

Lucie climbed out of the car, Bea following with a Cheshire-Cat grin on her face, and stopped in her tracks at the sight of Brett standing on the grass. Then she looked up at the house behind him, and all their siblings and closest friends, and burst into tears.

‘What are you doing?’ she laughed through the waterworks and stepped closer to him.

He opened the ring box, admiring the awe in her expression as she looked between him and the newest addition to her jewellery collection. ‘Will you marry me, Sunny?’

‘Yes.’ Lucie kissed him, not a second of hesitation in her voice.

Brett broke the kiss and whispered, ‘Today?’

‘What? What do you mean?’

‘Marry me. Today. Right here, in our backyard.’

‘This is ours?’ she gasped, as if the wedding hadn’t been enough of a shock.

‘Figured we should start married life with a bang,’ he shrugged. ‘It’s fully decorated, too. You’ve got your flamingo wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom.’

‘Brett Anderson, you are insane, and I love you for it.’

‘Exactly, so go and get dressed and get your ass back out here. The girls will take care of you.’ He placed the ring on her finger. ‘Hurry up, the violinist has places to be.’ He said the last part quietly, but she ruined it by roaring with laughter.

Lucie walked out of their back door in a short, white satin dress paired with white cowboy boots.

It was bordering on cheesy, but it was without a doubt everything she had ever dreamed of.

She had never wanted a super serious wedding; she wanted hers to be fun and full of laughter, the kind of wedding where everyone could let loose and half of it couldn’t be posted on social media. A classic, backyard country wedding.

The aisle was lined with wooden chairs, all occupied by their nearest and dearest. Even Ford the Husky had a spot, proudly showing off his purple bow tie.

Brett had selected part of the property which was dotted with fir trees, and hung strings of polaroids and fairy lights, each photo a black and white print of the two of them over the last twelve years.

It was magical. Plucked straight from her inspiration board.

Brett stood waiting under the arch, Jasper with him as their celebrant, and when Lucie’s dad took her arm in his, the violinist began playing her favourite country song.

She had half-expected Gabriel to be dressed as Elvis, but instead he wore a purple suit and stood next to her mum, bursting with excitement that Lucie’s mother was Hollywood B-lister Rosa Clemente.

‘You look beautiful, amore mio ,’ Mateo murmured.

‘Thanks, Dad. And thank you for making the journey.’

‘We’d travel the world for you kids. This is your home now, I’m just glad you found it.’

‘Mr C,’ Brett grinned when they reached him. ‘Luce.’

‘I would hand her over to you, Brett, but I think my Lucie has been your Lucie for a long time already. There’s no passing the baton here.

Just take as good care of her as you always have.

’ Mateo shook Brett’s hand and kissed Lucie on the cheek before joining the rest of the Carolan and Anderson clan.

‘By the way, if you hear any noises… it’s the goats.’ Brett quickly glanced behind them.

‘You got them without me?’ Lucie peered over his shoulder and gushed at the six mini goats he had adopted while she’d been away.

‘I wanted them to be here to welcome you home.’

‘I love them. And you.’

Brett took her hands in his. ‘You ready, Sunny?’

‘Have been for twelve years, sweetheart.’

And as they exchanged vows full of the promises they’d made over the course of their friendship, both the spoken and unspoken ones, Lucie felt her entire world fall into place, now the proud owner of a gold wedding band that had ‘my sunshine girl’ engraved on the inside.

It sat beautifully next to her new purple gemstone, symbolising that she may be his sunshine, but Brett Anderson was, and always had been, her rock.