Page 7 of Retrograde

The Las Vegas Strip was magical. There was so much happening at any given moment, every time Lucie came to the city of sin it put her in a daze for a solid week.

The lights, the constant buzz of excitement in the air as people gambled their life’s savings away.

Lucie didn’t gamble, but she enjoyed watching Brett and Marco dabble.

Julien was on a very strict budget now he had Faith looking over his shoulder, but in previous years, he had been just as bad as his teammates.

She tugged her dress down for the third time that night, feeling a little unsure of herself in the gold, sparkly ensemble she had borrowed from Bea.

The zip had broken on Lucie’s original dress, and her friends had insisted she couldn’t outfit-repeat in a place like this, so wearing tomorrow evening’s dress twice was off the cards.

But Lucie rarely wore short, fitted dresses, and her curves filled it out more than Bea’s petite figure, which meant that the hem sat a little too high on her leg for her liking.

The yellow sapphire drop earrings Brett had presented her with on arrival weren’t helping to ease her anxiety, either.

They were just as flashy and over-the-top, even more so when paired with her ring.

‘Will you stop fussing? The amount of second looks you’ve had walking down the Strip is insane. I watched one girl trip over her own feet,’ Bea scowled at her disapprovingly.

‘I just sort of wish I was in my cowboy boots.’

‘You should’ve said! I had another dress they’d have worked perfectly with!’

‘Well, I didn’t know if Vegas was the place for them. Plus, you and the girls are all in heels so I’d have been the odd one out.’

‘No, Luce. You’d have been yourself.’ Bea shrugged like it was a simple answer, like Lucie was fully comfortable being herself in an industry where models swarmed the paddock.

They rushed ahead to join the rest of the group, who seemed to be on a mission to get to dinner.

That was another thing she still wasn’t used to when travelling with the guys; they never reserved tables.

Julien in particular could just walk into almost any restaurant and the staff would go to extreme lengths to make space.

Brett’s influence had grown over the last couple of seasons too, but he and Marco didn’t like to use their power to feed their empty stomachs.

Which was a surprise given how much they ate when they were bulking.

‘Are they going to make us eat sushi again?’ Esme whined. ‘We always have sushi. I want burgers, fries, shakes. Anything my body hates.’

‘You want burgers?’ Brett’s head whipped around like a dog hearing the word ‘walkies’.

‘Please. I am begging.’

‘Well, it’s my birthday trip, so burgers it is.’ Brett flung an arm around Esme’s shoulders playfully and steered her in the direction of an upscale restaurant, famous for its vegan burgers which would keep Marco happy, and Lucie felt that unwelcome pang of jealousy.

‘I take it he’s paying for this,’ Bea whispered, ‘because I sure as hell can’t afford to drop ninety-plus dollars on a piece of meat sandwiched between two slices of bread. I’ve got a tiny budget for the casino later.’

‘You know what the guys are like, someone’s card will be waved around. If not, I can go halves with you,’ Lucie reassured.

She could count on one hand the number of times over the years that their friends had allowed them to pay for meals when they went out as a group, and while it meant they could save up for flights and hotels on their non-work-related travels, it still felt wrong.

It was hard to process just how much money the guys had to spend from their Revolution contracts alone, let alone personal sponsorships and brand deals and all the investments they’d made.

‘How fucking much?’ Faith’s eyes nearly fell out of her head the second she sat down and opened the menu. That seemed to be her favourite phrase.

‘Shhh!’ Julien put a hand over mouth. ‘Babe, not so loud.’

‘Jules, this is ridiculous money for food! Nearly eight hundred dollars? We have a kid to put through college. Medical school, if that’s what she settles on.’

‘Ah, don’t worry, Jensen. I’ve got this.

’ Brett shrugged nonchalantly, finding it somewhat amusing that his teammate’s wife still couldn’t grasp that the money in her and Julien’s bank account was shared, and in seven figures at least. She still bought cheap wine, and meal deals at British supermarkets.

‘We’ll split it three ways,’ Marco suggested, and Lucie gave Bea a look that said, ‘I told you so.’ They would have happily gone to a fast-food place.

‘Sorry, and thank you for offering, guys. Still not used to this!’ Faith glanced around nervously like she feared she looked out of place, but actually, she looked right at home in her red silk dress, blonde hair in soft waves around her face.

She and Julien were one hell of a power couple, and the jealousy hit Lucie again.

She wasn’t sure when she started wanting more for herself, but all she did know was that it was a difficult thought to process and she had no idea where to start.

She hadn’t dated seriously for years, and she had such high standards.

If Lucie was going to share her life with someone, she wanted the fairy-tale romance her best friend had got.

Only she wasn’t certain that option existed in her world, because the only fairy tale her imagination could muster up included Brett.

‘You all right, Sunny?’ Brett’s hand grazed her knee under the table and she jumped before placing her hand over his and giving it a squeeze. ‘You look a little lost over there.’

‘I’m fine, sweetheart.’ She smiled, flipping Marco off when he pretended to gag. ‘Oops, sorry, forgot we’re meant to be classy in here, aren’t we?’

‘Yeah, we’d better behave, Dad might tell us off.’ Marco grinned at Julien, who was shooting the pair of them a look that could kill.

‘So, guys.’ Esme put her menu down having been told she had to have the most expensive option because it was the best. ‘Do you ever get tired of winning?’

The table laughed at her joke, but really it wasn’t a joke.

Esme was on socials for an opposing team, and the drivers at Eden Racing had been a little standoffish when she had begun hanging out with the Revolution crew.

They were close-knit, and in theory, Esme shouldn’t have fitted in as well as she did, but having Bea there most of the time balanced out the dynamics.

Bea was Switzerland. Not that they ever divulged team tactics with either of them around, and neither did they gossip about the Eden drivers.

When they weren’t at the track, they were friends first.

‘To be fair, we almost didn’t win at Spa!’ Marco defended.

‘Yeah, it was your team who almost took us out. If Jules wasn’t so good in the wet, they might’ve got past him on that one turn.’

‘I’m just too good.’ He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, looking smug.

‘Oh my God, Jules! Your head is expanding!’ Bea gasped.

‘Shut up, Beatrix. I’d like to see you get behind the wheel of a race car. You can’t even handle the traffic coming off the Dover ferry.’

‘No, but I can steer my way through a crowd of people with a ten-thousand-dollar camera round my neck. You require a security guard to get through crowds,’ she shot back.

‘That’s because the people love me and they’re always trying to rip my shirt off.’

‘And? Half the drivers on the grid have ripped my shirt off.’

The rest of the group lost their minds laughing at that.

As Bea had grown into herself more, she had started making light of her previous behaviour rather than letting anyone else try to use it against her.

Lucie was just glad she hadn’t mentioned the fact Julien had once been one of those drivers, because as close as she and Faith were, it was still a bit weird to think about.

‘I never thought you’d be one of my favourite people on the planet, Bea Miller, but I have to say you are really something else.

’ Brett chuckled but stopped when he felt Lucie tense up.

This green-eyed monster lurking around her was pathetic and she didn’t know where it had come from. She only hoped nobody could detect it.

‘You all right, Lucie?’ Marco asked, meaning she was doing a poor job at hiding her sour mood from her friends.

‘Yeah! Sorry, Vegas just takes me out of my comfort zone a little.’

‘Can we get this woman a drink?’ Brett held his hand up in the air as a waiter passed, only adding to the ruckus they had been causing since they walked in. ‘What do you want, babe?’

‘Uhhh,’ she stuttered as her brain processed this new nickname he’d given her.

‘Vodka cranberry?’ It was less of a request and more of a question.

What was going to get her drunk the fastest?

She didn’t want to be sober and in her feelings for much longer, not while everyone else was having fun and she was feeling like an outsider for no logical reason.

‘Vodka cran please, mate. Make it a double. Actually, bring two.’

‘Two?’

‘You don’t seem yourself. This’ll take the edge off.’ And then his hand was skating up her thigh again, and Lucie knew she risked ending the night crying in the bathroom.

‘Fuck yeah, De Luca!’ The rowdiness continued into the night as everyone surrounded Marco at a roulette table, waiting impatiently. Time after time, the guys bet on red. The signature colour of Revolution Racing, regardless of whether they found much success with it or not.

Everyone was well beyond tipsy by now, but the best thing was watching Faith and Julien truly letting their hair down for once.

They were always semi-switched on and in parent mode even when Jasmine was miles away at home in Hawaii, but birthday trips were different.

They often missed them, but Brett had begged and pleaded with everyone to come this year on the basis that it was Esme’s first time joining them.