Page 56

CHAPTER 56

Senna

My fingers dance across my tattoo as I side-eye my guests. “What are they doing here?” I ask Jacs under my breath.

We’re several hours into race preparation, and Dad and Niki have silently judged everything we’ve done so far.

“What have they said to you?” Jacs replies. She’d left my side to chat with her team and do checks, but she’s back again, and a multitude of lines cover her forehead.

I grip the desk. “Nothing. I nodded at them eventually, but that’s it. They’re both in my bad books, so I’m not going to them.”

“Have they killed Connor? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“He scarpered pretty quickly after they caught us in the middle of our dramatic love declaration. It’s probably for the best, although I’ll tease him about it later.”

“Fair. But what are they up to?” she says, pointing towards Dad and Niki, who sit at the side, their gaze flicking around the room at the bustle of engineers discussing strategy and finalising plans. Occasionally, their heads dive together and they whisper something.

They’ve done that several times in the last hour, and I desperately wanted to stare at where they’d looked before their sneaky chats to decipher which part of my team they were judging.

“What’s this now?” Jacs shouts, drawing my attention to Connor and Uncle Ralf, who stride into the garage and make a beeline for my family.

I swipe lip balm on my chapped lips.

“He did not just do that,” I exclaim as Connor shakes hands with Niki and my dad. “Why are they not killing him? I’m going to bloody kill him.”

“It’s probably better that they get on than not,” Jacs says, wincing.

“Don’t be so damn reasonable.” Jacs raises her eyebrows, and her lips squeeze into a cheeky smile. “Fine. You make a lot of sense. Maybe I should go over there and give them time to apologise, but I don’t want to.”

I pout, and Jacs shakes her head and laughs.

“It’s time,” Macca shouts, shushing the busy garage. He turns up the music and hollers above it. “And in honour of the last race with the best boss…” He stares sheepishly at my dad.

“Say it, Macca,” Jacs demands.

Macca clears his throat loudly. “In honour of our great leader and majestic boss, we have three songs for today’s pre-race session, and they’re her power tunes and one of Connor’s, too.”

My eyes snap to Jacs, who holds her hands up. I glance at Connor, who grins at me.

The first bars of “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac play from the stereo, and the garage cheers. The song used to be on a racing television show. For many of us, it was the soundtrack to the moments we fell in love with racing. Even the younger members of the team smile as it plays.

“It’s not the easiest song to dance to, so I’m speaking over some of it,” Macca announces.

“Get on the box,” Jacs shouts.

Macca grumbles but concedes once the garage starts chanting, “Box, box, box.”

“We don’t shout box unless we’re in a race!” Macca reaches into his pocket for notes. “I have words of wisdom to impart before we all smash this race and say goodbye to each other because many of us won’t stay if we don’t have our leader with us.”

After a couple of hushes, the garage is silent. I catch Dad’s eye but look away immediately. This wouldn’t have happened in his day. There were usually shouts and stress up until the last minute.

“As we all know, this year hasn’t been easy. First, we dealt with stroppy Dane and his crashes?—”

“Hey,” Connor interjects. He points at Macca, who laughs.

“And Antoine acted like a misogynistic, arrogant prick.” There are murmurs of agreement. “But while this was happening, we had our great lead mechanic, Jacs, and all of you improving cars and making them the beasts we have now.”

There are whoops and hollers amongst the team.

“But the glue in all of this was Senna. She worked more hours than most of us knew existed; she kept an eye on everything, ensuring we had the best conditions to excel while schmoozing investors and guaranteeing the cars were as perfect as possible. But she did something else. She respected our knowledge, cared about our lives, and made this a place where it was safe to have issues or mental health concerns, to get scared, and to miss those we leave at home to be part of this bonkers business of car racing. She loves cars and racing as much as us, but she cares about this family, too.”

There are more murmurs of agreement.

A tear brims at Macca’s eyes, and I rush over. He steps off the box briefly for a hug before resuming his place.

“And she made us a competitor. I’m not saying we weren’t before. But you brought something into the team we hadn’t had in a while.” Macca grips my hand tightly. “And no matter what happens, we will always have this moment when, against all odds, we brought fire, and we became a team people talked about for our spirit, fight, and ability. We love you, boss.”

I press the heels of my hands to my eyes, but the tears slip down regardless.

“Now shut up while we listen to the best bit of the song, and then we dance.”

The bridge of the song kicks in. Everyone stills, then cries, from the burliest of engineers to the grumbliest pit crew member to sweet Tawny. Jacs lets out a sob that surprises everyone, and I swear my dad and Niki have tears in their eyes as the song hits hard.

Thankfully, the next one is “The Man,” and everyone shimmies. My heart swells as the crew reminds me they’ve fought to be here in this moment, too.

“No sashaying?” Connor mouths from across the room, and I glare at him. His chuckle makes me shake my head and smile.

“Fine,” I shout, and I sashay over to him as everyone shouts along to the line about Leo in Saint-Tropez.

As the last beats of “Rebellion” by Arcade Fire, Connor’s race preparation song, play and everyone gathers in some form of calm, I give my last pre-race speech. We can’t get in the top six, but I finally believe that’s okay, because we’ll go off on a high no matter what.

“I wanted to say one last thing.”

The team stares at me with heads high and the respect I’ve earned over the season. This isn’t about my dad or Niki. This is for a group who worked hard and came on the journey with me. I moisten my lips and taste the remnants of my mango lip balm.

“As I observe each of you, my team, for the last time, I want you to believe that whatever the future brings, I’m here for you if you need to chat, deal with some shit, or show someone your new baby photos, even if you have an ugly baby no one else wants to look at.”

Everyone stares at Silas, whose ugly baby turned into a swan. He laughs with his hands in the air.

“I also want to say thank you. You all gave me a chance to lead you; I will forever be grateful. You impressed me and made me proud every day of this season. No matter what happens, remember you’re the best. You are incredible. You are family. And you’ve given me the best year of my life. No one can take away what we have done this year. Now let’s kick ass, Coulter Racing Team.”

Everyone cheers.

“A cheer for Tawny,” Macca shouts, because that’s our tradition now.

Everyone cheers with their hands in the air.

“A cheer for Dane the Pain.”

The cheer is gruffer this time, and fists are raised in a fight.

“A cheer for all of us,” Macca hollers, and the team shouts loudly and proudly.

“And finally, and let’s make this the biggest cheer this track has ever heard, and let’s make the other teams jealous, too, because, let’s face it, their bosses are shit compared to ours. A cheer for the best boss in the world, a cheer for Senna ‘Coults’ Coulter.”

The garage goes wild. Dad’s mouth drops open, and I beam. Niki and Ralf jump up and down with the rest of the group. Connor jumps so much that I press my lips together to stop shouting at him. He’d better not break his legs before the race starts.

Connor whispers in my ear as the group returns to their race preparations, “I have a confession.”

“What now?” I grumble, although it still comes with a smile.

“I’m the one that invited your family today. They want to talk to you about a plan Ralf and I devised.”

I lower my voice and pin him with my eyes. “What did you do, Dane?”

“Don’t Dane me,” he replies. He kisses my cheek. “I’ve got to go, but hopefully, they will speak to you before the end of the race.”

“Stay safe, and don’t drive stupid. At twelfth, it’s hard enough getting into the top ten, let alone anything else.” He grins at me. I’ve no influence on him today. “Love you, baby.”

“Love you more.” He kisses my cheek again and dashes away.