“Dios mío,” Nico whispers under his breath after yanking on the VIP paddock pass lanyard around my neck.
I scan the pit lane in search of whatever freaked him out. After spending the last two days gushing over meeting Formula 1 drivers, getting behind-the-scenes VIP tours of the different team garages, and experiencing practice rounds from the grandstands, I thought Nico would be used to all the excitement by now.
Like you can judge, I say to myself. I’ve been equally—if not more—distracted by everything happening around us. Between eavesdropping on interviews, spotting celebrities hanging around the pit lanes, and Rafael surprising us with a Formula 1 driver taking us around the track in a high-speed car, I’m overstimulated in the best possible way.
If it weren’t for Rafael keeping us on schedule and out of trouble, Nico and I would have been lost on day one.
“Ellie! Look!” Nico pulls on my pass again when I don’t answer him.
“What is it?” Rafael asks.
“It’s him!” Nico shifts his eyes from our faces to the McCoy garage, where his favorite Formula 1 driver is currently standing beside his race car. Elías Cruz, who looks just as handsome in person as he does on TV, laughs at something another man says before pulling him in for a quick kiss.
He is quickly pushed aside by a brunette woman with a big smile and a McCoy hat with an embroidered number ten on the front.
“Oh shit!” Nico shouts before clapping a hand over his mouth.
“Nicolas.” Rafa shoots him a look that would spark fear in anyone but his son.
“Perdón, Papi.” His sheepishness quickly fades away as he checks out something in the garage.
I look in the direction of Nico’s wide-eyed stare and gasp. “No way.”
Rafael turns to see who stunned us. His brows crinkle and his eyes narrow at the person Nico and I are both gawking at.
Jax Kingston—a retired British Formula 1 driver who used to race with Elías—pulls the brunette woman away. He wraps his arms around her torso and whispers something in her ear that makes her blush and smack his arm with a soft laugh. I didn’t recognize his wife at first with the large pair of sunglasses she’s wearing and the hat obscuring her face, but the sparkling diamond ring on her left hand proves that’s her.
“Who’s that?” Rafael squints at the tattooed man with light brown skin and curls cut close to his scalp.
“Jax Kingston!” Nico answers while wildly waving his hand, earning a few glances from those around us.
The retired driver turns, and his frown quickly transforms into a smile when he catches Nico bouncing up and down on the tips of his toes.
He may not be on the grid anymore, but everyone stops and stares as he strolls over to us with a confidence that can’t be faked.
“Oh my God.” My face heats.
Rafael’s gaze swings over to me. “Why are you blushing?”
“Because it’s Jax Kingston.” I choke on the words.
“So?”
“So, he’s…” I stop talking once Jax stops in front of us.
The British driver holds his hand out for Nico to grab. “And who are you?”
“Nico!” He shakes his hand hard enough to make me wince.
“Nice to meet you.” Jax returns the gesture with another dazzling smile.
“And this is Ellie,” Nico offers without Jax asking. “She had the biggest crush on you when you used to drive for McCoy.”
I could die of embarrassment as everyone’s eyes swing to me. Thankfully, Jax looks amused rather than horrified by Nico’s confession, although the same can’t be said for Rafael.
“Is that right?” Rafael spares me a raised brow.
The pink on my face only deepens under their stares. “It was a while ago.”
Jax’s smile grows. “I didn’t retire that long ago.”
Rafael’s glare makes my heart race. “And when was that exactly?”
“Long enough.” I tug on his arm to gain his attention.
“I thought I was your only crush.” His lips press into a thin line.
“You might have been my first—”
Jax covers his laugh with a cough, earning another death stare from Rafael.
“And I’ll be her last,” Rafael says to Jax rather than me.
Jax rubs his stubbled cheek with his left hand, showing off the gold wedding band on his ring finger.
I will not lie. The subtle reference to his wife is effortless, charming, and automatically makes me like him that much more.
“Papi.” Nico groans. “You’re so embarrassing.”
“Agreed.” I nudge his father in the ribs with my elbow.
“No worries. I get it. My wife acts the same way.” Jax’s eyes sparkle as he glances over his shoulder at the woman. Their eyes lock, and she waves at him with a beaming smile before returning to her conversation with Elías and his husband.
Elías pauses in the middle of what he was saying and calls out Jax’s name, who holds up his hand.
“Be there in a minute.”
“Whoa,” Nico says. “You’re friends with Elías Cruz?”
“Some days, sure, but mostly because he’s my daughter’s godfather.”
Nico’s eyes go wide behind his navy frames. “Really?”
“Yup. In hindsight, I should’ve picked someone else because now I’m stuck with him for life.”
“I heard that!” Elías shouts in retaliation, making Jax chuckle under his breath.
Jax checks out Nico’s McCoy T-shirt and the Mexican flag temporary tattoo he has on his hand. “Are you a fan?”
“Yes!”
“Would you like me to introduce you to Elías?” he asks.
We have tickets to meet him in an hour, but there is no way Nico and I would turn down an opportunity to spend some time with Jax Kingston and Elías Cruz. It’s like hitting the Formula 1 VIP experience jackpot.
“Can we? Please?” Nico looks up at his dad.
“Of course.”
Nico is glued to Jax’s side as he turns back to the garage.
Rafael wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me against him. “I wouldn’t want to deny you spending extra time with your crush.”
I glare at him. “Relax, Prom King. That was a long time ago.”
Jax laughs as he leads us into the McCoy garage. He claps Elías on the shoulder before tilting his head in our direction and saying, “You have some fans who want to meet you.”
“And who do we have here?” Elías asks with a smile.
Nico jumps in front of him. “Hola. Me llamo Nicolas.”
Elías’s eyes light up at Nico’s T-shirt with Elías’s number on the front and back. “At least some people support me.” He sticks his tongue out at Jax’s wife before holding his hand out for Nico.
“I’m Elías.”
“Yo se.” Nico laughs to himself.
The Mexican driver gives Nico five minutes of his undivided attention, even going as far as showing him the race car he plans on driving during today’s qualifier for the Mexican Grand Prix. He is soon called away, but not before Rafael has a chance to hold out his hand and thank the driver for making his son’s entire trip.
“That was so cool!” Nico says as soon as we are shuffled out of the garage.
“I know. I can’t believe he let you try on his helmet.” I check out the photo that became my new wallpaper.
“Best day ever!” Nico grins as he takes a seat in the grandstand beside his father. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Rafael ruffles his hair before reaching for my hand and lacing our fingers together.
“Was it your best day ever too?” he teases.
I roll my eyes. “Nope. That one hasn’t happened yet.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because I would have written about it by now.”
His head tilts with piqued curiosity. “In our song?”
My lips pull into a smile. “I never said it was ours.”
“You didn’t need to.” He pulls me into a chaste kiss.
“Then how do you know?”
“Took me longer than I’d like to realize the blond girl who caught me crying on Christmas Eve was you, but I put two and two together once I heard you reference a prom king.” The sparkle in his eyes, along with his hushed confession, makes my heart stutter.
“And you waited until now to say something?”
He lifts our clasped hands up to his mouth and kisses the back of my hand. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I like listening to you play while you think I’m asleep.”
My mouth drops open.
He presses his lips against my ear and whispers. “Tell me one thing.”
“What?”
“Do you ever plan on letting me listen to the whole song once it’s done?”
I shrug. “Maybe.”
His eyes narrow to slits. “That’s not a yes.”
“Only because I don’t plan on ever finishing it.”
“Why not?”
“Like stories, some songs should never end.”
“Not even ours?”
I shake my head. “Especially not ours.”
His brows pinch. “At some point, there has to be a final verse.”
“If there is, I don’t plan on ever writing it.” That much I can promise.
So long as Rafael and I are together, our love song will remain incomplete. Like a melody with no pause or a song with no outro. We’re a story without an ending…
And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
