Race to the Top: Book one in the Racing to Find Love series (4 page)

Erik was enjoying his and Anna’s conversation. He usually
kept himself to himself on flights, preferring to play his Playstation Vita or
read a magazine or book. But it was nice, having someone to chat to who he
actually found interesting. She made him laugh. She excused herself to go to
the bathroom a couple of hours into the flight and, when she hadn’t returned in
a few minutes, he turned to see her sitting beside Devlin at the back. He felt
a rush of anger, and was surprised at himself. He was no fan of Devlin, but he
was usually pretty relaxed about his teammate’s behaviour with women.

He thought of Devlin’s long-suffering wife – he bet his teammate
hadn’t told Anna he was married – sitting at home, watching her husband on TV.
If he were married, Erik thought, he would want his wife at every race,
cheering him on. It would make him race harder – like he did when his parents
were there.

He was gladdened to see Anna’s body language wasn’t
particularly welcoming and, as he watched, he saw her face redden and she stood
up, Devin laughing. He wondered what Devlin had said. He watched her come back
along the aisle, her figure attractive even clad in the loose-fitting clothes
she had donned for the flight. He stood up to let her back in, and she brushed
against him slightly. It was a nice sensation, and he savoured it for a moment
before sitting back down beside her.

‘I thought Devlin had got his claws into you for the rest of
the journey,’ Erik said, feeling pleased when she shuddered.

‘Not a chance,’ she said. ‘He ambushed me on the way back.
He’s like a lion waiting for his prey to approach.’

Erik laughed. That summed up Devlin pretty well, he thought.

They chatted for a while, just about everyday stuff. Erik
found out that Anna had worked for the magazine for three years, and after a
bit of persuasion, she talked to him about the kind of articles she wrote. He
was impressed, some of them sounded really hard-hitting. She was obviously a
very intelligent woman.

‘So,’ she said to him after a while. ‘I have something I
need to ask. At the risk of sounding stupid, what the hell is “kers”?’

Erik laughed at the way she said the word, wrinkling her
nose up as she did. He thought she looked pretty cute like that. He started to
explain and she held a hand up, delving into her bag for her notepad again.

 ‘I’m sorry,’ Anna said apologetically, ‘I need to write
this down.’

Erik started his explanation again and Anna scribbled it
down in those funny little symbols.

‘So basically,’ Anna said, chewing the end of her pen, ‘It’s
like a little burst of speed you can use. Like a power button?’

Erik smiled. A power button. He liked that.

‘Pretty much,’ he said, ‘It’s a bit more technical than that
– even I don’t quite know the science behind it. What I do know is that mine
kept breaking last year.’

She had obviously heard the note of frustration in his
voice.

‘That must be incredibly annoying,’ Anna said, sounding sympathetic,
‘When stuff happens that’s out with your control.’

Erik shrugged.

‘Racing is quite like that,’ he said, ‘Sometimes things just
go wrong and you have to deal with it. Cars can just suddenly stop sometimes –
or not even get off the start line. But it can be frustrating, and hard not to
take it out on someone.’

‘The way you speak about it,’ Anna said. ‘It makes me want
to be part of it too. You’re so passionate about it.’

Erik felt a glow of pride. He worried that he came off a bit
too intense when talking about racing.

‘There’s nothing greater in the world,’ he said, and Anna
nodded at him, seemingly understanding.

‘Devlin said similar when I was talking to him earlier,’ she
said.

‘Oh?’ Erik was curious to know what the content of their
conversation had been.

‘He said being at a grand prix was the greatest place to be
on earth.’

Erik couldn’t argue with that. He nodded.

‘It really is.’ He paused for a second. ‘I hope he didn’t
say anything offensive – he can be an acquired taste.’

Anna laughed, and Erik watched the way her face lit up when
she did. She was really very attractive, he thought, glad she had chosen him to
sit next to.

‘Just a poor-taste joke about me and him sharing a hotel
room,’ she said, shrugging.

Erik rolled his eyes.

‘That sounds like Devlin,’ he said.

They both settled down to read after that, Erik reading his
racing magazine and Anna reading her racing book. He saw out of the corner of
her eye that her head kept nodding down and jerking back up, and eventually she
closed the book and rested her head against the side of the plane. After about
15 minutes, she shifted and turned in her seat, her head coming to rest on his
shoulder. He stayed absolutely still, not wanting to wake her up, and quite
enjoying having an attractive woman so close to him. He breathed in and could
smell her hair – it smelled of peaches and cream. They stayed like this for
about 40 minutes – his arm went numb and he was desperate to move, but he
didn’t want to wake her. Someone came down the aircraft handing out sandwiches
and he grabbed a pack for himself and then, after a moment’s hesitation, a
cheese sandwich for Anna too. He didn’t want her to be hungry when she woke up.

Anna woke up with a start and looked mortified when she
realised she had fallen asleep on him.

‘Don’t worry,’ Erik said, grinning at her. ‘You only snored
a little bit.’

When the look of horror on her face deepened he laughed.

‘I’m kidding, I’m kidding.’

He passed her the sandwich and she took it, thanking him.

They passed the rest of the flight in relative silence –
Erik felt she was extremely embarrassed about falling asleep on him. He wanted
to tell her that he’d actually quite enjoyed it, but he wasn’t sure how to
phrase it without coming across creepy, so he just sat there, occasionally sneaking
a peek at her out of the corner of his eye.

I cannot believe I fell asleep on a millionaire racing
driver, Anna thought to herself. She glanced at Erik, but he seemed engrossed
in some sort of handheld gaming device. Oh god, what if she had drooled on him?
She discreetly looked at his shoulder for any wet patches. To her relief, none
seemed visible. She was dreading telling Jules and Dan – Jules would whoop in
excitement and Dan would be appalled.

She was too embarrassed to try to make conversation with
him, which was disappointing to her. Anna had enjoyed their earlier
conversation – Erik was very articulate, and she felt bad for her earlier
assumption that he and Devlin wouldn’t have two brain cells to rub together.
Well, the jury was still out on Devlin, she thought.

Erik wasn’t what she had expected at all. She didn’t detect
any arrogance from him, which surprised her. She had assumed all racing drivers
would be the same – totally full of themselves, bathing in bank notes and champagne.
Erik hadn’t seemed like that at all. He was passionate, clearly. When he spoke
about racing, his whole face lit up and his voice had a sudden intensity to it.
She could tell that racing was the most important thing in his life.

She could tell it was important to Devlin, too. When he
spoke about racing, it was the only time it sounded like he was being serious.
Everything else seemed like a big joke to him, Anna thought, but not racing.

She could see why Erik and Devlin didn’t get on. They were
polar opposites, Erik quiet and intense, Devlin brash and arrogant.

Anna eventually managed to fall asleep again, this time
wedging herself against the side of the plane so she wouldn’t end up on Erik’s
shoulder.

***

By the time they landed in Australia, after one refuelling
stop, Anna felt like she had done ten rounds of a boxing match. Despite the
more generous than usual legroom, her whole body ached and she wondered how the
drivers managed when they then had to squeeze into the tiny cockpits of the
cars. Anna stretched, groaning, as she stood up and Erik laughed.

‘Do you get used to it?’ she asked, stifling a yawn.

‘Yep,’ Erik said, gathering his things together. ‘Your body
adapts. Plus, I spend half my time in a tiny cockpit, travelling at 200mph;
this is positively spacious.’ He indicated the legroom in front of him.

They disembarked and Anna was glad to see that there was a
coach parked next to the plane. Their luggage was being removed from the flight
and put in the coach’s hold. She was glad she wouldn’t have to struggle with it
for a little while longer, and wished again that she hadn’t brought so much
stuff with her.

Gary gathered everyone up like a clucking hen with its
chicks, and shepherded them onto the coach that would bring them to the hotel.
The atmosphere was dull – everyone was clearly tired, and even Devlin could
only manage an unenthusiastic ‘So you’ve made it down under,’ to Anna as he
passed.

She dozed on the journey, her head bouncing off the window,
waking her up repeatedly. There was no way she was going to face the other way,
though. Not after the embarrassment of the plane.

Mercifully, the coach ride was short and they pulled up
outside a very fancy looking hotel after about 30 minutes. Anna hauled herself
to her feet, and followed everyone else out of the bus. She saw her bag being
lifted off and went forward to claim it. Erik stopped her, holding out a hand.

‘The bagboys will get it.’

Anna looked around and, right enough, a few smartly
outfitted young men with trolleys stepped forward and started lifting the bags
up.

Gary waved his trusty clipboard in the air and beckoned
everyone over. They followed him dutifully inside the hotel, and waited while
he spoke to the receptionist and collected the keys for all the rooms. He then
walked amongst everyone, dishing out keys as he went.

‘The drivers usually arrange their own accommodation,’ Erik
explained, ‘But Gary made a big thing of team bonding and us all being together
for the first grand prix, so that’s why we’re here.’

Anna noticed the key he received from Gary was a lot fancier
than the key she received. He must be in one of the most expensive suites.

Erik saw her looking at it and obviously worked out what she
was thinking. Anna was surprised to see him blush, slightly, as if he was ashamed
of this slight excess. She wanted to say something to reassure him – heck, if
she was a famous racing driver who earned bazillions, she would want a suite
too. But she couldn’t think of anything to say, so they just smiled and said
goodbye as they went to their respective rooms.

Anna’s room was large and airy, and she flopped down onto
the king-sized bed when she got in. A few minutes later, there was a knock at
the door and a slightly wheezing bellboy brought in her suitcase.

Anna lay on the bed fully clothed for a while and then
checked her watch. She was totally out of sync with time. She thought it was
Tuesday, but she wasn’t entirely sure. She was amazed to see it was 4pm in the
afternoon – she felt like she had lost a whole day of her life. Anna counted
back the hours. Let’s see, if it was 4pm in Melbourne, it was 7am back home.
Jules would be up, she was sure. She was always up early with the kids.

Anna reached over to the phone on the bedside table, reading
the guidance for calling abroad as she did so. She dialled Jules’ number and
waited for the call to connect.

‘Hello?’

Good, Jules didn’t sound like she’d just woken up, Anna was
relieved to hear.

‘Jules, it’s Anna.’

‘Anna!’ she squealed. ‘Are you there? How was the flight?
What time is it? Where are you?’

Anna laughed at her torrent of questions.

‘Woah, woah, woah,’ she said, and she could almost hear Jules
grin sheepishly.

‘Sorry,’ Jules said, ‘I’ve just been so excited. Dan has
too, although he won’t admit it.’

‘Well, I’ll try to answer your questions. I am indeed here.
I am lying on a huge bed in a very fancy room in an even fancier hotel. The
flight was long – remind me to look at a map so I can comprehend just how far
we’ve travelled. My whole body aches. It’s 4pm here. And I fell asleep on Erik
Jonasson.’

Anna had to move the phone hastily away from her ear as Jules
let out a deafening squeal. Anna could hear the kids in the background joining
in, and Dan grumpily shouting at them all to be quiet.

‘You fell asleep on him? Oh my god, Anna, did he mind? Were
you sitting beside him the whole way? Are you getting married?’

‘Jesus, Jules, you’re like a woman possessed. Yes I fell
asleep on him, no he didn’t seem to mind, and by the way, I know you didn’t
ask, but I am mortified. We are not getting married.’

Anna told her briefly about her run-in with Devlin too and
she whistled.

‘He sounds like a bit of a bad boy,’ she said, sounding
impressed.

‘He’s an idiot, Jules,’ Anna said, shaking her head. ‘He’s
incredibly full of himself, he thinks he’s god’s gift to racing
and
women.’

From what Anna had read about him, he did at least have a
claim to the former.

‘Still,’ Jules said, ‘He is gorgeous. So’s the other one.’

Anna couldn’t really argue with that.

‘I need to get some sleep, Jules. I am totally exhausted,
and I have no idea what day of the week it even is.’

‘It’s Tuesday,’ Jules said, helpfully.

‘Thanks. Look I’ll call you tomorrow. Or today. Or whenever
I escape from this wormhole of time.’

They hung up, and as Anna put the receiver down, she could
hear Jules starting to relate her exciting tale to Dan. Anna smiled, imagining
his reaction when Jules reached the part about her falling asleep on Erik
Jonasson’s shoulder.

She changed into her comfiest pyjamas – they had little
bears printed all over them, and were made of cotton – and slipped under the
covers. The bed was ridiculously comfy and Anna was asleep within minutes.