Page 73 of Jump Start

“Please don’t be mad. My phone rang, and I thought it was someone in the office. I heard your conversation with your Mum,” I admitted in haste, looking over at him. His face was unreadable in the afternoon sunlight.

“Oh, shit. How much did you hear?” he asked placing a hand on my thigh.

“Your Mum said that you could have your grandma’s engagement ring, and that’s where I hung up. I’m sorry!”

He chuckled and squeezed my thigh.

“Why are you sorry!? If you didn’t hang up, then you would have heard me tell her to shove it.”

“Shove it?” I asked, suddenly offended, knowing perfectly well that I had no right to be.

“Yeah, because I don’t want to bring my family shit into our marriage.”

“Our marriage?” I asked, realising deep down in this moment that was exactly what I wanted with Thomas.

“Yes, Harper. We will be getting married, just not yet, and I want to buy you a ring myself.” He smiled to himself, hand still on my thigh.

“I’m a little speechless?” I replied.

“You’ll always be my little passenger princess,” he teased, making me laugh and successfully breaking the ice.

I guess that was that. We weregetting marriedsometime in the future!

How could we have gone from being sworn enemies at one point to casually speaking about getting married? Our relationship had been nothing short of an adrenaline rush. I couldn’t help but grab onto Thomas and enjoy the ride.

Epilogue

Thomas

Winning the GT Championship in the past year had been one of the most exciting times of my life. My hard work had finally paid off and I was in the position to allow myself to enjoy it. Chris, Harper, and the team had supported me unconditionally and I was so grateful.

Now, as I sat here with my beautiful girlfriend, drinking coffee, I couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest man in the world.

Could this get any better?

***

Harper

Thomas and I were enjoying our morning coffee on the deck one sparkling Sunday morning, when we received a Facetime call from Chris, which, in itself, wasunusual.

Thomas leisurely picked up his phone and answered.

“THOMAS! HARPS! ARE YOU READY?” Chris’s excited face shone through the phone, and we huddled together to get in frame.

“Clearly not as ready as you are, mate,” Thomas said in his usual disapproving tone.

“Well hold on to your hats, people!”

“Just spit it out already, Chris!” I yelled into the phone between breaths.

“Echidna Racing has been accepted to compete in the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium in two years! Which is fucking great as we need that time to re-build the cars.”

“What the fuck?!” Thomas squeezed my shoulder with his free hand.

“That’s huge, oh my god!” My own excitement was starting to skyrocket.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Chris responded.

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