Page 66 of Kiss & Collide
Javier leaned in and stage-whispered. “She looked nervous. I wanted to be sure she was all right.”
Tyler eyed his father. “And?”
Javier shrugged with a smile. “And I thought she was beautiful.”
“Awww,” Tyler and Chase chorused together, like it was a line in a play. Violet could imagine them telling and retelling this story at every family gathering until everyone knew it by heart, but wanted to hear it again just the same. As much as she hated to admit it, it made something ache in her chest. What must itbe like, to have this kind of love and support at your back, no matter what? She’d never known.
“So I explained that I’d just started at University of Chicago and I didn’t know how to get back to campus.”
“And I said that’s no problem! I go to University of Chicago, too. I’ll walk you home and show you the way.”
“So we walked through Chicago, talking the whole way,” Nicole said, looking at Javier with gentle affection.
Javier smiled back at her. “By the time we got back to campus, I knew I was going to marry her.”
“And four years later, we were!” Tyler and Chase chorused again, and the whole family burst out in laughter.
“That’s a great story.” She was pretty sure her parents had just had a drunken hookup, and her mother had gotten knocked up. “It’s great, the way you all tell it.”
“Just wait until you meet Dad’s side of the family,” Chase said. “Reenacting family beefs going back hundreds of years.” He took a swig of his beer, so he missed the shocked look she shot him. Did he realize he’d just said that?
Before any of his family could comment on it, their dinner arrived.
“Chase, how did you meet Violet?” Nicole asked, once they’d all started eating.
She glanced at Chase again, but he was leaning back in his chair, smiling easily, not the least bit thrown by the question. “Well, we work together. But we’ve been crossing paths on the circuit for a while now, right, Violet?”
“Sure. Everybody knows everybody on the circuit.”
“So tell us about you, Violet,” Javier said, topping up her wine. “I can hear from your accent that you’re English.”
“Got it in one,” she replied, nudging her grilled zucchini around her plate with her fork. “I, um, grew up in Colchester.That’s in Essex. I spent some time working in music before switching to auto racing.” Just the bullet points of her existence, no hint of the drama and heartbreak behind those facts.
“Music, huh? Which are harder to work with, musicians or drivers?”
She couldn’t help flashing a quick, teasing smile in Chase’s direction. “Oh, drivers for sure. Pure chaos.”
“Don’t I know it?” Nicole groaned as the rest of the table laughed. Chase and Tyler reached out to fist-bump each other.
Javier elbowed Chase. “She’s got your number, doesn’t she?”
Chase turned to smile at her, a smile that was way too intimate to show off in front of his family. “She sure does.”
As they ate, Nicole and Javier passed along well-wishes from Chase’s large extended family. In addition to Nicole’s tangle of American relatives, Javier had four sisters in Spain, so Chase had an army of aunts, uncles, and cousins in Europe as well, and it sounded as if they all talked constantly with each other in some massive WhatsApp chat.
“Nervous about the track?” Javier asked Chase as their plates were cleared.
Dinner was over, but no one seemed in a hurry to leave. As the sun set, the sky lit up in a brilliant explosion of orange, magenta, and purple, and the string lights overhead flickered on.
Chase shrugged. “I’ve driven some F2 races here. It’s not bad.”
“The car’s looking good,” Javier said.
“That’s all Rabia Dar,” Violet interjected.
Chase nodded in agreement. “It’s unbelievable what she’s been able to accomplish with the car in just a few weeks. Next year’s car could change everything for Pinnacle.”
“You should see Chase’s simulator times in the new car,” Violet said to Javier.
