Phaedra flails a bare arm out the window of a white SUV, emitting an excited screech that makes nearby people swivel to look. I speed my steps across the walkway, wheeled suitcase purring behind.
“Look at you!” she shrieks. “Holy shitbiscuits, you have a certified bump. Wow! Get in here and—No, wait… what am I thinking?” She launches herself out of the car to wrestle the tow handle of my suitcase away. “You can’t be lifting shit, right?”
“Yes, Phae,” I say blandly. “I also can’t step over a rope or look at any ugly animals. Did you time-travel to the 1800s to learn about pregnancy?” I pull her into a hug, and despite not being a hugger, she just about collapses my lungs. “I do technically need to breathe though…” I add, my voice thin and strangled.
“Sorry!” She disengages and moves to hoist my bag into the back of the car. Slamming it shut, she plants her hands on her hips and surveys me head to toe. “Can I touch?”
“Um. Sure? Not very interesting yet. It just looks like I had too much pasta and garlic bread.”
She extends a cautious palm and flattens it over the slight roundness of four months’ pregnancy. “Weird. It’s hard, not squishy.”
“I’m not Santa Claus.”
“Very funny. Everything’s okay in there?”
“Right as rain. I just got the test results back in an email when we landed.” I smack her hand away from my abdomen. “Enough fondling. Let’s get outta here and stop tying up the loading lane.”
She takes two manic steps toward the passenger door before skidding to a stop and whipping around. “Wait, where the fuck are Sherri and Jason?”
“Stopped in Italy. They’ll be here day after tomorrow for the Thursday press conference. Mom has always wanted to see Venice.”
Wow.It still feels a little strange to say “Mom,” but… sometimes it sneaks in there lately, and I kinda like it.
I hop into the car when Phae holds the door for me. She jogs around and climbs in, quickly swooping into the exit lane traffic. “How’d they get passports this fast?”
“They applied December of last year—Auntie Min told them I lived in London, and they hoped to visit. Neither of them has ever been anywhere other than Kentucky, California, and the points on the map between. This is huge for them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to meet ’em.” She glances at me with apprehension. “It’s all good now, family stuff?”
“Maybe ‘allgood’ is ambitious. But we’re getting closer. I’m working hard tomakeus a family, for obvious reasons.” I lay a hand briefly on my belly in my houndstooth skirt. “We’re gonna do it right this time.”
“No plans to become a screwdriver murderer?” Phae teases.
“Too soon!” I deliver a mock-punch to her shoulder.
We fall into comfortable silence as Phae navigates a traffic situation. I sink deeper into my seat, sapped from the exhausting flight and looking forward to a long bath in the room Nefeli booked for me.
She didn’t play her usual blasé self and make me wait and wonder when I suggested covering one last grand prix in person but rather jumped at the chance. Alexander was surprisingly gracious about my stepping into his place—next season he’ll have the job to himself, so one race is no biggie.
Thinking of it—Alexander in my role next year, both at the grands prix and withARJ Buzz—I can’t help feeling a tiny bit bluesy, which in turn makes me scold myself for being selfish and shallow. I remind myself of all the thrilling things that’ll happen over this next year instead, but I can’t pretend this isn’t an unexpected pivot in my life’s course, to which I’m still acclimating.
The good news: The book,Faded Sunlight, is going amazingly. Like… sometimes-I-get-prickles-on-the-back-of-my-neck-level amazing, when I glimpse what it may become. The research has taken me to unexpected places andwhoa, if I’ve ever hoped for a “big and important” topic, this is it. I don’t know if it’s the Pulitzer Prize winner of my fantasies, but there’s little question it’ll get people talking.
My publisher said I should expect making the rounds on some talk shows and podcasts. Sherri too. As exposés go, this is a barn burner. The baby will be about a year old at the time of publication, and I’m hoping it won’t be too upsetting to leave her withmy aunt during the book tour. I can hardly expect Klaus to drop everything during an F1 season and come to Kentucky for dad duty.
Sherri will be traveling with me, and… there’s part of me that worries about Auntie Min going solo, being in her seventies and having a lot of arthritis. Can she keep up, and deal with all the lifting and bending and running around? Jason will be there to help when he’s not working, but it isn’t ideal.
I take a deep, slow breath and watch the scenery out the window, doing my best not to “borrow trouble,” as Auntie Min calls it.
“Ooh,thatwas a major sigh,” Phae comments. “Are you, uh… nervous about seeing Klausy?”
“No! Not in the least. We’re very friendly. He met my parents that time he was in Kentucky before the São Paulo GP, so everyone’s fine with everyone. We’ll be good co-parents. Even if we won’t be a couple.”
“Okaaaaay.” Her tone is that maddening half-amused know-it-all one that makes me want to mildly strangle her. “Since you’re trapped in the car with me, it’s a good time to get it out of you how you’re feeling about that whole thing.”
I flash a grumpy look at her. “You’re awful.”
“Ha! I know.”
