Race to the Top: Book one in the Racing to Find Love series

by KT Shears

  ‘Oh you know,’ she waved a hand vaguely. ‘Things.’

  Anna gazed around as they entered the building.

  ‘Where is everyone?’

  She had expected to see the usual lines for check-in, and was surprised to see that the place was largely deserted.

  Erik looked puzzled for a second as he followed Anna’s gaze, and then seemed to understand.

  ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘It’s a private charter flight so we just get to go straight on.’

  ‘Wow,’ Anna said, betraying her ignorance, but he didn’t laugh. ‘Where’s your stuff?’

  ‘Already on the plane, I imagine. Someone else usually takes care of it,’ he said, lifting up Anna’s suitcase again. ‘Shall we?’

  She followed him as he led the way to a gate. Gary was standing by it, with a clipboard. Anna sniggered at the officious look on his face and Erik caught her eye, winking, as they approached.

  ‘Oh you’re here,’ Gary said, ticking something off on his list. ‘Go on through,’ he waved them past. ‘What have you got in that bag?’ he said, goggling as Erik hauled it past.

  They went down a set of steps and arrived on the airfield. This was a very strange experience, Anna thought. What about security? She had put everything in special baggies just for that purpose. Anna followed as Erik headed towards a medium-sized plane that was parked up a few hundred metres away. A man in a fluorescent jacket nodded as they got to him, and took the bag from Erik, struggling under its weight.

  ‘Names?’ he asked, consulting a sheet that he pulled out of his pocket.

  ‘Erik Jonasson and Anna Sawyer,’ Erik said, and Anna felt a burst of surprise that he had remembered her name. The man in the jacket jerked his head at Erik’s name, and stared up at him, obviously recognising him.

  ‘I’m a huge fan,’ he said, ‘I hope you win this year.’

  Erik nodded at him, graciously.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said, and held out his hand. The man took it, not believing his luck, and they shook. He then picked up Anna’s bag and hauled it away, presumably to load it onto the plane.

  ‘After you,’ Erik said, as he motioned towards the stairs.

  Anna climbed up, trying hard not to fall, and they entered the aircraft. It wasn’t like the usual cheap economy flights she took when she went on holiday – this plane was spacious and even the chairs looked like they’d cost a lot of money.

  ‘Where do I sit?’ Anna asked, feeling stupid. With no ticket, how did anyone know where his or her seat was?

  Erik shrugged.

  ‘Anywhere you like, really. Devlin always likes to be right at the back.’ Anna mentally struck the back of the plane off her list, ‘and Gary right at the front, so as he’s away from Devlin I think.’

  ‘I can’t say I blame him,’ Anna said and she saw Erik smile.

  ‘I tend to sit in the middle, away from them both,’ he admitted, laughing slightly. ‘You’re welcome to join me there.’

  Anna felt a faint glow of pleasure at being asked to sit with him. And it would be useful – she was determined to find out what this mysterious ‘kers’ was before she embarrassed herself in front of someone important.

  ‘That sounds good,’ Anna said. ‘Being far away from either of them will make for a much more relaxing journey.’

  She took the window seat at Erik’s insistence – ‘I’ve done this flight plenty of times’ – and gradually the plane filled up. Anna saw Devlin get on and averted hers gaze as he strolled past.

  ‘Erik,’ he said, coolly. And then he saw Anna beside him. ‘And Anna, wasn’t it? Nice to see you again.’ He winked and she rolled her eyes at him. He chuckled and carried on to the back of the plane.

  ‘What a sleaze,’ Anna muttered.

  Apparently, it was Gary’s ‘thing’ to do a little speech on the plane before they took off for the first grand prix of the season. It was boring, and Anna noticed a few people settling down to nap. She felt she should at least be a little professional, and took her notepad out of her handbag, starting to scribble.

  ‘What are all those weird symbols?’ Erik asked, peering at what she was writing.

  ‘Shorthand,’ Anna said. ‘Lots of journalists know it. It’s basically just a quicker way of writing when people are talking. It’s impossible to write longhand at someone’s talking speed.’

  She pointed to a symbol.

  ‘That means championship,’ she explained, ‘but it’s phonetic – each line and squiggle represents a sound, so when I read this back I read the sounds and put them together to make the word.’

  Erik nodded, interested.

  ‘How fast can you go?’ he asked, curiously.

  Anna shrugged.

  ‘It’s been a while since I did my exam,’ she admitted, ‘so I’m probably a bit rusty. You’re meant to be able to work at normal speaking pace, but I’m not quite fast enough for that. Luckily Gary doesn’t say that much worth writing down, so it’s pretty easy to keep up.’

  Erik laughed and watched as Anna made a few more scribbles.

  ‘I wouldn’t be able to read it back,’ he said, waving a hand at the page. ‘I’d come back to it an hour later and it would all be meaningless.’

  She smiled.

  ‘Sometimes I have a brief panic about that too, when I can’t decipher the first word and then worry I’ve written a whole interview in a made-up language I’ve forgotten. But I can usually make sense of it.’

  Gary stopped speaking, blessedly, and sat down, buckling himself in. Anna put the notepad away.

  ‘I’ll test you when we arrive,’ Erik said, grinning at her.

  ‘Deal,’ Anna said, laughing.

  Chapter six

  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.

  Chapter seven

  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?’