Never Again(16)

Chapter Four



Ella



Sophie and I decide to take a stroll down the beach our last night in Valencia. It’s only a few minutes away from the center of the city and our hotel. We’re slowly walking down the beach, just taking in the scenery. It’s breathtaking. The lights of the city at night are reflected in the sea surface; it looks so magical. Soon, we hear loud voices and laughter in the distance. As we approach, the silhouettes become more visible. We see it’s a few racers from today’s race alongside some of their friends and fans. Caroline immediately recognizes us, and waves for us to come closer.

“Hey, girls, come, there’s plenty of booze for all of us,” she points to her beer bottle and drags us closer to the others. “Everybody, this is Sophie and Ella.” I smile awkwardly and give a little wave. Sophie has already joined them, and when I scoot closer and sit next to her, I whisper in her ear.

“Don’t you think we don’t quite belong here? They’re celebrating, it feels like we’re crashing their private party.”

“Don’t be silly. Caroline invited us to join them,” she whispers back. I look around the circle, and I suddenly see blue eyes with specks of gray openly staring at me with interest; Jake’s blue eyes with specks of gray, to be specific. Eyes that are hard to forget. I wave at him shyly, and focus my attention on the conversation. I find out Ross David, racer for Ducati, is actually Caroline’s cousin. She is proudly sitting next to him, and sharing interesting anecdotes from all the races she’s seen.

I’m also told Mike is married, and I immediately take a liking to his lovely wife Debbie. She’s down to earth and doesn’t play a diva just because she’s married to a world famous racer. Sophie excitedly shares with everybody what a big fan of theirs she is, how she owns a bunch of T-shirts and baseball caps with their logos on them and how she taped each and every race of theirs. We’re sitting on the beach, drinking and talking for a couple of hours. The subject of conversation is mostly motorcycling, which is not something I know much about, but I’m still enjoying myself. After a while, I get drowsy and I glance at my watch. I nudge Sophie.

“It’s late, shall we go?” I hug my arms around my middle as it has gotten a bit chilly. The midnight breeze blowing from the ocean doesn’t help either. Since I didn’t expect to be out so long, I didn’t think of taking a jacket with me.

“Yes, I’ll just finish up this drink and then we can go,” Sophie nods and I get up, brushing the sand off my jeans. I walk to the water and stand there for a while, enjoying the view, my arms around my waist. Josh invades my mind again. The thought of him makes me smile. He would be over the moon if he got the chance to be here, at the race, hanging out with the racers. He loved their world. What would it be like, being here on vacation with him? I sigh. Why was he so crazy about motorcycles? Suddenly, I feel a weight on my shoulders, and I turn toward the person that draped their jacket around me.

Jake.

“Is that better?” he points to the jacket and I wrap myself in it. I nod.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” he waves his hand. “Are they boring you?”

“Who?”

He looks over his shoulder to the others. “My friends.”

“Oh, no, no,” My mood has nothing to do with them. “They’re actually very nice. I just wanted to take a few minutes to take in everything before I leave. I like it here.”

“So,” we say simultaneously. We grin at each other and Jake nods for me to continue.

“Have you been racing long?” He looks at me sideways.

“For about ten years, the last five more professionally.”

I nod. “Ugh, I can’t imagine being in the center of attention all the time—the cameras, the press, the girls,” I curiously raise an eyebrow at him.

“You eventually get used to it. I don’t even notice the cameras anymore.” His hands are in his pocket, and he’s rocking back and forth on his heels. “And you, where are you from?”

“Indianapolis,” I answer. He nods and rubs his chin with his hand, eyes fixed on the sea.

“Me t—” he starts just as a slightly intoxicated Sophie approaches us, and interrupts him.

“Ella, we better go, otherwise I’ll soon be too drunk to stand up straight. Oh, Jake, I didn’t see you there.” Jake greets her and I shrug out of his jacket. I hand it back to him, and thank him again. Sophie hooks her elbow with mine and we say goodbye to everybody.

“I’ll see you around,” Jake calls after me. See me around? I doubt that, but I still nod. I wave him goodbye, and then Sophie and I head back to our old lives.