Jump Start

34. Thirty-four

Thirty-four

Harper

“ D o we have to do this shit?” Thomas winced as he trailed behind me, walking to the newly built media studio at Echidna Racing.

“Yes, you do have to do this shit. This is what makes you popular,” I replied, guiding him into the room.

“I don’t want to be popular; I just want to race.” As he took a seat on a stool, I wedged myself in between his legs.

“If you be good today, you will be rewarded,” I whispered in his ear.

Suddenly he sat up straight with a large smile on his face. Good.

“Alright, what’s first, lovelies?” I heard Holly ask as the photographer set up their equipment.

I made my way over to the group to hear their plan for the day.

“We’ll have Thomas do some close-ups with and without the helmet, and if we can, we’d like to get a smile out of him,” Gregory, the photographer, said with a smirk.

“Good luck,” Thomas’s voice echoed across the studio.

I rolled my eyes and went to find a spot to continue working. I could have gone back to my office, but I thought I should stay in case Thomas needed to be whipped into shape .

A few moments later, Landon casually walked through the door, his helmet resting on his hip while he spoke into his phone.

I caught his eye and waved to him. I respected Landon a lot. He was very young, but mature and down to earth. He was also completely unphased by the whole media and marketing thing and was happy to partake in anything we asked of him. Unlike someone else I knew.

“Hey, Harps!” he greeted me happily as he approached my table. I stood up to hug him.

“Landy!” We had become closer over the last twelve months, and I was happy to call him a friend.

Landon and Thomas were grouped together for a few test shots, beautiful big smiles from Landon and a whole lot of nothing from Thomas. Brown sparkling eyes, sure. Tall and handsome, absolutely. Happy to be there? Definitely not.

As I worked, I heard the photographer speak to his assistant in the background.

“He’s not giving us anything.” I rolled my eyes for the hundredth time and walked over to Thomas.

His face instantly lit up at the sight of me. He really was incredibly cute.

I wrapped my hands around what I could of his wrists and moved his arms from side to side, the look on his face confused.

“What are you—”

“Just shh! Loosen up, it’s not that bad. It’s just photos, Thomas,” I whispered, then leant in to kiss him. “Loosey goosey, let me see some movement.”

His response was a half-assed movement of the hips.

Better than nothing. He better behave .

At Chris’s request, a small studio was set up to build on the media content that Echidna currently had of its drivers. In the day and age of social media, Holly had her hands full, especially trying to keep up with the content consistently being put out by the other major motorsport sectors like F1 and Supercars.

Sure, GT was lesser known in some parts, however, the skillset, processes, and work required to keep a GT team running were the same. Chris himself had been a GT Champion in the past, and his love of the sport was so much so, that he started his own team, sourced his favourite drivers from across the country, and was finally able to build a small precinct in the outer eastern suburbs of Sydney. I didn’t really care how much Thomas didn’t want to be part of media day. I cared about Chris and his vision, which was why Thomas would do exactly as I said.

I forced a smile as I realised the look on my face must have been savage, catching Thomas’s eye as he posed next to Landon. Working with him certainly had its benefits, whether it was a quick make-out session in my office or sometimes driving in together. I’ll admit, I was a fan.

Once the photoshoot was over, Thomas and I walked back to my office together, him holding his helmet against his hip as he walked, his other hand holding mine.

“So, I was good, when is my reward?” He stopped in his tracks and turned to ask me, his face hopeful and mischievous at the same time.

“When we get home. I’m busy!” I replied quickly and continued to walk. As we reached my office door, he planted a kiss on my cheek. I opened the door and shut it quickly behind me. I really did have a lot of work to do and now was not the time to be distracted by my tall, handsome, race car driver boyfriend.

Focus, Harper.

***

I sat down intending to reply to emails, when my desk phone rang. I picked it up, ready to speak, but Thomas was already talking. He must have hit the conference button somehow.

I knew I should have hung up, but I didn’t.

“Hey Mum, nice to hear from you.” His voice was softer than usual through the phone.

“Thought I would catch you before you finished for the day. How are you, dear?”

“I’m good, just had meetings and briefings all day. Standard start of the year stuff.”

“You must be excited. How is Harper going?”

He took long exhale before answering.

“Harper is…phenomenal. She’s knocking it out of the park here at work and living with her is a dream. I’m very lucky.” My face blushed at his words, though my conscience screamed at me. Hang up the fucking phone, Harper!

“She is lovely, son, we really liked her. I was actually calling to speak to you about Harper.” I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up for some reason.

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Thomas answered with the same concern I was feeling.

“Since you are in a relationship before your brother, your father and I wanted to ask if you would like Grandma’s engagement ring. In case you wanted to propose?” As soon as I heard those words, I slammed the phone down and took a deep breath.

I didn’t need to know what he said next. I wasn’t sure how I felt about marriage, and I certainly didn’t need to know how he felt.

Ignorance was bliss. I would just pretend that never happened.

I shook my head and attempted to get back to work, with the thought of the potential outcome of that conversation playing over and over in my mind. Thomas and I had only been together, officially, for just under a year. I didn’t expect that from him yet and I hoped that he felt no pressure. Usually, he would take whatever his parents said to him with a grain of salt, so I would try to do the same.

***

The rest of the day went by in a blur and before I knew it, it was time to head home. Thomas had driven us in today, for which I was grateful. I was exhausted.

I hopped up into the passenger seat of his ute and let out a deep breath, which turned into a sigh.

“Oh, a bit tired there, Harps?” he asked while turning the key in the ignition.

I nodded and settled into the seat further while kicking off my boots. They looked amazing, but the heels killed me at the end of the day.

“How was your day?” I asked Thomas as he spun the steering wheel around, his hands moving softly from one end of the wheel to another.

“It was…interesting. I spoke with my Mum, and it went down a weird road.” His voice cracked a little.

I froze. How the fuck was I going to play this?

“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 were getting married sometime 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.