Chapter Sixteen

Dixie was practically bouncing in her seat she was so excited. The plane she was on had had to circle the airport twice before finally being given permission to land, and it seemed like it was taking absolutely forever.

So far, nothing during her trip had gone smoothly, but once she saw Javier again, it would all be worth it, she mused.

First, her luggage went to O’Hare instead of Amsterdam, then she had had trouble finding a car service that could drive her to Assen, which was almost ninety miles from the airport.

Plus, she’d nearly missed her connecting flight due to a faulty ticket scanner in the airport.

And she’d spilled coffee on her favorite skirt, but still! She was on her way now.

She couldn’t wait to get back to the ‘circus’ – coming home had been great for the ‘sunshine, your own bed, catch up with friends’ factor, but she’d missed the hustle and bustle, the competition, the excitement.

And yes, the men.

Javier, of course, but she found that she missed Cade too – they’d grown so close since she’d returned to ‘bike world’, and he was one of her closest confidants – something she realized was lacking in her life in California, no matter how close she and Jackie were.

And, if she was being honest, she missed Nicky too.

Well, Nicky from a few weeks ago, not sullen, bratty Nicky that had taken over his body like an alien when she left the circuit.

She missed the simple times of Gamble Ranch – she almost wished they were going there, instead of on the road for the race.

Still, Javier was in Assen, so to Assen she would go.

She hadn’t told him she was coming, instead hoping it would be a happy surprise to see her before qualifying got underway. From the sounds of it, he’d been having trouble with the track all week, but Nicky seemed to be performing strongly so far.

She hoped that maybe she would be able to bring some much needed good luck to Javier – and to bring them closer as a, dare she say it, as a couple.

She’d decided that this was the weekend – to finally trust him enough to go to bed with him, and hope that he accepted her as she was.

In truth, she was dying to go to bed with him, but past experiences with men in the bedroom had made her cautious – she just wanted to make sure the time was right to tell him.

She also hoped she’d be able to talk with Nicky – really talk to him – about what was going on with the two of them. They wouldn’t be a very productive training team if they can’t communicate, can’t get past whatever roadblock they’ve each put up with the other.

It was time to straighten things out on a number of levels, Dixie thought with a smile – and to take a Spanish lover, she thought with flushed cheeks and an embarrassed laugh.

Dixie grabbed the armrests as the airplane came to a bumpy rest on the runway, and practically leapt from her seat when the seatbelt sign was turned off.

It was time to go racing again – now.

**

After swinging by the hotel to check into a room – without luggage, but still, it was nice to have somewhere to freshen up a bit – Dixie had taken the car to the track, despite the earliness of the hour. She knew the teams would be up and at ‘em, and often the drivers were as well on qualifying day, so she fully expected to run into Javier and Nicky not long after breakfast.

She thanked the driver of the team car as he delivered her to the back fence line of the hauler area and she used her hard pass to get through the security that was in charge of entrances there. Her footfalls gained speed as she hurried towards the coaches, mentally debating where to go first – Cade’s hauler, or Javier’s?

Javier’s, she thought with a sly grin. She couldn’t wait any longer to see him…

She got to his door and knocked softly after glancing at the watch on her wrist, reset for Dutch time, noting it was still quite early and he might only be just now waking up or grabbing a coffee.

When she got no answer, she tugged lightly on the handle and it opened several inches, giving Dixie a view of a dim interior and let her hear some sort of panting or heavy breathing.

Oh god, was Javier having some sort of asthma attack? Or a fit of some kind?

She pulled the door open all the way and leapt inside, ready to help Javier or call an ambulance when she froze in place, her mouth literally dropping open – something she thought was only an expression, not something that actually happened.

Javier was home, all right, but he wasn’t having an asthma attack.

Though he was having trouble breathing, she noted dimly, probably due to the ministrations of the buxom blonde who was kneeling directly in front of him with Javier’s fingers tangled in her long hair.

Dixie must have made some sort of sound – a squeak, maybe, or a gurgle – because Javier looked up, his coffee brown eyes widening in alarm, shock, surprise and embarrassment.

Dixie squeaked – or gurgled – again, then spun on her heel and bolted from the coach, even as Javier called for her to wait, to stop, come back, he could explain, stop mi tesoro….

Sure, I’m sure he could explain, Dixie thought, brushing hot tears of anger and actual, physical pain from her cheeks. He tripped and fell into her mouth, maybe…

Ugh, Dixie shuddered, trying to get the image out of her mind even as she gained speed, nearly breaking into a run.

She thought they had something special, she mentally berated herself as she wound her way sightlessly through the coaches, not knowing where she was going. She thought she was special to him.

It had felt so good to be special to someone.

Too bad that someone was a cheating pig, Dixie thought, her hurt turning more into anger now.

Well fuck Javier De Costa! Dixie thought angrily. She was worth better than that, dammit!

She nearly cried again – this time in relief – when she saw the door open to Cade’s hauler and the smell of coffee emanating from within.

Without learning her lesson from a few minutes before, she burst in, then hoped she wouldn’t find herself walking into yet another painfully uncomfortable moment, but instead she found Cade and Nicky each nursing coffees, clad in track suits and unshaven stubble, messy hair and weary smiles at the disruption.

Their expressions changed, though, when Dixie burst in, her face no doubt tearstained and a lovely mottled red color from humiliation and anger.

She so did not care.

“Dixie?” Cade said by way of greeting. “What…”

“I, I came as a surprise, god I thought I’d be a good surprise but instead I…” Dixie began before bursting into tears again. Cade immediately stood and enveloped her in his arms, rocking her back and forth comfortingly while Nicky sat frozen in place, his heart aching to see Dixie so distressed.

“Try again…” Cade said after a few minutes, his hands running soothingly up and down her back.

“I flew over to Assen as a surprise – the client I went back to California to rehab progressed faster than I thought, so I could come back and rejoin the tour earlier than I thought. And I thought a surprise would be, you know, nice. For Ja… for Javier. But when I went to surprise him, I was the one who was seriously surprised.”

“Because?” Cade prompted quietly.

“Because he was a little busy fucking someone else,” Dixie said, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. “I walked right into his coach like I belonged, and they were… I thought… I thought he liked me,” she said, then barked out a laugh. “Oh my god, I’m back in ninth grade and Doug Wiley has just dumped me for Gretchen Barney. ‘I thought he liked me’”, she said again, mimicking her own voice. “God, I’m such a fuck up. And apparently have reverted back to dorktastic high school Dixie.”

“You are  not a fuck up,” Cade said holding her close. “And Doug Wiley is a used cars salesman now in Provo, Utah. You dodged a bullet there, friend.”

Dixie laughed at that, truly laughed, and then snuggled into Cade’s arms again. “Thanks for that. But I… I was going to… I thought he was special. That I was special to him. I mean, for god’s sakes, I thought it was charming and sexy that he called me ‘mi tesoro’. My treasure. I bet he calls every girl that and they practically fling their panties in his direction.”

“If that’s all it takes, I’ll call any chick mi tesoro,” Cade said, trying to make her laugh again by deliberating pronouncing it ‘my thesaurus’. “Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing wrong all this time. Think it would work on Jackie? I’d totally catch them if she flung her panties at me.”

“I’d like to thank you for giving me thirty seconds of your undivided attention before falling back into type and thinking about sleeping with my administrative assistant,” Dixie said, but Cade knew she wasn’t angry, just reverting back to teasing mode.

Cade pulled back, his eyes meeting hers. “I’m sorry, Dix. I really am. Javier is a dick, and he never did, nor will he ever, deserve you. I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“Well, Nicky did try to…” Dixie trailed off when she noticed that at some point during her tirade, Nicky had apparently up and left the coach altogether.

Wow, nice. Way to be a friend, she thought darkly. Can’t even lend a little sympathy?

“Warn you?” Cade finished for her, and she nodded.

“Yeah, but I guess warning was all he could do. Can’t handle the fallout, I guess,” Dixie said, trying to make her voice light. “Now, if I promise not to have a complete girly meltdown, can I have some coffee and maybe hide in here for a while?”

Cade nodded. “Sure.”

“Also, um, can I borrow some clothes?”

**

Though Dixie assumed that Nicky cared so little about her pain that he’d just up and left, the opposite was actually true.

It hurt so badly to see her in pain that he’d had to actually leave the coach, especially after she confessed about the ‘mi tesoro’ thing, because she was absolutely right.

Javier called every girl at every track over the age of about sixteen ‘mi tesoro’.

It made Nicky ill to think about how much Dixie was hurting, all thanks to a cocky Spaniard who couldn’t keep it in his pants.

Dixie deserved so much better, and she deserved to have people around her who valued her and cared for her.

Fucking De Costa, Nicky thought, a fresh bout of rage coming over him. Without thinking, he turned and hauled off, punching the side of a nearby hauler with a satisfying crunch of fiberglass and making it rock slightly on its wheels.

And again and again he punched, letting out all his frustration, his sympathy, his pain on her behalf and his inability to express it, until he could barely feel his hand.

Oh shit, he thought, staring at his purpling knuckles.

That might not have been such a good idea.

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