by Robin Wells
“No.” Frannie smiled so wide her face hurt. “I’m going to Denver.”
“One more lap, and it’s time to hit the pit.” Tommy’s voice crackled in Austin’s ear over the headset. During the race, the two men were in constant communication. “How’s she runnin’?”
“The car’s fine, but I’m about half speed.”
“Roger that. You’re down a lap, but you’re still in the runnin’. I’ve got a little somethin’ to perk you up when you stop.”
“Oh, hell. Not more of your coffee.”
“Nope. Not coffee.”
“What is it, then?”
“Come on in and see. You’re clear to change lanes. Atta way. Bring it on down.”
Tires squealing, Austin expertly pulled into the pit. Half a dozen men ran out and started working on the car—one on each tire, one refueling, one checking under the hood. Austin leaned out the window.
“Take a look in the stands,” Tommy shouted. “Front row.”
Austin scowled. “Hell, I’m in no mood to play babe watch.”
“That’s not what this is. Take a look, damm it! Right behind the pit.”
Austin had never heard Tommy so worked up about anything other than the car in all the years he’d known him. Unfastening his seat belt, he reluctantly pulled himself through the window and sat on the frame, lifting his eyes to the spot the Tommy had indicated.
He blinked, then blinked again. Frannie.
It couldn’t be. But it was.
She stood and shyly waved. Austin waved back. She broke into a grin, and a weight seemed to lift from Austin’s chest. The feeling was so strong, it almost seemed as if the law of gravity had just been repealed. His heart was floating, flying to the sky, soaring higher than the Goodyear blimp hovering overhead.
Frannie. Here. Waving at him and smiling. And her eyes held everything that felt as if it were about to burst wide open inside him.
She was wearing red and yellow—his race colors—and she looked as bright as a ray of sunshine. Seeing her warmed him like sunshine. Her smile was a golden ray, beaming down like a benediction. He stood there and basked in it, smiling back, and suddenly everything was clear, as clear as a cloudless sky on a sunny day.
His father had been wrong. Love wasn’t something to be avoided. Love was something to be embraced, to be nurtured, to be cherished. It was something to be accepted, something to be given.
From Frannie. To Frannie.
How could he have been such an idiot? He didn’t need to worry about giving her his heart. It was safe in her keeping, safe and cared for. It belonged to Frannie. It always had. He just hadn’t known it.
Not until this second.
“Four more seconds, and you’re ready to roll,” Tommy said.
His eyes on Frannie, Austin touched his chest and mouthed the word “I.” He crossed his hands across his heart, and his lips formed the word “love.” Then he pointed right at Frannie. “You.”
Even from this distance, he could see tears glitter in her eyes. She rapidly returned the hand signal, adding two fingers at the end. I love you, too. She blew him a kiss.
Austin pretended to catch it and clutched it to his heart.
“Okay,” Tommy said. “Time to go, Romeo. The sooner you finish the race, the sooner you’ll get to kiss her.”
Austin climbed back in the seat, switched on the ignition and roared back out onto the raceway. He might be a lap down now, but he wouldn’t stay that way for long. No, sirree. No one on the track had a bigger incentive to get across that finish line than he did.
“And the winner is…Austin Parker!”
The black-and-white flag dropped in a blur as Austin zoomed past. His pulse was racing harder than his car’s engine and his adrenaline level was some where near the ozone. But it wasn’t the joy of winning the race that had him lit up on the inside like the sky on the Fourth of July. It wasn’t the wildly cheering crowd, or his jubilant crew jumping up and down in the pit. It was the thought of the woman in the grandstand, the woman he loved with all his heart and soul.
He steered his Monte Carlo around the curved end of the track on his slow-down lap, his eyes searching the stands. He reluctantly drove a victory lap, then headed into the winner’s circle.
And that was where he saw the face he’d been searching for. The face he’d been searching for his entire life, but hadn’t known until now.
He jerked the car to a stop and hauled himself out the open window. “Frannie.”
She hurled herself into his arms, her eyes shining, her cheeks wet, her face ablaze with love. Around him the crowd roared, but Austin only heard the roar of the blood in his own ears as he kissed the woman he loved.
At long last he pulled back. “Frannie, Frannie, I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I can’t live without you. Will you marry me?”
Frannie’s smile would forever be etched in his memory, would forever be burned on his heart. The moment was golden, as gold as the sun on her light-brown hair, as gold as the ring he longed to put on her finger.
Her eyes twinkled in that impish way he loved.
“Well, that depends.”
“On what?”
Her gaze grew serious. “On whether you’re willing to take on a baby as well as a wife.”
It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. He would have thought he couldn’t feel any happier, thought his heart couldn’t contain any more joy, but he was wrong. His hands tightened over hers. “You mean…you’re…” Frannie nodded.
With a wild whoop of joy, Austin picked her up and swung her around in a wide circle. He abruptly set her down and leaned over her. “Oh, hey, are you all right? I didn’t hurt you or the baby, did I? Oh, Frannie, I don’t ever want to hurt you.”
“I know. And I’m fine. The baby’s fine. We’ve never been finer. And, Austin, I don’t ever want to hurt you, either. I love you so!”
Austin gathered her into his arms, a feeling of love, overwhelming and complete, filling his chest, choking his throat, pulsing through his veins. He’d do anything, anything at all, to keep from ever hurting her.
“This is my last race,” he murmured abruptly. “I’ll quit NASCAR.”
“No, you won’t. I love you just the way you are. I want to add to your life, not detract from it. The baby and I will come to the races with you and cheer you on.” Looping her arms around his neck, she pulled him down and gave him a kiss that all but made him forget his surroundings.
Tommy’s elbow dug into his ribs. “Uh, boss, the cameras are rollin’. Everybody’s waitin’ to see what you have to say.”
Austin reluctantly ended the kiss, but kept an arm firmly clenched around Frannie, pinning her to his side. Six separate microphones were thrust in his face. “Folks, I’ve won something far more important than a race today.” He glanced down at Frannie, his throat swelling with tenderness. “I’ve won the heart of the most wonderful woman in the world, and she’s just agreed to become my wife.”
The crowd went crazy. Flashbulbs and strobes went off his face. He looked down at Frannie, worried that she’d be overwhelmed, but she beamed like the sun, bright and steady.
“What are your plans?” called a reporter.
“Well, the first thing we intend to do is get back to Whitehorn and get married as soon as possible.”
“Hey, Austin,” another reporter called. “Will you keep on racing?”
Austin opened his mouth to answer, but Frannie beat him to it. “Yes,” she said emphatically. “I wouldn’t dream of asking him to give up his first true love.”
The crowd burst into cheers and applause. Someone threw paper money all over the car, and someone else popped the cork on a champagne bottle. “I thought you couldn’t speak in public,” Austin murmured in her ear.
Frannie smiled up at him. “As long as you’re by my side, I feel like I can do anything.”
Austin’s heart was so full, he thought it would burst from his chest. “
That’s how you make me feel, too. But you’ve got one thing wrong.”
“I do?”
“Yeah. Racing’s not my first true love. You are.”
“I am?”
“My first, and my last.”
He heard another cork pop.
As a shimmering spray of champagne rained down, he drew her near and lost himself in the intoxicating sweetness of her lips.
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Robin Wells
for her contribution to the Montana Mavericks series.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8875-5
AND THE WINNER—WEDS!
Copyright © 2000 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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