Page 141 of Downforce

Max’s eyes drop to mine. There’s a question in them: Are you okay?

My heart swells with love at the tenderness in his look.

“I’m okay,” I say out loud, through the thickness in my throat. “I’ll be okay.” The last thing I want is for him to leave but, it’s what’s best for right now.

“You son of a …” Travis trails off. “You think I would hurt my sister?” His tone is incredulous.

Max stands in front of me, blocking my sight of my brother.

“I would kill you before I ever thought of hurting my damn sister.”

“Hurting him would be hurting me.”

It’s as if my words have a freezing effect over Travis. He goes completely still. Max as well. But I stare straight at my brother, so he knows I meant everything I just said. Even though I flinch when I see a hint of hurt in his eyes.

“Travis, we should give them some privacy,” Alyssia says, breaking up the silence. She gives me a sympathetic look. “To say goodbye to our last guests.”

“I’ll go.” Max squeezes my hand before his eyes drop to the pendant he just placed around my neck.

I run my fingers over it, giving him a half smile.

He pulls his hand away, one finger at a time as if the separation is as painful for him as it is for me. But this is a conversation I need to have with my brother alone.

“I’ll walk you out,” Alyssia tells Max while giving Travis a silent look.

I push out a heavy breath when it’s just the two of us.

“Trav—”

“What the hell was that, Lis?”

A lump forms in my throat. Travis only calls me that nickname when he’s really pissed off. Like when we were ten and I broke his favorite toy model car. It’d been signed by Leo Abruzzi, another one of the greatest F1 drivers to ever step foot on a racetrack.

Squaring my shoulders, I look him in the eye. “It was exactly what it looks like.”

His eyebrows spike. “You’re seeing him.” It’s not a question, so I don’t respond. “How long?”

“That’s not important,” I say, mostly because I don’t have an actual answer for that.

“You know he’s using you, right?” Travis quickly spits back. “I don’t care what he said just now. The bastard is using you.”

“Don’t call him that,” I seethe. “And don’t say that in front of him,” I tell my brother. “You should know what it’s like to have your relationship with your father thrown in your face.”

Our father is still alive, and while Travis is in a completely different sport than Dad, he has still felt the sting of comparison from time to time. Everyone expects greatness from a child, especially a son, who is the offspring of one of the greats. It gets that much worse when the legend is no longer alive.

“Great, you’re defending him.” Travis snorts.

“Wouldn’t you defend Alyssia if someone was talking shit about her to you?” I don’t think about the question before I blurt it out.

Travis’ eyes swell to almost double their size. “You’re comparing what you have with him to me and my wife?”

I hate the way his tone says he clearly believes what he and Alyssia have is more important, more solid than my relationship with Max. Yes, obviously they’re committed to one another and are literally a family, but he says it like Max and I are just fooling around.

The realization hurts more than expected. Travis should know me better than that. I’ve never liked casual relationships with anyone.

“You could’ve fooled me,” he says when I tell him as much.

“Don’t be an ass,” I say. “This doesn’t have to be a big issue if you don’t make it one.”