Page 155 of Downforce

I open my mouth to tell him I’m not the right person to tell her, or that I’m not her agent nor am I an agent at all, but the words don’t come out.

“What’s stopping you?”

Max’s question comes back to mind. He hasn’t asked it again since that night, but I know he hasn’t given up on it.

“What if I drop the ball?” I ask Travis.

He gives me a confused look.

“I couldn’t cut it at a big law firm,” I remind him. “It feels like every big thing in my life I’ve geared up for is when my illness gets worse, and all of a sudden, I think I can somehow do it all without my medication. I’m doing well for a time and then bam, it all comes crashing down. That’s what happened right after I resigned from the firm and came to work for you.”

“Maybe that environment wasn’t for you,” he counters.

“Right … and being a sports agent in the cutthroat world of motorsport, where multi-million dollar deals and an athlete’s entire career is on the line, is?”

“Sis, you didn’t fail at big law because you couldn’t keep up,” he says. “You left because you hated what you were doing. Yes, your OCD might’ve had something to do with it, but you were working twelve hour days. That, coupled with going off of your meds, played a role in you walking away. But the real part is you hated working so many hours for huge corporations. You were moving piles of money from one company to another.

“Your real passion is working hands-on with people. Advocating for the interests of people you care about. Look what you did with the Luca Taylor deal.”

“Which you didn’t hear back from for months.”

He shrugs. “Sometimes it takes that long. Not because of you but because that’s the nature of business. But I know I wouldn’t have gotten that sponsorship or a few others without you in my corner. Shit.” He scratches his head.

“Why am I talking you up to go out on your own? Come back and work for me. Lucky still needs his schooling funded, and just the other day Alyssia took him to some science museum and he loved it. What if he wants to go to medical school? Have you seen the cost of med school in the States these days?”

I roll my eyes.

Travis laughs. “Seriously, sis. You won’t fail because you don’t even know how to fail. I hate for you to leave me, but I know you’ve wanted more for a long time, even if you weren’t ready to admit it to yourself.”

He wraps an arm around my shoulders.

“I know you’ve stuck with me longer than someone with your credentials would’ve and I love you for it, but you deserve to follow your dreams just like you’ve allowed me to follow mine. You know I’m always in your corner, right?”

I pull him into a hug. “I know,” I say, but it comes out muffled since my face is halfway pressed against his shoulder.

“I love you.”

I don’t get the chance to reply as the front door opens.

“Oh good. They’re hugging,” Alyssia says, sighing in relief.

“Don’t trust it. Annalise once pretended to hug me just so she could smother me with a pillow.”

“We were seven,” I say.

“And I still remember it like it was yesterday,” Tristan counters with a frown.

“If you ever use my nephew like that again, I will smother you,” I threaten.

CHAPTER 41

Max

“Oh, neto, we’re so happy you’re here,” Grandma Severino says, smiling up at me while cupping my face. Tears well up in her eyes.

My grandfather comes over and tells her she’s scaring me in Portuguese.

She swats at him before dabbing her eyes with the cloth in her hands. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you look so much like your father.”