back on track

14. the one with the boat

"Oh she is alive" Max announced and Pierre grinned next to him as I bowed to the guys.

"Yeah barely" I joked and gave them a smile.

"We thought they had already fired you, I was about to call that you can come to work for us" Pierre said with a smirk.

"Yeah no, not yet" I laughed. "Thanks for the offer, maybe I would've taken it this time" I smiled to myself knowing I had turned them down once already.

"Wait what?" Pierre looked at me confused. "Did you just say 'this time'"?

"Yeah I was offered an internship with you too but I chose Ferrari, sorry" I grinned as the guy processed what he had just learned and Max laughed to my words. 

"So where you been?" Max asked in more serious matter.

"In Italy, I was needed in the headquarters, so I had to skip last two races." I explained.

"That's too bad, I think everyone has missed having you around" he told me while Pierre nodded his head next to him.

"Can't say I didn't miss being around too, it had been quite lonely three weeks with everyone in the races" I agreed and both boys nodded.

"So any plans for today?" Max asked looking like he had an idea.

"Nope, free till tomorrow noon" I told him.

"Great. You should come to my boat with us!" he said happily, which caught me little off guard.

"You sure?" I asked little doubtful that he would really want me to go with them, whoever they were.

"Of course, it'll be fun. I mean, you have sunscreen and swimsuit with you, right?" he smiled looking at me excited.

"Yeah, I think so" I told him still little puzzled.

"Great" he nodded. "I'll pick you up in an hour, you're staying at the same hotel as everyone else right?" he confirmed, and I nodded. I looked at Pierre and he seemed to be happy with the outcome too. I guess I was going.

I changed on my green bikini and stared at myself from the mirror. I was okay with my body and there wasn't anything wrong with that, but what did scare me a bit was the scar in my back that was out in the open when I was wearing only my bikini. So,I guess I wasn't that comfortable in my body after all. I sighed and tried to forget it throwing a dress over the swim suit. I took my bag and put my camera, hotel key and water bottle in there. I tied my hair up and shut the door heading to lobby and finally outside seeing Max waiting for me already. I walked closer the car and opened the door sitting next to him on the front seat.

"Hallo" I showed off my Dutch skills that ended there.

"Hallo" Maxed said back but car didn't move anywhere. I guess, my confused face gave me away and Max explained that we were waiting couple more people.

Soon enough Pierre walked through the doors followed by Daniel and Lando. My heart skipped a beat, and I could feel my stomach doing little flips as the guys got closer the car.

"You're okay with them coming right?" Max made sure.

"Of course, besides do I really have a choice" I looked at Max.

"Nope not really" he smirked.

"Hey again" Pierre said opening the door behind me. "Hi" both Max and I said at the same time when the other door opened, and two McLaren drivers came to my sight.

"No, you should go to the middle you're smaller and I'm older and telling you to" we could hear Daniel's voice and Lando sighing before climbing into the car without paying any attention to us just yet.

"I'm not that small" he whined back to the smiling Aussie.

"Yeah sure whatever you say." Daniel smirked and Lando rolled his eyes. Then their attention moved to us and they seemed pretty surprised.

"Hey kiddo, I thought they had shipped you back to Finland already" Daniel was the first one to open his mouth. I rolled my eyes to one more comment about my absence. 

"Hahaha" I glared at him but a smile crept on my face and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. "Missed you too" I added little sassier.

"Nice" Daniel approved.

"Hey Lando" I said smiling to the quiet guy. "Why so shy?" I asked him to grin, which made rest of the car laugh and Lando tilt his head back.

"God really hates me today" he then cried making us laugh even harder.

The ride to the harbor wasn't too long and in no time, we were jumping on board of Max's luxury boat. I didn't even know if that could be called boat anymore. Charles had met us by the yacht and had merged to our gang now. The plan was parking the boat little outside the harbor and just relax for the rest of the day. Since it was still Tuesday and little past noon, the guys could crack open a beer and have fun without worrying too much about the race.

Soon we had found a place to stay and the guys were taking their shirts of and I realized that I was in most of the girl's heaven surrounded by half a dozen shirtless F1 drivers laughing and having the time of their live. For me it felt like hanging out my friends and couple of my friends friends as I still didn't know all of these guys that well. 

I watched the guys jumping into the water as I leaned back on my hands. I was feeling happy for the first time in a while, like genuinely happy. I took my camera out of my bag an got up to take few photos. I took one of Max and Daniel sitting on the deck, one with Lando in the water with Charles and got one of Pierre jumping with those two on the background. I couldn't wait to get to take this to the shop and see the photos.

Lando smiled at me from the water, and I smiled back. I sat back down and soon Lando had climbed back up and sat next to me. His hair was dripping water and it tickled me as the drops hit my arm.

"So are you just gonna sit here all day or come have fun with us?" he asked me with his eyes shining. I had seen this side of Lando only few times and it was nice to see him enjoying himself for real.

I stood up and took of the dress over my bikini. "Make me" I said as Lando's eyes checked my body and then light up hearing me say that. Without a second thought he threw me over his shoulder, and I could hear whistles around us but I didn't care. All I wanted, was to make it out alive.

I heard a familiar clicking sound and looked up and saw Daniel with my camera pointed on two of us. I had left it on the table middle of boat and actually was kind of happy that Daniel had picked it up. I couldn't get through my next thought when I felt myself went flying and broke through the surface of the water.

"I'm gonna kill you" I shouted the guy laughing up on the boat when I got back to the surface.

"I would like to see you try" he shouted back before jumping in right next to me.

"Son of a bitch" I let out as the water splashed over me.

Lando reached the surface and now it was just me and him on the water as everyone else had already made it back to the boat. I looked at Lando as he span around to find me and once he did the grin on his face grew even bigger lighting his eyes up the way I'd never seen before.

"You look happy" I smiled at him.

"I am"