The Race Director's Daughter (Sebastian Vettel)

50. For What It's Worth (1)

"You ok chick?" came the friendly Brummie accent of Leah's brother in law, Jamie.

Leah looked up from the magazine she was reading on the sofa and smiled at him. "I'm good thanks Jamie, just reading for a bit before the race starts." 

"I'm just popping down the shop to get some milk. Do you want anything?"

"Can you grab me some Ben and Jerry's, if that's ok?"

"Of course. What flavour do you want?"

"Cookie dough if they've got it. If they don't, any will do."

She heard the front door open and close. She needed ice cream.   She was feeling low and ice cream always helped.  She picked her magazine up again.  After several minutes she heard footsteps enter the room.

"Where's your man starting then?" her brother Luca said as he flopped down on the sofa next to her, a can of beer in his hand.

"Fourth. He's pretty pleased with that," Leah said proudly.

"Hope he has a better race than last week," Luca added.

Leah nodded. Seb had finished sixth at Zandvoort after running in third for the majority of the race, before picking up a puncture on the last lap.

"Missing him?"

"Yeah," she sighed.  She was missing him so much.  It would be two weeks the following day since she had seen him.   They'd spoken every day without fail on FaceTime but it wasn't the same as being able to kiss him and cuddle him.

Luca began to fidget next to her.  She could sense that he wanted to say something. "Spit it out Luca."

"Don't take this the wrong way." Leah rolled her eyes. She knew whatever was coming may not be something she wanted to hear. "But Leah, why are you here?"

"Visiting my brother and his husband. You should have said no if you didn't want me here," she snapped.

"There you go, taking it the wrong way."

"What way am I meant to take it Luca?" she asked, getting annoyed.

"Let me explain what I mean." She nodded reluctantly. Luca continued. "You're my baby sister. You're always welcome here, but I'm wondering why you wanted to come here. We're not close. I haven't....I haven't been the brother I should have been to you, and I'm sorry for that. I wasn't there for you when you needed me."

"No, you weren't," she agreed. Luca began tapping his foot on the floor nervously. There was so much more he wanted to say but it was difficult. 

"I'm so, so sorry for that. I really am. I wish I could go back and do things differently. I didn't know what to say to you, so I said nothing and that was wrong. Inside I wanted to find that bastard and beat the shit out of him for what he did to you. I hated him, and I hated myself for being a coward, and for not being there for you."

"Luca," she began. "It's ok. Well it's not, but it is."

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused. 

"I mean, you should have been there. I needed you. Dad needed you. We should have stuck together as a family. I've spent years thinking that you just didn't care that much."