Gambling It All

Chapter Twenty Five

Dixie sleepily opened her eyes to see Nicky rolled up on an elbow, watching her. "Good morning," he said softly and she smiled and stretched her arms above her head liked a satiated cat.

"Morning," she said with a small, shy smile. "Hey. I'm still here."

"Yup," he said. "No rejection and definitely no lack of intimacy," he said with a knowing look, referring to their sleep-interrupted night, as one or the other had awoken and then woke the other for another round of lovemaking.

"And look at you, trusting me to stay and what is that? Is that emotion on your face?" Dixie teased, putting to rest the fears they both carried but twenty four hours ago. She gently cupped his stubbled jaw in her hand, and he slid his lips over, kissing her palm tenderly.

"Yes, this is the 'we better organize breakfast so I can go qualify on a full stomach instead of jumping your bones again' emotion," Nicky deadpanned, and Dixie laughed, then leaned over and kissed him swiftly on the lips.

"I like my bacon extra crispy, thanks," she trilled, leaping out of bed and heading for his bathroom, the sound of his laughter in her ears.

**

"Why do you look like the cat that ate the canary?" Cade asked, glancing up from his clipboard with a worried expression until he caught sight of Dixie, unable to hide her smile from the world.

"Why do you look like death on a Triscuit?" Dixie shot back and Cade appeared to be so stressed out, he didn't even crack a smile.

"I don't know if we got it calibrated right," Cade said worriedly, watching Nicky mount the bike and get ready for qualifying laps. "I don't know if it's going to get him on the front row or dump him on his ass in the first turn."

"He's going to be fine," Dixie said soothingly. "I know he will."

"How do you know?" Cade asked worriedly. "Did he say something about the bike?"

"No," Dixie said, shaking her head. "I just... I just know. He's going to be fine. His head is in the right place for the first time in a while."

"Okay," Cade said absently, before whirling around a few seconds later and leveling her with an inquisitive stare. "Hold the phone. Did you... did he... did you guys..."

Dixie affected a look of innocence and said nothing, though she had a fight a smile to do so.

"I take it Nicky had some... intense physical therapy in the wee hours of the morning, did he?" Cade said with a teasing leer.

Dixie burst out laughing, unable to contain herself. "Focus on your rider, Mr. Crew Chief Man, rather than my, um, methods."

As the qualifying round got underway on the track, the garage did finally go silent but for the sound of the television commentators and the screaming engines as the riders wound around the track, picking up speed on every lap. Unlike qualifying in vehicular motorsports, in MotoGP everyone hit the track simultaneously, with timing of each rider being taken and then the starting line up determined from that at the very end of the session. Teams could hit the track for every minute of qualifying, or they could zip in and out of the pits, tweaking and testing until the very last second.

As the laps began counting down, though, even Dixie could see that Nicky was stupidly fast, passing more and more riders and riding with more and more confidence.

And riding focused, barely talking when he came in the pits before zooming away again, going faster and faster, the track and bike practically becoming one.

Other riders were having equal success – Lorenzo and Rossi in particular looked fast – but Dixie noted that Javier and De Puniet both seemed to be struggling, coming into the pits way too often for tweaks and changes. At one point, Javier even had a massive wobble coming out of turn five, which freaked Dixie out, so rare was it to see.