Snap Happy (A Daniel Ricciardo story)

9. Surprise!

For anyone who doesn't know, Goodwood Festival of Speed which features in the next couple of chapters, is a massive motorsport celebration in the South of England where fans can mingle with legends of motorsport past and present, two wheels and four. There's also a hill climb track and a rally stage in the grounds with the drivers competing to set the fastest times of the day. To give you an idea - I go most years and have so far got autographs from Jenson Button, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Christian Horner and Bruno Senna to name a few. I also have photos of Nico Risberg, Lewis Hamilton, Damon Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, and hundreds more. It really is paradise for a racing fan and is probably my favourite place on earth. Hence why it HAD to feature.

PS there will be more Dan coming up I promise, but this one fitted a more Emily-biased chapter and I had far too much to say. 

EMILY 

I woke up to the unmistakeable sounds of an unidentifiable Disney movie. Clearly LJ had stirred from the mattress on the floor, and figured out how to work my TV

"Morning...if it still is" I groaned sleepily despite the fact that I'd consumed a fraction of the alcohol that she had the previous noght.

"Yup! Just!" She grinned brightly, tossing her glossy brown hair, the same shade as mine, out of her eyes. Unlike mine it fell exactly where she wanted it to and stayed there.

"Ugh, I don't know how you do it". I closed my eyes and rubbed by hand across my forehead.

"Get up sleepyhead!"

There was a muffled thud as a soft toy impacted with the side of my head. I sat up and reached for my phone, following my usual routine of checking messages, email, and the latest news. I scrolled through the sports headlines:

'England continue World Cup preparations'

'Latest score: England v Sri Lanka'

'Ricciardo returns to Milton Keynes'

"He's in England???" I exclaimed outloud in disbelief. 

There was a crash as the remote hit the ground. I glanced over at her in surprise and raised an eyebrow enquiringly.

"Shit, Em...I'm so sorry...I think I did something...I think you should check your call log. Now"

My stomach lurched as I saw the call from the previous night.

"LJ... what happened? What exactly did you do?"

Not waiting for a reply I stabbed the call button in a panic and waited, getting nothing but the robotic tone telling me to leave a message. I tried again, and again, with the same result.

'Only just found out you called. Are you here? Call me please x' 

"Fuck!"

I stomped into the shower, flinging myself under the warming water, trying to wash away more than last night's makeup. 

***

The following Sunday I was curled up next to Dad on the sofa, my knuckles firmly pressed to my lips as I watched an unbelievable scenario unfold. Biting back a scream I watched as Daniel took the lead of the Canadian Grand Prix ahead of Nico Rosberg's injured Mercedes. The latest edition of F1 Racing was on the coffee table in front of us, open to a double-page spread of the Monaco photoshoot. There, beneath the main image of Dan picking up Seb, was a tiny close up of Dan laughing, MY photo. Darren had been as good as his word, and there were some more exciting developments in the pipeline. Speaking of words - I still hadn't heard from Dan....