One Day // Daniel Ricciardo

CHAPTER 18

"I truly, honestly, genuinely, hate you right now." I clutched at my side and bent over in pain from the stitch I was getting.

"You can still see the house from here, we've barely even ran Jess."

"It's the heat," I panted, "You're trying to kill me."

At that moment I could feel everything id ate in the past 24 hours come up on me, I quickly jumped behind a bush and threw up as quietly as I could. Danny, the squeamish child he is stayed as far away from me as possible as I continued to throw up whatever was in my stomach.

"That was not a running thunder," he said as I emerged from the bush, covering his nose like he would get a whiff.

"You're not going to smell anything; I feel much better now I just ran too hard."

"Maybe you caught a bug on the plane."

"Maybe its 8am in Australia where its already above 25 degrees and you're making me run."

I stretched out my legs again and started to slowly jog until I had overtaken him, he finally started again and caught up with me still keeping his distance slightly. Admittedly I didn't feel great but I could push myself for the rest of the run, it wasn't that bad. It was nice to run somewhere new, unfamiliar faces walked the streets taking their kids to early morning football, picking up the milk or morning papers, it was nice to see not everybody was rushing about like they do in London. People waved and acknowledged you here whether they knew you or not. It had the small-town vibe that if you lived here everybody would know you and look out for you. I would personally rather drive 50 miles than knock on my neighbour's door at home to ask for some sugar.

Daniel's parents had breakfast waiting for us when we got home, coffee had been made and food was out on the table waiting for us to help ourselves. I was still feeling queasy from the run but I forced myself to eat what I could from the table after the effort they went through.

"Are you okay darling, you look a bit green?" Dan's Mum asked me, rubbing my arm and putting a glass of water on the table.

I nodded politely and ate my toast, a bit slower than id usually scoff down.

"We'll leave about 12 if you're both good with that?"

We both nodded in agreement like two teenagers dictated by their parent's schedule again and acknowledged it was now 10am giving us 2 hours to get ready. Much to Daniel's dismay it had taken us two hours to do only 5k after I kept demanding we would stop to prevent me from chundering again.

****

"Uncle Daniel!" His niece and nephew ran from the house and in to Daniel's arms. He scoops them up with ease giving them both a tight hug.

He lets them down and they run to their Nonno and Nonna, embracing them in a hug too.

"Jess I'm so glad to see you." Sarah comes out quickly behind them and hugs me without giving me a chance to see her properly.

At one point we were like best friends, we kept in contact a lot and when the older kids were babies, we actually came to Australia a lot between races.

She was still dressed in her pyjamas; her hair had been perfected and her skin was naturally flawless. The Ricciardo genes lived flawlessly throughout them all.

"I need your help; my wardrobe is a disaster." Again, just like her Mum, she pulled me away without even acknowledging her brother. At this point he was too busy, 2 dirty blonde curly haired kids clung from his legs.

I sat on the end of Sarah's bed and watched as she pulled out different dresses and held them up in front of herself.

"Honestly Sarah it's just us, right? You don't need to put on a fashion show, you could continue wearing your pyjamas if you really wanted."

"I haven't worn anything since Isabella was born, I'm having an identity crisis."

I nodded, finally understanding her dilemma and picked out a yellow sundress for her, "Yellow was made for you, this is the one."

I was startled by the sweet noise of a baby gurgling beside me. I jumped up and peeked in the bassinet, not realising she had even been in there in the first place.

"She's such a peaceful baby, barely cries and is just content with herself unlike the other two animals I birthed."

I didn't answer her, just kept my eyes firmly on the tiny baby in front of me. I smoothed down my own dress, my hands feeling very clammy and sweaty, it was all of a sudden very stuffy in the room.

"You can pick her up! In fact, I have to move all of this to the laundry room, you'd be doing me a favour if you could pick her up."

I put a muslin cloth over my shoulder and reached over to pick Isabella out of her basket. Her little new-born scrunch being the cutest thing I had seen in a long time.

I followed Sarah out of her room and through to the back garden where everyone was gathered on the patio. Her husband stood at the barbecue which he had already started burning, Danny stood beside him already starting on his first beer. The two kids were kicking a ball back and forward and Grace had already started prepping food in the kitchen.

"It's just us Mum, no need for a massive banquet."

I stood on the patio, not following them back in to the kitchen.

"She's tiny." Danny was standing over me now, his hand stroked her head ever so gently.

"Do.... Do you... eh... can-"

"It's okay Jess, just sit down. Enjoy little new-born cuddles."

He sat me down on a seat in the shade and pulled one close so he could sit next to me.

"Uncle Daniel this is Isabella." Alessia, his four-year-old nephew said, taking a seat on one of his knees and wrapping her arm around his neck.

"I wanted a brother; I already have a sister but I think she's okay. She doesn't cry much so it's almost like I don't have a sister." Luca added, doing the same as Alessia and sitting on his other knee.

Both of them had dirty blonde curly hair, tanned skin and blue eyes. They were the most gorgeous little kids and although wild with each other were so well mannered and absolutely doted on Daniel. His manner was perfect around kids, he had so much time for them and was ultimately just a big child himself.

I finally looked away from Isabella and looked around me. It was almost like an insight of what we could have been... what we could be. We already looked like a little family sat together, two kids on Danny's knee and a baby on mine. It was perfect. I leaned over and gave him a kiss, the 2 kids squealed in discomfort and jumped from his knee.

"One day." I smiled.