A twist of Wheels and Fate

1

*Giovanna*

"Gia, damn it, sit still already!" growled Bez, holding my chin a little tighter.

"Hey. No cursing in front of Paola!" scolded Maro and I had to laugh, which only made me wiggle even more.

Bez rolled his eyes in annoyance and pulled my chin towards him now.

"It's okay.", I tried to suppress the laughter in the face of his serious look, because if I was completely honest, I couldn't really take my best friend seriously when he gave me such a nasty look, because Bez was one of the sweetest and gentlest people I had ever met. And a lot of people have had to stand up to that comparison for a long time, because Bez had been my best friend for what felt like an eternity.

"I can't work like this," he grumbled, letting go of my chin. He leaned back a bit.

"Hold, no.", I laughed and took his hand to put it back on my chin "I'm holding still now. But you're the only person I know who can draw such a perfect eyeliner.".

He puffed again, then bent over again and picked up where he left off.

"Thanks, Bezzy, you're the best," I smiled and again got only a snort from him.

"How annoyed he gets with you sometimes.", Pecco laughed and put his hand on my shoulder, then leaned forward a bit "I'm really fascinated by how good you are at this. This really would have been a job opportunity for you, Bez.".

The addressed didn't lift his eyes from my face, but concentrated on what he was doing. His tongue slowly slid between his teeth. I knew that face of his all too well. Whenever he concentrated, he slid his tongue between his teeth. And sometimes I wondered if he did that when he was racing, if he had his tongue between his teeth under his helmet then too.

"Oh mama's here." said Maro, coming over to us from the window "Come princess, I'll just take you out. Say good night to your mom.".

Bez took a deep breath and leaned back again so that I could take Paola on my lap. My daughter beamed all over her face and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"And you behave yourself with Stefania, ok?", I said, she nodded.

I was so grateful to Stefania for watching my little girl every now and then, because her biological grandparents lived so far away that they couldn't just watch her for an evening.

With Stefania, however, not only did my daughter have an additional grandmother, but I had also found in her a second mother, and that for years. I had a good relationship with my mother. I had been very loved as a child, but Stefania had welcomed me so openly so many years ago that it had happened as if by itself. She had simply become family. Which was probably also because I had immediately made friends with Luca, or how we used to call him, Maro. We had moved in next door to him at the time and we had grown up like siblings. If his mom had not had time, he had been with us and if my mom had not been able to look after me, I had been with them.

And through Maro, of course, I had also met Valentino. He was now more than just a friend and also more of a brother than anything else. I had always been at the ranch with them, had gotten to know the Academy guys before they had been on the public radar. Those boys were so much my family that I had never felt lonely with them. And when my parents had decided that they would rather live in Switzerland than in Italy, I had had my family as a 20-year-old, then in the VR-46 crew.

This had not changed until today. Not even after I had been pregnant with my little daughter Paola. At first I had been afraid that something would change. But it hadn't. My daughter had grown up with the most wonderful uncles in the world, on the VR-46 ranch, and she had practically been riding motorcycles before she could really walk.