Marry. Ride. Love.

Could hardly wait for her father to finally leave

*Valentino*

I sat at my desk, swirling the scotch glass in my hand as I hung over the papers.

The numbers weren't great. The ranch and the Academy were eating up a lot of money. It was important to me. I liked spending the money. But sooner or later it would pay off. Actually, it was doing that now. Watching the guys race in MotoGP and get wins was the biggest thing for me.

Still, the numbers weren't exactly exhilarating. But soon that would change.

I never thought I would ever get involved in a marriage just to get donations.

No actually, they weren't even donations. I was being paid to marry this lawyer's daughter.

When he had approached me, my first thought had been to refuse. What a ridiculous proposal. But when he had told me how much money he was willing to pay, I had quickly reconsidered.

We were talking about a large amount of money that would not only allow me to continue running the academy, but in the best case even to expand it. He had held out the prospect of more sponsors finding their way to Tavullia. Something I was very speculative about.

And who knew what would happen?

Maybe I liked the lawyer's daughter.

Two more days and she would show up here and we would get married. Just like that.

Without getting to know each other. Without love.

Something I certainly hadn't planned for my life. I hadn't really wanted to get married at all. At least only if I met a woman who really did it to me. One who would knock me down immediately.

And now I was going to marry a woman I met the night before the wedding, only to put a ring on her finger the next morning and swear eternal fidelity to her.

For at least a year I had to endure it with her. For one year we would have to be married, then I would get the large sum of money. He would keep sending me donations throughout the year and at the end there would be the big donation.

One year.
Even if I didn't like her then, I could divorce her again after a year. One year had to be bearable. I was on the road a lot anyway, so we could avoid each other if we couldn't stand each other.

Still, it made me feel a little different when I thought about it now.

I was going to marry a woman who was a lot younger than me without getting to know her first. And the poor thing would marry me. A fellow forty-something she had never seen before.

Maybe I should have taken time to get to know her after all.

But between the ranch, the Academy, the team, and my own races, I'd barely had time to breathe. How in the world could I have taken the time to get to know someone. Especially when it didn't really matter anyway.

There was a contract. We would get married. Whether we liked each other or not. So basically it would have been a waste of time to meet beforehand. Her father had never really hinted at it, so I hadn't asked either.

Maybe she just didn't care.

The two days leading up to the evening before the wedding had flown by, and only now did something like nervousness set in.

I had never been nervous before the races. I had had my rituals that gave me security. But for this I had none and there was also just no one present whom I could have asked for tips, because with me just only my half-brother, Maro, as well as Franky, Bez and Pecco sat at the large terrace of the villa close to the ranch. We drank whiskey. My bachelor party we had already behind us. Nevertheless, I had somehow felt like whiskey. That calmed the nerves.